No More Learning

The other guests also bethought them of departing ; one full of vexation at the unpleasant breaking up of the feast, another blaming Pomponius for introducing such unpolished fellows; Gallus not without some anxiety, which he in vain endeavored to silence by bold resolutions for the future.
The Catastrophe.
The day commenced very differently, on the present occa sion, in the house of Gallus, from what it had done on the morning of his journey. His disgrace, by some foreseen, but to most both unexpected and looked upon as the harbinger of still more severe misfortunes, formed the principal topic of the
ROMAN LIFE UNDER AUGUSTUS. 331
day, and was discussed in the forum and the tabernae with a thousand different comments. The intelligence of his return to Rome soon became diffused throughout the city; and the loud tidings of his presence should have collected the troop of clients who, at other times, were accustomed to flock in such great numbers to his house. On this day, however, the ves- tibulum remained empty; the obsequious crowd no longer thronged it. The selfish, who had promised themselves some advantage from the influence of their patron, became indif ferent about a house which could no longer be considered, as it had lately been, the entrance-hall of the palace. The timid were deterred by fear of the cloud which hung threatening over Gallus, lest they themselves should be overtaken by the destroy ing flash. The swarm of parasites, prudently weighing their own interest, avoided a table of doubtful duration, in order that they might not forfeit their seats at ten others, where un disturbed enjoyment for the future appeared more secure. And even those few in whom feelings of duty or shame had over come other considerations, seemed to be not at all dissatisfied when the ostiarius announced to them that his master would receive no visitors that day.
In the house itself all was quiet. The majority of the slaves had not yet returned from the villa, and those who were present seemed to share the grief of the deeply affected dispensator.
Uneasiness and anxiety had long since banished sleep from the couch of Gallus. He could not conceal from himself to what a precipice a misuse of his incautious expressions would drive him, and that he could expect no forbearance or secrecy from the suspicious-looking strangers. Animated by the dreams of freedom with which Calpurnius had entertained him ; half enlisted in the plans which the enthusiast, sincerely moved at the misfortune of his friend, had proposed to him ; highly excited by the strength of the wine and the heat of the play ; and stung to fury by the insolence of the strange guests, — he had suffered himself to be drawn into an indiscreet avowal which he was far from seriously meaning. On calmer reflections he perceived the folly of all those bold projects which, in the first moment of excitement, seemed to present the possibility of averting his own fate by the overthrow of the tyrant ; and he now found himself without the hope of escape, in the power of two men whose whole behavior was calculated
332 ROMAN LIFE UNDER AUGUSTUS.
to inspire anything but confidence. His only consolation was that they had been introduced by Pomponius, through whose exertions he hoped possibly to obtain their silence ; for Gallus still firmly believed in the sincerity of his friendship, and paid no attention even to a discovery which his slaves professed to have made on the way homeward. It was as follows : His road, in returning from the mansion of Lentulus, passed not far from that of Largus ; and the slaves who preceded him with the lantern had seen three men, resembling very much Pomponius and the two Perusians, approach the house. One of them struck the door with the metal knocker, and they were all immediately admitted by the ostiarius. Gallus certainly thought so late a visit strange ; but, as it was no uncommon thing for Largus to break far into the night with wine and play, he persuaded himself that it must be some acquaint ances who had called upon him on their return from an earlier party.
At last the drowsy god had steeped him in a beneficial obliv ion of these cares, and although the sun was by this time high in the heavens, yet Chresimus was carefully watching lest any noise in the vicinity of his bed-chamber should abridge the moments of his master's repose. The old man wandered about the house uneasily, and appeared to be impatiently wait ing for something. In the atrium he was met by Leonidas, approaching from the door. "
" Well, no messenger yet ?
" None," replied the vicarius.
"And no intelligence in the house? " Chresimus again
asked.
"None since his departure," was the answer. He shook
his head, and proceeded to the atrium, where a loud knocking at the door was heard. The ostiarius opened it. It was an express with a letter from Lycoris.
" At last," cried Chresimus, as he took the letter from the tabellarius.
" My lady," said the messenger, " enjoined me to make all possible haste, and bade me give the letter only to yourself or your lord. Present it to him directly. " I
" Your admonition is not wanted," replied Chresimus : " have been long expecting your arrival. "
The faithful servant had indeed anxiously expected the letter. Although Gallus had strictly forbidden him from
he hastily inquired of him.
ROMAN LIFE UNDER AUGUSTUS. 833
letting the cause of his departure from the villa become known, yet Chresimus believed that he should be rendering him an important service by acquainting Lycoris with the un fortunate occurrence. She had at Baiae only half broken to him the secret, which confirmed but too well his opinion of Pomponius. He had therefore urged her not to lose a moment in making Gallus acquainted, at whatever sacrifice to herself, with the danger that was threatening him, and immediately return herself, in order to render lasting the first impression caused by her avowal. He now hastened toward the apart ment in which his master was still sleeping, cautiously fitted the three-toothed key into the opening of the door, and drew back the bolts by which it was fastened.
" Gallus, awakened by"the noise, sprang up from his couch. What do you bring ? cried he to the domestic, who had
pushed aside the tapestry and entered.
" A letter from Lycoris," said the old man, " just brought
by a courier. He urged me to deliver it immediately, and so I was forced to disturb you. "
Gallus hastily seized the tablets. They were not of the usual small and neat shape which afforded room for a few tender words only, but from their size they evidently inclosed a large epistle. "Doubtless," said he, as he cut the threads with a knife which Chresimus had presented to him, " doubt less the poor girl has been terrified by some unfavorable re ports about me. "
He read the contents, and turned pale. With the anxiety of a fond heart, she accused herself as the cause of what had befallen her lover, and disclosed to him the secret which must enlighten him on the danger that threatened him from Pom ponius. Without sparing herself, she alluded to her former connection with the traitor, narrated the occurrences of that evening, his attempt to deceive her, and his villainous threats. She conjured Gallus to take, with prudence and resolution, such steps as were calculated to render harmless the intrigues of his most dangerous enemy. She would herself arrive, she added, soon after he received the letter, in order to beg pardon with her own mouth for what had taken place.
" There stood the undeceived Gallus in deep emotion.
Read," said he, handing the letter to the faithful freedman, who shared all his secrets.
Chresimus took it, and read just what he had expected.
334 ROMAN LIFE UNDER AUGUSTUS.
" I was not deceived," said he, " and thank Lycoris for clearly disclosing to you, although late, the net they would draw around you. Now hasten to Caesar with such proofs of treachery in your hand, and expose to him the plot which they have formed against you. Haply the gods may grant that the storm which threatens to wreck the ship of your pros perity may yet subside. "
" I fear it is too late," replied his master, " but I will speak with Pomponius. He must know that I see through him ; per chance he will not then venture to divulge what, once published, must be succeeded by inevitable ruin. Dispatch some slaves immediately to his house, to the forum, and to the tabernae, where he is generally to be met with at this hour. He must have no idea that I have heard from Lycoris. They need only say that I particularly beg he will call upon me as soon as possible. "
Chresimus hastened to fulfill the commands of his lord. The slaves went and returned without having found Pomponius. The porter at his lodgings had answered that his master had set out early in the morning on a journey ; but one of the slaves fancied that he had caught a glimpse of him in the carinae, although he withdrew so speedily that he had not time to overtake him. At last, Leonidas returned from the forum ; he had been equally unsuccessful in his search, but brought other important intelligence, communicated to him by a friend of his master. " An obscure report," said this man, " is going about the forum, that Largus had, in the assembled senate, ac cused Gallus of high treason, and of plotting the murder of the emperor ; that two strangers had been brought into the curia as witnesses, and that Augustus had committed to the senate the punishment of the outrage. "
The intelligence was but too well founded. In order to anticipate any steps that Gallus might take for his security, Pomponius had announced to Largus, on the very night of the supper with Lentulus, that his artifice had met with com plete success. At daybreak Largus repaired to the imperial palace, and portrayed in glaring colors the treasonable designs which Gallus, when in his cups, had divulged. Undecided as to how he should act, yet solicitous for his own safety, Augus tus had referred the matter to the decision of the senate, most of the members of which were far from displeased at the charge. It is true that many voices were raised, demanding
ROMAN LIFE UNDER AUGUSTUS. 335
that the accused should not at least be condemned unheard : but they availed nothing against the louder clamor of those who declared that there were already previous charges suffi cient to justify extreme severity ; and that they themselves should be guilty of high treason did they, by delay or forbear ance, expose the life of Caesar and the welfare of the republic to danger. The result of the debate was a decree, by which Gallus was banished to an inhospitable country on the Pontus Uuxinus, and his property confiscated to the emperor. He was also ordered to leave Rome on the following morning, and Italy within ten days.
At the seventh hour Calpurnius rushed into the house of Gallus bringing confirmation of the dread decree, and was soon followed by others from all quarters. Gallus received the news, which cleared up the last doubts concerning his fate, with visible grief but manly composure. He thanked his friend for his sympathy, warning him at the same time to be more cautious on his own account for the future. He then re quested him to withdraw, ordered Chresimus to bring his double tablets, and delivered to him money and jewels to be saved for Lycoris and himself. Having pressed the hand of the veteran, who wept aloud, he demanded to be left alone. The domestic loitered for a while, and then retired full of the worst forebodings.
Gallus fastened the door, and for greater security placed the wooden bar across it. He then wrote a few words to Augustus, begging him to give their freedom to the faithful servants who had been in most direct attendance upon him. Words of farewell to Lycoris filled the other tablets. After this, he reached from the wall the sword, to the victories achieved by which he owed his fatal greatness, struck it deep into his breast, and as he fell upon the couch, dyed yet more strongly the purple coverlet with the streams of his blood.
The lictor, sent to announce to him the sentence of banish ment, arrived too late. Chresimus had already, with faithful hand, closed the eyes of his beloved master, and round the couch stood a troop of weeping slaves, uncertain of their future lot, and testifying by the loudness of their grief that a man of worth was dead.
336 LATIN POETIC RHYTHMS.
LATIN POETIC RHYTHMS. By F. W. H. MYERS.
[Frederick W. H. Mtebs : English essayist and poet ; born February 6, 1843. He was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, of which he became a Fellow. He published his charming poem "St. Paul" in 1867, "Renewal of Youth and Other Poems " in 1882. His " Essays Modern and Classical " came out in 1885; his "Science and a Future Life" in 1893. He has been greatly interested in the speculations regarding spiritualism, and is one of the honorable secretaries of the Society of Psychical Research. He is an inspector of schools, and resides in Cambridge. ]
No words that men can any more set side by side can ever affect the mind again like some of the great passages of Homer. For in them it seems as if all that makes life precious were in the act of being created at once and together — language itself, and the first emotions, and the inconceivable charm of song. When we hear one single sentence of Anticleia's answer, as she begins —
ov£ emeg' en megaroisin euskopos ioeheaira —
what words can express the sense which we receive of an effort less and absolute sublimity, the feeling of morning freshness and elemental power, the delight which is to all other intellec tual delights what youth is to all other joys ? And what a lan guage I which has written, as it were, of itself those last two words for the poet, which offers them as the fruit of its inmost structure and the bloom of its early day ! Beside speech like this Virgil's seems elaborate, and Dante's crabbed, and Shake speare's barbarous.
There never has been, there never will be, a language like the dead Greek. For Greek had all the merits of other tongues without their accompanying defects. It had the monumental weight and brevity of the Latin without its rigid unmanageability ; the copiousness and flexibility of the Ger man without its heavy commonness and guttural superfluity ; the pellucidity of the French without its jejuneness; the force and reality of the English without its structureless com minution. But it was an instrument beyond the control of any but its creators. When the great days of Greece were past, it was the language which made speeches and wrote
LATIN POETIC RHYTHMS. 337
books, and not the men. Its French brilliancy taught Isoc- rates to polish platitude into epigram ; its German profundity enabled Lycophron to pass off nonsense as oracles ; its Italian flow encouraged Apollonius Rhodius to shroud in long-drawn sweetness the languor of his inventive soul. There was noth ing except the language left. Like the golden brocade in a queen's sepulchre, its imperishable splendor was stretched stiffly across the skeleton of a life and thought which inhabited there no more.
The history of the Latin tongue was widely different. We do not meet it full-grown at the dawn of history; we see it take shape and strength beneath our eyes. We can watch, as it were, each stage in the forging of the thunderbolt ; from the day when Ennius, Naevius, Pacuvius, inweave their "three shafts of twisted storm,"1 till Lucretius adds "the sound and terror," and Catullus "the west wind and the fire. " It grows with the growth of the Roman people; it wins its words at the sword's point; and the "conquered nations in long array " pay tribute of their thought and speech as surely as of their blood and gold.
In the region of poetry this union of strenuous effort with eager receptivity is conspicuously seen. The barbarous Satur- nian lines, hovering between an accentual and a quantitative system, which were the only indigenous poetical product of Latium, rudely indicated the natural tendency of the Latin tongue towards a trochaic rhythm. Contact with Greece introduced Greek meters, and gradually established a definite quantitative system. Quantity and accent are equally con genial to the Latin language, and the trochaic and iambic meters of Greece bore transplantation with little injury. The adaptations of these rhythms by early Roman authors, how ever uncouth, are at least quite easy and unconstrained ; and so soon as the prestige of the Augustan era had passed away, we find both Pagans and Christians expressing in accentual iambic, and especially in accentual trochaic meters, the thoughts and feelings of the new age. Adam of S. Victor is metrically nearer to Livius Andronicus than to Virgil or Ovid ; and the Litany of the Arval Brethren finds its true succession, not in the Secular Ode of Horace, but in the Dies Irce or the Veni Creator.
* Tris imbris torti radios, tris nnbis aquosae
Addiderant, rutili tris ignis et alitis Austri. JSneid viii. 43ft
vol. v. — 22
338
LATIN POETIC RHYTHMS
For Latin poetry suffered a violent breach of continuity in the introduction from Greece of the hexameter and the elegiac couplet. The quantitative hexameter is in Latin a difficult and unnatural meter. Its prosodial structure excludes a very large proportion of Latin words from being employed at all. It narrowly limits the possible grammatical constructions, the modes of emphasis, the usages of curtailment, the forms of narration. On the other hand, when successfully managed, its advantages are great. All the strength and pregnancy of
Latin expression are brought out by the stately march of a meter perhaps the most compact and majestic which has ever been invented. The words take their place like the organs in a living structure — close packed, but delicately adjusted and mutually supporting. And the very sense of difficulty over come gives an additional charm to the sonorous beauty of the dactylic movement, its self-retarding pauses, its onward and overwhelming flow.
To the Greek the most elaborate poetical effects were as easy as the simplest. In his poetic, as in the glyptic art, he found all materials ready to his hand ; he had but to choose between the marble and the sardonyx, between the ivory and the gold. The Roman hewed his conceptions out of the granite rock ; oftenest its craggy forms were rudely piled together, yet dignified and strong ; but there were hands which could give it finish too, which could commit to the centuries a work splendid as well as imperishable, polished into the basalt's shimmer and fervent with the porphyry's glow. "
It must not, however, be supposed that even the uEneid has wholly overcome the difficulties inseparable from the Latin poetry of the classical age, that it is entirely free either from the frigidities of an imitation or from the constraints of a tour de force. In the first place, Virgil has not escaped the injury which has been done to subsequent poets by the example of the length and the subject-matter of Homer. An artificial dignity has been attached to poems in twelve or twenty-four books, and authors have been incited to tell needlessly long stories in order to take rank as epic poets. And because Homer is full of tales of personal combat — in his day an excit ing and all-important thing — later poets have thought it necessary to introduce a large element of this kind of descrip tion, which, so soon as it loses reality, becomes not only frigid but disgusting. It is as if the first novel had been written by
"
Virgil, Horace and Varius
From the painting by Jalabert in the Luxembourg
ODES OF HORACE. 339
a schoolboy of genius, and all succeeding novelists had felt bound to construct their plots mainly of matches at football. It is the later books of the " Mneid " that are most marred by this mistake. In the earlier books there are, no doubt, some ill- judged adaptations of Homeric incident, some labored reproduc tions of Homeric formulae, but for the most part the events are really noble and pathetic, — are such as possess permanent inter est for civilized men. The three last books, on the other hand, which have come down to us in a crude and unpruned condi tion, contain large tracts immediately imitated from Homer, and almost devoid of independent value.
Besides these defects in matter, the latter part of the poem illustrates the metrical dangers to which Latin hexameters suc cumbed almost as soon as Virgil was gone. The types on which they could be composed were limited in number and were be coming exhausted. Many of the lines in the later books are modeled upon lines in the earlier ones. Many passages show that peculiar form of bald artificiality into which this difficult meter so readily sinks ; nay, some of the tibicines, or stop-gaps, suggest a grotesque resemblance to the well-known style of the fourth-form boy. Other more ambitious passages give the painful impression of just missing the effect at which they aim.
ODES OF HORACE.
Translated by CHARLES STUART CALVERLEY.
[Quiirrus Horatius Flaccus, the most popular of Roman poets, was born b. o. 05 ; superbly educated ; at eighteen joined Brutus' army, and fought at Philippi ; had his estate confiscated, but through Virgil's intercession with Maecenas received it again, and gained Augustus' friendship as well as that of Maecenas, who presented him with the immortal " Sabine Farm. " He died b. c. 8. His odes are enduringly valued for their charm of style and genial Epicureanism of philosophy. ]
Book Ode To Thcdiarchus.
One dazzling mass of solid snow Soracte stands the bent woods fret Beneath their load and, sharpest-set
With frost, the streams have ceased to flow.
;
;
I. ,
9.
340
ODES OP HORACE.
Pile on great fagots and break up
The ice : let influence more benign Enter with four-years-treasured wine,
Fetched in the ponderous Sabine cup :
Leave to the gods all else. When they Have once bid rest the winds that war Over the passionate seas, no more
Gray ash and cypress rock and sway.
Ask not what future suns shall bring. Count to-day gain, whate'er it chance
To be : nor, young man, scorn the dance,
Nor deem sweet Love an idle thing,
Ere time thy April youth hath changed To sourness. Park and public walk Attract thee now, and whispered talk
At twilight meetings prearranged ;
Hear now the pretty laugh that tells In what dim corner lurks thy love ; And snatch a bracelet or a glove
From wrist or hand that scarce rebels.
Ode 11.
To LeuconOe.
Seek not, for thou shalt not find what my end, what thine shall be;
Ask not of Chaldaea's science what God wills, Leuconoe
Better far, what comes, to bear it. Haply many wintry blast Waits thee still and this, may be, Jove ordains to be thy last, Which flings now the flagging sea wave on the obstinate sandstone
reef.
Be thou wise fill up the wine cup shortening, since the time
brief,
Hopes that reach into the future. While speak, hath stolen away
Jealous Time.
Mistrust To-morrow, catch the blossom of To-day.
Book III. , Ode 1.
scorn and shun the rabble's noise. Abstain from idle talk. A thing
That ear hath not yet heard,
The Muses' priest, to maids and boys.
sing,
I
; I
I:
;
is
it
it,
a
:
ODES OF HORACE.
To Jove the flocks which great kings sway, To Jove great kings allegiance owe. Praise him : he laid the giants low :
All things that are, his nod obey.
This man may plant in broader lines
His fruit trees: that, the pride of race Enlists a candidate for place :
In worth, in fame, a third outshines
His mates ; or, thronged with clients, claims Precedence. Even-handed Fate
Hath but one law for small and great :
That ample urn holds all men's names.
He o'er whose doomed neck hangs the sword Unsheathed, the dainties of the South Shall lack their sweetness in his mouth :
No note of bird or harpsichord
Shall bring him Sleep.
Yet Sleep is kind, Nor scorns the huts of laboring men ; The bank where shadows play, the glen
Of Tempe dancing in the wind.
He, who but asks " Enough," defies
Wild waves to rob him of his ease ;
He fears no rude shocks, when he sees
Arcturus set or Haedus rise :
When hailstones lash his vines, or fails His farm its promise, now of rains And now of stars that parch the plains
Complaining, or unkindly gales.
— In straitened seas the fish are pent ; For dams are sunk into the deep : Pile upon pile the builders heap,
And he, whom earth could not content,
The Master. Yet shall Fear and Hate
Climb where the Master climbs : nor e'er From the armed trireme parts black Care;
He sits behind, the horseman's mate.
And if red marble shall not ease
The heartache ; nor the shell that shines Star-bright ; nor all Falernum's vines,
All scents that charmed Achaemenes :
342
ODES OF HORACE.
Why should I rear me halls of rare
Design, on proud shafts mounting high ? Why bid my Sabine vale good-by
For doubled wealth and doubled care ?
Ode 2.
Friend ! with a poor man's straits to fight Let warfare teach thy stalwart boy : Let him the Parthian's front annoy
With lance in rest, a dreaded knight :
Live in the field, inure his eye
To danger. From the foeman's wall May the armed tyrant's dame, with all
Her damsels, gaze on him, and sigh,
" Dare not, in war unschooled, to rouse Yon Lion — whom to touch is death, To whom red Anger ever saith,
' Slay and slay on' — O prince, my spouse ! "
— Honored and blest the patriot dies. From death the recreant may not flee : Death shall not spare the faltering knee
And coward back of him that flies.
Valor — unbeat, unsullied still —
Shines with pure luster : all too great To seize or drop the sword of state,
Swayed by a people's veering will.
Valor — to souls too great for death
Heaven opening — treads the untrodden way: And this dull world, this damp cold clay,
On wings of scorn, abandoneth.
— Let too the sealed lip honored be. The babbler, who'd the secrets tell Of holy Ceres, shall not dwell
Where I dwell ; shall not launch with me
A shallop. Heaven full many a time Hath with the unclean slain the just : And halting-footed Vengeance must
O'ertake at last the steps of crime.
ODES OF HORACE.
Book III. , Ode 3.
The just man's single-purposed mind
Not furious mobs that prompt to ill
May move, nor kings' frowns shake his will
Which is as rock ; not warrior winds
That keep the seas in wild unrest ;
Nor bolt by Jove's own finger hurled : The fragments of a shivered world
Would crash round him still self-possest.
Jove's wandering son reached, thus endowed, The fiery bastions of the skies ;
Thus Pollux ; with them Caesar lies
Beside his nectar, radiant-browed.
Honored for this, by tigers drawn
Rode Bacchus, reining necks before Untamed ; for this War's horses bore
Quirinus up from Acheron.
To the pleased gods had Juno said In conclave: "Troy is in the dust; Troy, by a judge accursed, unjust,
And that strange woman prostrated.
" The day Laomedon ignored
His god-pledged word, resigned to me And Pallas ever pure, was she,
Her people, and their traitor lord.
" Now the Greek woman's guilty guest Dazzles no more : Priam's perjured sons Find not against the mighty ones
Of Greece a shield in Hector's breast :
"And, long drawn out by private jars,
The war sleeps. Lo ! my wrath is o'er : And him the Trojan vestal bore
(Sprung of that hated line) to Mars,
"To Mars restore I. His be rest
In halls of light : by him be drained The nectar bowl, his place obtained
In the calm companies of the blest.
ODES OF HORACE.
" While betwixt Rome and Ilion raves A length of ocean, where they will Rise empires for the exiles still :
While Paris's and Priam's graves
" Are trod by kine, and she-wolves breed Securely there, unharmed shall stand Rome's lustrous Capitol, her hand
Curb with proud laws the trampled Mede.
" Wide-feared, to far-off climes be borne Her story ; where the central main Europe and Libya parts in twain,
Where full Nile laves a land of corn :
" The buried secret of the mine,
(Best left there) let her dare to spurn, Nor unto man's base uses turn
Profane hands laying on things divine.
a Earth's utmost end, where'er it be,
Let her hosts reach ; careering proud O'er lands where watery rain and cloud,
Or where wild suns hold revelry.
" But, to the warriors of Rome,
Tied by this law, such fates are willed ; That they seek never to rebuild,
Too fond, too bold, their grandsires' home.
" With darkest omens, deadliest strife, Shall Troy, raised up again, repeat
I the victor fleet Shall lead, Jove's sister and his wife.
Her history ;
" Thrice let Apollo rear the wall
Of brass ; and thrice my Greeks shall hew The fabric down : thrice matrons rue
In chains their sons', their husbands' fall. "
Ill my light lyre such notes beseem.
Stay, Muse ; nor, wayward still, rehearse Sayings of Gods in meager verse
That may but mar a mighty theme.
ODES OF HORACE.
Book III. , Ode 5.
Jove we call King, whose bolts rive heaven ; Then a god's presence shall be felt
In Caesar, with whose power the Celt
And Parthian stout in vain have striven.
Could Crassus' men wed alien wives, And greet, as sons-in-law, the foe ? In the foes' land (oh Romans, oh
Lost honor ! ) end, in shame, their lives,
'Neath the Mede's sway ? They, Marsians and Apulians — shields and rank and name Forgot, and that undying flame —
And Jove still reign, and Rome still stand ?
This thing wise Regulus could presage : He brooked not base conditions ; he Set not a precedent to be
The ruin of a coming age :
" No," cried he, " let the captives die, Spare not. I saw Rome's ensigns hung In Punic shrines ; with sabers, flung
Down by Rome's sons ere blood shed. I
" Saw our free citizens with hands
Fast pinioned ; and, through portals now Flung wide, our soldiers troop to plow,
As once they trooped to waste, the lands.
" ' Bought by our gold, our men will fight
But keener. ' What ? To shame would you Add loss ? As wool, its natural hue
Once gone, may not be painted white ;
" True Valor, from her seat once thrust, Is not replaced by meaner wares.
Do stags, delivered from the snares,
Fight ? Then shall he fight, who did trust
" His life to foes who spoke a lie :
And his sword shatter Carthage yet, Around whose arms the cords have met,
A sluggard soul, that feared to die !
ODES OF HORACE.
" Life, howe'er bought, he treasured : he — Deemed war a thing of trade. Ah fie ! Great art thou, Carthage —towerest high
O'er shamed and ruined Italy ! "
As one uncitizened — men said — He put his wife's pure kiss away. His little children ; and did lay
Stern in the dust his manly head :
Till those unequaled words had lent Strength to the faltering sires of Rome ; Then from his sorrow-stricken home
Went forth to glorious banishment.
Yet knew he, what wild tortures lay Before him : knowing, put aside
His kin, his countrymen —who tried
To bar his path, and bade him stay :
He might be hastening on his way, —
A lawyer freed from business — down To green Venafrum, or a town
Of Sparta, for a holiday. Epode 2.
Alphius.
Translated BY SIR THEODORE MARTIN.
Happy the man, in busy schemes unskilled, Who, living simply, like our sires of old,
Tills the few acres which his father tilled, Vexed by no thoughts of usury or gold ;
The shrilling clarion ne'er his slumber mars, Nor quails he at the howl of angry seas ;
He shuns the forum, with its wordy jars,
Nor at a great man's door consents to freeze.
The tender vine-shoots, budding into life, He with the stately poplar tree doth wed,
Lopping the fruitless branches with his knife, And grafting shoots of promise in their stead
ODES OF HORACE.
Or in some valley, up among the hills,
Watches his wandering herds of lowing kine,
Or fragrant jars with liquid honey fills,
Or shears his silly sheep in sunny shine ;
Or when Autumnus o'er the smiling land Lifts up his head with rosy apples crowned,
Joyful he plucks the pears, which erst his hand Graffed on the stem they're weighing to the ground ;
Plucks grapes in noble clusters purple-dyed, A gift for thee, Priapus, and for thee,
Father Sylvanus, where thou dost preside, Warding his bounds beneath thy sacred tree.
Now he may stretch his careless limbs to rest, Where some old ilex spreads its sacred roof ;
Now in the sunshine lie, as likes him best, On grassy turf of close elastic woof.
And streams the while glide on with murmurs low, And birds are singing 'mong the thickets deep,
And fountains babble, sparkling as they flow, And with their noise invite to gentle sleep.
But when grim winter comes, and o'er his grounds Scatters its biting snows with angry roar,
He takes the field, and with a cry of hounds Hunts down into the toils the foaming boar ;
Or seeks the thrush, poor starveling, to ensnare, In filmy net with bait delusive stored,
Entraps the traveled crane, and timorous hare, Rare dainties these to glad his frugal board.
Who amid joys like these would not forget
The pangs which love to all its victims bears,
The fever of the brain, the ceaseless fret,
And all the heart's lamentings and despairs ?
But if a chaste and blooming wife, beside,
The cheerful home with sweet young blossoms fills,
Like some stout Sabine, or the sunburnt bride Of the lithe peasant of the Apulian hills
ODES OF HORACE.
Who piles the hearth with logs well dried and old Against the coming of her wearied lord,
And, when at eve the cattle seek the fold,
Drains their full udders of the milky hoard ;
And bringing forth from her well-tended store A jar of wine, the vintage of the year,
Spreads an unpurchased feast, — oh then, not more Could choicest Lucrine oysters give me cheer,
Or the rich turbot, or the dainty char, If ever to our bays the winter's blast
Should drive them in its fury from afar ; Nor were to me a welcomer repast
The Afric hen or the Ionic snipe,
Than olives newly gathered from the tree,
That hangs abroad its clusters rich and ripe, Or sorrel, that doth love the pleasant lea,
Or mallows wholesome for the body's need, Or lamb foredoomed upon some festal day
In offering to the guardian gods to bleed,
Or kidling which the wolf hath marked for prey.
What joy, amidst such feasts, to see the sheep, Full of the pasture, hurrying homewards come ;
To see the wearied oxen, as they creep,
Dragging the upturned plowshare slowly home !
Or, ranged around the bright and blazing hearth, To see the hinds, a house's surest wealth,
Beguile the evening with their simple mirth, And all the cheerfulness of rosy health !
Thus spake the miser Alphius ; and, bent Upon a country life, called in amain
The money he at usury had lent ; —
But ere the month was out, 'twas lent again.
ODES OF HORACE.
Book III. , Ode 29.
To Mcecenas.
Tbamslatbd by TALLMADGE A. LAMBERT.
O thou, Maecenas, who canst trace Descent from 'Truria's royal race, My humble store I pray thee grace
Of unbroached wine,
And at my board resume the place
Forever thine !
Make no delay, but once again Forsake wet Tibur's moistened plain, And ^Esula, whose fields attain
The hill's steep side,
And Telegon, red with the stain
Of parricide.
Thy cloying wealth and honors proud, Thy palace rearing to the cloud,
And all the sycophantic crowd,
Leave for a time ;
Avoid the din, the smoky shroud
Of Home sublime.
The wealthy ofttimes welcome change ; And oft the farmer's humble grange, Where cleanliness and health arrange
The plain repast,
Restores the brow which cares derange
And overcast.
Bright Cepheus rises in the sky, And Procyon fiercely burns on high, While Leo's star, of lurid dye,
Portends the drouth,
And glowing Phœbus, drawing nigh,
Deserts the south.
The shepherd, now, and panting sheep Close to the thicket's shading keep, And in the cooling streamlet steep
Their languid limbs ;
The sluggish waters onward creep
Uncurled by winds.
ODES OF HORACE.
But thou, engaged in state affairs, And pressed by weight of civic cares, Must needs inquire what best appears
For thine own Rome,
How China, Bactria, Tanais fares,
The Parthian's home.
An all-wise Power conceals from sight Our after fortunes, dark or bright, And o'er them sets a rayless night
Of Stygian shade,
And laughs whenever mortal might
Would fain invade.
Enjoy to-day : as yonder stream Whose waters, smooth-revolving, seem To bear within their depths a gleam
Of Tuscan sea,
So life 'neath fortune's favoring beam
Flows happily.
But like those waters when they sweep, A swollen torrent, broad and deep,
And headlong every stay o'erleap
In mad career,
So life a turbid course will keep,
Impelled by care.
He nobly o'er himself holds sway, And truly lives, who thus can say,
As evening seals each well-spent day :
" I've lived my life !
The Father may arouse the sea
And winds to strife —
" But lo, he cannot render vain
What fleeting Time hath backward ta'en, Nor yet avoid nor change again
That which is past.
Thus, Memory's joys must e'en remain
Unto the last! "
Fair Fortune, pleasing but to grieve, Exciting hope but to deceive, Exulting when she may bereave
With keenest pain,
Neptune Calming the Waves From the Original Statue in the Louvre
ODES OF HORACE.
The transient honors I receive Will take again.
Ipraise her — with me —when Isee Her, fluttering, rise, about to flee ;
I give up all and tranquilly
Behold her go,
And seek undowered poverty
Whence virtues flow.
'Tis not for me, when Afric's blast Bends low the sailless, creaking mast. — 'Tis not for me, with eyes upcast,
To supplicate
That through the storm my ship hold fast
Its precious freight.
Not mine to strive, with bargaining vows, The heavenly deities to rouse,
Lest my rich Cyprian, Tyrian prows
Sink on the deep ;
For griefless poverty allows
Unbroken sleep.
The Twins my trusting course shall guide As o'er the fickle waves I glide,
Assisted by the winds and tide,
In my swift bark ;
And every storm I'll safely ride,
A scathless mark !
Book III. , Ode 28. Neptune and the Sea Goddesses.
How shall I honor Neptune best On his holiday ? Lyde mine,
Bring the hoarded Caecuban out with zest, Break Wisdom's guarded line.
You feel the noontide sun decline, Yet as if the fleet day stood still,
You leave the lingering cask of wine With Consul Bibulus' vintage sign,
Asleep in the cellar's chill.
We will sing by turns of the ocean sire
And the Nereids' tresses green;
HORACE ON CHARITABLE JUDGMENTS.
You first recite to the arching lyre Latona's love, and the arrows dire Of Cynthia, fleet-foot queen ; The carol done, of her be the tale
Whom Cnidus' charms can please, Who swan-borne visits her Paphian vale
And the sun-bright Cyclades ;
And the song of Night in a minor wail
Shall fitly follow these.
HORACE ON CHARITABLE JUDGMENTS. (From the " Satires," L 3. )
Translated by SIR THEODORE MARTIN.
True love, we know, is blind : defects that blight The loved one's charms escape the lover's sight,— Nay, pass for beauties ; as Balbinus shows
A passion for the wen on Agna's nose.
Oh, with our friendships that we did the same, And screened our blindness under virtue's name ! For we are bound to treat a friend's defect
With touch most tender, and a fond respect : Even as a father treats a child's, who hints
The urchin's eyes are roguish, if he squints :
Or if he be as stunted, short, and thick " As Sisyphus the dwarf, will call him "chick !
If crooked all ways, in back, in legs, and thighs, With softening phrases will the flaw disguise.
So, if one friend too close a fist betrays,
Let us ascribe it to his frugal ways ;
Or is another — such we often find —
To flippant jest and braggart talk inclined,
'Tis only from a kindly wish to try
To make the time 'mongst friends go lightly by ; Another's tongue is rough and overfree,
Let's call it bluntness and sincerity ;
Another's choleric — him we must screen,
As cursed with feelings for his peace too keen. This is the course, methinks, that makes a friend, And having made, secures him to the end.
POEMS OF OVID. 353
POEMS OF OVID.
[Publius Ovidiub Naso, the youngest of the great Augustan poets, was born B. C. 43, the year after Caesar's murder, and died a. d. 17, three years after Au gustus. He was of Sulmo in the Apennines, a landholder like Tibullus and Pro- pertius, and, unlike them, kept his estate. He settled at Rome and filled some minor offices, but led an easy, pleasure-seeking life. But he became involved, seemingly, in the dreadful family scandal which clouded Augustus' later years and ruined his political family plans ; his " Art of Love" was regarded as one of the influences which had made Roman society so rotten ; and he was banished to Tomi on the Danube, a barbarous village of Grecized Goths, where he lived the ten remaining years of his life. His "Metamorphoses" have been trans lated, adapted, and used as subjects, in every European language ; his " Fasti " poetized the Roman religious rites ; his Elegies ranked him as one of the great quartet (see Tibullus) ; his Epistles have been brilliantly and repeatedly trans lated. He wrote also " Remedia Amoris," a sort of apology for the " Ars Ama- toria"; a tragedy, "Medea"; the " Heroides," on the old myths ; and others. ]
Sappho to Phaon.
(From the " Epistles " : Pope's translation).
Sat, lovely youth, that doth my heart command, Can Phaon's eyes forget his Sappho's hand ?
Must then her name the wretched writer prove,
To thy remembrance lost, as to thy love ?
Ask not the cause that I new members choose, The lute neglected, and the Lyric Muse.
Love taught my tears in sadder notes to flow, And tuned my heart to elegies of woe.
I burn, I burn, as when through ripened corn
By driving winds the spreading flames are borne. Phaon to Etna's scorching fields retires,
While I consume with more than Etna's fires I No more my soul a charm in music finds,
Music has charms alone for peaceful minds :
Soft scenes of solitude no more can please,
Love enters there, and I'm my own disease.
No more the Lesbian dames my passion move, Once the dear objects of my guilty love;
All other loves are lost in only thine,
Ah, youth ungrateful to a flame like mine !
Whom would not all those blooming charms surprise, Those heavenly looks, and dear deluding eyes ?
The harp and bow would you like Phoebus bear,
A brighter Phoebus Phaon might appear;
you v. —23
POEMS OF OVID.
Would you with ivy wreathe your flowing hair,
Not Bacchus' self with Phaon could compare :
Yet Phoebus loved, and Bacchus felt the flame,
One Daphne warmed, and one the Cretan dame ; Nymphs that in verse no more could rival me,
Than e'en those gods contend in charms with thee. . . Brown as I am, an Ethiopian dame
Inspired young Perseus with a generous flame ; Turtles and doves of different hues unite,
And glossy jet is paired with shining white.
If to no charms thou wilt thy heart resign,
But such as merit, such as equal thine,
By none, alas ! by none thou canst be moved :
Phaon alone by Phaon must be loved !
Yet once thy Sappho could thy cares employ ;
Once in her arms you centered all your joy :
No time the dear remembrance can remove,
For, oh ! how vast a memory has love !
My music, then you could not ever hear,
And all my words were music to your ear.
You stopped with kisses my enchanting tongue,
And found my kisses sweeter than my song.
In all I pleased, but most in what was best ;
And the last joy was dearer than the rest.
Then with each word, each glance, each motion fired, You still enjoyed, and yet you still desired,
Till all dissolving in the trance we lay,
And in tumultuous raptures died away. . . .
O scarce a youth, yet scarce a tender boy I
O useful time for lovers to employ !
Pride of thy age and glory of thy race,
Come to these arms, and melt in this embrace ! The vows you never will return, receive ;
And take at least the love you will not give.
See, while I write, my words are lost in tears !
The less my sense, the more my love appears.
Sure 'twas not much to bid one kind adieu ;
(At least to feign was never hard to you ! )
" Farewell, my Lesbian love," you might have said ; Or coldly thus, " Farewell, oh Lesbian maid ! "
No tear did you, no parting kiss receive,
Nor knew I then how much I was to grieve.
No lover's gift your Sappho could confer,
And wrongs and woes were all you left with her.
POEMS OF OVID.
No charge I gave you, and no charge could give,
But this, " Be mindful of your loves, and live. "
Now by the Nine, those powers adored by me,
And Love, the god that ever waits on thee,
When first I heard (from whom I hardly knew)
That you were fled, and all my joys with you,
Like some sad statue, speechless, pale I stood,
Grief chilled my breast, and stopped my freezing blood No sigh to rise, no tear had power to flow,
Fixed in a stupid lethargy of woe :
But when its way the impetuous passion found, I rend my tresses, and my breast I wound ;
I rave, then weep ;
I curse, and then complain ; Now swell to rage, now melt in tears again ; Not fiercer pangs distract the mournful dame
Whose firstborn infant feeds the funeral flame. . . . Stung with my love, and furious with despair,
All torn my garments, and my bosom bare,
My woes, thy crimes, I to the world proclaim :
Such inconsistent things are love and shame ! 'Tis thou art all my care and my delight,
My daily longing, and my dream by night.
O night, more pleasing than the brightest day, When fancy gives what absence takes away, And dressed in all its visionary charms, Restores my fair deserter to my arms ! . . . But when with day, the sweet delusions fly, And all things wake to life and joy, but I ;
As if once more forsaken, I complain,
And close my eyes to dream of you again.
Laodamia to Protesilaus.
(Translated by Miss E. Garland. )
Ah ! Trojan women (happier far than we), Fain in your lot would I partaker be !
If ye must mourn o'er some dead hero's bier, And all the dangers of the war are near,
With you at least the fair and youthful bride May arm her husband, in becoming pride ;
Lift the fierce helmet to his gallant brow,
And, with a trembling hand, his sword bestow : With fingers all unused the weapon brace,
And gaze with fondest love upon his face !
POEMS OF OVID.
How sweet to both this office she will make — How many a kiss receive — how many take! When all equipped she leads him from the door, Her fond commands how oft repeating o'er : —
" Return victorious, and thine arms enshrine — Return, beloved, to these arms of mine ! "
Nor shall these fond commands be all in vain, Her hero-husband will return again.
Amid the battle's din and clashing swords
He still will listen to her parting words ;
And, if more prudent, still, ah ! not less brave, One thought for her and for his home will save.
The Ring.
(Translated by A. A. Brodribb. )
Sign of my too presumptuous flame, To fairest Celia haste, nor linger,
And may she gladly breathe my name, And gayly put thee on her finger !
Suit her as I myself, that she
May fondle thee with murmured blessing;
Caressed by Celia !