HORACE: ODES BOOK III
This page intentionally left blank
A CO M M EN TA RY ON
HORACE: ODES BOOK III BY
R. G. M. NI...
93 downloads
3183 Views
3MB Size
Report
This content was uploaded by our users and we assume good faith they have the permission to share this book. If you own the copyright to this book and it is wrongfully on our website, we offer a simple DMCA procedure to remove your content from our site. Start by pressing the button below!
Report copyright / DMCA form
HORACE: ODES BOOK III
This page intentionally left blank
A CO M M EN TA RY ON
HORACE: ODES BOOK III BY
R. G. M. NISBET AND
NIALL RUDD
1
Great Clarendon Street, Oxford ox2 6dp Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide in Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With offices in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan South Korea Poland Portugal Singapore Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Published in the United States by Oxford University Press Inc., New York © R. G. M. Nisbet and Niall Rudd The moral rights of the author have been asserted Database right Oxford University Press (maker) First published 2004 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above. You must not circulate this book in any other binding or cover and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Data available Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Data available ISBN 0–19–926314– 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 Typeset by Kolam Information Services Pvt. Ltd., Pondicherry, India Printed in Great Britain on acid-free paper by Biddles Ltd., King’s Lynn, Norfolk
PR EFAC E Th i s work follows the same lines as the commentaries by Nisbet and Hubbard on Books I and II of the Odes (Oxford, 1970 and 1978). It concentrates on individual poems and problems, and aims to elucidate the poet’s meaning at the most literal level; it is not another book about the Odes in general. Yet in view of the lapse of time since the earlier volumes we have repeated a few facts in the General Introduction, and at the same time have summarized our approach, particularly on controversial matters. Recently there has been some discussion about the commentary as a literary form: see G. W. Most (ed.), Commentaries—Kommentare (Go¨ttingen, 1999), R. K. Gibson and C. S. Kraus (edd.), The Classical Commentary (Leiden, 2002). In the case of Horace the size of the bibliography causes particular difficulty; inevitably our own reading has been selective. While a commentary should be clear at all costs and not unreasonably long, these aims would never have been realized if we had done full justice even to the more important books and articles. As in the earlier volumes the editors try to support their interpretations by citing parallel passages; these may record an allusion to a predecessor, exemplify a commonplace, provide the reason for preferring a textual variant, illustrate a syntactical usage, or give evidence for a historical or antiquarian point. We use the catch-all ‘cf.’ to introduce these different types of parallel; it is objected that this obscures important distinctions and fails to show how the author is using his models, but the reason for the citation is usually obvious, and where Horace significantly modifies his predecessor a note is normally supplied. To avoid clogging the exegesis with lengthy lists, we have often selected the earliest or most interesting parallels and then added a cross-reference to TLL, OLD, or a more expansive commentator like Mayor, Pease, or Bo¨mer. We do not hesitate to cite classical authors later than Horace, as they may exemplify a standard locution or be derived from a common source. We have sometimes quoted imitations of Horace in major English poets; these should not be allowed to determine the interpretation of our text, though of course the reception of Horace is an important theme in the study of European literature (see for instances the introduction to 3. 30). Needless to say, in recording parallels we are not denying Horace’s originality, as some critics of the first volume supposed. In fact we regard him as one of the most original of ancient poets for his ability
vi
P R EFAC E
to integrate political and philosophical themes in his lyrics, his virtuosity in adapting Greek metres to the heavier Latin language, his use of traditional forms to present his unique personality, and above all the range of his style and tone which his imitators have found inimitable. As our collaboration developed we reached a large measure of agreement. In the few places where we differed, rather than attempt an unsatisfactory compromise we have used our initials to indicate our separate positions. As before, the editors owe much to previous commentators, especially Bentley, Orelli–Hirschfelder, and Kiessling– Heinze, and to the interpretation of the Odes by H. P. Syndikus (edn. 3, Darmstadt, 2001); the attractive short commentary on Book 3 by David West (Oxford, 2002) appeared too late to be consulted. It remains only to thank the staff of the Oxford University Press for bringing the book to completion. Corpus Christi College, Oxford University of Bristol August 2003
R. G. M. N. N. R.
CO N TEN TS bibliography general introduction 1. horace’s early life 2. the date of Odes i–iii 3. the ‘roman odes’ 4. horace and augustus 5. maecenas and other addressees 6. horace’s ‘love-poems’ 7. religion in horace 8. the meaning of the author 9. ambiguity 10. person and persona 11. genre 12. style 13. structure 14. the arrangement of the book 15. the text 16. the ancient commentators 17. metre commentary index nominvm index verborvm index rervm
ix xix xix xix xx xxi xxii xxiii xxiii xxiv xxv xxvi xxvi xxvii xxvii xxviii xxix xxix xxx 1 379 383 387
This page intentionally left blank
B I B LI O G R A P H Y This bibliography lists books cited in abbreviated form in the commentary; references like ‘Kroll 24’ can be elucidated here. It does not include either articles or commentaries on other works. In the commentary a select bibliography is prefixed to each ode; the expression ‘op. cit.’ normally refers to those bibliographies, not to this one. For further details see W. Kissel, ANRW II. 31. 3 (Berlin, 1981), 141 ff.; E. Doblhofer, Horaz in der Forschung nach 1957 (Darmstadt, 1992); W. Kissel in S. Koster (ed.), Horaz-Studien (Erlangen, 1994), 116 ff. (a) texts and commentaries For fuller lists see Schanz–Hosius 2. 152 and Kissel (1981) cited above. Lambinus, D. (1561), Lyons. Bentley, R. (1711), Cambridge; edn. 3 (1728), Amsterdam (repr. 1869). Mitscherlich, C. G. (1800), vol. 2, Leipzig. Peerlkamp, P. Hofman (edn. 2, 1862), Amsterdam. Schu¨tz, H. (edn. 3, 1881), Berlin. Orelli, J. C., revised by W. Hirschfelder (edn. 4, 1886), Berlin. Kiessling, A. (edn. 2, 1890), Berlin. Page, T. E. (1895), London. Wickham, E. C. (edn. 3, 1896), Oxford. Gow, J. (1896), Cambridge. Keller, O., and Holder, A. (edn. 2, 1899), Leipzig (text and parallels). Mu¨ller, L. (1900), 2 vols., St Petersburg and Leipzig. Shorey, P., and Laing, G. J. (edn. 2, 1910), Chicago, repr. Pittsburgh, 1960. Wickham, E. C., revised by H. W. Garrod (edn. 2, 1912), Oxford Classical Texts. Darnley Naylor, H. (1922), Cambridge. Heinze, R. (edn. 7 of Kiessling, 1930; edn. 10, 1960), Berlin. Campbell, A. Y. (edn. 2, 1953), Liverpool. Klingner, F. (edn. 3, 1959), Leipzig (text only). Williams, G. (1969), Oxford (Book 3 only). Quinn, K. (1980), London. Borzsa´k, S. (1984), Leipzig (text only). Shackleton Bailey, D. R. (1985, revised 2001), Stuttgart (text only).
x
B I B LI O G R A P H Y
Syndikus, H. P. (2001), Die Lyrik von Horaz edn. 3, 2 vols., Darmstadt (a literary commentary with valuable detail). West, D. (2002), Dulce Periculum, Oxford (Book 3 only).
(b) other books cited Abbe, E. (1965), The Plants of Virgil ’s Georgics, Ithaca. Adams, J. N. (1982), The Latin Sexual Vocabulary, London. —— and Mayer, R. G. (edd.) (1999), Aspects of the Language of Latin Poetry, Oxford. Allen, W. S. (1965 and 1978), Vox Latina: A Guide to the Pronunciation of Classical Latin, Cambridge. Anderson, J. K. (1961) Ancient Greek Horsemanship, Berkeley. —— (1985), Hunting in the Ancient World, Berkeley. Andre´, J. (1949), E´tudes sur les termes de couleur dans la langue latine, Paris. —— (1967), Les Noms d’oiseaux en latin, Paris. Appel, G. (1909, repr. 1975), De Romanorum precationibus, Giessen. Axelson, B. (1945), Unpoetische Wo¨rter: Ein Beitrag zur Kenntnis der lateinischen Dichtersprache, Lund. Beard, M., North, J., and Price, S. R. (1998), Religion in Rome, 2 vols., Cambridge. Bell, A. J. (1923), The Latin Dual and Poetic Diction, London and Toronto. Binder, G. (1971), Aeneas und Augustus, Interpretationen zum 8. Buch der Aeneis, Meisenheim am Glan. Blu¨mner, H. (1875–87, vol. 1, edn. 2, 1912), Technologie und Terminologie der Gewerbe und Ku¨nste bei Griechen und Ro¨mern, Leipzig. —— (1911), Die Ro¨mischen Privataltertu¨mer, Munich. Bo, D. (1960), De Horati poetico eloquio, vol. 3 of Q. Horati Flacci opera (Corpus Scriptorum Latinorum Paravianum), Turin. Bolton, J. D. P. (1962), Aristeas of Proconnesus, Oxford. Bompaire, J. (1958), Lucien e´crivain: imitation et cre´ation, Paris. Boucher, J.-P. (1965), E´tudes sur Properce: Proble`mes d ’interpre´tation et d ’art, Paris. Bruchmann, C. F. H. (1893), Epitheta deorum quae apud poetas Graecos leguntur, supplement in Roscher, vol. 7, Leipzig. Brunt, P. A. (1971) Italian Manpower, Oxford. —— (1990), Roman Imperial Themes, Oxford. Burkert, W. (1985), Greek Religion, Archaic and Classical (Oxford), translation of Griechische Religion der archaischen und klassischen Epoche (1977). Cairns, F. (1972), Generic Composition in Greek and Roman Poetry, Edinburgh. Campbell, A. Y. (1924), Horace: A New Interpretation, London. Capponi, A. (1979), Ornithologia Latina, Genoa.
B I B LI O G R A P H Y
xi
Carter, J. B. (1902), Epitheta deorum quae apud poetas Latinos leguntur, supplement in Roscher, vol. 7, Leipzig. Cavarzere, A. (1996), Sul limitare: Il ‘motto’ e la poesia di Orazio, Bologna. Christ, F. (1938), Die ro¨mische Weltherrschaft in der antiken Dichtung (Tu¨binger Beitr. 31), Tu¨bingen. Collinge, N. E. (1961), The Structure of Horace’s Odes, London. Commager, S. (1962), The Odes of Horace: A Critical Study, New Haven and London. Copley, F. O. (1956), Exclusus Amator: A Study in Latin Love Poetry (Amer. Philol. Assoc. monograph 17). Costa, C. D. N. (ed.) (1973), Horace, London and Boston. Crook, J. A. (1967), Law and Life of Rome, London. Curtius, E. R. (1953), European Literature and the Latin Middle Ages, London, translated from the German edition. Davis, G. (1991), Polyhymnia: The Rhetoric of Horatian Lyric Discourse, Berkeley and Los Angeles. Dickey, E. (2002), Latin Forms of Address, Oxford. Doblhofer, E. (1966), Die Augustuspanegyrik des Horaz in formalhistorischer Sicht, Heidelberg. Earl, D. C. (1961), The Political Thought of Sallust, Cambridge. Ernout, A., and Meillet, A. (edn. 4, 1959), Dictionnaire e´tymologique de la langue latine, 2 vols., Paris. Esser, D. (1976), Untersuchungen zu den Odenschlu¨ssen bei Horaz (Beitr. zur klass. Philol. 77), Meisenheim am Glan. Flower, H. I. (1996), Ancestor Masks and Aristocratic Power in Roman Culture, Oxford. Fraenkel, E. (1957), Horace, Oxford. —— (1960), Elementi plautini in Plauto, Florence, translation with addenda of Plautinisches im Plautus (1922), Berlin. —— (1964), Kleine Beitra¨ge zur klassischen Philologie, 2 vols., Rome. Fu¨hrer, R. (1967), Formproblem—Untersuchungen zu den Reden in der fru¨hgriechischen Lyrik (Zetemata 44), Munich. Galinsky, K. (1996), Augustan Culture: An Interpretive Introduction, Princeton. Gatz, B. (1967), Weltalter, goldene Zeit und sinnverwandte Vorstellungen (Spudasmata 16), Hildesheim. Grassmann, V. (1966), Die erotischen Epoden des Horaz (Zetemata 39), Munich. Griffin, J. (1985), Latin Poets and Roman Life, London. Gutzwiller, K. J. (1998), Poetic Garlands: Hellenistic Epigrams in Context, Berkeley and Los Angeles. Hand, F. (1829–45), Tursellinus seu de particulis Latinis commentarii, Leipzig, repr. (1969) Amsterdam.
xii
B I B LI O G R A P H Y
Handford, S. A. (1947), The Latin Subjunctive: Its Usage and Development from Plautus to Tacitus, London. Hardie, P. (1986), Virgil ’s Aeneid: Cosmos and Imperium, Oxford. Harrison, S. J. (ed.) (1995), Homage to Horace, Oxford. —— (ed.) (2001), Texts, Ideas, and the Classics, Oxford. Hilgers, W. (1969), Lateinische Gefa¨ssnamen, Du¨sseldorf. Horden, P., and Purcell, N. (2000), The Corrupting Sea: A Study of Mediterranean History, Oxford. Housman, A. E. (1972), Classical Papers (ed. J. Diggle and F. R. D. Goodyear), 3 vols., Cambridge. Hubbard, M. (1974), Propertius, London. Irwin, E. (1974), Colour Terms in Greek Poetry, Toronto. Kambylis, A. (1965), Die Dichterweihe und ihre Symbolik, Heidelberg. Keller, O. (1909–20, repr. 1963), Die antike Tierwelt, 2 vols., Leipzig. Kroll, W. (1924), Studien zum Versta¨ndnis der ro¨mischen Literatur, Stuttgart, repr. (1964) Darmstadt. Lacey, W. K. (1996), Augustus and the Principate: The Evolution of the System (Arca 35), Leeds. La Penna, A. (1963), Orazio e l ’ideologia del principato, Turin. —— (1993), Saggi e studi su Orazio, Florence. Latte, K. (1960), Ro¨mische Religionsgeschichte, Munich. Lattimore, R. (1942), Themes in Greek and Latin Epitaphs (Illinois Studies in Language and Literature 28), Urbana. Le Boeuffle, A. (1977), Les Noms latins d ’astres et de constellations, Paris. Leo, F. (1912), Plautinische Forschungen, Berlin, repr. (1966) Darmstadt. Lieberg, G. (1982), Poeta Creator: Studien zu einer Figur der antiken Dichtung, Amsterdam. Lo¨fstedt, E. (vol. 1, edn. 2, 1942; vol. 2, 1933), Syntactica: Studien und Beitra¨ge zur historischen Syntax des Lateins, Lund. Lovejoy, A. O., and Boas, G. (1935, repr. 1997), Primitivism and Related Themes in Antiquity, Baltimore. Lowrie, M. (1997), Horace’s Narrative Odes, Oxford. Lyne, R. O. A. M. (1980), The Latin Love Poets from Catullus to Horace, Oxford. —— (1987), Further Voices in Vergil ’s Aeneid, Oxford. —— (1989), Words and the Poet: Characteristic Techniques of Style in Vergil ’s Aeneid, Oxford. —— (1995), Horace: Behind the Public Poetry, New Haven and London. Maltby, R. (1991), A Lexicon of Ancient Latin Etymologies (Arca 25), Leeds. Marquardt, J., and Mau, A. (edn. 2, 1886), Das Privatleben der Ro¨mer, Leipzig. Meiggs, R. (1982), Trees and Timber in the Ancient Roman World, Oxford. Millar, F., and Segal, E. (edd.) (1984), Caesar Augustus: Seven Aspects, Oxford.
B I B LI O G R A P H Y
xiii
Murray, O., and Tecus˛an, M. (edd.) (1995), In Vino Veritas, London. Neue, F., and Wagener, C. (edn. 3, 1892–1905), Formenlehre der lateinischen Sprache, Berlin. Newman, J. K. (1967), Augustus and the New Poetry (Coll. Latomus 100), Brussels. Nicolet, C. (1991), Space, Geography, and Politics in the Early Roman Empire, Ann Arbor. Nisbet, R. G. M. (1995), Collected Papers on Latin Literature, Oxford. Nissen, H. (1883–1902), Italische Landeskunde, 2 vols., Berlin. Nock, A. D. (1972), Essays on Religion and the Ancient World, 2 vols., Oxford. Norden, E. (1913), Agnostos Theos: Untersuchungen zur Formengeschichte religio¨ser Rede, Leipzig–Berlin, repr. (1956) Darmstadt. O’Hara, J. J. (1996), True Names: Vergil and the Alexandrian Tradition of Etymological Wordplay, Ann Arbor. Oliensis, E. (1998), Horace and the Rhetoric of Authority, Cambridge. Onians, R. B. (edn. 2, 1954), The Origins of European Thought about the Body, the Mind, and the Soul . . . , Cambridge. Oppermann, H. (ed.) (1972), Wege zu Horaz (Wege der Forschung 99), Darmstadt. Otto, A. (1890), Die Sprichwo¨rter und sprichwo¨rtlichen Redensarten der Ro¨mer, Leipzig, repr. (1962) Hildesheim. Pape, W., and Benseler, G. F. (edn. 3, 1911), Wo¨rterbuch der griechischen Eigennamen, Brunswick, repr. (1959) Graz. Parker, R. (1983), Miasma: Pollution and Purification in Early Greek Religion, Oxford. Paschalis, M. (1997), Virgil ’s Aeneid: Semantic Relations and Proper Names, Oxford. Pasquali, G. (1920), Orazio lirico, Florence, repr. with addenda by A. La Penna, 1984. Pichon, R. (1902), De sermone amatorio apud Latinos elegiarum scriptores, Paris ¼ Index verborum amatoriorum, Hildesheim (1966). Porter, D. H. (1987), Horace’s Poetic Journey: A Reading of Odes 1–3, Princeton. Po¨schl, V. (edn. 2, 1991), Horazische Lyrik, Heidelberg. Pulleyn, S. (1997), Prayer in Greek Religion, Oxford. Raaflaub, K. A., and Toher, M. (edd.) (1990), Between Republic and Empire: Interpretations of Augustus and his Principate, Berkeley, Los Angeles, Oxford. Rawson, E. (1985), Intellectual Life in the Late Roman Republic, Oxford. Reitzenstein, R. (1963), Aufsa¨tze zu Horaz, Darmstadt, a collection of reprinted articles. Richardson, L., Jr. (1992), A New Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome, Baltimore and London.
xiv
B I B LI O G R A P H Y
Rohde, E. (edn. 3, 1914), Der griechische Roman und seine Vorla¨ufer, Leipzig, repr. (1960) Hildesheim. Roscher, W. H. (1884–1937), Ausfu¨hrliches Lexicon der griechischen und ro¨mischen Mythologie, Leipzig. Ross, D. O., Jr. (1975), Backgrounds to Augustan Poetry: Gallus, Elegy, and Rome, Cambridge. Rudd, N. (1966), The Satires of Horace, Cambridge. —— (ed.) (1993), Horace 2000: A Celebration, London. Saller, R. P. (1982), Personal Patronage under the Early Empire, Cambridge. Salmon, E. T. (1967), Samnium and the Samnites, Cambridge. Santirocco, M. (1986), Unity and Design in Horace’s Odes, Chapel Hill and London. Schanz, M., and Hosius, C. (vol. 2, edn. 4, 1927), Geschichte der ro¨mischen Literatur, Munich. Schmidt, E. A. (2002), Zeit und Form, Heidelberg. Scho¨nbeck, G. (1962), Der Locus Amoenus von Homer bis Horaz (Diss.), Heidelberg. Scullard, H. H. (1981), Festivals and Ceremonies of the Roman Republic, London. Shackleton Bailey, D. R. (1982), Profile of Horace, London. Simon, E. (1990), Die Go¨tter der Ro¨mer, Munich. Sittl, C. (1890), Die Geba¨rden der Griechen und Ro¨mer, Leipzig. Steinby, E. M. (ed.) (1993–2001), Lexicon topographicum urbis Romae, Rome. Stroh, W. (1971), Die ro¨mische Liebeselegie als werbende Dichtung, Amsterdam. Suerbaum, W. (1968), Untersuchungen zur Selbstdarstellung a¨lterer ro¨mischer Dichter (Spudasmata 19), Hildesheim. Syme, R. (1939), The Roman Revolution, Oxford. —— (1978), History in Ovid, Oxford. —— (1979–91), Roman Papers, 7 vols., Oxford. —— (1986), The Augustan Aristocracy, Oxford. Taillardat, J. (1962), Les Images d ’Aristophane: E´tudes de langue et de style, Paris. Tara´n, S. L. (1979), The Art of Variation in the Hellenistic Epigram, Leiden. Thomas, R. F. (1999), Reading Virgil and his Texts, Ann Arbor. Thompson, D’A. W. (1936), A Glossary of Greek Birds, Oxford, repr. (1966) Hildesheim. Thomson, J. O. (1948), History of Ancient Geography, Cambridge. Toynbee, J. M. C. (1973), Animals in Roman Life and Art, London. Treggiari, S. (1991), Roman Marriage, Oxford. Troxler-Keller, I. (1964), Die Dichterlandschaft des Horaz, Heidelberg. Wackernagel, J. (edn. 2, 1926–8), Vorlesungen u¨ber Syntax, 2 vols., Basel. Weinstock, S. (1971), Divus Julius, Oxford. West, M. L. (1992), Ancient Greek Music, Oxford.
B I B LI O G R A P H Y
xv
White, K. D. (1970), Roman Farming, London. White, P. (1993), Promised Verse: Poets in the Society of Augustan Rome, Cambridge, Mass. Wilkinson, L. P. (edn. 2, 1951), Horace and his Lyric Poetry, Cambridge. Wille, G. (1967), Musica Romana, Amsterdam. Williams, G. (1968), Tradition and Originality in Roman Poetry, Oxford. Wills, J. (1996), Repetition in Latin Poetry, Oxford. Wimmel, W. (1960), Kallimachos in Rom (Hermes Einzelschriften 16), Wiesbaden. Wissowa, G. (edn. 2, 1912), Religion und Kultus der Ro¨mer, Munich. Wo¨lfflin, E. (1933), Ausgewa¨hlte Schriften, Leipzig. Woodcock, E. C. (1959), A New Latin Syntax, London. Woodman, T., and West, D. (edd.) (1984), Poetry and Politics in the Age of Augustus, Cambridge. —— and Feeney, D. (edd.) (2002), Traditions and Contexts in the Poetry of Horace, Cambridge. Zanker, P. (1988), The Power of Images in the Age of Augustus, Ann Arbor, translated from (1987), August und die Macht der Bilder, Munich.
(c) concordances Cooper, Lane (1916, repr. 1961), A Concordance of the Works of Horace, Washington. Iso Echegoyen, J.-J. (1990), Concordantia Horatiana, Hildesheim.
(d) abbreviations For periodicals see L’Anne´e philologique or OCD edn. 3. ALL ANRW CAH CGL CIL CLE CMA Coll. Alex. CRF DNP D–S
Archiv fu¨r lateinische Lexikographie und Grammatik (1884–1909). Aufstieg und Niedergang der ro¨mischen Welt, ed. H. Temporini and W. Haase (1972– ). Cambridge Ancient History (edn. 2, 1961– ). Corpus Glossariorum Latinorum, ed. G. Goetz (1888–1923). Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum (1863– ). Carmina Latina Epigraphica, ed. F. Bu¨cheler and E. Lommatzsch (1895–1926). The Oxford Guide to Classical Mythology in the Arts, 1300–1990s, ed. J. D. Reid, 2 vols. (1993). Collectanea Alexandrina, ed. J. U. Powell (1925). Comicorum Romanorum Fragmenta, ed. O. Ribbeck (1898). Der Neue Pauly (1996– ). C. Daremberg and E. Saglio, Dictionnaire des antiquite´s grecques et romaines (1877–1919).
xvi
Encicl. oraz. Encicl. virg. FGrH FLP FPL GL GLP GV HE H–Sz IG IGRR ILLRP ILS K–G K–S LGPN LIMC LSJ MRR Mus. Lap. N–H OCD OGIS OLD PCG PG PIR PL
B I B LI O G R A P H Y
Enciclopedia oraziana (1996–8). Enciclopedia virgiliana (1984–91). Fragmente der griechischen Historiker, ed. F. Jacoby (1923–58). The Fragmentary Latin Poets, ed. E. Courtney (1993). Fragmenta Poetarum Latinorum, ed. W. Morel (1927); edn. 2 ed. K. Bu¨chner (1982). Grammatici Latini, ed. H. Keil (1855–80). Greek Literary Papyri: Poetry, ed. D. L. Page (1942). Griechische Vers-Inschriften I: Grab-Epigramme, ed. W. Peek (1955). Hellenistic Epigrams, ed. A. S. F. Gow and D. L. Page, 2 vols. (1965). J. B. Hofmann and A. Szantyr, Lateinische Syntax und Stilistik (Handb. der Alt. 2. 2. 2), 1965. Inscriptiones Graecae (1873– ). Inscriptiones Graecae ad res Romanas pertinentes, ed. R. Cagnat etc. (1901–27). Inscriptiones Latinae Liberae Rei Publicae, ed. A. Degrassi, edn. 2 (1957–63). Inscriptiones Latinae Selectae, ed. H. Dessau (1892–1916). R. Ku¨hner and B. Gerth, Ausfu¨hrliche Grammatik der Griechischen Sprache: Satzlehre (1898–1904). R. Ku¨hner and C. Stegmann, Ausfu¨hrliche Grammatik der lateinischen Sprache: Satzlehre (1912–14). A Lexicon of Greek Personal Names, ed. P. M. Fraser, etc. (1987– ). Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae (1981–99). Liddell and Scott, Greek–English Lexicon, rev. H. Stuart Jones, edn. 9 (1925–40). Magistrates of the Roman Republic, ed. T. R. S. Broughton (1951– 86). Musa Lapidaria, ed. E. Courtney, American Classical Studies 36 (1995). R. G. M. Nisbet and M. Hubbard, Commentary on Horace, Odes 1 (1970), 11 (1978). The Oxford Classical Dictionary, edn. 3, ed. S. Hornblower and A. Spawforth (1996). Orientis Graeci Inscriptiones Selectae, ed. W. Dittenberger (1903–5). Oxford Latin Dictionary, ed. P. G. W. Glare (1968–82). Poetae Comici Graeci, ed. R. Kassel and C. Austin (1983– ). Patrologiae Cursus Completus, Series Graeca, ed. J.-P. Migne (1857–66). Prosopographia Imperii Romani, edn. 1, (1897–8), edn. 2, (1933– ). Patrologiae Cursus Completus, Series Latina, ed. J.-P. Migne (1844–64).
B I B LI O G R A P H Y
PLM PMG RAC RE ROL SIG Supp. Hell. TGF TLL TRF TrGF
xvii
Poetae Latini Minores, ed. A. Baehrens (1879–81), Leipzig, rev. F. Vollmer (1911–35). Poetae Melici Graeci, ed. D. Page (1962). Reallexikon fu¨r Antike und Christentum (1941– ). Real-Encyclopa¨die der classischen Altertumswissenschaft, ed. A. Pauly, G. Wissowa, W. Kroll (1893– ). Remains of Old Latin (Loeb edn.), ed. E. H. Warmington, 4 vols. (1934–53). Sylloge Inscriptionum Graecarum, ed. W. Dittenberger, edn. 3 (1915–24). Supplementum Hellenisticum, ed. H. Lloyd-Jones and P. Parsons (1983). Tragicorum Graecorum Fragmenta, edn. 2, ed. A. Nauck (1889), suppl. by B. Snell (1964). Thesaurus Linguae Latinae (1900– ). Tragicorum Romanorum Fragmenta, ed. O. Ribbeck (1897). Tragicorum Graecorum Fragmenta, ed. B. Snell, R. Kannicht, S. Radt (1971– ).
This page intentionally left blank
G EN ER A L I N T RO D U C T I O N 1. Horace’s early life Horace was born on 8 December 65 bc (3. 21. 1, epist. 1. 20. 27 f., Suet. vita 71R) at Venusia in Apulia (serm. 2. 1. 34 ff., carm. 3. 4. 9 ff.). His father had once been a slave, probably as a result of capture in the Social War (G. Williams ap. Harrison, 1995: 296 ff.); the stigma of servile origin, however unfair, remained and is made clear at serm. 1. 6. 5 ff. and 45 f. After his emancipation the father made good as an auctioneer and provider of credit (serm. 1. 6. 86, Fraenkel 4 f.), and could afford to educate his son not only at Rome (serm. 1. 6. 76 ff.) but also at Athens (epist. 2. 2. 43 ff.); Horace exaggerates the humbleness of his origins (3. 30. 12, epist. 1. 20. 20), but by the standards of his later friends his background was undoubtedly restricted. In 42 bc he served as a tribunus militum under Brutus at Philippi (serm. 1. 6. 48, carm. 2. 7. 9 ff., 3. 4. 26), evidence of energy and organizational ability; but though he lost his patrimony (epist. 2. 2. 50 f.), within a few years he had made peace with Octavian’s victorious faction, obtained a high-ranking post in the treasury (serm. 2. 6. 36, Suet. vita 8, Fraenkel 14 f.), and resumed his position as an eques Romanus (serm. 2. 7. 53, Lyne, 1995: 3 n.). About 37 bc he was befriended by Maecenas (serm. 2. 6. 40), under whose auspices he wrote two books of sermones or satires (issued about 35 and 30) and completed his collection of iambi or epodes (again about 30). In 36 he saw something of Octavian’s war against Sextus Pompeius (3. 4. 28 n.), and in 31 he seems to have accompanied Maecenas to Actium (epod. 1 and 9, cf. perhaps carm. 3. 1. 38–9 n.).1 In the meantime Maecenas had presented him with a property in the Sabine hills (serm. 2. 6. 1 ff., carm. 1. 17, 3. 1. 47–8 n.) that gave him an income from his tenants’ rents, and the leisure to write. For further biographical detail see Enciclopedia oraziana 1. 217 ff.
2. The date of Odes I–III The first three books were issued together (epist. 1. 13. 2 speaks of volumina), but the poems were not in chronological order. The date was probably 23 bc in the consulship of Sestius (whose position in 1. 4 is otherwise hard to explain), before the death of Marcellus later in the
1 See E. Wistrand, Horace’s Ninth Epode, 1958 (¼Opera Selecta, 1972: 293 ff.), R. G. M. Nisbet ap. Woodman and West (1984), 9 ff. (underlining the need to read huc at epod. 9. 17), I. M. Le M. Du Quesnay ap. Woodman and Feeney (2002), 17 ff.
xx
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
same year (N–H vol. 1, p. 145 on 1. 12. 45 f.), and before the disgrace of Murena (the recipient of 2. 10),2 which is put by Dio 54. 3 in 22 bc. Some of the non-political poems may have been written earlier than Actium (Encicl. oraz. 1. 220), before the Satires were completed, but political allusions are the most reliable criterion of date. It is sometimes said that Horace might have made revisions up to 23; but though an elegiac or hexameter poet might have done it, this would have been more difficult with the complex structures of the Odes. G. O. Hutchinson now argues that the three books were issued separately (CQ 52, 2002: 517 ff.); though he does not persuade us, he provides some valuable details.
3. The ‘Roman Odes’ The first six poems of Book III have been called the Roman Odes at least since Plu¨ss (1882). They share the Alcaic metre in contrast to Horace’s usual variatio, a substantial length, an absence of individual addressees, a subject-matter that concentrates on the political and moral issues which were thought important by the new regime, and an impressive seriousness of style. 3. 4 seems to belong to 29, when Octavian returned in triumph from the East and demobilized his army (38 n.), 3. 6 looks forward to his repair of the temples in 28 (res gest. 20. 4), a date that also suits the apparent abandonment of his first attempt at moral legislation (see the introduction to that poem). In January 27 he assumed the name ‘Augustus’, by which he is described at 3. 3. 11 and 3. 5. 3; later that year he departed for Gaul, from where he was expected to invade Britain (cf. 3. 5. 3–4 n. and possibly 3. 3. 56). 3. 2 cannot be dated; 3. 1 serves as an introduction to the series and perhaps to the book as a whole. Many have seen in the Roman Odes not just a common form and purpose but a carefully planned unity of design. Mommsen thought the series celebrated the new constitution of 27 bc (cf. Reden und Aufsa¨tze, 1905: 168 ff.), but this seems too late for nos. 4 and 6. Domaszewski found in poems 2–5 the qualities represented on the shield presented to Augustus in 27, virtus, iustitia, clementia, pietas (RhM 59, 1904: 302 ff.); but that, apart from being incomplete, is far too schematic a treatment. Many have claimed to detect various patterns of arrangement and cross-reference,3 but these are often arbitrary and unconvincing: for 2 The Murena of 2. 10 (a poem that commends the Golden Mean) must be the alleged conspirator, one of whose associates was the Peripatetic philosopher Athenaeus (Strabo 14. 5. 4, N-H vol. 2, p. 152). 3 See for instance H. Wagenvoort, De Horatii quae dicuntur Odis Romanis, Diss. Groningen 1911: 18 ff. G. E. Duckworth, TAPA 87, 1956: 299 ff., M. Santirocco (1986),
G EN ER A L I N T RO D U C T I O N
xxi
example, the simplicity of life commended in 3. 1 is not the same as the pauperies that the young soldier must learn to endure (3. 2. 1); 3. 1. 7 ‘clari Giganteo triumpho’ (of Jupiter himself ) has a different function from 3. 4. 49 ff. (the defeat of the Titans), which is a clear political analogy to the overthrow of the Antonians. Some have even thought of treating the series as one long poem,4 but the dates of the odes are different, their subjects quite distinct, and all have convincing openings and closures.
4. Horace and Augustus In considering this question we reject two contradictory approaches. A former generation of scholars, well represented by Fraenkel (1957), was content to accept Augustan ideology on its own terms, without regard to the violence and deception that characterized Octavian’s seizure and retention of power, and to assume that Horace felt the same in every respect. A contrary and more recent approach has been to exaggerate the similarities between Augustus and the chief dictators of the twentieth century, and then sometimes to seek hints of subversion in Horace; this is to ignore the poet’s closeness to the regime, as shown later by Augustus’ wish to make him his secretary (Suet. vita 18), and also to disregard the feelings of loyalty that counted for more in Rome than the political independence valued in modern democracies. It can be debated how far Horace was sincere in his support of Augustus’ policies, indeed whether the concept of sincerity is relevant to the public utterances of a court-poet (see the introduction to 3. 6); but whatever view one takes of his private commitment, it must be agreed that Horace showed great skill in selecting illustrations which he knew would have a wide appeal. Thus Antony is damned indirectly by eloquent Pindaric allegories (3. 4); Augustus’ moral policy is made more acceptable by vignettes of metropolitan decadence and rustic simplicity (3. 6); the abandonment of the prisoners in Parthia is justified by invoking the legendary self-sacrifice of Regulus (3. 5); references to the ruler-cult in Rome are confined to the future (3. 3. 11, 3. 5. 2), where they would cause less offence to traditional attitudes. Apart from the Roman Odes a few poems in the book are concerned with Augustus. 3. 24 (like 3. 1) denounces materialism and (like 3. 6) calls for moral revival; the implication that earlier attempts have failed (vv. 25 ff.) suggests that it too should be assigned to about 28 bc. In 111 ff. For the independent composition of the six odes see R. Heinze, Vom Geist des Ro¨mertums, edn. 3, 1960: 190 ff., L. Amundsen, SO suppl. 11, 1942: 1 ff. (¼ Oppermann, 1972: 111 ff.). 4 Diomedes (GL 1. 251) regards 3. 7 as the second ode in the book (cf. Porph. on 3. 1. 1); add S. J. Heyworth in Formative Stages of Classical Traditions (ed. O. Pecere and M. D. Reeve), 1995: 117 ff., A. Griffiths ap. Woodman and Feeney, 2002: 73 ff.
xxii
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
3. 25, under the inspiration of Bacchus, the poet talks of celebrating the Princeps; this is often thought to refer to the Roman Odes, but the celebration may not look beyond the poem itself. In 26 bc Augustus was absent in Spain fighting the Cantabrians in the north, and in 25 he was seriously ill at Tarraco on the east coast; see the introduction to 3. 8, which we assign to the latter year. In 24 bc Horace celebrates the great man’s return to Rome in an ode that combines his roles as a public and a private poet (3. 14); here he emphasizes what all reasonable people must have felt by that date, that the survival of Augustus is at once the strongest guarantee against the renewal of civil war and the best hope for the country’s regeneration.
5. Maecenas and other addressees Three odes in the book are addressed to Maecenas: 3. 8, 3. 16 (beginning the second half ), and 3. 29 (the last poem before the epilogue); in addition 3. 1 has some pointers in the same direction (see the introduction to that poem). Maecenas was not Horace’s patronus (a word not used in the Augustan period of literary patrons), but rather his amicus— even if an unusually grand one (Saller, 1982: 8 ff., P. White: 1993, 29 ff., 280 f.). The poems mentioned above allude to various aspects of his life and personality—his pride in his Etruscan ancestors, the grandeur of his life-style, his wide learning, his munificence, and the worries caused by his political responsibilities (especially in the absence of Augustus). At the same time Horace is ready to tease him about his eminence (Lyne, 1995: 102 ff.), and even to hint, perhaps, that his wealth has not brought him so much happiness as the Sabine estate has brought to the poet (see 3. 1 and 3. 16). In Book 4, when Maecenas’ political power seems to have waned (Lyne, 1995: 136 ff., 189 ff.) Horace still speaks of him warmly (11. 17 ff.), and we are told that Maecenas’ final commendation to Augustus was ‘Horatii Flacci ut mei memor esto’. In the period of Odes 1–3 Maecenas was still close to Augustus, and in spite of his equestrian status he had a deserved reputation for diplomatic skill (serm. 1. 5. 27 ff., carm. 3. 16. 15 n.). One no longer thinks of him as a propaganda-minister issuing fiats to poets, but the emphasis is now sometimes too much the other way. It is not enough to point out that people absorb their opinions from the prevailing atmosphere, for in the twenties Augustus was still consolidating his position, and positive guidance was needed. In the Roman Odes Horace seems to have followed the official line in every particular (see also 3. 24. 54 ff. for the criticism of young men’s sports), and Maecenas was the obvious intermediary between the Princeps and the poet; no one, least of all Horace himself, would have regarded the gift of the Sabine estate as an act of wholly disinterested benevolence.
G EN ER A L I N T RO D U C T I O N
xxiii
Only three other poems are addressed to identifiable people, namely Aelius Lamia (17), Murena the augur (19), and the great orator and statesman Messalla Corvinus (21). As usual Horace includes tactful or humorous allusions to the personalities and families of the recipients. Yet, unlike the second book of odes and the first book of epistles, Odes 3 puts rather little emphasis on friendship.
6. Horace’s ‘love-poems’ Horace’s KæøØŒ show little of the emotional involvement found in Catullus or Propertius. One of his roles is that of the urbane and experienced consultant. Thus he urges Asterie to ignore her serenading lover (7), consoles the love-lorn Neobule (12), and warns Pyrrhus not to compete with a predatory woman for the favours of a good-looking boy (20). When he professes to speak of his own case, he wittily adapts the traditional situations of love-poetry, the paraclausithyron in 10, the renuntiatio amoris in 26, the propempticon in 27; when he reminds Lyde of the heroically loyal Hypermestra (11) and Galatea of the spectacularly indiscreet Europa (27), his exempla are entertaining rather than moving. His amusement is often directed wryly at himself: Lydia is given the last word in her tart exchanges with the poet (26), if Lyce and Neaera are unresponsive (10 and 14), he will not persist, and though he pretends (unconvincingly) to have given up his interest in girls, he says he would like to get his own back on Chloe (26). He admits to many relationships with both puellae and pueri (epod. 11. 4, serm. 2. 3. 325, carm. 4. 1. 29 ff.), and his references to hetaerae no doubt reflect personal experience (Griffin, 1985: 20 f.), but that is not to say that the names and situations are to be taken as historically authentic. He does not lay claim to lasting affections (4. 1. 30 ff., cf. 1. 13. 17 ff.), whether because of the ambiguity of his social position or simply his inborn nature. Sometimes he is more brutally sexist than any other Augustan poet (see epod. 8 and 12, serm. 1. 2. 116 ff., carm. 1. 25, 2. 5, 3. 15, 4. 13, epist. 1. 18. 71 ff.); yet towards the end he seems to have regretted the loneliness which his bachelor life-style has brought (4. 1. 30 f.). For further discussion see N–H vol. 1, pp. xvi f., Lyne (1980), 201 ff., B. Arkins ap. Rudd (1993), 106 ff., Encicl. oraz. 1. 527 ff.
7. Religion in Horace Other people’s religions are often hard to understand. That of ancient Rome may seem unattractive because of its blood-sacrifices (3. 13. 3 ff.), its bargaining spirit (3. 18. 5 ff.), its legalistic insistence on verbal accuracy (3. 21. 5 n.), the absurdity of its superstitions (3. 27. 11 n. on augury), its complacency about Rome’s role in the divine purpose (3. 6. 1 ff.). Yet Horace, like Virgil, conveys some of the deeper feelings that antiquarian
xxiv
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
pedantry and anthropological speculation cannot illuminate: the recurring festivals reflect the age-old rhythms of the agricultural year (3. 13, 3. 18), there is awe at the mystery of woods, caves, and springs (cf. 3. 25. 2 n. and the introduction to 3. 13), the solemn rites convey a sense of peace and order (3. 1. 2 n., 3. 14. 5 ff., 3. 30. 8 f.), as in the tableaux of the Ara Pacis. Moreover, Roman religion was unusually tolerant and inclusive, as is shown by the incorporation of Greek cults even in the earliest times (3. 3. 9 n., 3. 14. 1); it found a place for slaves and freedmen (see 3. 23 on the Penates), women had goddesses to suit their special needs (3. 22. 2 ff.), and as it was not constricted by any formal creed it could accommodate even a sceptic like Horace. See further Wissowa (1912) and Latte (1960) for antiquarian detail; for more modern approaches add Beard–North–Price (1998), D. Feeney, Literature and Religion at Rome (1998), especially the summary at 2 ff.
8. The meaning of the author To establish Horace’s meaning on the most literal level may seem difficult when one is dealing with a dead language; yet in this respect Horace is easier than Shakespeare and far easier than many a modern. According to one theory which has been familiar for over half a century, the writer’s intention is always unknowable. This dogma exaggerates the difficulties in the concept,5 and underestimates the amount of common ground shared by poetry and everyday communication: if even a tenth of our ordinary discourse were as problematic as poetic discourse is supposed to be, social life would soon become chaotic. So in dealing with basic questions of language we have followed a long and well-tried tradition, inviting others to refute our views (or to supplement them) by evidence and argument. On broader issues, which Horace may not have consciously considered, modern theory has more to offer. When he dreams of swimming down the Tiber in pursuit of Ligurinus (4. 1. 40), a Freudian psychologist might provide analogous case-histories, a social anthropologist could show how the gift of an estate created binding obligations, types of ancient slavery have been illuminated by Marxists, we ourselves have no doubt been influenced by feminists in our criticism of Horace’s treatment of women. On more literary matters the critic can study ‘interaction in imagery’ (3. 11. 41–2 n.), or the point of view in a narrative (see the story within a story at 3. 7. 9 ff.), or the poem that refers to itself (3. 25. 7 n.), or the part of nightfall in closures (3. 28. 16 n.); such things were not discussed in ancient rhetorical theory, which naturally concentrated on prose, yet they are clearly relevant to the 5 See N. Rudd, Phoenix 18, 1964: 221 ff., M. Heath, Interpreting Classical Texts, 2002: 59 ff.
G EN ER A L I N T RO D U C T I O N
xxv
understanding of ancient poems. Where we take issue with postmoderns is over their dogmatic fervour6 and their esoteric use of language, which implies that their subject is not for the profani. If such critics would apply their insights more often to the exegesis of particular poems, it might be easier to have a constructive debate.
9. Ambiguity This word may describe various phenomena. In the most obvious kind of case a double meaning is exploited for an amusing effect, as in the combination of wine-jar and divinity (3. 21). Often the associations of a word allow a verbal play not transferable to English (3. 4. 44 ‘fulmine sustulerit caduco’, 3. 27. 22 ‘orientis Austri’). In aiming at precision the commentator may make unnecessary distinctions: thus it can be debated whether at 3. 4. 75 Orcum is the underworld or the god or both at once. Some would argue that we have given too much weight to precise syntactical labels that would have meant nothing to users of the language; see for instance the note on donec firmaret (3. 5. 45–6). More importantly, Horace can say things where the superficial meaning is not the real point: thus at 3. 2. 26 f. ‘betraying the mysteries’ seems to refer primarily to state secrets; at 3. 14. 27 f., when the poet mentions his hotheadedness consule Planco, he is referring not so much to his pursuit of women as to his youthful bravado in joining Brutus’ army. Such ambiguities present no problem, but it is another matter when critics tell us that all language is ambiguous and may contain the seeds of its own contradiction; communication between sensible people usually works better than that. Of course there may be special problems in interpreting poets, who sometimes extend normal usage; but though Virgil’s expressions not uncommonly have a penumbra that is hard to analyse, Horace is usually more straightforward. Some recent critics have been too ready to imagine implausible layers of meaning (we quote a few examples, which could easily be multiplied, at the end of the introduction to 3. 13). Of course we ourselves may sometimes have made the wrong choice, as at 3. 15. 4 where we prefer one interpretation of propior to several others; if we are wrong we can be refuted by lexicographical analysis, but it is no solution to say that incompatible interpretations are equally valid. When the issue is related to the poem’s central meaning, such uncertainty is more troublesome (as at 3. 26. 11 f., 3. 27. 69 ff.), but a poet who in principle (ars 448 f.) and practice is generally clear cannot intend to confuse us; if we have misread the clues, we are ready to believe that it is our fault rather than his. 6 We take comfort from the reservations of M. Silk (ap. Harrison, 2001: 26 ff.), himself a modern theorist from whom we are prepared to learn.
xxvi
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
10. Person and persona Fraenkel thought that Horace never lied (1957: 200 and 260), but many now go to the opposite extreme and assume that, while the poet plays various roles, the man remains invisible. In fact discrimination is necessary. It is usually possible to distinguish statements where invention would have been pointless and in principle detectable from poetical fantasies (2. 19. 1 ff., 3. 4. 9 ff., 3. 25. 1 ff.); we must not be tempted into the absurd scepticism of those who regard Ovid’s exile as a poetic fiction. Moreover, while Horace undoubtedly adopts various personae, for example that of a simple fellow eager for advice about the law (serm. 2. 1. 1–23) or wine (serm. 2. 4. 1–10), or of one who has much in common with the country mouse (serm. 2. 6), this device does not prevent us from drawing valid conclusions about his views and character.7 When he presents himself in several genres as sceptical and pleasure-loving, and at the same time hot-tempered (3. 9. 22–3 n.), it is hard to believe that he is making it all up. We do, however, have to make a sensible allowance for tactical self-depreciation (‘irony’ in Aristotle’s sense). Was the young man quite so overwhelmed at his interview with Maecenas (serm. 1. 6. 56 f.)? And later so utterly ignorant about matters discussed at the dinner-tables of the great (serm. 2. 6. 51 ff.)? Such passages may lead us to underrate his position on the fringe of the Augustan court.
11. Genre We include only points relevant to this commentary. Genres (e.g. lyric) and their subdivisions (e.g. paean) derive originally from their social function, and each had its appropriate style and topics; yet even in early Greece the drinking-songs of Alcaeus and the love-poems of Sappho need not be exactly what they profess. Hellenistic and Roman poetry was written primarily for a reading public and was not limited by the requirements of any particular performance; Horace can allude to the formulae of hymns (11, 13, 18, 21) or dedications (22, 26) without following them precisely. Genres in the strict sense should be distinguished from the situation-poems analysed by Cairns (1972), which can cut across generic categories; thus a propempticon or ‘sending-off ’ poem can be found in lyric, bucolic, and elegy, to say nothing of elements already present in Homer (see the introduction to 27). Cairns makes use of the rhetorical treatises of Menander Rhetor of about ad 300 (edited by D. A. Russell and N. G. Wilson, 1981); although these gave prescriptions for ceremonial prose orations (real or artificial) and employed technical terms that need not all have been familiar to the Augustans, they can be relevant to our purpose as they draw on topics of 7
See N. Rudd, Lines of Enquiry, 1976, 167 ff.
G EN ER A L I N T RO D U C T I O N
xxvii
early Greek poetry. Wilhelm Kroll identified the ‘crossing of the genres’ as a feature of Hellenistic and Roman poetry (1924: 202 ff., cf. A. Barchiesi ap. Harrison, 2001: 142 ff.); thus 3. 11 includes a hymn, a poem of courtship, and a mythological narrative, and in 3. 14 the celebration of Augustus’ adventus is followed by another type of situation-poem, the preparation for a symposium. Though the Augustans were obviously influenced by these various conventions, great flexibility was possible; the poet was always in charge, and we should not judge the quality of a poem by its correspondence to some preconceived form (cf. Griffin, 1985: 48 ff.). For further discussion see L. E. Rossi, BICS 18, 1971: 69 ff., G. B. Conte, Genres and Readers, 1994 and OCD 630 f., Lyne (1995), 59 ff., A. Barchiesi, Encicl. oraz. 2. 35 ff.
12. Style The style of the Odes (more than that of any other Latin poetry) makes them the despair of a translator; it is also the hardest feature to characterize. A few generalizations are offered in N–H vol. 1, p. xxii, emphasizing his incisiveness, artificial constructions (including Graecisms), and his ‘unpoetical’ vocabulary (for a clarification of Axelson’s term see 3. 5. 53– 4 n.). In N–H vol. 2 more attention was paid to word-play, partly under the influence of D. West ap. Costa (1973), 40 ff. In this volume we say rather more about word-order and the emphasis given by hyperbaton and position (see further Nisbet ap. Adams–Mayer, 1999: 135 ff.); in these matters we have derived some benefit from the neglected commentary of H. Darnley Naylor (1922). We call particular attention to the remarks on stylistic register made in Adams–Mayer both by the editors (3 ff.) and by R. G. G. Coleman (21 ff.); they underline the ambiguity of ‘prosaic’ where a term like ‘neutral’ would often be more appropriate. On syntax we refer not only to the standard works of Ku¨hner and Hofmann but to the article by Frances Muecke in Encicl. oraz. 2. 755 ff.
13. Structure Every ode is carefully organized, so that as a rule nothing could be taken away without impairing the whole. The opening tends to be arresting (not least in the first poem), and may pose a puzzle that needs to be resolved (8, 16, 19, 21); apart from the Roman Odes and some other exceptions most poems are addressed to a real or imaginary person, a god (4, 18, 22), or a sacred object (the lyre in 11, the spring in 13, the wine jar in 21), so that they often begin with a question (7, 8, 20, 25) or an imperative (4, 11, 15, 21). Closures are no less important,8 and may 8 For closure see Barbara H. Smith, Poetic Closure (1968) on English literature, D. Esser (1976), Deborah H. Roberts, F. M. Dunn, D. Fowler (edd.), Classical Closure (1997).
xxviii
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
contain a trenchant aphorism (2, 6, 16, 24), a ‘breaking-off formula’ (3) or a diminuendo (5, 28), or a reference to the poet himself (1, 13, 25, 29, 30) which is sometimes self-depreciating (10, 14, 19). The centre of the poem can act as a pivot; see the introductions to 8 and 14. Sometimes there is an element of ‘ring-composition’ (13, 25), sometimes the ode ends far from where it began, describing, in A. Y. Campbell’s phrase, a parabola rather than a circle (14, 19). Sometimes the second part contains a narrative that may include a speech (3, 11, 27). Again, an ode may break neatly into pairs of stanzas (1, 9), or it may, for a deliberate effect, sweep along with few pauses at the end of the line (25). For details we refer to the introductions to the separate odes; see further N. E. Collinge (1961), Syndikus ap. Harrison (1995), 17 ff., Y. Nadeau, Coll. Latomus 266, 2002: 362 f. (with references to earlier articles).
14. The arrangement of the book Much attention has been paid to this subject, notably by Santirocco (1986) and Porter (1987). The Roman Odes (1–6) obviously form a group, though it is less integrated than is sometimes supposed. 3. 1 with its Epicureanism and its possible hints at Maecenas is balanced to some extent by 3. 29, the great ode to Maecenas that precedes the personal epilogue. Maecenas is also addressed at the beginning of the second half of the book (16); for the significance of this position cf. 1. 20 and 4. 8 (which though it has no reference to Maecenas is written in the same metre as 1. 1 and 3. 30), epod. 9, serm. 1. 6, and G. B. Conte, YCS 29, 1992: 147 ff. When he came to arrange the book Horace no doubt put some poems together because they invited comparison or contrast: the light-hearted warning to Asterie (7) comes after the stern denunciation in 6; 22 and 23 both deal with rustic offerings; it may be significant that 26 (fifth last in the collection) balances 1. 5, just as 30 balances 1. 1. But those who look for significance in every juxtaposition, and discern complicated sequences and cycles, forget that such a work would have been impossible to organize (Nisbet, 1995: 423 f.). We do not believe that the comparison of the poet to the Adriatic (9. 22 ff.) is linked to the bad weather of 10. 3 ff., or that the stern father of 11. 45 balances the stern uncle of 12. 3, or that the boar-hunt of 12. 12 leads to the sacrifice of the kid in 13. 3. It has been suggested that when he came to prepare the book for publication Horace made various changes here and there to produce the kind of relationships envisaged; but, except perhaps for the opening of 3. 1, there is no evidence to support such a theory, and it is incredible that he would have tampered with carefully organized poems to achieve such trivial results.
G EN ER A L I N T RO D U C T I O N
xxix
15. The text Horace’s manuscripts are all medieval, with none earlier than the ninth century; for some details see Brink, The Ars Poetica, 1971: 1 ff., R. J. Tarrant in Texts and Transmission (ed. L. D. Reynolds), 1983: 182 ff., C. Questa in Encicl. oraz. 1. 319 ff. They divide roughly into two families, called Æ and in the Oxford text of Wickham and Garrod (1912), ˛ and in the Teubner texts of Klingner (1959) and Borzsa´k (1984); Shackleton Bailey (Teubner, 1985 etc.) presents the evidence most clearly by keeping the symbol and breaking the ˛ group into its components. Well-attested readings presumably go back to the ancient world and so are seldom complete nonsense (contrast the text of Catullus); this may be a snare for those whose only method is to follow the manuscripts through thick and thin. When the transmitted reading causes any doubt, conjectures may be considered; it is irrational to suppose that a conjecture should not be mentioned unless it is certain. Of recent editors Borzsa´k cites insignificant variants but is reluctant to take conjectures seriously; Shackleton Bailey offers interesting new proposals but is too ready to print them in his text. In the present volume the lemmata provide a continuous text, though without an apparatus or testimonia (for the latter see Klingner or Borzsa´k). We have put only two of RN’s conjectures in the lemmata (3. 1. 42 Sidone, 3. 26. 6 lurida), but in the notes have suggested some thirty others with varying degrees of confidence or diffidence.
16. The ancient commentators The most important is Pomponius Porphyrio (ed. A. Holder, 1894, repr. 1967), who probably lived in the third century; the commentary of the so-called ‘pseudo-Acro’ (ed. O. Keller, 1902–4) is a compilation by various hands that goes back to the fifth century; the ‘commentator Cruquianus’ is an amalgam printed by Cruquius in his edition of 1611 and contains little of significance that is not found elsewhere. Porphyrio is much more reliable than ps.-Acro, but even he combines basic information (notably on prosopography) with curious misapprehensions. In textual criticism the scholiasts’ comments deserve more attention than their lemmata, which usually repeat what is provided elsewhere. For further detail see N–H vol. 1, pp. xlvii ff., Brink, op. cit. 33f., 38 ff., Encicl. oraz. 3. 17 ff. and 3. 695 ff. (a complete text of Porph. and ps.-Acro), S. Diederich, Der Horazcommentar des Porphyrio im Rahmen der kaiserzeitlichen Schul- und Bildungstradition, 1999 (reviewed by L. HolfordStrevens, Gnomon 74, 2002: 501 ff.).
Commentary on Horace Odes, Book III
This page intentionally left blank
1 . O D I P RO FA N V M V V LG V S [K. Barwick, RhM 93, 1950: 259 ff.; F. Cairns, PLLS 8, 1995: 91 ff.; Fraenkel 261 ff.; W. D. Lebek, ANRW II. 31. 3 (1981), 2065 ff.; Lyne (1995), 158 ff.; G. J. Mader, Acta Classica (South Africa) 30, 1987: 11 ff.; Pasquali 649 ff., 833 ff.; V. Po¨schl, HSCP 63, 1958: 333 ff. ¼ Horazische Lyrik edn. 2, 1991: 144 ff.; E. T. Silk, YClS 13, 1952: 145 ff. and 23, 1973: 131 ff.; F. Solmsen, AJP 68, 1947: 337 ff. ¼ Oppermann 139 ff.; T. Woodman ap. Woodman and West (1984), 83 ff.]
1–8. Let the uninitiated depart; I am teaching new chants to a fresh generation. Know that even dread kings must fear the rule of Jove. 9–16. Men compete in landed wealth and political advantages, but high and low alike are subject to Fate. 17–24. The overweening cannot enjoy their luxury or be lulled to sleep even by music, but sleep does not disdain lowly dwellings and a shady valley. 25–32. The man of limited desires is undisturbed by the bad weather that harasses the acquisitive merchant and the dissatisfied landowner. 33–40. The arrogant encroach on the sea with unnatural constructions, but anxieties pursue them even there and cannot be escaped on sea or land. 41–8. So, since mental pains are not assuaged by exotic luxuries, why should I rear a grandiose edifice or exchange my Sabine valley for the troubles of wealth? The ode opens with an arresting scene: the poet, as priest of the Muses, bids outsiders depart (1 n.), asks for silence (2 n.), and sings his new song to the boys and girls who may be thought receptive (4 n.). His proclamation is earnest and uncompromising: dreaded kings, for all their earthly power, are subject to divine law (5–8). This thought is given a particular application in the next two stanzas (9–16), though with less solemnity: in spite of men’s various ambitions (here described with some satire), everybody dies in the end. The reader is expected to keep this idea in mind for the remainder of the poem. There, in a series of vignettes, the evils of riches are contrasted with the blessings of simplicity; but except in the first and most extreme example (that of the tyrant), there is no talk of actual impiety. The emphasis is on private happiness and how it is threatened by the anxieties of wealth. When we consider the appropriateness of the ode as an introduction to a political series, we are confronted with an awkward fact: its provenance is predominantly Epicurean (Pasquali, Po¨schl, locc. citt., Lyne, 1995: 162 f.), notwithstanding the different tone and content of the first two stanzas (Lebek, op. cit. overstresses the non-Epicurean elements). In particular the poem is strongly influenced by the proem of Lucretius 2 (a passage already imitated by Horace in 2. 16). In Horace as in his
4
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
exemplar the shortness of life makes nonsense of our strenuous rivalries, we are often anxious about matters of minor importance, selfindulgence and ostentation do nothing to assuage our fears, happiness is to be found in the simple life and the acceptance of what is there. Many of the details, too, have counterparts in Lucretius, though the arrangement of the original has been changed (again as in 2. 16): e.g. competition for status (10 ff., cf. Lucr. 2. 11 ff.), elaborate banquets (17 ff., cf. 2. 23 ff.), the sound of music (20, cf. 2. 28), the repose of the poor (21 ff., cf. 2. 36 ff.), the shady bank (23 f., cf. 2. 29 ff.), mankind’s limited needs (25, cf. 2. 20 f.), anxiety that cannot be shaken off (40, cf. 2. 48), useless purple (42, cf. 2. 35, 52), the concluding quodsi (41, cf. 2. 47). The central doctrine obviously comes from Epicurus himself: P ºØ c B łı B ÆæÆ c Pb c I Ø ºª Iªfi A Ææa h ºF æ ø › ªØ hŁ Ææa E ººE Øc ŒÆd æºłØ h ¼ºº Ø H Ææa a IØæı ÆNÆ (sent. Vat. 81, cf. 2. 16. 9 with N–H). In 3. 29, the corresponding poem before the epilogue of the whole collection, the Epicurean element is equally clear: there as here the luxury and anxieties of the city are contrasted with simple meals in the country ‘sine aulaeis et ostro’ (15). These Epicurean elements can to some extent be reconciled with traditional Roman attitudes. Criticisms of avaritia and luxuria had been popular since Cato with moralizing orators, and had recently found forceful expression in the monographs of Sallust. Augustan ideology pointed in the same direction: aristocratic ostentation made for disharmony, and the rivalries of selfish and ambitious men were no longer encouraged; contentment and acceptance made for peace and stability. A simple life-style was commended by the Princeps himself: one thinks of his Palatine house as described by Suetonius (Aug. 72, doubtless exaggerating its austerity); and the passages on his clothes, furniture, and diet are no less relevant (ibid. 73–4). Yet the fact remains that in our poem Horace rejects luxury because it does not lead to happiness, not because it is socially and politically unacceptable (Lyne, 1995: 162 f.); contrast 2. 15, which concentrates on ancestral norms rather than Epicurean precepts. While it would be absurd to suppose that he is undermining the very system that he professes to support (even Lyne’s phrase ‘benignly subversive’ goes too far), it is true that by adopting a predominantly private stance, Horace has written a poem which is less overtly patriotic than the other Roman Odes. There is some reason in the conjecture that the portentous opening has been grafted onto a more personal piece to serve as an introduction to the series. We have spoken so far of Lucretius, but Horace was also influenced by the end of the recently issued second Georgic, which in the same philosophical tradition had drawn a contrast between the happiness of farmers and the pomp of the rich (2. 461 ff.):
1 . O D I P RO FA N V M V V L G V S
5
si non ingentem foribus domus alta superbis mane salutantum totis vomit aedibus undam, nec varios inhiant pulchra testudine postis inlusasque auro vestis Ephyreiaque aera, alba neque Assyrio fucatur lana veneno, nec casia liquidi corrumpitur usus olivi . . .
Here as in the ode we have a domus alta (46 n.) with ornamental doors (45 n.) and a crowd of clients (13 n.), a mention of exotic dyes (42 n.), and an instance of the periphrastic usus. Virgil then goes on to speak of tempe (469, cf. 24 n.), ‘mollesque sub arbore somni’ (470, cf. 21 n.), the countryman’s lack of envy (498 f.), and the misguided ambitions of political life (508 ff., cf. 10 f.); for further details see B. Fenik, Hermes 90, 1962: 72 ff. Perhaps Horace took a hint from his friend about how to conform with the current ideology without compromising his individualistic standpoint. But it is noticeable that whereas Virgil, like Lucretius, tells us little about his own way of life, the ode ends with the familiar picture of Horace on his Sabine estate. The mention of Horace’s Sabine valley in the last stanza encourages us to see an expression of gratitude to Maecenas (see Cairns, 1972: 74 f. on the eucharisticon); for similar acknowledgements in opening poems, cf. 1. 1. 35 f., epod. 1. 31 f. By the same token, sublime atrium (46) may include Maecenas’ Esquiline palace; cf. 3. 29. 10, epod. 9. 3, serm. 2. 6. 102 (the residence of the town mouse). RN detects further hints of Maecenas’ life-style (for which see Mayor on Juv. 1. 66), comparing 2. 18, where again the great man is not actually identified as the householder (see N–H ad loc., Lyne, 1995: 126 ff.); he would cite the references at v. 9 to extensive estates (cf. 3. 16. 41 n.), at v. 13 to crowds of clients (cf. 2. 18. 8 with N–H), at vv. 20 f. to music as a treatment for insomnia (see note ad loc.), at vv. 33 ff. to a villa maritima (also perhaps at 2. 18. 20 ff.), at v. 41 to exotic marble (cf. 2. 18. 3), at v. 42 to purple fabrics (cf. N–H on 2. 18. 8), at v. 44 to royal perfumes (cf. perhaps 3. 29. 4). When Care rides behind the eques (40), RN thinks of the equestrian Maecenas and his neurotic obsessions; Maecenas may also have owned a ‘private trireme’ like that mentioned in v. 39 (see note). While it would be absurd to suppose that Horace is sneering, he can suggest that his benefactor has given him a happier life than his vast wealth has secured for himself. At 2. 18. 17 NR sees the objectionable tu as quite different from Maecenas (the potens amicus of v. 12); tall houses and broad acres, like clients, music and purple, were among the appurtenances of any rich man and belonged to the tradition of the diatribe (see Lucretius and Virgil above). There is no proof that Maecenas built over the sea or owned a private trireme; most important, Horace would never have suggested that he was greedy or ambitious. So if he is present, he is very much in the background. What we can say is that, whatever Horace’s
6
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
intentions were, and whatever innuendoes were perceived by his enemies, such correspondences did not cause serious offence (see epist. 1. 1. 1 ff.), and that they should not be given undue prominence in a poem which derives its weight from the generality of its truths. The stanzas of 3. 1 break into groups of two, as in the similar 2. 16 (Barwick, op. cit.); the articulation is underlined by the enjambment at the end of the odd-numbered stanzas (except the first). Each group (after the first) implies a different sphere of rivalry and discontent: the ownership of estates and and the pursuit of political power (3 and 4), the possession of luxuries (5 and 6), dissatisfaction with available sufficiency (7 and 8), pretentious and unnatural building (9 and 10), followed by the personal conclusion ‘if all this restless striving is not satisfied by material luxuries, why should I leave my Sabine valley?’ (11 and 12). The two halves of the poem end with pictures of rural serenity: the first (stanza 6) expressed in general terms, the second (stanza 12) centred on the poet himself (tempe in v. 24 is picked up by valle in 47). There are no connections between the pairs, except for the final quodsi at v. 47. The symmetry of the structure is not easily paralleled in Greek, and Syndikus (2. 12) is right to distinguish the abrupt transitions of Pindar. One might compare the sententiae of declamation which often repeat the same point but by ingenious restatement give the appearance of progression. But here the argument is conducted less by aphorisms than by a series of representative vignettes, which are mainly drawn from the contemporary Roman scene—a technique that is very typical of the Satires. Though the style is dry and rather formal, it is less solemn than is sometimes implied (cf. 9 n., 33, 35 ff.). And though Horace begins with a hieratic pronouncement, when he comes back to himself at the end his tone is human and personal. Metre: Alcaic. 1. Odi profanum vulgus et arceo: odi (‘I shun’) balances arceo (‘I keep it at a distance’); here the former verb emphasizes overt rejection, though emotional dislike is not excluded (cf. 1. 38. 1 ‘Persicos odi, puer, apparatus’, epist. 1. 7. 20 ‘spernit et odit’, ars 188, Fraenkel 263). profanum may mean not ‘in front of the temple’ (Varro, lL 6. 54) but ‘away from the temple’ (Charis. gramm. p. 305. 20 Barwick ‘porro a fano positus’, Cairns, op. cit. 94); it is used in religious contexts of the uninitiated (Catull. 64. 260, Theoc. 26. 13 f. ZæªØÆ BŒ ø = . . . P ›æØ ÆºØ) or those not participating in a rite. For the sacral arceo cf. Pacuv. TRF 304 f. ‘quamquam aetas senet, satis habeam virium ut te ara arceam’, Ogilvie on Liv. 1. 12. 4. Ancient religion had a strong feeling for the sacred space; cf. Ar. Ach. 239 ff., ran. 369 f., Eur. Bacch. 68 ff. ›fiH ›fiH; ; = ºŁæØ Œ ø, Æ h- = –Æ
1 . O D I P RO FA N V M V V L G V S
7
K ØŁø (with Dodds), Call. h.2.2 Œa Œa , ‹Ø IºØæ , Virg. Aen. 6. 258 ‘procul o procul este, profani’, Paul. Fest. 72L ¼ 82M ‘exesto, extra esto. sic enim lictor in quibusdam sacris clamitabat: hostis, vinctus, mulier, virgo exesto; scilicet interesse prohibebatur’, O Weinreich, Ausgewa¨hlte Schriften 2 (1973), 386 f. For the application of the theme to literature cf. Ar. ran. 354 ff. PE æc ŒI ÆŁÆØ E æØØ
æEØ = ‹Ø ¼Øæ ØH º ªø j ªfi c ŒÆŁÆæØ = j ªÆø ZæªØÆ MıH r K
æı, Gell. praef. 20 f. A real Roman priest did not speak for himself (Fraenkel 264) or make portentous announcements (5 ff.), and already Porph. sees a metaphor from the mysteries; for the pattern cf. the Orphic testamenta fr. 247. 1 Kern Łª ÆØ x ŁØ K, ŁæÆ KŁŁ, ºØ. Porph. interprets the metaphor by indoctos and Musarum profanos, and no doubt H has been influenced by Callimachean manifestos about poetry; cf. especially ep. 28. 4 ØŒ Æø Æ a ØÆ, aet. fr. 1. 17 ºº BÆŒÆ Oºe ª , S. J. Heyworth, MD 33, 1994: 54 ff. But here the religious metaphor refers primarily to content rather than literary style; cf. Hippocrates, lex 5 a b ƒæa K Æ æªÆÆ ƒæEØ IŁæØØ ŒıÆØ, ºØØ b P ŁØ æd j ºŁHØ OæªØØ KØ , Plat. symp. 218b. H exhorts the new generation not to be too impressed by wealth and power (cf. epist. 2. 1. 119–38) and to make time for things that matter more; similarly in the ensuing odes he emphasizes such virtues as courage, piety, and chastity. The upper-class girls and boys who are contrasted with the profanum vulgus are chosen primarily for their untainted idealism, though NR thinks they may also be expected eventually to regard Horace’s new poetry with less prejudice than their elders (epist. 2. 1. 18 ff.). 2. favete linguis: ‘hold your peace’ (for the short opening syllable cf. tumultuosum in v. 26, N–H vol. 1, p. xl); for sacred silence cf. 2. 13. 29 with N–H, 3. 14. 11 f., 3. 30. 9. The religious formula originally meant ‘make favourable utterance’ (hence the instrumental linguis), but the safest way of avoiding ill-omened words was to say nothing; cf. Serv. auct. Aen. 5. 71 ‘praeco magistratu sacrificante dicebat favete linguis, favete vocibus, hoc est bona omina habete aut tacete’, Pease on Cic. div. 1. 102, Bo¨mer on Ov. fast. 1. 71, Courtney on Juv. 12. 83. The Greek PE changed in the same way (F. Williams on Call. h. 2. 17). The request was made after the exclusion of the profani, as at Eur. Bacch. 68 ff. cited in 1n. above; it preceded a sacred song, as at Ar. Thesm. 39 f. For the application of the motif to literature cf. Ar. ran. 354, cited above in 1 n., Prop. 4. 6. 1 ‘sacra facit vates, sint ora faventia sacris’. 2–3. carmina non prius / audita: the plural refers to the Roman Odes as a whole; in the religious context carmina suggests sacred chants, and the
8
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
assonance of carmina . . . canto suits the sacral style (cf. 4. 15. 30 ff. ‘carmine . . . canemus’). Roman poets, like their Greek predecessors (both early and Hellenistic), often lay claim to originality (3. 25. 7 f. ‘adhuc / indictum ore alio’, 3. 30. 13 n., N–H on 1. 26. 10 and 2. 20. 1); Porph. should not have restricted the issue to Latin lyric, as there is nothing like these poems in Alcaeus, and even an early piece like 1. 2 cannot equal the combined authority of the Roman Odes. Newness was also emphasized in Bacchic and other mysteries, as later in the world of the New Testament (E. Norden, Die Geburt des Kindes, 1924: 46 f.); for other literary adaptations of this idea cf. Prop. 3. 1. 3 f. ‘primus ego ingredior puro de fonte sacerdos / Itala per Graios orgia ferre choros’. 3. Musarum sacerdos: a poet could be compared to a priest for a variety of reasons (for some references see Kroll 24 ff., O. Falter, Der Dichter und sein Gott bei den Griechen und Ro¨mern, diss. Wu¨rzburg 1934, Kambylis 12 ff., Newman 99 ff., N–H on 1. 31. 2). In early Greece he might be called the æ or interpreter of the Muses, because like the Delphic priestess he imposed form on material that seemed to present itself spontaneously (Pind. fr. 150 Æ, MEÆ, æÆø Kª). Hellenistic poets and their Roman imitators underlined the arcane character of their art, their awareness of their high calling, and the splendour and formality of their procedures. Horace uses vates for the inspired bard (N–H on 1. 1. 35), sometimes ironically (e.g. epist. 2. 2. 102 ‘genus irritabile vatum’); sacerdos on the other hand emphasizes the authority and dignity of the poet’s pronouncements (for the distinction cf. Lyne, 1995: 184 f.). At Rome there was an aedes Herculis Musarum, but the Muses had no independent priesthood (contrast Greece) and Horace’s reference is entirely literary (N. Horsfall, BICS 23, 1976: 85). 4. virginibus puerisque canto: the collocation of virgines and pueri seems to suggest that H is training a choir; cf. 1. 21. 1 ff., 4. 6. 31 f., carm. saec. 6, epist. 2. 1. 132 ff. ‘castis cum pueris ignara puella mariti / disceret unde preces vatem ni Musa dedisset?’, Cairns, op. cit. 102 ff. That in no way implies that the Roman Odes were literally sung; the motif of a choir is not sustained (as Cairns claims), for it does not suit the content and manner of the poem or the series (Pasquali 650). H’s message is directed to a sinless new generation, including future wives and mothers, because they are still open to moral instruction; cf. Porph. ad loc. ‘dicit se carmen proditurum quod teneras aetates ad utilia instituat, quibus ad beatam vitam pervenire possint’, epist. 2. 1. 128 ff. Later poets echo H’s line simply to suggest an absence of impropriety (Ov. trist. 2. 370, Mart. 3. 69. 8).
1 . O D I P RO FA N V M V V L G V S
9
5–6. regum timendorum in proprios greges, / reges in ipsos imperium est Iovis: the sacerdos now makes his proclamation (ŒæıªÆ). Just as kings rule their subjects, so Jupiter rules kings: the emphasis lies on the second clause (cf. 9–16 n.). In the same way the Orphic testamenta, after dismissing the profane (1 n.), proceed to the praises of the supreme god (245. 9 f. Kern). H is not just paying the conventional tribute of an exordium to Jupiter (N–H on 1. 12. 13, Pasquali 654); it is central to his meaning (here expressed in Stoic terms) that even the rich and powerful are subject to the laws of the universe. The kings are Eastern rulers who, because of their total and arbitrary power, are dreaded by their own subjects (Tarrant on Sen. Ag. 72 f.), but must dread Jupiter in turn. H is not arguing that the rulers are God’s representatives on earth (Call. h 1. 79, N–H on 1. 12. 50 ff., cf. 3. 6. 5), and he would not have regarded Augustus as either a rex or as timendus in the sense required here (otherwise D. P. Fowler ap. Harrison, 1995: 264); cf. rather 1. 35. 12 (to Fortune) ‘(te) purpurei metuunt tyranni’, Philemon 31 (PCG 7, p. 244), 4 f. FºØ Æغø N, › Æغf ŁH, = › Łe IªŒ , Manil. 4. 93, Sen.Thy. 612 ‘omne sub regno graviore regnum est’. For H’s use of in cf. 4. 4. 2 ‘regnum in aves’, Plaut. Pers. 343, Ter. eun. 415. proprios implies ownership, but its main function is to underline the limits of a king’s imperium; Jupiter on the other hand rules over everything (cuncta in v. 8). greges is as often disparaging: a good king may be the shepherd of his people (Hom. Il. 2. 243 etc.), but it is another matter to call the people the grex of the king. 7. clari Giganteo triumpho: the Giants in their arrogance would not submit to the moral order of the universe (Cic. sen. 5 ‘quid est aliud Gigantum modo bellare cum dis nisi naturae repugnare?’), but in spite of their strength they were subject to the limitations of the earth-born (Philodemus, de morte 4. 37 A ¼Łæø , Œi N ıæ æ fi H ˆØªø, Kæ KØ æe øc ŒÆd ºı). Elsewhere their rebelliousness is associated with resistance to earthly rulers, notably Augustus (2. 12. 6 f. with N–H, more explicitly 3. 4. 53 ff.). 8. cuncta supercilio moventis: the phrase represents a variation of an epic commonplace; cf. Hom. Il. 1. 528 ff. q ŒÆd ŒıÆfi Ø K OæØ F ˚æø = . . . ªÆ KººØ ! ˇºı, Catull. 64. 204 ff. (numine), Virg. Aen. 9. 106 (‘adnuit et totum nutu tremefecit Olympum’). In our passage the gesture is not just a sign of assent but indicates Jupiter’s power to move the cosmos with the minimum effort; cf. Dio Chrys. 12. 25, quoting Homer, loc. cit. F ØÆ Oºªfiø ÆØ H Oæø e ÆÆ ! ˇºı. For movet cf. Plaut. rud. 1 ‘qui gentes omnes mariaque et terras movet’, Ov. met. 1. 180, TLL 8. 1544. 53 ff. For other
10
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
comments about the use of the eyebrows see Plin. nat. hist. 11. 138, Quint. 11. 3. 79, Sittl 92. 9–16. est ut viro vir latius ordinet / arbusta sulcis . . . : these two stanzas have a bipartite structure (Mader, op. cit. 13): (a) men strive for superiority in various fields (9–14, the so-called ‘preamble’or ‘foil’), (b) but all men are mortal (14–16, the climax or ‘apex’ of the argument); for similar patterns cf. 1. 1. 3 ff. (with N–H p. 2), 1. 7. 1 ff., 3. 27. 1–2 n. The conclusion follows naturally from the second stanza, though it is now expressed in specifically Roman terms: all men, however successful, are subject to Jupiter or Fate. Woodman maintains that the lives referred to in the preamble are all meritorious and provide a foil to the impius of v. 17 (op. cit. 92 f.); on the contrary, they are by implication overcompetitive (Mader, op. cit. 15 f.) and lead up to the criticisms of greed and ambition that occupy the latter part of the poem. The periphrastic est ut means ‘it happens that’ (K–S 2. 237); the formula binds the four clauses together and sets them against the inevitability of death (Heinze). The polyptoton viro vir (i.e. the repetition of a word in a different case) recalls sardonically the combats of epic; cf. Hom. Il. 16. 215, Furius Bibaculus, FLP 10 ‘pressatur pede pes, mucro mucrone, viro vir’, Virg. Aen. 10. 361 etc., Wills 195 ff. arbusta was particularly applied to plantations of trees on which vines were trained (Virg. georg. 2. 416, OLD s.v. 2). Such trees were arranged in neat ranks (Cic. sen. 59, Varr. rust. 1. 7. 2, Colum. 3. 13. 5 ‘ordinent vineam paribus intervallis’); ordinent also suits an army on parade (cf. Virg. georg. 2. 279 ff.), and so sustains the heroic tone of viro vir. latius means ‘over a wider area’ (cf. 2. 2. 9 ‘latius regnes’), not ‘at greater intervals’ (Virg. georg. 2. 277 ‘indulge ordinibus’); H is critical of latifundia, and viticulture was particularly profitable. The sulci are the trenches in which the supporting trees were planted (Colum. 5. 6. 10 ‘sulci . . . qui arbores recipiant praeparandi’); shallower furrows were dug for the vines (Cato, agr. 49. 2, Virg. georg. 2. 289, Colum. 3. 13. 5), but it was the former that gave the plantation its pattern. sulcis is generally taken as a local ablative, but we are inclined to see it as instrumental (‘arrays plantations with trenches’); cf. Varr. rust. 3. 5. 11 ‘porticus . . . arbusculis humilibus ordinatae’, Colum. 5. 3. 7 ‘vitibus locum . . . ordinare’, Mart. 3. 58. 2 ‘otiosis ordinata myrtetis’ (of a villa). sulcis belongs to the laborious side of country life, like ‘hedging and ditching’ (cf. epist. 1. 7. 84 ‘sulcos et vineta crepat mera’); as such it is set against the pretensions of latius ordinet. 10–11. hic generosior / descendat in Campum petitor: the verb suits a candidate going down from the hills of Rome, where the rich lived, to the Campus Martius, where the comitia centuriata elected consuls and
1 . O D I P RO FA N V M V V L G V S
11
praetors; cf. Val. Max. 7. 5. 1 ‘cum . . . candidatus in Campum descendisset’, Vell. 2. 92. 3. But it also suggests ‘entering the fray’ (ŒÆÆÆØ) whether for athletic (Cic. Tusc. 2. 62) or military honours (Suet. Aug. 96. 2); similarly campum as a common noun suits a battlefield (Liv. 10. 27. 7). petitor is regularly used of a candidate for office, but as it literally means ‘petitioner’ it undercuts generosior; cf. the effect of sulcis above. There was still a certain amount of freedom at elections, though less at consular level (epist. 1. 1. 43, 1. 6. 49 ff., A. H. M. Jones, JRS 45, 1955: 9 ff.). 12–13. moribus hic meliorque fama / contendat: genus and mores are often contrasted (e.g. Juv. 8. 20 f.), and novi homines opposed their virtus to the claims of birth (Woodman, op. cit. 86; so in a different context epist. 1. 20. 22). After petitor the verb contendat implies electoral contests rather than the more general rivalry mentioned by Lucr. 2. 11 ‘certare ingenio, contendere nobilitate’. This is the most commendable of the four types mentioned, but even he exploits his reputation to win political advantage. 13–14. illi turba clientium / sit maior: such celebritas was a sign of social success; cf. Virg. georg. 2. 461 f. quoted in the introduction above, Saller 128 f. Although clients were a practical asset for political candidates (Cic. Mur. 69–70), there is no need this time to confine the issue to elections. The four types are arranged in the form of a chiasmus: landowner (not confined to politics), two types of political candidate, social celebrity (not confined to politics). turba ‘a mob’ maintains the pejorative tone. 14–15. aequa lege Necessitas / sortitur insignis et imos: aequa makes a contrast with the preceding comparatives. The poor do not usually get a fair deal against the rich (Plaut. cist. 532 f. ‘quando aequa lege pauperi cum divite / non licet’), but in death they are on an equal footing (see N–H on 1. 4. 13, and cf. Shirley, The Glories of our Blood and State, 3 ff. ‘Scepter and crown / Must tumble down, / And in the dust be equal made / With the poor crooked sithe and spade’). Necessitas (#ªŒ) refers to the laws of the universe and echoes imperium Iovis (6) in more philosophic terms (Silk, op. cit. 152, Cairns, op. cit. 117 citing Arist. æd Œ ı 401b 8–9); though the abstraction is more comprehensive than necessitas leti (1. 3. 32 f.), here too H is concentrating on the inevitability of death; cf. Philodemus, de morte 4. 38. 12 ff. ¼ø ¼Æ æÆ ÆŒæa IÆØæ KºÆ e $æ, where e $æ is the philosopher’s substitution for º Ł %ØÆ in TGF adesp. 127. 10. Though death is inevitable for all, its timing for each individual is random, as symbolized by the lot (cf. 2. 3. 26 ff.). The verb, like lege,
12
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
sustains the official tone; lot had a limited role in Roman political and legal life; e.g. in the allocation of public provinces (Dio 53. 13. 2). insignes et imos is not only a polar expression of the type common in the context of death (N–H on 1. 4. 13 f. and 2. 14. 11); by means of an ellipse (¼ ‘insignes et humiles, summos et imos’) it achieves variety and compression. 16. omne capax movet urna nomen: the urn was shaken; for movere in this sense cf. serm. 1. 9. 30 (where mota . . . urna is surely right) and Virg. Aen. 6. 432; eventually a lot jumped out (2. 3. 27 with N–H). omne and capax both carry weight: there is room for all in the urn (Sen. Hf 191 ), as in Charon’s boat (ibid. 775) and the underworld itself (ibid. 659). The line, unusually, has five disyllables, perhaps reflecting the shuffling motion involved. 17–18. destrictus ensis cui super impia / cervice pendet: according to the anecdote, Dionysius of Syracuse suspended a sword over the courtier Damocles to show him that even the most magnificent despots lived in fear of assassination (Cic. Tusc. 5. 62). Cicero applies the story to Dionysius the elder (tyrant 405–367), who was notoriously suspicious, though Dionysius II (tyrant 367–357) is mentioned in another context in conjunction with Damocles (Athen. 6. 250, citing Timaeus). The sword over Dionysius was a metaphorical one, as opposed to the real one over Damocles. H has not made a mistake but is generalizing, as the future elaborabunt shows: ‘Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown’. The grandiose ensis is used six times in the odes, but gladius never; the former is greatly preferred by Virgil and later epic poets, except for Lucan (Axelson 51, Lyne, 1989: 103 ff.). The strong word impia brings out the hubris of a tyrant who has defied the laws of God (cf. the Giants in v. 7); the assassins he fears are the instruments of divine vengeance (cf. 6). In view of vv. 14 ff. the metaphor is that of impending death rather than of other anxieties (Pers. 3. 40 ff. refers to a guilty conscience); the tyrant is the extreme example of the lust for wealth and power, and his banquets (18 f.) illustrate how, in Epicurean doctrine, the pleasures of the rich are spoiled by the fear of death; cf. Lucr. 3. 37 ff. ‘et metus ille foras praeceps Acherontis agendus / funditus humanam qui vitam turbat ab imo, / omnia suffundens mortis nigrore, neque ullam / esse voluptatem liquidam puramque relinquit’. 18–19. non Siculae dapes / dulcem elaborabunt saporem: Sicilian tables (especially those of Syracuse) were proverbial for their luxury; cf. Ar. PCG 3. 2 fr. 225. 2 &ıæÆŒÆ æÆ, Plat. rep. 3. 404 d, epist. 7. 326b, Cic. Tusc. 5. 100, Athen. 518c, paroem. Gr. 1. 158, Otto 321.
1 . O D I P RO FA N V M V V L G V S
13
A luxurious banquet was the traditional setting for the story of Damocles (Cic. Tusc. 5. 62 ‘mensae conquisitissimis epulis exstruebantur’, Amm. Marc. 29. 2. 4, Euseb. praep. evang 8. 14. 29, Sidon. epist. 2. 13. 7); it is relevant that, as noted in the introduction, Augustus encouraged frugality. The grandiose dapes can be contrasted with ‘mundae . . . pauperum / cenae’ (3. 29. 14 f.). elaborare is rare in the active (cf. Sen. epist. 16. 8 in a similar context), and would normally be used of the cook rather than the feast; the verb suits the perfection of an intricate work of art, and is used with irony of a flavour. For moralists’ criticisms of cookery cf. Plat. Gorg. 462d, Hor. serm. 2. 2. 19 f., Rudd (1966), 202 ff. 20–1. non avium citharaeque cantus / somnum reducent: avium refers not to open-air birdsong (as at epod. 2. 26, eleg. in Maec. 1. 36 ‘sederat argutas garrulus inter aves’) but to the unnatural aviaries of rich men; cf. Varr. rust. 3. 5. 14 ‘intra retem aves sunt omnigenus, maxime cantrices, ut lusciniolae ac merulae’, Plin. nat. hist. 10. 141 ‘coepimus carcere animalia coercere quibus rerum natura caelum adsignaverat’, G. Jennison, Animals for Show and Pleasure in Ancient Rome, 1937: 116 ff. For music as an aid to sleep cf. epist. 1. 2. 30 f. (of the Phaeacians) ‘cui pulchrum fuit in medios dormire dies et / ad strepitum citharae ycessatumy (cessantem cod. det.) ducere somnum’, Sen. dial. 1. 3. 10 ‘Maecenatem . . . cui . . . somnus per symphoniarum cantum ex longinquo lene resonantium quaeritur’. For insomnia as a literary topic see further N–H on 2. 11. 8. 21–2. somnus agrestium / lenis virorum: cf. 2. 16. 15 with N–H, epist. 1. 7. 35 ‘nec somnum plebis laudo satur altilium’, Epic. fr. 207 Usener ¼ V48 Bailey ˚æE Ø ŁÆææE Kd Ø ŒÆÆŒØfi j ÆæŁÆØ æıB K fi Œº ŒÆd ºıºB æÆ, Stob. 5. 763 Hense (the rich man) ıŒºøæı Ø . . . f oı , Ecclesiastes 5: 12 ‘The sleep of a labouring man is sweet, whether he eat little or much: but the abundance of the rich will not suffer them to sleep.’ For a more realistic view cf. Theoc. 21. 2 f. Pb ªaæ oØ = IæØ KæªÆÆØØ ŒÆŒÆd Ææ Ø æØÆØ. The function of virorum, which is not necessary with agrestium, is to underline the toughness of the rustic life; cf. Xen. oec. 5. 4, Cato, agr. praef. 4 ‘at ex agricolis et viri fortissimi et milites strenuissimi gignuntur’, Virg. georg. 2. 167, 472, 531 ff. H is associating himself with the agrestes viri; cf. serm. 2. 6. 79 ff. (on the Country Mouse), epist. 1. 10. 2. For lenis cf. Enn. ann. 2 Sk. ‘somno leni placidoque revinctus’, TLL 7. 2. 1144. 51 ff. The contrast between the gentleness of sleep and the robustness of the countrymen is brought out by the interlacing word-order.
14
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
22–3. non humilis domos / fastidit umbrosamque ripam: non negatives fastidit, not humilis, as Porph. points out. For the cottages of the just cf. Aesch. Ag. 774 f., Sen. Thy. 446 ff. with Tarrant. fastidit suggests the great man’s disdain, which is not shared by sleep. humilis describes literal lowness as well as modesty; cf. Virg. ecl. 2. 29 ‘humilis habitare casas’. The countryman can also enjoy a siesta in the open air; cf. epod. 2. 28, epist. 1. 14. 35, Virg. ecl. 1. 55, georg. 2. 470. H economically suggests running water and trees; cf. 1. 1. 21 f. with N–H, 3. 29. 22 ff., Sappho 2. 5 ff., Lucr. 2. 30 ‘propter aquae rivum sub ramis arboris altae’. umbrosam carries associations of leisure (1. 32. 1) and perhaps, in RN’s view, of obscurity (balancing humilis). 24. non zephyris agitata tempe: the countryman’s valley is disturbed only by the breeze. The neuter plural tempe, properly the Vale of Peneus (N–H on 1. 7. 4), came to be used for any wooded valley in later Greek prose (see LSJ s.v., also Cic. Att. 4. 15. 5); H seems to have been influenced in particular by Virg. georg. 2. 469 f. ‘frigida tempe / mugitusque boum mollesque sub arbore somni’. The exotic word, here balancing zephyris, associates the Italian countryside with idealized Greek landscapes. 25. desiderantem quod satis est: cf. 3. 16. 44, serm. 1. 1. 62, epist. 1. 2. 46 ‘quod satis est cui contingit nil amplius optet’, Sen. epist. 119. 7 ‘numquam parum est quod satis est’. As H’s countryman is assumed (not wholly realistically) to have quod satis est, he does not need to worry about survival. Ancient moralists of various schools preach on this text; cf. Epic. fr. 473 Usener ¼ V 68 Bailey ˇPb ƒŒÆe fiøffl Oºª e ƒŒÆ , G. A. Gerhard, Phoenix von Kolophon, 1909: 56 f., 86 f., Krenkel on Lucil. 205 ff. (¼ 203 ff. M). desidero, like the English ‘want’, can mean either ‘desire’ or ‘need’; here it has to mean the former. 25–6. neque / tumultuosum sollicitat mare: though H professes to be talking of the contented man, he goes on to give two vignettes of the opposite, as so often in the Satires. The figure of the discontented and acquisitive merchant is conventionally contrasted with that of the countryman (e.g. 1. 1. 14 with N–H, epod. 2. 6). The tumult of the sea (cf. 3. 29. 63) is mirrored by the agitation of the merchant’s mind (cf. 2. 16 10, Stat. silv. 2. 2. 28); Shorey quotes The Merchant of Venice 1. i. 8 ‘Your mind is tossing on the ocean.’ 27–8. nec saevus Arcturi cadentis / impetus: Arcturus, the brightest star in Bootes, was often associated with bad weather; cf. Perses, anth. Pal. 7. 539. 1 f. ˇP æØ, ¨ Ø, ŒÆŒc Ø Ø = #æŒæı
1 . O D I P RO FA N V M V V L G V S
15
(with Gow–Page, HE 2895), Plaut. rud. 70 f. ‘nam Arcturus signum sum omnium acerrumum: / vehemens sum exoriens, cum occido vehementior’. H is referring to the so-called ‘evening setting’ at the end of October (Col. 11. 2. 78 ‘iv Kal. Nov. Arcturus vespere occidit: ventosus dies’, Plin. nat. hist. 18. 313), i.e. the date when its setting came closest after sunset (West on Hes. op. p. 379); the merchant’s greed appears from his readiness to sail at the end of the sailing season. impetus suits the onslaught of the storm rather than the movements of the star (cf. 312 n.), but its collocation with cadentis makes something of an oxymoron. See further Le Boeuffle 95 ff. 28. aut orientis Haedi: note the chiasmus ‘Arcturi cadentis . . . orientis Haedi’. The Haedi are close to Capella (cf. 3. 7. 6); for the singular cf. Prop. 2. 26. 56, Ov. ars 1. 410, Le Boeuffle 110. The evening rising of the Haedi about the end of September was associated with bad weather (Theoc. 7. 53 with Gow); the constellation is combined with Arcturus at Virg. georg. 1. 204 f. 29. non verberatae grandine vineae: hail, sometimes in the summer, is a particular menace to vineyards (cf. epist. 1. 8. 4 f. quoted on 30–1 below, Pease on Cic. nat. deor. 2. 14). For verberare of the elements cf. 3. 27. 24, OLD s.v. 3b (so plectantur at 1. 28. 27). As the vine-stock (vitis) was an instrument of punishment (OLD 4), RN thinks there might be a particular point in the lashing of the vines; vinea is used of the individual plant at Colum. 4. 10. 2, 4. 22. 5. 30. fundusque mendax: though the earth should repay its debts (3. 16. 30 n.), it sometimes plays false; cf. epist. 1. 7. 87 ‘spem mentita seges’, Philemon (quoted in next note), Ov. met. 5. 479 f. ‘arvaque iussit / fallere depositum’ (with Bo¨mer), Petr. 117. 9. Normally such passages refer to corn-growing, but fundus here is more comprehensive, as arbore suggests. 30–1. arbore nunc aquas / culpante: the arbor, like the fundus, is personified; it seems to mean fruit-trees in general, including the olive. It was a commonplace that a farmer is always grumbling about the weather; cf. epist. 1. 8. 4 f. ‘haud quia grando / contuderit vitis oleamve momorderit aestus’, Philemon fr. 92. 10 f. (PCG 7 p. 275) [ ªB] f Œı IıæŒı Id = æ ÆØ Ø ÆP e j IæE, [Plat.] Axioch. 368c ŒºA ıd b ÆP , ıd b KæÆ , ıd b KŒÆıØ, ıd b Kæı, ıd b Łº ¼ŒÆØæ j Œæ (so nunc . . . nunc in Horace). To blame both rain and drought is a sign of discontent and a refusal to accept the world as it is.
16
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
31–2. nunc torrentia agros / sidera: plants were scorched at the rising of the Dog-Star in July; cf. 3. 13. 9 ‘flagrantis . . . caniculae’, epod. 3. 15 f., 16. 61 f. ‘nullius astri / gregem aestuosa torret impotentia’, serm. 1. 7. 25 f., 2. 5. 39 f., Alc. 347. 1 f. e ªaæ ¼æ æغºÆØ, = I þæÆ
ƺÆ, Æ b łÆØ Pa ŒÆÆ , Plin. nat. hist. 17. 222. This sideratio was attributed to the baleful influence of the constellation; cf. Theophr. caus. plant. 5. 9., Plin. nat. hist. 18. 278. Geminus more sensibly points out that the stars simply mark the wet and stormy times of year (Nƪøª 17. 10): ‰ ı æØ Ææغø æe e æªØŒØ A a æd e IæÆ æØØ . 32. nunc hiemes iniquas: hiemes means both ‘winters’ and ‘storms’. iniquas covers not just ‘harmful’ and ‘unfavourable’ but also ‘unfair’ (continuing the querulous tone of culpante). 33. contracta pisces aequora sentiunt: the extension of villas into the sea was a topic of the diatribe against luxury (2. 18. 21 with N–H); for hyperbole in such contexts cf. 2. 15. 1 ff., 3. 24. 1 ff. The contraction of the fishes’ domain marks a bizarre invasion of a natural element (cf. N–H on 1. 2. 9); for the hubris involved cf. 1. 3. 21 ff. sentiunt implies ‘feel to their cost’; cf. N–H on 2. 7. 9, epist. 1. 1. 84 f. ‘lacus et mare sentit amorem / festinantis eri’. 34. iactis in altum molibus: i.e. when moles or piers have been pushed out into the sea; cf. Caes. ap. Cic. Att. 9. 14. 1 ‘ab utroque portus cornu moles iacimus’, bc 1. 25. 5, 3. 112. 2 ‘in longitudinem passuum DCCCC in mare iactis molibus’, Strab. 5. 4. 6, Antiphilus, anth. Pal. 7. 379. 1 f. Ø N –ºÆ HÆ = ºÆØ; (on the harbour at Puteoli), Sen.Thy. 459 f. ‘retro mare / iacta fugamus mole’ (cf. ‘jetty’ from the French jete´e), Sidon. carm. 2. 57 f. ‘itur in aequor / molibus et veteres tellus nova contrahit undas’. Most editors interpret iactis as ‘dropped’; cf. Virg. Aen. 9. 711 f. ‘saxea pila cadit, magnis quam molibus ante / constructam pelago iaciunt’, where molibus refers to blocks of masonry. But in our view the parallels cited above seem to be more convincing illustrations of what H says; the stages in the building of such piers are described in Vitruv. 5. 12. 2–3, where the structures are an alternative to aggeres. 34–6. huc frequens / caementa demittit redemptor / cum famulis: huc (with demittit) means ‘into the deep water’, i.e. where it is enclosed by the moles. The redemptor is a contractor; locare is ‘to place a contract’, conducere or redimere is ‘to take it up’ (RN sees a formal contrast between re- and de-). The prosaic connotations of the word suggest ugly materialism; cf. epist. 2. 2. 72 ‘festinat calidus mulis gerulisque redemptor’, Juv. 3. 38 ‘conducunt foricas, et cur non omnia?’ demittit redemptor carries the
1 . O D I P RO FA N V M V V L G V S
17
humorous suggestion that the contractor himself wields a shovel. frequens probably means ‘repeatedly’ (Ov. met. 2. 409 ‘dum redit itque frequens’, Sen. Phaedr. 1076 f. ‘terga nunc torto frequens / verbere coercet’, OLD s.v. 5); some understand ‘many a contractor’, but one expects only one master-builder who supervises the work of his famuli. caementa (another prosaic word) are the broken stones (from caedere) used as the basis or ‘aggregate’ for concrete; they were bound together by a mixture of lime, sand, and pulvis Puteolanus (pozzolana, a volcanic dust that hardens in the water); cf. 3. 24. 3, Strab. 5. 4. 6, Plin. nat. hist. 35. 166, C. D. Curtis, JRS 3, 1913: 197 ff., N. Davey, A History of Building Materials, 1961: 120 ff. Such constructions could be undertaken as here by gangs of unskilled labourers. 36–7. dominusque terrae / fastidiosus: the organization of the sentence puzzled L. Mu¨ller and A. Y. Campbell (the former found it as strange as ‘praefectus cum fabris et Caesar’); but by trailing the proprietor after the contractor and his workmen H seems to suggest that the man is demeaning himself. Shackleton Bailey (1982: 93) objected that when dominus and famuli are found together ‘it is natural to think of the latter as belonging to the former’; he therefore proposed ‘tum famuli dominusque (sc. scandunt)’. But apart from the awkward structure, the famuli should not be put on the same level as the dominus; they do not climb to the top of the building to be plagued by Timor et Minae. NR is attracted by RN’s idea ‘cum famulis dominoque terrae / fastidioso’; this puts famulis in a pointed relationship with domino (even though they do not belong to him), and strengthens the innuendo that the latter is no higher than a manual labourer; for the idiomatic change of case with dominus (38) cf. ‘somnum . . . somnus’ (21) and 3. 16. 15–16 n. R. Renehan suggests that cum famulis is to be taken with dominus and that -que has been postponed (CP 83, 1988: 324 f.); his best parallel is 4. 2. 21 f. ‘flebili sponsae iuvenemve raptum / plorat’, but that passage is unambiguous whereas here the reader would be misled to no purpose. dominusque terrae at first sight suggests ‘a lord of the earth’; cf. ‘terrarum dominos’ (1. 1. 6). It then transpires that the genitive depends on fastidiosus, which echoes fastidit (23); the proprietor’s disdain for dry land provides a further twist to the satire; cf. ‘parum locuples continente ripa’ (2. 18. 22). By way of contrast, one thinks of Pliny, happily unaware of his decadence, fishing from his bedroom window (epist. 9. 7. 4). 37–8. sed Timor et Minae / scandunt eodem quo dominus: Timor et Minae are personified fears from within and threats from without; they are represented as malignant companions that cannot be shaken off (cf. Lucr. 2. 48 ‘curaeque sequaces’, 2. 16. 11 f. ‘curas laqueata circum / tecta volantis’). For scandunt cf. 2. 16. 21 (cited below on 38–9). In our passage
18
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
the verb suggests the height of the new building as opposed to humilis domos (22); after observing the laying of the foundations H’s camera sweeps up to the top floor of the completed building. For tall villae maritimae cf. J. H. D’Arms, Romans in the Bay of Naples, 1970: pls. 13–15b (wall-decorations from Stabiae and Pompeii). 38–9. neque / decedit aerata triremi: the ‘brazen trireme’ was properly a warship with three levels of oars like its Greek counterpart ( J. S. Morrison, J. F. Coates, N. B. Rankov, The Athenian Trireme, 2000: fig. 45) and a bronze beak for ramming (ibid. fig. 67); cf. Plin. nat. hist. 32. 3 ‘rostra illa aere ferroque ad ictus armata’, Barwick, op. cit. 263, TLL 1. 1059. 23. There is a close parallel at 2. 16. 21 ff. (probably earlier) ‘scandit aeratas vitiosa navis / Cura nec turmas equitum relinquit, / ocior cervis et agente nimbos / ocior Euro’; the recipient Grosphus may have been an eques with an interest in cavalry (N–H vol. 2, p. 253). Lucretius had already said that a military commander finds no peace of mind in contemplating his forces (2. 40 ff.); for his curae sequaces (2. 48) are not dispelled by a display of arms. RN sees here a hint of Maecenas, who might have retained a trireme after service at Actium; cf. epist. 1. 1. 91–3 ‘quid pauper? ride: mutat cenacula lectos / balnea tonsores, conducto navigio aeque / nauseat ac locuples quem ducit priva triremis’. There he takes pauper as Horace and the owner of the trireme as Maecenas; cf. 94 f. ‘si curatus inaequali tonsore capillos / occurri, rides . . . ’ (where there is no pronoun to distinguish the subject of occurri from the pauper). NR thinks it is going too far to see a covert allusion to Maecenas (see introduction above), and he interprets epist. 1. 1 differently: in 77 ff. we hear of men’s failure to find satisfaction; in 83–9 we have the restless dives—an entirely general figure; the restless pauper in 91–3 is just as silly, and just as general (the contrasting boats figured in popular philosophy, as Heinze remarks). In 94 ff. Horace comes to his own case; he, too, is restless and inconsistent (97–100); but the same is not said of Maecenas. He laughs at the poet’s haircut and sloppy dress and is irritated if his nails aren’t trimmed, but he fails to notice his restless spirit because such a defect is so normal (sollemnia in 101). 39–40. <et> / post equitem sedet atra Cura: et has negligible authority (cf. Fraenkel 317 n. 5), but the two weak line-endings well convey unremitting pursuit (N–H on 2. 6. 2); Bentley less plausibly proposed postque equitem. RN, following Barwick, thinks that H is referring to a military review, as with the parallel turmas equitum at 2. 16. 22 (quoted in the previous note); as in that passage, the point would be that Care keeps up with a display of power and speed (for a possible reference to the equestrian Maecenas see the introduction above). NR prefers to believe
1 . O D I P RO FA N V M V V L G V S
19
that the motif of 2. 16. 22 has been varied; since the trireme is a private vessel, the riding is more likely to represent another of the rich man’s efforts to shake off his Angst (so Heinze). The postponement of Cura produces not only an elegant chiasmus (balancing Timor et Minae) but a sinister climax; for atra cf. 3. 14. 13, 4. 11. 35, serm. 2. 7. 115 ‘nam comes atra premit sequiturque fugacem’, Hom. Il. 4. 117 ºÆØø (æ Oıø. 41. quodsi dolentem nec Phrygius lapis: quodsi (‘Since, then,’) introduces the inescapable conclusion; cf. 1. 1. 35, Lucr. 2. 47, Prop. 1. 1. 37, Fraenkel 24. dolor was widely used of unhealthy mental and spiritual states, including anxiety, cf. Varro, Men. 36, Lucr. 4. 1067, Cic. Tusc. 3. 22 ff., 4. 23 ff. Phrygius lapis was a white marble with purple markings; cf. Strab. 12. 8. 14, Stat. silv. 1. 5. 37 f. ‘(purpura) cavo Phrygiae quam Synnados antro / ipse cruentavit maculis lucentibus Attis’, Juv. 14. 307 with Courtney, D. Magie, Roman Rule in Asia Minor, 1950: 1. 50, 2. 815 n. 96, R. Gnoli, Marmora Romana, 1971: 142 ff. and pl. 126. Phrygius probably made an alliteration with purpurarum (cf. Allen 26 f.). RN thinks that the repeated p may have given an opulent effect as at 2. 12. 22 pinguis Phrygiae. 42–3. nec purpurarum Sidone clarior / delenit usus: the MSS and Porph. read sidere (cf. 3. 9. 21 sidere pulchrior, Hom. Il. 6. 295 Icæ S IºÆ of a Sidonian robe, 290 f.); Sidone is RN’s conjecture (Collected Papers, 144 ff., 343 f.). A place-name is needed to balance Phrygius, Falerna, and Achaemenium; and Sidone is exactly the word required (for Sidonian purple cf. epist. 1. 10. 26, Virg. Aen. 4. 137 with Pease). For the compendious comparison (‘brighter than the purple of Sidon’) cf. 2. 6. 14 ff. ‘ubi non Hymetto / mella decedunt viridique certat / baca Venafro’, Varr. rust. 1. 2. 6 ‘quod oleum (conferam) Venafro?’ (also of products), K–S 2. 566 f., H–Sz 826. For Sidone with a short o cf. Sil. 8. 436 f. ‘stat fucare colus nec Sidone vilior Ancon / murice nec Libyco’, Mart. 2. 16. 3, 11. 1. 2; the o is also often short in the adjective; cf. Virg. Aen. 1. 678 and 4. 75 with Pease. G. Perl regards the conjecture as methodologically wrong in the absence of earlier parallels for the short o (Acta Ant. Hung. 39, 1999: 244), but it is unsafe to assume that Silius must have been the first to use it; F. Cairns objects that no purple was brighter than Sidonian (Coll. Latomus 266, 2002: 90), but the hyperbole sharpens Horace’s point. For usus in the sense of ‘wearing’ cf. Mart. 9. 62. 1 f. ‘tinctis murice vestibus . . . / utitur’, OLD s.v. utor 2b. The periphrasis is suitably grandiose; H seems to have been influenced by Lucr. 2. 52 ‘nec clarum vestis splendorem purpureai’, but he might also be including hangings and coverlets (cf. serm. 2. 6. 106 ‘purpurea porrectum in veste locavit’). delenit
20
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
suits the quasi-medical meaning of dolentem; cf. epist. 1. 1. 34 f. ‘sunt verba et voces quibus hunc lenire dolorem / possis’, Phaedr. 3 praef. 44 ‘his dolorem delenirem remediis’. 43–4. nec Falerna / vitis Achaemeniumque costum: Falernian, from the coastal region of north-west Campania, was a wine of the highest quality: cf. Plin. nat. hist. 14. 62 ‘nec ulli nunc vino maior auctoritas’. By mentioning the vine rather than the wine H combines the themes of viticulture (9 ff., 29 ff.) and gastronomic luxury (18 f.); the Italian name marks a contrast with the exotic Achaemenium. Achaemenes was the legendary founder of the Persian royal house (2. 12. 21 with N–H); for the royal association with perfumes cf. epod. 13. 8 ‘Achaemenio . . . nardo’, Plin. nat. hist. 12. 41, 13. 18 ‘ergo regale unguentum, appellatur quoniam Persarum regibus ita temperatur, constat myrobalano costo amomo . . . ’, Diog. Laert. 2. 76 (for another royal perfume add Sappho 94. 18 ff.). costum (‘putchuk’) probably came from India rather than Persia ( J. I. Miller, The Spice Trade of the Roman Empire, 1969: 84 ff.), but H was concerned with literary associations rather than botanical precision (cf. 2. 11. 16 ‘Assyriaque nardo’ with N–H). 45–6. cur invidendis postibus et novo / sublime ritu moliar atrium?: invidendis postibus is a descriptive ablative depending on atrium and coordinate with the phrase novo sublime ritu. In such contexts postes is used for the door as a whole (synecdoche), cf. OLD 2b, Blu¨mner (1911), 16 f., P. Howell, Philologus 112, 1968: 132 ff. Not just the posts but the panels could be decorated with ivory, tortoiseshell, etc.; cf. Virg. georg. 2. 463 ‘nec varios inhiant pulchra testudine postis’, Lucan 10. 118, Mart. 1. 70. 14. For invidendis (here adjectival like timendorum in v. 5), cf. 2. 10. 7 f. ‘invidenda . . . aula’; such adornments bring not admiration but envy. After the extravagances mentioned in the previous stanza, H might have been expected to say ‘why should I seek any of these things?’; instead he turns in the apodosis to further examples of luxury (for this characteristic schema cf. N–H on 1. 7. 10, Schmidt 335 ff.). novo ritu is an oxymoron, as a ritus is normally well established. The veterum norma (2. 15. 12) had rejected such a scale for private houses; Augustus avoided excessive grandeur for himself (Suet. Aug. 72. 1) and deprecated it in others (ibid. 72. 3 ‘ampla et operosa praetoria gravabatur’); but his legislation on the height of city tenements (ibid. 89. 2) is not relevant here. sublime is a grandiose word, and repeats the idea of height implied in scandunt (38). moliar describes the effort needed to rear a pile (cf. 2. 15. 2, 3. 29. 10 ‘molem propinquam nubibus’). 47–8. cur valle permutem Sabina / divitias operosiores: for the modest personal closure cf. 1. 31. 15 ff., 2. 17. 32, 3. 29. 62 ff., 4. 2. 54 ff., Esser 9 ff.
2 . A N G V S TA M A M I C E
21
(on the ‘Ich-Schluss’). For H’s Sabine valley, cf. 1. 17. 17, epist. 1. 16. 5 ff., 1. 18. 104, G. Highet, Poets in a Landscape, 1957: 137 ff., Encicl. oraz. 1. 253 ff. As valle suggests both lowness and seclusion it makes a contrast with sublime. Sabina has a cluster of connotations, e.g. ‘hardy’, ‘simple’, ‘frugal’, and ‘old-fashioned’; cf. 1. 20. 1, 2. 18. 14, epod. 2. 41 f., epist. 2. 1. 25. permutem means here ‘take in exchange’ (cf. 2. 12. 23); the compound’s commercial nuance suits H’s rejection of materialism. operosiores describes the over-elaboration of luxury building (cf. Suet. Aug. 72. 3 quoted in the previous note, OLD s.v. 3), but also suggests that wealth brings nothing but bother; cf. serm. 2. 6. 79 ‘sollicitas . . . opes’, OLD 2a, Muson. 108. 12 Hense (on grand buildings) æƪÆÆ Ø º.
2. ANGVSTAM AMICE [L. Amundsen, SO suppl. 11, 1942: 1 ff. ¼ Oppermann 120 ff.; P. J. Connor, Hermes 100, 1972: 241 ff.; G. Davis, Class. Ant. 2, 1983: 9 ff.; V. B. Jameson, TAPA 114, 1984: 219 ff.; D. Lohmann in Schola Anatolica (Tu¨bingen 1989), 336 ff.; Lyne (1995), 208 ff.; W. J. Oates, The Influence of Simonides of Ceos upon Horace, 1932 and 1971: 1 ff.; Pasquali 667 ff.; R. Stoneman in Aischylos und Pindar (ed. E. G. Schmidt, Berlin), 1981: 257 ff.; G. Williams, Figures of Thought in Roman Poetry, 1980: 184 ff.]
1–16. Let the young soldier learn to accept hardship as well as danger in fighting the Parthians. Let the enemy princess sigh on the battlements in case her betrothed provokes him. It is sweet and glorious to die for one’s country, but the man who runs away is killed dishonourably. 17–24. A man’s virtus knows nothing of rebuffs, and does not accept or surrender office to suit the popular whim. Their virtus opens the gate of heaven to those who have earned immortality. 25–32. Loyal discretion also has its sure reward; I shall shun those who betray the mysteries (i.e. state secrets). Often Jupiter destroys the innocent with the guilty; rarely does Nemesis fail to overtake the criminal. The first section of the ode (1–16) praises the soldierly virtues of courage and endurance, which were particularly prized in Rome’s militaristic society (K. Bu¨chner, Studien zur ro¨mischen Literatur 3, 1962: 1 ff. ¼ H. Oppermann, Ro¨mische Wertbegriffe, 1967: 376 ff.). These qualities are treated as a training not just for war but for life (1 n.). A topical note is provided by the emphasis on cavalry (4 n.) and the need to match the Parthians: Carrhae had not been avenged (1. 2. 51, 3. 5. 4 n.). Eastern wars lead to Homeric scenes, the enemy princess watching
22
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
from the battlements (6 n.) and the comparison of the young Roman to a bloodthirsty lion (11–12 n.); the romantic colouring derives from Hellenistic poetry and tales about Alexander (cf. 1. 29. 5 f. ‘quae tibi virginum / sponso necato barbara serviet?’). This fantasy shows less humanity than is sometimes suggested, and it ends rather abruptly with patriotic maxims, drawing again on early Greek poetry, about the glory of death in battle (13–14 nn.). The central section (17–24) turns from the virtus or manliness of the soldier (though the word is not actually used in the previous lines) to the more superhuman virtus of the great man. Though no individual is mentioned, Augustus is obviously the example in the poet’s mind; about 27 bc he was awarded a golden shield on which his virtus was recorded (res gest. 34. 2, A. N. Wallace-Hadrill, Historia 30, 1981: 300 ff., Zanker 95 f., Galinsky 80 ff.). The character is described in Stoic terms: the great man knows nothing of setbacks because he is superior to the accidents of fortune (17 n.), and after death he will enjoy an immortal life in the sky, as memorably expounded in Cicero’s Somnium Scipionis (21–2 n.); see also 3. 3. 11 n. In all this there is no mention of virtus in ordinary human relationships, as it was understood by Panaetius and Cicero in his de officiis, and by Lucilius in his famous lines beginning (1329 ff.) ‘virtus scire homini rectum utile quid sit, honestum, / quae bona, quae mala item, quid inutile turpe inhonestum . . . ’ (imitated by Horace himself at epist. 1. 2. 3 ff.). In the final section (25–32) Horace does turn to social life, concentrating on fidele silentium, ‘loyal discretion’; and here the transition is less clear. Orelli comments ‘socia virtutis est fides’; but though fides was one of the virtues, it had no special association with the high-flown virtus of the previous stanzas. It might be better to see a deliberate decrescendo: not everyone can show the superhuman qualities of the Stoic hero, but ‘they also serve’ who at least offer loyalty and discretion. Mommsen saw a reference to the new imperial bureaucracy, and the need to make it conscious of security (Reden und Aufsa¨tze, 1905: 168 ff.). It is better to think of the amici principis (cf. A. Wallace-Hadrill, CAH 10, edn. 2, 285 on court societies); in all likelihood Horace himself, in spite of his modest pretences, had now reached the fringes of the imperial circle, where caution was advisable. Ironically, even a central figure like Maecenas was found wanting in reticence (Suet. Aug. 66) when he betrayed an official secret to his wife; but that was after the publication of Odes I–III. The poem is now the least admired of the Roman Odes; in spite of its trenchant aphorisms and two memorable vignettes (6 ff., 31 f.), the qualities commended, though in harmony with the Augustan valuesystem and intelligible at a time of crisis, are not those that appeal to more liberal societies. One can also see why Pasquali described it as the
2 . A N G V S TA M A M I C E
23
most difficult ode in the cycle (668); for at certain points it seems to allude to events or situations which, though probably clear enough to contemporary readers, are puzzling to us. When a great man’s virtus is said to know nothing of electoral defeat, one wonders whether Horace has in mind some specific instance (17 n.); the same question may arise when his virtus is said not to take or leave office to suit the popular whim (19–20 n.). The vehement denunciation of those who give away secrets is expressed by analogy with the profanation of the Eleusinian mysteries (26–7 n.). Some have seen here a reference to the downfall of Gallus, but though he may have been arrogant and indiscreet (Ov. trist. 2. 446, Suet. Aug. 66. 2, Dio 53. 23. 5), there is no suggestion that he betrayed confidences. Perhaps in the period before Actium, when the arcana of the Triumvirate were revealed, they contained some damaging instances of political duplicity as well as the sexual escapades mentioned in Suet. Aug. 69 (for Antony’s invective cf. K. Scott, Mem. Amer. Acad. Rome 11, 1933: 1 ff.); in that case Horace may have been thinking of the vengeance that followed the battle. Or one might imagine a more serious instance of the kind of thing described in serm. 2. 6. 51 ff. (‘numquid de Dacis audisti?’ etc.). But the reference may be entirely general; see Dio 53. 19. 3 on the cloud of secrecy that descended with the advent of the Principate. There is also a literary problem: all three sections contain reminiscences of Simonides (see the notes on 14, 21, 25, 27–9), and it has been conjectured that the ode as a whole reflects a lost poem on civic virtue (Oates, op. cit. 28 ff., Harrison, cited in introduction to 3. 30). But it is noteworthy that these imitations all seem to diverge from their model, and at v. 25 very considerably. What is more, though Horace was adept at transposing particular phrases to his unique idiom, the construction of his poems is wholly his own (Syndikus); the themes also arise from the Augustan situation, not from archaic Greece. Where several imitations have been demonstrated, it is always possible that others are lost; for instance Simonides might be the source of ‘dulce et decorum est pro patria mori’ (see 13 n.). But it is not to be supposed that any Greek prototype would explain the difficulties of the ode. Metre: Alcaic. 1. Angustam amice pauperiem pati: angustam refers to ‘straitened circumstances’ (the dead English metaphor may be derived from Juv. 3. 165 ‘res angusta domi’); pauperiem as usual describes not indigence but modest means (cf. 3. 24. 42 n., Apul. apol. 18); the alliteration gives the line the memorable quality of a motto. The hardship of military service is a lesson for later life, a sentiment worthy of Augustus himself (cf. 3. 24. 52 ff.), though unrealistic when applied to the life awaiting a
24
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
young cavalry-officer; for similar ideas cf. Cic. Tusc. 2. 37 ff. (it teaches endurance and fortitude in the face of pain), Sall. Cat. 7. 4–6 and 9. 1–3 (it is connected with the lack of avarice in early Roman society), Jug. 85. 33 (Marius describes his qualifications for office) ‘at illa multo optuma rei publicae doctus sum: . . . hiemem et aestatem iuxta pati, humi requiescere, eodem tempore inopiam et laborem tolerare’. This reverses the usual topic that a frugal upbringing produces good soldiers (Syndikus): see 3. 6. 37–8 n. amice means ‘in a well-disposed way’; the best parallel is Sen. dial. 7. 6. 2 ‘beatus est praesentibus qualiacumque sunt contentus amicusque rebus suis’ (cited by J. Delz). Perhaps H is representing some Greek adverb, e.g. IªÆH ‘contentedly’ (Mitscherlich), ºø (L. Mu¨ller), possibly PH or æH ; cf. Plut. de virtute et vitio 100d ŒÆd Æ ŒÆd ıªc ŒÆd ªBæÆ KºÆæH ŒÆd æH . . . æıØ. pati with an adverb means ‘accept’, ‘take’ (OLD 4), like ferre. Bentley argued that the adverb was superfluous (yet note Nep. Epam. 3. 4 ‘paupertatem . . . facile perpessus est’); he read the vocative amici (ps.-Acro ‘hanc oden ad amicos generaliter scribit’), but such an address would not suit the Roman Odes. Shackleton Bailey, who obelizes, suggests et aeque (the first two letters of amice could be a dittography after angustam); he explains ‘aeque et condiscat pauperiem pati et Parthos vexet’. 2–3. robustus acri militia puer / condiscat: acri militia should be taken with robustus (¼ corroboratus); cf. Cic. Cat. 2. 20 ‘genus exercitatione robustum’. Here acri, whose root meaning is ‘sharp’, emphasizes the harshness of the soldier’s life; at 1. 29. 2 ‘acrem militiam paras’ it points to fierceness against the enemy. For puer of a young soldier cf. epist. 1. 18. 54 f. ‘denique saevam / militiam puer et Cantabrica bella tulisti’ (military service began at 16 or 17); here the word is pointedly combined with robustus, which suggests the robur aetatis (‘cum iam robustus est ac per hoc cum adulescens est’ Porph.). condiscat suits a cadet (cf. Tyrt. 11. 27 æø ZæØÆ æªÆ ØÆŒŁø ºØ); the prefix intensifies (‘let him learn thoroughly’) as at 4. 11. 34 f. ‘condisce modos amanda / voce quos reddas’. Yet RN is tempted to consider ‘let him learn at the same time to put up with poverty’ (¼ addiscat); no parallel presents itself for such a usage, but for ‘learn together’ in another sense cf. Apul. flor. 18. 42 ‘ex iis qui mihi Athenis condidicerunt’. 3–4. et Parthos ferocis / vexet eques metuendus hasta: Augustus attached great importance to equestrian exercises (cf. 1. 8. 5 ff. with N–H, 3. 7. 25, 3. 24. 54 ff., Virg. Aen. 5. 548–602 on the ‘lusus Troiae’, Suet. Aug. 43. 2, Dio 51. 22. 4); for the place of young equites in his organization of the iuventus cf. Z. Yavetz in Millar–Segal 16 ff. While it seems that the equites legionis served mainly as mounted messengers and scouts,
2 . A N G V S TA M A M I C E
25
the cavalry of the allies was often commanded by Roman officers ( J. Suolahti, The Junior Officers of the Roman Army in the Republican Period, 1955: 202 f., cf. K. R. Dixon and P. Southern, The Roman Cavalry, 1992: 22); such men would be important in coping with the Parthian mounted archers. vexet (‘harry’) suits attacks by cavalry; cf. 4. 14. 22 f. ‘impiger hostium / vexare turmas’. For metuendus hasta cf. 1. 12. 23 f. ‘metuende certa, / Phoebe, sagitta’, Stat. Theb. 4. 221 ‘metuendus in hasta’; the construction is tighter if the ablative is also taken with vexet (L. Mu¨ller, Darnley Naylor). 5–6. vitamque sub divo et trepidis agat / in rebus: divum (or dium) was an old word for the sky that survived in the phrase sub divo (2. 3. 23) and sub divum (1. 18. 13). res trepidae was a standard euphemism in official and historical contexts for alarming situations; cf. Sall. Jug. 91. 5 ‘res trepidae, metus ingens, malum inprovisum’, Liv. 1. 27. 7 ‘Tullus in re trepida duodecim vovit Salios fanaque Pallori ac Pavori’, 4. 34. 5, 5. 50. 4, Tib. 2. 3. 21. rebus is given emphasis by its position at the beginning of the line before a full stop; this may stress the idea of real military action as distinct from training; cf. Val. Fl. 2. 380 f. ‘me tecum solus in aequor / rerum traxit amor’, OLD 7. 6–8. illum ex moenibus hosticis / matrona bellantis tyranni / prospiciens et adulta virgo: from the enemy walls (for the archaic hosticus cf. Porph. on 2. 1. 1 ‘illi (sc. antiqui) enim civica et hostica, deinde civilia et hostilia dicebant’, Plaut. capt. 246, serm. 1. 9. 31) a girl of marriageable age, i.e. only in her early teens (cf. Treggiari 39 ff.) and her mother, the wife (OLD s.v. matrona 2) of an enemy king (tyrannus implies an Eastern despot) look out at (prospiciens is transitive) the young Roman officer who is a threat to the girl’s betrothed (9–11). Unlike most Roman poets H prefers ex to e before consonants, and indeed never uses the latter form in the Odes (Axelson 119 f.). A survey of the battlefield from the city walls (teichoscopia) was a literary theme since Homer; cf. Il. 3. 161–244 (Helen identifies the leading Greeks), 22. 463 ff. (Andromache sees Hector’s body being dragged), Hes. scut. 242 f. ƃ b ªıÆEŒ Kıø Kd æªø =
ƺŒø O f ø, Enn. ann. 418 Sk. ‘matronae moeros complent spectare faventes’, Liv. 31. 24. 13, Tarrant on Sen. Ag. 622 (with further examples). Here H includes a romantic element derived from Hellenistic poetry (though more usually the girl falls in love with an enemy warrior); cf. Parthenius, erot. path. 21 (The Story of Pisidice, citing Apollonius fr. 12 Powell); for further examples see Lightfoot ad loc., Prop. 4. 4. 19 ff. (Tarpeia and Tatius, cf. Ogilvie on Liv. 1. 11. 5–9), Ov. met. 8. 21 ff. and ciris 172 ff. (Scylla and Minos), Val. Fl. 6. 575 ff. (Medea and Jason).
26
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
9–11. suspiret, eheu, ne rudis agminum / sponsus lacessat regius asperum / tactu leonem: suspiret describes a lover’s sigh, whether of anxiety or longing; cf. 3. 7. 10, epod. 11. 10, Catull. 64. 98, Call. ep. 43. 1 f., Ov. fast. 1. 417, CIL 4. 4342 of a gladiator ‘suspirium puellarum’, ‘the heart-throb of the girls’. suspiret and sponsus suit only the princess, the nearer and more important subject; for the zeugma cf. epod. 15. 7 f. ‘dum pecori lupus et nautis infensus Orion / turbaret hibernum mare’. eheu represents the girl’s feelings; for this usage cf. epod. 15. 23 f. ‘heu heu, translatos alio maerebis amores, / ast ego vicissim risero’, Catull. 64. 61 ‘prospicit eheu’ (Ariadne on the shore). The ne clause specifies the anxiety implicit in suspiret. For rudis agminum cf. epist. 2. 2. 47 ‘rudem belli’ (see OLD 5b for ‘raw recruits’), Cic. Brut. 292 ‘omnium rerum inscium . . . et rudem’, K–S 1. 437 f., H–Sz 77 f. agmina could be used of warfare in general and is well suited to troops of cavalry. The sponsus regius is the prince of an allied community, like Coroebus (Virg. Aen. 2. 341 ff.) or Turnus (ibid. 7. 56); the adjective could have a hint of disparagement suggesting Eastern luxury. lacessat suits a challenge in war; and it was proverbially dangerous to provoke a lion (3. 20. 2 n.). Warriors were compared to lions since Homer (Il. 5. 136, 20. 164 ff.); the metaphor comes more naturally from the patriotic Roman poet than the foreign princess. In RN’s opinion asperum tactu suggests not just ferocity at the touch (1. 23. 9 ‘tigris ut aspera’) but tangible roughness (cf. æØ of bristling animals); the somewhat archaic tactu is a second supine (cf. serm. 1. 4. 124 ‘inutile factu’, Lucr. 6. 1150 ‘aspera tactu’, Cic. Tusc. 2. 20 ‘o multa dictu gravia, perpessu aspera’, K–S. 1. 724 f., H–Sz 382 f., Bo 379). 11–12. quem cruenta / per medias rapit ira caedis: for lions’ fury cf. 1. 16. 15 with N–H. For rapit (‘carries along’) cf. epod. 7. 13 ‘furorne caecos an rapit vis acrior?’, Hom. Il. 20. 170 ff. (of a lion) Pæfi Ð b ºıæ ŒÆd N Æ IæøŁ = ÆÆØ, b ÆPe KæØ Æ ÆŁÆØ, = ªºÆıŒØ ø NŁf æÆØ Ø, Liv. 10. 41. 1 ‘Romanos ira spes ardor certaminis . . . in proelium rapit’, OLD 11b–c. All the words in H’s relative clause contribute to the impression of ferocity and slaughter; for the transferred epithet cf. Sen. Phaedra 542 f. ‘venit imperii sitis / cruenta’, Val. Fl. 3. 84 f. ‘clamorque tubaeque / sanguineae’. per medias caedis again has an epic ring; cf. Hom. Il. 10. 298 i , i ŒıÆ Ø Æ ŒÆd ºÆ Æx Æ (Diomedes and Odysseus are advancing like lions). 13. dulce et decorum est pro patria mori: decorum in the sense of ‘noble’ or ‘glorious’ can be paralleled from all periods, OLD 3; in this heroic context it is enough to cite Tyrt. 10. 1 f. ŁÆØ ªaæ ŒÆºe Kd æ ØØ Æ = ¼æ IªÆŁe æd fi ffl ÆæØ Ææ, Callinus
2 . A N G V S TA M A M I C E
27
1. 6 ff., C. W. Mu¨ller, Gymnasium 96, 1989: 317 ff. But here it has the additional sense of ‘right and proper’, OLD 4; in philosophy the pleasant and the honourable are sometimes opposed, but here they are compatible. In view of the patriotic commonplaces in 13 and 14, dulce might be expected to provide a conventional sentiment, perhaps echoing Simonides (14 n.), yet no exact parallel is available that antedates Horace. It is not enough to quote Bacchyl. 3. 47 ŁÆE ªºŒØ (for Croesus has seen his country overrun); the point must be that the thought of wellearned glory is sweet (the adjective is often used of glory in Pindar, though not actually of death). Something similar is found in Sextus Empiricus (contra ethicos 107) lÆØ ŒÆd ªŁÆØ æe f KÆı , but the best parallel is provided by Ach. Tat. 3. 22. 1 Iºº bæ ºı Œi IŁÆE fi , ŒÆºe › Œı , ªºıŒf › ŁÆ (cited by S. J. Harrison, RhM 136, 1993: 91 ff.). Add Stat. Theb. 4. 230 f. ‘mortis honorae / dulce sacrum’, Hegesippus (4th cent.) 5. 24. 1 ‘( Josephus) cui dulce fuerat ante patriam mori et pro patria’ (we owe these last two passages to Dr Nigel Holmes), Prud. peristeph. 1. 25 ‘hoc genus mortis decorum’ followed by 1. 51 ‘dulce tunc iustis cremari, dulce ferrum perpeti’ (see C. H. Gnilka, RhM 138, 1995: 94 ff.). dulce has offended modern sentiment (cf. Wilfred Owen, no. 144 ed. Stallworthy ‘The old lie, Dulce et decorum est / pro patria mori’, Ezra Pound, Ode pour l’e´lection de son se´pulcre 4. 11 f.). Cicero himself mocks the notion that the wise man under torture says ‘quam hoc suave’ ( fin. 2. 88; cf. Sen. epist. 67. 15). It is unconvincing to argue that H is simply describing the attitude of the puer (Lohmann, op. cit.), or that the pleasure is derived by those who hear about the glorious dead (H. Hommel, RhM 111, 1968: 233 ff. in a useful collection of material). RN at one time considered ‘dulci decorum est pro patria mori’ (see the discussion in W. Ludwig (ed.), Horace, Entretiens Hardt 39, 1993: 32 ff.); he relied on Acts of the Pagan Martyrs 11. 41 ff. Musurillo: Œº KØ bæ B ªºıŒı ı Ææ ºıBÆØ. This proposal would produce a more rational and a nobler sentiment; but in view of the evidence cited above the idea must now be abandoned. It has to be recognized that the ethos of most societies, including our own, has often been different from the individualism that now prevails in the West. 14. mors et fugacem persequitur virum: for the pattern ‘mori / mors’ in successive lines see Wills 397. The aphorism is modelled on Simonides, PMG 524 › Æs ŁÆ Œ ŒÆd e ıª Æ (the adversative Æs suggests that this followed a sentence similar to v. 13 above). The meaning of the two passages does not seem to be the same ( pace Heinze). H is saying that if a soldier runs away the enemy catches up on the battlefield (as is shown by the balance of persequitur and
28
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
fugacem and by vv. 15 f.); cf. Porph. ad loc. ‘hic ostendit eos maxime in bello periclitari qui fugiunt’, Xen. Cyr. 3. 3. 45, Sall. Cat. 58. 16–17 ‘nam in fuga salutem sperare . . . ea vero dementia est. semper in proeliis iis maximum est periculum qui maxime timent’, Curt. 4. 14. 25. Simonides, however, probably meant that if a man shirks battle altogether he will die in the end one way or another; cf. Hom. Il. 12. 322 ff. (Sarpedon’s famous speech on noblesse oblige), Callin. 1. 14 f. ººŒØ œBÆ ıªg ŒÆd F IŒ ø = æ ÆØ, K YŒfiø EæÆ Œ ŁÆı, Aesch. TrGF 3. fr. 362. 3 f., Eur. TGF fr. 10. 1 f., Dem. 18. 97 with Wankel. 15–16. nec parcit imbellis iuventae / poplitibus timidoque tergo: it was standard practice to slash the hamstrings of a fleeing enemy; cf. Hom. Il. 13. 212, Virg. Aen. 9. 762, Liv. 22. 51. 7 (Cannae), Ov. met. 8. 363 f. ‘trepidantem et terga parantem / vertere succiso liquerunt poplite nervi’, Veg. mil. 1. 11. 7 ‘poplites et crura succidere’. It was similarly disgraceful to be struck in the back (Hom. Il. 13. 289, 22. 283, Tyrt. 11. 17 f., Catull. 64. 339 with Ellis; so still Binyon, For the Fallen v. 12 ‘They fell with their faces to the foe’); the epithet as often is transferred from the person to the body (1. 37. 1, 3. 5. 22 etc.). Two important ninthcentury MSS (A and B) read timidove, while the bulk of the tradition has timidoque; both readings can be justified, and both can be paralleled (Liv. 22. 48. 4 ‘tergaque ferientes ac poplites caedentes’, paneg. Lat. 2. 36. 1 ‘alii poplitibus imminere, alii terga configere’). 17. virtus repulsae nescia sordidae: for the sequence of thought see the introduction above. H is referring here to the man of virtus, not to the divine abstraction of 2. 2. 19 (quoted below). He adopts the Stoic view that the good man knows nothing of humiliating setbacks because his mind is superior to the accidents of fortune; cf. 2. 2. 17 ff. ‘redditum Cyri solio Phraaten / dissidens plebi numero beatorum / eximit Virtus’, serm. 2. 7. 88 ‘in quem manca ruit semper Fortuna’, Cic. paradox. Stoic. 6. 43 ‘animus oportet tuus se iudicet divitem, non hominum sermo neque possessiones tuae’, Sen. epist. 57. 3, 118. 4 (see below). Elsewhere in his private capacity H derides the Stoic paradox that only the wise man is truly king (serm. 1. 3. 124 ff., epist. 1. 1. 106 f.); cf. also Lucil. 1226 with Marx, Cic. fin. 3. 75, Lucull. 136 ‘neminem consulem praetorem imperatorem, nescio an ne quinquevirum quidem quemquam, nisi sapientem?’ repulsae properly refers to defeat in an election (cf. epist. 1. 1. 43 ‘exiguum censum turpemque repulsam’, OLD 1), and this motif is continued below in 19 f. For the same philosophic attitude to the defeat of a good man cf. Cic. Tusc. 5. 54 (on Laelius’ initial rejection for the consulship), Val. Max. 7. 5. 6 (de repulsis), Sen. epist. 71. 11, 118. 4, Plin. nat. hist. praef. 9 (all referring to Cato).
2 . A N G V S TA M A M I C E
29
In the early Principate, even if some freedom of elections remained, there was no question of a major consular candidate being rejected. As the following stanza on virtus points to Augustus himself (21 n.), the same may be true here. Augustus, of course, had lost no election, but repulsae may hint indirectly at some other setback; Williams in his commentary (p. 37) sees an allusion to a failure to push through his moral legislation (see below on 3. 6). H invokes philosophy elsewhere as a consolation for political discomfiture; see 2. 2. 17 ff. (quoted above) which sympathizes with Tiridates, the defeated Roman candidate for the Parthian throne, and 4. 9. 30 ff., which vindicates the virtus of Lollius (‘consulque non unius anni’), who had suffered a military defeat, and in the literal sense had been consul only once. 18. intaminatis fulget honoribus: the good man who has been denied honores (magistracies) shines with honores (of a less material sort); cf. Claud. 17. 1 ff. ‘ipsa quidem Virtus pretium sibi, solaque late / Fortunae secura nitet. nec fascibus ullis / erigitur, plausuve petit clarescere vulgi’. intaminatus is not otherwise attested in the classical period; for instances from Christian Latin cf. TLL 7. 1. 2069. 73 ff. intaminatis fulget makes a contrast with the immediately preceding sordidae; so Wade’s interminatis is without merit. For the imagery cf. Cic. Sest. 60 ‘(virtus) lucet in tenebris . . . splendetque per sese semper neque alienis umquam sordibus obsolescit’ (of Cato, with heavy irony, but no doubt reflecting things that were said seriously). 19–20. nec sumit aut ponit securis / arbitrio popularis aurae: cf. epist. 1. 16. 33 f. (of the populace) ‘si / detulerit fascis indigno, detrahet idem’, Vell. 2. 33. 3 (on Pompey’s magistracies) ‘ut quod cupisset arbitrio suo sumeret, alieno deponeret’. The fasces were the insignia imperii (Mommsen, Staatsrecht 1, edn. 3, 373 ff.), and as such were carried at all stages by the lictors of Augustus; the sentence may contain a rebuke for anyone who genuinely wished to restore the Republic. It seems odd, however, that H should refer not to the rods but to the axes, which were not normally carried within the city; perhaps the passage reflects discussions about the government of the provinces, where they were carried. (By the settlement of 27 bc, which may come after our poem, Augustus kept control of Spain, Gaul, and Syria, while nominally handing the other provinces back to the people.) For the fickle breeze of popular favour cf. epist. 1. 19. 37 ‘non ego ventosae plebis suffragia venor’, Cic. har. resp. 43 ‘popularis aura provexit’, Liv. 3. 33. 7 with Ogilvie, Virg. Aen. 6. 815 ‘nimium gaudens popularibus auris’, Sen. Hf 169 ff. with Billerbeck. As arbitrio suggests a legal adjudication or at least a serious decision, it is paradoxically combined with aurae.
30
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
21–2. virtus recludens immeritis mori / caelum: the repetition of virtus (17 and 21) recalls the sacral anaphora common with tu and ille; cf. Soph. Ant. 781 f. ! ¯æø IŒÆ Æ, = ! ¯æø , n K ŒÆØ Ø , Philodemus, anth. Pal. 10. 21 (¼ 8 Sider). Wilkinson (125) objects that the image is confused and unreal: in 21 ‘Virtus seems to be a goddess opening the gates of heaven for her devotees’, while in 22 ‘she represents the man of virtue entering them.’ In fact virtus in both 17 and 21 is the quality of the man himself, not an external power; for recludere of heroic achievements cf. Sen. dial. 11. 15. 5 (of Drusus) ‘intima Germaniae recludentem’, OLD s.v. 2b. For the gates of heaven cf. Hom. Il. 5. 749, Enn. var. 24 ‘mi soli caeli maxima porta patet’, Virg. georg. 3. 261, Genesis 28: 17. immeritis mori appears to be the first recorded instance of immeritus followed by an infinitive. It was a commonplace that heroes like Hercules, the Dioscuri, and Romulus attained immortality because of their services to mankind (e.g. 3. 3. 9-10 n., epist. 2. 1. 5 ff., Cic. nat. deor. 2. 62 with Pease, Tusc. 1. 28, 4. 50, off. 3. 25, Sen. HO 1942 f.). Hellenistic and Roman writers also spoke of similar rewards for great leaders; cf. 3. 3. 11 and epist. 2. 1. 15 ff. (Augustus) with Brink’s bibliography, Cic. rep. 6. 26 (great men) ‘si quidem bene meritis de patria quasi limes ad caeli aditum patet’ with Powell, Virg. Aen. 6. 129 f. ‘pauci quos aequus amavit / Iuppiter aut ardens evexit ad aethera virtus’, Sen. dial. 6. 25. 1, Luc. 9. 6 ff. (Pompey) ‘quodque patet terras inter lunaeque meatus / semidei manes habitant quos ignea virtus / innocuos vita patientis aetheris imi / fecit et aeternos animam collegit in orbes’, Joseph. bJ 6. 5. 47 (on those who die in battle), Suet. Jul. 88 (Caesar). In particular, H reflects the doctrine of the Stoics, of whom some (like Cleanthes) maintained that all souls survive till the next conflagration, while others (like Chrysippus) confined that privilege to the elect (Diog. Laert. 7. 157); cf. Diog. of Oenoanda, Smith, fr. 39, III. 13–IV. 12, in particular a b H IıH PŁø a c ØŒæØØ F Æ ŁæŁÆØ ºªıØ, a b H ıÆø KØØÆØ IæH. Such ideas have been associated with the alleged eschatology of Posidonius (Reinhardt, RE 22. 1. 778 ff.), but there are many uncertainties ( J. F. Dobson, CQ 12, 1918: 182 ff., M. Laffranque, Posidonius d’Apame´e, 1964: 519 ff.). In H’s case there is no need to look beyond traditional Stoicism as coloured by the imagination of Cicero. H follows the tradition when speaking as the national vates. Elsewhere he says that great men survive only in their fame (which in turn depends on their being celebrated by a major poet); cf. 4. 8. 29 ‘caelo Musa beat’, 4. 9. 25 ff., Lyne, 1995: 209 ff. This idea was already familiar from early Greek poetry; cf. for instance Tyrt. 12. 31 ff. P Œº KŁºe I ººıÆØ P Z ÆPF, = Iºº e ªB æ Kg ªÆØ IŁÆ , Simonides, anth. Pal. 7. 251. 3 f. ¼ Campbell, epig. ix (probably
2 . A N G V S TA M A M I C E
31
on the Greek dead at Plataea) Pb ŁAØ ŁÆ , K Iæc ŒÆŁæŁ = ŒıÆı IªØ Æ K #ø. 22. negata temptat iter via: temptat (‘ventures’) suggests boldness and is less tentative than ‘tries’; cf. epist. 1. 17. 34 ‘caelestia temptat’, Virg. georg. 3. 8 f. ‘temptanda via est qua me quoque possim / tollere humo’, Rhianus 1. 15 (Powell, Coll. Alex. ). iter (literally ‘a going’) means the same as ire (the unmetrical reading of one side of the tradition). negata . . . via implies ‘by a way denied to ordinary mortals’; cf. 1. 3. 35 ‘pennis non homini datis’, Pind. Pyth. 10. 27 › ºŒ PæÆe h IÆe ÆPfiH, Sen. Phaedr. 224 ‘solus negatas invenit Theseus vias’, Claud. 26. 69 f. 23–4. coetusque vulgaris et udam / spernit humum fugiente penna: the wet ground suits grosser natures; cf. serm. 2. 2. 79 ‘atque adfigit humo divinae particulam aurae’, Ar. nub. 232 f. with Dover, Plat. Phaed. 109b rÆØ ªaæ ÆÆ fi Ð æd c ªB ººa ŒEºÆ ŒÆd ÆÆa . . . N L ıææıŒÆØ oøæ ŒÆd c › º ŒÆd e IæÆ (in contrast with the stars and the aether), Cic. Tusc. 1. 42, nat. deor. 2. 17 with Pease, Virg. Aen. 6. 730 ff. ‘igneus est ollis vigor et caelestis origo / seminibus, quantum non noxia corpora tardant / terrenique hebetant artus moribundaque membra’, Val. Fl. 1. 10; for the fiery nature of the divine see Pease on Cic. nat. deor. 1. 39, 2. 40. spernit suggests not just departure (1. 30. 2 ‘sperne dilectam Cyprum’) but disdain (2. 16. 39 f. ‘malignum / spernere volgus’) and soaring flight (Milton, PL 7. 421 f. ‘Soaring the air sublime / With clang despised the ground’). fugiente penna recalls the flight of Justice (Arat. phaen. 1. 133 f.) and H’s metaphorical ascension in the guise of a swan (2. 20. 3 f. ‘neque in terris morabor / longius’). 25–6. est et fideli tuta silentio / merces: H is imitating the pattern of Simonides, PMG 582 Ø ŒÆd تA IŒı ªæÆ (see especially Oates, Davis, and Stoneman, opp. citt.); Stoneman takes ªæÆ not as the reward for silence paid by the laudandus but as the tribute of silence offered by the laudator. So when Simonides points to the danger of saying too much, he may simply be using a conventional means of breaking off an encomium (thus Pind. I. 1. 60 ff. Æ K ØE . . . IÆØæEÆØ æÆ f æ ø = o . q a ººŒØ ŒÆd e ø- = Æ PŁıÆ ø æØ). Pindar, however, says elsewhere that ‘the ways of silence are most reliable’ because assertive words provoke quarrels (fr. 180 Ł ‹ Ø ÆÆØ ØªA › with C. M. Bowra, Pindar, 1964: 359 f.); that is how Simonides was understood by Augustus (ap. Plut. regum . . . apoph. 207c), Aelius Aristides (orat. 3. 97 Behr), and Libanius (decl. 15. 4); cf. also Plut. de tuenda san. 125d ŒÆŁæ › &Øø ºª ÆPfiH ƺBÆØ ØªÆØ, Łª Æfiø b ººŒØ .
32
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
By the addition of fideli H gives the aphorism a new direction. In view of the following sentence on the rites of Ceres (26–7 n.) he must at one level be referring to the betrayal of religious mysteries (cf. Virg. Aen. 3. 112 ‘fida silentia sacris’, Apul. met. 3. 15. 4 ‘sacris . . . initiatus profecto nosti sanctam silentii fidem’, Tert. apol. 8); but after the superhuman political achievements of the previous stanzas this is too peripheral an issue to be given such prominence. Nor can we argue that by mentioning one aspect of piety H is commending piety in general (Heinze, Syndikus); in the Augustan context he could have found something more significant than the mysteries, and the formidable sanctions of the last sentence (29–32) had only a limited application in the tolerant world of Roman religion. Pasquali (678 ff.) suggests that H is declining to reveal secrets about the immortality of Augustus, but that was no secret, and would not have deserved punishment (30–2); the case is quite different at Pind. N. 5. 16 ff., for there the poet is keeping silent about an unhappy legend. Williams, loc. cit., sees fidele silentium as an analogy for assent to Augustan legislation (one might compare Sopater in Walz, Rhet. Graec. 8. 119 e ØøA ŒÆd æØ a Ææa H ø æÆ Æ ŒıæE b f ı . . . ); but the observance of religious secrets seems a very different sort of silence. It appears more probable that the mysteries here are an analogy for state secrets; this keeps up the political reference of the previous stanzas. arcana imperii in Tacitus and elsewhere (Goodyear on ann. 2. 36. 1) is a religious metaphor; cf. also 1. 28. 9 ‘Iovis arcanis Minos admissus’. In the same way mysteria is used in secular contexts (TLL 8. 1757. 9 ff.); cf. Lucil. 651 f. ‘at enim dicis ‘‘clandestino tibi quod commissum foret, / neu muttires quicquam neu mysteria ecferres foras’’ ’ with Marx, Porph. on 1. 18. 12 f. ‘non proferam in publicum mysteria tua, inquit, latentia alioquin ac secreta. sed per allegoriam hoc videtur dicere: ea quae fidei meae commissa sunt, numquam ego ebrius factus prodam’, [Plut.] de lib. educ. 10 f ŒÆd Øa F Ø ŒE a ıæØØ ºa ƒ ƺÆØd ŒÆØ Æ, ¥ K ÆÆØ ØøA KŁØŁ Kd c H IŁæøø ıæø Ø e Ie H Łø Ææø , de garrul. 505 f. Augustus notoriously kept people guessing about his intentions (see Suet. Aug. 50 for the sphinx on his seal-ring), and H repeatedly mentions the importance of discretion in both public and private life; cf. 1. 18. 16 ‘arcanique Fides prodiga’, serm. 1. 3. 95, 1. 4. 84 f. ‘commissa tacere / qui nequit, hic niger est, hunc tu, Romane, caveto’, 2. 6. 46, 2. 6. 57 f., epist. 1. 5. 24 f., 1. 18. 37 ‘arcanum neque tu scrutaberis illius umquam’, 1. 18. 70, ars 200. H’s tuta merces has therefore a different implication from the IŒı ªæÆ of his model. Simonides seems to have meant that silence is risk-free: no offence can be caused if you say nothing. On the other hand, with tuta merces the reward for discretion is assured
2 . A N G V S TA M A M I C E
33
(just like the reward for virtus and the punishment for cowardice and indiscretion). The reward is not specified; it could be position or esteem, but may simply be the consciousness of duty done; cf. e.g. 2. 2. 21 where the diadema tutum cannot be taken away because it exists only in the mind. 26–7. vetabo qui Cereris sacrum / vulgarit arcanae: the mysteries of Demeter and Persephone at Eleusis in Attica included the enactment of the myth, which ‘explained’ how corn remained below the earth for part of the year and above it for the rest (see Burkert 276–8, 285–90); charges of impiety were brought against those who betrayed the rituals (Aeschylus, Andocides, Alcibiades, and Diagoras among others). Following the precedent of earlier notabilities like Cicero and Atticus (leg. 2. 36), Octavian was initiated in 31 bc (Dio 51. 4. 1), and observed the duty of secrecy; cf. Suet. Aug. 93 ‘Athenis initiatus, cum postea Romae . . . de privilegio sacerdotum Atticae Cereris cognosceret et quaedam secretiora proponerentur dimisso consilio . . . solus audivit disceptantes’. H, too, seems to be referring to the Greek Demeter (cf. serm. 2. 8. 13 f. ‘ut Attica virgo / cum sacris Cereris’). A temple of Ceres was dedicated in Rome in 493 bc (Dion. Hal. ant. Rom. 6. 17. 2–4, Tac. ann. 2. 49., Scullard 102 f., Richardson 80 f.), but her mysteries were probably confined to women (Cic. leg. 2. 21, 2. 37, H. Le Bonniec, Le Culte de Ce´re`s a` Rome, 1958: 423 ff., B. S. Spaeth, The Roman Goddess Ceres, 1996: 20, 105 f.) and played a much less important part in religious life than the Eleusinian mysteries. vetabo is future in tense because the poet is warning about future possibilities; for somewhat similar usages cf. epist. 1. 14. 44 ‘censebo’, 1. 19. 8 f. ‘forum putealque Libonis / mandabo siccis, adimam cantare severis’ (edixi in v. 10 hints at the praetor’s edict), ars 317 ‘iubebo’, Lo¨fstedt 2. 127 ff., H–Sz 850. The following subjunctive (sit in v. 28) is more legalistic than the usual infinitive; cf. epist. 2. 1. 239 f. ‘edicto vetuit ne quis se praeter Apellen / pingeret’, Pers. 1. 112 ‘hic . . . veto quisquam faxit oletum’. Bentley considered reading arcanum (still an adjective), and though he judged it unnecessary it should be left on the record: it is combined elsewhere with sacrum (epod. 5. 52 ‘arcana cum fiunt sacra’, Ov. her. 12. 79 ‘arcanaque sacra Dianae’, Stat. silv. 3. 3. 65 f.), it makes a sharper contrast with vulgarit, and it brings out more clearly the analogy with state secrets. Normally with enallage (transferred epithet) the genitive adjective is transferred to the noun on which it depends (see the references collected by Bo 134); for another unusual instance like the present cf. 3. 24. 44 ‘virtutisque viam deserit arduae’ (with note). 27–9. sub isdem / sit trabibus fragilemque mecum / solvat phaselon: for the wish not to share a house with the impious cf. Soph. Ant. 372 ff.
34
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
Kd ÆæØ = ªØ Y æH = n æØ, Antiphon 5. 11, Plat. rep. 3. 417a, Call. h. 6. 116 f. ˜Ææ, c B Kd º , ‹ Ø I Ł , = Y › Ø . For the wish not to sail in the same boat cf. Aesch. sept. 602 ff., Eur. Elect. 1354 f. oø IØŒE d Łºø = KØ æŒø Æ ıºø, fr. 852. 5 N edn. 2, Xen. Cyr. 8. 1. 25, Petr. 105. 1. For the combination of both sentiments cf. Greg. Naz. PG 37. 907. 309 f. (a reference supplied by Mr A. S. Hollis). There was a story that Simonides was warned in a dream not to sail in a ship that later sank (PMG 653. 1, Cic. div. 1. 56 with Pease, Val. Max. 1. 7 ext. 3, Oates, op. cit. 4 ff.); and when the hall-roof of the Scopadae fell down, the poet again miraculously escaped (PMG 510, Call. aet. fr. 64. 11 ff., Cic. de orat. 2. 352–3, Quint. 11. 2. 11 ff., Oates, op. cit. 2 ff., 9 ff.). The combination of the collapsing roof and the shipwreck may again be suggested by something in Simonides; but the context must have been different, for neither the sailors nor the Scopadae were guilty of impiety, and Simonides was not killed as a result of associating with them. A phaselos was a boat shaped like a bean-pod; as it had a shallow draught it was unstable (Ov. am. 2. 10. 9 ‘erro velut ventis discordibus acta phaselos’); for fragilem cf. 1. 3. 10 f. ‘fragilem . . . ratem’. It seems originally to have been associated with the Nile (cf. Virg. georg. 4. 289), yet the name was also used of a sea-going vessel for the conveyance of passengers; cf. Catull. 4. 1 ff. with Fordyce, Cic. Att. 1. 13. 1 (a voyage to Epirus), L. Casson, Ships and Seamanship in the Ancient World, 1971: 167 f., RE 19. 2. 1883 f. 29–30. saepe Diespiter / neglectus incesto addidit integrum: Jupiter punished the impious (1. 3. 40, 1. 12. 59 f.) and in particular oathbreakers; for neglectus in religious contexts cf. 3. 6. 7. The archaic Diespiter is used with solemn effect; cf. 1. 34. 5, Paul. Fest. 102L ‘si sciens fallo, tum me Dispiter salva urbe arceque bonis eiciat, ut ego hunc lapidem’. The incestus is the man polluted by sacrilege (ars 472, Tib. 1. 2. 81 f. ‘num feror incestus sedes adiisse deorum / sertaque de sanctis eripuisse focis?’); such miasma was contagious (see Parker 4, and cf. Liv. 39. 9. 1). The integer, on the other hand, was untainted (1. 22. 1 ‘Integer vitae scelerisque purus’). For the punishment of the innocent with the guilty cf. Hes. op. 240 with West, Antiph. 5. 82, Virg. Aen. 1. 39 ff., Genesis 18: 23–33. addidit is a ‘gnomic’ perfect, applied to things that have happened in the past and are likely to happen again (K–S 1. 132, H–Sz 318 f.). saepe, like the balancing raro (31), is common in such contexts. 31–2. raro antecedentem scelestum / deseruit pede Poena claudo: Poena is here personified, like the avenging Fury in Greek; cf. Aeschin. 1. 190 c ªaæ YŁ . . . f MŒ Æ ŒÆŁæ K ÆE æƪfiøÆØ —Øa KºÆØ, Tib. 1. 9. 4 ‘sera tamen tacitis Poena venit pedibus’ with
3 . I V S T V M E T T ENAC EM P RO P O S I T I V I RV M
35
Murgatroyd. Divine punishment is conventionally slow but sure (Hom. Il. 4. 161, Plut. de sera numinum vindicta, Otto 111), and so Justice is described as slow-footed; cf. Eur. TGF 979. 3 f. EªÆ ŒÆd æÆE d = ıÆ æłØ f ŒÆŒf ‹Æ fi , Val. Max. 1. 1 ext. 3. 26 f. ‘lento enim gradu ad vindictam sui divina procedit ira’, Strato, anth. Pal. 12. 229. 2 æ ı . . . ˝Ø. The image of limping in such a context is found in Hom. Il. 9. 502 ff. (the limping Supplications that follow after Ate), but there is no recorded parallel to H’s limping Retribution. deseruit means ‘lets go of ’, ‘cannot keep up with’ (TLL 5. 1. 673. 66 ff. ‘a comite vel duce discedere . . . non sequendo’, 2. 16. 22 ‘nec turmas equitum relinquit’). For the unremitting pursuit cf. Pease on Virg. Aen. 4. 471 (the Furies), Coleridge, Ancient Mariner part 6 ‘Because he knows a frightful fiend / Doth close behind him tread’; in Horace’s raro deseruit, however, there is an added irony in that the faithless man is unable to shake off such a faithful companion. The word-order produces an effect worthy of Hitchcock: first we see a man walking—a criminal—then behind him the foot—Retribution’s foot—limping.
3 . I V S T V M E T T ENAC EM PROPOSITI VIRVM [P. Ceaus¸escu, Historia 25, 1976: 79 ff.; D. C. Feeney, CQ 34, 1984: 179 ff.; W. Warde Fowler, Roman Essays and Interpretations, 1920: 216 ff.; Fraenkel 267 ff.; E. L. Harrison ap. Woodman and West (1984), 95 ff.; S. Harrison, Entretiens Hardt 39, 1993: 141 ff.; Lyne (1995), 208 ff.; L. P. E. Parker, MH 59, 2002: 101 ff.; Pasquali 681 ff.; H. T. Plu¨ss, Horazstudien, 1882: 211 ff.; Wilkinson 73 f.]
1–8. The just and steadfast man cannot be shaken by any kind of threat. 9–18. Through such qualities divinity was achieved by heroes like Hercules (among whom Augustus will take his place), and Romulus, when Juno had given her consent in a speech that proved agreeable to the gods: 18–44. ‘Perfidious Troy was destroyed by Paris and Helen; now that the war is over I give up my resentment and agree that Romulus should be enrolled among the gods, provided that Rome and Troy are kept apart; provided that Troy remains desolate, Roman power may stand firm. 45–68. Let Rome extend her empire from Spain to Egypt, disregarding mineral wealth, and from the torrid zone to the rainy north, so long as she refrains from rebuilding Troy; if Troy is rebuilt I shall destroy it again’. 69–72. But cease, Muse, to diminish such epic themes in the slight mode of lyric.
36
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
Firmness of purpose was a virtue particularly prized by the Stoics; in this they drew on Plato’s account of Socrates, who did not yield to pressure from either tyrants or the demos (2–3 nn.). Cicero (Tusc. 3. 9) states that constantia had an important place in the Romans’ traditional value-system (for examples see Val. Max. 3. 8 and Sen. dial. 2); that quality is particularly evident in their idealized accounts of the younger Cato (cf. Parker, loc. cit.). In the first two stanzas there is no direct reference to Augustus, who was not threatened by tyrants (3–4 n.). But in the third stanza Pollux and Hercules, and in the fourth Bacchus and Romulus, are said to have been deified for their steadfastness (hac arte); so when Augustus is pictured as reclining in their company (11–12), he was clearly expected to achieve such glory through the same virtue. It is true that the Princeps’ divinity lies only in the future, and that the poet concentrates on the apotheosis of Quirinus (i.e. Romulus); but since Augustus regarded himself as Rome’s second founder and at one time thought of assuming the name of Romulus (Suet. Aug. 7, Dio 53. 16. 7), analogies were bound to suggests themselves (cf. Binder 162 ff.). We shall argue that the steadfastness of Augustus is highly relevant to the purpose of the ode as a whole. The mention of Quirinus leads to the heart of the poem (for such a transition cf. 3. 11. 25). There Juno makes a speech to the council of the gods in which she agrees to the apotheosis of Romulus (35 f.) on condition that Troy should not be rebuilt (37 ff., 58 ff.). The apotheosis itself was guaranteed by Jupiter, as we learn from the Annals of Ennius (1, fr. xxxiii with Skutsch); for the context see Ov. met. 14. 812 ff. where Mars reminds Jupiter of his promise: ‘tu mihi concilio quondam praesente deorum / . . . ‘‘unus erit quem tu tolles in caerula caeli’’ / dixisti’; cf. 15–16 n. It is probable that Juno also consented to the apotheosis of her grandson in this debate (Feeney, op. cit. 181 f.). Such a speech seems to be the common source behind Horace’s ode and Virg. Aen. 12. 827 f., where Juno says ‘sit Romana potens Itala virtute propago’, adding ‘occidit, occideritque sinas cum nomine Troia’; in other words the Trojans may settle in Italy provided they abandon their distinct identity; such a limited de´tente had been foreshadowed by Jupiter at Aen. 10. 8 ff. But Juno would not be fully reconciled to Rome until she withdrew her support from Carthage in the Second Punic War (Skutsch on Enn. ann. 8, frr. xv and xvi, Virg. Aen. 1. 179 ff., E. L. Harrison, loc. cit.). In a different context Horace actually extends her support for Carthage until 46 bc (2. 1. 25–6 with N–H), but in the present poem we are not meant to remember Carthage at all; otherwise Juno would not have sanctioned the spread of Roman power from the Straits of Gibraltar to the Nile (46 ff.). In the ode Juno insists that the Romans must not rebuild the original Troy in the Troad (40 ff.); this stipulation cannot have been made in
3 . I V S T V M E T T ENAC EM P RO P O S I T I V I RV M
37
Ennius (for at the time of Rome’s foundation there was no possibility of re-establishing contact with Troy), so we must look for another explanation. Suetonius says of Julius Caesar (79. 3): ‘quin etiam varia fama percrebruit migraturum Alexandream vel Ilium, translatis simul opibus imperii . . . et procuratione urbis amicis permissa’; cf. also Nicolaus of Damascus, FGrH 90 F130. 20 (II. 1, p. 404): some said Caesar intended to make Egypt the centre of empire, ƒ K + ºfiø F ÆÆ ÆPe ººØ ŒÆŁÆŁÆØ Øa c ƺÆØa æe e ˜ÆæÆØH ª ıªªØÆ, Lucan 9. 998 f. (Caesar prays to the dead Trojans) ‘restituam populos; grata vice moenia reddent / Ausonidae Phrygibus, Romanaque Pergama surgent’. This rumour, though often in the past thought significant, is now usually discounted (Fraenkel 268, nn. 1–5), but Caesar might have thought of establishing a secondary centre of power in the East once he had conquered Parthia. It is also significant that Livy gives prominence to a speech by Camillus in which he rejects a proposal to move the seat of government to Veii (5. 51–4 with Ogilvie); there was nothing new about this speech (see Enn. ann. 4 fr. v with Skutsch, pp. 314 f. and Plut. Cam. 31–2), but as Livy was writing around the same time as Horace, it is tempting to look for a contemporary context in both passages and also in Virg. Aen. 12. 827 f. quoted above. Such fears were not new; they were foreshadowed by the scare-mongering allegations in Cic. de leg. agr. 1. 18, where the orator attacks in highly coloured terms a proposal to send a colony to Capua: ‘Capuam deduci colonos volunt, illam urbem huic urbi rursus opponere, illuc opes suas deferre et imperi nomen transferre cogitant’, cf. 2. 96. Obviously Augustus had no intention of abandoning Rome as the capital of the empire (if he had, Horace would not have denounced the idea). Yet others may have canvassed less drastic proposals; the richest and most populous parts of the empire were in Asia, so attractive economic arguments may have been put forward for a redeveloped Troy, and in view of its accessiblity from the Via Egnatia the place may have been thought a promising site for a secondary centre of power. In 22 Agrippa, Augustus’ loyal general, held a command in Lesbos, from where he could exercise authority over a wide area and keep a watch on the sea-routes ( Joseph. aJ 15. 350, Dio 53. 32. 1, J.-M. Roddaz, Marcus Agrippa, 1984: 425, Lacey 117 ff.); we find him again in the East in 16–13, and his name occurs in an undatable inscription from Ilium (P. Frisch, Die Inschriften von Ilium, 1975: no. 86). D. Magie’s comment is significant: ‘The mere creation of this command and the precedent established for the division of power over the West and the East between emperor and associate were of far greater importance than anything that was done by the first incumbent of the office’ (Roman Rule in Asia Minor, 1950: 1. 468–9). Yet, although the buildings of various cities were repaired and their economy restored (for Troy, see
38
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
C. B. Rose, Studia Troica 2, 1992: 45; and 4, 1994: 75), Augustus never set up another administrative centre of the kind envisaged. The careers of Sulla and Pompey had shown how the extension of Roman power could lead to the emergence of rich and powerful figures with dangerous ambitions. Antony, now inseparably linked with civil war, had staged a ceremony at which he handed over large territories in the East to Cleopatra and her children (Dio 49. 32. 4 f.); worse still, he had intended, allegedly, to move the capital to Alexandria—a plan which even his friends viewed with dismay (Dio 50. 4. 1 f.). Augustus’ refusal to countenance such an idea was vindicated by history; for when Constantine eventually founded a New Rome in Byzantium, the consequences for the unity of the empire were disastrous; it is worth noting that his original choice had been Ilium (Zosimus 2. 30. 1). For these matters and further documentation see Ceaus¸escu, loc. cit. Other explanations of the poem may be briefly recorded. Fraenkel (loc. cit.) refuses to admit a contemporary relevance (just as he does with 3. 5 on Regulus); he sees Juno’s speech as providing just a vivid sketch of the goddess’s intransigent character, but that does not explain why the continuing insignificance of Troy should be given such a prominent place in the Roman Odes. Some see a criticism of Antony’s oriental policy; but though the ode hints at a correspondence between Helen and Cleopatra (25 f.), Troy was too different from Alexandria to make an extended analogy plausible. Others regard Troy, which was notoriously rich (Enn. trag. x x v i i , 89 ff. J with Jocelyn’s notes on 90 and 91, Virg. Aen. 2. 763 ff.) and corrupt (21–2 n.) as representing the materialism of the fallen Republic (cf. Plu¨ss and Wilkinson, locc. citt.); this suits the denunciation of gold-mining at 49–52, but that single stanza can hardly be given such importance in the scheme of the ode as a whole. Such a view, like the supposed allusion to Antony, does nothing to explain the corresponding passages in Livy and especially Virgil (Aen. 12. 827 f.); and it is difficult to regard ‘Ilium’ as merely a metaphor in view of Rome’s continuing interest in the actual site (cf. Rose, loc. cit.). The theory proposed above offers an explanation of the poem’s length and gravitas and its position alongside no. 4. It accounts for the importance of Romulus, and allows room for the attack on acquisitiveness (49–52 n). Above all, Horace’s praise of steadfastness under pressure makes sense if Augustus is resisting proposals that would impair the integrity of the empire and his own position as Rome’s second founder (cf. Warde Fowler, op. cit. 217 ff.). Metre: Alcaic. 1. Iustum et tenacem propositi virum: iustitia (‘right behaviour’) was put by Cicero at the centre of morality: cf. off. 1. 20 ‘iustitia in qua
3 . I V S T V M E T T ENAC EM P RO P O S I T I V I RV M
39
virtutis splendor est maximus ex qua viri boni nominantur’. It involved not just the avoidance of unfair dealing but a readiness to stand up for principle and show steadfastness in adversity: cf. Cic. off. 2. 38 ‘nemo enim iustus esse potest qui mortem, qui dolorem, qui exilium, qui egestatem timet’. iustitia also occupied a central place in the Romans’ political theory (see the debate in Cic. rep. 3. 8 ff.) and figured prominently in the presentation of their imperial power; thus Caesar claimed that Roman imperium in Gaul was iustissimum (bG 1. 45. 3) and that he would win the civil war by iustitia et aequitate (bc 1. 32. 9); similarly the golden shield presented to Octavian in 27 bc by the senate and people contained the words ‘virtutis clementiaeque et iustitiae et pietatis caussa’ (res gest. 34. 2 with the introduction to 3. 2 and Weinstock 243 ff.). propositum can refer not only to a general principle but also to one’s purpose in a particular situation; hence somebody who holds fast to his purpose is said tenere propositum (Caes. bc 1. 83. 3, Ov. ars 1. 470); similarly tenax propositi at Ov. met. 10. 405, Val. Max. 6. 3. 5. For H’s steadfast man cf. Cic. Lig. 26 ‘eius viri quem de suscepta causa propositaque sententia nulla contumelia, nulla vis, nullum periculum posset depellere’. 2. non civium ardor prava iubentium: iubentium refers not just to the clamour of the mob but to resolutions of an assembly, as in the formulae velitis iubeatis, Quirites and populus iussit; in RN’s view such a neuter plural has a Greek tinge that suits philosophical discourse (cf. 1. 29. 16 ‘pollicitus meliora’). For criticisms of popular emotion cf. Plat. apol. 32b (Socrates resists the prosecution of the generals after Arginusae), Cic. rep. 1. 65–7 (citing Plat. rep. 8. 562 ff.), Sen. dial. 2. 1. 3 (Cato the Younger set on by the mob); a general exposition of the citizens’ influence is given by F. Millar, The Crowd in Rome in the Late Republic, 1998. For things that cannot affect the wise man cf. serm. 2. 7. 83 ff., Sen. Ag. 596 ff. with Tarrant, Thy. 350 ff.; Syndikus 2. 36 n. 22 comments on the Stoic colouring of the first two stanzas. 3–4. non vultus instantis tyranni / mente quatit solida: the tyrant no less than the demos must be resisted, as shown again by Socrates (Plat. apol. 32c–d, Epictet. 4. 1. 164); for illustrations of the stock situation cf. epist. 1. 16. 73 ff., M. Winterbottom, index to Seneca the Elder s.v. ‘Tyrants’, Juv. 10. 307 with Mayor, Epictet. 1. 18. 17, 1. 19. 7–8, Philostr. vit. Apoll. 7. 4. The tyrant’s threatening mien is referred to at Soph. OT 447 f. P e e = Æ æ ø, Cic. off. 1. 112 (on Cato) ‘(cum) semperque in proposito susceptoque consilio permansisset, moriendum potius quam tyranni vultus aspiciendus fuit’, Sen. HO 1992 ff. (with Nisbet, 1995: 211); instantis means ‘louring’, cf. Lucr. 1. 64 f. (on religio) ‘quae caput a caeli regionibus ostendebat / horribili super aspectu
40
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
mortalibus instans’. For mente solida cf. Sen. dial. 2. 3. 5 ‘quemadmodum proiecti quidam in altum scopuli mare frangunt . . . ita sapientis animus solidus est’. Though parallels are lacking, mente is probably a separative ablative, as with the compound excutere (cf. [Aesch.] Prom. 360 f. [ŒæÆıe ] ÆPe K º H łª æø = ŒÆø; Heinze regards it as an ablative of respect as with animo perturbari, but solida makes this less likely. 4–5. neque Auster / dux inquieti turbidus Hadriae: after two illustrations from human life come two from the natural world. For the menace of the south wind in the Adriatic cf. 1. 3. 14 ff. ‘rabiem Noti, / quo non arbiter Hadriae / maior’, RE 1. 418; but while arbiter implies legal authority, dux turbidus suggests a turbulent demagogue who stirs up a restless mob. For the personification cf. also 2. 17. 19 f. ‘tyrannus / Hesperiae Capricornus undae’; similarly the French mistral is derived from magistralis. Hadria for the Adriatic is masculine, like #æÆ in Greek. 6. nec fulminantis magna manus Iovis: the sky-god’s association with the thunderbolt is shown by the magnificent bronze statue recovered off Artemisium ( J. Boardman, Greek Sculpture and Painting, 1985: fig. 35); for the grandiloquent magna manus cf. Hom. Il. 15. 695 Øæd ºÆ ªºfi . In Rome Jupiter had the standing epithet Tonans (3. 5. 1 n.); in the same way fulminantis may represent Iæ . (A temple to Jupiter Tonans was dedicated in 22 bc to celebrate Augustus’ escape from lightning in the Cantabrian War (L. Richardson 226 f.), but when this ode was written he was presumably still in Rome.) The Stoic Seneca commends indifference to the forces of nature; cf. epist. 79. 10, nat. quaest. 6. 32. 4 ‘securus aspiciet fulminantis caeli trucem atque horridam faciem, frangatur licet caelum et ignes suos in exitium omnium, in primis suum, misceat’, Thy. 358 ff. Epictetus says that not even Zeus can overcome the good man’s moral purpose (1. 1. 23). 7–8. si fractus illabatur orbis / impavidum ferient ruinae: orbis here ¼ caeli orbis (Ov. am. 1. 8. 10, TLL 9. 2. 913. 83 ff.) rather than ‘the universe’ (Ov. met. 1. 6), certainly not ‘the world’, which does not suit illabatur; cf. Theog. 869 Ø ØÆ Ø ªÆ PæÆe Pæf oæŁ, Ter. heaut. 719 ‘quid si nunc caelum ruat?’, Sen. HO 1385, Otto 61 f.; cf. the saying ‘fiat iustitia ruat caelum’, and Addison’s translation ‘Should the whole frame of nature round him break, / In ruin and confusion hurled, / He unconcerned would hear the mighty crack, / And stand secure amidst a falling world’. The present subjunctive in the protasis indicates a hypothesis, the future indicative in the apodosis implies certainty; cf. 2. 17. 14 f., epod. 11. 15 ff., K–S 2. 395. The plural ruinae describes the
3 . I V S T V M E T T ENAC EM P RO P O S I T I V I RV M
41
debris rather than the crash; cf. Sen. nat. quaest. 2. 59. 3 ‘contemne mortem, et omnia quae ad mortem ducunt contempta sunt, sive illa bella sunt . . . sive ruinarum subito lapsu procidentium pondera’. 9. hac arte Pollux et vagus Hercules: arte here means ‘quality’ or ‘virtue’ (OLD 4b, Brink on epist. 2. 1. 13), a usage commoner in the plural; cf. Cic. imp. Pomp. 36, Cael. 77 ‘civem bonarum artium’, Marvell, Horatian Ode ad fin. ‘The same arts that did gain / A power must it maintain’. H refers to iustitia in the wide sense that includes constantia (1 n.). The Dioscuri and Hercules, like Bacchus and Romulus below, were added to the gods because of their services on earth; cf. 3. 2. 21 n., epist. 2. 1. 5 ff. ‘Romulus et Liber pater et cum Castore Pollux / post ingentia facta deorum in templa recepti . . . ’ with Brink, Doblhofer 122 f. Pollux also includes Castor (3. 29. 64 n.). In the Roman tradition the Dioscuri fought on horseback against the Latins at Lake Regillus (496 bc), and later brought news of the victory over Perseus in 168 (Cic. nat. deor. 2. 6 with Pease); for Greek encomia cf. Pind. N. 10. 49 ff., Arist. PMG 842. 9 ff. (the hymn to Arete) F (Œ ŒÆd › E = , ˙æÆŒºB ¸Æ ŒFæØ = ºº IºÆÆ. See further Apollod. 3. 10. 7 and 3. 11. 2 with Frazer, Pease on Cic. nat. deor. 2. 6, LIMC 3. 1. 567 f., 3. 2. 456 ff. Hercules had a special place in such tributes; see Diod. 4. 8 ff. (a list of his feats), Dio Chrys. 1. 84 ff. (his opposition to tyrants), Apollod. 2. 7. 7 with Frazer (his apotheosis), Cic. nat. deor. 2. 62 with Pease; for a general study see R. Ho¨istad, Cynic Hero and Cynic King, 1948. For analogies with Augustus see 3. 14. 1 n. vagus here refers (obviously without any pejorative nuance) to Hercules’ expeditions; cf. Pind. I. 4. 55 ff., Eur. Her. 1196 f. PŒ i N (æ = ºı Ł æ ºıºÆªŒ æ ŁÆH, Virg. Aen. 6. 801 ‘nec vero Alcides tantum telluris obivit’, Stat. Theb. 8. 516, silv. 4. 3. 155. For the use of the adjective see Fordyce on Catull. 64. 271. 10. enisus arces attigit igneas: enisus (‘striving upwards’) is obviously right against the variant innisus (‘leaning on’); cf. Curt. 7. 11. 10 ‘nihil tam alte natura constituit quo virtus non possit eniti’, Tac. ann. 1. 70. 4 ‘in editiora enisus’. When two singular subjects are combined, the verb in H is normally singular, even where it refers to people; cf. Wickham on 1. 3. 10, K–S 1. 45. arces describes the heights of heaven, igneas their fiery nature as shown particularly by the stars; cf. 3. 2. 21–24 n. and our ‘empyrean’, Ov. met. 1. 26 f. ‘ignea convexi vis et sine pondere caeli / emicuit summaque locum sibi fecit in arce’. 11–12. quos inter Augustus recumbens / purpureo bibet ore nectar: in January 27 bc Octavian assumed the name ‘Augustus’ (res gest. 34. 2, Suet. Aug. 7. 2, Dio 53. 16. 7-8). After death he will participate in gods’
42
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
banquets; cf. Hom. Od. 11. 602 (Heracles), Theoc. 17. 22 ff. (Ptolemy Soter joins Alexander and Heracles), Stat. silv. 3. 1. 26 f. (Hebe gives Hercules a drink of nectar). Here he is given the central position regardless of chronology. recumbens suggests the reclining posture of the Romans (epist. 1. 5. 1); a painting from Herculaneum depicts the deified Vespasian between Hercules and Theseus (K. Schefold, La Peinture pompe´ienne, 1972: 201). ore with bibet must mean the mouth rather than the face (as at Mart. 8. 65. 4 ‘purpureum fundens Caesar ab ore iubar’); it also rules out the idea (most recently advocated by J. S. C. Eidinow, CQ 50, 2000: 463 ff.) that H is referring to the painted face of the triumphator. Parallels to Augustus’ red lips can be cited from Simon. PMG 585 æıæı Ie Æ = ƒEÆ øa ÆæŁ , Catull. 45. 12 ‘illo purpureo ore saviata’, Virg. Aen. 2. 593 (of Venus) ‘roseoque haec insuper addidit ore’; these examples describe female beauty, but RN thinks H could be suggesting the vitality of the new god. Some, including NR, believe that Augustus’ mouth is stained by the red nectar (Hom. Od. 5. 92 f., h. Hom. 5. 206); so S. Pulleyn, Mnem. 50, 1997: 482 f., but RN thinks this is too fanciful for the context. bibet is clearly right as against the variant bibit. To suggest that Augustus is already drinking in such company is absurd, as his apotheosis is still in the future; cf. 1. 2. 45 ‘serus in caelum redeas’, Virg. georg. 1. 24 f., Housman on Manil. 1. 800. As the adopted son of Divus Iulius, Augustus exploited the popular credulity that supported Caesar’s divine pretensions (N–H on 1. 2, pp. 19 f.). At the same time, in this matter as in others, he was astute enough to learn from Caesar’s mistakes, and he did something to appease traditionalists by suggesting that any claims of his own to divinity lay in the next world. See further 3. 25. 6 n., L. R. Taylor, The Divinity of the Roman Emperor, 1931: chapters 6–10, ANRW II. 16. 2. 845, 878 f., OCD 1338 f. with the bibliography appended, and for a realistic summary A. Wallace-Hadrill, Augustan Rome, 1993, 79 ff. 13–15. hac te merentem, Bacche pater, tuae / vexere tigres, indocili iugum / collo trahentes: though Dionysus was originally a god in the full sense, later writers sometimes included him among the heroes for his gift to mortals (Pasquali 684 ff.); pater (1. 18. 6) is particularly associated with his Latin name of Liber (epist. 2. 1. 5), but the picture here is Hellenistic. Commentators understand caelum with merentem (cf. Ov. ars 2. 218), but the participle may simply mean ‘deservedly’; perhaps ad igneas arces should be supplied with vexere (‘conveyed’). Dionysus’ car was sometimes drawn by panthers (LIMC 3. 1. 461 and 463), sometimes by tigers, which Bacchus supposedly found in India or Hyrcania south of the Caspian (Plin. nat. hist. 8. 66, Ov. trist. 5. 3. 21 ff.); the animals will no doubt have become known as a result of the eastern campaigns
3 . I V S T V M E T T ENAC EM P RO P O S I T I V I RV M
43
of Alexander (Arr. Ind. 15. 1–3, B. Bosworth, JRS 89, 1999: 2 f.); see Virg. Aen. 6. 805 with Austin, Ov. met. 3. 668 with Bo¨mer. Tigers were sent by the Indians to Augustus in Samos in 20 bc (Dio 54. 9. 8) and in 11 he exhibited a tame specimen in Rome (Plin. nat. hist. 8. 65, Toynbee 70 ff.). indocili: the tamed tigers represent the god’s civilizing power (cf. ars 393 on Orpheus). For the ascension by chariot cf. Prop. 3. 17. 8 ‘lyncibus in caelum vecta Ariadna tuis’ (i.e. Bacchi), Ov. trist. 5. 3. 19 ‘ipse quoque aetherias meritis invectus es arces’; cf. the legends about Romulus (15–16 n.), Hercules (Ov. met. 9. 272), and Elijah (2 Kings 2: 11); see also Weinstock 356 f. In RN’s view, because of the hyperbaton and the word’s position at the end of the line, tuae is emphatic, underlining the association of the tigers with Bacchus and balancing Martis below. 15–16. hac Quirinus / Martis equis Acheronta fugit: Quirinus, perhaps the god of the Quirinal (Latte 113), was identified with the deified Romulus (Pease on Cic. nat. deor. 2. 62, Bo¨mer on Ov. fast. 2. 475), probably long before Ennius (Dion. Hal. ant. Rom. 2. 63. 3, Weinstock 176 f.), though Skutsch argues for a later date (ann. p. 246). Romulus was sometimes said to have suddenly disappeared (Cic. rep. 2. 17, Liv. 1. 16 with Ogilvie, Dion. Hal. ant. Rom. 2. 56. 2); other sources speak of his ascension by the chariot of Mars; cf. Enn. ann. 1, fr. xxxiii (cited in the introduction), Ov. fast. 2. 496 ‘rex patriis astra petebat equis’, met. 14. 820 ff. For Acheronta fugit cf. 4. 8. 25 ‘ereptum Stygiis fluctibus Aeacum’, Pind. fr. 143. 2 f. Ææı Æ = æŁe ıª # æ , Theoc. 17. 46 f., cons. Liv. 242 ‘[ut Remus et Romulus] effugerent aliqua stagna profunda via’. 17–18. gratum elocuta consiliantibus / Iunone divis: the council of the gods had been a feature of epic since Homer; see Il. 1. 533 ff., 4. 1 ff., 8. 1 ff., Cic. nat. deor. 1. 18 with Pease, Virg. Aen. 10. 1 ff. with Harrison, Ov. met. 1. 167 ff. with Bo¨mer, Otto 109, Milton, PL 2. 1 ff. (the debate in Satan’s assembly). The event was parodied in the first book of Lucilius (3, 19, 26 M, C. Cichorius, Untersuchungen zu Lucilius, 1908 and 1964: 219 ff., J. H. Waszink, WS 70, 1957: 322 ff.), Sen. apocol. 9 (see Weinreich), Lucian, deorum concilium. The debate about the deification of Romulus is derived from Ennius, but H gives it a new direction (see introduction). For the neuter gratum cf. 3. 25. 7 n. The dative consiliantibus goes with gratum rather than elocuta; the welcome concession emerges at 33 ff. In classical Latin deponent verbs are seldom found in the ablative absolute when combined with an object (Schmalz, ALL 1. 344, K–S 1. 783 f.); for exceptions see Sall. Jug. 103. 7 ‘Sulla omnia pollicito’, Ov. met. 8. 565. Mythological speeches at the end of a poem are found in epod. 13. 12– 18, carm. 1. 7. 25–32, 4. 4. 50–72 (in the last case followed as here by a
44
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
stanza of comment). The feature is derived from Greek lyric; see N–H on 1. 7. 24 with p. 93. 18–21. ‘Ilion Ilion / fatalis incestusque iudex / et mulier peregrina vertit / in pulverem: the feminine Ilios is the form used by Homer, and by Horace elsewhere in the nominative and accusative (epod. 14. 14, carm. 4. 9. 18); in the dative and ablative he uses the neuter (e.g. 1. 10. 14 ‘Ilio . . . relicto’), like later Greek poets and other Romans (Ov. met. 6. 95, 13. 408, etc.). In such contexts the geminatio is pathetic (Eur. Or. 1381 ! +ºØ ! +ºØ, þØ Ø, Tro. 173), which is why L. Mu¨ller proposed Ilion impium; but even if Juno is hostile to Troy she can still profess emotion at the fall of a mighty city. iudex refers as often to the ‘Judgement of Paris’, where he awarded the prize for beauty to Aphrodite rather than Hera or Athena; cf. 1. 15. 1 with N–H, Apollod. epit. 3. 2 with Frazer, RE 18. 4. 1496 ff., LIMC 7. 1. 176 ff. fatalis means ‘bringing doom’; cf. Sen. Ag. 730 f. ‘fatalis sedet / inter potentes arbiter pastor deas’, Hor. carm. 1. 37. 21 ‘fatale monstrum’ (of Cleopatra), Virg. Aen. 2. 237 ‘scandit fatalis machina muros’. incestus, ‘unchaste’, is combined (shockingly) with iudex because Paris was bribed by Aphrodite with the promise of an illicit union with Helen; cf. Hom. Il. 24. 30 c fi ! X ƒ æ Æ º IºªØ, Stat. Ach. 1. 45, 2. 79. The mulier peregrina is of course Helen of Sparta, but Juno, as an injured goddess, cannot bring herself to name either her or Paris; a contemporary would also be reminded of Cleopatra (just as Paris suggests Antony); for the same device in her case cf. epod. 9. 12, carm. 1. 37. 7, and in Antony’s epod. 9. 27. The reduction of Troy to dust recalls Hom. Il. 9. 593 ºØ Fæ IÆŁØ; cf. Eur. Andr. 111 f. ±Œ ºØ = ¼ı ŒÆd ŁÆºı ŒÆd Ø K ŒÆØ . 21–2. ex quo destituit deos / mercede pacta Laomedon: ex quo depends not on vertit but on damnatam (23); for the dating of an inherited curse cf. epod. 7. 19 f. ‘ut immerentis fluxit in terram Remi / sacer nepotibus cruor’. destituit means ‘left in the lurch’ (cf. Cic. Sex. Rosc. 117 ‘induxit decepit destituit . . . fefellit’, OLD 3b); as it does not literally mean ‘cheated’ it can hardly take an ablative like fraudare, so mercede pacta is presumably absolute with a concessive sense. After Apollo and Poseidon had built the walls of Troy, Laomedon, Priam’s father, withheld the promised payment (Hom. Il. 21. 446 ff.); later he also cheated Heracles, who then captured Troy and killed him (Il. 5. 638 ff., Call. fr. 698, Ov. met. 11. 215 ff., Apollod. 2. 5. 9 with Frazer). His dishonesty became a byword; cf. Virg. georg. 1. 502 f. ‘Laomedonteae . . . periuria Troiae’, Aen. 4. 542 with Pease, Ov. met. 11. 199 ff. Juno mentions these events to show that she is not actuated wholly by pique.
3 . I V S T V M E T T ENAC EM P RO P O S I T I V I RV M
45
22–4. mihi / castaeque damnatam Minervae / cum populo et duce fraudulento: Hera and Athena had conspired with Poseidon to put Zeus in bonds (Hom. Il. 1. 399 ff.), and as a punishment Poseidon was forced to take service with Laomedon (schol. on Il. 21. 444, Tzetzes on Lycophron 34); the hostility of the two goddesses to Troy seems to have begun with this episode. The MSS read damnatum, but we are inclined to accept damnatam (Glareanus) to agree with the feminine Ilion (18 n.); as Bentley points out, this also avoids the slight awkwardness caused by the masculine pulverem. The prominently placed mihi and Minervae are datives of the agent (‘doomed by me’); cf. Prop. 4. 6. 21 ‘classis . . . Teucro damnata Quirino’ (as explained by Housman 3. 1237). Some interpret as addictam, ‘made over to for punishment’ (cf. Virg. Aen. 4. 699 ‘Stygioque caput damnaverat Orco’); but Juno and Minerva did not play so central a role at the time of Laomedon’s perfidy. castae makes a contrast with incestus above (19 n.); we are again led to suspect that the Judgement of Paris is the real cause of offence; cf. Virg. Aen. 1. 27. The whole population is associated with the guilt of their ruler (i.e. Laomedon) as later with that of Paris; cf. Hom. Il. 24. 27 f. I Ł ! +ºØ ƒæc = ŒÆd —æÆ ŒÆd ºÆe `º æı (Œ ¼ . 25–6. iam nec Lacaenae splendet adulterae / famosus hospes: Juno still refuses to name the guilty pair (cf. 19 f.); for Lacaenae cf. Eur. Andr. 486, Virg. Aen. 2. 601, 6. 511 with Austin. splendet refers to the gorgeousness of Paris (cf. 1. 15. 20 with N–H, 4. 9. 13 ff., Hom. Il. 3. 392 Œºº. ºø ŒÆd ¥ÆØ). It is most pointed to take adulterae as dative, alluding to Helen’s susceptibility (cf. 1. 5. 12 f. ‘quibus / intemptata nites’). Heinze argues that a genitive is not only simpler but balances Priami below, but splendet on its own is far from balancing pugnacis . . . refringit. adulterae and famosus reflect Augustan censoriousness where Homer was more tolerant (Il. 3. 156 ff.); see I. Opelt, Die lateinische Schimpfwo¨rter, 1965: 52, Grassmann 141; in particular the words foreshadow Augustus’ moral legislation, cf. 3. 6. 17 ff., 3. 24. 20, 28 ff. famosus hospes refers to Paris’ offence against ˘f Ø ; cf. 1. 15. 2 ‘perfidus hospitam’, Hom. Il. 13. 623 ff., Alc. 283. 5 L–P, Aesch. Ag. 399 ff. 26–8. nec Priami domus / periura pugnacis Achivos / Hectoreis opibus refringit: the inherited guilt of Laomedon (21 f.) affects the whole house of his son Priam; cf. Hom. Il. 4. 31 ff., referring to Hera’s implacable anger against Priam and his sons. It was a commonplace that Hector’s valour had prolonged Troy’s resistance (2. 4. 11 with N–H); the adjective Hectoreis marks a higher style than the genitive Hectoris (3. 4. 72 n.) and recalls Homer’s use of , ¯ Œ æ (Il. 2. 416 etc.). opibus in
46
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
the sense of ‘help’ (cf. epist. 1. 10. 36 ‘imploravit opes hominis’, 2. 2. 136, Val. Fl. 3. 713) is less common than ope (1. 6. 15, 4. 2. 2). 29–30. nostrisque ductum seditionibus / bellum resedit: ductum means ‘prolonged’ (OLD 24). By seditionibus Juno suggests that but for the rebelliousness of other gods the war could have ended sooner. The assonance of resedit (‘has subsided’) with seditionibus is probably conscious, though the latter word was in fact derived from se(d ) and itio (‘a going apart’). 30–3. protinus et gravis / iras et invisum nepotem / Troica quem peperit sacerdos / Marti redonabo: ‘from now on I shall give over my bitter anger and my hated grandson . . . to Mars’. In redonabo, a rare word attested only here and at 2. 7. 3 in classical Latin, there is a slight zeugma of two ideas: (a) ‘to renounce something to please somebody’ as with condonare in Caes. bG 1. 20. 5 ‘uti et rei publicae iniuriam et suum dolorem eius voluntati ac precibus condonet’, and donare in Cic. fam. 5. 4. 2, (b) ‘to renounce a further claim on somebody’ as with donare in Petr. 30. 11 ‘dono vobis eum’ of a slave who is forgiven. For Juno’s vindictiveness cf. Hom. Il. 18. 119 IæªÆº
º (towards Heracles), Virg. Aen. 1. 11 ‘tantaene animis caelestibus irae?’, 1. 25, 5. 608. As Ares by some accounts was Hera’s son (Hes. theog. 922 f. with West, Ov. fast. 5. 229 with Bo¨mer), Romulus, the son of Mars and Ilia, was her grandson. But Ilia, as her name indicates, was a descendant of the hated Aeneas (Serv. auct. on Aen. 1. 273 says that in Naevius and Ennius she was his daughter; cf Serv. on 6. 777). Hence Juno maliciously refers to her as Troica sacerdos (for as a Vestal Virgin she should not have borne a child). 33–6. illum ego lucidas / inire sedes, discere nectaris / sucos, et adscribi quietis / ordinibus patiar deorum: for the radiance of the aether cf. Lucr. 1. 1014 ‘caeli lucida templa’, Cic. rep. 6. 16. We print discere with Porph. and the preponderance of the MS tradition (RN more confidently than NR); it balances inire and adscribi, not just because of its prosaic realism but because it represents part of an initiation (Heinze). Others feel that the picture of a novice at his first wine-tasting is inappropriate to such a serious occasion and so prefer the more conventional variant ducere (1. 17. 22, 4. 12. 14, OLD 25b). The pattern ‘A, B et C’ is found in Plautus, Terence, Varro, and rhet. Her. , but is unusual in classical Latin (K–S 2. 32); Juno may be adopting a rather old-fashioned style. Both adscribi and ordinibus have an official tone; cf. Lucian, deor. conc. 3 IªÆª K e PæÆe ŒÆd ÆæªæÆłÆ. For quietis cf. Epicur. p. 71, fr. 1 Usener e ÆŒæØ ŒÆd ¼ŁÆæ h ÆPe æªÆÆ Ø h ¼ººfiø Ææ Ø, Lucr. 3. 18 ff. ‘apparet divum numen sedesque quietae’, Cic. nat. deor. 1. 45 and 1. 52 with Pease, Virg.
3 . I V S T V M E T T ENAC EM P RO P O S I T I V I RV M
47
Aen. 4. 379 f. again with Pease. In view of the gods’ incessant bickering there may be a slightly sardonic suggestion that now at last they can be at peace. 37–8. dum longus inter saeviat Ilion / Romamque pontus: both longus and saeviat stress the separation, which in Juno’s view must be emotional as well as geographical. See the introduction. 38–9. qualibet exules / in parte regnanto beati: for parte as a region of the world (55, 3. 24. 37) see Lo¨fstedt (1933), 441 f., Late Latin (1959), 113. qualibet suggests indifference rather than encouragement, and regnanto implies ‘they can if they like’; Juno is still grudging. Even in the time of Romulus she still regards the Trojans as exiles; as often, there is the suggestion of a sneer in exules, which is combined paradoxically with regnanto and beati. 40–1. dum Priami Paridisque busto / insultet armentum: according to Virgil’s account Priam was left unburied on the shore (Aen. 2. 557, where there is a hint of Pompey), but a tomb is mentioned by Antipater, anth. Pal. 7. 136. 1 0 ˙æø —æØı ÆØe . Some think that the bustum is the incinerated city of Troy (epod. 16. 11 f.), but ‘trampling on the grave’ should be understood more literally; cf. Hom. Il. 4. 177 fiø KØŁæ fiøŒø 1ºı ŒıƺØ, Eur. Elec. 327, Prop. 2. 8. 20 ‘insultetque rogis calcet et ossa mea’. Though insultet is applied here to animals, it retains a note of deliberate contempt. 41–2. et catulos ferae / celent inultae: cf. epod. 16. 10 ‘ferisque rursus occupabitur solum’, 16. 19 f. ‘habitandaque fana / apris reliquit et rapacibus lupis’, Isaiah 13: 21–2 ‘There marmots shall have their lairs, and porcupines shall overrun her houses; there desert owls shall dwell, and there he-goats shall gambol; jackals shall occupy her mansions, and wolves her gorgeous palaces’ (New English Bible), orac. Sib. 8. 41 ŒÆd a ŁØºÆ ºŒØ ŒÆd IºŒ NŒıØ, E. Fitzgerald, The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam xviii ‘They say the Lion and the Lizard keep / The courts where Jamshyd gloried and drank deep; / And Bahram, that great hunter—the Wild Ass / Stamps o’er his Head, but cannot break his Sleep’. The distribution of material suggests that the commonplace had an eastern origin (D. Ableitinger-Gru¨nberger, Der junge Horaz und Politik, 1971: 67). 42–3. stet Capitolium / fulgens: for Juno even the major symbol of Rome’s permanence (3. 30. 8 n.) is conditional. fulgens points to the gilded roof of Jupiter’s temple, as well as suggesting more metaphorical splendours; cf. Virg. Aen. 8. 347 f. ‘Capitolia . . . / aurea nunc’,
48
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
Sen. contr. 1. 6. 4, 2. 1. 1, Plin. nat. hist. 33. 57 ‘cum varie sua aetas de Catulo existimaverit, quod tegulas aereas Capitoli inaurasset’, L. Richardson 223. 43–4. triumphatisque possit / Roma ferox dare iura Medis: though triumphare is intransitive, the perfect participle passive is legitimate; cf. 3. 29. 27, Virg. georg. 3. 33 ‘bisque triumphatas . . . gentis’, Aen. 6. 770 with Norden, K–S 1. 102. possit again is concessive rather than optative. dare iura (‘to prescribe laws’) is a sign of sovereignty (Virg. georg. 4. 561 f., Aen. 1. 293, OLD s.v. ius 3b, TLL 7. 2. 682. 70 ff.); it is because of her belligerence ( ferox) that Rome can impose the rule of law (cf. Virg. Aen. 4. 231 with Pease, H. Fuchs, Augustin und der antike Friedensgedanke, 1926: 194 n.). For hopes of defeating Parthia see the introduction to 3. 5. 45–6. horrenda late nomen in ultimas / extendat oras: horrenda goes with late (cf. 3. 16. 19, 3. 17. 9 n., 4. 4. 23); the adverb is balanced by extendat (‘wide and far’) and so should not be combined with it. For the fear of Rome in distant regions cf. 1. 35. 31 f., Ov. fast. 1. 717. For the extent of the Roman empire cf. 4. 15. 15 ff., Fraenkel 451 n. 4, Austin on Virg. Aen. 1. 286 ff., Bo¨mer on Ov. fast. 5. 557, Woodman on Vell. 2. 126. 3. For the claim to world dominion see F. Christ (1938), V. Buchheit, Der Anspruch des Dichters in Vergils Georgika, 1972: 136 n., Zanker, figs. 31a, 42, 62b, 64 (coins representing a globe), Nicolet 29 ff. 46–7. qua medius liquor / secernit Europen ab Afro: H is referring to the Straits of Gibraltar, one of the boundaries of the known world (B. Bosworth, JRS 89, 1999: 4); Spain is balanced by Egypt (48) at the other end of the Mediterranean; both were areas of recent expansion. Since liquor just means ‘water’ and is not used of a sea, there is (in NR’s view) no significant problem; if there is a momentary hesitation in anyone’s mind, it is at once removed by v. 48. RN thinks that medius (‘intervening’) liquor would also be applicable to the Mediterranean and might therefore cause confusion; L. Mu¨ller proposed modicus (cf. Avien. ora marit. 335 ‘locos utrosque interfluit tenue fretum’), and RN has considered minimus (which was always liable to corruption because of the repeated downward strokes). H is presumably imitating Enn. ann. 302 ‘Europam Libyamque rapax ubi dividit unda’, but there the exact place may have been indicated by the context, while rapax suggests the turbulence of the straits; in our passage the perfect secrevit might get round the difficulty (cf. Heinze) as it would allude to the original separation of the continents (Diod. 4. 18. 5, Virg. Aen. 3. 417 of the Sicilian straits ‘venit medio vi pontus’). The Greek form Europen is more grandiloquent that Ennius’ Europam (cf. 3. 4. 76), just as liquor is
3 . I V S T V M E T T ENAC EM P RO P O S I T I V I RV M
49
more grandiloquent than unda; as the name can refer to the mythological heroine it can be more readily combined with the personal Afro. 48. qua tumidus rigat arva Nilus: in view of Europen and Afro above, Nilus too may be personified. In the descriptions of swollen rivers (e.g. Virg. Aen. 11. 393, Ov. am. 1. 7. 43, OLD tumidus 3), tumidus is usually destructive; so there is a slight paradox with the benign rigat. If one accepts a conjecture above like modicus or minimus, RN sees a paradoxical contrast between the narrow sea and the swollen river. 49–52. aurum irrepertum et sic melius situm, / cum terra celat, spernere fortior / quam cogere humanos in usus / omne sacrum rapiente dextra: this stanza should perhaps be combined with its predecessor (thus Wickham) rather than its successor (as most editors take it); this makes clearer the parallelism of extendat (46), which refers to west and east, and tangat (54), which refers to south and north. For the use of fortior to develop a period cf. 1. 37. 26 ff., Nisbet in Adams–Mayer 150; it seems less natural to put such an elaboration before the main statement. It has sometimes been assumed that Juno now introduces a second stipulation, parallel with the ban on rebuilding Troy, but spernere fortior is hardly a strong enough expression to indicate such a crucial limitation—contrast dum (37), dum (40), and sed (57). We seem to have here a more incidental warning against the avarice associated with distant expeditions (cf. 3. 24. 36 ff.). The avarice involved in mining was a moral commonplace; cf. Demetrius of Phalerum (ap. Posidonius, F240a. 11 f. Kidd ¼ Athenaeus 6. 233e), Ov. met. 1. 138 ff. with Bo¨mer, Manil. 5. 276 ff., Sen. ben. 7. 10. 2, epist. 94. 57–8, nat. quaest. 5. 15. 3, Plin. nat. hist. 2. 158, Milton, PL. 1. 686 ff. ‘with impious hands / Rifled the bowels of their mother earth / For treasures better hid’, a clear imitation of our passage; for the opposite view that resources should be used cf. 2. 2. 2 with N–H, Cic. nat. deor. 2. 98, 151 with Pease. Mining is also a dangerous process, see Plin. nat. hist. 33. 70 ‘siduntque rimae subito et opprimunt operarios, ut iam minus temerarium videatur e profundo maris petere margaritas atque purpuras’; in our passage H suggests that it takes more courage to reject mineral wealth than to dig for it ( for a similar paradox cf. 3. 16. 25 n.). The sequence of thought, however, is not obvious. NR suspects that after the Straits of Gibraltar (46 f.) H thinks naturally of the Spanish gold-mines ( J. F. Healy, Mining and Metallurgy in the Greek and Roman World, 1978: 48). RN, however, finds a difficulty in the intervening reference to Egypt, and thinks it might be relevant that in 27 bc Augustus was supposed to be planning an invasion of Britain (3. 5. 3–4 n.), a country that was thought to be rich in gold (Tac. Agr. 12. 6 with Ogilvie–Richmond, appendix 4, Healy, op. cit. 48 and 52). On this
50
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
hypothesis the stanza would come best after v. 56, which refers to the bad weather of the north; the search for knowledge (54) provides a more creditable reason for exploration than greed for gold (a contrast that can also be felt if a full stop is put after Nilus in v. 48 and a comma after dextra in v. 52). Commentators take different views about the articulation of vv. 50b–52. Some interpret ‘braver in scorning gold than in amassing it’ and take the rest of the sentence as an ablative absolute; but though cogere is used of both gathering crops and collecting money (OLD 5), without amplification it seems bald (Heinze), while the break after the third syllable of the line is relatively rare. Others combine (aurum) cogere with humanos in usus (‘press to human uses’), but if a pause is assumed after usus that impairs the contrast between humanos and sacrum. Others again interpret ‘than in pressing to human uses everything sacred with rapacious hand’; but if rapiente dextra is an instrumental ablative it straggles awkwardly at the end. It is no use arguing that sacrum is the object both of cogere and rapiente; the clause either ends at usus or continues, and in the latter case we do not expect sacrum to be governed by a second verb. On any assumption v. 52 extends to mining what is usually said about pillaging shrines; cf. Plin. nat. hist. 33. 2, where after describing the indignation of our sacrae parentis he says imus in viscera. 53–4. quicumque mundo terminus obstitit / hunc tangat armis: the terminus is the boundary imposed by the zones referred to in 55 f. (see also 3. 24. 37 n.); the word is more commonly used of mountains, rivers, and the ocean (Liv. 21. 44. 5, 37. 54. 23). RN finds the dative difficult, for (as Peerlkamp saw) the zones are obstacles to adventurers, not to the world; he therefore prefers to read mundi with Lambinus, though it has negligible MS support (obstitit might have encouraged a copyist to expect a dative). Bentley objects that this would require obstiterit, but we could understand simply ‘has stood in the way’ (i.e. ‘is an obstacle’), without specifying that a Roman army would be impeded at some time in the future. tangat, though another minor variant, seems necessary against the transmission’s tanget; after extendat we look for a parallel concession. 54–5. visere gestiens / qua parte debacchentur ignes: gestiens implies an urge that is almost physical; cf. 3. 16. 24 n., Fraenkel 272 n. The Greek desire for Łøæ was a strong motive for travel (Herod. 1. 30. 2, 3. 139. 1, Arist. Ath. pol. 11. 1). It affected military expeditions both in Greece and Rome; Fraenkel cites Thuc. 6. 24. 3, Sall. hist. 1 fr. 103 M ‘more humanae cupidinis ignara visendi’. This intellectual curiosity was attributed to Ulysses by Horace (epist. 1. 2. 19 f. ‘multorum providus urbes / et mores hominum inspexit’, which suggests more purpose than Hom. Od. 1. 3),
3 . I V S T V M E T T ENAC EM P RO P O S I T I V I RV M
51
by Dante (inf. 26. 120 ‘per seguir virtute e conoscenza’), and by Tennyson (Ulysses 69 f. ‘but strong in will / To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield’). parte refers to a region of the world (as at 39), ignes to the heat of the torrid zone. bacchari is used metaphorically of wild natural forces, most obviously of winds that rush like Bacchanals (1. 25. 11 with N–H, ciris 480). Words suggesting madness are also applied to intense heat, and not only with reference to the rabid Dog-Star; cf. 3. 29. 18 f. ‘iam Procyon furit / et stella vesani Leonis’, epod. 16. 61 f., epist. 1. 10. 16 f. The prefix de- implies that the heat is raging to its limit (cf. debellare etc.); see Ter. ad. 184 ‘si sati’ iam debacchatus es’, Plat. rep. 561a (of a young man) Ka . . . c æÆ KŒÆŒ ıŁfi , Ð E. Fantham, Comparative Studies in Republican Latin Imagery, 1972: 49. 56. qua nebulae pluviique rores: cf. 1. 22. 19 ff. ‘quod latus mundi nebulae malusque / Iuppiter urget’ (followed by the hot and uninhabitable regions of 21 f.). Northern countries were often associated with clouds and rain; cf. Albinovanus Pedo, FLP p. 315 with Courtney, Tac. Agr. 12. 3 ‘caelum crebris imbribus ac nebulis foedum’ (Britain), ann. 2. 23 (Germany). bacchari does not remotely suit a misty climate, but it could be used of rain-storms; cf. Val. Fl. 6. 632 ff. ‘velut hiberno proruptus ab arcu / imber agens scopulos nemorumque operumque ruinas, / donec ab ingenti bacchatus vertice montis / frangitur’. 57–8. sed bellicosis fata Quiritibus / hac lege dico: fata (from fari), here with dico, implies that Juno is a fatidica or prophetess. There is a paradox in the conjunction of bellicosis with Quiritibus, which suggests civilians (cf. Suet. Jul. 70, where Caesar shames his soldiers by calling them Quirites). hac lege means ‘with this stipulation’ (OLD 12c). 58–60. ne nimium pii / rebusque fidentes avitae / tecta velint reparare Troiae: nimium pii is an oxymoron; since Juno was hostile to the old Troy, she deprecates the Romans’ excessive respect for their ancestors. nimium should also be taken with fidentes; rebus means ‘circumstances’, here ‘good fortune’. The emphatic position of avitae imposed by the long hyperbaton stresses that the city now belongs to the remote past. 61–2. Troiae renascens alite lugubri / fortuna tristi clade iterabitur: for the repetition of Troiae from the last word of the previous sentence cf. 3. 16. 15 n. ‘If the fortune of Troy comes to life again under a gloomy omen, it will be re-enacted with all its grim disasters’. alite (literally ‘a bird’) means an omen (cf. epod. 10. 1, carm. 1. 15. 5, 4. 6. 24); the concern for augury is a particularly Roman feature (cf. especially Enn. ann. 72 ff. for the observation of birds at the foundation of Rome).
52
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
63–4. ducente victrices catervas / coniuge me Iovis et sorore: Juno asserts her double claim on Jupiter; cf. Hom. Il. 16. 432, 18. 356, Cic. nat. deor. 2. 66 with Pease, Virg. Aen. 1. 46 f. ‘ast ego quae divum incedo regina Iovisque / et soror et coniunx’, Ov. met. 3. 265 f. with Bo¨mer. 65–6. ter si resurgat murus aeneus / auctore Phoebo: three, a significant number (3. 19. 11 n.), is sometimes repeated in hyperbolical contexts (Pease on Virg. Aen. 4. 690). resurgat refers to the rebuilding of Troy in the Troad, though the word is more often used of the revival of Troy in Italy (Virg. Aen. 1. 206 ‘illic fas regna resurgere Troiae’, Ov. fast. 1. 523 with Bo¨mer). Apollo built the walls of Troy for Laomedon ‘so that the city should be unbreakable’ (Hom. Il. 21. 446 f.) and this may suggest that they were made of bronze (cf. Hes. scut. 243); for bronze structures in myths and proverbs cf. Hom. Od. 7. 86 etc., 3. 16. 1 n., epist. 1. 1. 60 ‘hic murus aeneus esto’. Bronze was a symbol of hardness before iron (cf. Frazer, on Ov. fast. index under Bronze Age), and D. Wormell, Hermath. 58, 1941: 116 ff. maintains that in such passages bronze indicates magic as well as indestructibility; how far H was aware of the point is, of course, unknowable. auctore is this context is supported by Virg. georg. 3. 36 ‘Troiae Cynthius auctor’; ductore (cod. det.) and structore (Bentley) are therefore unnecessary. 66–7. ter pereat meis / excisus Argivis: for Juno’s ferocity at the fall of Troy cf. Virg. Aen. 2. 612 ff. ‘hinc Iuno Scaeas saevissima portas / prima tenet sociumque furens a navibus agmen / ferro accincta vocat’ (no doubt with post-Homeric precedents). meis is emphatic; the Heraeum at Argos was one of Greece’s great cult-centres (OCD 687). The instrumental ablative is unambiguous at 1. 15. 6 and 4. 14. 9. excisus (‘extirpated’) is a very strong word (OLD 5). 67–8. ter uxor / capta virum puerosque ploret: the misery of war encapsulated in five words. uxor is usually avoided in the higher genres of poetry (3. 15. 1 n.). 69–70. non hoc iocosae conveniet lyrae: / quo, Musa, tendis?: iocosae ‘merry’ suggests themes of love and wine (1. 2. 34 with N–H). 70–2. desine pervicax / referre sermones deorum et / magna modis tenuare parvis: H pretends that his recalcitrant Muse has carried him away and needs to be reined in. This ‘breaking-off formula’ is sometimes found in Pindar (cf. 3. 2. 25 n., Fraenkel 239, Thummer on Pind. I. vol. 1, pp. 122 ff., Syndikus 2. 47); cf. also Pope, Windsor Forest 423 f. ‘Here cease thy flight, nor with unhallow’d lays / Touch the fair fame of Albion’s golden days’. More generally, the claim that grand themes are suitable
4 . D ES C EN D E CA ELO
53
only for epic and are diminished by the smaller compass and less exalted style of lyric ignores Pindar as well as the Roman Odes (to name no others). It is a characteristically Horatian pose (see last note); yet it is clear from 1. 1, 2. 20, 3. 30, 4. 3, 4. 9 that the poet would not have been pleased if others had taken it seriously. For ironic closures as a literary motif see D. Fowler, Roman Constructions, 2000: 7 ff., 270 ff.
4 . D ES C EN D E CA ELO [I. Borzsa´k, Acta Antiqua Hung. 8, 1960: 369 ff.; Davis 98 ff.; A. J. Dunston, Aumla 31, 1969: 9 ff.; Fraenkel 273 ff.; Hardie 86 ff., 98 f.; F. Klingner, Ro¨mische Geisteswelt, edn. 4, 1961: 376 ff.; Lowrie 214 ff.; Lyne (1995), 50 ff., 164 ff.; W. Marg, Monumentum Chiloniense (Festschrift E. Burck), ed. E. Lef e`vre, 1975: 385 ff.; J. F. Miller, CQ 48, 1998: 545 ff.; Pasquali 692 ff.; W. Theiler, Schriften der Ko¨nigsberger Gelehrten Ges., G. Kl. 12.4, 1935: 253 f. (reviewed by F. Klingner, Gnom. 13, 1937: 36 ff.) ¼ Untersuchungen zur antiken Literatur, 1970: 394 ff.; Williams (1968), 268 ff.]
1–8. Descend from Heaven, Calliope, and sing a lengthy song. Already I seem to hear you and to be roaming in the sacred wood. 9–20. The doves of fable protected me as an infant when I was lost on Mt Vultur, to the wonder of all the places around. 21–36. As your prote´ge´, Muses, I am transported to the Sabine hills and in the past was rescued from mortal danger; as long as you are with me, I shall venture beyond the limits of the Roman world. 37–48. You likewise refresh Caesar now that his wars are over, advising mildness. On the other hand the impious Titans were destroyed by Jove. 49–64. The Giants terrorized heaven, but achieved nothing against Pallas, Vulcan, Juno, and Apollo. 65–80. Force without wisdom is self-defeating: witness the destruction of the lustful characters of myth. In the first stanza the Muse is not just invoked but summoned: that is a tradition of Greek lyric rather than epic (West on Hes. op. 1 f.). She is asked for a melos, the Greek word for a song (1–2 n.), to be performed with a wind instrument or strings (3 n.): these two instruments provide the accompaniment for a Pindaric ode (4 n.). The climax comes with the cithara of Apollo, which is by implication Horace’s preferred option: that recalls the golden lyre of Pindar’s First Pythian, $æıÆ æت # ººø ŒÆd NºŒø = ØŒ 1ØA ŒÆ (1 f.). It will emerge that Pindar has a profound influence on the development of Horace’s ode; see especially Theiler and Fraenkel, locc. citt. The poet now hears the response of Calliope (6–7 n.), much as the Muses spoke to Hesiod on Helicon (theog. 22 n.); this leads him to tell a myth about his own infancy, when he was lost on Mount Vultur, and
54
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
wood-pigeons covered him with bay and myrtle (9–20), as suited a future poet. In a similar legend doves fed Zeus with ambrosia in the Cretan cave (Hom. Od. 12. 62 f., Athen. 490–1 citing Moero 1. 3 f., Thompson 286; cf. 245 on Semiramis), and when the Babes in the Wood were murdered, Robin Redbreast covered their bodies with leaves (Percy’s Reliques ser. 3, book 2, 18). In particular such stories were told about poets and literary men (Pease on Cic. div. 1. 78): a nightingale sang on the lips of Stesichorus (Plin. nat. hist. 10. 82, Christodorus, anth. Pal. 2. 128 ff.), bees fed Pindar with honey (Dio Chrys. 64. 23, Aelian, var. hist. 12. 45, Antipater, anth. Plan. 305. 3 f.), and the same thing happened to the mellifluous Plato (Val. Max. 1. 6 ext. 3, Plin. nat. hist. 11. 55, Olympiodorus, vit. Plat. 382–3). In view of the influence of Pindar on this ode, it seems significant that he tells how snakes fed Iamus with honey and covered him with flowers (O. 6. 45 ff., 55 f.). Most notably of all, Philostratus describes a picture in which the infant Pindar was laid in bay and myrtle, just like the infant Horace (19), and fed by bees (imag. 2. 12); for another parallel see 11 n. These tales presumably originated not from Pindar himself (they do not suit choral lyric) but from laudatory epigrams; and they were repeated earnestly by biographers as signs of providential protection and future greatness. See further Pease on Cic. div. 1. 121, L. Bieler, ¨¯+ˇ& `˝˙2, 1, 1935: 39, M. R. Lefkowitz, The Lives of the Greek Poets, 1981. Horace develops his fable with a list of minor Apulian places that marvelled at the miracle (13–16); he thus equates the surroundings of his childhood with the landscapes of Greek poetry (cf. Martial 1. 49 on his Spanish countryside), and at the same time he acknowledges the narrowness of his first horizons. Then he turns to the present with a list of better-known places where he has found inspiration (21 ff.); as a devotee of the Muses, here Latinized as Camenae, he is transported to the Sabine hills, his local equivalent of Helicon (21–2 n.). They have protected him in the crises of his past life (here enumerated in another list); without literally believing in his own myths he might have liked to fancy that he had been preserved for a higher purpose. Finally he turns to the future: with the Muses’ help he is prepared to journey to the ends of the earth (29–36); here the list of distant places suggests not just the Muses’ protecting power (cf. N–H on 1. 22. 1), but also the growing extent of his fame (N–H on 2. 20. 14 ff.), which will reach beyond the present limits of the Roman empire (see above on 3. 3. 45 ff.). At v. 37 the ode moves from personal to political themes (perhaps foreshadowed by the preceding place-names): at the very centre it tells us that the Muses have a benign influence both on the poet and on the Princeps himself. This refers not just to the great man’s interest in literature (39–40 n.), but to the power of poetry to civilize and pacify (41–2 n). Hesiod again had shown the way. In theog. 81 ff. he had asserted
4 . D ES C EN D E CA ELO
55
the sacred link between the Muses and the ruler: they mark him out at birth and give him eloquent speech; they enable him to make wise decisions and to settle quarrels among the people, ƺƌEØ ÆæÆØØ KØ (90), cf. lene consilium (41). Pindar had taken the idea further in his First Pythian, which speaks of the cosmic power of poetry: ŒBºÆ b ŒÆd ÆØ ø Łº- = ªØ æÆ I ¸Æ- = Æ fi Æ ÆŁıŒ ºø 1ØA (12 f.). At 42 ff. Horace turns abruptly to the Titans and other monsters who were destroyed by the gods; this contrasting picture was suggested by Pindar’s account of the enemies of Zeus who were dismayed by the voice of the Muses (P. 1. 13 f. ‹Æ b c ºŒ ˘ , IÆØ = —Øæø IÆ). Pindar goes on to describe in graphic terms the sufferings of Typhon as he breathes fire under Etna (15 ff.); Horace diffuses the effect by listing a whole series of monsters and gods, but his description of Apollo (61–2 n.) and Etna (76) confirms that he is still thinking of Pindar. The monsters of Hesiod’s Theogony had been given an allegorical significance by later ages; see especially Hardie (op. cit.) for the contrast between chaos and cosmos, barbarism and civilization. When Pindar wrote his First Pythian in honour of Hiero and his new foundation of Aitna, the destruction of Typhoeus symbolized the defeat of the Carthaginians at Himera in 480 bc and of the Etruscans at Cumae in 473 (Fraenkel 279). When Callimachus talks of ‘late-born Titans’ (h. 4. 174 OłªØ 3ØB ), he is referring to the Galatian onslaught on Delphi in 279 bc that was routed by Apollo; and there may have been further such allusions in Hellenistic epic (Hardie, op. cit. 86 n., citing the imitations in Nonnus). Public sculpture was even more significant: the theme had already been used on the Parthenon metopes to allude to the Persian invasions. The baroque Gigantomachies on the Great Altar of Zeus at Pergamum symbolized the Attalids’ defeat of the Galatians in 230 and 166 (E. Simon, Pergamon und Hesiod, 1975, R. R. R. Smith, Hellenistic Sculpture, 1991: 157 ff.); Attalus I had already dedicated a similar monument on the Athenian Acropolis (Paus. 1. 25. 2, Hardie, op. cit. 124). Horace would have known the Athenian Gigantomachies from his days as a student, and he may also have visited Pergamum when serving under Brutus (Encicl. oraz. 1. 233). Horace’s ode is the most systematic account of the Gigantomachy that has survived in Augustan literature, but apart from incidental references the conflict between order and anarchy is also highly relevant to the Aeneid, for instance in the episode of Cacus in book 8; it occurs later in the Silver Age and especially in Claudian (carm. min. 53). The theme seems to have played less part in contemporary sculpture, perhaps because its violence was at odds with the Augustan ideal (Hardie, op. cit. 89). The ivory doors on the Palatine temple of Apollo, dedicated in 28 bc about the time of our poem, represented the god’s repulse
56
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
of the Galatian attack on Delphi (Prop. 2. 31. 13 ‘deiectos Parnasi vertice Gallos’); but the cult statue of Apollo showed him holding the lyre and not the bow (N–H on 1. 31. 1, Prop. 2. 31. 16, Zanker 85 and fig. 186). At line 65 Horace offers some generalizations (‘vis consili expers mole ruit sua’); the alternation of aphorisms and exempla is Pindaric, but the contrast with the legitimate use of force (vim temperatam) is particularly Augustan. This leads to the mention of four further mythological sinners, Gyges (69 n.), Orion (71 n.), Tityos (77 n.), and Pirithous (79 n.); the offence of the last three is explicitly described as sexual, and something similar may have been said about Gyges (cf. perhaps Ov. fast. 4. 593 where Ceres says ‘quid gravius victore Gyge captiva tulissem?’). The relevance of all this to Augustan moralizing is evident; in particular there seems to be a hint at Antony, though it is typical of Horace’s best political odes that the allusion is oblique. We have related this ode to its Pindaric forerunner because this provides a starting-point and a framework for its appreciation; but as always, Horace’s elaboration is highly original. The autobiographical first half of the poem, with its blend of realism and fantasy, modesty and pride (cf. 3. 30), is unparalleled in the First Pythian. The myths of Apollo’s lyre and the Muses’ protection establish Horace’s position as a vates, and so enable him to speak with authority on public issues and (amazingly) to occupy as much space in the poem as the Princeps himself. Pindar had linked the harmony induced by the lyre with cosmic and political order, addressing Hiero in the process; Horace gives the idea an entirely Roman context, employing the Muses to associate his own poetry with the Augustan settlement. Here we should think not just of the civilizing power of literature (41 f.) but of something that is implicit rather than expressed: the poet, like the good ruler, exercises balance and control, imposing form and structure on raw, often recalcitrant, material (for further examples of these parallels see NR in The Camb. Hist. of Class. Lit. ii (1982), 402 f.). In sum, poetic and political power are derived from the same divine source. This contention had a lasting influence on the classicizing English ode: it is enough to refer to Milton’s At a Solemn Musick (‘Blest pair of Sirens, pledges of Heaven’s joy / Sphere-borne harmonious Sisters, Voice and Verse’), Dryden’s Song for St Cecilia’s Day (‘From harmony, from heavenly harmony / This universal frame began’), and Gray’s Progress of Poesy (the tranquil eagle at vv. 20 ff. comes from Pindar’s First Pythian). Metre: Alcaic. 1. Descende caelo: for the summons to the Muse cf. Sappho 127, 128 L–P, Stes. PMG 240 Fæ ¼ª, ˚ƺºØ ØÆ ºªØÆ. For descende in such a
4 . D ES C EN D E CA ELO
57
kletic hymn cf. 3. 21. 7 (parodic), TLL 5. 1. 642. 46 ff. (Christian instances), Milton, PL 7. 1 ‘Descend from heaven, Urania’. In early Greek invocations the Muses are described as living on Olympus (Hom. Il. 2. 484, Hes. theog. 75 with West), which is interpreted here as the sky; cf. PMG frag. adesp. 935. 1 ff. ŁÆ = Fæ ºŁ I TæÆH, Cavarzere 225. Porph. sees the implication ‘come down to earth from the setting of the previous poem’; but arguably in the final stanza of 3. 3 H had already come down to earth, and in any case this can have had no influence on the composition of 3. 4, since the latter was almost certainly earlier than 3. 3. 1–2. et dic age tibia / regina longum Calliope melos: the tibia was an instrument with two pipes, blown through the end (not the side like a flute); see M. L. West, 1992: 81 ff., J. G. Landels, Music in Ancient Greece and Rome, 1999: 24 ff. Presumably the Muse is being asked to sing and play on the pipe in alternation. Theiler thinks that she is to play on the pipe without a song (op. cit. 397); that would make a clearer contrast with v. 3 (see note), and the instrumental ablative is then rather simpler (Theiler sees the same usage at 4. 12. 9 f. ‘dicunt . . . / carmina fistula’; cf also [Theoc.] 20. 29 Œj ÆPºfiH ºÆºø, Œj ÆŒØ, Œj ºÆªØƺfiø). Yet some similar passages imply the use of words as well as an instrument (1. 12. 1 f. ‘quem virum aut heroa lyra vel acri / tibia sumis celebrare, Clio?’, 1. 32. 3 f. ‘age dic Latinum, barbite, carmen’, 3. 11. 7 f. ‘dic modos Lyde quibus obstinatas / applicet auris’); moreover, when the Muse is invoked, she should tell the poet what to say and not simply provide appropriate music. For age with another imperative cf. 1. 32. 3, 2. 11. 22, OLD 24a; so in Greek invocations Alcman, PMG 14(a) 1 f., 27 (to Calliope), Stes. 240 (cited above). Hesiod described Calliope as the most important (ææ) of the Muses (theog. 79), and this may be enough to explain why she is singled out here. He goes on to say that she accompanies kings, so H may associate her with political wisdom (thus Plut. mor. 746d, 801e), yet the good advice mentioned by Hesiod comes from the Muses as a whole (theog. 81–93); M. T. Camilloni, Le Muse, 1998, is ready to assign particular functions to the Muses in Horace, but there are some cases that do not fit (N–H on 1. 24. 3, P. Murray, CR 50, 2000: 294 f.). The name Calliope in Greek suggested ‘a beautiful voice’ (Hes. theog. 68 of the Muses IªÆºº ÆØ Od ŒÆºfi ); Ð the Greek associations are sustained by melos, which is used in older Latin in the sense of carmen (Enn. ann. 293 ‘tibia Musarum pangit melos’, Naev. trag. 20, Lucr. 2. 412 ‘musaea mele’), but it is not found elsewhere in the major Augustan poets. For regina cf. Pind. N. 3. 1 4 ØÆ 1EÆ, Herodas 3. 97, Opp. hal. 1. 78, anon. anth. Plan. 312. 1 ˚ƺºØ ƺØÆ; in the sacral style the epithet is sometimes separated from the proper name (N–H on 2. 19. 8). longum
58
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
prepares us for the fact that the ode is the longest in the whole collection (80 lines) and correspondingly one of the grandest. 3. seu voce nunc mavis acuta: this, the transmitted text, is usually thought to to refer to singing without instrumental accompaniment; cf. Varro ap. Non. 77M, 107L ‘et assa voce [i.e. solo voice] et cum tibicine’; but as voce here is understood with both tibia (1) and cithara (4), one would expect H to have made it quite clear if the solo voice were intended. Moreover, in other passages where H mentions pipe and lyre he says nothing of the solo voice (see 4 n.). Wickham, arguing for the usual two categories, thinks that H asks first for a melody on the pipe, then corrects himself and leaves it to Calliope to decide whether it should be sung voce acuta (and so alternating with the pipe) or voce gravi (and so accompanied by the lyre). But this gives a very involved construction and has not been taken up by other editors. There is much to be said for Darnley Naylor’s suggestion that we might read si voce for seu voce; this would make it clear that there are only two alternatives (cf. 1. 12. 1 f. ‘lyra vel acri / tibia’). acuta indicates that the ancients thought of the sharp, penetrating quality of the sound (cf. O ) rather than the height of its pitch; the opposite term was gravis (cf. Ææ ); cf. M. L. West (1992), 64, n. 73, Landels, op. cit. 54 f. 4. seu fidibus citharaque Phoebi: the MS tradition supports citharave (so also Victorinus, GL 6. 180), which is defended by Theiler with Strabo 1. 2. 3 ƒ ıØŒd łººØ ŒÆd ºıæØ ŒÆd ÆPºE ØŒ , Ael. Arist. 37. 21, but it is pointless to subdivide the stringed instruments; the corruption would be very easy after seu. fidibus (‘strings’) makes a hendiadys with cithara (cf. Virg. Aen. 6. 119 f. ‘Orpheus / Threicia fretus cithara fidibusque canoris’). The lyre of Apollo was more serene than the pipe of Dionysus, which Plato regarded as too exciting (rep. 399d–e, W. D. Anderson, Ethos and Education in Greek Music, 1966: 64 ff., 137 ff., M. L. West, 1992: 105 f.); the two instruments are cited together by Pindar (O. 3. 8, 7. 12, P. 10. 39, N. 9. 8, I. 5. 27) as by H himself (1. 1. 32 ff., 1. 12. 1 f., 4. 1. 22 ff., epod. 9. 5 with Mankin). Here the lyre marks the climax and is presumably preferred; cf. Pind. P. 1. 1 f. (cited in the introduction). It is significant that the Palatine temple, which was dedicated on 9 October 28 bc (N–H on 1. 31. 1), must have been nearing completion when this poem was written; inside stood the Apollo Citharoedus of Scopas (see the introduction). 5–6. auditis? an me ludit amabilis / insania?: with a dramatic touch (N–H vol. 1, pp. 310 f.) H asks his audience to confirm that they too can hear the descending Muse; cf. Ar. nub. 292 fi Łı ! øB ; (can Strepsiades hear the chorus of the descending clouds?), Call. h. 2. 4 f.
4 . D ES C EN D E CA ELO
59
P ›æÆfi Æ ; Kı › ˜ºØ Ø EØ = K Æ (at the epiphany of Apollo), fr. 227. 1. Ps.-Acro thought the question was addressed to the Muses collectively; but if the passage is to cohere, auditis must govern the same object as audire in the next line. insania refers to the ‘divine madness’ attributed to poets by Democritus, Plato, and others (see the introduction to 3. 25); madness is usually distressing, but here it is paradoxically agreeable; cf. 2. 7. 28 ‘dulce . . . furere’, Anacreontea 53. 14 (Campbell) ÆæØø ÆBÆØ. ludit suggests that the poet may be imagining things; cf. Plat. Crit. 54d uæ ƒ ŒæıÆØH H ÆPºH ŒFØ IŒØ. For similar uncertainty cf. Soph. OC. 316 pæ Ø; pæ PŒ Ø; ª ºÆfi A; Virg. ecl. 8. 108, Keats, Ode to a Nightingale 80 ‘Do I wake or sleep?’ (for H’s influence on this poem cf. epod. 14. 1 ff. and G. Highet, The Classical Tradition, 1949: 637 f.). 6–7. audire et videor pios / errare per lucos: the poet’s request is fulfilled within the poem; cf. Alcman, PMG 30, Davis 100 f. For videor of dreams and visions (¼ videor mihi) cf. 2. 1. 21, Virg. ecl. 10. 58 f., Prop. 3. 3. 1 with Fedeli, Pope, Windsor Forest, 267–70. The groves belong to an ideal poetic landscape, less rugged than the Bacchic countryside of 3. 25. 2; cf. Plat. Ion 534a–b, Troxler-Keller 29 ff. pios ascribes to the groves the sanctity of the Muses’ devotees, just as Elysium can be called sedes pia (culex 39, 375); all others are excluded. errare here means not ‘stray’ but ‘roam’ or ‘saunter’; cf. Virg. ecl. 6. 64 ‘errantem Permessi ad flumina Gallum’, Petr. 27. 1 ‘nos interim vestiti errare coepimus’. 7–8. amoenae / quos et aquae subeunt et aurae: in a hot climate water and breezes belong to the conventional locus amoenus; cf. 3. 29. 21 ff., N–H, vol. 2, pp. 52 f., with the bibliography there cited. For amoenus of waters cf. Horsfall on Virg. Aen. 7. 30; here both the adjective and the verb (‘come up to’) suit aquae better than aurae. 9. me fabulosae Vulture in Apulo: the emphatic me indicates that the poet is under special protection (cf. 1. 22. 9 ‘namque me’); for similar legends see the introduction above. fabulosae agrees with palumbes (12); the long hyperbaton creates suspense and is a mark of the grand style (cf. 4. 4. 7 ff.). The adjective means ‘told about in legend’ (cf. 1. 22. 7 f. ‘fabulosus / . . . Hydaspes’), and introduces a miraculous note that is continued in mirum (13); for adjectives ending in -osus in serious poetry see Brink on ars 4 (vol. 3, p. 579), P. E. Knox, Glotta 64, 1986: 90 ff. Monte Vulture (4,350 ft.) lies only 9 miles to the west of Venosa, and looms over the whole area (for a fine photograph see Encicl. oraz. 1. 1. tav. 17); as the name must have suggested a vulture, it would have had sinister connotations that make a contrast with palumbes
60
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
below. Apulo reminds us of H’s pride in his native region (3. 30. 10 n.); cf. serm. 1. 5. 77 f. ‘incipit ex illo montis Apulia notos / ostentare mihi’. 10. nutricis extra ylimen Apuliaey: the MSS divide between limen Apuliae and limina Pulliae. The prosodic variation from Apulo (— ^ —) in the previous line to Apuliae (^ — ^ —) cannot be justified as an artistic elegance (for such variation see N–H on 1. 32. 11, N. Hopkinson, Glotta 40, 1982: 162 ff.); it is true that the u of Apulia is always long (while with Apulus only short u is attested), but the initial A is never short (except at the corrupt 3. 24. 3). And though the mountain was on the border with Lucania (cf. serm. 2. 1. 34), extra limen Apuliae not only contradicts Vulture in Apulo but is quite inappropriate; for in the context of a straying child limen can only mean the threshold of a house—a potent symbol that divided the secure from the unknown (cf. Hom.Od. 15. 450 f. ÆEÆ ªaæ Iæe B Kd ªæØ Iغºø, = Œæƺ c E, –Æ æ
øÆ ŁæÆ). extra limina Pulliae is also unconvincing: H is thought to be referring to his wet-nurse, but in this grand poem he would not name so obscure a person (as Bentley forcefully points out), even if, contrary to common practice, she bore a gentile name (thus A. Treloar, Antichthon 2,1968:58 ff.). Fraenkel 274 compares the minor place-names below (14–16), but they were all in the public domain. The best conjecture is perhaps limina pergulae (Baehrens); this was proposed independently by Housman (Classical Papers 1. 99 f.), though he later accepted Pulliae (W. G. Arnott, LCM 11, 1986: 149). For nutricis as an adjective cf. [Quint.] decl. mai. 13. 4 (p. 269 Ha˚kanson) ‘volui relinquere avitos lares et conscios natalium parietes et ipsam nutriculam casam’ (in a context with other Horatian reminiscences). Housman called attention to ps.-Acro’s paraphrase ‘extra casae limen expositus’ (though on 10 the scholia follow the manuscript readings); note also Antipater, anth. Pal. 9. 407. 1 f. æ K ºÆf ı = Eº ªØ æÆ KŒ ŒÆº (at CGL 2. 337 ŒÆº is glossed by casa and pergula). It is true that pergula in the sense of a cottage may be too humble for H’s family (cf. Prop. 4. 5. 70 ‘horruit algenti pergula curta foco’, Petr. 74. 14, Auson. epist. 13. 6); but perhaps it belonged to H’s wet-nurse (though in [Quint.], loc.cit. nutriculam casam seems to be the speaker’s own cottage). In that case H could have been farmed out in a remote country area: for the practice cf. Tac. dial. 28. 4 ‘non in cellula emptae nutricis sed gremio ac sinu matris educabatur’, Suet. Aug. 6. 1 ‘nutrimentorum eius ostenditur adhuc locus in avito suburbano iuxta Velitras permodicus et cellae penuariae instar’, K. R. Bradley in The Family in Ancient Rome (ed. Beryl Rawson), 1986: 201 f., P. Garnsey in The Family in Italy (ed. D. I. Kertzer and R. P. Saller), 1991: 86 ff., RAC 1. 381 ff. There can be no objection to the plural limina being applied to a modest dwelling; cf. Lucil. 1107M.
4 . D ES C EN D E CA ELO
61
Wade in his edition of 1731 had proposed villulae; H’s father had acquired a property near Venusia (cf. serm. 1. 6. 71 agello, epist. 2. 2. 51 fundi). The word is attested at serm. 1. 5. 45 and 2. 3. 10, but the diminutive may be too colloquial for this grand ode (Housman loc. cit. contrasts the semi-humorous parmula at 2. 7. 10), and ps.-Acro’s casae implies something smaller. Other conjectures include sedulae (Bentley), vilicae (Yonge), devium (Lehrs), dum vagor (Courtney, Phoenix 40, 1986: 319 f.). 11. ludo fatigatumque somno: cf. Hom. Il. 10. 98, Od. 6. 2 ofiø ŒÆd ŒÆfiø Iæ ; for the same pattern see Enn. ann. 288 ‘vino domiti somnoque sepulti’ with Skutsch’s parallels. In view of the importance of Pindar for this ode, it seems significant that similar phrases are used about him in two separate sources: see Paus. 9. 23. 2 (when he was fed by bees) Œe ŒÆd o . . . ŒÆºÆ, vita Pindari p. 1 Drachmann e ººF ŒÆı N o ŒÆ ŁBÆØ. Horace’s expression is more striking; it is a paradox that both play and sleep can be tiring. The artificial position of -que is common enough in Horace (N–H on 1. 30. 6), and here may correspond to a feature of Greek lyric poetry (3. 21. 18, N–H on 2. 19. 27). 12–13. fronde nova puerum palumbes / texere: palumbes were woodpigeons; cf. Virg. ecl. 1. 57, Plin. nat. hist. 10. 106 ‘cantus omnibus similis atque idem trino conficitur versu praeterque in clausula gemitu, hieme mutis, a vere vocalibus’, Thompson 225 ff., Capponi 375 ff. For flocks of wood-pigeons on Monte Vulture see C. T. Ramage, The Nooks and Byways of Italy, 1868: 212. Doves are often associated with Venus (Virg. ecl. 3. 69 palumbes, Thompson 246), but as they protect infants in legends where she is not involved, she need not be relevant here; a connection with the Muses does not seem to be attested (in spite of the choir of Peleiades at Alcman, PMG 1. 60). fronde nova is fresh green foliage (cf. 4. 1. 32 ‘novis floribus’), appropriate for a future poet (see further 19 n.). 13. mirum quod foret omnibus: for the use of quod cf. epod. 2. 27 f. ‘frondesque lymphis obstrepunt manantibus, / somnos quod invitet levis’. foret, an archaic equivalent of esset, in found at 4. 8. 22, epod. 12. 23, and thirteen times in H’s hexameter poems (especially serm. 1); it was avoided by Cicero and Caesar, but is found quite frequently in Sallust and in parts of Tacitus (Woodman–Martin on ann. 3. 14. 4). 14. quicumque celsae nidum Acherontiae: the MSS give Acherontiae or Acheruntiae (so also Porph., CIL 9. 947 ‘numini Herculis Acheruntini’, Procop. bG. 3. 23). The spelling Acerentia or Aceruntia is supported by
62
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
CIL 9. 417, 10. 482, and the modern name Acerenza; Acherontiae may be due to popular association with Acheron, and H may have liked the paradox of combining it with celsae. Acerenza, 13 miles south of Venosa, was an important strongpoint in the Middle Ages, and its cathedral may have given its name to the region of Basilicata. It is very high for an inhabited place (2,700 ft.), and nidum suggests an eagle’s eyrie (as at 4. 4. 6); cf. Cic. de orat. 1. 196 ‘Ithacam illam in asperrimis saxulis tamquam nidulum affixam’, Macaulay, Lays of Ancient Rome ‘Like an eagle’s nest / Hangs on the crest / Of purple Apennine’. The genitive defines nidum (K–S 1. 419, Woodcock 72. 5). 15–16. saltusque Bantinos et arvum / pingue tenent humilis Forenti: saltus was a woodland clearing used for pasture, usually (as here) in hilly country. Banzi is 12 miles south-east of Venosa, and as it rises to 1,900 ft. it is easily visible. Below, the MSS vary between Forenti (supported by Livy 9. 20. 9, Plin. nat. hist. 3. 105 as well as by the present name) and Ferenti (supported by Porph. and Diod. 19. 65. 7, perhaps through confusion with Ferentinum in Latium). humilis points a contrast with celsae of Acherontia and the upland saltus of Bantia; but the original site was abandoned (ps.-Acro already comments ‘nunc sine habitatore’); its situation is disputed (cf. Encicl. oraz. 1. 393 f.). pingue of rich soil (OLD 3) suits ploughed land (arvum) as opposed to the pasture of Bantia; cf. EÆæ. RN suspects an irrational association with arvina or lard (Virg. Aen. 7. 627 ‘arvina pingui’). 17–18. ut tuto ab atris corpore viperis / dormirem et ursis: the ut-clause explains mirum (‘how I slept’); cf. epod. 16. 53 f. ‘pluraque felices mirabimur, ut neque largis / aquosus Eurus arva radat imbribus’, Plaut. merc. 240 f., Tac. hist. 1. 79. 2, Plin. epist. 1. 6. 2, H–Sz 645. It cannot introduce a purpose clause after texere, for this does not go well with premerer below; so it is a mistake to talk of syntactical ambiguity as W. Wimmel does (Glotta 40, 1962: 134 ff.). Snakes are repeatedly called ‘black’ in Latin poetry (serm. 2. 8. 95, Virg. georg. 1. 129, Ov. met. 3. 63 with Bo¨mer, Juv. 5. 91); the adjective is not simply a colour-word but suggests deadliness (Virg. georg. 4. 407) and in particular black poison (1. 37. 27, Virg. Aen. 2. 130). tuto is pointedly juxtaposed with atris. For bears in S. Italy cf. Varro, lL 5. 100 (ursus is of Lucanian origin), [Ov.] hal. 58, Mart. spect. 10 (8). 1, N–H on 1. 22. 14 (the ‘Daunian bear’ tamed by Pythagoras), Keller 1 (1909), 175; they are still sometimes found (Horsfall on Virg. Aen. 7. 17). Heinze comments on the repeated r in these lines; the letter was ‘rolled’ in Latin (Allen 32), and here perhaps suggested a bear’s growl; it was commonly associated with a dog (cf. N–H on 2. 19. 23, Pers. 1. 109 on the littera canina).
4 . D ES C EN D E CA ELO
63
18–19. ut premerer sacra / lauroque collataque myrto: premerer goes further than texere and suggests that the baby was well protected under a pile of leaves. The emphatic sacra qualifies both lauro and myrto, which are combined by -que . . . -que. Likewise collata affects both nouns. The bay was sacred to Apollo, god of poetry (3. 30. 16 n.), the myrtle especially to Venus (RE 16. 1. 1180 f.); for the common collocation of the two shrubs cf. Virg. ecl. 2. 54 with Clausen, 7. 61 f. ‘gratissima . . . / formosae myrtus Veneri, sua laurea Phoebo’. Yet a pointer to H’s lovepoetry would not be expected in this grand ode to Apollo and the Muses; cf. rather the legend about the infant Pindar mentioned by Philostratus, imag. 2. 12 e b ªaæ ÆØ N I ŒØÆØ ŒÆd ŒºHÆ ıææ (so also Ael. var. hist. 10. 21 gives the infant Plato a bed of myrtle). 20. non sine dis animosus infans: the litotes is common in Greek (Hom. Od. 15. 531 h Ø ¼ı ŁF, Pind. P. 5. 76 P ŁH ¼æ etc.); such phrases mean ‘by Heaven’s help’, and individual gods are not identified (cf. Nock 1 (1972), 261), but here the Muses must be implied (for their status as goddesses cf. 1 n., Varr. rust. 3. 16. 7, Ov. ars 3. 348). animosus means ‘spirited’ (‘quia solitudinem nemoris non expavit’ Porph.); in retrospect, with a touch of pride and humour, H represents the straying child as courageous. Some commentators see a reference to H’s future inspiration (cf. Virg. Aen. 6. 11 f. ‘magnam cui mentem animumque / Delius inspirat vates’); but it is not clear that the word can bear this extra implication. 21–2. vester, Camenae, vester in arduos / tollor Sabinos: H now addresses the Camenae, or Latin Muses; cf. Livius Andronicus fr. 1 ‘virum mihi, Camena, insece versutum’) and Naevius frr. 1, 64, N–H on 2. 16. 38, Suerbaum 303 f., 347 f. The emphatic vester means ‘as your devotee’ (note the sacral anaphora); in this capacity the poet visits places where he can write in peace (cf. epist. 2. 2. 77 with Brink). tollor is not the obvious word for an uphill journey by carriage or on horseback; when H revisits his beloved estate he seems to be borne upwards by a power outside himself (cf. ÆYæÆØ, Virg. georg. 3. 8 f. ‘temptanda via est qua me quoque possim / tollere humo’), though he does not claim to have been wafted in a dream like Callimachus (aet. 4) or Ennius (Skutsch, pp. 147 ff.). H’s Sabine estate was over 12 miles beyond Tibur (cf. 3. 1. 47 n); the villa is 1,300 ft. above sea-level and the neighbouring Lucretilis 3,300 ft. The word probably means ‘the Sabine countryside’; cf. Liv. 1. 45. 4 ‘bos in Sabinis nata . . . dicitur’; Housman (Classical Papers 2. 613 and 658) took Sabinos as referring literally to ‘Sabine people’, but it suits arduos better if we understand agros. Haupt applied Sabinos more narrowly to
64
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
the estate itself (Opuscula 3, 1876: 578); cf 2. 18. 14 ‘satis beatus unicis Sabinis’ (but see N–H on the text), Plin. epist. 5. 6. 45 ‘habes causas cur ego Tuscos meos Tusculanis Tiburtinis Praenestinisque praeponam’, but such precision is not in harmony with the following place-names; cf. A. Bradshaw, in Studies in Latin Literature and Roman History (ed. C. Deroux) 5, 1989: 172 ff. 22–3. seu mihi frigidum / Praeneste seu Tibur supinum: Heinze sees a slight anacoluthon: the sentence develops as if the previous clause had read ‘vester sum cum tollor’. Praeneste is Palestrina, 23 miles east-southeast of Rome, famous for the temple of Fortuna Primigenia built by Sulla (G. Bagnani, The Roman Campagna and its Treasures, 1929: 191 ff., RE 22. 2. 1549 ff., Suppl. 8. 1241, F. Coarelli, Studi su Praeneste, 1978); with a height of 1,500 ft. rising in the arx to 2,460 ft. it provided a cool refuge from Roman summers; cf. epist. 1. 2. 2, Juv. 3. 190 ‘gelidum Praeneste’, Suet. Aug. 72. 2 (with Tibur a welcome secessus for Augustus). Tibur is Tivoli, 15 miles east-north-east of Rome, 750 ft. high (Bagnani 226 ff., Weinstock RE 6A. 1. 816 ff.); it was a favourite retreat for H (2. 6. 5 f., epist. 1. 7. 45, 1. 8. 12), and at some time he acquired a property there (4. 2. 31, 4. 3. 10, Suet. vita Horati ‘domusque ostenditur circa Tiburni luculum’, Encicl. oraz. 1. 257 f.). supinum here means ‘sloping backwards’ (Virg. georg. 2. 276 ‘collisque supinos’, 3. 555), though often ‘flat’ like oØ ; when Juvenal (3. 192) speaks of Tibur as ‘sloping forwards’ (‘proni Tiburis arce’) he is perhaps capping H, by referring to the steeper slope below the town. RN suspects a decline from the bracing arduos and frigidum to the laid-back qualities of Tibur and the notorious luxury of Baiae. 24. seu liquidae placuere Baiae: normally in a hymn seu placuere would refer to the deity’s choice of residence (N–H on 1. 30. 2), but here the sacral formula is transferred to the poet. For the fashionable resort of Baiae see 2. 18. 20 with N–H, epist. 1. 15. 12, where H’s horse has to be headed elsewhere, J. H. D’Arms, Romans on the Bay of Naples, 1970: index. liquidae (Encicl. virg. 3. 231 ff.) refers primarily to the pellucid air (2. 20. 2 ‘per liquidum aethera’ with N–H, epist. 1. 1. 83 ‘nullus in orbe sinus Bais praelucet amoenis’, Virg. georg. 4. 59, Gray, Ode on Spring 27 ‘And float amid the liquid noon’). But it is hard to exclude, as a subsidiary meaning, the clarity of the waters (ps.-Acro offers both explanations); cf. Virg. Aen. 7. 760, Ov. met. 6. 400, Shelley, Ode to the West Wind 33 f. (describing the Bay of Baiae) ‘And saw in sleep old palaces and towers / Quivering within the wave’s intenser day’. 25. vestris amicum fontibus et choris: amicum here means ‘welcome to’ (cf. 1. 26. 1 ‘Musis amicus’ with N–H, epitaph. Bionis 76 ƪÆE
4 . D ES C EN D E CA ELO
65
غØ); because H is loved by the Muses he can rely on their favour and protection. From early times water was associated with prophecy (introduction to 3. 13) and the Muses with sacred springs, Hippocrene on Helicon (Hes. theog. 6 with West), Castalia on Parnassus (61 n.), Pieria near Olympus (West on theog. 53, N–H on 1. 26. 9), Arethusa at Syracuse (Clausen on Virg. ecl. 10. 1); in Hellenistic and Roman poets these often symbolized poetry that was fresh and modest in scale (N–H on 1. 26. 6). The Camenae were originally water-nymphs (Wissowa 219), with a spring outside the Porta Capena (Steinby 1. 216, Richardson 63 f.); there they were associated with Egeria, the springgoddess of Aricia, who had prophetic gifts and was consulted by Numa (Ogilvie on Liv. 1. 21. 1, Courtney on Juv. 3. 13). For the dances of the Muses around springs cf. Hes. theog. 3 f. ŒÆ æd Œæ NØÆ ±ÆºEØ = Oæ FÆØ (with West); their powers of inspiration and prophecy are mentioned by Hesiod at theog. 31 f. KıÆ Ø ÆPc = ŁØ, ¥Æ ŒºØØ K Æ æ K Æ. 26. non me Philippis versa acies retro: the battles of Philippi were fought in the autumn of 42 bc near the Via Egnatia in eastern Macedonia; for the site and H’s participation see Encicl. oraz. 1. 241 ff. The slaughter was the worst in all the civil wars (Vell. 2. 71. 2). ‘versa acies retro’ alludes with austere understatement to the rout of the republican army (cf. 2. 7. 9 f. ‘Philippos et celerem fugam / sensi’). There as here H ascribes his escape to divine intervention (2. 7. 13 f. ‘sed me per hostis Mercurius celer / denso paventem sustulit aere’); for the emphatic me see 9 n. 27. devota non exstinxit arbor: for H’s accident with the tree cf. N–H on 2. 13. 10 ff., below on 3. 8. 6–7 and 11–12. He makes so much of the episode (exstinxit is a strong word) that it cannot be fictitious; he may well have been injured (cf. 3. 8. 7 ‘prope funeratus’). devota means not just ‘accursed’ as a conventional term of abuse, but ‘made over to the di inferi’ (L. Watson, Arae, 1991: 209); cf. the amusingly ferocious opening of 2. 13. 28. nec Sicula Palinurus unda: Capo Palinuro is on the Lucanian coast 12 miles south-east of Velia (Elea); the name in Greek may have implied ‘contrary wind’. Here in 36 bc, in the war against Sextus Pompeius, Octavian lost many ships in a storm (Vell. 2. 79. 3, Dio 49. 1. 3); we know that Maecenas was present (App. civ. 5. 99. 414), and our passage may indicate that H was with him (E. Wistrand, Opera Selecta, 1972: 304 f.); the disaster must have coloured the story of the drowning of Palinurus at Virg. Aen. 5. 833 ff., 6. 337 ff. Sicula unda (instrumental rather than local) refers to the mare Siculum; the term is said not to suit anything
66
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
so far north, but note Phaedr. 2. 5. 10 of the Mons Misenus in Campania ‘prospectat Siculum et respicit Tuscum mare’. Horace, however, may be indicating that the waves came from the place where the bellum Siculum was being fought. The geographical spread, reaching from Macedonia to Sicily, emphasizes the scope of the Muses’ protective power. 29. utcumque mecum vos eritis: utcumque here means ‘when and only when’; cf. 1. 17. 10, 2. 17. 11, 4. 4. 35. vos after the main caesura is emphatic, continuing the sacral anaphora above (vester . . . vester . . . vestris), and leading to vos . . . vos below (37 and 41). 29–31. libens / insanientem navita Bosphorum / temptabo: for the danger of these waters cf. 2. 13. 14 and 2. 20. 14; ‘in the centre there is a rapid current from the Black Sea to the Sea of Marmora, but a counter-current sets in the opposite direction below the surface and along the shores’ (Encycl. Brit. , edn. 11, 4. 286); cf. A. E. Zimmern, The Greek Commonwealth, 1931: 28 f., Walbank on Polyb. 4. 43. 3–10, RE 3. 742 ff. insanire is used like furere of natural forces; cf. 3. 7. 6, Catull. 25. 13 ‘vesaniente vento’, Virg. ecl. 9. 43, Sen. nat. quaest. 6. 17. 1. The archaic form navita is metrically convenient; it is used five times in the Odes and twice in the Epodes, not always in heroic contexts. For temptare of dangerous ventures cf. 1. 28. 5, Catull. 11. 13 f. ‘omnia haec . . . / . . . temptare simul parati’, Virg. georg. 1. 207 ‘ (quibus) Pontus et ostriferi fauces temptantur Abydi’; cf. also Cic. Tusc. 1. 45: ‘aliquid adsequi se putant qui ostium Ponti viderunt et eas angustias per quas penetravit . . . Argo’. 31–2. et urentis harenas / litoris Assyrii viator: the MSS divide between urentis and arentis. For the former cf. Sen. nat. quaest. 2. 30. 1 ‘(Aetna) ingentem vim harenae urentis effundit’, 4a. 2. 18 ‘ardens pulvis nec humani vestigii patiens’, Claud. 8. 598 ‘flagrantis . . . harenas’, Boeth. cons. phil. 2. 6 carm. 13 ‘ardentes . . . harenas’. For arentis cf. Sil. 6. 140 ‘arentis lento pede sulcat harenas’, Sulp. Sev. dial. 1. 3. 4; the assonance with harenas is no objection (Ov. met. 15. 268 ‘aret harenis’), and the words were thought to be etymologically connected (Maltby 269). But the vivid urentis is unlikely to have arisen by corruption, whereas arentis could easily be an Antizipationsfehler; and while all sand is dry, we look for an exceptional feature to balance the raging Bosporus. In the same way navita is picked up by viator: sea and land make a common ‘polar expression’ (cf. 2. 6. 7 ‘maris et viarum’). Assyrii properly should refer to the land of Nineveh, in later terms Parthia or Iraq, but that has no Mediterranean shore; ps.-Acro and Bentley are surely wrong to apply litoris to anything except the coast. The adjective was sometimes used for ‘Syrian’, especially where exotic products were concerned (N–H on 2. 11. 16); but the relatively fertile
4 . D ES C EN D E CA ELO
67
coast of Syria was not the obvious place to typify a desert journey (in spite of Manilius 4. 624 where a mariner gazes at Syriam perustam), and it was not remote enough to match the other places in the context. Gow saw a reference to the Persian Gulf and Alexander’s march through the Makran desert, which was further east in the modern Baluchistan (CAH 6 edn. 2, 835 f.), but unlike the other distant places this does not suit the Roman perspective. E. Wistrand proposed Austurii (Opera Selecta, 1972: 465 ff.), citing a Moorish people known from the fourth century as Austuriani and by Corippus as Austures (RE 2. 2592. 40 ff.); this would provide a southern point of reference as the Syrtes do elsewhere (1. 22. 5, 2. 20. 15 in closely parallel passages), but coming between the Bosporus and Britain it would be a very obscure reference, and although such lists sometimes ‘box the compass’ (Theiler, op. cit. 404), complete symmetry cannot be required. RN has considered limitis Assyrii, i.e. the Roman frontier with Parthia (OLD limes 2b); cf. Plut. Crass. 22. 5 P Ł b c #æø Ø Ø ŒÆd #ıæø ŁæÆ; 33. visam Britannos hospitibus feros: after dangerous places H turns to savage peoples; visam is more enterprising than the English ‘visit’, cf. 2. 20. 14, 3. 3. 54. Roman interest in Britain is shown again in 3. 5. 3 (see note); for its remoteness cf. Catull. 11. 12, Cic. nat. deor. 2. 88 with Pease, Virg. ecl. 1. 66 ‘penitus toto divisos orbe Britannos’. Strabo 4. 5. 2 describes the inhabitants as more barbaric than the Celts; for the human sacrifices of the Druids cf. Caes. bG 6. 16. 1, Tac. ann. 14. 30. 3 ‘nam cruore captivo adolere aras et hominum fibris consulere deos fas habebant’, Juv. 15. 124. 34. et laetum equino sanguine Concanum: the Concani were a Cantabrian tribe in northern Spain (RE 4. 798, Syme 1978: 185), for we hear of a place there called Concana (Ptol. geog. 2. 6. 51); the area caused concern even before Augustus’ campaign in 26, and Dio records operations by Statilius Taurus in 29 (51. 20. 5, cf. Syme, Roman Papers 2. 828). For their drinking of horses’ blood cf. Sil. 3. 361 ‘cornipedis fusa satiaris, Concane, vena’ (in a Spanish context); this literal bloodthirstiness puts them on a par with the Britons. The practice is usually attributed to the Scythians (Virg. georg. 3. 461 of the Geloni, Lucan 3. 282 ff., Plin. nat. hist. 18. 100 of the Sarmatians, cf. Mart. spect. 3. 4 ‘epoto Sarmata pastus equo’, Sen. Oed. 470 of the Massagetae, Stat. Ach. 1. 307 f., Clem. paed. 3. 24. 4); that is why Porph. says ‘Hispaniae gens est vel ut alii dicunt Scythiae’, and why Silius absurdly describes the Concani as descendants of the Massagetae (loc. cit.). 35–6. visam pharetratos Gelonos / et Scythicum inviolatus amnem: two topical areas in the north-east balance two in the west. The Geloni
68
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
were a Scythian tribe mentioned several times by Horace and Virgil, possibly because the Romans associated their name with gelu (2. 9. 23 with N–H, 2. 20. 19, Syme, 1978: 186 n.); for their archery cf. 3. 8. 23 n. (of the Scythians in general), Virg. Aen. 8. 725 ‘sagittiferosque Gelonos’. The Scythian river is the Tanais or Don (cf. 3. 10. 1, 3. 29. 28, 4. 15. 24), which comes out in the Sea of Azov; the periphrasis indicates its prominence in the Roman mind; cf. 2. 9. 21 ‘Medumque flumen’ and Call. h. 2. 98 #ıæı ÆE ªÆ Þ (both of the Euphrates). The Borysthenes or Dnieper had greater commercial importance, but the Tanais is particularly relevant here because it was regarded as the boundary of Europe and Asia; cf. 3. 10. 1 n. inviolatus implies not just ‘unhurt’ but ‘inviolable’, ‘sacrosanct’ (Caes. bG 6. 23 ‘hospitem violare fas non putant’), even among a cruel people; cf. 1. 22. 1 ff. (the integer vitae needs no weapons even in barbarous lands), Prop. 3. 16. 13 f. ‘quisquis amator erit, Scythicis licet ambulet oris, / nemo adeo ut noceat barbarus esse volet’. 37–8. vos Caesarem altum, militia simul / fessas cohortis abdidit oppidis: as usual H avoids addressing the great man directly (the only exception in Odes 1–3 is 1. 2. 52); but here, quite paradoxically, the Muses become the mouthpiece of the poet. Octavian, as moderns conveniently but misleadingly call him to distinguish him from Julius Caesar, assumed the name ‘Augustus’ in January 27 bc; in the immediate aftermath the more grandiloquent title would have been expected, as in 3. 3. 11, 3. 5. 3; but this ode was probably written in the autumn of 29 bc (see below). The temple of Janus had been closed at the beginning of that year (Dio 51. 20. 4 and the note of Brunt and Moore on res gest. 13). The honorific altum (cf. Ov. Pont. 2. 3. 63 ‘Caesaris alti’) was to lead to the medieval ‘Highness’ (cf. the Irish Ard Rı´), but here the word was well within the heroic tradition; cf. serm. 2. 5. 62 f. ‘ab alto / demissum genus Aenea’, Virg. Aen. 9. 697 ‘Sarpedonis alti’, OLD 11. The MSS divide in the main between abdidit and addidit; Bentley read reddidit from the meaningless redditis of a few MSS (cf. Tac. ann. 1. 17. 6, 1. 30. 3 ‘si . . . suis quisque hibernis redderentur’); E. Courtney has proposed dididit (Phoenix 40, 1986: 319 ff.). abdidit makes a contrast with militia, and suggests that the soldiers can now enjoy a quiet life in their winter quarters (cf. epist. 1. 1. 5 ‘latet abditus agro’); there would be no repetition of the conflicts of the Republic when the army of a victorious general (Marius, Sulla, Pompey, Caesar) presented an actual or potential threat to the political system. addidit would refer to the settlement of veterans on the land, as undertaken by Octavian in 30 bc (Suet. Aug. 17. 3, Dio 51. 4. 5–6) and presumably continued after his triumphs in 29; this was sometimes done by adding to existing communities (res gest. 3. 3 ‘deduxi in colonias aut remisi in municipia’, Hygin. grom. p. 177
4 . D ES C EN D E CA ELO
69
Lachmann ‘quosdam in veteribus oppidis deduxit’, cf. Tac. ann. 13. 31. 2 ‘coloniae Capua atque Nuceria additis veteranis firmatae sunt’). But this was a lengthy process involving land-surveyors and lawyers; here fessas suggests that the army had just come back. Finally, though this cannot be decisive, NR observes that abdidit contains an interesting poetic metaphor, whereas addidit is a prosaic word. 39–40. finire quaerentem labores / Pierio recreatis antro: the Princeps can relax now that his troops have been quartered. The passage seems to refer to the occasion in 29 when he heard Virgil reading the Georgics at Atella (Suet. vit. Verg. 105 ff. Rostagni, cited by Schu¨tz and independently by D. A. Malcolm, CR 5, 1955: 242 f.); Maecenas was present, and so perhaps H himself. The cave is hardly a garden grotto (thus Malcolm) but belongs to a symbolic landscape (cf. 3. 25. 2–4 nn., Pind. P. 6. 49 K ı EØ —Øæø, Mart. 12. 11. 3, Juv. 7. 59 f. ‘sub antro / Pierio’); for the ‘Pierian spring’ near Olympus cf. 1. 26. 9 with N–H. recreatis describes the refreshment provided by poetry (cf. 1. 32. 14 f. ‘laborum / dulce lenimen’, Lucr. 6. 94 ‘Calliope, requies hominum’, Cic. Att. 4. 10. 1 ‘sic litteris sustentor et recreor’); in addition to his exhaustion, Octavian was ill with a throat-infection (Suet. loc. cit.), but recreatis is tactfully inexplicit. About the same time he rewarded Varius for his recently staged Thyestes (Schanz–Hosius 2. 163); his serious, if limited, literary interests are mentioned by Suet. Aug. 84–6. 41–2. vos lene consilium et datis et dato / gaudetis almae: for the power of the Muses to make the world a gentler place cf. Hes. theog. 80 ff., Pind.P. 1. 10 ff. (see introduction), 5. 66 f. (of Apollo), Plat. Prot. 326b, rep. 441e, Plut. praecepta gerendae reipublicae 801e c ˚ƺºØ Æ挺ı m c ÆغFØ – ÆNØØ OE. We may assume that the lene consilium (tendered tactfully by ‘the Muses’, not by Horace in propria persona) coheres with Octavian’s view of his own policy; cf. carm. saec. 51 f. ‘iacentem / lenis in hostem’, Aug. res gest. 3. 1 ‘victorque omnibus veniam petentibus civibus peperci’, 34. 2. More specifically, it is often supposed (and NR agrees) that in 29 bc H has in mind primarily the idea of clemency to the defeated Antonians; for though Antony and Cleopatra had been eliminated, there were many lesser people among Antony’s supporters who could be won over (like Horace himself after Philippi). If this is right, the rest of the poem emphasizes that (as in Pythian 1) before peace could come the enemies of legitimate vis had to be crushed in a terrible war. In that mythical struggle our attention is focused entirely on the protagonists; there are no subordinates. RN objects that the last half of the ode says nothing about mildness or forgiveness but concentrates on the overthrow and punishment of sinners who rebelled against the divine order;
70
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
he thinks that the point about lene consilium is made in more general terms, and that H is contrasting the humanity and enlightenment of the Princeps with the barbarism of his opponents (a colon could be printed after almae). For the same contrast cf. Pind. P. 1. 13 (cited in the introduction) and 8. 10 ff. (where the address to Hesychia, Goddess of Peace, is followed by the defeat of the Giants). The second i of consilium is treated as consonantal, thus lengthening the previous syllable; for the synizesis cf. 3. 6. 6 ‘hinc omne principium’, Bo 81 f., Skutsch on Enn. ann. p. 59, S. Timpanaro, Encicl. virg. 4. 877 ff. The Muses ‘are glad to have given the advice’ when they know it has been accepted. L. Mu¨ller explained dato with the gloss ‘vel a vobis vel ab aliis’, but ‘ab aliis’ is irrelevant, and his interpretation impairs the rhetorical pattern by which a verb is picked up by a participle (Virg. Aen. 1. 736 f. ‘laticis libavit honorem, / primaque libato summo tenus attigit ore’, Wills 311 ff.). J. Gow explained ‘when gentle advice is given to you’ (cf. Auson. prof. Burd. 24. 9 f. ‘tam bone dandis / semper consiliis quam taciturne datis’); but nobody would be so presumptuous as to advise the Muses. 42–3. scimus ut impios / Titanas immanemque turmam: scimus introduces an exemplum, cf. Aesch. cho. 602 Yø, Soph. El. 837 rÆ. The Titans were the twelve children of Earth (Gaea) and Sky (Uranus), the most notable being Cronus and Rhea, the parents of Zeus; see Hom. Il. 8. 479, Hes. theog. 133 f. with West. Hesiod goes on to describe the Titanomachy in which Zeus and the other new gods defeated their predecessors (theog. 617 ff. with West); H seems to conflate this with the Gigantomachy and other assaults on the gods (below, 53 n.). One side of the MS tradition has turmam here and turmas in 47; the other has turbam here and turbas in 47. Here turmam is appropriate as it describes a military formation, though usually cavalry (cf. 2. 19. 22 ‘cohors Gigantum’, Soph. Trach. 1058 f. ªªc = æÆe ˆØªø); for the same reason turmas in 47 is totally inappropriate. Here immanem points to the Giants’ monstrous appearance; cf. Apollod. 1. 6. 1 ŒÆŁØØ ÆŁEÆ Œ KŒ ŒÆºB ŒÆd ªø, r b a Ø ºÆ æÆŒ ø (they are often portrayed and described as snakefooted, e.g. Ov. trist. 4. 7. 17 ‘serpentipedesque Gigantas’). H is not using a hendiadys for ‘the troop of Titans’; to judge from Hesiod and Apollodorus the Titans were not monstrous in appearance, and as the ‘old gods’ they could hardly be called iuventus in v. 50. If v. 50 refers exclusively to the ‘Hundred-Handers’ (see note ad loc.), so must turmam here; but in that case the allusion seems too restricted to be clear. 44. fulmine sustulerit caduco: for the thunderbolt as the weapon of divine justice cf. 1. 3. 40, 1. 12. 59 f., 3. 3. 6, A. B. Cook, Zeus 2. 11 ff.,
4 . D ES C EN D E CA ELO
71
722 ff., Courtney on Juv. 13. 78. caducus means ‘descending’; cf. [Aesch.] Prom. 360 ˘e ¼ªæı º , = ŒÆÆØ ŒæÆı (directed at Typhon, for whom see 53 n.), Lycophron 382. The Latin adjective is normally used of things that are frail and languishing (Prop. 4. 2. 53 ‘tela caduca’, Lyne, 1989: 165 ff.), but sometimes it has a more sinister note (e.g. 2. 13. 11 on the falling tree); Bentley’s corusco is not needed. sustulerit (‘destroyed’) primarily means ‘lifted’; so there is verbal play in combining it with caduco (D. West, ap. Costa 41). 45–6. qui terram inertem, qui mare temperat / ventosum: Jupiter holds sway over all the elements; cf. 1. 12. 15 f. ‘qui mare et terras variisque mundum / temperat horis’, Plaut. rud. 1 ‘qui gentes omnes mariaque et terras movet’ with Marx, Enn. ann. 556. For ‘terram inertem’ cf. Ov. met. 15. 148, Calp. 4. 109; here the immobility of the earth is contrasted with the fluidity of the sea (cf. 1. 34. 9 ‘bruta tellus et vaga flumina’). temperat suits the control of natural forces, regit (48) the government of sentient beings, including the underworld. 46. et umbras regnaque tristia: umbras (elaborated by regnaque tristia) is Bentley’s conjecture for urbes; for this common way of referring to the underworld cf. Pease on Virg. Aen. 4. 25, Sen. HO. 1477 f. ‘emenso freta / terrasque et umbras’. This last example parallels the trio here of earth, sea, and underworld, a sequence which is interrupted by urbes; see Shackleton Bailey 114 f. 47–8. divosque mortalisque turbas / imperio regit unus aequo: turbas suggests the confusion of human life and the greater numbers of mortals; the variant turmas (‘squadrons’) has no relevance here (43 n.). 49–50. magnum illa terrorem intulerat Iovi / fidens iuventus horrida bracchiis: illa iuventus must refer to the immanem turmam of 43; it is an appropriate description of the Giants (cf. 2. 12. 7 ‘Telluris iuvenes’), though other monsters are not excluded. Porph. persuasively comments ‘ordo est fidens bracchiis iuventus horrida’; cf. Hom. Il. 12. 135 (of Lapith warriors) æØ ØŁ Mb Ø. Some take bracchiis also with horrida (‘bristling with fore-arms’); on this view H means the ‘Hundred-Handers’, Aegaeon (or Briareus), Cottus, and Gyges (Hom. Il. 1. 401 ff., Hes. theog. 147 with West). According to the usual account they helped Zeus to resist the Titans (theog. 617 ff. with West, p. 663), but in another version they joined the attack on Zeus: see Eumelus fr. 2K (Aegaeon an ally of the Titans), Virg. Aen. 10. 565 ff. with Hardie 154 ff. (Aegaeon fights against Jove’s thunderbolts), Bo¨mer on Ov. fast. 3. 805. Yet in our passage, where fidens bracchiis is modelled on Homer, it is difficult to give horrida bracchiis the required emphasis: one would
72
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
expect something like ‘densis iuventus horrida bracchiis’ (suggested by Housman, Classical Papers 1. 167). Heinze argued that terrorem described a threat to Jupiter rather than actual fear; he compared Cic. Mil. 71 ‘declarat se non terrorem inferre vobis’. Yet see Hom. Il. 1. 406 (on the Hundred-Hander Aegaeon) e ŒÆd ØÆ ŒÆæ Ł, Ov. met. 5. 322 ‘caelitibus fecisse metum’ (on Typhoeus), Aetna 54 ‘Iuppiter et caelo metuit’ (because of the Giants), Stat. Ach. 1. 484 f., Sidon. carm. 6. 15, 7. 133 f. Homeric gods had human emotions. 51–2. fratresque tendentes opaco / Pelion imposuisse Olympo: Otis and Ephialtes, the gigantic sons of Aloeus, piled up the Thessalian mountains to make a ramp to heaven; cf. Hom. Od. 11. 315 f. ! ˇÆ K ˇPºfiø ÆÆ Ł, ÆPaæ K ! ˇfi = —ºØ, Virg. georg. 1. 280 ff. and Thomas 128 ff., Aen. 6. 582 ff., Ov. am. 2. 1. 11 ff. with McKeown (who records varying arrangements of the mountains), Apollod. 1. 7. 4, F. P. Wilson, Ox. Dict. of English Proverbs, edn. 3, 1970: 600. tendentes reflects ÆÆ in Homer and ØÆÆ at Hes. theog. 209 (though that refers to the Titans). opaco transfers Homer’s foliage from Pelion at the top of the heap to Olympus at the bottom (so Virg. georg. 1. 282 ‘frondosum . . . Olympum’). For the tense of imposuisse see 3. 18. 15 n. 53. sed quid Typhoeus et validus Mimas: H now describes the battle of the Gods and Giants (cf. Apollod. 1. 6. 1–2 with Frazer, F. Vian, La Guerre des Ge´ants, 1952, with REG 65, 1952: 1 ff., Hardie 85 ff., RE Suppl. 3. 655 ff., LIMC 4. 1. 191 ff.); for its symbolic significance in Pindar and public sculpture see the introduction. In early Greek mythology it came later than the battle with the Titans, but in the Hellenistic and Roman periods these and similar legends were often conflated (Bo¨mer on Ov. fast. 5. 35, LIMC 4. 1. 193, Lyne, 1995: 51 n.); cf. Milton, PL 1. 196 ff. ‘in bulk as huge / As whom the fables name of monstrous size, / Titanian or Earth-born, that warred on Jove, / Briareos or Typhon . . . ’. Instead of saying ‘what could the Aloadae avail against the Gods?’ H attaches his question to a parallel illustration; for the schema see 3. 1. 45 n. Typhoeus, son of Gaea and Tartarus, was half man, half dragon: Hom. Il. 2. 781 ff., Hes. theog. 820 ff. with West, [Aesch.] Prom. 351 ff., Apollod. 1. 6. 3 with Frazer, J. Fontenrose, Python, 1980: 70 ff., LIMC 8. 1. 149 f. In Hesiod he came after the Giants and was still probably regarded as distinct at Pind. P. 8. 15 ff.; for a later tradition that treated him as a Giant see Roscher 5. 1440, Fontenrose 80 n. Mimas was a Giant who hurled the volcanic island of Lemnos against the Gods (Claud. gigant. 85 ff., Sidon. carm. 15. 25 f.) but was killed by Hephaestus with masses of red-hot metal (Apollod. 1. 6. 2); there are other accounts of his death (Hunter on Ap. Rhod. 3. 1225–7), but in view of the reference to
4 . D ES C EN D E CA ELO
73
Volcanus (59) this may have been the version that H had in mind. He is mentioned on the Great Frieze at Pergamum (see further LIMC 4. 1. 193, E. Simon, Pergamon und Hesiod, 1975: 41, and 59 n. below). The name seems to be derived from the mountain opposite Chios (Hom. Od. 3. 172, h. Hom. 3. 39, Call. h. 4. 67). 54. aut quid minaci Porphyrion statu: Porphyrion, the king of the Giants, was overcome by the bow of Apollo (Pind. P. 8. 15 ff. cited above, RE 22. 1. 272 f., Simon, op. cit. 43–5, taf. 15); in another version he tried to rape Hera but was destroyed by Zeus and Heracles (Apollod. 1. 6. 2). See also Ar. aves 1252, Naev. fr. 19 ‘inerant signa expressa, quomodo Titani / bicorpores Gigantes magnique Atlantes / Runcus ac Purpureus, filii Terras . . . ’; this passage described sculptures on the temple of Acragas, or perhaps rather the decoration on a shield (E. Fraenkel, JRS 44, 1954: 14 ff. ¼ Kleine Beitra¨ge 2, 1964: 25 ff.). minaci statu is a descriptive rather than an instrumental ablative; the epithets increase in length with each giant in 53–4 (see 67–8 n.). The phrase suggests the stance of a warrior poised for action (cf. Petr. 95. 8 ‘statum proeliantis componit’). Some interpret statu as ‘stature’ (OLD s.v. 2); this avoids the apparent inconsistency with ruentes (58), but the baroque Gigantomachies of sculpture combine aggressive postures with an impression of dynamic movement (for this feature of ecphrasis cf. Kerkhecker on Call. iamb. pp. 177 ff.). 55–6. quid Rhoetus evolsisque truncis / Enceladus iaculator audax: Rhoetus is a giant at 2. 19. 23, Sidon. carm. 6. 24, but more usually a centaur; perhaps the name should be emended to Rhoecus everywhere (Housman, Classical Papers 3. 1103), but for difficulties see N–H on 2. 19. 23. For the giant Enceladus see Batrachomyomachia 283, RE 5. 2578 f., LIMC 3. 1. 742 f. His combat with Athena was perhaps portrayed on the temple of Apollo at Delphi (Eur. Ion 209 ff. ºØ s K ¯ ªŒºfiø = ªæªøe ººıÆ Yı; = ºø —ƺº Ka Ł ) and also at Pergamum (Simon 44); he was buried under Etna according to Call. aet. 1. 35 f., Virg. Aen. 3. 578 ff., Aetna 71 ff. evolsisque truncis is best taken as an instrumental ablative with the agent-noun iaculator (Plaut. Men. 187 ‘uter ibi melior bellator erit inventus cantharo’, H–Sz 128); this binds the sentence more tightly together than an ablative absolute, and gives Enceladus a long epithet to balance Porphyrion’s (cf. 54 n.). Fighting with trees was typical of centaurs (Vian on Ap. Rhod. 1. 64). audax here implies reckless insolence rather than courage (OLD 2). 57–8. contra sonantem Palladis aegida / possent ruentes?: for Athena’s part in the Gigantomachy see LIMC 2. 1. 990 ff.; it was shown at
74
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
Pergamum (Simon 47–9, taf. 14, 15), and also on the Panathenaic peplos (Lyne on Ciris 29–34); when her warlike aspects are mentioned, Latin poets tend to call her Pallas rather than Minerva (cf. 1. 6. 15, 1. 12. 20, 1. 15. 11). The aegis was originally associated with Zeus, but after Homer more particularly with Athena (OCD 17); sometimes it is a shawl, fringed with serpents, draped over the goddess’s left arm; sometimes it is a breastplate with the Gorgon’s head in the middle; sometimes it could be shaken so as to inspire fear (Hom. Il. 15. 230, 309 f., 17. 595, Virg. Aen. 8. 354); here sonantem points to a breastplate. ruentes suggests a mindless onslaught (‘inconsiderate venientes’, ps.-Acro); in later writers’ interpretation of the Gigantomachy Athena stood for rationality (Theiler, op. cit. 415 f., citing Cornutus 39. 13, Ael. Arist. 37. 9 etc.). 58–9. hinc avidus stetit / Volcanus: hinc . . . hinc refers to the different sides of Athena; for Hephaestus’ part in the Gigantomachy see LIMC 4. 1. 647, Apollod. 1. 6. 2 (53 n.). avidus presumably means ‘eager for the fray’; for this use, without a genitive, cf. Sall. hist. 2. 67M ‘avidis ita atque promptis ducibus’, Tac. hist. 1. 45. 1 ‘avidum et minacem militum animum’, ann. 1. 51. 1 with Goodyear. The adjective could also suggest fire’s capacity to devour (‘propter ignis aviditatem’ Porph., cf. 75 n.); this may be how H interpreted ƺæ , the obscure Homeric epithet for fire (cf. Aesch. cho. 325, Quint. Smyrn. 3. 711 , ˙Æı ƺæE, 13. 150, 330); for a similar ambiguity cf. 1. 4. 8 ‘Volcanus ardens’. avidus has sometimes been suspected, for instance by Shackleton Bailey; A. Y. Campbell at various times considered calidus, rapidus (which he rejected as unsuitable for a lame god), and validus (which would require a change at 53 validus Mimas). 59–60. hinc matrona Iuno et / numquam umeris positurus arcum: for Hera’s presence in the Gigantomachy cf. 54 n., LIMC 4. 1. 702 ff., Simon 20–2, taf. 16. For matrona Tonantis cf. Ov. fast. 6. 33 with Bo¨mer: the gods support Augustan values against the primitive lust of Porphyrion. Apollo’s part was more important (LIMC 2. 1. 309 f., Simon, taf. 18), and is central to H’s ode. The bow, like the lyre, was a standing attribute of the god; cf. 1. 21. 11 with N–H, h. Hom. 3. 131, Call. h. 2. 19, LIMC 2. 1. 196 ff. Here he does not intend to replace the bow on his shoulder until the battle is won (thus Kiessling and Gow); most commentators think that Apollo will not take the bow down from his shoulder, but that is not the natural interpretation of umeris positurus, and in the heat of battle he should be represented as actually shooting. At the same time H seems to have caught a significant moment, as if he were describing a work of art (cf. Virg. Aen 8. 704 f. ‘Actius haec cernens arcum intendebat Apollo / desuper’, Keats, Ode on a Grecian Urn 20 ‘For ever shalt thou love and she be fair’); for Apollo’s bow at Actium cf. also Prop. 4. 6. 55.
4 . D ES C EN D E CA ELO
75
61–2. qui rore puro Castaliae lavit / crinis solutos: this stanza reminds us that the warrior god of the Gigantomachy is also the god of poetry (cf. 4, Miller, loc. cit.); for the description cf. Hom. Il. 20. 39, epod. 15. 9 ‘(dum) intonsosque agitaret Apollinis aura capillos’, Ap. Rhod. 2. 676 f., Virg. Aen. 4. 147 f. with Pease. The hair-washing must also be a traditional motif; cf. 4. 6. 26 ‘Phoebe, qui Xantho lavis amne crinis’ (alluding to the Lycian river and the god’s golden hair), Val. Fl. 1. 449, Stat. Theb. 1. 697 f. rore refers to a spray of water (OLD 2a); cf. especially the paean of Aristonous inscribed on stone at Delphi: t —ÆæÆF ªıºø = Pæ ØØ ˚ÆÆºÆ = ÆE e Æ K Ææ- = ø (Powell, Coll. Alex. p. 164, 41 ff.). 62–3. qui Lyciae tenet / dumeta natalemque silvam: Apollo had a famous oracle at Patara in Lycia (east of Rhodes) near the mouth of the Xanthus; cf. Herod. 1. 182, Bo¨mer on Ov. met. 1. 516, RE 18. 4. 2555 ff. Lycia and Delos are mentioned together at Pind. P. 1. 39 (with Castalia), Virg. Aen. 4. 143 f. ‘qualis ubi hibernam Lyciam Xanthique fluenta / deserit ac Delum maternam invisit Apollo’ (where see Pease for the god’s seasonal migrations). For dumeta (thick scrub) cf. 3. 29. 22–4 n. Apollo was born on Delos (hence natalem) beside a palm or olive (Hom. Od. 6. 163, h. Hom. 3. 18, Call. h. 4. 210, Paus. 8. 48. 3), and perhaps there was a sacred grove in his honour; cf. Cic. leg. 1. 2 ‘quam Homericus Ulixes Deli se proceram et teneram palmam vidisse dixit, hodie monstrant eandem’, Ael. var. hist. 5. 4 (the olive and palm are said to flourish on Delos), Tac. ann. 3. 61. 1 (a rival grove at Ephesus). 64. Delius et Patareus Apollo: the cult-centres are now mentioned again in reverse order (chiasmus), with the god’s name reserved for the climax. Though naturally it is not mentioned in the poem, it is worth recalling that in 42 bc Brutus destroyed Xanthus and looted the treasure ‘both public and private’ from the neighbouring Patara; H was on his staff about this time (serm. 1. 7. 18 ff.) and may have witnessed the outrages; see Plut. Brut. 32 (who tries to excuse Brutus), App. civ. 4. 79–81, Dio 47. 34, Hercher, Epistol. Graec. pp. 182 ff. (letters attributed to Brutus), Encicl. oraz. 1. 236. Note must have been taken of Xanthus in the war of words at the time of Philippi; H was not as friendly to the memory of Brutus as is usually supposed (see N–H on 2. 7. 2). 65. vis consili expers mole ruit sua: mindless force is self-destructive: cf. Pind. P. 8. 15 Æ b ŒÆd ªºÆı ƺ K æ fiø, Bacchyl. 15. 62 f. [0 5æØ ] æغı = ˆA ÆEÆ þº ˆªÆÆ , Eur. TGF fr. 732N Þ b IÆŁc ººŒØ ŒØ º, Diod. 5. 71. 5 (on the Giants’ punishment). consilium here means ‘wise judgment’ (OLD 7), a
76
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
quality prized at Rome (H. Fuchs, MH 4, 1947: 166 ff.); the word echoes consilium (41), though there it refers to good advice. People or cities are said from time to time to topple either through their own strength (epod. 16. 2 ‘suis et ipsa Roma viribus ruit’, Liv. 6. 19. 6) or their own bulk (Liv. praef. 4, again of Rome, ‘ut iam magnitudine laboret sua’, Ov. met. 1. 156 of the Giants ‘obruta mole sua cum corpora dira iacerent’, Sen. dial. 2. 2. 2); H conflates the two ideas. 66–7. vim temperatam di quoque provehunt / in maius: the phrase vim temperatam balances vis consili expers in length, metre, and position (‘vertical responsion’). Force controlled by reason suits the selfpresentation of Augustus (‘hoc ad Augustum vult referri’ Porph.). 67–8. idem odere viris / omne nefas animo moventis: the three cola on vis increase in size; cf. Fraenkel 351, E. Lindholm, Stilistische Studien zur Erweiterung der Satzglieder im Lateinischen, 1931. ‘The strength that plots every kind of wickedness’ is distinguished alike from mindless brutality and force controlled by wisdom. As viris in effect means validos it can be combined with animo moventis (OLD s.v. movere 19). 69–70. testis mearum centimanus Gyges / sententiarum: Gyges was one of the Hundred-Handers (for whom see 49–50 n.); the MSS read gigas here and at 2. 17. 14 (see N–H), but Muretus and Bentley restored the correct form of the name (West on Hes. theog. 149). testis is often used of people who illustrate an aphorism; cf. Cic. off. 2. 26 ‘testis est Phalaris’ (also illustrating an assertion about power), Prop. 2. 13. 53, Ov. her. 20. 101 ff. By his sententiae H is referring to the aphorisms in 65–7 rather than simply to his personal opinions; mearum placed before its noun with hyperbaton seems surprisingly emphatic, and Campbell looked for a reference to divine judgment (ratarum W. M. Edwards); but the mention of the poet’s standpoint in a grand lyric poem is a Pindaric feature (cf. O. 4. 17 f., P. 11. 52 f., fr. 169. 3 f.). 70–1. notus et integrae / temptator Orion Dianae: for notus ¼ ‘notorious’ cf. 3. 11. 25 f. ‘notas / virginum poenas’; the word balances testis (69), and has the same function as scimus (42). This version of the myth is recorded by Serv. Aen. 1. 535, and seems to be implied by Call. h. 3. 264 f. In Arat. phaen. 637 ff. Orion was killed by a scorpion which Artemis sent against him for attempting to rape her. According to Homer, he was killed by Artemis through jealousy of his love for Eos (Od. 5. 121 ff.); for various accounts see Apollod. 1. 4. 5 with Frazer, J. Fontenrose, ‘Orion’, Univ. Cal. Class. Stud. 23, 1981, RE 18. 1. 1072 ff. temptare can refer to attempted rape (cf. Tib. 1. 3. 73 ‘Iunonem temptare Ixionis
4 . D ES C EN D E CA ELO
77
ausi’), but the agent-noun is not attested before this and not again till Tertullian; the word is pointedly juxtaposed to integrae (¼ intactae) as Orion to Dianae. 72. virginea domitus sagitta: Diana had the title of Virgo (3. 22. 1 n.), as Artemis that of Parthenos; for the poetic use of the adjective for a genitive cf. Lo¨fstedt (1942), 107 ff. As Orion was a gigantic hunter (Hom. Od. 11. 572 ff.) there is a paradox in his subjugation by a young maiden. domare (‘to tame’) suits the action of a huntress; for its application to violent sinners cf. 2. 12. 6 f. ‘domitosque . . . / Telluris iuvenes’, Pind.P. 8. 17 AŁ, N. 7. 90. 73. iniecta monstris Terra dolet suis: the monsters of lines 42–56 were all born from Earth (Apollod. 1. 1. 1–3, mainly from Hes., theog. 147 ff., 185, Virg. georg. 1. 278 ff.), as were Orion (Apollod. 1. 4. 3) and Tityos below (Hom. Od. 11. 576); for iniecta cf. Apollod. 1. 6. 3 ÆPfiH . . . ˘f KææØł `Y Zæ (on Typhoeus). Terra combines the idea of inanimate earth with that of a sentient goddess; for her grief cf. Hes. theog. 858 Ø b ªÆEÆ ºæ (on Typhoeus), Quint. Smyrn. 3. 397 (on Tityos); Ge is shown prostrate under Athena at Pergamum (Hardie, op. cit. pl. 3, cf. LIMC 4. 1. 172, Simon, taf. 14). H’s sentence best balances its successor if iniecta is combined with dolet ( ¼ ‘dolet se iniectam esse’); for this Greek construction with verbs of feeling cf. Virg. georg. 2. 510 ‘gaudent perfusi sanguine fratrum’, K–G 2. 53 f. suis, with its connotations of affection, is paradoxically applied to the loathsome monstris. 74–5. maeretque partus fulmine luridum / missos ad Orcum: partus again suggests an affectionate relationship; so, more outrageously, Manilius 3. 6 ‘fulminis et flammis partus in matre sepultos’. Like the Greek Hades, Orcus can be used both of the god (2. 3. 24, 2. 18. 34, Hom. Il. 1. 3 and usually in Homer) and his kingdom (3. 11. 29 n., Hom. Il. 8. 16, Pind. P. 5. 96); for NR this is one of the frequent cases where no distinction can be drawn, but RN thinks that for a poet at least the construction with ad seems better suited to the place. Similarly luridum could be applied to the god ([Tib.] 3. 3. 37 f. ‘me vocet . . . luridus Orcus’) and to the underworld (cf. Prop. 4. 11. 8 lurida porta of its door, and the commoner use of pallida at Virg. Aen. 8. 244 f. ‘regna . . . pallida’); RN thinks the latter description is the more arresting. 75–6. nec peredit / impositam celer ignis Aetnen: for the burial of the monsters under Etna cf. especially Pind.P. 1. 19 f. and [Aesch.] Prom. 365 on Typhoeus (see the introduction), Call. h. 4. 141 ff. on Briareus, aet. 1. 36 on Enceladus (above 56 n.); in Homer’s account Typhoeus was
78
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
buried in the country of the Arimi (Il. 2. 782 ff.), and later ‘Inarime’ was identified with Ischia off Campania (Hardie on Virg. Aen. 9. 716, Dewar on Claudian, de sexto consulatu Honorii, praef. 17 f.). celer ignis is the fire darting from the monster’s mouth; cf. Pind. P. 1. 25 f. on Typhoeus ŒE , `ÆØ Œæıf æ = Øı IÆØ, Ov. met. 5. 353, Aetna 73 on Enceladus. Paradoxically it has not consumed the mountain so as to allow respite or escape (Ov. met. 5. 356 f.); for peredit cf. 58 n., [Aesch.] Prom. 366 f. on Typhoeus ŒEÆØ . . . N ÞÆØØ `NÆÆØ o, Petr. 122. 135 f. ‘iamque Aetna voratur / ignibus insolitis’. The Greek form Aetnen is read here by Porph.’s lemma and some good MSS (cf. Ov. met. 13. 770, 14. 1); it should be accepted here on the principle of ‘difficilior lectio’ against the better-attested Aetnam. The reference could have had a particular interest for contemporaries: Etna had erupted in 44 bc (Virg. georg. 1. 471 ff., Liv. fr. 57), 36 (Sen. epist. 79. 5 citing Cornelius Severus, App. bell. civ. 5. 117), and 32 (Dio 50. 8); Augustus also wrote a poem on Sicily (Suet. Aug. 85. 2), which may have referred to Etna, but the date is uncertain. 77–8. incontinentis nec Tityi iecur / reliquit ales: Tityos, another enormous son of Earth, had his liver gnawed by vultures because of an assault on Leto (2. 14. 8 with N–H, 4. 6. 2 ‘Tityosque raptor’, Hom. Od. 11. 576 ff., RE 6A. 2. 1593 ff.); incontinentis refers as often to a lack of sexual restraint. He was killed by Artemis (Pind. P. 4. 90 ff.) or Apollo (Ap. Rhod. 1. 759 ff.) or both together (Apollod. 1. 4. 1); Frazer ad loc. cites works of art for his punishment (LIMC 8. 1. 40), including Polygnotus’ picture of the underworld at Delphi (Paus. 10. 29. 3). The liver was often regarded as the seat of desire (1. 13. 4 with N–H, TLL 7. 1. 245. 71 ff.), though this has been denied for Homer (Onians 84 ff., West on Hes. theog. 523 ff.); the myth was rationalized by making Tityos an example of lust (Lucr. 3. 992 f. ‘sed Tityos nobis hic est, in amore iacentem / quem volucres lacerant’ with Kenney, [Heraclitus] alleg. Hom. 18, anth. Lat. 636. 21 ff.). reliquit (balancing peredit) means ‘has let go of ’, but may also have a hint of ‘abandoned’ (see next note). Tityos’ liver was eternally renewed (Sen. Ag. 18. ‘fecundum iecur’), as in the analogous case of Prometheus (Hes. theog. 523 ff.). 78–9. nequitiae additus / custos: nequitia here refers to lust, and does not have its milder implication of ‘naughty behaviour’ (3. 15. 2 n.); the abstract noun stands for ‘a lustful creature’. additus means ‘attached to’ or ‘set over’ as a custos or jailer (cf. Plaut. aul. 556 of Argus ‘quem quondam Ioni Iuno custodem addidit’, mil. 146, OLD s.v. 4); with reliquit there seems to be a grim suggestion that the guard has not failed in his duty (cf. the phrase signa relinquere).
5 . CA ELO T O NA N T EM C R ED I D I M V S
79
79–80. amatorem trecentae / Pirithoum cohibent catenae: Pirithous was a savage Lapith (N–H on 2. 12. 5), son by Zeus of Ixion’s wife (Hom. Il. 14. 317 f.); he accompanied Theseus to Sparta to abduct the young Helen (Diod. 4. 63. 2, Hygin. fab. 79), and when he failed to win her for himself tried with Theseus’ help to abduct Persephone from the underworld. As a punishment he was fettered eternally, and even Heracles failed to rescue him (except in the novel treatment of Euripides); see Apollod. 2. 5. 12 with Frazer and especially epit. 1. 23–4, Virg. Aen. 6. 393, RE 19. 1. 115 ff., LIMC 7. 1. 232 ff. trecentae is an indefinite large number (2. 14. 5 with N–H); the assonance trecentae cohibent catenae may suggest the clank of chains; in the usual account Pirithous was bound in the coils of serpents (Apollod. epit. 1. 24). The emphatic amatorem refers to licentiousness (3. 18. 1, epist. 1. 1. 38 ‘vinosus, amator’, Plaut. asin. 921 ‘surge, amator, i domum’, Cic. Tusc. 4. 27 ‘aliud est amatorem esse, aliud amantem’). Pirithous was an example not only of lust but of impiety (Ov. met. 8. 612 f., Diod. 4. 63. 4); he thus matches Orion and Tityos. Fraenkel (285) suggests that the young lover’s offence is venial (cf. the sympathetic reference in the much later 4. 7. 27 f. ‘nec Lethaea valet Theseus abrumpere caro / vincula Pirithoo’), but amatorem tells against an indulgent reading; Lyne adds that Pirithous was not a monster but a man, just like Antony (op. cit. 167 f.). There is indeed a hint of Antony, but his infatuation for Cleopatra met with no understanding from the victors, who represented him as a drunken womanizer who had betrayed his country to an oriental queen.
5 . CA ELO TO NA N T EM CR ED I D I M V S IOVEM R EGNARE [ J. Arieti, TAPA 120, 1990: 209 ff.; Fraenkel 272 f.; H. Haffter, Philologus 93, 1938: 132 ff.; H. Kornhardt, Hermes 82, 1954: 85 ff.; Lyne (1995), 55 f.; G. Marconi, Rivista di cultura classica e medioevale 9, 1967: 15 ff.; Pasquali 701 ff.; H. T. Rowell in Studies presented to D. M. Robinson (ed. G. E. Mylonas and D. Raymond) 2, 1953: 663 ff.; Williams (1968), 438 ff.]
1–4. We believe that Jupiter reigns in the sky because he is the Thunderer; but Augustus will be held a god on earth when Britain and Parthia have been conquered. 5–12. The soldiers of Crassus have married Parthian wives and forgotten their country. 13–18. It was to avoid such a situation that Regulus repudiated Carthage’s terms, which would have set a damaging precedent. 18–40. ‘I have seen our standards,’ he said, ‘hanging in Carthaginian shrines, and Romans humiliated as prisoners. A ransomed soldier will
80
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
not renew the fight, for he has proved his cowardice by being taken prisoner’. 41–56. Regulus disregarded the pleas of family and friends, and though he knew the torture that awaited him, he hurried on his way as though he had settled some legal business and was making for his country estate. The first stanza looks forward to the conquest of Britain in the West and Parthia in the East: the former issue was more topical in 27 bc (3–4 n.), but the latter is more relevant to the development of the poem. When Crassus was defeated at Carrhae in 53 bc, 20,000 of his men were killed and 10,000 taken prisoner (Plut. Crass. 31. 7), and it was necessary for Roman prestige to avenge the defeat and recover the lost standards. In 36 Antony launched a large expedition against Parthia, but was forced to withdraw (3. 6. 9–10 n.); in the course of the operation he tried to negotiate a settlement that would lead to the return of both the standards and the prisoners (Plut. Ant. 37. 2, 40. 4), though this may simply have been a ruse to cover his preparations for war (Dio 49. 24. 5). For these and subsequent events see N. C. Debevoise, A Political History of Parthia, 1938: 108 ff., K.-H. Ziegler, Die Beziehungen zwischen Rom und dem Partherreich, 1964, A. N. Sherwin-White, Roman Foreign Policy in the East, 168 bc to ad 1, 1984, chapter 13, C. Pelling, CAH 10, edn. 2: 30 ff. Augustus’ approach to the problem was more circumspect. In 26 bc he supported the rebel Tiridates against Phraates, but this indirect strategy proved unsuccessful (N–H vol. 1, p. xxxii and on 2. 2. 17). He must have been reluctant to risk his legions across the Euphrates, yet the poets talk as if a campaign was imminent (1. 2. 51, 2. 9. 20 f., 3. 3. 43 f., Prop. 2. 10. 13 f., 3. 4. 1 ff.); it was doubtless part of official policy to give this impression (P. A. Brunt, JRS 53, 1963: 174 f. ¼ Imperial Themes, 1990: 104 ff.). In the end diplomatic pressure backed by the threat of force produced a satisfactory result, and in 20 bc the standards were restored; cf. 4. 15. 6 ff., epist. 1. 12. 27, 1. 18. 56 ‘sub duce qui templis Parthorum signa refigit’, Aug. res gest. 29. 2, Vell. 2. 91. 1 with Woodman, RE 10. 351, CAH 10, edn. 2: 159 f. It is significant that little is said about the prisoners; for exceptions cf. Justin 42. 5. 11 ‘itaque a tota Parthia captivi ex Crassiano sive Antonii exercitu recollecti signaque cum his militaria Augusto remissa’, Dio 54. 8. 1. The story of Regulus, which occupies eleven of the ode’s fourteen stanzas, reflects the official indifference to the prisoners’ fate. According to the traditional account, he was captured by the Carthaginians in 255 bc, and five years later was allowed to return to Rome on parole to negotiate an exchange of prisoners; but he persuaded the senate not to agree to the deal, went back to Carthage in accordance with his oath, and died there after terrible tortures. The first surviving mention of this is in a fragment of C. Sempronius Tuditanus, cos. 129
5 . CA ELO T O NA N T EM C R ED I D I M V S
81
bc (5 Peter ¼ Gell. 7. 4. 1), and the case seems to have been cited by the eminent jurist Q. Mucius Scaevola, cos. 95 bc, in a technical discussion of postliminium (the restoration of civic rights); cf. dig. 49. 15. 5. 3. The demonstration of fides and fortitudo passed into the long series of Roman exempla (Val. Max. 1. 1. 14, 2. 9. 8); Cicero repeatedly uses the story for its moral implications (see especially paradox. Stoic. 2. 16, fin. 2. 65, off. 1. 39, 3. 97–115 with A. R. Dyck’s commentary), in which he is followed by Seneca (dial. 1. 3. 9 etc.). On the other hand, there is not a word about Regulus’ heroic mission in Polybius’ account of his African campaigns (1. 25–35 with Walbank); there he is censured for trying to impose unacceptable terms on the Carthaginians after his victories—allegedly because he feared that a successor might have the glory of taking Carthage (1. 31. 4)—and subsequently for pleading for the mercy that he had denied to his enemies (1. 35. 3). Walbank with other historians regards the whole story as fictitious, and thinks Polybius may not even have heard it. Yet we know that Polybius was following the account of Philinus, who wrote from the Carthaginian point of view (Walbank 1, p. 93); and even if he had heard the story he might have felt that Regulus’ selfrehabilitation would have spoiled the cautionary tale of hubris and its punishment (repeated later by Diodorus 23. 12–15). So perhaps it is best to withhold judgment about Regulus’ mission, and also about the manner of his death (see 49–50 n.). Whatever the truth may be, by the time of Cicero and Horace the story had won acceptance and could be used without hesitation for moral instruction. See further Klebs, RE 2. 2086 ff., P. Bla¨ttler, Studien zur Regulusgeschichte, 1945, E. R. Mix, Marcus Atilius Regulus, Exemplum Historicum, 1970, OCD 207. In the traditional accounts the Carthaginians intended Regulus to negotiate an exchange of prisoners (Cic. off. 1. 39 ‘de captivis commutandis’, Kornhardt, op. cit. 101 f.) In Horace, however, the issue is one of ransom. His version echoes the debate that took place after the disaster at Cannae in 216 bc. On that occasion Hannibal supposedly offered to accept ransom for the Roman prisoners, and allowed a spokesman to plead their cause in Rome (Liv. 22. 58. 4–6); he was opposed in a speech by Torquatus, which is imaginatively reconstructed by Livy (22. 60. 6–27). Hence Horace’s ironical ‘auro repensus scilicet acrior / miles redibit’ (25–6) sounds like a reply to the spokesman’s contention ‘(utemini) nobis etiam promptioribus pro patria, cum beneficio vestro redempti atque in patriam restituti fuerimus’ (Liv. 22. 59. 11), and as such it parallels Torquatus’ words ‘pretio redituri estis eo unde ignavia ac nequitia abistis?’ (22. 60. 16); in the same way Horace’s ‘flagitio additis / damnum’ (26–7) looks like a rejection of the spokesman’s general argument ‘neque enim vos pretio pepercisse homines credent’ (22. 59. 19).
82
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
It is unlikely that Livy’s version of Cannae had appeared before Horace wrote this ode, but some of his material had no doubt been used by earlier historians (e.g. Acilius, Sempronius Tuditanus, Claudius Quadrigarius). Ennius, too, may have been a significant source. When Horace’s Regulus says ‘neque amissos colores / lana refert medicata fuco’ (27–8), the words have been plausibly connected with ann. 476 ‘quom illud quo iam semel est imbuta veneno’ (apparently from the speech of Torquatus after Cannae); see Skutsch, pp. 635 ff., citing Kornhardt, loc. cit. In her opinion Ennius may also have influenced Silius’ account of Regulus, 6. 348 f. ‘poscentes [Poeni] vinctam inter proelia pubem / captivamque manum ductore rependere nostro’ (cf. v. 18 of the ode ‘captiva pubes’) and of the Cannae debate, 10. 650 f. ‘obsecrantes captivum vulgus ut auro / pensarent parvo’ (cf. v. 25 of the ode ‘auro repensus’). We may note also the famous speech that Ennius assigns to Pyrrhus over a proposal to ransom prisoners: ‘nec mi aurum posco nec mi pretium dederitis: / non cauponantes bellum sed belligerantes / ferro non auro vitam cernamus utrique’ (183–5 with Skutsch’s parallels); this context may lie behind Horace ‘pacem duello miscuit’ (38 n.). The intention of the ode has been disputed. Mommsen thought it supported Augustus’ policy of renouncing the conquest of Parthia and resisting clamour for the recovery of the prisoners (Reden und Aufsa¨tze, 1905: 168 ff.); but Horace could not have done this by promising the Princeps divine status when that conquest had been achieved (2–4). Fraenkel declined to see a political purpose (loc. cit.), and held that the magnificent story of Regulus was told for its own sake; but the analogy with the prisoners of Carrhae is made unmistakable by the emphatic hoc (13). In fact the poem looks forward to the ultimate defeat of Parthia, but by arguing against the ransom of prisoners it discourages any pressure for immediate results. Modern readers are understandably outraged by the lack of sympathy for the victims of Carrhae (17 f.), but here too the poet, speaking in his official voice, reflects the stern code of a militaristic society: cf. Livy 22. 61. 1 ‘exemplum civitatis minime in captivos iam inde antiquitus indulgentis’. Metre: Alcaic. 1–2. Caelo Tonantem credidimus Iovem / regnare: ‘we have come to believe’ and so ‘we believe’; as well as the common novi (‘I know’) cf. epist. 1. 2. 5 ‘cur ita crediderim . . . audi’, H–Sz 318. caelo is set against praesentem below (cf. 1. 12. 57 ff.), and so should be taken with regnare; cf. Lucan 3. 318 ff. ‘sortisque deorum / ignarum mortale genus per fulmina tantum / sciret adhuc caelo solum regnare Tonantem’. Tonans was probably a standing attribute of Jupiter (Latte 81 n.), though his
5 . CA ELO T O NA N T EM C R ED I D I M V S
83
Capitoline temple was not dedicated until 22 bc, and so it does not need caelo; Martial 7. 60. 2 caps Horace when he says of Jupiter ‘quem salvo duce credimus Tonantem’. There is an a fortiori argument (as Porph. recognized): Jupiter wields his power in the (distant) sky, but Augustus’ achievements will be visible on earth; cf. Ov. trist. 4. 4. 20 ‘quorum hic aspicitur, creditur ille deus’, Val. Max. 1. praef. (to Tiberius) ‘cetera divinitas opinione colligitur, tua praesenti fide paterno avitoque sideri par videtur’, Curt. 8. 10. 1 ‘patrem Liberum atque Herculem fama cognitos esse, ipsum (Alexandrum) coram adesse cernique’. The same antithesis occurred in Hermocles’ panegyric of Demetrius Poliorcetes: !`ººØ b j ÆŒæa ªÆæ I ıØ Ł, = j PŒ ıØ tÆ, = j PŒ YØ, j P æ ıØ E Pb (, = b b Ææ Ł ›æH, = P ºØ Pb ºŁØ, Iºº IºŁØ (Athen. 6. 253e ¼ Powell, Coll. Alex. p. 174. 15 ff.), but the Greek poet’s scepticism about traditional gods would not suit the Augustan context; H’s credidimus is not intended to imply any lack of conviction, whatever his private reservations. 2–3. praesens divus habebitur / Augustus: praesens is a religious word (KØÆ ) that describes a god’s presence on earth (Brink on epist. 2. 1. 15, RAC 5. 853 ff.); it also suggests efficacy (Virg. ecl. 1. 41 ‘nec tam praesentis alibi cognoscere divos’, N–H on 1. 35. 2, Haffter, op. cit. 134 ff., cf. Psalm 46: 1 ‘a very present help in trouble’), as will be evident when Augustus conquers the Britons and Parthians. For bibliography on his religious claims see the note on 3. 3. 11 f. 3–4. adiectis Britannis / imperio gravibusque Persis: the poem should be dated to 27 bc when the Princeps assumed the name ‘Augustus’ (3. 4 and 3. 6 are earlier). When Augustus set out for Gaul in the same year, it was believed that he intended to conquer Britain, where the agreements made with Julius Caesar were probably now disregarded (see C. E. Stevens in Aspects of Archaeology, Essays presented to O. G. S. Crawford, 1951: 332 f.); Dio mentions such plans in 34 (very dubious), 27 and 26 bc (49. 38. 2, 53. 22. 5, 53. 25. 2). When the poets make similar remarks they must be reflecting official attitudes (cf. A. Momigliano, JRS 40, 1950: 39 f., P. A. Brunt, JRS 53, 1963: 173 f. ¼ Imperial Themes, 1990: 103 f.); see especially 1. 35. 29 f. ‘serves iturum Caesarem in ultimos / orbis Britannos’, which belongs to the same period (Syme, 1978: 50 f.), Prop. 2. 1. 76, 2. 27. 5 ‘seu pedibus Parthos sequimur seu classe Britannos’. Augustus may have been diverted by the Cantabrian War (see on 3. 14), but at some stage British embassies were sent to renew submission (Strabo 4. 5. 3, not dated, Brunt, op. cit. 173 f.). The closure of the temple of Janus in 25 suggests that the question of annexation was left hanging in the air.
84
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
For the intention of defeating the Parthians see the introduction above. adiectis refers to the future; but H is not expressing doubt about either their conquest or that of the Britons. For gravibus (here ‘formidable’) cf. 1. 2. 22 ‘quo graves Persae melius perirent’; H is thinking of the great Parthian incursion of 40 bc (3. 6. 9–10 n.) as well as the defeat of Crassus. The ablative absolute at the end of the sentence suggests the language of officialdom (cf. the Fasti Triumphales); such effects seem to be more frequent in H than in the other poets (Nisbet in Adams–Mayer, 1999: 151). In using the names Persae and Medi for the Parthians, who had occupied the former Persian empire, the Roman poets perhaps took over some of the associations which those names had for the Greeks. 5–6. milesne Crassi coniuge barbara / turpis maritus vixit?: the question is indignant, and emphasizes the shame of the situation. coniuge barbara should probably be taken as an ablative absolute explaining turpis maritus ‘a disgraced husband, seeing that his wife is a barbarian’ (note the chiasmus); some take the ablative with turpis alone (Ov. am. 1. 6. 72 ‘lente nec admisso turpis amante, vale’), but then the phrases would be less neatly balanced; others combine it with an adjectival maritus (cf. Ov. her. 4. 134 ‘fratre marita soror’), but then turpis is hard to accommodate. vixit implies that the soldiers preferred a disgraceful life to an honourable death; for the shame of ‘going native’ (as it used to be called) cf. Caes. bc 3. 110. 2 ‘nomen disciplinamque populi Romani dedidicerant uxoresque (Aegyptias) duxerant’, Virg. Aen. 8. 688 ‘sequiturque (nefas) Aegyptia coniunx’ (highly tendentious). 6–8. et hostium /—pro ycuriay inversique mores!—/ consenuit socerorum in armis: pro(h) expresses indignation, often in a parenthesis; it can be combined with the vocative of the god or persons invoked (Plaut. Poen. 1122 ‘pro supreme Iuppiter!’), or a nominative referring to the conduct that is deplored (Sen. suas. 7. 11 ‘pro facinus indignum!’, Sen. dial. 11. 17. 4 ‘pro pudor imperii!’, TLL 10. 2. 1439. 35 ff.). inversi mores must refer to the degenerate behaviour of the prisoners in marrying Parthian women (as described in the surrounding sentence). RN obelizes curia, which does not combine well with the mores of the prisoners; the senate could have had no influence on their marriages whether or not we understand an epithet corresponding to inversi (thus Porph. explains ‘o mores, inversi estis, et o curia, quam indignas res passa es!’). Some think that H is blaming the senate for failing to recover or avenge the prisoners, but apart from the irrelevance of the reproach, it is not clear when they could have been expected to do this; Carrhae was a distant memory, Antony had failed, and Parthian policy was now the reponsibility of Augustus. Cornelissen conjectured saecula, which
5 . CA ELO T O NA N T EM C R ED I D I M V S
85
suggests the degeneration of the times (3. 6. 17 n., Ter. ad. 304 ‘hoccin saeclum! o scelera . . . ’); the phrase as a whole recalls Cicero’s ‘o tempora, o mores!’ (Cat. 1. 2). W. S. Watt has proposed pro gloria, understanding inversa (Latomus 54, 1995: 608 f.), but the participle does not quite fit. NR is inclined to accept the view of Orelli, Heinze, and others, that the senate was supposed to represent the honourable traditions of Rome and yet had accepted the behaviour described in vv. 5–12. If change is needed, he would favour Watt’s gloria as the most likely suggestion so far. It appears that the Parthians had settled some of the prisoners of Carrhae at Antiocha Margiane (Merv) 400 miles east of the Caspian (Plin. nat. hist. 6. 47 ‘in hanc Orodes Romanos Crassiana clade captos deduxit’). If they were conscripted in the Parthian army, that is why Propertius envisages Romans fighting Romans by the Caspian (2. 30A. 19 ff.): ‘num tu, dure, paras Phrygias nunc ire per undas, / et petere Hyrcani litora nota maris, / spargere et alterna communis caede Penates, / et ferre ad patrios praemia dira Lares?’ (cited by N.-O. Nilsson, Eranos 45, 1947: 44 ff.); their position on the frontier suggests they were soldiers or ex-soldiers. According to Justin (based on the Augustan Trogus), the greater part of the Parthian army consisted of slaves, presumably prisoners of war (41. 2. 5 ‘exercitum, non ut aliae gentes liberorum, sed maiorem partem servitiorum habent’). If they were on garrison duty rather than campaigning they could have married Parthian women (Curtius 5. 5. 5 describes how Alexander met Greek prisoners who had married Persians, though in that case they had not been conscripted). Subsequently a number of Romans appeared at the capital of the Hun general Chih-Chih 500 miles further east. Perhaps they were mercenaries who had managed to escape from the Parthians; 145 are said to have been taken prisoner by the Chinese (see Homer H. Dubs, AJP 62, 1941: 322 ff.). These considerations tell in favour of the manuscripts’ armis as against Faber’s arvis; cf. also Liv. 5. 20. 8 ‘in quo (bello) prope consenuerint’, 32. 3. 5 ‘consenuisse sub armis’. Serving in the enemy’s army (hostium before the parenthesis is emphatic) was more disgraceful than tilling his fields; and commentators fail to notice that ‘sub rege Medo’ (9) follows much better from armis than from arvis (cf. epist. 1. 18. 55 f. ‘Cantabrica bella tulisti / sub duce . . . ’). Bentley claimed that arvis was implied by the scholiasts’ notes (‘apud Parthos resedisse’ Porph., ‘velut in propriis sedibus omnem iam aetatem agerent’ ps.-Acro); but in both his lemma and his note on 6–8 Porph. has the phrase in armis. It is true, however, that prisoners of war were at times used as agricultural labourers; cf. epist. 1. 16. 70 of a captive ‘sine pascat durus aretque’, Eur. Rhes. 74 f. ƒ K æ ØØ ØØ ººØ = 6æıªH IææÆ KŒŁøØ ªÆE, 176, and in particular 23 f. of the present ode. Bentley also
86
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
thought ‘socerorum in armis’ an odd expression, as if the fathers-in-law were in command, but socerorum simply implies Parthorum; the word balances coniuge and maritus to emphasize the horror of marrying into an enemy family. 9. sub rege Medo Marsus et Apulus: any rex was objectionable to a Roman, a Parthian one doubly so. The alliterative Marsus is pointedly juxtaposed with Medo; the Marsi from central Italy, whose very name was associated with Mars, provided stalwart countrymen for the Roman army (N–H on 1. 2. 39) as did H’s neighbours from Apulia. The same was true of the Lucanians; according to Pliny it rained iron in Lucania the year before Crassus was killed by the Parthians, ‘omnesque cum eo Lucani milites quorum magnus numerus in exercitu erant’ (nat. hist. 2. 147); it has been suggested that since his defeat of Spartacus Crassus had particular influence in S. Italy (P. Moore, CR 23, 1973: 13 f.). 10–11. anciliorum et nominis et togae / oblitus aeternaeque Vestae: the original ancile fell to earth in the time of Numa; and as the fate of empire was bound up with it he commanded eleven replicas to be made so as to frustrate a prospective thief (Ov. fast. 3. 373 ff., Plut. Num. 13, Dion. Hal. ant. Rom. 2. 71. 1–2, Serv. auct. on Virg. Aen. 7. 188). They were associated with Mars and as such were carried by his priests, the Salii (Bo¨mer on Ov. fast. 3. 259, and for illustration see Beard–North– Price 2. 128). H’s genitive plural is anomalous for ancilium (like vectigaliorum); cf. Prob. GL 4. 208. 26, Neue–Wagener, 1. 434. The Romans’ name was the most powerful symbol of their identity, transcending local loyalties (Cic. leg. 2. 5); for its vital importance cf. Cic. Phil. 2. 51 ‘dum genus hominum, dum populi Romani nomen exstabit (quod quidem erit . . . sempiternum)’, Phil. 11. 36, Verr. 1. 79, Liv. 26. 41. 13 ‘(Hasdrubal) qui si se cum fratre coniunxisset, nullum iam nomen esset populi Romani’. In the Aeneid too, after speaking of the Romans’ name (1. 277), Jupiter goes on to speak of their dress: ‘Romanos, rerum dominos gentemque togatam’ (282). In RN’s view nominis seems too abstract to combine with anciliorum and togae, and it is strange to find the word after the less significant anciliorum. One side of the manuscript tradition omits et before nominis and the testimonia are also divided; the meaning would be ‘the very word ancilia’; cf. Cic. Verr. 5. 108 ‘non te . . . hospiti ius atque nomen a scelere . . . revocare potuit?’, Petr. 26. 3 ‘ne puella quidem . . . expaverat nuptiarum nomen’, OLD s.v. 8. This reading deserves more attention than it has received; although the genitive depending on a genitive is awkward, it is not unexampled (Shackleton Bailey, Propertiana, 1956: 118, 223, H–Sz 65); as well as avoiding the difficulties of the other
5 . CA ELO T O NA N T EM C R ED I D I M V S
87
reading it produces a list of three nouns where four might be too many. Our passage may be imitated at Florus 2. 21. 3 (of Antony) ‘patriae nominis togae fascium oblitus totus in monstrum illud . . . desciverat’, where nominis presents the same problem. The assumption of eastern dress could be a matter for reproach (Thuc. 1. 130. 1 of Pausanias, Flor. loc. cit., Claud. in Rufin. 2. 82 ff.); yet the toga may have meant as little to Marsian soldiers as the ancilia (cf. Juv. 3. 171 ‘pars magna Italiae est si verum admitttimus in qua / nemo togam sumit nisi mortuus’). Vesta was the Roman goddess of the hearth (Beard–North–Price 1. 51 ff., Lacey 171 f., OCD 1591); her shrine in the Forum (Steinby 5. 125 ff.) contained the eternal fire that guaranteed Rome’s survival and was tended by the Vestals (Cic. leg. 2. 20). She is mentioned together with the ancilia at Liv. 5. 52. 7, 5. 54. 7 (the famous speech assigned to Camillus) ‘hic Vestae ignes, hic ancilia caelo demissa’; Livy may have priority (Syme, Roman Papers 1. 416 ff., S. P. Oakley on Livy 6–10, vol. 1, 109 f.), but the collocation was no doubt common in patriotic discourse. 12. incolumi Iove et urbe Roma?: Porph. comments ‘mire incolumi Iove, ut si diceret stante mundo, incolumi rerum natura’, but H is referring specifically to the temple of Jupiter on the Capitol; cf. Livy 5. 52. 6 and 54. 7 cited in the last note. The phraseology alludes to an old religious formula that was extended to other contexts: cf. Paul. Fest. 115M ¼ 102L ‘si sciens fallo, tum me Diespiter salva urbe arceque bonis eiciat’ (the Fetial oath excludes the city from any evil consequences, cf. Polyb. 3. 25. 8, CIL 2. 172. 16–17), Caecil. CRF 146 ¼ Gellius 2. 23. 10 (comically of a henpecked husband) ‘liber servio salva urbe atque arce’ (with the same adversative implication as our passage), Cic. Vat. 21, Planc. 71, Juv. 9. 130 f. (parodic); see further Fraenkel (1960), 223 ff., 428, H. J. Rose, CQ 41, 1947: 79 f., Williams (1968), 363 ff. 13–15. hoc caverat mens provida Reguli / dissentientis condicionibus / foedis: for the story of Regulus see the introduction. Extended mythological exempla with speeches were a feature of Greek lyric poetry (cf. 1. 7 with N–H vol. 1, p. 93, epod. 13, Syndikus 2. 74 f.); for instances that purport to be historical cf. 4. 4. 49 ff. (Hannibal), Bacchyl. 3. 29 ff. (Croesus). The vocabulary of these lines is termed ‘prosaic’ by Axelson (103), as suits the political context (see below, 53–4 n.): dissentire is paralleled in the major poets only once in Lucretius and Ovid and twice in H’s hexameters; condicio is seldom found (but cf. 1. 1. 12); pernicies below only at 2. 13. 4, twice in H’s hexameters, three times in Silver Age poetry. foedis, itself a strong word (‘foul’), is emphasized by its position at the beginning of a line before a pause (cf. 1. 5. 12, 4. 9. 26).
88
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
15–16 et exemplo ytrahentisy / perniciem veniens in aevum: the MSS and Porph.read trahentis, which is supposed to mean ‘deducing from a precedent’, but then ex or ab might have been expected (Cic. div. 2. 121 ‘ex insanorum . . . visis innumerabilia coniectura trahi possunt’, OLD s.v. traho 12b), and veniens in aevum does not combine easily with either trahentis or perniciem. The Commentator Cruquianus (i.e. the notes derived by Cruquius from the lost codex Blandinianus) read exemplo trahenti, which was independently proposed by Canter; trahenti (‘carrying with it’) leads easily to veniens in aevum. NR finds this acceptable but RN sees some difficulty in combining dissentientis with exemplo; Regulus could disagree with the terms, but not with the precedent (unless an awkward zeugma is posited). Bentley proposed exempli trahentis, a genitive of quality with condicionibus (‘of a model carrying with it destruction’), coordinate with the adjective foedis (cf. Liv. 4. 48. 12 ‘largitione pessimi exempli’, Suet. Aug. 32. 1 ‘pleraque pessimi exempli in perniciem publicam . . . duraverant’, TLL 5. 2. 1335. 15 ff.); but even if we accept the combination of the single adjective foedis with a phrase of six words, it is very confusing to have the genitive trahentis after the rhyming but disparate dissentientis. On the same lines as Bentley, RN has considered exemplo trahente as an ablative of quality depending on condicionibus and co-ordinate with foedis; but it must be admitted that in this context a genitive of quality is easier to parallel than an ablative. 17–18. si non periret immiserabilis / captiva pubes: periret represents the pereat of direct speech. If the text is sound the third vowel of periret is long, as in Plautus (Sonnenschein on rudens 390) and Ennius (Skutsch on ann. pp. 58 f.); for this archaic usage cf. 2. 13. 16 ‘caeca timet aliunde fata’ with N–H, Nettleship’s appendix to Conington’s commentary on Virgil, vol. 3, pp. 472 f. A short syllable at this place in the line would be unexampled in H, though it is an option in Alcaeus. Conjectures include perirent (Glareanus, to which Bentley added immiserabiles), perires (Lachmann, but the apostrophe would be awkward before the following speech), and the transposition of si non periret and captiva pubes (W. M. Edwards cited by Campbell). immiserabilis may be a Horatian coinage (cf. 2. 14. 6 illacrimabilem, 3. 6. 10 n.). 18–21. ‘signa ego Punicis / adfixa delubris et arma / militibus sine caede’ dixit / ‘derepta vidi . . . : the Romans hung the trophies of battle on their temple walls (Gallus, FLP 2. 4 f., cf. Virg. Aen. 11. 778 of Camilla). H. attributes the same custom to the Carthaginians (Punicis is indignantly emphatic); he may have had a precedent in a lost carmen of Livius Andronicus (Marconi, op. cit., R. Verdie`re, Latomus 42, 1983: 383 ff.); see Serv. auct. on Aen. 4. 37 ‘Livius Andronicus refert eos (Afros) de Romanis saepius triumphasse, suasque porticus Romanis spoliis
5 . CA ELO T O NA N T EM C R ED I D I M V S
89
adornasse’. The same practice was also attributed (perhaps wrongly) to the Parthians, who must have been in any Roman’s mind at this time (4. 15. 7 f., epist. 1. 18. 56 ‘sub duce qui templis Parthorum signa refigit’). In v. 21 direpta has much better authority than derepta; but the confusion is common (4. 15. 6, Lucan 1. 240, Sil. 10. 599), and manuscript evidence counts for little. deripere (‘to tear down’) suits objects on a temple wall; deripere, as in Ov. am. 1. 5. 13, and diripere (‘to tear away’), as in Ov. met. 9. 637, are used of clothing; when arms are stripped from a corpse or captive the issue is not clear-cut, but derepta is supported by parallels (Virg. Aen. 11. 193 ‘spolia occisis derepta Latinis’, Tac. ann. 2. 45. 3), and here makes a sharper contrast with adfixa delubris. vidi is used of horrors that one has lived to see; cf. 1. 2. 13, Enn. scen. 97V ¼ 92J ‘haec omnia vidi inflammari’, Lucil. 1324 f. M ¼ 1218 f. W ‘vidimus abina’, referred by Cichorius to the surrender of Mancinus to the Numantines (Untersuchungen zu Lucilius, 1908: 37 f.), Virg. Aen. 2. 499 with Austin. 21–2. vidi ego civium / retorta tergo bracchia libero: the first word of the sentence repeats the last word of its predecessor (Wills 392 f.); vidi ego is a common combination ( J. N. Adams in Adams–Mayer, 1999: 123 f.), in spite of the elision of the long i before the short o. For retorta cf. epist. 2. 1. 191, Hom. Il. 21. 30 f., Soph. Aj. 71 f. with Jebb, Ov. am. 1. 2. 31 with McKeown’s parallels, (of Roman prisoners) Liv. 9. 10. 7, Vell. 2. 1. 5. Here tergo is probably dative ‘of place whither’ rather than ablative; cf. Prop. 3. 24. 14 ‘in mea terga’, Plin. nat. hist. 35. 93 ‘ad terga’, Prud. Symm. 2. 560 ‘in terga’. It has been thought strange that H should say civium; a man ceased to be a citizen when captured by the enemy (W. W. Buckland, The Roman Law of Slavery, 1908: 291 ff.), and this was the attitude of Regulus himself (42 n.). Rowell (loc. cit.) points out that the captured soldier did not lose his citizenship until he had been brought within the enemy’s camp (cf. Pomponius, dig. 49. 15. 5. 1 ‘antequam in praesidia perducatur hostium, manet civis’); but this is probably an over-subtle explanation. The use of the word, which balances libero, is meant to be shocking. For libero applied to a part of the body cf. 1. 37. 1 ‘pede libero’ with N–H; Cornelissen’s livido (referring to the marks of flogging) is not wanted. 23–4. portasque non clausas, et arva / Marte coli populata nostro: open gates were a sign of security; cf. ars 199 ‘apertis otia portis’, Sall. hist. 1 fr. 14M. ‘apertae portae, repleta arva cultoribus’. Here it made things worse that the fields were being tilled by the Roman soldiers who had earlier ravaged them (Polyb. 1. 29. 6, 1. 30. 14); for Regulus had captured Tunis (1. 30. 15) and had he shown more moderation,
90
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
could have imposed terms on Carthage (1. 31. 5–8). The instrumental ablative Marte refers to armed forces (OLD 7) and is combined with both coli and populata; the word is used with indignation here, as is the emphatic nostro. 25–7. auro repensus scilicet acrior / miles redibit. flagitio additis / damnum: the prominently placed auro has the pejorative tone often found in moralists; cf. especially Enn. ann. 185 Sk ‘ferro non auro’ (cited in the introduction). repensus, which refers as elsewhere to ransom (OLD 5b), suggests a literal balancing in the scales; cf. Cic. de orat. 2. 269 ‘pro Gracchi capite erat aurum repensum’ (Septumuleius was given its weight in gold). The ironic scilicet is combined with acrior (‘keener’), which is to be taken predicatively with redibit; on the other hand, miles is the subject (pace Heinze, who wanted to take acrior miles as the predicate). damnum refers to the financial cost of ransom, not (as Orelli maintains) to the consequences for future generations; for the combination of loss and disgrace cf. serm. 1. 2. 52 f., 2. 2. 95 f. ‘grandes rhombi patinaeque / grande ferunt una cum damno dedecus’, Plaut. merc. 237, Pseud. 440, H. Usener, RhM 56, 1901: 7 ¼ Kleine Schriften 4, 1913: 362 f., Shakespeare, The Tempest iv. i. 210 f. ‘There is not only disgrace and dishonour in that, monster, but an infinite loss’. The sentiment recalls the debate after Cannae as recounted by Livy (see the introduction). 27–8. neque amissos colores / lana refert medicata fuco: instead of saying ‘just as X never happens, so Y never happens’, H says ‘X never happens, neither does Y’. The first clause is an observable fact of nature, so the second can be presented as equally incontrovertible. Such paratactic comparisons avoid the prosaic complications of subordinate clauses (cf. Pind. O. 10. 10 ff., Aesch. Ag. 322 ff., cho. 258 ff.); they are notably common in H’s hexameters, perhaps reproducing a feature of Greek popular philosophy (see the index to Mayer’s commentary on Epistles I s.v. ‘parataxis’). Wool, once dyed, never recovers its original whiteness; cf. Enn. ann. 476 Sk ‘quom illud quo iam semel est imbuta veneno’ (see the introduction), Quint. inst. 1. 1. 5 ‘nec lanarum colores quibus simplex ille candor mutatus est elui possunt’, schol. Pers. 3. 37 ‘metaphora a lana quae corrupta ad pristinum colorem reverti non potest’. Like these writers H regards the dyeing as bad (cf. medicata, fuco, and 29 f. below); in Lucretius 6. 1074 ff. it is morally neutral; in Plat. rep. 429–30, where it refers to education, and Cic. Hortensius 96 Grilli it is good; cf. K. Berger, ANRW II. 25. 2. 1141 ff. S. J. Harrison (CQ 36, 1986: 502 f.) points out that in our passage the plural colores suits the various dyed materials (as in Quintilian) better than the original colour of the wool; he suggests that H has conflated the two images; alternatively one
5 . CA ELO T O NA N T EM C R ED I D I M V S
91
might consider amissum . . . colorem, but H may not have wanted a sequence of -am-, -um, am-, -um, -em all in one line (cf. 50–2 n. below). medicare and medicamentum, in addition to the beneficial sense, are used, like venenum and the Greek pharmakon, both of dyes and poisons; for the latter sense cf. the colloquial ‘to doctor’. fuco, as often, suggests artificiality and pretence (OLD 2, 4, 5). 29–30. nec vera Virtus, cum semel excidit, / curat reponi deterioribus: vera virtus is a stock alliterative phrase (epist. 1. 18. 8, Plaut. cist. 198, H. D. Jocelyn, The Tragedies of Ennius, p. 390); here it corresponds to the undyed wool. excidit means ‘has been let slip’, balancing amissos; for the verb’s application to non-material things cf. Ov. fast. 6. 393 ‘spes excidit’, OLD 9, TLL 5. 2. 1238. 21 ff. curat personifies Virtus, and nec curat represents a litotes for ‘is unwilling to be restored’. S. J. Harrison (CQ 36, 1986: 503) suggests that this is a medical metaphor from the dislocation and setting of limbs (Cels. 8. 11. 4, 8. 20. 4); but at this point we expect not another analogy but the actual situation that is being deplored. deterioribus, ‘men who have gone to the bad’ (Nonius 432M ¼ 696L ‘peius a malo . . . deterius vero a bono’), suits the conventional moral explanation of reponi rather than a medical metaphor. 31–3. si pugnat extricata densis / cerva plagis, erit ille fortis / qui perfidis se credidit hostibus: the syllogism suggests the influence of rhetorical exercises; Cicero mentions as a subject for debate ‘placeatne a Karthaginiensibus captivos nostros redditis suis recuperari’ (de orat. 3. 109). A female deer does not show fight at the best of times, still less when she has been removed from the net and is in the hands of the hunters; the analogy is more damaging than its predecessor, as it implies that the soldiers were cowards even before they were captured. tricae are ‘tangles’, though the word is only attested in a metaphorical sense; this is the first recorded instance of extricare in its literal meaning, but like irretire it may have been a huntsman’s word. For hunting nets cf. RE 20. 2. 1953 ff., Anderson, 1985: 38 ff., Bo¨mer on Ov. fast. 5. 173. se credidit means ‘trusted himself to the mercy of ’ (cf. Cic. fam. 4. 7. 3 ‘victori sese crediderunt’, Liv. 36. 13. 8). perfidis and se credidit are juxtaposed to suggest the culpable credulity of the prisoners (cf. 3. 27. 25 f. ‘doloso / credidit tauro latus’); Bentley’s dedidit or tradidit and Campbell’s tentative perfide lose this point. For the bad faith attributed the Carthaginians cf. 4. 4. 49 ‘perfidus Hannibal’, Sall. Jug. 108. 3 ‘Punica fide’, Liv. 21. 4. 9 ‘perfidia plus quam Punica’ (of Hannibal), Sil. 6. 482, Otto 291. When H puts a single monosyllable before the main break of an Alcaic hendecasyllable, it is normally a weak word, here an unemphatic pronoun (N–H vol. 1, p. xli); for exceptions cf. 3. 21. 10, 4. 14. 33.
92
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
34–6. et Marte Poenos proteret altero / qui lora restrictis lacertis / sensit iners timuitque mortem,: restrictis lacertis repeats the indignity described in 21–2, and also provides an analogy with the nets of 32. sensit iners makes something of an oxymoron: the prisoners ‘felt’ their bonds (N–H on 2. 7. 9) but remained passive. ‘He feared death’ was the harshest comment that could be made about a Roman soldier; similarly the Spartan who escaped from Thermopylae was referred to as › æÆ (Herod. 7. 231). 37–8. yhicy unde vitam sumeret inscius / pacem duello miscuit: NR is inclined to accept hic in spite of the preceding ille (32); following Campbell, he points out that ille belongs to a generalization applicable to all wars (31–3), whereas hic refers specifically to the Roman who has surrendered in the current war (34–6); it is because he has surrendered that he should not be ransomed. Shackleton Bailey, like Kiessling, takes the sentence as interrogative, though he admits the obscurity and obelizes hic. Courtney has proposed nunc (Phoenix 40, 1986: 320 f.); he interprets ‘if deer demonstrate pugnacity, the soldier who has shown himself a coward will become brave, but in reality (F ) he has confounded peace with war’. In RN’s view these theories do not meet Housman’s point (Classical Papers 1. 101) that Regulus is arguing against ransoming the prisoners (the relevant issue in H’s own day); if a strong pause were accepted after mortem (36), too much emphasis would be placed on the original surrender, about which nothing could be done. He proposed (partly following Bentley) ‘timuitque mortem / hinc unde vitam sumere iustius, / pacemque bello miscuit’; like other scholars he explained that the soldier should seek life from battle rather than surrender (cf. Porph. ad loc. ‘cum deberet, inquit, vitam virtute atque armis sumere’, Sall. Jug. 39. 1 ‘dedecore potius quam manu salutem quaesiverat’). Housman’s proposal, however, involves considerable change without achieving total clarity. RN thinks that Housman’s difficulty might be met if we put a comma after mortem (36) and took 37–8 as an asyndetic relative clause (i.e. still under qui), which turns to the question of ransom. In that case hic has displaced a word that marks the transition, perhaps Courtney’s nunc, which RN would understand differently: it would refer to the time of Regulus’ speech in Rome, which was delivered long after the battle. It may be objected that pacem does not refer specifically enough to negotiation, so Campbell’s pactum should be seriously considered; cf. Sall. Jug. 26. 1, hist. 4 fr. 69. 7 ‘pacto vitam dederant’, Liv. 22. 52. 3 (after Cannae) ‘pacti ut arma atque equos traderent’ (followed by terms of ransom). duello is justified by the antique historical context; it is an archaism that H uses on five other occasions—more often than the
5 . CA ELO T O NA N T EM C R ED I D I M V S
93
other Augustans (Axelson 26 f., Brink on epist. 2. 1. 254, p. 435). For the use of miscere cf. Lucan 10. 75 f. ‘et miscuit armis / illicitosque toros et non ex coniuge partus’. 38–40. o pudor! / o magna Carthago probrosis / altior Italiae ruinis!: the recurrent words for shame and disgrace (6, 15, 26) lend weight to Augustus’ intention of confronting Parthia; the exclamations o pudor, pro pudor, heu pudor are well attested. In the following phrase some editors wrongly put a comma after Carthago, as if the city were being invoked; but the meaning is rather ‘to think of the elevation of great Carthage’ (the ab urbe condita construction). altior refers to the city’s pride and metaphorically to its enhanced height; ruinis is a causal ablative (Manil. 4. 6 with Housman, Sil. 3. 585 ‘nobilior sit Roma malis’). The emphasis on Italy rather than Rome might seem to suit the Second Punic War rather than the First. 41–3. fertur pudicae coniugis osculum / parvosque natos ut capitis minor / ab se removisse: fertur need not suggest disbelief; it means simply that the story is traditional (N–H on 1. 7. 23); such expressions can have various implications (N. Horsfall, PLLS 6, 1990: 49 ff.), but here the tone is heroic. The virtuous wife and small children provide a typical Roman tableau (epod. 2. 39 ff., Lucr. 3. 894 ff., Virg. georg. 2. 523 f.) that makes a contrast with the disgraceful union of the second stanza; the kisses that Lucretius and Virgil leave to the children are here allowed to the coniunx. She played some part in the historical tradition: Cic. off. 3. 99 ‘esse domui suae cum uxore cum liberis’, Eutrop. 2. 25. 1 (from Livy) ‘itaque et uxorem a complexu removit’, Val. Max. 4. 4. 6, Dio 11 (fr. 43) 27. Silius 6. 403 ff. says she was called Marcia and gives her a significant role, perhaps derived from earlier accounts (RE 14. 2. 1601). capitis minor means ‘diminished in respect of citizen rights’ (OLD, caput 6). The genitive is a legal archaism; cf. 2. 14. 19, Lucil. 783 ‘capitis dicturum diem’, Caes. bc 3. 110. 2 ‘capitis damnati’, TLL 3. 419. 49 ff., H– Sz 76. minor recalls ‘capite (de)minuere’, ‘to deprive of citizen rights’; cf. Liv. 22. 60. 15 (after Cannae) ‘deminuti capite, abalienati iure civium, servi Carthaginiensium facti’, Fest. 70M ¼ 61L ‘deminutus capite appellatur . . . qui in hostium potestatem venit’, RE 3. 1523 ff., TLL 3. 420. 53 ff., Kornhardt, op. cit. 85 ff. ab followed by a consonant also has a somewhat archaic tone (cf. 1. 28. 29, 3. 16. 22, 3. 17. 1) and is therefore to be preferred to the variant a, which is found in the Odes only at 1. 21. 14, 4. 5. 12. 43–4. et virilem / torvus humi posuisse vultum: virilem completes the family picture presented by coniugis and natos. torvus (‘grim’ or ‘fierce’) is also a male word; it is used of Mars (1. 28. 17), the younger Cato (epist.
94
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
1. 19. 12), and of wild creatures such as lions, boars, and bulls (OLD 1b). But here Regulus lowered his gaze in shame, like an embarrassed woman; cf. Virg. Aen. 3. 320 of Andromache ‘deiecit vultum’, 11. 480 of Lavinia ‘oculos deiecta decoros’; for similar expressions in various situations see Hom. Il. 3. 217, Ap. Rhod. 3. 22 with Hunter, Virg. Aen. 7. 249 f. with Horsfall, OLD s.v. deicere 5b, and especially F. Muecke, BICS 31, 1984: 108 f. 45–6. donec labantis consilio patres / firmaret auctor numquam alias dato: the vocabulary is political: consilium is the judicious advice that the Romans prized so highly (here described as unique because it was so disinterested); auctor suggests the moral authority behind the recommendation, which was not strictly a formal proposal as Regulus no longer considered himself a senator (cf. Sil. 6. 459 f.) or even a Roman (Eutrop. 2. 25. 1, Dio 11. 27). firmaret (¼ confirmaret) balances labantis; the verb’s mood is usually explained by its position in a subordinate clause under fertur, and that is supported by properaret (48); yet if we take the sentence as it comes, it is hard not to see also a nuance of purpose in firmaret (‘until he should strengthen the wavering senators’). 47–8. interque maerentis amicos / egregius properaret exul: amicos extends the sequence of wife, children, and senators; they might literally go into mourning, as Cicero’s supporters did when he was banished (Cic. Pis. 17 ‘vestis mutatione’). egregius exul produces an oxymoron, for although the disgrace of exile, with its loss of citizenship and property, was acutely felt, here the sentence was self-imposed by a man universally admired; the effect is heightened by assonance of eg- and ex-, though the quantity of the vowel changes. 49–50. atqui sciebat quae sibi barbarus / tortor pararet: atqui is found 14 times in Horace (including 1. 23. 9, 3. 7. 9), 4 times in Catullus, but otherwise in the major poets only at Virg. georg. 3. 526 (Axelson 103 f.); its prosaic quality again suits the tenor of the ode. (For ‘prosaic’ features of H’s style see below on 53–4.) For the torture of Regulus cf. Tubero ap. Gell. 7. 4. 3 (where he is put in a dark dungeon and then suddenly forced to look into strong sunlight), ‘palpebras quoque eius, ne conivere posset, sursum ac deorsum diductas insuebant’; Cic. Pis. 43 speaks of him being shut up in a machina, which according to Val. Max. 9. 2. ext. 1 had sharp spikes all round the inside; Cic. off. 3. 100 says ‘neque vero tum ignorabat se ad crudelissimum hostem et ad exquisita supplicia profiscisci’ (surely behind Horace), cf. Val. Max. 1. 1. 14, Sil. 6. 539 ff. (clearly based on the annalists). The Carthaginians had a reputation for cruelty (Dyck on Cic. off. 1. 38); in particular they were accused of human sacrifice (Diod. 20. 14. 4–7, Tert. apol. 9. 2), a belief confirmed by archaeological
5 . CA ELO T O NA N T EM C R ED I D I M V S
95
discoveries (S. Lancel, Carthage, a History, Eng. trans. 1995: 24); so barbarus here means not only ‘neither Greek nor Roman’ but ‘barbarous’ in the modern sense (cf. 4. 12. 7). Yet according to Tuditanus (ap. Gell. 7. 4. 4), the sons of Regulus imposed equally dire punishments on some eminent Carthaginian prisoners, and Diodorus (24. 12) says that his widow, though attributing his death to neglect, tortured some noble Carthaginians in revenge. 50–2. non aliter tamen / dimovit obstantis propinquos / et populum reditus morantem: dimovere is used for clearing a path through a crowd (cf. Tac. hist. 3. 80. 2 ‘occiditur proximus lictor dimovere turbam ausus’, OLD 1b); the ob- of obstantis is set against di-. propinquos belongs to the tradition about Regulus (Cic. off. 1. 39 ‘cum retineretur a propinquis et ab amicis ad supplicium redire maluit’). populum moves beyond propinquos and amicos (47) to a still wider circle of supporters; it too may be derived from the historical tradition (cf. Sil. 6. 494 f.). For the poetic plural reditus of a single individual cf. Tib. 1. 3. 13, Stat. Theb. 3. 369, K–S 1. 85; reditum would produce an unwanted homoeoteleuton with populum and cause confusion with morantem. 53–4. quam si clientum longa negotia / diiudicata lite relinqueret: a patronus could advise his clientes on their legal problems (cf. epist. 2. 1. 104 ‘clienti promere iura’ with Brink’s note); such business might be tedious and time-consuming (cf. epist. 1. 5. 30 f. ‘rebus omissis / atria servantem postico falle clientem’). Here, as shown by lite, Regulus is pictured as arbitrating in a dispute between clients; this is a very Roman analogy for Hom. Od. 12. 439 f. q Kd æ Icæ IªæBŁ I = Œæø ŒÆ ººa ØŒÆø ÆNH (cited by L. V. Hinckley, CB 55, 1978–9, 56 ff.). Some commentators think that Regulus is described as representing his clients in court (cf. epist. 1. 7. 76 where Philippus goes to his estate in the legal vacation), but the plural clientum is then less convincing; the scene is more effective if he is pictured as delivering the judgments in his own atrium (perhaps an analogy for his decisiveness in the dispute over his return). Once again the prosaic vocabulary suits the political tone of the ode, as does the ‘officialese’ ablative absolute; even negotium, which is found seven times in H’s hexameters and once elsewhere in the Odes (3. 29. 49), is avoided by the other major poets before Juvenal (Axelson 107). It was Axelson’s thesis that in the Odes H persistently used words that were avoided by the grander Roman poets. This is not always to be explained by the difference in subject-matter (Williams, 1968: 743 ff.); in his lyrics H evolved a varied style that in some respects was less ‘dignified’ than that of epic (see P. Watson, CQ 35, 1985: 430 ff., who refines Axelson’s thesis, taking account of Williams’s objections; cf also
96
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
F. Muecke, Encicl. oraz. 2. 776). Catullus and his contemporaries in their more ambitious poems had favoured a diction that excluded many common words, and in this they were followed by Virgil in the Aeneid and the epic poets of the Silver Age (Lucan less than the others). Horace, who aimed at a more ‘masculine’ style than the neoterics, followed the more liberal practice of earlier Roman poets; in particular he had no inhibitions about using words with an official, legal, or even commercial resonance (1. 3. 5 ff., 4. 7. 13); Shakespeare is an obvious parallel. Unfortunately Axelson regarded such features as a sign of inadequacy, and even now it is difficult to use words like ‘prosaic’ and ‘unpoetical’ without seeming to imply a criticism that is not intended. 55–6. tendens Venafranos in agros / aut Lacedaemonium Tarentum: for the verb cf. Quint. 11. 2. 38 ‘dum rus tendit’ (on the way to his estate Scaevola remembers where he went wrong in a board-game). Venafrum was a town on the Via Latina 100 miles south-east of Rome (RE 8A. 1. 668 ff.); it had a fine situation over the upper Volturnus and was famous for its olive groves (N–H on 2. 6. 15 f. ‘viridi . . . Venafro’, there also combined with Tarentum). It is implied that Regulus had an estate there, which might have been acquired in the Samnite Wars; M. Atilius Regulus Calenus, cos. 335 and A. Atilius Caiatinus, cos. 258 owe their names to Cales and Caiatia further down the Volturnus valley, and the family is attested in Campania from the third century bc (M. Frederiksen, Campania, 1984: 231), though there seems to be no evidence for a presence as far north as Venafrum. Our Regulus was said to have had a modest property in regione Pupiana (Val. Max. 4. 4. 6), but that was on poor land near Rome. H is imitated by Macaulay, History of England, ch. 9 (on the revolution of 1688 ) ‘But the iron stoicism of William never gave way; and he stood among his weeping friends calm and austere, as if he had been about to leave them only for a short visit to his hunting grounds at Loo’; imaginative fictions of this kind follow the expansive traditions of Hellenistic historiography. Tarentum was a favourite resort in H’s own day (2. 6. 10 with N–H vol. 2, pp. 94 ff., epist. 1. 7. 45); a historical connection with Regulus must be an anachronism. It was traditionally founded by the Spartan Phalanthus in the eighth century (N–H on 2. 6. 11, T. J. Dunbabin, The Western Greeks, 1948: 29 ff.), but was now associated with relaxation and pleasure. The long epithet Lacedaemonium produces an impressive closure (cf. the last lines of 3. 1 and 3. 6), but it is not simply a learned cliche´ (cf. Virg. Aen. 10. 28 ‘Aetolis . . . Arpis’ with Harrison); for its connotations recall the unbending character of Regulus. Yet, as in the case of Tarentum, it too may have an ambivalent function, because for some readers, like NR, the succession of liquids and nasals (l, m, n, r) contributes to the quiet ending; others, including RN, remain sceptical.
6 . D ELI C TA MA I O RV M [B. Fenik, Hermes 90, 1962: 82 ff.; Fraenkel 285 ff.; E. Kraggerud, SO 70, 1995: 54 ff.; Lyne (1995), 173 ff.; Pasquali 706 ff.; G. Williams, JRS 52, 1962: 28 ff. and (1968), 610 ff.]
1–16. You will continue, Roman, to pay for the omissions of your elders until you repair the temples; you owe your dominion to your piety, and it is the neglect of religion that has brought disasters to Italy: the Parthians have blunted Antony’s attacks, and Cleopatra’s barbarians have threatened the city. 17–32. The rot began in the home: young girls think of nothing but sex, and when married take disreputable lovers with the connivance of their husbands. 33–44. The stalwart rustics who defeated Hannibal and other enemies did not spring from parents like these, but had stern mothers who made them collect firewood. 45–8. In recent times each generation has shown a decline from its predecessor, and the next will be even worse than ours. The ode begins with a visible sign of national decay: many of Rome’s temples need cleaning and repair. Fire and flood had played a part (P. Gros, Aurea Templa, 1976: 18), but decades of neglect were mainly responsible; cf. Nep. Att. 20. 3 ‘cum aedes Iovis . . . vetustate atque incuria detecta prolaberetur’, Prop. 2. 6. 35 f. ‘sed nunc immerito velavit aranea fanum / et male desertos occupat herba deos’, Ov. fast. 2. 58 (on shrines of Juno) ‘longa procubuere die’. Yet Horace’s criticisms are exaggerated (cf. J. A. North, JRS 76, 1986: 251 ff.); in 36 Domitius Calvinus had rebuilt the Regia, and in 33 Sosius may have begun the restoration of the Aedes Apollinis in Circo (Syme, 1939: 241, though the dates of some of his examples are uncertain); when the poet complained ‘quare / templa ruunt antiqua deum?’ (serm. 2. 2. 103 f.) he was still looking for private benefactors. But in 28 bc Octavian, using the wealth taken from Egypt, produced a programme of his own, which in view of its extent must have concentrated on repair rather than rebuilding (though the Palatine temple of Apollo was completed in that same year); cf. res gestae 20. 4 ‘duo et octoginta templa deum in urbe consul sextum ex auctoritate senatus refeci, nullo praetermisso quod ex tempore refici debebat’, Suet. Aug. 30. 2 (see also ch. 29 for later constructions), Dio 53. 2. 4 (which says that pressure was put on private individuals to restore temples built by their ancestors). That must be the context of our poem, though the Princeps is not directly mentioned; some have argued that its pessimism does not suit a date so soon after the triumphs of 29 (Fenik and Kraggerud, opp. citt.), but it would be impossible to say ‘donec templa refeceris’ when the repairs of 28 were largely complete. In a year or two Livy could describe
98
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
Augustus as ‘templorum omnium conditorem ac restitutorem’ (4. 20. 7), words echoed by Ovid, fast. 2. 63 ‘templorum positor, templorum sancte repostor’. Horace goes on to say that Rome had prospered because of her obedience to divine will (5–6); such claims reflect the orthodoxy of the Republic (5 n., 6 n.), and they went on being made till they were refuted by Alaric’s sack of Rome in ad 410. The civil wars are treated as a punishment for the neglect of religion (7–8) (Cicero had said the same thing in Caesar’s senate (1 n.), though he at least knew better); Antony’s failure to deal with the Parthian menace (9–12) is attributed to the disregard of the auspices (as in the Republic, political rivals were always eager to detect infringements of ritual requirements). The war of Actium is represented as a threat to the city from foreign enemies while she was preoccupied with civil dissension (13–16); again it is implied that the ultimate cause is the decline of religion. In all this the poem reflects the programme of the Princeps by re-asserting traditional beliefs; but unlike its three predecessors it says nothing about his practice of associating himself with the various rituals and observances of the state religion. Horace goes on to connect the national decline with sexual immorality (17–32); as usual his strictures are directed at the adultery of married women and the connivance of their husbands, not at men’s extra-marital associations with freedwomen or slaves (for the traditional ‘double standard’ cf. Treggiari 199 ff., 299 ff.). The need for tighter controls had already been canvassed during Caesar’s dictatorship (Cic. Marc. 23 ‘comprimendae libidines, propaganda suboles’), and it was later to find expression in Augustus’ social legislation—the lex Iulia de maritandis ordinibus of 18 bc, the lex Iulia de adulteriis coercendis of about the same date, and the milder lex Papia Poppaea of ad 9 (Treggiari 60 ff., 277 ff. and CAH 10, edn. 2: 886 ff.). A primary aim was to restore the birthrate, at least in the upper classes, as can be seen from the rewards and penalties of the leges Iuliae (Brunt, 1971: 558 ff., A. Wallace-Hadrill, PCPS 27, 1981: 58 ff.); even Augustus could not have foreseen the capacity of the oligarchy to renew itself by incorporating new men. But beyond this he clearly believed that the health of the nation depended on a stable family life (K. Galinsky, Philol. 125, 1981: 126 ff., less sympathetically L. F. Raditsa, ANRW II. 13. 278 ff., C. Edwards, The Politics of Immorality in Ancient Rome, 1993: 34 ff.). Orators had denounced metropolitan laxity since the days of Cato (cf. fr. 222 M.), Metellus Macedonicus (frr. 4–7 de prole augenda), and Scipio Aemilianus (frr. 17, 30); historians said the same thing from Polybius (31. 25. 4–5) to Sallust (Cat. 13. 3 etc., Earl 45 ff.), and however over-simplified its expression, the underlying attitude must have been shared by many Romans, not least matronae. The topic continued to excite the indigna-
6 . D ELI C TA M A I O RV M
99
tion of moralists, as we see from Sen. ben. 1. 9. 3–4, Juv. 1. 55 f. (with Mayor) and 6. 21 ff. Moderns sometimes find it hard to see how a hedonistic bachelor like Horace could support such doctrines. NR sees no reason to think that Horace’s view of the national interest was at variance with that of the Princeps: he could advocate military training without feeling any desire to take part in operations (he had had quite enough of that); he could urge the rebuilding of temples and the revival of traditional rituals as a way of promoting national solidarity, without accepting the concomitant beliefs; and he could support the institution of marriage without becoming a husband or father. RN would rather not be drawn into speculations about the poet’s sincerity: it was not his business to formulate social policy but to write an effective poem (cf. Ll. Morgan, Patterns of Redemption in Virgil’s Georgics, 1999: 5 ff.). He proceeds indirectly (Lyne, 1995: 57), not by praising social legislation (carm. saec. 18 f. ‘decreta super iugandis / feminis’), but by describing vividly contrasting lifestyles in a way that could evoke a response from his readers. There is reason to believe that at the time of the ode Octavian had already tried to cope with these problems; see P. Jo¨rs, Festschrift T. Mommsen, 1893: 4 ff., G. Williams, op. cit. 28 f. The crucial evidence comes from Prop. 2. 7. 1 ff., written in 28 or 27 bc: ‘gavisa est certe sublatam Cynthia legem / qua quondam edicta flemus uterque diu / ni nos divideret’; the poet goes on to describe how Octavian’s law might have forced him to marry someone else (8 ff.). There is surely some exaggeration in all this (F. Cairns, Grazer Beitra¨ge 8, 1979: 188 ff.), but whatever the exact truth, it is not enough to posit an old tax on bachelors designed to raise money before Actium (so E. Badian, Philol. 129, 1985: 82 ff.); when Propertius says ‘unde mihi patriis natos praebere triumphis?’ (13), this implies that the aim of the law was social rather than fiscal (cf. M. Beck, Philol. 144, 2000: 309). It may be that quondam just means ‘previously’ (cf. Virg. Aen. 11. 819 ‘purpureus quondam color ora reliquit’), and sublatam legem may be used imprecisely of a proposal withdrawn rather than a law rescinded. The theory of failed legislation is supported by 3. 24. 25 ff.; there Horace, after calling on the Princeps to curb licentiousness (28 f. ‘indomitam audeat / refrenare licentiam’), ruefully admits that his efforts will be appreciated only after his death (note also 33 f. ‘quid tristes querimoniae, / si non supplicio culpa reciditur?’). See further Livy, praef. 9 ‘nec vitia nostra nec remedia pati possumus’, which in isolation might be entirely general (R. Syme, HSCP 64, 1959: 42 f. ¼ Roman Papers 1. 416 f., Badian, op. cit. 92), but in conjunction with Propertius and Horace suggests something rather specific. Horace next turns from present-day urban immorality to the rustic innocence of former times (33–44); family influence continues to be
100
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
emphasized, the strict mother being contrasted with the adulterous wife. This idealization of country life was common in later Greek moralizing (Dio Chrys. 7, R. Vischer, Das einfache Leben, 1965), and since the time of Cato had a particular appeal to rich Roman landowners. It suited the new emphasis on Italian agriculture when many veterans were being resettled, and it had recently found powerful expression in Virgil’s Georgics (37–8 n.). With his Apulian origin and his Sabine villa Horace could describe forcefully the peasant virtues, and when he reflects that the modern generation could never have dealt with Hannibal (33 ff.), that was a thought which might sometimes occur to any middle-aged patriot. Once again Horace makes his case effective by a judicious selection of stereotypes. But the rhetoric involves some exaggeration; for the highly effective Roman army was still recruited from rural Italy. The last stanza pictures Rome in continuous decline, with each generation worse than its predecessor. This was a commonplace of poetry since the ‘golden ages’ of Hesiod and Aratus (see the index of Lovejoy and Boas 1935, Gatz 1967). Moral degeneration is also a recurrent theme in the historians (Sall. Cat. 5. 9 with Earl 41 ff., Liv. praef. 5), who give various dates in the second century bc for the start of the rot; Juvenal capped conventional treatments by saying that future ages could not get any worse (1. 147f. ‘nil erit ulterius quod nostris moribus addat / posteritas, eadem facient cupientque minores’). Such unrelieved pessimism, though unexpected in the Roman Odes, may reflect Octavian’s disappointment at the failure of his attempts at reform. It is harder to account for the contradiction with the opening stanza (Williams, op. cit. 32 f.): there it is apparently said that the current generation is not responsible for its predecessors’ neglect of the temples (immeritus), a neglect that is held to be typical of the attitudes that led to the civil wars (7–8). Even if this problem is removed by emendation (1 n.), some awkwardness remains: the guilt can be expiated by the repair of the temples (2), and in 28 bc Octavian was actually engaged in such an operation, yet the last stanza speaks of irreversible decline. Perhaps in combining the promise of the building programme with the failure of the social programme Horace has not achieved total consistency. Metre: Alcaic. 1. Delicta maiorum immeritus lues: delicta refers to the failure to keep the temples in repair; the word bears its primary sense of ‘derelictions’, ‘sins of omission’ (cf. Cic. Mur. 61 on the exaggerations of Stoicism ‘omne delictum scelus esse nefarium’, TLL 5. 1. 460. 57 ff.); luere is a sacral word for ‘atone’. delicta is often thought to describe the guilt of
6 . D ELI C TA M A I O RV M
101
the civil wars, but here the civil wars, as lines 7–8 show, are the punishment rather than the offence; cf. Cic. Marc. 18 ‘di immortales . . . poenas a populo Romano ob aliquod delictum expetiverunt, qui civile bellum tantum et tam luctuosum excitaverunt’. maiorum (‘fathers’ or ‘elders’) must include the previous generation; to translate ‘ancestors’ would suggest something too remote. For the idea cf. Eur. TGF 980N a H Œ ø ºÆ N f KŒª ı = ƒ Łd æıØ, Exodus 20: 5 ‘I, thy God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children’, Pease on Cic. nat. deor. 3. 90 (citing many parallels from Greek tragedy and elsewhere). Sometimes the thought is added that the punishment is undeserved; cf. 1. 28. 30 f. ‘neglegis immeritis nocituram / postmodo te natis fraudem committere?’, Solon 13. 31 f. IÆØØ æªÆ ıØ = j ÆE ø j ª K ø. But in our passage immeritus causes some difficulty; the current generation must also have been neglectful of religion. Peerlkamp proposed meritus (which destroys the necessary word-break after the fifth syllable), Lehrs heu meritus; RN has considered et meritus (‘and what is more, deservedly’). Normally such a comment would come at the end of a clause (cf. serm. 1. 6. 22 ‘vel merito’), but a poet might be allowed a more intricate word-order; for et merito even at the beginning of a sentence cf. Prop. 1. 17. 1 f. ‘et merito, quoniam potui fugisse puellam, / nunc ego desertas alloquor halcyonas’ (with Fedeli’s note). 2. Romane, donec templa refeceris: the vocative singular suits an oracle (which was addressed to a single inquirer, though he might represent a community) or a quasi-oracular pronouncement; cf. serm. 1. 4. 85 ‘hunc tu, Romane, caveto’ (parodic), Liv. 5. 16. 9 ‘Romane, aquam Albanam cave lacu contineri’ (leading to the conclusion ‘sacraque patria, quorum omissa cura est, instaurata ut adsolet facito’), Virg. Aen. 6. 851 ‘tu regere imperio populos, Romane, memento’, Ov. fast. 4. 259, met. 15. 637, Val. Max. 1. 8. 10 ‘nihil . . . ad te hoc, Romane, bellum’, App. civ. 1. 11. 97 Ł Ø, , PøÆE to Sulla, Dickey 209 f. 3. aedesque labentis deorum: an aedes was usually, though not invariably, less important than a templum, which was a sacred space demarcated by the augurs (Gell. 14. 7. 7, Wissowa 467 ff., Beard–North–Price 1. 22 f.). For labentis (‘collapsing’) cf. Aug. res gestae 20. 2 ‘rivos aquarum . . . vetustate labentes refeci’, TLL 7. 2. 783. 7 ff. deorum gains significance from being placed outside aedes labentis (Darnley Naylor); the importance of the gods in the argument is again underlined by the position of dis (5) and di (7). 3–4. et / foeda nigro simulacra fumo: in all but the earliest period important shrines had cult-images (Latte 150, Beard–North–Price 2.
102
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
2 f.); this followed the Greek practice (Burkert 88 ff.). The grime was produced by the city’s smoke (3. 29. 12) over a long period (ps.-Acro ‘per nimiam vetustatem sordentia’). Later on, the Christian fathers gloated; cf. Jerome, epist. 107. 1 ‘auratum squalet Capitolium, fuligine et aranearum telis omnia Romae templa cooperta sunt’, Arnob. 6. 16 ‘non videtis spirantia haec signa . . . ut nidoribus atque fumo suffita ac decolorata nigrescant?’ 5. dis te minorem quod geris imperas: for se gerere with a predicative adjective (which is not a Ciceronian construction) cf. Sall. hist. 3. 7, Liv. 2. 27. 3 ‘medium se gerendo nec plebis vitavit odium nec apud patres gratiam iniit’, Sen. epist. 44. 3, Lact. inst. 5. 15 ‘quasi minorem se gesserit’ (a clear reminiscence of our passage), TLL 6. 1947. 59 ff. The thought was traditional; cf. 1. 12. 57 ‘te minor laetum reget aequus orbem’, Cic. har. resp. 19 ‘pietate ac religione atque hac una sapientia quod deorum immortalium numine omnia regi gubernarique perspeximus omnes gentes superavimus’, nat. deor. 2. 8 with Pease, 3. 5, Weinstock 249 f. For a more objective view cf. Polybius 6. 56. 7 ŒÆ Ø ŒE e Ææa E ¼ººØ IŁæØ OØØ F ı Ø a , PøÆø æªÆÆ, ºªø b c ØØÆØÆ. 6. hinc omne principium, huc refer exitum: it was an old commonplace that everything begins with the gods (Terpander, PMG 698. 1 ZF ø Iæ ) and is determined by them; for Stoic developments cf. Norden (1913), 240 ff. (citing Paul, Romans 11: 36, Marc. Aur. 4. 23). As a corollary, the success of human enterprises depends on divine favour; cf. Pind. P. 10. 10 ` ! ºº, ªºıŒf IŁæø º Iæ Æ Oæ Æh ÆØ, fr. 108a. Thus a poem might start with an invocation (Terpander above, Arat. phaen. 1 EŒ ˜Øe Iæ ŁÆ, Gow on Theoc. 17. 1, Bo¨mer on Ov. fast. 5. 111), a symposium with a libation, and in Roman public life auspices were taken very seriously; cf. Cic. Vat. 14 ‘omnium rerum magnarum ab dis immortalibus principia ducuntur’, Liv. 45. 39. 10 ‘maiores vestri omnium magnarum rerum et principia exorsi a dis sunt et finem statuerunt’, Appel 61. If the outcome was successful the gods must be duly thanked; if it went wrong, this showed that they disapproved (cf. inauspicatos in v. 10). In our passage we should not understand est with principium (for wicked undertakings do not come from the gods); rather we must supply from refer an imperative meaning ‘derive’ (cf. Cicero’s ducuntur above). There is no need to understand omnem with exitum, for the noun is more incisive without it; cf. Hes. op. 669 K E ªaæ º Kd ›H IªÆŁH ŒÆŒH (with West’s parallels), Ov. her. 20. 44 ‘exitus in dis est’.
6 . D ELI C TA M A I O RV M
103
7–8. di multa neglecti dederunt / Hesperiae mala luctuosae: for neglegentia deum cf. Sall. Cat. 10. 4, Liv. 3. 20. 5; H’s personal construction puts more emphasis on the gods’ deliberate action (cf. 3. 2. 29 f. ‘saepe Diespiter / neglectus incesto addidit integrum’). The ‘many evils’ of civil war probably include the struggle between Caesar and Pompey (cf. Pollio’s history, as reflected in 2. 1) in addition to subsequent battles. multa gains stress through its long separation from mala. For Hesperia as a poetic name for Italy (originating from a Greek perspective) cf. 1. 28. 26 with N–H, 2. 1. 32 ‘Hesperiae sonitum ruinae’. As an Apulian H thinks not just of Rome. 9–10. iam bis Monaeses et Pacori manus / inauspicatos contudit impetus: that is to say, the Romans were defeated once by Monaeses and once by Pacorus; for this use of bis cf. Virg. georg. 3. 33 ‘bisque triumphatas utroque ab litore gentes’, which refers to two campaigns, not four. In 40 bc, as the consequence of an abortive Roman attack on Palmyra (App. civ. 5. 10. 39), the Parthians under Pacorus, along with the renegade Q. Labienus, defeated Antony’s legate Decidius Saxa, and overran Syria and much of Asia Minor; for this major disaster (reflected in epod. 16. 11 ff.) see Dio 48. 25. 3, C. Pelling in CAH 10, edn. 2: 12 f. In 36 Antony invaded Parthia with perhaps sixteen legions, but after his legate Oppius Statianus was routed (Plut. Ant. 38. 3), withdrew with difficulty having suffered serious losses (A. N. Sherwin-White, Roman Foreign Policy in the East, 1984: 307 ff.); the Parthian Monaeses was prominent in this episode, and though for some of the time he claimed to be acting on Antony’s behalf, he may have been playing a double game (Pelling on Plut. Ant. 37. 1 and CAH 10, edn. 2: 31 f.). Porph. says that H is referring to the Parthian victory over Crassus (at Carrhae in 53 bc) as well as that over Saxa; it is true that Crassus had neglected unfavourable omens (Pease on Cic. div. 1. 29), but the victor is elsewhere called Surenas (admittedly a family title rather than a personal name), and no Monaeses is mentioned. The following stanza refers to events much more recent than 53 (H is abusing Antony and Cleopatra in turn); contrast res gest. 29. 2 ‘Parthos trium exercitum Romanorum spolia et signa reddere mihi . . . coegi’, which refers to the defeats of 53, 40, and 36. The MSS divide between inauspicatos (cf. Liv. 7. 6. 11 ‘inauspicatam legem’) and non auspicatos; the former reading, with its iambic opening, was legitimate in H’s Alcaics (3. 1. 2 n.), but rare enough to be exposed to corruption. See Vollmer, ALL 15, 1908: 31 f. 11–12. y nostros y et adiecisse praedam / torquibus exiguis renidet: in RN’s view nostros is not wanted after inauspicatos impetus, and at the beginning of the line before a pause seems over-emphatic; Priscian, GL
104
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
2. 518 reads nostris (dative), for which Bentley unconvincingly compared Hirt. bell. Gall. 8. 10. 4 ‘quae res etsi mediocre detrimentum . . . nostris adferebat’. One would sooner look for an epithet with praedam to make a contrast with exiguis. Shackleton Bailey has considered nostratem (which he admits is unpoetical) or Romanam (HSCP 89, 1985: 156); alternatively he proposed reading nostrorum with praedam, which Bentley had tried with impetus. RN has suggested praeclaram; if this was corrupted to praedam, then, because of the second praedam, rewriting was inevitable. NR thinks that nostros can stand; for two epithets are permitted when one is a possessive (3. 13. 15 f. ‘loquaces / lymphae desiliunt tuae’), and the emphasis on the word may stress the indignity of Roman defeats. Persian kings honoured friends with necklaces (Herod. 3. 20. 1
æ æe æØÆı Ø, Xen. Cyr. 8. 2. 8, anab. 1. 2. 27), but the derogatory exiguis here points to something humbler. The Romans associated torques with Eastern or Gallic peoples (D–S 5. 375 ff., RE 6A. 1800 ff.), though their own soldiers could wear them as booty or reward (Gow–Page, Garland of Philip 1237). renidet (‘beams’) suggests the naive pleasures of barbarians (again derogatory); Catullus 39. 2 uses the word of a silly grin. The unusual infinitive with renidet follows the construction of gaudet, a typically Horatian development. 13–14. paene occupatam seditionibus / delevit Vrbem Dacus et Aethiops: paene modifies delevit; for the word-order cf. 2. 13. 20. The city was ‘engrossed in dissensions’ (OLD occupo 9); there is a touch of paradox in the phrase, since occupatam implies an action of concentration and seditionibus one of dispersion. For the thought cf. epod. 7. 9 f., 16. 9 ff. (pointing out that the civil wars were Parthia’s opportunity), [Sall.] epist. 1. 5. 2. For the plural seditiones cf. Juno’s speech in 3. 3. 29, rhet. Her. 4. 66 ‘nunc vestris seditionibus, o cives, vexor’, Suet. Ner. 26. 2. Dacian inroads in this period are mentioned in 3. 8. 18, serm. 2. 6. 53 ‘numquid de Dacis audisti?’, Virg. georg. 2. 497 ‘coniurato descendens Dacus ab Histro’; but in view of the conjunction with Aethiops it seems more relevant that they sided with Antony before Actium (Dio 51. 22. 8) and figured in the triumphs of 29 (ibid. 22. 6). Aethiops is a derogatory way of describing the Egyptian forces of Cleopatra (see 15–16 below). The exaggeration is evident, yet it was believed that Antony intended to invade Italy (1. 37. 16, cf. Dio 50. 9. 2), and that Cleopatra had threatened to dispense justice from the Capitol (Dio 50. 5. 4, cf. N–H on 1. 37. 6). 15–16. hic classe formidatus, ille / missilibus melior sagittis: for Cleopatra’s Egyptian fleet cf. Virg. Aen. 8. 705 f. (on Actium) ‘omnis eo terrore Aegyptus et Indi, / omnis Arabs, omnes vertebant terga Sabaei’.
6 . D ELI C TA M A I O RV M
105
In reality, according to Plutarch (Ant. 61. 1) Antony had 500 warships in all, of which only 60 were Cleopatra’s (64. 1, 66. 3). The Dacians, like other northern peoples (3. 8. 23 n.), were associated with archery (Sil. 1. 324 ff.); missilibus in effect ¼ mittendis. melior makes a comparison in a way familiar from epic; cf. Hom. Il. 4. 400 x æØÆ fi , Iªæfi Ð b Iø, Virg. Aen. 5. 153 ‘melior remis’. 17–18. fecunda culpae saecula nuptias / primum inquinavere et genus et domos: in moralizing discourse saeculum often implies criticism (Lo¨fstedt 2. 470 ff.; cf. M. Winterbottom, The Elder Seneca, vol. 2, 1974: index II, Commonplaces, On the Age); here saecula is not just plural for singular, as the decline has been going on for a long time. fecunda suggests that the generations have been prolific in misconduct (OLD s.v. culpa 3b) rather than children; cf. Sil. 2. 498 ‘fecundum in fraudes hominum genus’, CIL 6. 31711 ‘omnium virtutum fecundissimae feminae’. For inquinare cf. epod. 16. 64 ‘ut inquinavit aere tempus aureum’ (which suggests the literal contamination of metals); here the idea of moral pollution suits the religious tone; cf. 23 ‘incestos amores’, 4. 5. 21 ‘nullis polluitur casta domus stupris’. genus refers to purity of lineage (cf. 4. 5. 23), domos to the stability of the family; cf. Virg. georg. 2. 524 ‘casta pudicitiam servat domus’. 19–20. hoc fonte derivata clades / in patriam populumque fluxit: Peerlkamp proposed labes (cf. Liv. 39. 9. 1 ‘huius mali labes ex Etruria Romam velut contagione morbi penetravit’, Sil. 14. 596 of a plague); at first sight this word (or Palmer’s tabes) seems not just to suit inquinavere but to cohere better with fonte, derivata (which was used primarily of irrigation), and fluxit. Yet clades can also be used of a spreading plague (Lucr. 6. 1091, 1125 f. ‘haec igitur subito clades nova pestilitasque / aut in aquas cadit aut fruges persidit in ipsas’, Cic. fr. de cons. 2. 50 (Traglia), Ov. trist. 5. 4. 33 ‘subitae contagia cladis’, Amm. Marc. 19. 4. 4 ‘clades illa . . . paulatim proserpens Atticam occupavit’); the political implications of the word suit the present context (cf. Sall. Jug. 85. 43 ‘ita iniustissume luxuria et ignavia . . . rei publicae innoxiae cladi sunt’). The collocation with fluxit is supported by Sen. Thy. 236 ‘hinc omne cladis mutuae fluxit malum’. For patriam populumque cf. Accius, praetext. 6 ‘portenta ut populo patriae verruncent bene’, Ov. met. 15. 572 ‘patriae . . . populoque Quirini’, Juv. 14. 70; such alliterative phrases are often found in official contexts (E. Wo¨lfflin 270 ff.). Bentley proposed ‘inque patres populumque fluxit’; this gives a commoner collocation (Virg. Aen. 4. 682 with Pease), but inque is inelegant (in H only at serm. 1. 3. 141), and the senators should not be singled out in this censorious passage.
106
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
21–2. motus doceri gaudet Ionicos / y matura y virgo: motus describes the gyrations of the dancer, whether those of a rustic (Virg. georg. 1. 350 ‘det motus incompositos’), or a Salian priest (Fest. 334L), or as here a provocative saltatrix; cf. Ov. am. 2. 4. 30 ‘et tenerum molli torquet ab arte latus’ with McKeown, copa 2 ‘crispum sub crotalo docta movere latus’, Sen. epist. 90. 19. In the classical Greek world Ionians were thought effeminate (Ar. Thesm. 163, Otto 177), and their dances came to be regarded as indecent; cf. Athen. 14. 629e q Ø ŒÆd I øØŒc Zæ Ø ÆæØ , Plaut. Pers. 826, Pseud. 1275, Stich. 769 ‘qui Ionicus aut cinaedicust, qui hoc tale facere possiet’ (all referring to men), L. B. Lawler, TAPA 74, 1943: 60 ff. For moral criticisms of dancing cf. Scipio Aemilianus, orat. fr. 30M. ‘eunt, inquam, in ludum saltatorium, inter cinaedos virgines puerique ingenui . . . ’, Sall. Cat. 25. 2 (on Sempronia) ‘psallere saltare elegantius quam necesse est probae’, Bompaire (1958), 356 f., J. P. V. D. Balsdon, Roman Women, 1962: 274 f. matura means ‘of marriageable age’ (about 12 or 13); cf. Virg. Aen. 7. 53 ‘iam matura viro, iam plenis nubilis annis’. But in this context one expects the immaturity of the girl to be emphasized (which makes the immorality worse); the difficulty is compounded by iam nunc below (‘already now’), which suggests that an adjective expressing immaturity has been displaced. RN would therefore obelize matura; Peerlkamp proposed a matre, Lehrs Romana, L. Mu¨ller acerba, Shackleton Bailey innupta (HSCP 89, 1985: 156), Delz nuptura. NR takes matura virgo as ‘a girl who has just reached puberty’, and sees this as further emphasized by iam nunc below. 22–3. et fingitur artibus / iam nunc: for fingitur (‘is moulded’) cf. ars 366 f. ‘voce paterna / fingeris ad rectum’ with Brink, Sen. cont. 1. 2. 5 ‘docetur blanditias et in omnem corporis motum confingitur’ (an apparent reminiscence of our passage), Colum. 11. 1. 13, Pers. 5. 36 ff. It was a commonplace that the young were malleable (epist. 1. 2. 64 ff., 2. 2. 7 f. ‘idoneus arti / cuilibet; argilla quidvis imitaberis uda’). Normally they are moulded by moral training, but here the artes are the various skills of seduction; the variant artubus, read by Porph., is unintelligible (see Bentley). iam nunc is best attached to fingitur, not to the following clause; this prevents the middle clause of the three from being too short. For the punctuation after the opening spondee of an Alcaic enneasyllable cf. 3. 4. 79, 3. 5. 27, 3. 17. 7; note also 1. 34. 7 for the adverb plerumque in the same position and followed by a pause. RN has considered reading iamdudum to fill the gap between the adolescent girl and the infant of v. 24 (as he understands that line).
6 . D ELI C TA M A I O RV M
107
23–4. et incestos amores / de tenero meditatur ungui: in RN’s view the phrase de tenero ungui refers to the soft nails of babies, hence ‘a prima infantia’ (Porph.); cf. paroem. Gr. 2. 407. 51a K ±ÆºH O ø Id F Ø Ł, Cic. fam. 1. 6. 2 ‘qui mihi a teneris, ut Graeci dicunt, unguiculis es cognitus’ (with Shackleton Bailey), Claudian, VI Cons. Honorii 79 f. ‘dilectaeque urbis tenero conceptus ab ungue / tecum crevit amor’ (with Dewar), Alan Cameron, CQ 15, 1965: 80 ff. (For the temporal use of de cf. serm. 2. 8. 3 ‘de medio potare die’, K–S 1. 498). In view of the awkward chronological sequence involved by this interpretation NR follows those who take de tenero ungui as meaning ‘with every fibre of her being’ (E. W. Fay, AJP 29, 1908: 201 ff., P. Brind’Amour, Latomus 26, 1967: 467 ff., Williams’s commentary pp. 66 f.); cf. Plaut. Stich. 761 ‘ubi perpruriscamus usque ex unguiculis’, Plut. de lib. educ. 5. 1 Ł ŒÆd e c ºª K O ø. The latter usage is not normally found with ±ÆºH or teneris; yet an epigram by Automedon begins T c Ie B A Oæ æÆ, c ŒÆŒ Ø = ÆØ K ±ÆºH ŒØı O ø, = ÆNø, P ‹Ø Æ ÆŁÆÆØ, P ‹Ø ººØ = a ±Æºa ±ÆºH z ŒÆd z
æÆ (anth. Pal. 5. 129. 1–4). Here Gow–Page point out (as against Cameron) that the poet cannot be referring to infancy (Garland of Philip 2. 186 f.); ‘quivering’ indicates ‘with every fibre of her being’. It would be odd if nails had a different significance in two poems with a clear relationship. Automedon could have written a little earlier than Horace (at anth. Pal. 10. 23. 1 he refers to the rhetor Nicetes, whose floruit is given by Jerome as 31 bc), and here the epigram seems to precede the ode: Asia becomes the more literary Ionia, and c ŒÆŒ Ø . . . O ø is distributed among three clauses; cf. P. Colaclides and M. McDonald, Latomus 33, 1974: 382 ff. To meet this difficulty RN would like to read K ¼Œæø ŒØı O ø (‘quivering from the tips of her finger-nails’, cf. Lucian, Tragodopodagra 17 ØæH I ¼Œæø); perhaps at an early stage ¼Œæø was corrupted to ±ÆºH under the influence of ±Æºa ±ÆºH below (it seems pointless to apply the adjective to nails and hands with different implications), and H gave K ±ÆºH O ø its usual meaning of ‘from infancy’. NR is uneasy that the interpretation of two lines should involve two (or perhaps three) emendations; he also thinks that, apart from the chronological point noted above, the hyperbole would be so extreme as to undermine the seriousness of the passage. In RN’s view hyperbole is often extreme; he also thinks that the emotional interpretation (‘with every fibre of her being’) does not suit the more deliberate meditatur, which means ‘goes over in contemplation’. NR thinks the verb can include an emotional implication, adducing e.g. Aen. 4. 171 (‘nec iam furtivum Dido meditatur amorem’).
108
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
25–6. mox iuniores quaerit adulteros / inter mariti vina: mox moves on to the stage when the girl is married. iuniores means ‘younger than the maritus of the next line’; the elderly husband is a stock figure in comedy, satire, and elsewhere; cf. 3. 19. 24, Catull. 17. The comparative iunior is used only by Horace among major poets, and is surprisingly rare even in prose (Axelson 104); aetate minor was the usual expression. For the fuddled husband cf. Ov. am. 1. 4. 51 ff. ‘vir bibat usque roga’ with McKeown. vina is often a poetic plural (Lo¨fstedt 1. 48 ff.), but with inter it suggests a series of drinks; cf. epist. 1. 7. 28, Plaut. Pseud. 947 ‘inter pocula’, OLD s.v. inter 7. 26–8. neque eligit / cui donet impermissa raptim / gaudia luminibus remotis: the woman does not pick and choose her lovers (which would be bad enough) or aim at haste and concealment; by a standard rhetorical procedure the negative sentence leads up to her actual behaviour (29 ff.), which is even more disgraceful (cf. Cic. Verr. 2. 1. 9 ‘non enim furem sed ereptorem, non adulterum sed expugnatorem pudicitiae . . . ’). For ‘impermissa raptim gaudia’ cf. Ov. am. 1. 4. 47 ‘properata voluptas’; impermissa (the only instance recorded) not only suggests the thrill of forbidden fruit but makes a contrast with the brazen infidelities that follow. The lamps were sometimes removed in the symposium (Plut. quaest. conv. 8. 1), clearly as an encouragement to sex; cf. Plaut. asin. 785 f. (an injunction to a lady) ‘si lucerna exstincta sit, ne quid sui / membri commoveat quicquam in tenebris’, Prop. 2. 15. 4 ‘quantaque sublato lumine rixa fuit’, Mart. 12. 43. 10, Lucian, symp. 46 (after the lamp overturned) ººa Kæ Ł ŒÆd Øa K fiH ŒfiH, Minuc. Fel. 9. 6–7 (alleged Christian orgies when the dog has upset the lamp); for similar phrases in other contexts cf. Plut. coniug. praecepta 46, paroem. Gr. 2. 511. 90 º ı IæŁ ªıc AÆ ÆP. H is partial to the ablative absolute even at the end of a sentence (3. 5. 3–4 n.). 29–30. sed iussa coram non sine conscio / surgit marito: iussa is contrasted with eligit (26); the woman comes when called (cf. serm. 1. 2. 122 ‘neque cunctetur cum est iussa venire’). coram ¼ ‘in the presence of everyone’ (cf. Ov. am. 3. 14. 16 ‘nec pudeat coram verba modesta loqui’); this makes a better contrast with luminibus remotis (28) than ‘to her face’ (i.e. not by letter) or ‘face to face’ (it is not specified whether the adulterer calls in person). The husband does not even feign ignorance, as he does at Juv. 1. 57 ‘doctus et ad calicem vigilanti stertere naso’ (see Mayor and Courtney); note also the joke ‘non omnibus dormio’ (Otto 121), attributed by Lucilius to one Cipius (1223 M) and by Plutarch to Gabba, where the adulterer is none other than Maecenas (amat. 16. 759 f. PŒ rŁÆ ‹Ø MÆØŒfi Æ ŒÆŁø;). The conniving husband is ridiculed as a leno (Ov. am. 2. 19. 57 with McKeown, Juv. 1. 55);
6 . D ELI C TA M A I O RV M
109
such persons were penalized by the later Augustan legislation (dig. 48. 5. 2. 2 on lenocinium). 30. seu vocat institor: an adulterous wife is ‘summoned’ at serm. 2. 3. 238 ‘unde uxor media currit de nocte vocata’, meretrices at Prop. 4. 8. 33; cf. N–H on 2. 11. 21. Lucian Mu¨ller thought the institor was one of the guests, but his social position makes that unlikely (see below); and vocat is naturally interpreted as ‘summons’ rather than ‘attracts the woman’s attention’. For similar scenes involving only guests cf. Plaut. asin. 774 ff., Ov. am. 1. 4, Suet. Aug. 69. 1 ‘feminam consularem e triclinio viro coram in cubiculum abductam, rursus in convivium rubentibus auriculis incomptiore capillo reductam’ (an invective by Antony against Octavian which may have been recalled by Juvenal in his portrait of the meretrix Augusta at sat. 6. 116 ff.). An institor was a salesman (RE 9. 1564 f.); he might call on ladies with his wares, and is sometimes pictured as slick and dissolute; cf. Prop. 4. 2. 38 ‘mundus demissis institor in tunicis’, Ov. ars 1. 421 ‘institor ad dominam veniet discinctus emacem’, rem. am. 306, and more solemnly Sen. fr. 52 Haase ‘institores gemmarum sericarumque vestium si intromiseris, periculum pudicitiae est’. Moral and social scorn merge; cf. Eliot, The Waste Land, part III, ‘He, the young man carbuncular, arrives, / A small house agent’s clerk, with one bold stare, / One of the low on whom assurance sits / As a silk hat on a Bradford millionaire’. 31–2. seu navis Hispanae magister, / dedecorum pretiosus emptor: the Spanish sea-captain (OLD s.v. 3) has no settled home in Italy and so can be thought of as having ‘a girl in every port’ (Plaut. cist. 157 ff., Sen. contr. 2. 7); for the collocation with a travelling salesman cf. epod. 17. 20 ‘amata nautis multum et institoribus’. As he is engaged in trade, he is despised as much as the institor, but is presumably richer (especially if he owns his ship); so v. 32 refers largely, if not exclusively, to him. In such a context pretiosus normally means ‘expensive’ (for luxury goods from Spain cf. Catull. 12. 14 ff., Plin. nat. hist. 19. 10 ); here it is applied uniquely to the big-spending buyer (cf. Gellius 9. 12. 1 for active and passive senses of adjectives ending in -osus); the adjective also reflects on the woman, who is greedy as well as lustful. In erotic poetry too the power of money is often deplored, and the dives amator is a recurrent figure; cf. epod. 11. 11, 15. 19 f., Prop. 1. 8. 37, Tib. 1. 5. 47. 33–4. non his iuventus orta parentibus / infecit aequor sanguine Punico: husband and wife are both guilty, and their behaviour affects the next generation (cf. Juv. 14). Here there is a powerful appeal to patriotic exempla (iuventus and orta are appropriate to the high style); for a similar contrast cf. Juv. 2. 153 ff. ‘Curius quid sentit et ambo /
110
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
Scipiadae, quid Fabricius manesque Camilli, / quid Cremerae legio et Cannis consumpta iuventus, / tot bellorum animae, quotiens hinc talis ad illos / umbra venit?’ H. is referring to the Sicilian sea-battles of the First Punic War, notably at Mylae (260 bc), which was commemorated in the Forum by the Columna Duilii (Richardson 97), and off the Aegatian Islands (241). For the blood-stained waters of inshore battles cf. 2. 1. 34 f. ‘quod mare Dauniae / non decoloravere caedes?’ with N–H, Juv. 10. 185 ff.; there is a play of words in Punico, which suggested ‘crimson’; cf. 2. 12. 2 f. ‘Siculum mare / Poeno purpureum sanguine’ with N–H. 35–6. Pyrrhumque et ingentem cecidit / Antiochum Hannibalemque dirum: Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, invaded Italy in 280 in support of Tarentum; he won ‘Pyrrhic victories’ at Heraclea and Asculum (north of Venusia), but was defeated in 275 at Beneventum (see Plutarch’s Life, P. Garoufalias, Pyrrhus, King of Epirus, 1979, CAH edn. 2: 7. 2. 456 ff.); his devastation is combined with Hannibal’s at Lucan 1. 30 f., Flor. 2. 6. 11, 2. 9. 22. Antiochus the Great, after restoring the Seleucid empire in the East, invaded Thrace and finally Greece; he was defeated by the Romans at Thermopylae in 191 and at the Lydian Magnesia in 189 (E. Will, Histoire politique du monde helle´nistique, 1982, especially 2. 177 ff.); ingentem not only recalls his usual epithet of Magnum (Cic. Sest. 58, Deiot. 36) but underlines how mighty an enemy was overthrown. cecidit means that the enemy armies were cut down, not necessarily that the general was killed; cf. Cic. ad Brut. 1. 6. 3 ‘Dolabellam caesum fugatumque esse’. With Hannibal, who invaded Italy from 218 to 203 and threatened Rome itself, the chronological order is disregarded to provide a proper rhetorical climax (cf. epod. 16. 3 ff.). The emphatic dirum, balancing ingentem, was his conventional epithet ‘quo nihil inveniri possit significantius’ (Quint. 8. 2. 9, cf. N–H on 2. 12. 2, Juv. 7. 161), and the variant durum in this passage at least can be ruled out. 37–8. sed rusticorum mascula militum / proles: the words reinforce each other to point a contrast with urban degeneracy; the alliteration adds to the effect. For the connection of military virtue with rustic hardihood cf. 1. 12. 41 ff., Cato, agr. praef. 4, Virg. georg. 2. 167 ff. ‘haec genus acre virum, Marsos pubemque Sabellam / . . . extulit’, Aen. 9. 607 f. with N. Horsfall, Latomus 30, 1971: 1108 ff., Juv. 8. 245 ff., Veg. mil. 1. 3 ‘aptior armis rustica plebs quae sub dio et in labore nutritur’. 38–9. Sabellis docta ligonibus / versare glaebas: a ligo was an implement like half a pick-axe (but with a cutting edge instead of a point) used for turning over the clods and removing weeds; cf. epod. 5. 30 f.
6 . D ELI C TA M A I O RV M
111
‘ligonibus duris humum / exhauriebat’, epist. 1. 14. 27, Juv. 11. 89, K. D. White, Agricultural Implements of the Roman World, 1967: figs. 16–20, RE 13. 525; for versare glaebas cf. Horsfall on Virg. Aen. 7. 725. The Sabelli were not Sabines but Samnites and other Oscan-speakers of central southern Italy (RE 1A. 2. 1571, Salmon 32 ff.) and included the original inhabitants of Venusia (serm. 2. 1. 36, epist. 1. 16. 49 of H. himself, cf. G. Williams ap. Harrison, 1995: 301 f.). For the transferred epithet applied to implements cf. 1. 31. 9 ‘Calena falce’, Catull. 17. 19 ‘Liguri . . . securi’, Virg. Aen. 7. 665 ‘veruque Sabello’. docta here refers to the unsophisticated skills of the countryman (cf. Prop. 2. 19. 12 ‘docta . . . falce’); contrast doceri (21). 39–41. et severae / matris ad arbitrium recisos / portare fustis: the wife is responsible for looking after the house, including the fire (cf. epod. 2. 43 f. ‘sacrum vetustis exstruat lignis focum / lassi sub adventum viri’, Cato, agr. 143. 2, Virg. Aen. 8. 410). RN at one time considered reading fasces, which seems more natural than fustes for a load of wood (cf. Liv. 22. 16. 7 ‘fascesque virgarum atque aridi sarmenti praeligantur cornibus boum’, Apul. met. 7. 17. 4 ‘lignorum vero tanto me premebat pondere ut fascium molem elephanto non asino paratam putares’, TLL 6. 306. 45 ff.); in conjunction with ‘severae matris ad arbitrium’ the word might suggest the fasces borne by a lictor at the behest of a stern magistrate. However, Apuleius continues ‘cum deberet potius gravantis ruinae fustes demere’ (heavier pieces of wood that make the load unbalanced); note also Varro, lL 5. 137 (of rushes) ‘utuntur in vinea alligando fasces, incisos fustes, faculas’, CGL 2. 74. 40 fustes: ºÆ. For the collection of wood cf. 3. 17. 13 f. (windfalls), epist. 1. 14. 41 f., Men. dysc. 31 f. ıºæH Œø Id = H, Apul. met. 7. 24. 4 ‘lignum quod deveherem recidebat’ (lopping branches, as here); lignum was an important by-product of many rural economies (Horden–Purcell 183 f.). portare (as opposed to ferre) suggests sizeable loads; thus a mosaic from Gaul illustrates a labourer shouldering a bundle of cut willow; see White (1970), pl. 78. 41–2. sol ubi montium / mutaret umbras: the shadows are changed in both length (Virg. ecl. 1. 83 ‘maioresque cadunt altis de montibus umbrae’, ecl. 2. 67 ‘sol crescentes decedens duplicat umbras’) and position (epist. 1. 16. 6 f., Virg. Aen. 1. 607 f. ‘dum montibus umbrae / lustrabunt convexa’). The change would be most conspicuous in the evening, particularly in a mountain valley, and this time is made certain by the cessation of ploughing; cf. epod. 2. 63 f., Virg. ecl. 2. 66, Ov. fast. 5. 497, and 42–3 n. below. The subjunctives mutaret and demeret are thought by some to denote repeated action (so Heinze and NR); this usage is not found elsewhere in Horace, but is common in Livy (H–Sz 624). Others (e.g. Page and
112
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
RN) see the subjunctives as reporting in poetic terms the mother’s instructions; E. A. Sonnenschein, who perhaps originated this view, analyses the tense as ‘past prospective’, ‘when the sun should shift the shadows’ (CR 7, 1893: 7 ff.). 42–3. et iuga demeret / bobus fatigatis: for the unyoking of oxen as a sign of evening cf. Hom. Il. 16. 779, Od. 9. 58 q MºØ ıºı , Ar. aves 1500, Ap. Rhod. 3. 1340 ff. with Hunter, Arat. phaen. 825, Cic. Att. 15. 27. 3 ‘ÆPfi Ð ıºØ cenantibus nobis’. For the yoking of oxen as a sign of morning add Hes. op. 581, Call. aet. fr. 21. 3 æÆ IØıÆ º e ªæ T Ø. 43–4. amicum / tempus agens abeunte curru: cf. Sapph. 104 ! E æ Æ æø ZÆ ÆºØ KŒÆ Æhø , Stat. silv. 5. 1. 124 ff. English makes the distinction between ‘welcome’ as here (cf. Cic. Att. 12. 15 ‘nihil est mihi amicius solitudine’, TLL. 1. 1904. 45 ff.) and ‘friendly’ where there is some idea of personification (Virg. Aen. 2. 255 ‘per amica silentia lunae’, Ov. her. 19. 33 ‘noctis amicior hora’); sometimes amicum is compared with the use of Pæ for night, but that may be an old euphemism for a time of danger. For agens cf. Hom. Il. 8. 485 f. K 4ŒÆfiH ºÆæe MºØ, = (ºŒ ŒÆ ºÆØÆ Kd øæ ¼æıæÆ (i.e. like a curtain), Theoc. 25. 85 f.; it is a paradox that the sun brings happiness by going away. 45. damnosa quid non imminuit dies?: the question, being rhetorical, is not answered, but is elaborated in what follows; for the thought cf. Soph. Ai. 714 Ł › ªÆ æ ÆæÆØ, Lucr. 2. 1173 f. ‘omnia paulatim tabescere et ire / ad scopulum’, Ov. met. 15. 234 ff., Prud. contra Symm. 2. 658 f. ‘nam cum mortalia cuncta vetustas / imminuat’; H transfers the commonplace from physical destruction to moral degeneration. imminuit is present tense; the generalization is illustrated from the past, the present, and the future. dies means ‘the lapse of time’ (cf. epist. 2. 1. 34, ars 293, OLD 10); for the metrical convenience of the feminine gender cf. E. Fraenkel, Glotta 8, 1917: 60 ff. ¼ Kl. Beitr. 1. 63 ff. 46–8. aetas parentum peior avis tulit / nos nequiores, mox daturos / progeniem vitiosiorem: for the theme of degeneration cf. epod. 16. 64 f., Hom. Od. 2. 276 f. ÆFæØ ªæ Ø ÆE ›EØ Ææd ºÆØ, = ƒ º ŒÆŒı , ÆFæØ Ææe Iæı , Hes. op. 109 ff., and especially Arat. phaen. 123 f. (H’s immediate model) ¥ æØØ Ææ ªc Kº = Øææ, E b ŒÆŒæÆ Ł, Bo¨mer on Ov. met. 1. 89 ff., Gatz 18 ff.; but in our passage there is no mention of the Golden Age, and no assertion about human history as a whole; the deterioration has taken place only since the second century
7 . QV I D F LE S, A S T ER I E ?
113
(36). Though H mentions four generations rather than Aratus’ three, he includes them in one sentence with remarkable trenchancy and compression (cf. 4. 7. 9 ff.): peior avis is a compendious comparison (cf. 3. 1. 42 n.), equivalent to ‘peior aetate avorum’; nos nequiores ¼ ‘nos qui nequiores sumus’; the future participle daturos (where Cicero would have said ‘qui daturi sumus’) exemplifies an abbreviated construction that would develop in the imperial period (H–Sz 390); the last line is reduced to two words as in 3. 1. 48 ‘divitias operosiores’. The phrase daturos progeniem seems to reflect an old formula; cf. Catull. 61. 67 f. ‘nulla quit sine te domus / liberos dare’ with Fordyce’s note. Lyne argues that daturos etc. permits an inexplicit qualification, ‘unless we reform in the moral-religious way prescribed’ (1995: 174 f.); yet it is hard to see this ray of hope in view of the bleak generalization in v. 45 and the clear allusion to the pessimistic passage of Aratus.
7 . QV I D F LES, AS T ER I E ? [A. Bradshaw, Hermes 106, 1978: 156 ff.; F. Cairns ap. Harrison (1995), 65 ff.; Davis 43 ff.; S. J. Harrison, CQ 38, 1988: 186 ff.; H. Jacobson, Mnem. 48, 1995: 85; Lowrie 266 ff.; Lyne (1995), 175 ff.; F.-H. Mutschler, SO 53, 1978: 111 ff.; W. M. Owens, CW 85, 1991: 161 ff.; Pasquali 463 ff.]
1–8. Why, Asterie, are you weeping for Gyges, who will be restored to you in the spring with a rich cargo? While he is storm-bound in Epirus he sleeps alone, shedding tears himself. 9–22. And yet a go-between reports that his hostess is burning with passion for him; he reminds him of other wives who have threatened unresponsive young men, all in vain, for Gyges is deaf to entreaties. 22–32. You in turn must not become too fond of Enipeus, in spite of his athletic prowess in the Campus Martius. Bolt your door at nightfall, and ignore his serenades. In the first two stanzas Asterie is counselled not to weep for Gyges (for exhortation and advice in Horace’s amatory odes cf. 1. 8, 1. 13, 1. 33, 2. 4, 2. 5). She seems to fear that he has been lost at sea or become attached to another woman, but the poet reassures her on both counts: storms have kept him on the wrong side of the Adriatic, and in the meantime his fidelity is unwavering. It is sometimes assumed that the man is Asterie’s husband, but there is nothing in the text to justify so particular an interpretation. It suits the conventions of erotic literature better if he is regarded as a lover (Syndikus), even if Propertius could extend those conventions to include a married couple (3. 12).
114
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
The central section of the poem (9–22) describes the temptations that Gyges is supposed to have been resisting. His hostess Chloe has fallen in love with him, and through a go-between has menacingly reminded him of certain exempla from myth: Bellerophon and Peleus were nearly done to death when they refused a lady in similar circumstances. Within the context of these threats, maturare necem (16) and paene datum Tartaro (17) stress the extreme danger that those two heroes were in. Gyges is not meant to reflect that in the end they escaped; if he did, he could not expect to be rescued by a magic horse or a kindly centaur. In the wider context of Horace’s address to Asterie, however, the girl is assured that somehow Gyges will return safe and sound; so we are free to imagine that she will be gratified to hear him compared to Bellerophon and Peleus who were models of chastity. Yet the fact remains that the poet’s melodramatic story about the go-between and his exempla is highly implausible (even if we allow for authorial omniscience); perhaps it is best taken as a light-hearted fiction, designed to give point to the poet’s sly warning at the end—a warning that seems to be amply justified. A pattern of correspondences can be observed (so Lowrie 268); for just as the go-between is said to tell stories to seduce Gyges, so the poet tells his story to deter Asterie; just as Gyges is said to be deaf to the blandishments of Chloe, so Asterie is urged to be deaf to the serenades of Enipeus (another name from mythology, but one that suggests seduction rather than chastity, cf. 22–4 n.). Owens (op. cit.) thinks that the poet is really encouraging Enipeus, but nothing in the text warrants such a cynical interpretation (Cairns, op. cit. 67). The ode has close affinities with elegy (Syndikus 2. 94). The separation of lovers is a common motif (cf. Tib. 1. 2. 65 ff. with Murgatroyd’s parallels, and later Prop. 3. 12); the basic situation goes back to Homer, with the triangle of Odysseus, Calypso, and Penelope (Harrison, op. cit.), but it must have been repeated often since. The individual myths have antecedents in Greek tragedy, but the accumulation of such exempla occurs in Hellenistic poetry (e.g. Theoc. 3. 40 ff., Pasquali 464 f.), and is typical of Propertius (1. 2. 15 ff., 1. 15. 9 ff. etc.). Just as in elegy, we hear of tears and sighs, constancy and temptation, with a plaintive serenade at the end; and there are many similarities in the vocabulary (for a full list see Cairns, op. cit. 69 f.). Yet the over-all tone of the ode is very different, not at all sentimental, but detached and amused in Horace’s manner. The underlying situation is Roman, in spite of the Greek proper names and Greek exempla: a trader sails to Bithynia to make his fortune (3 n.), and a young horseman flaunts his prowess in the Campus Martius (25–6 n.). But Gyges’ fidelity appears, as suggested above, to be a romantic embellishment; for a Roman merchant, whether married or single, would not be required to keep chaste when wintering in a distant
7 . QV I D F LE S, A S T ER I E ?
115
port (for the ‘double standard’ see Treggiari 299 ff.), even if he drew the line at a liaison with his host’s wife. Scholars are concerned about the relation of the ode to its predecessor with its vivid depiction of a ship-master’s adultery (3. 6. 29 ff.); some think it reinforces the moral (Santirocco 125), others that it undermines it (Lyne, 1995: 178). But socially this ode is in a different dimension: women who were serenaded were not matrons of good family (Pasquali 463), and the liaisons of an Asterie would be of little concern to the Augustan regime. Perhaps it is enough to say that when Horace arranged his collection he followed the sequence of Roman Odes (including the powerful 3. 6) with a lighter piece simply for the sake of variety. Metre: stanzas of two Asclepiads followed by a Pherecratean and a Glyconic. 1–2. Quid fles, Asterie, quem tibi candidi / primo restituent vere Favonii?: the woman’s name, from Iæ, implies a star-like beauty (cf. 3. 9. 21 ‘sidere pulchrior’, Hom. Il. 6. 401, K. Kost, Musaios: Hero und Leander, 1971: pp. 164 ff., Cairns, op. cit. 76). ‘Asteris’ is used in a similar way for the bride of Stella by Statius, silv. 1. 2. 197 f., cf. PMG frag. adesp. 957 (for ‘Aster’ of good-looking young men cf. Plato, anth. Pal. 7. 670. 1, D. L. Page, Further Greek Epigrams, 1981: p. 161). candidi suggests brightness, balancing Asterie (cf. Colum. 10. 78 ‘candidus . . . zephyrus’, Plaut. merc. 876 ‘hic favonius serenust’, mil. 665); similarly albus of winds implies an absence of storm-clouds (1. 7. 15, 3. 27. 19, cf. Hes. theog. 379 Iæªc ˘ıæ). candidi also has connotations of ‘propitious’ (Catull. 8. 3 ‘candidi soles’, OLD 7); in the same way Favonius, the zephyr, was associated with favere, not because it was a ‘favourable wind’ in the modern sense (here a west wind would come from the wrong direction), but because it had a benign influence on vegetation. It began to blow in February (Ov. fast. 2. 148, Plin. nat. hist. 2. 122, Colum. 11. 2. 15), and the navigation season was regarded as beginning then or in early March (N–H on 1. 4. 1–2); the emphatic primo means that the man will return as soon as possible. 3. Thyna merce beatum: the Thyni occupied the coastal region of Bithynia (Plin. nat. hist. 5. 150, RE 6A. 1. 734) on the eastern side of the Sea of Marmora; by H’s time the name is relatively rare (cf. Catull. 31. 5), as ‘Bithynia’ came to be used for the whole area. The province produced timber, grain, and marble, and its commercial importance was increased by its access to the Black Sea; cf. 1. 35. 7, epist. 1. 6. 32 f. ‘cave ne portus occupet alter, / ne Cibyratica, ne Bithyna negotia perdas’. The riches are mentioned by way of encouragement, for the rewards (like the risks) of such a voyage could be great (both are illustrated by the career
116
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
of Trimalchio as described in Petr. 76). Naturally the merchant’s conventional avarice (1. 1. 16 with N–H) is not mentioned here; yet Asterie and her lover belong to the classes who cannot be indifferent to profit (cf. Mutschler, op. cit. on ‘Kaufmannsliebe’). 4–5. constantis iuvenem fidei / Gygen: the virtue of fides was already prized in the love-poetry of Catullus (Lyne, 1980: 24); cf. further Boucher 85 ff., Fedeli on Prop. 1. 4. 16 and 1. 12. 8. For the disyllabic genitive fidei (the reading of the MSS) cf. TLL 6. 1. 662. 43 ff., M. Leumann, MH 2, 1946: 254 (citing Plaut. aul. 617, where fidi is an iambus, as well as plebeive scitum in inscriptions); most editors emend to the archaic genitive fide, for which see Bo¨mer on Ov. met. 3. 341 (for the genitive die cf. Gell. 9. 14. 4, Virg. georg. 1. 208 with Mynors). For the emphatic position of Gygen, which frames the first sentence with Asterie, cf. 2. 11. 21 f. ‘quis devium scortum eliciet domo / Lyden?’ with N–H; here as there the apposition precedes the proper name, and to print a comma after fidei may subdivide the sentence too much. The proper name has various resonances that may be significant here. At 2. 5. 20 Gyges is a beautiful young man, also appearing in Ovid according to Porph. and perhaps reflecting a Hellenistic source. The seventh-century King Gyges of Lydia was famous for his wealth (Archil. 19. 1 h Ø a ˆªø F ºı æı ºØ, Strab. 14. 5. 28), as is shown by his dedications at Delphi (Herod. 1. 14); this feature might be humorously applied to a would-be-rich merchant (beatum in v. 3) who is trading in Asia Minor. What is more, the legend of the Lydian Gyges and the wife of King Candaules has some points of contact with the merchant Gyges and the hospita of 9 ff.; according to Herodotus (1. 8–12), when Gyges saw the queen naked she threatened him with death if he did not kill Candaules and marry her (for a tragic fragment on the same lines see Ox. pap. 23. 2382, D. L. Page, A New Chapter in the History of Greek Tragedy, 1951: 2 ff.). By another version Gyges tried to seduce the king’s wife but she told Candaules (Nicolaus of Damascus, FGrH II. 1, 90 F 47. 7–8, H. Diller in Navicula Chiloniensis, Studia Jacoby Oblata, 1956: 66 ff.); Cairns (op. cit. 79 ff.) points out that the similar stories of Bellerophon (13 ff.) and Peleus (17 ff.) also appeared in Nicolaus’ Historiae (90 F9 and 55). 5. ille Notis actus ad Oricum: Oricus or Oricum (modern Orika) was a harbour in Epirus (S. Albania) due east of Brundisium, where the crossing of the Adriatic is shortest; see RE 18. 1. 1059 ff., N. G. L. Hammond, Epirus, 1967: 125 ff. with pl. 18a. For the haven afforded by Oricus cf. Prop. 1. 8. 19 f. ‘ut te felici praevecta Ceraunia remo / accipiat placidis Oricos aequoribus’. It was a dangerous coast (1. 3. 20 ‘infamis
7 . QV I D F LE S, A S T ER I E ?
117
scopulos Acroceraunia’ with N–H), and the Adriatic could be whipped up by the south wind (3. 3. 4 n.); this is what has prevented Gyges from continuing to Italy. 6. post insana Caprae sidera: Capra or Capella is the brightest star in the constellation of Auriga (Pease on Cic. nat. deor. 2. 110, Le Boeuffle 107 ff.); it had its morning rising (cf. 3. 1. 27 n.) about 28 Sept. (Pliny, nat. hist. 18. 312). For the elliptical use of post cf. 1. 18. 5 ‘post vina’ with N–H. H uses the plural sidera because he is including the Haedi (Porph.), whose rising was very close (3. 1. 28 n., Arat. phaen. 157 f.); it is less likely that the word is a poetic plural (thus Housman, Classical Papers 3. 1227, citing Ov. met. 14. 172 ‘sidera solis’). insana indicates equinoctial gales (Catull. 46. 2 ‘caeli furor aequinoctialis’, Ov. met. 3. 594 ‘sidus pluviale capellae’). 6–8. frigidas / noctes non sine multis / insomnis lacrimis agit: Porph. comments on frigidas ‘et propter hiemem . . . et propter solitudinem’; cf. Catull. 68. 28 f. ‘quod hic quisquis de meliore nota est / frigida deserto tepefactet membra cubili’, Tib. 1. 8. 39 f. with Smith, Prop. 4. 7. 6 ‘lecti frigida regna mei’, Ov. am. 3. 5. 42. The insomnia of lovers is another commonplace (Pease on Virg. Aen. 4. 5, McKeown on Ov. am. 1. 2. 1 ff.); so too are the tears, which answer those of Asterie in v. 1. non sine (PŒ ¼ı) is found ten times in the Odes; it is not only metrically convenient but here suits H’s taste for dry understatement; cf. further Wackernagel 2. 297 ff. 9. atqui sollicitae nuntius hospitae: the point of the adversative atqui is that Gyges does not need to sleep alone. The hospita must be the host’s wife, not just the landlady of the inn (as some have taken it); otherwise the following exempla are pointless. sollicita in conjunction with hospita would normally suggest solicitude for the comfort of a guest (OLD 4a); here the word is ironical, as it can also refer to a lover’s turmoil (Virg. ecl. 10. 6, Lygdamus ap. [Tib.] 3. 6. 61 ‘sollicitus repetam tota suspiria nocte’, ciris 340). The nuntius is a trusty go-between, as the matter was too delicate for a lady to raise face-to-face. The part was played by the nurse in Euripides’ Hippolytus and in the ciris (see Lyne on 206–385), by Anna in the Aeneid, and at a less confidential level by the mistress’s maid in elegy (McKeown in Ov. am. 1. 11); for male intermediaries cf. Joseph. aJ 2. 252 (on an Ethiopian princess who has seen Moses from the battlements and fallen in love with him, cited with other material by Lightfoot on Parthenius xxi. 2). 10–11. suspirare Chloen et miseram tuis / dicens ignibus uri: the name Chloe suggests that the wife is young (cf. 1. 23. 1, 3. 26. 12 n.); this makes
118
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
her a rival to Asterie (Harrison, op. cit. 189), and perhaps implies an older and unresponsive husband (cf. 3. 19. 24). For suspirare of a lover’s sigh cf. 3. 2. 9 n. tuis ignibus means ‘with the same passion as yourself ’ (Porph.) or perhaps rather ‘with the passion that properly belongs to you’ (cf. Tib. 1. 9. 77 ‘blanditiasne meas aliis tu vendere es ausus?’ with Murgatroyd, Ov. am. 1. 4. 40, her. 20. 145 ‘iste sinus meus est, mea turpiter oscula sumis’). Some interpret ‘the object of your passion’ (cf. epod. 14. 13 ‘non pulchrior ignis’, Virg. ecl. 3. 66), but the plural does not suit this idea. The emphatic tuis, though it represents the purport of the go-between’s message, really comes from the poet, who is trying to produce a reaction from Asterie. 12. temptat mille vafer modis: temptare is often used of attempted seduction; cf. Ov. ars 1. 273, met. 11. 239, Sen. Phaedr. 891. The disparaging vafer (not used elsewhere in the Odes) suggests the crafty slave of comedy. For the alliterative mille modis cf. Plaut. trin. 264, Bo¨mer on Ov. met. 5. 596. 13–14. ut Proetum mulier perfida credulum / falsis impulerit criminibus: Sthenoboea (or Anteia), the wife of Proetus, having failed to seduce Bellerophon, falsely accused him to her husband, who then sent him to his father-in-law Iobates with a letter ordering his death; avoiding the odium of murder, but intending the same effect, Iobates sent Bellerophon to attack the Chimaera, but thanks to the winged horse Pegasus he prevailed. See Hom. Il. 6. 150 ff., Apollod. 2. 3 with Frazer, RE 3. 241 ff., LIMC (on Proitos and Sthenoboia) 7. 1. 525 f., 810 f.; 7. 2. 414 ff., 576; Sophocles wrote an Iobates and Euripides a Sthenoboea. perfida is pointedly juxtaposed to credulum (cf. 3. 5. 33 ‘perfidis se credidit’), and the line forms a chiasmus. 14–16. nimis / casto Bellerophontae / maturare necem refert: for Bellerophon as a model of chastity cf. Ov. trist. 2. 397 f. ‘nam quid de tetrico referam domitore Chimaerae / quem leto fallax hospita paene dedit?’ (clearly influenced by the whole context in Horace), Plut. de aud. poet. 32b–c, Juv. 10. 325. The emphatic nimis is paradoxical (cf. 3. 3. 58 ‘nimium pii’): Bellerophon, says the nuntius, was too chaste for the lady’s liking or his own good. Bellerophontae is a ‘dative of disadvantage’ (with maturare necem); for the declension (from Bellerophontes) cf. 3. 12. 8 n. maturare necem means ‘to hasten the killing’, i.e. ‘to kill without delay’ (cf. Sall. Cat. 32. 2 ‘mandat . . . insidias consuli maturent’, Liv. 26. 14. 5, Gell. 10. 11); some interpret ‘to make him die before his time’ (cf. Cic. Cluent. 171, Apul. met. 6. 31. 3), but necem would not suit a natural death. The exemplum contains a sinister though unspoken threat to Gyges; for the pattern of the story cf. 17 n. (Peleus), Genesis 39
7 . QV I D F LE S, A S T ER I E ?
119
( Joseph and Potiphar’s wife), Stith Thompson, Motif Index of Folk Literature, 1958: K2111, Lightfoot on Parthenius xiv. 17. narrat paene datum Pelea Tartaro: narrat (cf. 3. 19. 3) with the other verbs of telling suggests that the nuntius talks at some length; cf. 12 above ‘mille vafer modis’, Ov. am. 1. 8. 20 (of the lena) ‘nec tamen eloquio lingua nocente caret’. Hippolyte, the wife of Acastus who was king of the Magnetes in north-east Thessaly, tried to seduce Peleus; when she failed, she falsely accused him to her husband (Pind. N. 4. 54 ff., 5. 26 ff.). In revenge Acastus abandoned him on Mount Pelion, where he would have been killed by the Centaurs if Chiron had not rescued him (Apollod. 3. 13 with Frazer). Both Sophocles and Euripides wrote tragedies about him, and he is a model of chastity at Ar. nub. 1063 and Plat. rep. 391c. See further RE 19. 1. 277 ff. datum Tartaro is a grandiose euphemism for ‘killed’; cf. 1. 28. 10 f. ‘Orco demissum’ with N–H, 3. 4. 75, Hom. Il. 1. 3 łı a ` ! œØ æ.Æł (where Hades is a god), Lucr. 3. 966, Virg. Aen. 2. 398 with Austin. dare is also combined with leto (Enn. trag. 283 J, where Jocelyn identifies the usage as sacral), morti (Plaut. merc. 472), and neci (Virg. georg. 3. 480). 18. Magnessam Hippolyten dum fugit abstinens: Magnessam distinguishes this Hippolyte from the homonymous Amazon (ps.-Acro). H has cleverly noticed that Magnesia gave its name to magnets (Lucr. 6. 908 f., Plin. nat. hist. 36. 128, RE 14. 1. 474 ff.), and magnets were an analogy for erotic attraction (Nisbet, PCPS suppl. 15, 1989: 87 ¼ Collected Papers 261 f.); cf. Ach. Tat. 1. 17. 2 Kæfi A ªF ÆªÆ ºŁ F Øæı Œi Yfi ŒÆd Łªfi, æe Æc ¥ºŒı, uæ KæøØŒ Ø ıÆ, anon. anth. Pal. 12. 152, Claud. carm. min. 29. 38 f. ‘ferrumque maritat / aura tenax’, Nonn. 32. 24, RE 14. 1. 482, W. S. Gilbert, Patience II. 1 ‘A magnet hung in a hardware shop . . . ’. Magnets could also repel (D. West cites Lucr. 6. 1042 f.); see further Austin–Bastiniani on Posidippus, epig. 17. 19–20. et peccare docentis / fallax historias movet: peccare is used of sexual misdemeanours with varying degrees of condemnation; cf. 1. 27. 17 with N–H, 3. 24. 24, Pichon 227. historiae here means ‘stories’; cf. TLL 6. 2840. 5 ff. As Porph. points out, we must understand ‘other stories’ (cf. 1. 10. 5 ‘Iovis et deorum’ with N–H); the case of Phaedra and Hippolytus was the most obvious, but as it ended in tragedy for both parties it would hardly have been cited by the nuntius. There is a paradox in peccare docentis, as such exempla do not usually ‘teach to sin’. We have preferred movet to monet, though the latter has somewhat stronger manuscript support. movet means ‘adduces’; cf. Ov. ars 3. 651
120
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
‘quid iuvat ambages praeceptaque parva movere’ (where monere of the MSS does not suit ambages), Pont. 2. 2. 55 f. ‘num . . . excuses . . . factum, / an nihil expediat tale movere, vide’, Sen. suas. 5. 6 ‘locum movit non inutiliter’, OLD s.v. 18; here with fallax it makes the go-between sound like a dishonest advocate. monet is rare with an ‘accusative of thing’, except in the case of pronouns like hoc or neuter plural adjectives (cf. Ov. am. 1. 8. 21 f. of the lena ‘illa monebat / talia’); different again are Plaut. Stich. 58 ‘qui manet ut moneatur semper servos homo officium suum’ (where the person warned is the subject), Cic. cons. fr. 2. 27 ‘terribiles formae bellum motusque monebat’ (where the accusative describes a thing warned against). But the construction monet historias in the sense of ‘tells cautionary tales’ is highly doubtful, and monet is not needed to assist the paradox ‘peccare docentis’. 21–2. frustra: nam scopulis surdior Icari / voces audit adhuc integer: for the placing of frustra (also followed by nam) cf. 3. 13. 6, serm. 2. 7. 115, Catull. 21. 7. The insensibility of rocks is usually a paradigm for a less laudable intransigence; cf. epod. 17. 54 ‘non saxa nudis surdiora navitis’, Hom. Il. 16. 34 f., Eur. Med. 28 f. ‰ b æ j ŁÆºØ = Œºø IŒØ ıŁı ºø, Virg. Aen. 4. 365 f. with Pease, 6. 470 f., Otto 313 f. Icarus or Icaria (still Ikaria) was a rocky island between Samos and Myconos (Strabo 10. 5. 13, RE 9. 977 f.); the Icarian Sea, which according to tradition received its name from Icarus (4. 2. 3 f.), was associated from early times with storms (1. 1. 15, Hom. Il. 2. 145, Ov. fast. 4. 283 with Bo¨mer, her. 18. 50). The specific place-name not only adds vividness in H’s manner but also suits the context of the eastern Aegean implied in Gyges’ voyage. integer combines the ideas of ‘heart-whole’ (2. 4. 22) and ‘with virtue unimpaired’ (1. 22. 1). adhuc means ‘still’, emphasizing the constancy of Gyges; ps.-Acro interprets ‘so far’ (implying doubt about the future) which weakens both the description of Gyges and H’s appeal to Asterie. 22–4. at tibi / ne vicinus Enipeus / plus iusto placeat cave: at introduces a threat (cf. epod. 3. 19 with Mankin); with the emphatic tibi H comes to the nub of the poem: he has been commending the fidelity of Gyges primarily to persuade Asterie to behave likewise. When meetings between the sexes are restricted, neighbours (not necessarily next door to each other) have a particular importance (cf. 3. 19. 24, Theoc. 14. 24, Ov. met. 4. 57 on Pyramus and Thisbe, Pers. 3. 109 f. ‘sive / candida vicini subrisit molle puella’). This has a special relevance here, when Gyges is so far away. Enipeus is attested as a personal name at IG 14. 841 (Puteoli), CIL 2. 3583 (Spain), and here recalls the river in Thessaly; for river-names applied to fictitious characters see note on 3. 12. 6 Hebri (both Enipeus and Hebrus swim in the Tiber). Homer tells how Tyro
7 . QV I D F LE S, A S T ER I E ?
121
fell in love with Enipeus ‘by far the fairest of rivers’ (Alcaeus 45. 1 says the same of Hebrus) and was seduced by Poseidon in his guise (Od. 11. 235 ff., Prop. 1. 13. 21 with Fedeli, Apollod. 1. 9. 8 with Frazer, RE 7A. 2. 1869 ff.); Sophocles wrote two plays on the subject (TrGF 648 ff.), in which Enipeus, in appearance at least, will have figured as a seducer. Tyro and Enipeus were the grandparents of Acastus (17 n.), Tyro and Cretheus were the parents of Hippolyte (18); the collocation of these stories may be due to some mythological handbook (Cairns, op. cit. 91 f.) or to a Hellenistic writer. The poet’s warning is conveyed gently by the euphemistic ‘plus iusto placeat’; for the erotic sense of placere cf. OLD 1d. 25–6. quamvis non alius flectere equum sciens / aeque conspicitur gramine Martio: non alius, like non alter, is commonly used to indicate an exceptional quality; cf. Hom. Il. 8. 483 Kd P Œæ ¼ºº, Virg. georg. 4. 372, Aen. 6. 164, 9. 179 f. with Hardie. For flectere equum cf. Virg. Aen. 9. 606, Ov. Pont. 2. 9. 58, Sen. Phaedr. 811; it took particular skill to turn a horse in narrow circles (Ov. ars 3. 384 ‘in gyros ire coactus equus’, Coleman on Stat. silv. 4. 7. 3 f.); see Anderson (1961), 98 ff. The emphatic aeque is to be taken not with conspicitur (ps.-Acro) but with sciens, balancing citus aeque at the end of v. 27. conspicitur means ‘attracts attention’; cf. epist. 1. 15. 46, Plaut. merc. 406 f. ‘quando incedat per vias / contemplent conspiciant omnes’, Liv. 21. 4. 8, TLL. 4. 497. 1 ff.; quamvis with the indicative, rare in Republican prose, is well attested in Horace (1. 28. 11 ff., 3. 10. 13 ff. etc., K–S 2. 443). For exercises in the Campus Martius cf. 1. 8. 6 f., 3. 12. 8 (there also impressing a young woman), Tib. 1. 4. 11 (followed as here by a reference to swimming). For gramine cf. 4. 1. 39 f., ars 162 ‘gaudet equis canibusque et aprico gramine Campi’; gramine Martio is an unusual phrase for gramine Campi Martii; RN thinks H may have been influenced by the belief that grass was sacred to Mars (Onians 142 compares Fest. 97M ¼ 86L (Gradivus), Serv. Aen. 12. 119). 27–8. nec quisquam citus aeque / Tusco denatat alveo: after working out in the Campus Martius athletes swam in the Tiber (3. 12. 7 n.); it is grandiloquently called the Tuscan stream because it flows south from Etruria (serm. 2. 2. 32 f., Virg. georg. 1. 499, Aen. 8. 473, Ov. ars 3. 386). denatare is not attested elsewhere till Augustine. It is not clear whether in this stanza we are meant to think of formal competitions. 29–30. prima nocte domum claude, neque in vias / sub cantu querulae despice tibiae: cf. Ov. am. 2. 19. 38 ‘incipe iam prima claudere nocte forem’. prima nocte formally balances primo . . . vere (2). Asterie’s bedroom is, as usual, upstairs; cf. 1. 25. 2 with N–H’s references, and
122
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
add Babrius 116. 5 ff., W. Fauth, Abh. Akad. Mainz 6, 1966: 331 ff., A. J. Graham, JHS 118, 1998: 22 ff., Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice i i .v. 28 ff. ‘Hear you me Jessica, / Lock up my doors; and when you hear the drum / And the vile squeaking of the wry-necked fife, / Clamber not you up to your casements then, / Nor thrust your head into the public street’ (the parallel with Horace was noted by Malone, but need not be an imitation). No evidence has so far been produced for vias as a ‘plural for singular’; perhaps it generalizes, suggesting ‘into the public domain’. For the paraclausithyron or serenade see below on 3. 10; here, contrary to the usual pattern, the poet is urging resistance to its blandishments; cf. Cairns (1972), 209. sub cantu means ‘at the music’ (cf. copa 2 ‘crispum sub crotalo docta movere latus’, Ov. met. 4. 523 f. ‘Bacchi sub nomine Iuno / risit’ with Bo¨mer, OLD s.v. sub 14); the variant sub cantum is also possible (Ov. fast. 3. 342 ‘sub verbum querulas impulit aura fores’, OLD 24). The music of the pipe is plaintive (Lucr. 4. 584 f. ‘dulcisque querelas / tibia quas fundit’) as suits the lover (2. 9. 18, 2. 13. 24); for its use in the serenade cf. Aristaenetus 1. 14. 1 h ÆPºe ÆæÆ r ææØ h ºæfi Æ Ø KºŒÆØ æÆ Iæªıæı øæ . Voice and instrument alternate (cf. Virg. ecl. 5. 14 ‘alterna notavi’, 8. 17 ff.). 31–2. et te saepe vocanti / duram difficilis mane: saepe underlines the persistence of Enipeus. duram represents the viewpoint of the exclusus amator (cf. Tib. 1. 8. 50 with Murgatroyd, Prop. 1. 16. 30, Ov. ars 2. 527 ‘postibus et durae supplex blandire puellae’, OLD 5b, Pichon 136); it corresponds to the unfeeling rocks of v. 21. difficilis, on the other hand, is the poet’s own term of praise (3. 10. 11 ‘Penelopen difficilem procis’, Pichon 130), the opposite of facilis (Mart. 1. 57. 2 ‘nolo nimis facilem difficilemque nimis’).
8 . M A RT I I S CA ELEB S QV I D AG A M K A LEN DI S [Fraenkel 221 ff.; K. Kumaniecki, Eos 50, 1959–60: 147 ff.; Lyne (1995), 109 ff.; Ernst A. Schmidt, Antike und Abendland 26, 1980: 26 f. ¼ Zeit und Form, 2002: 258 ff.; Williams (1968), 103 ff.]
1–12. If you are surprised in spite of your learning that I am celebrating on Matrons’ Day, it is because I made a vow to Bacchus on my escape from the falling tree; today will uncork a jar laid down in the year of that event. 13–16 Drink, Maecenas, in honour of your friend’s deliverance, and away with all
8 . M A RT I I S CA ELEB S QV I D AG A M K A LEN D I S
123
hubbub. 17–24. You can forget your worries about home affairs; our enemies have been defeated in Dacia and Parthia, Spain and Scythia. 25–8. Do not be over-anxious about the people of Rome, and enjoy the moment. This ode begins with a parody of aetiology. The Homeric hymns and the tragedians already allude to the origins of ceremonies (cf. DNP 1. 369 ff.); such interests were formalized by the learning of the Hellenistic age, particularly among local historians (P. M. Fraser, Ptolemaic Alexandria 1, 1972: 511 ff., 775 ff.). Hence the part played by aetiology in the poetry of the period, most famously in the Aetia and other writings of Callimachus (Fraser 721 ff.), but also in Theocritus (18. 39 ff.) and Apollonius (Fraser 627 ff.), Eratosthenes (Erigone) and Euphorion (cf. Virg. ecl. 6. 72). From the time of Cato such studies attracted the Romans, as suited their respect for the calendar and their love of factual particulars; they reached their culmination in the works of Varro; cf. Rawson 233 ff. In the Augustan age Virgil shows a concern for aetiology, most notably in Aeneid 8 (E. V. George, Aeneid VIII and the Aitia of Callimachus, Mnem. suppl. 27, 1974); afterwards came the major experiments in the genre by Propertius in his fourth book (Hubbard 118 ff.), and by Ovid in his Fasti (A. Barchiesi, The Poet and the Prince, 1997, especially 214 ff.). In the spirit of these researches Maecenas is supposed to have asked Horace why he is holding a celebration on the day of the Matronalia (1 March). For similar curiosity in aetiological poetry cf. Call. aet. frr. 3, 7. 19 ff., 178. 21 f. (on the ceremonies of Icos) ‹Æ KE Ł æÆ Łıe IŒFÆØ = N ÆØ Ø º IØæfiø, Virg. Aen. 8. 311 f. ‘singula laetus / exquiritque auditque’, Ov. fast. 3. 169 f. (also on 1 March) ‘cum sis officiis, Gradive, virilibus aptus, / dic mihi matronae cur tua festa colant’; for Maecenas’ puzzlement (3) cf. Ov. fast. 1. 165 f. ‘post ea mirabar cur non sine litibus esset / prima dies: ‘‘causam percipe’’ Ianus ait’, Prop. 4. 2. 1 f. ‘qui mirare meas tot in uno corpore formas, / accipe Vertumni signa paterna dei’. Horace explains that he had made a vow after his escape from the falling tree . The ritual is an annual one (9 ‘anno redeunte’, Call. aet. fr. 178. 3 +ŒÆæı ŒÆd ÆØe ¼ªø KØ ±ªØ, Virg. Aen. 8 268 f. ‘ex illo celebratus honos laetique minores / servavere diem’); consule Tullo seems to indicate the date of its inauguration (12 n.). The first three stanzas deal with the preliminary religious ceremonies, which are held in the open air, presumably by daylight. As for Maecenas’ ignorance, we need not insist on complete realism; the great man would not drift in without being asked (especially if the ode is set at the Sabinum), and if he were asked he would probably know the purpose of the celebration. At v. 13 (‘sume . . . cyathos’) the party has actually begun (for such a progression cf. 3. 19. 9); this fourth stanza serves as a bridge between vv. 1–12, which concentrate on Horace, and 17–28, which
124
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
contain an exhortation to his guest (for the importance of Maecenas’ name in this central stanza see L. A. Moritz, CQ 18, 1968: 116 ff., M. Marcovich, ICS 5, 1980: 72 ff.). As usual the ode is designed to suit the temperament of the recipient (N–H vol. 2, p. 2). Horace mentions Maecenas’ eclectic learning (5), which made possible the aetiological opening; elsewhere he hints at an interest in astrology (N–H vol. 2, p. 273), while the elder Pliny in his table of contents (book 1) cites him as a source on aquatic creatures (for books 9 and 23) and on precious stones (for book 37). The milieu of the drinking-party reminds us that Maecenas had himself written a Symposium (see below on 3. 21), which by the conventions of the genre could have ranged from the etiquette of such occasions (13 ff.) to erudite conversations. In 13 f. (‘amici sospitis’) Horace recalls Maecenas’ affectionate concern over the episode of the tree (for all we know, the poet may actually have been injured), and though he says nothing about his friend’s simultaneous recovery from illness (2. 17. 17 ff.), ‘consule Tullo’ may be a discreet reminder of that happy event (12 n.). The final stanza contains tactful allusions to other facets of Maecenas’ career: his unresting vigilance (Vell. 2. 88. 2 ‘vir ubi res vigiliam exigeret sane insomnis’ with Woodman’s note, eleg. in Maec. 1. 14), his political involvement from a private station (26 n.), his love of pleasure (27), cf. Mayor on Juv. 1. 66, and perhaps his tendency to morbid anxiety (28); cf. N–H vol. 2, pp. 273 f. By recalling the collapse of dangerous enemies Horace encourages him to indulge his hedonism without compromising his patriotism; for this combination of public duty and private relaxation cf. 3. 14 and 3. 29. The date of the ode can be established from its references to foreign affairs (18–24). The victory over the Dacian Cotiso is compatible with M. Crassus’ operations in 29–28 bc (Dio 51. 23. 2, Liv. per. 134, see 18 n. below), for which he held a triumph in 27; obviously the memory of these events would remain fresh for several years. The allusion to the Parthian civil war points to the rebellion of Tiridates in the spring of 26, which was over by about August 25, as appears from variations in the coinage (N–H on 2. 2. 17, N. C. Debevoise, A Political History of Parthia, 1938: 137 f., D. Timpe, Wu¨rz. Jahrbu¨cher fu¨r die Altertumswissenschaft 1, 1975: 155 ff.); this date is supported by Justin’s remark that Tiridates took refuge with Augustus in Spain (42. 5. 6), i.e. in 25. The defeat of the Cantabrians (21 f.) refers to Augustus’ own inconclusive campaign in 26 (for this series of operations see especially R. Syme, Roman Papers 2, 1979: 825 ff., also 3. 14 introduction); he then withdrew to Tarraco on the east coast because of ill health, leaving his legates to continue the war against the more westerly Astures in 25. The Scythians’ weakness (23 f.) explains their embassy to Augustus (res gestae 31. 2); Orosius says it arrived at Tarraco (6. 21. 19), an event which points again to late 26 or 25.
8 . M A RT I I S CA ELEB S QV I D AG A M K A LEN D I S
125
The combination of these last three items suggests that the purported date of Horace’s symposium is 1 March 25 bc (Kumaniecki, op. cit.), before the failure of Tiridates’ rebellion, after Augustus’ campaign against the Cantabrians, and after the events that gave rise to the Scythian embassy. In the spring or early summer of 24, when Augustus returned to Rome, the picture had changed, and more emphasis would have been placed on the Princeps himself. Metre: Sapphic. 1. Martiis caelebs quid agam Kalendis: on 1 March the Matronalia were celebrated in honour of Juno Lucina, goddess of childbirth, who was the mother of Mars; cf. Ov. fast. 3. 167 ff. with Bo¨mer, RE 14. 2306 ff., J. Gage´, Matronalia, 1963: 66 ff., Scullard 86 f. Husbands prayed for the survival of their wives (ps.-Acro on our passage), and wives for the glory of their husbands (Ausonius, ecl. 16. 7 f.). Women dressed up for the occasion ([Tib.] 4. 2. 1), and received presents from their husbands and others; cf. Plaut. mil. 690 ‘da, mi vir, calendis meam qui matrem moenerem’, Ov. ars 1. 405 ff., dig. 24. 1. 31. 8 ‘si vir uxori munus immodicum Kalendis Martiis aut natali die dedisset, donatio est’ (i.e. is against the law). Pomponius wrote an Atellan farce called Kalendae Martiae where somebody disguises himself as a woman (CRF 57 f. ‘vocem deducas oportet ut videantur mulieris verba’); this suggests that men were excluded from some of the ceremonies, as from those of the Bona Dea (cf. Scullard 247). caelebs is paradoxical when juxtaposed to Martiis; Juv. 9. 53 speaks of ‘femineis . . . Kalendis’. 2. quid velint flores: ‘what mean the flowers?’; for velle with nonpersonal subjects cf. Cic. Verr. 2. 150 ‘quid ergo illae sibi statuae equestres inauratae volunt?’, OLD s.v. 17. Flowers suited the time of year; cf. Ov. fast. 3. 253 f. ‘ferte deae flores: gaudet florentibus herbis / haec dea: de tenero cingite flore caput’. 2–3. et acerra turis / plena miraris: incense was scattered from the acerra on the fire (carbo in v. 3), but unlike the turibulum or censer (Hilgers 294 f.) the acerra had no flame itself. plena is given some emphasis by its position. miraris means cum admiratione quaeris (Ter. ad. 642, Prop. 1. 5. 21 f., TLL 8. 1064. 50 ff.), and here expresses more surprise than the English ‘wonder’. Ancient poems sometimes profess to be sparked off by some observation from an interlocutor (N–H on 2. 17. 1); it helps the illusion of a conversation if the verb is taken as interrogative. There is a progressive build-up of curiosity from quid agam to quid velint to miraris.
126
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
3–4. positusque carbo in / caespite vivo: one side of the textual tradition attaches in to the fourth line, the other omits it; the preposition seems genuine in view of 4. 6. 11 f. ‘posuitque collum in / pulvere Teucro’. For carbo or charcoal see R. J. Forbes, Studies in Ancient Technology 6, 1958: 16 ff.; there is an implicit colour-contrast, underlined by the alliteration, with the fresh green turf. Temporary arae caespiticiae were natural in simple country sacrifices (N–H on 1. 19. 13); the clods had to be vivi (Calp. 5. 25, TLL 3. 113. 69 ff.), i.e. with the grass still growing. 5. docte sermones utriusque linguae?: Horace teasingly withholds the name of his addressee; for the independent vocative participle cf. N–H on 2. 7. 1. sermones are ‘discourses’, ‘treatises’, particularly those in dialogue form (3. 21. 9 f. ‘Socraticis . . . sermonibus’, Cic. orat. 151, OLD 3b); it may be relevant that Maecenas himself wrote dialogi (Charis. GL 1. 146). Though doctus has the implications of the adjective (‘learned’), the following accusative shows it is a participle (cf. 3. 9. 10 ‘dulcis docta modos’, Liv. 25. 37. 3); for various types of ‘retained accusative’ with passive verbs see S. J. Harrison on Virg. Aen. 10, pp. 290 ff. For Maecenas’ wide-ranging learning see the introduction above and epist. 1. 19. 1 ‘Maecenas docte’, where Horace is reminding him of a saying of Cratinus. utriusque linguae refers to Greek and Latin, the only languages that mattered to a Roman; for this common locution cf. serm. 1. 10. 23 ‘sermo lingua concinnus utraque’, Cic. off. 1. 1, Plut. Luc. 1. 3 XŒ ŒÆd ºªØ ƒŒÆH ŒÆæÆ ªºHÆ, CIL 8. 8500 ‘litterarum studiis utriusque linguae perfecte eruditus’, M. Dubuisson, L’Antiquite´ classique 50, 1981: 274 ff. For other allusive uses of uterque cf. N–H on 2. 2. 11, Fordyce on Catull. 31. 3 ‘uterque Neptunus’, Horsfall on Virg. Aen. 7. 100 f. linguae (‘tongue’) follows well from sermonibus (‘talks’). 6–7. voveram dulcis epulas et album / Libero caprum: dulcis, ‘delicious’, need not be confined to sweet cakes and fruit; cf. 3. 1. 19, serm. 2. 2. 73 ff. ‘at simul assis / miscueris elixa, simul conchylia turdis, / dulcia se in bilem vertent’, Enn. var. 44 ‘dulces quoque echini’. album . . . caprum specifies the content of the feast (hendiadys); white victims suit the upper gods (ps.-Acro ad loc., cf. Virg. Aen. 4. 61 with Pease, RE suppl. 5. 244 f.). Goats were regularly sacrificed to Bacchus as enemies of the vine; cf. Varr. rust. 1. 2. 19 ‘sic factum ut Libero patri, repertori vitis, hirci immolarentur, proinde ut capite darent poenas’, Virg. georg. 2. 380 f., Euenus, anth. Pal. 9. 75, Ov. fast. 1. 353 ff. with Bo¨mer, RE suppl. 5. 251. Elsewhere H attributes his escape to Faunus (2. 17. 28) or the Muses (3. 4. 27). Liber combines both associations: he was a rustic god, and like Bacchus (N–H vol. 2, pp. 316 f.) he could be represented as a
8 . M A RT I I S CA ELEB S QV I D AG A M K A LEN D I S
127
patron of poets (epist. 1. 19. 3 ‘ut male sanos / adscripsit Liber Satyris Faunisque poetas’). Here the very name suits the god who delivered H from danger, though like ‘Lyaeus’ it usually suggests psychological liberation. 7–8. prope funeratus / arboris ictu: the verb means ‘to give a funeral to’ (Sen. contr. 8. 4 ‘eos qui vivi uruntur, poena funerat’), not simply ‘to kill’; there is a piquant contrast between the sombreness of a funeral and the dies festus that H is celebrating, perhaps also at a verbal level with caespite vivo. H’s humour is taken further by Petr. 129. 1 ‘funerata est illa pars corporis qua quondam Achilles eram’. Since ictus normally implies a deliberate blow, as at 2. 17. 28 f. ‘nisi Faunus ictum / dextra levasset’, the tree is made to appear malevolent. 9. hic dies anno redeunte festus: festus suggests the Roman calendar; this holiday is H’s substitute for the Matronalia. The ritual is to recur annually (cf. 3. 22. 6 ‘per exactos . . . annos’, Virg. ecl. 1. 42 etc. ‘quotannis’). Such anniversaries suit aetiological writing (see introduction above). 10. corticem adstrictum pice dimovebit: for the use of cork cf. Cato, agr. 120 ‘in amphoram mustum indito et corticem oppicato’, Plin. nat. hist. 16. 34 ‘usus eius (suberis) . . . cadorum obturamentis’. The stopper was smeared with pitch to make it tight (cf. 1. 20. 3 with N–H, Theoc. 7. 147); pice balances corticem as it came from the picea or spruce (Meiggs 422, 467 ff.). dimovebit means ‘will separate from the jar’ (the prefix is the counterpart of ad-), and in the absence of corkscrews implies some effort; cf. Archil. 4. 7 W Œ.ºø Æ ¼ºŒ Œø. To have dies as the agent is not unusual; cf. 2. 17. 8, 3. 14. 13, Headlam on Herodas 5. 22, Murgatroyd on Tib. 1. 7. 3 f. 11–12. amphorae fumum bibere institutae / consule Tullo: amphorae seems to be a kind of ‘dativus incommodi’, like that found with verbs of separating and depriving (cf. 3. 29. 5 ‘eripe te morae’); see K–S 1. 331, H–Sz 95, Woodcock 61. Wine was stored in an apotheca (bodega) in the roof, where it was thought to be improved by the smoke (Tib. 2. 1. 27, Colum. 1. 6. 20, Juv. 5. 34 f. with Courtney); a more sceptical view is found in Plin. nat. hist. 23. 39, Galen 11. 663K. For the use of bibere (in the sense of ‘absorb’) cf. Cato, agr. 100 ‘metreta oleum non bibet’, Mart. 13. 32, Sidon. carm. 5. 303 f. institutae means literally ‘set in the first place’; the formal word suggests the inauguration of a rite, the sort of thing that interested aetiological writers. Here there is an amusing paradox in a wine-jar being taught to drink. For the following infinitive cf. Virg. ecl. 2. 32 f., georg. 1. 147 f. ‘prima Ceres ferro mortalis vertere
128
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
terras / instituit’, Juv. 1. 71 f.; there as here the verb implies not only teaching but the initiation of a continuing activity. When they were laid down, wines were regularly labelled by the names of the consuls. H is probably referring to L. Volcacius Tullus, cos. 33 bc (RE Suppl. 9. 1838 f.) rather than his homonymous father, the consul of 66; the reader would think first of the more recent and familiar Tullus (E. Ensor, CR 16, 1902: 210). It suits the parody of aetiology if H is dating the episode of the tree and the institution of his rite (see N–H vol. 1, p. 244, E. A. Schmidt, op. cit. 26 f.); ex hypothesi this must have occurred soon after his acquisition of the Sabinum. At first sight his description might suggest a more venerable vintage, but 66 bc has no relevance to the occasion, and there is humour in applying such language to a recent tradition. H showed the same care when he laid down a cheap Sabine wine on Maecenas’ recovery from illness (1. 20. 2 f. ‘Graeca quod ego ipse testa / conditum levi’); as this happened about the same time as H’s escape (2. 17. 21 f.), he may mean us to regard the two wines as commemorating both events, perhaps even to be identical (N–H vol. 1, p. 244). 13–14. sume, Maecenas, cyathos amici / sospitis centum: the cyathus was the ladle that transferred the wine from the mixing-bowl to the cup (D–S 1. 1675 f., Hilgers 56 f., 166 f.); it contained a twelfth of a sextarius or pint. In toasts the number of such measures could be specified (3. 19. 11 n.); for the hyperbolic centum (note the emphatic hyperbaton) cf. Antiphanes 81. 2 f. (PCG 2, p. 354) ª Ø . . . ŒıŁı ŁH ŒÆd ŁÆØH ıæı . There was a hope that the number of cyathi somebody drank would be equalled by the remaining years of his life (Ov. fast. 3. 531 f. ‘annosque precantur / quot sumant cyathos’ with Bo¨mer); such an implication coheres with sospitis. amici sospitis means ‘in honour of your friend’s deliverance’; the emphasis is on sospitis, as in the ab urbe condita construction, but the Latin is less abstract than the English translation (cf. N–H on 2. 4. 10). The toasts belong to the person to whom they are offered (‘this drink is Heliodora’s’); the genitive reflects a usage of the Greek symposium (3. 19. 10 n., K–G 1. 376, G. H. Macurdy, AJP 53, 1932: 168 ff.). For poems celebrating an escape (soteria) cf. N–H vol. 2, pp. 272 f., citing Cairns (1972), 73 f., 222 f. 14–15. et vigiles lucernas / perfer in lucem: lamps are a symbol of the symposium (1. 27. 5, Cic.Cael. 67); here they are personified, as sometimes in erotic verse (Meleager, anth. Pal. 5. 197. 3 f., anth. Lat. 711. 4 f. ‘ludite: sed vigiles nolite extinguere lychnos, / omnia nocte vident, nil cras meminere lucernae’). For the prolongation of the symposium cf. 3. 21. 24 n., epist. 1. 5. 10 f., Plat. symp. 223c, Cic. Pis. 67; perfero is used
8 . M A RT I I S CA ELEB S QV I D AG A M K A LEN D I S
129
in OLD sense 3. The play on lucem and lucernas is not affected by the change of quantity. 15–16. procul omnis esto / clamor et ira: it was a convention (not always observed by H) that the symposium should be orderly; cf. Hom.Od. 1. 369 f. b f = ø, carm. 1. 27. 5 ff. with N–H. Sacred days, like the one parodied here, should also be peaceful (Cic. div. 1. 102 with Pease), and both procul and esto imitate religious language (cf. Virg. Aen. 6. 258 f. ‘procul o procul este profani’). Note also Paul (?), Ephesians. 4: 31 AÆ ØŒæÆ ŒÆd Łıe ŒÆd Oæªc ŒÆd ŒæÆıªc ŒÆd ºÆÆ IæŁø I H, cited by E. Skard, SO 30, 1953: 101 ff.; that passage, however, refers not to a religious occasion but to the regular behaviour expected of the devout. The warning may seem superfluous at a gentlemanly celebration, but H is also hinting at the conflicts of the wider world; he thus leads into the military successes of the following stanzas. 17. mitte civilis super Vrbe curas: it was conventional in sympotic verse to say ‘do not trouble about serious matters’ (below on 3.19), and in addressing his important friends H applies the commonplace to national issues (cf. 1. 26. 3 with N–H, 2. 11. 1 ff., 3. 29. 25 ff.). civilis seems to mean ‘civilian’ as opposed to ‘military’ (cf. Liv. 9. 3. 5 ‘non militaribus solum sed civilibus quoque abscesserat muneribus’, Vell. 2. 97. 2); even though he held no official position (26 n.), Maecenas was concerned with home affairs (‘ne qua populus laboret’ in v. 25). It is objected that this interpretation does not lead well to the campaigns of vv. 18–24; but the argument may be ‘domestic problems have become unimportant in view of our victories abroad’. If civilis is taken to mean no more than ‘political’ (cf. epist. 1. 1. 16 ‘mersor civilibus undis’), the specific super Vrbe loses its force. super has an official tone that suits the political context; cf. 4. 2. 42 f. ‘super impetrato / fortis Augusti reditu’, carm. saec. 18 f. ‘decreta super iugandis / feminis’, J. N. Adams, CQ 22, 1972: 358 f. The archaic preposition finally prevailed over de in the spoken language (cf. H–Sz 281); hence the French sur. 18. occidit Daci Cotisonis agmen: a series of short clauses describing the state of the nation is also found in epist. 1. 12. 26 ‘Cantaber Agrippae, Claudi virtute Neronis / Armenius cecidit’ and carm. 4. 5. 17 ff. For similar brevity in inscriptional elogia cf. ILLRP 309 (¼ ROL 4, p. 2 ) ‘Taurasia Cisauna Samnio cepit, / subigit omne Loucanam opsidesque abdoucit’, E. Fraenkel, Glotta 33, 1954: 158 (citing Virg. Aen. 4. 655 f.); the res gestae of Augustus are written in a similar style. Military communique´s show the same arrogant brevity, carried to excess in Caesar’s ‘veni
130
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
vidi vici’ (Suet. Jul. 37); cf. Cic. Att. 5. 20. 3 (discussed by E. Fraenkel, Kleine Beitra¨ge 2, 1964: 69 ff.). Similar proclamations appear on boardgames (tabulae lusoriae): ‘Parthi occisi / Britto victus / ludite Romani’; ‘virtus imperi / hostes vincti / ludant Romani’; ‘hostes victos / Italia gaudet/ ludite Romani’ (cited by Ch. Huelsen, MDAI(R) 19, 1904: 142). For such board-games see RE 13. 2008 ff., R. G. Austin, G&R 4, 1934: 31 ff., R. K. Gibson on Ov. ars 3. 363 f. The Dacian Cotiso (RE 4. 1676, 1960 f.) appears first before Actium: Antony pretended in an invective that Octavian wished to marry his daughter (Suet. Aug. 63, who calls him Getarum regi). In 29 bc M. Crassus defeated the Bastarnae near the Ciabrus river (Cibrica) in north-west Bulgaria (Dio 51. 24, RE 13. 1. 276 f., CAH 10 edn. 2: 550); after further campaigns in 28 extending towards the Danube delta (which might have included Dacians) he held a triumph in 27 ‘ex Thracia et Geteis’, but nothing is said in Dio’s account about Cotiso. A. Mo´csy (Historia 15, 1966: 511 ff.) posits a victory of Crassus over the Dacians in 30 or early 29 (Dio 51. 22. 6 mentions Dacian prisoners at Octavian’s triumph in 29); this date is earlier than those referred to in vv. 19–24, and after the victories of 29–8 might seem less relevant. Florus mentions Cotiso in his account of the Dacian war two chapters after his account of Crassus: 2. 28 ¼ 4. 12. 18 ‘Daci montibus inhaerent, inde Cotisonis regis imperio, quotiens concretus gelu Danuvius iunxerat ripas, decurrere solebant et vicina populari’. Perhaps the campaigns of Crassus were continued by a successor in 27–26; when Florus speaks in the following sentences about the campaigns of Lentulus (placed about 10–6 bc by Syme (1986), 289 ff.), we should perhaps allow for the compression of an epitome. 19–20. Medus infestus sibi luctuosis / dissidet armis: for the Parthian rebellion see the introduction above; the collective singular is not uncommon in military contexts, cf. 1. 19. 12 with N–H. The emphatic sibi should be combined with luctuosis, which needs a supplement; the Parthians now give grief to themselves rather than to the Romans (contrast 3. 6. 8 ‘Hesperiae mala luctuosae’, where H goes on to speak of Parthian victories). In the phrase Medus infestus the adjective needs no dative; if it is combined with sibi the line breaks at a less natural place, and it becomes harder to give the pronoun enough emphasis when taking it with luctuosis. dissidet stands on its own, as in Phaedrus 1. 30. 1 ‘humiles laborant ubi potentes dissident’; if one tries to take it with sibi, the ablative luctuosis armis gets in the way. 21–2. servit Hispanae vetus hostis orae / Cantaber sera domitus catena: the date is discussed in the introduction above. Hispanae orae probably refers to the furthest edge of northern Spain (3. 14. 3–4 n.);
8 . M A RT I I S CA ELEB S QV I D AG A M K A LEN D I S
131
‘the Spanish region’ (OLD 3) would be too vague an expression. The genitive with hostis is normally objective, but here specifies the enemy’s habitat. sera contrasts with vetus; it implies ‘later than desirable’ (cf. Prop. 4. 6. 79 ‘hic referat sero confessum foedere Parthum’, Quint. inst. 6. 3. 4, Augustine, conf. 10. 27 ‘sero te amavi’). The time taken to complete the conquest was notorious; Livy 28. 12. 12 says ‘prima Romanis inita provinciarum quae quidem continentis sunt, postrema omnium nostra demum aetate ductu auspicioque Augusti Caesaris perdomita est’ (in fact the achievement of Agrippa in 19 bc, acting on Augustus’ behalf ). domare is regularly applied to the conquest of Rome’s enemies (1. 12. 54, 4. 8. 18); the word suggests the breaking-in of animals (cf. 2. 6. 2 ‘indoctum iuga ferre nostra’); according to Strabo (3. 3. 8), the Cantabrians and their neighbours have been subdued by Augustus Caesar, but where the Roman presence is less felt they are ƺæØ ŒÆd ŁæØøæØ. catena suits unruly slaves, cf. servit (21). 23–4. iam Scythae laxo meditantur arcu / cedere campis: the Scythians’ embassy to Augustus is mentioned above in the introduction; it looks as if they had suffered some reverse, but it is not known where or how this happened. For laxo arcu, which implies that they are no longer a threat, cf. Antip. Thess. anth. Pal. 9. 297. 3 Ø b fiø Œ ƺÆÆ Æ (of the Parthians). The Scythians were expert archers (R. Rolle, The World of the Scythians, Eng. trans. 1989: figs. 42, 45, 55, 80, 95); perhaps like the Parthians they were thought to shoot while retreating (N–H on 1. 19. 11). meditantur means ‘are planning’; in other circumstances the verb would suggest a sinister plot (cf. 2. 11. 1 f. ‘quid bellicosus Cantaber et Scythes . . . cogitet’, 3. 29. 28 ‘quid Seres et . . . Bactra parent Tanaisque discors’). The Scythians controlled the vast area of the steppes; now they are said to be about to retreat from them—a hyperbole that goes even further than 2. 9. 22 f. ‘intraque praescriptum Gelonos / exiguis equitare campis’. 25. neglegens ne qua populus laboret: by a characteristic syntactical innovation neglegens is given a ne-clause of the kind that might follow noli curare; Porph. compares securus (e.g. 1. 26. 5 f. ‘quid Tiridaten terreat unice / securus’). Some editors attach ne laboret to cavere (26), but then neglegens is left isolated, and the symmetry of the clauses is disturbed. qua means ‘in any respect’ (e.g. the price of corn); H is talking only of the city (17 n. above). 26. parce privatus nimium cavere: it could seem curious to the Romans that a private citizen should worry about political problems; cf. Plaut. Pers. 75 f. ‘sed sumne ego stultus qui rem curo publicam / ubi sint
132
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
magistratus quos curare oporteat?’, Cic. rep. 2. 46. This passage tells against the suggestion that Maecenas held the praefectura Vrbis in 25 bc (even if this was not technically a magistracy). He may, however, have exercised a general supervision over home affairs, as he had in 31 (Tac. ann. 6. 11. 2, Dio 51. 3. 5); this did not prevent H from teasing him about his avoidance of public offices. There is a touch of paradox in combining parce with cavere, which suggests ‘caution’. nimium is also pointed, as parum cavere would normally be a matter for criticism. After cavere (here used in an absolute sense) the manuscript tradition reads et, but the stanza articulates more evenly if it breaks into two pairs of two lines. Bentley transposed the conjunction to the end of v. 27 (where see note). 27–8. dona praesentis cape laetus horae, / linque severa: for the Epicurean thought cf. epist. 1. 11. 22 f. ‘tu, quamcumque deus tibi fortunaverit horam, / grata sume manu neu dulcia differ in annum’. The variant rape would suit contexts emphasizing urgency (1. 11. 8 with N–H, Cic. de orat. 3. 162), but with gifts that are readily available cape or sume is quite adequate (Bentley); indeed the more violent word is less appropriate as an antithesis to linque. Bentley’s transposition of et (cf. 26 n.) would make it clear that 27 combines more closely with 28 than with 26; for its position at the end of a Sapphic line cf. N–H vol. 1, p. xliv; on the other hand, ae is elided in the Odes only at 3. 4. 78 (Leo, Plautinische Forschungen, 1912: 357 f.). ac is read by one significant manuscript (actually at the beginning of 28 ), but H never puts it at the end of a line in either lyrics or hexameters.
9 . D O N E C G R AT V S ER A M T I B I [M. Owen Lee, Word, Sound, and Image in the Odes of Horace, 1969: 103 ff.; Lyne (1980), 222 ff.; R. M. Nielsen, Ramus 6, 1977: 132 ff.; Pasquali 408 ff.; M. C. J. Putnam in Ancient and Modern: Essays in Honor of G. F. Else, 1977: 139 ff. ¼ Essays on Latin Lyric, Elegy, and Epic, 1982: 107 ff.; R. J. Tarrant ap. Harrison (1995), 46 ff.; D. West, ibid. 100 ff.]
1–4. ‘As long as I found favour with you, I was more blessed than the King of the Persians. ’ 5–8. ‘As long as Lydia was preferred to Chloe, I was more famous than the mother of Romulus. ’ 9–12. ‘I am now ruled by Chloe, and in her place I shall not fear to die. ’ 13–16. ‘I am fired with passion for Calais and he for me, and in his place I am prepared to die twice over. ’ 17–20. ‘What if our former love is restored, if Chloe is thrown over and we get together again?’ 21–4. ‘Though he is more beautiful than a star and you more unstable than cork, with you I should happily live and die. ’
9 . D O N E C G R AT V S ER A M T I B I
133
The poem consists of a dialogue between Lydia (6 n.), who has been supplanted by Chloe (6 n.), and a man who is presumably Horace himself. The odes regularly profess to be the poet’s own utterance, the only apparent exceptions being 1. 15 (the narrative on Paris) and 1. 28 (where a dead sailor’s spirit addresses Archytas). The fact that the man (unlike the woman) is unnamed points in the same direction; for otherwise there would be a lack of symmetry in a very symmetrical poem. When Lydia compares her fame to Ilia’s (7–8), it can only be because she has been celebrated by Horace. When the man’s rival is described as a puer (16 n.), that coheres with Horace’s comments on his own middle age (2. 4. 23 f. etc.); and the accusations of fickleness (22) and hot temper (23, if the text is sound) suit his rueful self-presentation elsewhere (22–3 n.). In form the poem is a carmen amoebaeum (an ‘answer-poem’), in which alternate stanzas are spoken by the poet and Lydia (cf. 3. 28. 9 ff.). The structure had its origin in folk-song; cf. PMG 852, epist. 2. 1. 146 ‘versibus alternis opprobria rustica fudit’ with Brink, Liv. 7. 2. 5. It is particularly associated with bucolic poetry, where rival shepherds cap one another’s snatches: see, for instance, Theoc. 4, 5. 80 ff. (with Gow, pp. 92 f.), 8 (especially 33–40), 27 (see below), Virg. ecl. 3 and 7. It is also found in religious ceremonies; for choruses of girls and boys see N–H on 1. 23 (vol. 1, pp. 253 ff.). Similarly in Catullus 62 (the Graecizing epithalamium) choirs of young men and girls debate the desirability of marriage; there may well have been a prototype in Sappho (cf. 105 L–P). For the pattern cf. also the exchange between Lorenzo and Jessica (‘in such a night as this’) at the beginning of Act 5 of The Merchant of Venice; for verbal skirmishes between men and women in European literature see further W. Parks, Verbal Dueling in Heroic Narrative, 1990: 12 f. Our poem has affinities with no. 27 in the Theocritean corpus (probably not by Theocritus himself ), where a shepherd and a girl converse in alternate lines. The idyll like the ode describes a developing situation, in that case the stages of a seduction; the man counters each of the girl’s objections with some verbal responsion in the bucolic manner (1 f., 3 f., 15 f., 20 f.), but the poem is diffuse compared with Horace’s and lacks his elegant patterning. At one point the two parties boast of their parentage (42 ff.), just as Lydia claims that her new partner (unlike Horace) comes of good family (14). Though the idyll does not normally figure in discussions of our ode, it is more relevant than some passages that are cited, e.g. the abusive back-chat in Aristophanes, eccles. 892 ff. (cf. Pasquali 415), the interchange between a man and a young woman in Powell’s Collectanea Alexandrina, p. 184, or the dialogue between a prostitute and her client in Philodemus, anth. Pal. 5. 46 (¼ 20 Sider), where there is no symmetry and no capping. The poetic conversations between a man and a woman in Sappho 137 (see Page,
134
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
Sappho and Alcaeus, 1955: 108) and Archilochus, 196a W. edn. 2 (the Cologne papyrus) offer nothing directly comparable. The hendecasyllables of Catullus on Septimius and Acme (45) are illuminating for purposes of comparison and contrast (Putnam, op. cit. 1982: 117 ff.). That poem, like Horace’s, has a symmetrical structure: the declaration of love by Septimius (1–7) is matched by that of Acme (10– 16), each being rounded off by a refrain about Cupid’s sneezes; there follows an eight-line benediction by the poet, consisting of four couplets arranged ABBA. Here, as in Horace, the attitudes of the man and woman are differentiated: the forthright speech of Septimius (‘ni te perdite amo’) with its heroic pledge (‘solus in Libya Indiaque tosta / caesio veniam obviam leoni’) is capped by Acme’s more emotional response (‘ut multo mihi maior acriorque / ignis mollibus ardet in medullis’, cf. 21 ff.). But there is no parallel in the ode for the sensuous details that appeal to the eye: ‘tenens in gremio’ (2), ‘leviter caput reflectens’ (10), ‘ebrios ocellos’ (11), ‘purpureo ore saviata’ (12). Catullus’ poem seems to reflect a genuine love-affair; it is perverse to look, as some have done, for cynical undercurrents. Horace’s ode is very different: the poet is not an observer but a participant, there is no scene-setting or visual detail, and we must draw our conclusions only from what the parties say. The three pairs of stanzas deal in turn with the past, present, and future; instead of Catullus’ static tableau with its unchanging emotion, the ode enacts a miniature drama. In each pair Lydia mimics and at the same time scores off the poet (cf. Collinge 58 f.); differences between the male and female temperaments are subtly suggested (Lyne, op.cit. 224 ff., cf. below on 6, 13, 15, 21 f.), and even at the end, when Horace tentatively suggests an amoris integratio, Lydia has to reproach him once again with his personal defects before agreeing. The exchanges are more interesting for their verbal cut and thrust than for their emotional intensity, and when in the last line Lydia professes undying loyalty to the poet (24), we recall the similar protestations at the end of stanzas 3 and 4, and suspect that this is just another stopping-place in love’s merry-go-round (cf. B. Arkins ap. Rudd, 1993: 117). Such a conclusion is not disturbed by the poet’s presence; for Horace is well able to view his own behaviour with ironical detachment. The word-order of the poem is simple, and reflects in the main the language of conversation (Syndikus 2. 106 f.), even if there are some inflated allusions (8, 14). Apart from the correspondence between one stanza and another, there is great regularity in each stanza (Lee, loc. cit.); nouns and adjectives neatly balance, there is much alliteration, and the phrase usually ends with the line. For the way in which the third pair of stanzas picks up and develops the first see Tarrant, loc. cit. Those who believe that the odes could have been set to music, as the Carmen Saeculare undoubtedly was, might find the case here less implausible
9 . D O N E C G R AT V S ER A M T I B I
135
than usual; for this issue see N. A. Bonavia-Hunt, Horace the Minstrel, 1969, M. von Albrecht, Atti del convegno di Venosa, 1993: 75 ff., E. Doblhofer, 1992: 79 ff., and on the sceptical side L. E. Rossi, Seminari romani di cultura greca 1. 1, 1998: 163 ff. (with bibliography). The ode’s witty treatment and structure have encouraged translations and imitations, including poems by Jonson, Herrick, and Prior (see Shorey’s commentary). Metre: alternating Glyconics and Asclepiads. 1. Donec gratus eram tibi: gratus, ‘ agreeable’, is an understated word when applied to a lover (cf. Prop. 1. 12. 7 ‘olim gratus eram’, Ov. am. 2. 19. 30 with McKeown); H does not presume to say that Lydia felt passionately about him. tibi in this position is not enclitic (Nisbet in Adams–Mayer, 1999: 143 ff.), but has no exceptional stress; the contrast is between the speaker and quisquam. 2–3. nec quisquam potior bracchia candidae / cervici iuvenis dabat: for potior of a preferred rival, a stock figure in love-poetry (N–H on 1. 33. 3, R. D. Brown on Lucr. 4. 1139), cf. epod. 15. 13 ‘non feret assiduas potiori te dare noctes’ (with Grassmann 154), serm. 2. 5. 76, Tib. 1. 5. 69. quisquam receives emphasis from the hyperbaton (Fraenkel 152 n. 1), and iuvenis hints that the rival is a younger man (cf. puero in v. 16 and 1. 5. 1, iunior in 1. 33. 3). candidae, in a prominent position, is a tactful compliment (cf. Eur. Med. 30 j æłÆÆ ººıŒ æ, Hipp. 70 f., Virg. georg. 4. 337); ladies of leisure in the Mediterranean world were not admired for their tan (cf. R. D. Brown on Lucr. 4. 1160). For dare bracchia of embraces cf. Prop. 4. 3. 12 ‘cum rudis urgenti bracchia victa dedi’; for other uses of the phrase see N–H on 2. 12. 18. H implies that Lydia is responsible for the rupture, but by making the rival the subject of the sentence he lets her off relatively lightly; contrast the direct arsisti (6). 4. Persarum vigui rege beatior: Persian kings were proverbially rich (a common implication of beatus), cf. 2. 12. 21, Juv. 14. 328 with Courtney, Otto 273. They were therefore thought ‘blessed’ in the proper sense of the word (Chariton 3. 1. 8 ÆŒÆæØæ F ªºı Æغø ); for the protests of moralists see 2. 2. 17 ff. with N–H, Cic. Tusc. 5. 35 ‘tu igitur ne de Persarum quidem rege magno potes dicere beatusne sit?’, Dio Chrys. 6. 7, Athen. 545. For similar comparisons in erotic contexts cf. Prop. 1. 14. 13 ‘tum mihi cessuros spondent mea gaudia reges’, Tib. 1. 8. 34 with K. F. Smith, Donne, The Sunne Rising 21 ‘She is all States, and all Princes I’. 5–6. ‘donec non alia magis / arsisti: Lydia mimics H by using two donec-clauses linked by nec. The meaning is ‘as long as you did not fall in
136
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
love with another (more than you were in love with me)’; the perfect tense describes not a state (ardebas) but an action, as at 2. 4. 7, 4. 9. 13, epod. 14. 9. As arsisti is stronger than gratus eram it makes Horace appear more to blame for the break. For the ablative alia cf. 1. 4. 19, 2. 4. 8, epod. 14. 9 f. ‘non aliter dicunt arsisse Bathyllo / Anacreonta Teium’, H–Sz 133; there is no advantage in reading aliam, a poorly attested variant that has been produced by the following m-. 6. neque erat Lydia post Chloen: Roman meretrices often had Greek names in life as well as in literature; though not necessarily born in Greece, they might assume professional pseudonyms. For the exotic associations of ‘Lydia’ cf. N–H on 1. 8. 1. The use of the proper name rather than the pronoun ‘I’ not only identifies the speaker but expresses hurt and indignation; elsewhere it has a pathetic effect (Catull. 8. 12 ‘vale puella, iam Catullus obdurat’, K. F. Smith on [Tib.] 4. 8. 2, Mankin on epod. 15. 12). ‘Chloe’ suggests greenness and immaturity (N–H on 1. 23. 1); by naming her rival, Lydia shows her resentment more explicitly than H, who says simply ‘nec quisquam potior’. For the use of post cf. 4. 13. 21 ‘post Cinaram’, OLD 5b. 7–8. multi Lydia nominis / Romana vigui clarior Ilia’: multi nominis, ‘of much renown’, is a genitive of quality representing the Greek compound adjective ºıı (Hes. theog. 785 etc.); for the wordorder cf. 1. 36. 13 ‘multi Damalis meri’, 4. 1. 15. Lydia is renowned because of H’s poetry (cf. Prop. 2. 5. 5 f., Ov. am. 2. 17. 28 ‘et multae per me nomen habere volunt’ with McKeown); she thus repays the compliment about her white neck, and by appealing to the poet’s vanity edges a little towards a reconciliation. Romana goes one better than Persarum; both words are emphasized by hyperbaton. Ilia was not strictly a Roman (Rome had not yet been founded), but as the mother of Romulus by Mars, she could be regarded as a national heroine (cf. Ov. fast. 3. 9 ‘Romana sacerdos’); moreover, she was celebrated near the beginning of Ennius’ Annales; cf. Ov. trist. 2. 259 f. ‘sumpserit Annales—nihil est hirsutius illis— / facta sit unde parens Ilia, nempe leget’. The analogy is extravagant for a hetaera; some commentators suggest an imitation of Asclepiades, anth. Pal. 9. 63. 1 f. ¸ıc ŒÆd ª Nd ŒÆd hÆ H Ie ˚ æı = æ ÆH Nd Ø #Æ (‘because of Antimachus I am honoured more than all the ladies of Colophon who claim descent from Codrus’). 9–10. me nunc Thressa Chloe regit / dulcis docta modos et citharae sciens: H now acknowledges that he is under Chloe’s rule (instead of being like a rex himself ); regit implies autocratic control (cf. 4. 1. 3 f. ‘non sum qualis eram bonae / sub regno Cinarae’), like the common domina
9 . D O N E C G R AT V S ER A M T I B I
137
(N–H on 2. 12. 13). Thressa suggests not just servile origin (thus making a paradox with regit), but perhaps a wild and passionate temperament; by emphasizing ‘Thracian’ (note the word-order) the poet may be contradicting the immaturity implied by ‘Chloe’. modos is a retained accusative after docta (cf. 3. 6. 21), sciens a participle that has taken the construction of an adjective (cf. 1. 15. 24 f. ‘sciens / pugnae’, Hom. Il. 5. 549 ˚æŁø ˇæº
, KV N , Alexander Aetolus 4. 2 Powell ŒØŁæ YÆ ŒÆd ºø, Cic. de orat. 1. 214, K–S 1. 437). H hints that Chloe is more accomplished than Lydia; for the musical talents of hetaerae see the introduction to 3. 28. In the same way Terence’s parasite, Gnatho, recommends the praise of a rival to provoke a loved one’s jealousy: ‘ubi nominabit Phaedriam, tu Pamphilam / continuo; si quando illa dicet ‘‘Phaedriam / intro mittamus comissatum,’’ Pamphilam / cantatum provocemus’ (eun. 440 ff.). 11–12. pro qua non metuam mori / si parcent animae fata superstiti: metuam is future indicative (as parcent shows) and makes a stronger statement than a subjunctive (cf. 3. 14. 15). animae means ‘my soul ’ in the extended sense of ‘my dearest’; cf. Plaut. Bacch. 194 ‘animast amica amanti’, Catull. 45. 13 ‘mea vita, Septimille’, Prop. 1. 2. 1 with Fedeli, Juv. 6. 195 øc ŒÆd łı , and for similar expressions N–H on 1. 3. 8. superstiti is proleptic (‘so that she survives’); the phrase gives a new and completely different meaning to ‘the survival of one’s soul’. The sentiment is found in a variety of situations (A. Setaioli, Prometheus 3, 1977: 75 ff.); see especially Eur. Alc. 280 ff. (in the context of marriage), Plaut. asin. 609 f. (to a hetaera), CLE 995 ¼ Mus. Lap. 180. 13 ff. (of contubernales) ‘si pensare animas sinerent crudelia fata / et posset redimi morte aliena salus / quantulacumque meae debentur tempora vitae / pensassem pro te, cara Homonoea, libens’. 13–14. ‘me torret face mutua / Thurini Calais filius Ornyti: for torrere of sexual passion (¼ OA) cf. 1. 33. 6 with N–H., 3. 19. 28, 4. 1. 12, Catull. 68. 52. For the metaphorical use of face cf. Prop. 1. 13. 26 ‘tibi non tepidas subdidit illa faces’ (with Fedeli), Thomas (1999), 60 f.; it is already implicit in Valerius Aedituus fr. 2. 1 f. ‘quid faculam praefers, Phileros, qua est nil opus nobis?’ The poet, who has just described himself as the subject of Chloe, without saying anything about her feelings for him, is now outdone by Lydia, who claims that she and her partner share an equal passion; cf. 2. 12. 15 f. ‘bene mutuis / fidum pectus amoribus’ with N–H, 4. 1. 30, epod. 15. 10, Catull. 45. 20 (Septimius and Acme) ‘mutuis animis amant amantur’, [Tib.] 4. 5. 13 f. with K. F. Smith. Lydia’s new lover is given a name with exotic and implausible associations (see I. Du¨ring, Eranos 50, 1952: 91 ff.); perhaps we are meant to think she is romancing. ‘Calais’ recalls the homonymous Argonaut
138
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
(RE 3. 724), the winged son of Boreas and Oreithyia, whose name is said to be derived from ŒÆº (schol. Pind. P. 4. 182 ¼ 324 ˚ºÆœ x ŒÆºH ¼Æ); as he was born in Thrace (Ap. Rhod. 1. 213) and by one account was the beloved of Orpheus (Phanocles, Coll. Alex. p. 106 Powell), Lydia might be claiming to outdo Chloe’s Thracian connections. It is less likely to be significant that cal(l)ais means ‘turquoise’ (Plin. nat. hist. 37. 151, Putnam, op. cit. 111 f.). Calais’ father is mentioned as if the family was important, in order to put Chloe’s in the shade. ‘Ornytus’ seems to be derived from ZæıØ and to suggest a rushing wind (cf. the horseman at Virg. Aen. 11. 677 f. ‘procul Ornytus armis / ignotis et equo venator Iapyge fertur’, where Iapyge recalls the wind of that name); H may have remembered the Ornytus who is mentioned just four lines earlier than Calais at Ap. Rhod. 1. 207. Thurii was a Greek city built near the site of Sybaris on the Tarentine Gulf, but there is no evidence that it had the same luxurious associations (cf. the glamorous young Sybaris of 1. 8. 2); more probably the name again suggests ‘rushing’ (ŁæØ ); there was a cult of Boreas at Thurii (Ael. var. hist. 12. 61), though this might not have been generally known. Oddly, Augustus originally bore the cognomen ‘Thurinus’ (Suet. Aug. 7. 1, 2. 3, RE 6A. 646); Antony called him this by way of insult, but Octavian refused to regard it as a matter for reproach. 15–16. pro quo bis patiar mori / si parcent puero fata superstiti’: Lydia’s hyperbolic bis patiar goes one better than non metuam, but patiar is less bold and more passive, as suits the feminine stereotype; for multiple deaths cf. Eur. Orest. 1117 d ŁÆE P –ÆØ, Plat. apol. 30c ººŒØ ŁÆØ, Peek, GV 1010. 7 f. ø i = d ŁÆØ ÆPe H Kb ºØ . puero, which replaces animae, not only expresses womanly solicitude but rubs in the fact that Calais is younger than the middle-aged Horace. 17–18. quid si prisca redit Venus / diductosque iugo cogit aeneo?: quid si is followed by a lively present to introduce a bright idea, the tentative suggestion that the couple might be reconciled. prisca is more solemn than pristina, as suits the mention of Venus. For diductos of lovers’ separation cf. Prop. 2. 7. 3 f. ‘diducere amantes / non queat invitos Iuppiter’, OLD 1c; cogit balances the participle and means ‘brings together’ (¼ co-agit). The image of the yoke is used for pairs in both marriage (coniugium) and love-affairs (Fedeli on Prop. 1. 5. 2, Murgatroyd on Tib. 1. 4. 16); the brazen yokes that do not break belong only to legend (1. 33. 11 ‘sub iuga aenea’ with N–H, Ap. Rhod. 3. 1284, 1308). The use of the word here is a persuasive ploy on the part of the ‘Horace figure’ in the poem; the poet himself no doubt regarded the hyperbole as unconvincing.
9 . D O N E C G R AT V S ER A M T I B I
139
19. si flava excutitur Chloe: excutitur may be translated as ‘shaken off ’ (RN) or ‘thrown out’ (NR); it is a vigorous and even brutal word (cf. Lyne, 1987: 52, 58 f.). As ‘Chloe’ in Greek describes green vegetation, there seems to be an oxymoron with flava, which suits ripe corn. It may also be relevant that Chloe is described as a Thracian (9), for the Romans admired the fair hair of northern women (Pease on Virg. Aen. 4. 590, Murgatroyd on Tib. 1. 5. 43 f., McKeown on Ov. am. 1. 14. 45–50). 20. reiectaeque patet ianua Lydiae: if the text is sound, Lydiae must be dative; as Heinze says, patet is set against reiectae, and the woman who previously was rejected is offered an open door (thus also Bentley on 3. 15. 8). By this interpretation H could for the first time be acknowledging his foolish error in discarding her, or he could be accepting her version of what had happened (even if only for tactical reasons). For passages where the woman visits the man cf. 1. 17. 17 ff., 2. 11. 21 ff. with N–H, 3. 28, 4. 11, serm. 1. 2. 122, Prop. 4. 8. 29 ff.; for the exclusa amatrix cf. 3. 15. 8 f., Asclepiades, anth. Pal. 5. 164. 3 f., W. J. Henderson, Acta Classica 16, 1973: 61 ff. It is argued on the other side that the door in erotic poetry normally belongs to the woman (see 1. 25, 3. 10, W. Wimmel, Glotta 40, 1962: 124 ff.). reiectae derives emphasis from its position, and it might seem tactless to stress that Lydia had once been scorned; cf. Shackleton Bailey (1982), 94. Peerlkamp took Lydiae as genitive and proposed reiectoque (accepted by Campbell and Shackleton Bailey); this conjecture not only spoils the balance of the line but seems to emphasize too sharply that Lydia was to blame. RN has considered praelataeque (‘and the door of the preferred Lydia lies open’); the participle would provide a contrast with excutitur and make a diplomatic concession to Lydia. He would argue that the mention of the door without a possessive adjective makes it natural to take Lydiae as genitive. Whatever view one adopts, it is surely impossible to follow Wimmel, loc. cit., who saw a deliberate ambiguity in the transmitted reading. 21–2. ‘quamquam sidere pulchrior / ille est: pulchrior at once caps flava (19) and implies that H is less good-looking than Calais. For comparisons with stars cf. Hom. Il. 6. 401 (on the infant Astyanax), Virg. Aen. 8. 589 ff. (on Pallas) with Lyne (1989), 85 ff. Here the image is erotic (cf. 3. 19. 26), as pulchrior shows. Hyperboles of the type melle dulcior seem to have had a semi-proverbial origin (cf. Virg. ecl. 7. 37 f., Lo¨fstedt 1, 1942: 307 ff., H–Sz 107 ff.); they appear repeatedly in this poem (4, 8, 22, 23). 22–3. tu levior cortice et improbo / iracundior Hadria: for the asyndeton of contrasting elements in a subordinate clause cf. 3. 18. 7 n. Cork
140
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
was used for the belts of young swimmers (serm. 1. 4. 120 ‘nabis sine cortice’) and for the floats of fishing-nets (Pind. P. 2. 80, Ov. trist. 3. 4. 11); the comparison seems to have been proverbial, cf. paroem. Gr. 2. 482 Œı æ ººF, and for a double hyperbole Strabo 1. 2. 30 Œı æ ººF ŒØA . Given the privilege of the last word, Lydia gets in two further digs before agreeing to peace. For the storms of the Adriatic see 3. 3. 5 n.; they are compared with human tantrums also in 1. 33. 15 ‘fretis acrior Hadriae’ (of a badtempered freedwoman). improbus (‘unconscionable’) was used of people who had no regard for decent limits; for the word’s extension to natural phenomena cf. Ov. trist. 1. 11. 41 (hiems), Sen. nat. quaest. 4. 4 (imber), Stat. silv. 1. 5. 46 (sol). iratus is used of the sea (epod. 2. 6 ‘neque horret iratum mare’, OLD d), and though iracundus is an unusual personification we may compare 1. 31. 8 ‘taciturnus amnis’. H admits elsewhere that he was prone to anger (1. 16. 22 ff., serm. 2. 3. 323, epist. 1. 20. 25 ‘irasci celerem tamen ut placabilis essem’); NR thinks it natural that in a poem which refers to the couple’s past experience Lydia should comment on this fault. RN, however, finds it surprising; he maintains that within the context of the poem the only reason for H’s bad temper would be her infidelity, and she would not want to raise that topic. He therefore has considered inconstantior (PCPS suppl. 15, 1989: 88), which combines well with levior (Cic. Sull. 10 ‘inconstans ac levis’, Ov. am. 2. 9. 49 ‘tu levis es multoque tuis ventosior alis’); for the general idea cf. 1. 5. 5–8; similarly Demosthenes compared the fickleness of the populace with the changeability of the sea (19. 130); cf. Cic. Mur. 35, Planc. 15, Liv. 28. 27. 11. levior . . . inconstantior would make a contrast with Lydia’s double declaration of constancy in the following lines (amem . . . obeam); iracundior on the other hand introduces an extraneous notion. 24. tecum vivere amem, tecum obeam libens’: even while blaming H for his fickleness Lydia has abandoned her own declared loyalty to Calais (15 f.). Instead of being ready to die for someone else, Lydia is now prepared to live and die with Horace. For this idea cf. 2. 17. 8 f., Prop. 2. 20. 18 ‘ambos una fides auferet, una dies’, 2. 28. 39 ff., Virg. Aen. 9. 444 with Hardie, Ov. met. 8. 708 ff. (Philemon and Baucis), Xen. Ephes. 1. 9. 3 e KæÆc Ø ¼æÆ Ł y B ŒÆd IŁÆE æ ÆØ ªıÆØŒd æØ, Longus 2. 39. 2, F. Olivier, Essais, 1963: 156 ff. (ıÆŁŒø in a variety of texts, including theology and historiography). obire is a solemn word which significantly is common on tombstones; cf. 2. 17. 3, 2. 20. 7, Lyne (1989), 108 ff. There is a slight but perceptible distinction between amem and libens: Lydia would love to live with the poet and willingly die with him.
10. EX TREMVM TANAIN [Cairns (1972), s.v. komos; Copley 62 ff.; G. Pascucci, SIFC 54, 1982: 29 ff.; Pasquali 419 ff.; Po¨schl 375 ff.]
1–4. If you were a harsh Scythian, Lyce, you would weep to see me lying on your doorstep exposed to the northern blasts. 5–12. The trees are groaning in the wind, and the snow is freezing. Stop being so haughty: don’t strain my patience too far. Your father was an Etruscan, so you are no Penelope. 13–20. If nothing else persuades you, I throw myself on your mercy. You are as hard as oak and as cruel as a snake: I shan’t put up with the hard ground or the pouring rain for ever. This poem is a serenade or paraclausithyron (for the name cf. Plut. amat. 753b), the lament sung by an excluded lover in front of the woman’s closed door. The type is attested as early as Alcaeus 374 L–P ÆØ ŒøÆ, ÆØ, ºÆ ºÆØ (which suggests the repetitions of folk-song). Comedy exploits the humour of the situation, e.g. Ar. eccl. 952 ff.; cf. Plaut. Curc. 147 ff. ‘pessuli heus pessuli, vos saluto libens / vos amo, vos volo, vos peto atque obsecro . . . ’. Hellenistic epigrammatists provide variations on the theme (anth. Pal. 5. 23, 103, 189, 191). We may distinguish the more boisterous ŁıæŒØŒ , the poem that describes riotous assaults on the premises (cf. 3. 26. 6 ff., Headlam on Herodas 2. 34 f.). Roman poets use the paraclausithyron to express various attitudes, with particular emphasis on the front door (Copley 28 ff.): Lucretius mocks the lover’s behaviour (4. 1177 ff.), Catullus uses the door to make scandalous allegations (67), in Propertius the door complains of its treatment and quotes the lover’s lament (1. 16), Tibullus presents an elaborate love-poem, allegedly recited on a doorstep (1. 2 with Murgatroyd), Ovid addresses the concierge with witty epigrams (am. 1. 6), Horace’s ode is a deflating parody (for other allusions to the form see epod. 11. 19 ff., serm. 2. 3. 259 ff., carm. 1. 25, 3. 7. 29 ff.). It is clear that the serenade persisted in real life; Lucretius did not waste his ammunition on purely literary targets, and the last stanza of 3. 7 has no force if it describes something that could not happen. There is disagreement, however, about how far the Augustan poets engaged in the kind of behaviour which they describe (contrast Griffin, 1985: 54 f. with Nisbet, 1995: 214). For example, while RN regards epod. 11. 19 ff. as fiction, NR thinks it might reflect an experience of the poet’s youth; but however that may be, it would be fanciful to imagine that the present ode was ever recited outside a woman’s door. See further J. C. Yardley,
142
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
Eranos 76, 1978: 19 ff., Fedeli on Prop. loc. cit., DNP 9. 317 f.; for the related topic of the sleepless lover add Thomas (1999), 33 ff. (¼ HSCP 83, 1979: 179 ff.). Horace gives his serenade a Roman setting at the pulchra tecta (6 n.) of a high-class courtesan; he calls her Lyce, the Greek for a she-wolf (1 n.), but her father is Etruscan (12) and therefore presumed to be a voluptuary (Maecenas would have enjoyed this). She is contrasted with a Scythian woman, not only because she lives in the fashionable metropolis, but also because she is not married to a brutally repressive husband. More light is shed on the second point in v. 15, where we learn that she has a paelex, a word which implies that Lyce has the prior rights of a wife (15–16 n.). But the existence of a rival suggests that the husband is not over-possessive (see 15 n.), which in turn lends force to the poet’s appeal. When the poet professes to court a married woman he is not trying to undermine Augustan strictures against adultery as expressed in 3. 6. 25 ff., 3. 24. 20 ff.; our poem shows rather how little such condemnation mattered except where the highest classes were concerned. The paraclausithyron conventionally emphasized the hard-heartedness of the woman (3. 7. 32, Call. anth. Pal. 5. 23. 4 f., Prop. 1. 16. 17 ff. etc.); Horace adopts the theme with comic overstatement (1–4, 17–18). It was a tradition that there should be bad weather to match the lover’s misery (Asclepiades, anth. Pal. 5. 167. 1 f. , Y e q ŒÆd , ŒÆd e æ ¼ºª æøØ, = r ŒÆd æ łı æ , Kªg b with Gutzwiller (1998), 140 ff., 5. 189. 2, Prop. 1. 16. 24 ‘frigidaque Eoo me dolet aura gelu’ with Fedeli, Ov. am. 2. 19. 22); Horace gives us all at once wind, snow, ice, and rain, and we are not expected to ask how far these weather-conditions are consistent with one another. Other traditional elements of the form are significantly absent: there are no maudlin tears and kisses (Lucr. 4. 1177 ff.), no dedication of the drunken reveller’s garland (Syndikus 2. 112). It was not uncommon to say to the woman ‘one day you’ll be old and then you’ll be sorry’ (1. 25. 9 ff. with N–H, Asclepiades, anth. Pal. 5. 164. 3 f., Call. ibid. 5. 23. 1 ff.), but even in v. 10 Horace does not go so far as this. The excluded lover sometimes looks for sympathy by saying he is likely to die (Ar. eccl. 963, Theoc. 3. 53 ŒØFÆØ b , ŒÆd d ºŒØ z ÆØ, Prop. 2. 9. 39 f.), or he even threatens to hang himself ([Theoc.] 23. 21, 36 f.); but Horace is more robust (Syndikus 2. 114 n. refuting Po¨schl 376 f.). After throwing himself on Lyce’s mercy (16 f.), he executes a typical volte-face: he will not put up with her cruelty for ever. For a similar closure cf. his instructions in 3. 14. 23 f. ‘si per invisum mora ianitorem / fiet, abito’. Metre: quatrains of three Asclepiads followed by a Glyconic.
1 0 . E X T R EM V M TA NA I N
143
1. Extremum Tanain si biberes, Lyce: i.e. ‘even if you and I were both in Scythia’. As usual, the ends of the earth are thought to be uncivilized (cf. 1. 22. 17 ff., 2. 20. 18, Catull. 11. 11 f., Virg. ecl. 8. 44); so extremum balances saevo and asperas below. The Tanais or Don (3. 4. 36 n., RE 4A. 2. 2162 ff.) was regarded as the boundary of Europe (Manil. 4. 677 with Housman, Lucan 3. 273, Thomson 254). For its bleak associations cf. Virg. georg. 4. 517 ‘Tanaimque nivalem’ (reflecting the grief of Orpheus, though it was nowhere near Thrace), Pope, Dunciad 3. 87 ff. ‘Lo! where Maeotis sleeps and hardly flows / The freezing Tanais thro’ a waste of snows . . . ’. The inhabitants of a country are often identified in the poets by the river they drink (Hom. Il. 2. 825, N–H on 2. 20. 20, Pascucci, op. cit. 33 ff.); here there is a suggestion that the cold water makes the women cold (contrast Nilotic Memphis in 3. 26. 10). Lyce (‘she-wolf ’), like similar Greek names, suits a hetaera (Antip. Thess. anth. Pal. 11. 327. 1, Lucian, dial. meretr. 12. 1); animal-words could suggests wildness, rapacity, or as here cruelty, but Lyce does not have the sordid associations of lupa and lupanar. H uses the name again in 4. 13 when he says of Lyce ‘felix post Cinaram notaque et artium / gratarum facies’; the circumstantial detail looks plausible, especially as Cinara is a recurring character (epist. 1. 7. 28, 1. 14. 33, carm. 4. 1. 4, 4. 13. 21). So H may have had a particular woman in mind, who need not have been called ‘Lyce’; but even if the ode expresses personal experience of a lover’s frustrations, it is too frivolous to be a description of a current situation. 2. saevo nupta viro: the phrase recalls not just the savagery imputed to the Scythians (Cic. Verr. 5. 150, Prop. 3. 16. 13, Juv. 15. 115 with Mayor) but also the strict sexual morality imposed by the husbands (cf. 3. 24. 24 ‘et peccare nefas, aut pretium est mori’). 2–4. me tamen asperas / porrectum ante fores obicere incolis / plorares Aquilonibus: me in the emphatic position is indignant. porrectus, ‘stretched out’, is used elsewhere of dead soldiers (Prop. 2. 8. 34, Virg. Aen. 9. 589) or washed-up corpses (epod. 10. 22), but here describes the undignified posture of the excluded lover; Bentley’s proiectum (‘prostrate’) would be acceptable in itself (McKeown on Ov. am. 2. 19. 21 f.), but not when followed by obicere. asperas refers primarily to the harshness of Scythian women (cf. Ov. ars 2. 185 ‘quid fuit asperius Nonacrina Atalanta?’), but Kiessling thinks it may also suggest the roughness of Scythian carpentry; contrast Catull. 61. 161 ‘rasilemque subi forem’, where the adjective seems to represent the Greek (see also K. Latte, Glotta 32, 1953: 35 f.). durus too has a double meaning at epod. 11. 22, Prop. 1. 16. 18 ‘quid mihi tam duris clausa taces foribus?’ with Fedeli, Tib. 1. 8. 76.
144
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
For plorare with the infinitive (‘weep to do something’) cf. Plaut.aul. 308 of an old skinflint ‘aquam hercle plorat, quom lavat, profundere’; for the rarity of the verb in most Latin poets cf. 3. 27. 38 n., Brink on epist. 2. 1. 9. On the north wind’s place of origin cf. Bolton (1962), 44 f. (Aquilo’s cave), 22 f. (the Hyperboreans); for incolis as an adjective cf. Ov. fast. 3. 582 ‘incola turba’ with Bo¨mer. The Aquilo was thought of as a swooping eagle; so obicere might suggest exposure to a bird of prey (OLD 1b). The idea that it is uncivilized for a wife to reject a lover, which is more in keeping with the insouciance of Ovid, brings out the contrast between the ethos of this poem and that of 3. 24. 5–7. audis quo strepitu ianua, quo nemus / inter pulchra satum tecta remugiat / ventis?: the doors of antiquity rattled and creaked easily, as is clear from comedy; cf. also Ov. am. 1. 6. 51 ‘impulsa est animoso ianua vento’ (another paraclausithyron). Lyce’s fine house has trees in its peristyle (so Porph.); cf. epist. 1. 10. 22 ‘nempe inter varias nutritur silva columnas’, Alfenus Varus, dig. 8. 5. 17 (referring to a house) ‘(cum) Seius in eo (loco) silvam sevisset’, [Tib.] 3. 3. 15, Sen. contr. 2. 1. 13, Mayor on Juv. 4. 6. Some editors think that a grove is too luxurious even for an expensive courtesan and must belong to rich mansions in the same area. But our attention should be concentrated on Lyce; it is her pulchra tecta that are contrasted with Scythian huts (and the poet’s discomfort). satum is a much more vivid word than the variant situm and is supported by ps.-Acro ‘inter tecta satum nemus viridarium dicit’. ventis (dat.) means ‘in answer to the wind’; cf. epod. 10. 19 f. ‘Ionius udo cum remugiens sinus / Noto carinam ruperit’, Lucr. 2. 28, Stat. silv. 5. 1. 153. Some commentators take it as ablative (cf. 3. 29. 57 f. ‘si mugiat Africis / malus procellis’), but this is incompatible with quo strepitu. In this position and followed by a pause the word may seem too emphatic, but it is set against the corresponding nives. 7–8. et positas ut glaciet nives / puro numine Iuppiter?: we must understand sentis vel sim. from the preceding audis; for the zeugma cf. 1. 14. 3 ff., h. Hom. 3. 264 f., [Aesch.] Prom. 21 f., Virg. Aen. 4. 490. For lying snow cf. Prop. 1. 8. 7 ‘positas fulcire pruinas’, Ov. fast. 2. 72. This is the first sure instance of the transitive glacio; in Q. Cic. carm. 1. 12 ‘bruma gelu glacians’ (Courtney, FLP p. 179) the word may be intransitive; cf. conglaciaret at Cic. nat. deor. 2. 26. The snow is frozen because there is no cloud cover; for purus of a clear sky cf. 1. 34. 7 f. ‘per purum tonantis / egit equos’, OLD 6. Iuppiter is the old weather-god, who is sometimes identified with the sky (Pease on Cic. nat. deor. 2. 65); cf. 1. 1. 25 ‘sub Iove frigido’, 1. 22. 20 with N–H, CIL 6. 431 ‘Iovi sereno’. puro is an unusual attribute of
1 0 . E X T R EM V M TA NA I N
145
numine, but is perhaps no more surprising than sub Iove puro would be. Bentley read duro numine, but whereas puro suits the god of the sky, duro points rather to the ground (cf. 3. 24. 39 ‘durataeque solo nives’); Scaliger preferred puro lumine, but the scene takes place at night. 9. ingratam Veneri pone superbiam: a refusal of sexual favours could be represented as arrogance; cf. 4. 10. 2, Prop. 1. 18. 5, 3. 25. 15 ‘exclusa inque vicem fastus patiare superbos’, Ov. fast. 1. 419 ‘fastus inest pulchris, sequiturque superbia formam’, Pichon 271. By extension it could be claimed that such arrogance was an affront to the gods (Tib. 1. 8. 69 ‘oderunt, Pholoe, moneo, fastidia divi’) and in particular to Venus; cf. 3. 10. 9, Theoc. 27. 15 F F, A —ÆÆ
º – ŒÆd ª, ŒæÆ, Agathias, anth. Pal. 5. 280. 7 f. £ Ø ŒÆºe = ººÆ , K ŁÆæØ a ÆæıÆ , Rohde 157 f. The chastity of Hippolytus was an extreme provocation; cf. Eur. Hipp. 6 (Aphrodite) ººø ‹Ø æFØ N A ªÆ. 10. ne currente retro funis eat rota: a drum with a rope around it is wound to lift a heavy weight; for such cranes cf. epist. 2. 2. 73 ‘torquet nunc lapidem, nunc ingens machina tignum’, Lucr. 4. 905 f. ‘multaque per trocleas et tympana pondere magno / commovet atque levi sustollit machina nisu’, RE IA. 1151. In our passage rota is the drum (Vitruv. 10. 2. 5 ‘tympanum amplum quod nonnulli rotam appellant’); for currere of rapid rotation cf. ars 22; for retro cf. epod. 17. 7 ‘citumque retro solve, solve turbinem’. Commentators combine retro with eat as well as with currente, cf. Aristid. Panath. 118 KFŁ X Æ, uæ Œºı Þƪ , K æ Oø, but the word-order is unconvincing; for absolute eat cf. Lucr. 6. 564 ‘trabes impendent ire paratae’. H’s warning recalls Lucian, dial. meretr. 3. 3 ‹æÆ c ŒÆa c ÆæØÆ Iææ ø ı ıÆØ e ŒÆºfiø Ø, Aristaenetus, 2. 1. 35 (combined as in H with a warning against pride), paroem.Gr. 2. 298; that is to say, if the hetaera resists her suitor too strongly, his patience will snap and she will lose him. In our passage the proverb is modernized, perhaps to suit the Roman interest in hoisting loads by a windlass: the rope does not break as in the Greek passages, but goes into reverse along with the drum when Horace lets go of the handle. The threat anticipates in metaphorical form what the poet says in 19–20, that he will simply give up the struggle and dump Lyce; there is no suggestion that one day the positions will be reversed and she will be the suppliant (thus Pasquali 435 f.). 11–12. non te Penelopen difficilem procis / Tyrrhenus genuit parens: for the pattern cf. Virg. Aen. 3. 42 f. ‘non me tibi Troia / externum tulit’, Stat. silv. 5. 2. 15 ff.; H is cynically reversing the commonplace that fine
146
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
people produce fine children (4. 4. 29 ‘fortes creantur fortibus et bonis’, Hom. Od. 4. 63 f., 611, Virg. Aen. 1. 606, N–H on 2. 4. 20). Penelope was the paradigm of wifely fidelity; cf. Theog. 1126 ff., Catull. 61. 221 ff., Prop. 3. 12. 38 ‘vincit Penelopes Aelia Galla fidem’, Lucian, dial. meretr. 12. 1, Otto 272, RE 19. 1. 483 f. Here difficilem is the opposite of facilem (‘compliant’); cf. 3. 7. 32 n. In procis Penelope’s suitors foreshadow Lyce’s hopeful lovers. As Etruscans were supposed to be licentious (Athen. 12. 517d–518b, citing Timaeus and Theopompus, N–H on 2. 18. 8, RE 6. 754 f.), and Lyce’s father was an Etruscan, she could be represented as licentious too. Tyrrhenus, the Greek for ‘Etruscan’, has a grandiose effect (cf. 3. 29. 1); the word balances Penelopen just as parens balances procis. 13–14. o quamvis neque te munera nec preces / nec tinctus viola pallor amantium: o leads up to the wish at parcas (17); see 3. 24. 25 n., where again the interjection is a long way from the verb. For lovers’ gifts cf. Prop. 1. 16. 36, Tib. 1. 8. 29, 2. 4 with Murgatroyd, Ov. ars 2. 261 ff.; for their supplications cf. Prop. 1. 1. 16 with Fedeli, Ov. am. 1. 6. 61 with McKeown. Frustrated lovers are conventionally portrayed as ‘palely loitering’; such pallor does not come just from a sudden emotion (Sappho 31. 14 L–P) but is a continuing feature; cf. Prop. 1. 1. 22 with Enk, Ov. ars 1. 729 ‘palleat omnis amans: hic est color aptus amanti’, Rohde 167 n. The colour described is most probably a pale yellow; cf. Theoc. 2. 88 with Gow, Tib. 1. 8. 52 ‘nimius luto corpora tingit amor’; pallor induced by other causes is described as luteus by Horace (epod. 10. 16), and is sometimes compared to gold (Catull. 64. 100, 81. 4, Ov. met. 11. 145, Stat. silv. 4. 7. 15 f., Sil. 1. 233). The lover in Nemesianus (2. 41) combines pallor with the violet (‘pallidior buxo violaeque simillimus erro’), so we must think of a violet with a corresponding colour; Plin. nat. hist. 21. 27, in addition to purpureae and albae, speaks of luteae; that is probably what Virgil had in mind at ecl. 2. 47 ‘pallentis violas’, where Servius comments ‘amantum tinctas colore’ and quotes our passage. Some refer viola to pitiable signs of stress additional to the pallor, ‘hectic red splashes on the lover’s cheeks or the dark lines under his eyes’ ( J. Gow); for such colour contrasts (usually indicating beauty) cf. Ap. Rhod. 3. 297 f., Virg. Aen. 12. 67 ff., Stat. Achill. 1. 307 ff., Ach. Tat. 3. 7. 3. Pasquali (437) suggests that the exclusus amator is blue with the cold, and indeed tinctus seems better suited to an overall tinge than Gow’s variegated blotches (for which distinctus might be more appropriate); cf. perhaps Serv. auct. georg. 1. 236 ‘caeruleae frigore scilicet, quia ipse color convenit frigori’, M. Marcovich, Mnem. suppl. 103, 1988: 93. 15–16. nec vir Pieria paelice saucius / curvat: ‘nor does it sway you that your husband has been smitten by a Macedonian mistress’; for the
1 0 . E X T R EM V M TA NA I N
147
ab urbe condita construction cf. 1. 37. 12 f. ‘sed minuit furorem / vix una sospes navis ab ignibus’ with N–H, 2. 4. 10, 2. 12. 4. paelex (ƺºÆŒ) properly describes a rival woman in relation to a wronged wife (3. 27. 66, epod. 3. 13, Cic. Cluent. 199 ‘filiae paelex’); she is often socially inferior and sometimes, as here, has the stigma of being foreign. Pieria was the district of Macedonia north of Mt. Olympus. Perhaps Lyce’s husband has been ensnared when travelling abroad (like Gyges at 3. 7. 5); that would explain his absence from the scene, and suit the contrast between Lyce and Penelope. But as Pieria had no particular associations with foreign trade, she may simply be a Macedonian woman living in Rome; one would like to find some special significance in the name, for instance a suggestion of musical accomplishments (the Pierides are the Muses at 4. 3. 18, 4. 8. 20), but in the absence of parallels the question remains open. For saucius (æøŁ ) cf. Enn. trag. 216J (¼254V) ‘Medea animo aegro amore saevo saucia’, Lucr. 4. 1048 with R. D. Brown, Virg. Aen. 4. 1 with Pease, Pichon 259; the strength of the word is designed to weaken Lyce’s scruples. As the intention of the woman is not emphasized, the instrumental ablative without a is quite natural. curvat (¼ ‘bends’, flectit) is unattested elsewhere in this sense, but is found in a compound form at Persius 1. 91 ‘qui me volet incurvasse querella’. For the indicative after quamvis cf. 3. 7. 25–6 n. 16–17. supplicibus tuis / parcas: H has appealed in vain to various emotions that might have moved Lyce: greed (munera), soft-heartedness (preces), pity (pallor), jealousy (paelice); now he can only throw himself on her mercy. For supplex in an erotic context cf. Pichon 271. The plural here has a generalizing effect (‘show mercy to those who beg for mercy’), as with pallor amantium above; see Lo¨fstedt 1 (1942), 38 f., who quotes such passages as Cic. Att. 1. 17. 3 ‘vereor ne dum defendam meos [my brother] non parcam tuis [your sister]’. H has no interest in the welfare of rival lovers. 17–18. nec rigida mollior aesculo, / nec Mauris animum mitior anguibus: the vocative attributes without a noun give a grandiloquent effect (cf. epod. 17. 20, 3. 8. 5, N–H on 2. 7. 1); this is deflated in vv. 19–20. The aesculus, which was sacred to Jupiter (Plin. nat. hist. 12. 3, 16. 11), and is celebrated for its size in Virg. georg. 2. 15 f. and 291 f., had nobler associations than the quercus and is identified by some with the Valonia oak (Mynors on Virg. georg. 2. 14–16; see also Abbe 84 f.). For the proverbial hardness of robur cf. N–H on 1. 3. 9, Ov. met. 13. 799 (the Cyclops to Galatea) ‘durior annosa quercu’. rigida, set against mollior, continues the image of ‘nec . . . curvat’, and nec mollior aesculo is balanced by nec mitior anguibus (‘vertical correspondence’).
148
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
North Africa was notorious for its snakes (serm. 2. 8. 95 ‘peior serpentibus Afris’, Lucan 9. 619 ff.) and Mauris adds a hint of barbarian menace (at 1. 22. 2 ‘Mauris iaculis’ suggests poison); the hyperbole shows that H is not serious. For mitis and immitis cf. 1. 33. 2, Tib. 1. 4. 53, Ov. met. 13. 804 ‘calcato immitior hydro’, TLL 8. 1154. 50 ff. animum is a Graecizing accusative of respect with mitior, a construction found elsewhere in H only with cetera (4. 2. 60, epist. 1. 10. 3,50); cf. Virg. Aen. 1. 320 ‘nuda genu’ with Austin, K–S 1. 286, H–Sz 37 f., R. G. Mayer in Adams–Mayer 163 ff. The variant animo (the normal prose construction) should be rejected in view of the other ablatives. 19–20. non hoc semper erit liminis aut aquae / caelestis patiens latus: hoc is given emphasis by the long hyperbaton and implies ‘whatever others may do’. non semper means not just that the poet will soon go away but that he will never come back (Lambinus); cf. Theoc. 7. 122 ŒØ Ø æıæø Kd æŁæØØ. limen includes the area in front of the threshold; for its hardness cf. epod. 11. 22, Ov. met. 14. 709 f. ‘posuitque in limine duro / molle latus’. A participle like patiens can take a genitive even in prose when used as an adjective (K–S 1. 450). aqua caelestis for rain is not a poeticism; cf. Vitruv. 8 praef. 1 ‘caelestium imbrium’, OLD s.v.caelestis 1a.
1 1 . M ERCV R I , NA M TE D O C I LI S MAGISTRO [A. Bradshaw, Hermes 106, 1978: 156 ff.; F. Cairns, G&R 22, 1975: 129 ff.; R. W. Carrubba, CJ 84, 1988–9: 113 ff.; Lowrie 275 ff.; Pasquali 144 f.]
1–12. Mercury and lyre of tortoise-shell, play a song to win the ear of Lyde, who now like a skittish filly shies away from a mate. 13–24. You can make tigers follow you and bring rivers to a halt; Cerberus yielded to your blandishments, and you brought respite to sinners like the Danaids. 25–32. Let Lyde note the punishment of those virgins who cruelly killed their bridegrooms. 33–52. One was magnificently deceitful and urged her husband to get up, saying ‘Even if my father imprisons or banishes me, go with the blessing of Venus, and carve the sad story on my tombstone’. Horace opens by invoking Mercury: just as, at the building of Thebes, the god taught Amphion to move stones by his music, so may he help the poet to win the unyielding Lyde. Mercury is coupled with his lyre of tortoise-shell (3 n.), which takes over from its inventor as
1 1 . M ERC V R I , NA M T E D O C I LI S M AG I S T RO
149
the recipient of a formal hymn (for the religious formulae see N–H vol. 1, p. 127, below on 3. 21). Its attributes are described in a series of appositions (5 n.), and an aretalogia follows on its power to cajole wild nature and soothe the torments of the damned; other sacral features are the conventional potes (13–14 n.) and the anaphora of tu and tibi (15– 16 n.). Yet for all its solemnity, the invocation derives a whimsical note from the tortoise-shell’s humble origins. This light-hearted tone is repeated in the description of Lyde, who is compared to a frolicsome filly in the erotic language of Anacreon (9 n.). The secularization of hymns for private purposes can already be seen in Sappho’s appeal to Aphrodite to restore the affections of a beloved (1. 15 ff.); closer in mood is Anacreon, PMG 357. 9 f. ˚ººfiø IªÆŁe ª = ıº , e K ª æø- = , t ˜ ı, ŁÆØ (cf. Cairns, op. cit. 137). The blandishments of music and poetry in courtship were also a topic in Augustan elegy; cf. Prop. 1. 7. 5 f., 3. 2. 1 ff. (like Horace, mentioning Orpheus and Amphion), Tib. 2. 4. 19 ‘ad dominam faciles aditus per carmina quaero’ (with Murgatroyd), W. Stroh (1971). In the central lines (25–8) Horace turns to the Danaids, whose crime takes up the six final stanzas (for this type of conclusion cf. N–H on 1. 7. 21): when coerced by Danaus to marry their cousins, the sons of Aegyptus, they killed them on the wedding-night; of the fifty sisters only Hypermestra spared her bridegroom, Lynceus. The tale had been told in a trilogy by Aeschylus, in which the surviving Supplices must have been less relevant than the lost Danaids; for theories about the controversial ending see A. F. Garvie, Aeschylus’ Supplices (1969) and the commentary by H. F. Johansen and E. W. Whittle (1980), especially vol. 1, pp. 29–55. There was also a legend about unnamed water-carriers in the underworld, who were compelled to fill a leaky vessel because they themselves were incomplete (IºE ), i.e. uninitiated; cf. Plato, Gorg. 492d (with Dodds), Paus. 10. 31. 9 (on the painting by Polygnotus at Delphi), E. Keuls, The Water Carriers in Hades, 1974. In the Hellenistic age the water-carriers were regularly identified with the Danaids ([Plat.] Axioch. 371e); perhaps they were ‘incomplete’ because their marriage had not been consummated (for various views cf. E. Rohde, Psyche, appendix 3, Garvie 234 f., Keuls 53). See further Lucr. 3. 1008 ff., Apollod. 2. 1. 4–5, RE 4. 2087 ff., LIMC 3. 1. 337 ff., 3. 2. 250 ff. The myth as presented by Horace is ingeniously linked to the opening hymn. The power of the lyre is illustrated by various examples, culminating in the story of how Orpheus in the underworld brought respite to sinners like the Danaids. Having reached the notorious manhaters in this apparently casual way, Horace uses them as a warning to Lyde (25–6 n.); at the same time he glorifies Hypermestra, who was merciful to her man, even at the risk of her own life. This turns out to be the song by which he hoped to win Lyde’s ear (7 f.). In addition to the
150
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
contrast between wild and tame (tigers and lionesses as against filly and calves) there is a persistent tension between hardness and gentleness: thus lapides (2), obstinatas (7), duro ferro (31 f.), saevis catenis (45) pull against amica (6), blandienti (15), mulces (24), mollior (43), clemens (46), Venus (50). This is enough to show that, although the myth is the most memorable feature of the poem, the opening section is not just an introduction prefixed to the story and then forgotten (Fraenkel 190; cf. F. Klingner, JRS 48, 1958: 175), but rather an integral part of the ode, explaining why the myth is recounted (Syndikus 2. 117 f., Bradshaw, op. cit. 164). If this explanation is disregarded, the nature of the ode as a whole is liable to be misconstrued (see the end of the introduction). One contemporary representation of the story was to be seen in the portico in front of Apollo’s Palatine temple: see Prop. 2. 31. 1 ff. ‘quaeris cur veniam tibi tardior? aurea Phoebi / porticus a magno Caesare aperta fuit. / tota erat in speciem Poenis digesta columnis / inter quas Danai femina turba senis’, Ov. am. 2. 2. 3 f., ars 1. 73 f. ‘quaque parare necem miseris patruelibus ausae / Belides et stricto stat ferus ense pater’, trist. 3. 1. 61 f. ‘signa peregrinis ubi sunt alterna columnis / Belides et stricto barbarus ense pater’, schol. Pers. 2. 56 ‘Acron tradit quod in porticu quadam Apollinis Palatini fuerunt L Danaidum effigies, et contra eas sub divo totidem equestres filiorum Aegypti’ (the presence of the sons is doubted by many).Three herms of black marble depicting women are now believed to have come from this site: see L. Balensiefen, MDAI(R) 102, 1995: 189 ff. (with illustrations and bibliography). The monument is likely to have influenced Horace’s ode, but throws little light on its date. Propertius 2. 31 implies that the opening of the portico was distinct from the dedication of the temple in October 28, and the latter part of his second book is assigned to 26 or 25; cf. Hubbard (1974), 43 f.; but even if the formal opening was delayed till Augustus’ return from Spain in 24, the construction could have been completed earlier. The symbolism is not obvious. One looks for some connection with Apollo, as in the case of the Gauls’ defeat at Delphi and the destruction of Niobe and her children—motifs depicted on the temple doors (Prop. 2. 31. 13 f.)—or with Augustus’ victories; for if he did not actually conceive the design, Augustus certainly sanctioned it (res gest. 19. 1). According to one view, Danaus is present as an ancestor of Antony’s, and the murderous Danaids, who came from Egypt, represent the much-hated forces of Cleopatra as well as symbolizing a hostile attitude towards marriage; see B. Kellum in The Age of Augustus (ed. R. Winkes), 1985: 173 ff., and especially S. Harrison in Vergil’s Aeneid: Augustan Epic and Political Context (ed. H.-P. Stahl), 1998: 223 ff. Others think that they stand for the triumph of civilization in the same conflict (E.Simon, Augustus. Kunst und Leben in Rom um die Zeitwende, 1986: 19 ff., E. Lefe`vre, Das Bild-Programm des Apollo-Tempels auf den Palatin,
1 1 . M ERC V R I , NA M T E D O C I LI S M AG I S T RO
151
1989: 14 ff.); but this hardly suits the hostile reaction of the Augustan poets (cf. Virg. Aen. 10. 497. ‘impressumque nefas’). P. Zanker sees a suggestion of atonement and reconciliation after the fratricidal war (Citta` e architettura nella Roma imperiale, Analecta Romana Instituti Danici, suppl. 10, 1983: 27 ff.); but that is not in line with Ovid’s description of Danaus or the triumphalism of the temple as a whole. K. Galinsky, while in general accepting the more favourable view of the Danaids, speaks of ‘multilayered inspirations’ and ‘alternative interpretations’ (1996: 222); yet it is easier to see or imagine such ambiguities in poetry than in a large and prominent work of public sculpture. If the first hypothesis is preferred (according to Apollodorus 2. 1. 5 and Hyginus, fab. 170. 3 one of the Danaids was actually called Cleopatra), a problem still remains: in such monuments victorious killers are usually celebrated rather than reviled. In style the poem has some affinities with Greek lyric (Cairns, op. cit.), for instance in the concluding speech (37 ff.); but it lacks the amplitude of Pindar and seems closer to the narratives of Sappho and Ibycus (N–H vol. 1, p. 189, Kroll 239 f.). Unlike Ovid, her. 14, it does not tell a continuous story, but alludes to what is assumed to be known. The search for a new way of handling a familiar theme, and the light-hearted attitude to the myth, are more reminiscent of Callimachus than of early Greek poetry. The didactic impact of the story would be blunted by the psychological conflicts that we find in Ovid’s imitation (for which see H. Jacobson, Ovid’s Heroides, 1974: 124 ff.). The combination of brevity and sensationalism is paralleled in the Europa-ode (3. 27); perhaps the influence of declamation, as seen in the elder Seneca, is already at work. This brings us to the poet’s intention. It has been pointed out that here, in contrast to 1. 23, Horace gives no overt sign of any personal interest in the girl; hence Bradshaw suggests that Lyde is a Roman maiden, and Horace is giving her some kindly avuncular advice about fidelity in marriage (op. cit. 156, 164, 172). Yet the name Lyde does not indicate the context of Roman marriage any more than it does in 2. 11. 22 or 3. 28. 3. So, whatever the significance of the monument mentioned above, here a less serious interpretation is called for, and this is supported at several points by the poet’s tone. In the first section the magical achievement of Amphion in founding Thebes, and that of Orpheus in charming the hound of hell, are put on the same level as the poet’s attempt to seduce an indifferent young girl. When in the central stanza (25 ff.) Horace refers to the punishment of the wicked Danaids (‘scelus atque notas / virginum poenas’) he is hinting that their virginity was part of their offence. In the second part there is an amusing incongruity in recommending a heroine with a noble literary pedigree in Aeschylus and Pindar as a role-model to a girl who, like her predecessor in Anacreon, is behaving like a skittish filly. And when the
152
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
poet emphasizes the soft-heartedness of Hypermestra he is suggesting that Lyde should show the same quality to him (see note on viro in v. 46). Fraenkel finds in Hypermestra’s speech ‘a dignity of thought and expression worthy of tragedy’ (197), but it seems nearer the mark to think of melodrama. And when the story is set in the context of an attempted seduction, the discrepancy would appear to justify Pasquali’s verdict on the ode: ‘frivolo scherzo’ (144). Metre: Sapphic. 1. Mercuri: Hermes was the inventor of the tortoise-shell lyre (1. 10. 6 with N–H, epod. 13. 9, h. Herm. 25 ff., Frazer on Apollod. bibl. 3. 10. 2); so he could be regarded as a patron of poetry, though less exalted than Apollo. As the god of persuasion (N–H on 1. 10. 1 facunde), he was a suitable intermediary in the poet’s courtship of Lyde; cf. N–H on 1. 30. 8, citing Cornutus, nat. deor. 24 where he is associated with Aphrodite. H regards him as his protecting deity (N–H vol. 1, pp. 127 f.), who had rescued him at Philippi (2. 7. 13 f.) even before he became a significant poet; there was also apparently an astrological connection (2. 17. 29 f. with N–H). For the god’s name at the very beginning of a hymn cf. 1. 10, 1. 30, Cairns, op. cit. 138 n. 2. 1–2. —nam te docilis magistro / movit Amphion lapides canendo—: in hymns a god’s past assistance to the suppliant, or as here to others, is commonly used as a reason for requesting his help (1. 32. 1 with N–H, Pulleyn 17, 35 f.). In both sacred and secular contexts the reason for the address can be given in a parenthetic clause following the vocative; cf. epod. 17. 45, serm. 2. 6. 51 f., Hom. Il. 24. 334 ff. , ¯ æÆ, d ªæ ºØ ª ºÆ KØ = Iæd ÆØæÆØ, Alcaeus 308. 1 f., Virg. Aen. 1. 65 ‘Aeole, namque tibi’ (with Austin), Ov. met. 1. 2 (with Bo¨mer), Milton, PL 3. 654 ff. ‘Uriel! for thou . . . ’, J. D. Denniston, The Greek Particles, 1954: 69, H–Sz 472. For Hermes’ tuition of Amphion cf. Paus. 9. 5. 8 (mentioning a hexameter poem on Europa), Apollod. 3. 5. 5 with Frazer, Philostr. imag. 1. 10. 1; similarly, Bacchus appears as a musicteacher at 2. 19. 1 f. ‘Bacchum . . . vidi docentem’. docilis, pointedly juxtaposed with magistro, indicates that Amphion was an apt pupil (cf. 4. 6. 43 f. ‘docilis modorum / vatis Horati’); for a word’s insertion in the middle of an ablative absolute cf. 3. 29. 1–2 n. Amphion with his brother Zethus built the walls of Thebes (Hom. Od. 11. 262 f., who gives no details); in other accounts he attracted the stones by the music of Hermes’ lyre, notably in the Antiope of Euripides; there Hermes says to him (łÆØ Ø = æÆØ KæıÆd ıØŒfi Ð ŒºÆØ = æ æe KŒºØ Ł ºØÆ ( J. Diggle, Trag. Graec. Frag. Selecta, 1998, p. 92, 92 ff. ¼ GLP, p. 68, 86 ff.). The artistic
1 1 . M ERC V R I , NA M T E D O C I LI S M AG I S T RO
153
Amphion was celebrated in Hellenistic poetry (Ap. Rhod. 1. 740 f.); a similar source may lie behind Virg. ecl. 2. 24 ‘Amphion Dircaeus in Actaeo Aracyntho’ (Clausen ad loc. suggests Parthenius); cf. Prop. 3. 15. 42. In epist. 1. 18. 41 f. H takes an unsentimental line, favouring the practical Zethus; elsewhere he rationalizes Amphion’s song to suggest the civilizing power of literature (ars 394 ff. with Brink). For the famous Antiopa of Pacuvius (cf. 5 n.), which was based on Euripides (Cic. fin. 1. 4), cf. M. Valsa, Marcus Pacuvius poe`te tragique, 1957: 10 ff. See further Sen. Phoen. 566 ff., RE 1. 1944 ff., Pease on Cic. div. 2. 133, Lieberg 37 ff., LIMC 1. 854 ff. Propertius cites the exemplum of Amphion to show the uses of poetry in courting a woman (3. 2. 5 f. ‘saxa Cithaeronis Thebis agitata per artem / sponte sua in muri membra coisse ferunt’); so there may have been a Hellenistic prototype. H’s movit lapides suggests the persuasion of stony hearts; cf. Ov. am. 3. 7. 58 ‘surdaque blanditiis saxa movere suis’ and Fedeli on Prop. 1. 9. 31. canendo could include both music and words (ars 395 cited above); in the myth of Amphion the former was more important, with H the latter. 3–4. tuque, testudo, resonare septem / callida nervis: for the bowlshaped lyre, here of tortoise-shell, cf. M. L. West (1992), 56 f.: it was ‘the ordinary instrument of the non-professional’, and hence appropriate to the courtship of Lyde. For addresses to the testudo or ºı cf. 1. 32. 14, Sappho 118, Alcaeus 359 L–P. tu marks the change of addressee (cf. Liv. 1. 32. 10 ‘audi, Iuppiter, et tu, Iane Quirine’); from now on the lyre is invoked rather than Mercury. For the seven strings cf. Pind. P. 2. 70, N. 5. 24, Eur. Alc. 446 f., West, op. cit. 62; the substitution of the heptachord for the tetrachord was usually attributed to Terpander (D. A. Campbell, Greek Lyric 2, 1988: testimonia 1 and 16, fr. 6), but sometimes to Amphion (Paus. 9. 5. 7, cf. Philostr. imag. 1. 10. 5. e b E ıº, ‹Ø B ºæÆ ƒ Ø). callida transfers to the lyre the trickiness of Mercury himself (1. 10. 7); for the epexegetic infinitive cf. N–H on 1. 1. 8. nervis is probably dative (cf. serm. 1. 4. 76 ‘suave locus voci resonat conclusus’); the tortoise-shell acted as a sound-box for the strings. 5. nec loquax olim neque grata: the apposition alludes to the deity’s origin; cf. N–H on 1. 10. 1 citing Norden (1913), 148. Since Latin does not distinguish the tortoise from its shell, H was able to conflate the two; cf. (in a different context) Juv. 11. 94 f. In life the tortoise makes no significant sound (Arist. hist. anim. 536a7, Pacuvius, Antiopa 2 ff. R. ‘quadrupes tardigrada agrestis humilis aspera / capite brevi, cervice anguina, aspectu truci, / eviscerata inanima cum animali sono’), but now it can talk; for the same antithesis cf. h. Herm. 38 j b Łfi Œ
154
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
ºÆ ŒÆºe IØ , Soph. TrGF 4. F314. 300 (¼ GLP, pp. 46 ff., vv. 240 ff.), Nicand. alex. 560 f., Manil. 5. 324 ff. ‘nunc surgente Lyra testudinis enatat undis / forma per heredem tantum post fata sonantis . . . ’. loquax, like ºº , suggests fluent chatter rather than eloquence. grata points to a contrast between the prized shell and its ugly inhabitant; so also Pacuvius, loc. cit. 5–6. nunc et / divitum mensis et amica templis: the contrast between ‘formerly’ and ‘now’ was a common device in ancient literature (cf. 3. 26. 1 n.., Cairns, op. cit. 129 f., 138 n. 3). The most relevant parallels here are the transformations of one object by craftsmanship into another; cf. serm. 1. 8. 1 ff. ‘olim truncus eram ficulnus, inutile lignum’ with Fraenkel 121 f., Philippus, anth. Pal. 6. 99, Simmias, 6. 113 (a bow made from antlers), Crinagoras 6. 229, Fedeli on Prop. 1. 16. 1–5. The lyre is called ‘comrade of the feast’ (ÆØd . . . Ææ) at Hom. Od. 17. 271, h. Herm. 31; this suits mensis, but in conjunction with temples amica need mean no more than ‘welcome friend’. For music at Roman banquets cf. Blu¨mner (1911), 411, Wille 143 ff.; H is not just thinking of the ‘lays of ancient Rome’ mentioned at 4. 15. 29 ff., Cic. Tusc. 4. 3. For the lyre at sacrifices cf. Porph. ‘fidicines hodieque Romae sacrificiis adhiberi videmus’, 1. 36. 1 with N–H, Wille 29 ff. templis does not quite balance divitum mensis, and deorum must be understood; for a similar combination of men and gods cf. Varro, rust. 3. 16. 5 (of honey) ‘et deis et hominibus est acceptum’, Virg. georg. 2. 101 (of a grape). Baehrens proposed caelitum for divitum (cf. 1. 32. 13 f. ‘dapibus supremi / grata testudo Iovis’); but then the first et ought to have come before mensis. 7–8. dic modos Lyde quibus obstinatas / applicet auris: dic modos suits both verses and music (3. 4. 1–2 n.). The name Lyde, here in a prominent position before quibus, has exotic associations (N–H on 2. 11. 22). For ‘bending the ears’ cf. carm. saec. 71 f. (of Diana) ‘votis puerorum amicas / applicat auris’, Symm. epist. 3. 6. 1. obstinatus sometimes has a good sense (Liv. 1. 58. 5 ‘obstinatam pudicitiam’), but here Lyde’s obduracy is not regarded as a merit; as the word implies stiffness, a contrast with applicet (which suggests bending) is obvious. 9. quae velut latis equa trima campis: in Greek lyric poetry a stanza is sometimes connected with its predecessor by a relative pronoun; Cairns (op. cit. 130) cites exempli gratia Alc. 34. 5, Pind.O. 5. 4, 6. 29, 8. 67, 13. 63. For the comparison of girls with fillies cf. Anacr. PMG 417. 1 Hº ¨æfi Œ, Ar. Lys. 1308, Lucil. 1041M ‘anne ego te vacuam atque animosam, / Tessalam ut indomitam, frenis subigamque domemque?’, V. Buchheit, Studien zum Corpus Priapeorum, 1962: 104 n. Horses bred
1 1 . M ERC V R I , NA M T E D O C I LI S M AG I S T RO
155
for speed need space to exercise (Colum. 6. 27. 2 ‘spatiosa . . . pascua’), and here the girl has freedom to roam (cf. N–H on 2. 5. 5 f. ‘circa virentis est animus tuae / campos iuvencae’); contrast the walled garden of the secluded maiden (Catull. 62. 39 ff., Virg. ecl. 8. 37, Ov. met. 14. 635 f.), and the medieval figure of the hortus conclusus. Mares were mated at the age of 2 (Colum. 6. 28. 1) or better 3 (Arist. hist. anim. 6. 575b24). 10. ludit exsultim metuitque tangi: H is echoing Anacreon 417. 5 ºØH ŒÆØ = ŒF ŒØæHÆ ÆØ (see last note); ludit implies high-spirited capers but not sexual activity (contrast 2. 5. 8, 3. 15. 12). The drily archaic exsultim is attested only here, but cf. Suet. Aug. 83 subsultim, Gell. 9. 4. 9 saltatim, which is given as a gloss by ps.-Acro on our passage; for exsultare of horses cf. Cic. off. 1. 90 ‘ferocitate exsultantes’, Nep. Eum. 5. 5, TLL 5. 2. 1948. 16 ff. metuit indicates not just timidity but actual shying away; there is a sexual innuendo in tangi (cf. serm. 1. 2. 54 ‘matronam nullam ego tango’, and the concept of virgo intacta). 11–12. nuptiarum expers et adhuc protervo / cruda marito: expers means ‘having no part in’; cf. Virg. Aen. 4. 550 with Pease, Stat. Theb. 7. 298 f. ‘expertem thalami crudumque maritis / ignibus’, Musaeus 31 with Kost, TLL 5. 2. 1689. 30 ff. nuptiarum is ambiguous, as it can refer to sexual experience as well as marriage; cf. Plaut. cist. 43 ‘haec . . . cotidie viro nubit’, auct. ad Her. 4. 45 ‘cuius mater cottidianis nuptiis delectetur’, Petr. 26. 3. cruda means ‘unripe’, the opposite of ‘iam matura viro’ (Virg. Aen. 7. 53); for the combination of imagery from animals and fruit cf. 2. 5. 10, Theoc. 11. 21, Catull. 17. 15 f. protervo suggests aggressive masculinity; the word can be used of animals (2. 5. 15 implying a piquant reversal of roles, Ov. met. 14. 63); marito can be used of animal mates (1. 17. 7 with N–H, 2. 5. 16). The marital connotations of nuptiarum and marito provide a link with the story of Hypermestra. 13–14. tu potes tigris comitesque silvas / ducere et rivos celeris morari: these are the accomplishments regularly attributed to Orpheus (indeed vv. 15 ff. must allude to him rather than Amphion); cf. 1. 12. 7 ff. (a later poem) with the parallels cited by N–H. In particular H is alluding to Virg. georg. 4. 510 ‘mulcentem tigris et agentem carmine quercus’; there may be a humorous suggestion that savage tigers are led by the slow and lowly tortoise. In the rationalizing version in ars 391 ff. Orpheus is again combined with Amphion. For the rivers see N–H on 1. 12. 9 (citing Ap. Rhod. 1. 26 f.), Clausen on Virg. ecl. 8. 4. The lyre checks their progress by holding their attention (OLD morari 3); the verb points a contrast with both celeris and ducere. tu potes suggests the hymnal style (N–H on 1. 28. 28, Fedeli on Prop. 1. 14. 17); the lyre can do these things,
156
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
because it has already done them; cf. 2. 19. 17 ‘tu flectis amnis’ with N–H. comites is to be taken with both tigris and silvas; the word-order is characteristic of Greek lyric poetry, particularly hymns (N–H on 2. 19. 27, Cairns, op. cit. 138 n. 11). 15–16. cessit inmanis tibi blandienti / ianitor aulae: for descents to the underworld see N–H vol. 2, pp. 203 ff., Mynors on Virg. georg. 4. 453 ff., Bo¨mer on Ov. met. 10. 1 ff., R. J. Clark, Catabasis: Vergil and the Wisdom Tradition, 1979: 79 ff. (Heracles), 95 ff. (Orpheus). For the need to neutralize Cerberus by music or other means cf. 2. 13. 33 ‘illis carminibus stupens’ with N–H, 2. 19. 29 ff. (Bacchus gets past), Virg. georg. 4. 483 ‘tenuitque inhians tria Cerberus ora’, Synesius, hymni 8. 19 ff. on Christ’s descent æ ªæø = #Æ › ƺÆت , = ŒÆd ºÆ æ Œø = . . . › ÆæıŁc I Æ ºF (cf. cessit). Terzaghi ad loc. sees a common source behind Synesius, Virgil, and our passage. Is inmanis genitive with aulae or nominative with ianitor? In favour of the first is the fact that aulae needs qualification (cf. Sil. 2. 552 ‘lacrimosae ianitor aulae’) and can be supported by phrases like ‘spelunca immanis’ (Virg. Aen. 6. 237) and ‘immane barathrum’ (ibid. 8. 245); this is the preference of most editors, including NR, who thinks it may be imitated in Matthew Arnold’s ‘the vasty hall of death’ (Requiescat 16). RN thinks that after cessit the reader would naturally take inmanis as a contrasting nominative and apply it to the monstrous Cerberus (cf. Virg. Aen. 6. 400 ‘ingens ianitor’, 6. 417 f. ‘Cerberus adverso recubans immanis in antro’); the misunderstanding would not be removed until aulae (16). He has considered immensae (cf. Sen. Tro. 178 ‘immensos specus’), but that might not be enough to identify the aula. He has also thought of reading in manis for inmanis of many MSS (cf. Hom. Od. 11. 563 f. of Ajax B b ¼ººÆ = łı a N ! ¯ æ Œø ŒÆÆŁø, Synes. loc. cit. 17 f.); but Ajax can join the shades more appropriately than Cerberus. He has also tried emending aulae to Orci; if ianitor Orci was compressed by haplography into ianitorci, then aulae might have been supplied to fill the gap. tibi after tu (13) exemplies the ‘Du-Stil’ common in hymns (3. 21. 13 n.); the pronoun is emphatic, not enclitic (Nisbet ap. Adams–Mayer, 1999: 149). blandienti, which suits the charms of Orpheus (1. 12. 11, 1. 24. 13) hints at the blandishments of the poet’s own courtship (cf. Stroh 115 ff.). For aula as ‘the hall of death’ cf. 2. 18. 31 with N–H, Prop. 4. 11. 5 ‘fuscae . . . aulae’; for the entrance to the underworld cf. Hom. Il. 5. 646, H. Usener, Kleine Schriften 4, 1913: 226 ff., Bo¨mer on Ov. met. 4. 453. A door-keeper was not a friendly character in the ancient world; for Cerberus in this capacity cf. Eur. Her. 1277, Virg. Aen. 8. 296 ‘ianitor Orci’, anon. anth. Pal. 7. 319. 1 f., Roscher 3. 2. 3331, TLL 7. 1. 132. 66 ff.
1 1 . M ERC V R I , NA M T E D O C I LI S M AG I S T RO
157
17–20. Cerberus . . . : this stanza, which was known to Porph., has been deleted by several scholars, including Buttmann, Naeke (Opuscula Philologica 1, 1842: pp. 73 ff.), Peerlkamp, L. Mu¨ller, Heinze; it has been defended by Jahn (ap. Orelli), Campbell (edn. 2), Williams, Syndikus (2. 121 f.), Bradshaw (RhM 118, 1975: 311 ff.), Cairns (op. cit. 130 f.). In our view there is nothing problematic about it except eius atque (18 n.). The lines are alleged to disrupt the high-flown sequence of 13–16 and 21–4, but they too underline the power of poetry; the three stanzas on Orpheus (13–24) balance their three predecessors. The appositional Cerberus has been thought an interpolated explanation of ianitor that was built up into a stanza (Naeke, op. cit., Fraenkel on Aesch. Ag. 1224–6), but such appositions are well attested; cf. for instance Hom. Il. 6. 394 f. Ł ¼º ºøæ KÆ qºŁ ŁıÆ, = #æ , Virg. Aen. 7. 761 ‘ibat et Hippolyti proles pulcherrima bello, / Virbius’. 17–18. quamvis Furiale centum / muniant angues caput: for the appended concessive clause cf. 2. 19. 25 ff.; the subjunctive has been doubted, but is normal with quamvis in Republican Latin (K–S 2. 442 f.), and is used by H in the same sense at 4. 6. 6 f. ‘filius quamvis Thetidis marinae / Dardanas turris quateret’. Cerberus had snakes in his hair, like the Furies (2. 13. 35 f. ‘intorti capillis / Eumenidum . . . angues’, Virg. Aen. 6. 419, where they are seen as a kind of mane, Billerbeck on Sen. Hf 785–7, LIMC 6. 1. 31); for muniant cf. Lucr. 5. 27 ‘hydra venenatis . . . vallata colubris’. He was usually given three heads (Cic. Tusc. 1. 10, Virg. Aen. 6. 417, Ov. met. 4. 450 f.), though sometimes fifty or a hundred (2. 13. 34, Hes. theog. 311 f., Billerbeck on Sen. Hf 784 ); in art for obvious reasons the number of heads varies from one to three (LIMC 6. 1. 24 ff., 6. 2. 12 ff.). In our passage the singular caput has been impugned by those who delete the stanza, but furiale caput is not inconsistent with a plurality of heads; cf. Sen. Hf 784 f. where Cerberus’ three heads (trina capita) are followed by the singular caput: ‘sordidum tabo caput / lambunt colubrae’; see further on v. 20. 18–19. yeius atquey / spiritus taeter: the first two words present three problems. (1) the genitive eius is very rare in high poetry (Axelson 72); it suits the somewhat old-fashioned style of Lucretius (35 instances) and is attested in elegy (Tib. 1. 6. 25, Prop. 4. 2. 35, 4. 6. 67, Ov. trist. 3. 4. 27, Pont. 4. 15. 6 and also at met. 8. 16), but though found in H’s Sermones (2. 1. 70, 2. 6. 76) it appears elsewhere in the Odes only in the suspect 4. 8. 18. (2) Though atque ends a line at 2. 10. 21, the sequence of two inert words is uncharacteristically clumsy. (3) Though parallels can be found for a verb suiting the second of its two subjects better than the first, spiritus does not combine well with manet (19), which implies some kind of liquid. Taken together, these points have led us to obelize
158
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
the phrase (though NR has doubts), and to look for a verb that has been displaced by eius atque. Bentley proposed exeatque (cf. Ov. met 3. 75 f. ‘halitus exit / ore niger Stygio’), though he conceded that elsewhere exit spiritus refers to dying breath (Ov. ars 3. 745, trist. 4. 3. 41); but one would have preferred something less comprehensive and more clearly differentiated from manet below. Gesner (1752) proposed effluatque, which occurred independently to Housman (Classical Papers 1. 3); the verb could be applied to breath (Cic. nat. deor. 2. 101 ‘aer effluens’, TLL 5. 193. 56 ff.), but is also perhaps too similar to manet. Cunningham (1721) proposed aestuatque (making the three verbs in the stanza indicative), and Williams considered aestuetque (while retaining eius atque); the word would refer to a hot dry blast as at Lucr. 3. 1012 ‘Tartarus horriferos eructans faucibus aestus’, Virg. Aen. 8. 258 ‘nebulaque ingens specus aestuat atra’, Sil. 6. 219 ‘(serpens) Stygios aestus fumanti exsibilat ore’. aestuetque seems the best solution; unlike exeatque, it has the advantage of standing alone and not combining with ore trilingui. The archaic taeter is avoided by most Latin poets; but as it is found in Virgil (Aen. 3. 228, 10. 727) and Seneca, Heinze was wrong to count it one of the suspicious features in the stanza. 19–20. saniesque manet / ore trilingui: for Cerberus’ poisonous discharge cf. Ov. met. 4. 501 ‘oris Cerberei spumas’ (carried by the Fury), Plin. nat. hist. 27. 4 (aconite is produced by the froth). Porph. suggests that the blood comes from human bodies, and Cairns (op. cit. 131) sees a reference to Œæ æ ‘meat-eating’, the supposed etymology of Cerberus (Maltby 121); but the sanies seems to be produced by the dog himself (cf. Ov. met. 4. 494 of the Fury’s snakes ‘saniemque vomunt’, Plin. nat. hist. 27. 50 ‘si [aures] manent sanie’). For the ablative of source with manare cf. 2. 9. 1, Ov. met. 3. 85 with Bo¨mer, TLL 8. 320. 14. ore trilingui seems to be a condensed way of saying ‘from his three muzzles, each with its tongue’; cf. 2. 19. 31 f. with N–H’s note: ‘Cerberus had usually three heads, and therefore three mouths, three tongues, and three barks’. 21–2. quin et Ixion Tityosque vultu / risit invito: quin introduces the climax of the underworld scene, as at 2. 13. 37; both passages must be influenced by Virg. georg. 4. 481 f. ‘quin ipsae stupuere domus atque intima leti / Tartara’. Ixion attempted to seduce Hera, and was punished by being tied to a revolving wheel (Pind. P. 2. 21 ff. with schol., Prop. 1. 9. 20 with Fedeli, RE 10. 2. 1373 ff., LIMC 5. 1. 857 ff., 2. 555 ff.). For Tityos cf. 3. 4. 77 n. The respite from the torments of the damned (Virg. georg. 4. 484, Prop. 4. 11. 23 ff., Ov. met. 10. 41 ff., Sen. HO 1068 ff.) presumably goes back to a lost catabasis of Orpheus.
1 1 . M ERC V R I , NA M T E D O C I LI S M AG I S T RO
159
On vultu invito Porph. comments ‘intellegas tantam fuisse gratiam cantus, ut in tormentis poenae constitutis extorserit tamen risus’; i.e. they couldn’t help smiling in spite of their pain. In other contexts the phrase might more naturally have suggested a deliberately forced smile; cf. Aesch. Ag. 794 with Fraenkel, Stat. Ach. 1. 194 ‘ficto risit Thetis anxia vultu’. RN has considered insueto; cf. Tib. 1. 4. 48 with Murgatroyd, Lucan 5. 163 ‘insueto concepit pectore numen’, where invito is a variant. 22–4. stetit urna paulum / sicca, dum grato Danai puellas / carmine mulces: for the myth of the daughters of Danaus see the introduction. urna refers to the pitcher of each individual Danaid (cf. Plato, Gorg. 493b quoted in 26–7 below); the girls are so entranced that instead of refilling their pitchers, they set them down on the ground. H is following the usual account by which the holes were in the dolium, not the urnae (27 n.). mulcere (lit. ‘to stroke’) is used regularly of the charms of music (Lucr. 5. 1390, Ov. fast. 2. 116, notably in Virgil’s description of Orpheus in georg. 4. 510). H hopes that his song will have an equally agreeable effect on Lyde. 25–6. audiat Lyde scelus atque notas / virginum poenas: for the subtle transition see the introduction. Porph. points out the mock-serious moral: ‘audiat Lyde qua poena damnatae sint quae crudeles amatoribus fuerint’; cf. Tib. 1. 3. 79 ff. ‘et Danai proles, Veneris quod numina laesit, / in cava Lethaeas dolia portat aquas. / illic sit quicumque meos violavit amores’. H cunningly gives the impression that virginity was part of their crime; he clearly ignores the version by which they were forced to have intercourse (Apollod. 2. 1. 5), as that would have diminished their guilt and confirmed Lyde’s suspicions of men. 26–7. et inane lymphae / dolium fundo pereuntis imo: et adds an explanation of poenas; cf. OLD s. v. 11. For the genitive with inane cf. Cic. de orat. 1. 37, K–S 1. 441. pereuntis means ‘going to waste’; the verb is used of leaks at Frontin. aqu. 2. 88 ‘ne pereuntes quidem aquae otiosae sunt’, Mart. 12. 50. 6 ‘et pereuntis aquae fluctus ubique sonat’. The large dolium, which held 10–15 amphorae, was big enough for Diogenes; cf. Hilgers 171 ff. fundo means ‘through the bottom’; imo is pleonastic, like summus with vertex. H puts the leaks in the dolium to which the water is being carried (cf. Tibullus quoted in the last note, Phaedrus, app. 7. 10 ‘urnis scelestae Danaides portant aquas, / pertusa nec complere possunt dolia’); this is the predominant version in the iconographic tradition (LIMC 3. 2. 250 f.). Leaky pitchers are assigned to the Danaids by Sen. Med. 748, but this was not Seneca’s innovation (pace Costa ad loc.): both forms of the legend are applied to nameless sinners at Plat. Gorg. 493b
160
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
æE N e æ Ł oøæ æfiø Øfiø æfiø ŒŒfiø. H has the same account as Bion fr. 28 Kindstrand (¼ Diog. Laert. 4. 50), Paus. 10. 31. 9. 28–9. seraque fata / quae manent culpas etiam sub Orco: sera means ‘long-postponed’ (cf. Virg. Aen. 6. 569 ‘distulit in seram commissa piacula mortem’); for the slowness of retribution cf. 3. 2. 32 n. For the sinister manent cf. epod. 13. 13, N–H on 1. 28. 15, 2. 18. 31. sub Orco means ‘in Hades below’, not ‘under the rule of Orcus’; it is sometimes hard to distinguish the two meanings (3. 4. 74–5 n.), but in the context of the underworld sub is naturally taken as local; moreover, etiam would lack point if Orcus were personal, for one expects the ruler of the dead to punish people. 30. impiae (nam quid potuere maius?): impiae is emphasized by both its position and its isolation (see further on 31); the violation of marital loyalties is central to H’s version of the story, as later in Ovid, her. 14. quid maius? would normally mean ‘what greater deed?’, but here the context requires ‘greater in the scale of evil’, i.e. ‘more monstrous’; cf. Prop. 4. 7. 67 ‘narrat Hypermestre magnum ausas esse sorores’. Heinze suggests that the parenthesis points forward to 31, which specifies murders of surpassing wickedness, rather than back to impiae; he therefore interprets nam quid not as causal but as the equivalent of quidnam? (epist. 1. 1. 76, K–S 2. 117). Some editors begin the parenthesis with quid; but though there are parallels in H for nam in the second place (4. 14. 9, epod. 17. 45) and even for the break after the fourth syllable in the Sapphic line (3. 11. 50), the combination of both irregularities is quite unconvincing. RN sees attractions in numquid, a variant without authority recorded by Bentley. 31–2. impiae sponsos potuere duro / perdere ferro: impiae is further emphasized by its repetition after the parenthesis; cf. Quint. inst. 9. 3. 29 ‘similis geminationis post aliquam interiectionem repetitio est, sed paulo etiam vehementior’, Wills 66 ff. sponsos recalls the mutual pledges of betrothal, and thus accentuates the disloyalty; note the repeated references to marriage (33 face nuptiali, 37 marito). The reiterated potuere now takes on the nuance of ‘could bear to’ (ºÆ); cf. epod. 9. 13 f. ‘(miles) spadonibus / servire rugosis potest’. duro refers to both literal hardness and cruelty (Porph.). 33–4. una de multis face nuptiali / digna: una, namely Hypermestra (this is the correct form of the name); the asyndeton presents a sharp contrast between evil and good. For Hypermestra’s uniqueness among her sisters cf. [Aesch.] Prom. 865 (see on 35–6 below), Pind. N. 10. 6 P
1 1 . M ERC V R I , NA M T E D O C I LI S M AG I S T RO
161
, 5ææÆ Æ溪 Ł, - = łÆ K ŒºfiH ŒÆÆ EÆ ; for the common antithesis of one and many see Fraenkel on Aesch. Ag. 1455, Headlam on Herodas 6. 35. 34–5. periurum fuit in parentem / splendide mendax: the father’s treachery justified the daughter’s deception (Danaus had pledged his daughters in marriage to his nephews). For splendide mendax cf. Aesch. TrGF fr. 301 I ØŒÆÆ , Ov. met. 9. 711, Tac. hist. 4. 50. 2 ‘egregio mendacio’; oxymoron suits H’s succinct and pointed style (see F. Muecke, Encicl. oraz. 2. 781). The assonance of the phrase was probably thought attractive; cf. 1. 15. 19 f., 2. 1. 35 f., Catull. 11. 4 ‘tunditur unda’, Virg. Aen. 6. 223 ‘triste ministerium’, 6. 314 ‘ripae ulterioris amore’. 35–6. et in omne virgo / nobilis aevum: for in omne aevum cf. Ov. met. 1. 663 ‘aeternum . . . in aevum’, TLL 7. 1. 751. nobilis balances splendide and means both ‘famous’ (nosco) and ‘glorious’; for similar praise of Hypsipyle’s rescue of her father cf. Val. Fl. 2. 243 ff. By one account Lynceus left Hypermestra a virgin (Apollod. 2. 1. 5 ¸ıªŒÆ Øø ÆæŁ ÆPc ıº ÆÆ), by another he did not ([Aesch.] Prom. 865 ¥æ Łº Ø e c = ŒEÆØ ı, schol. on Eur. Hec. 886 , 5 ææÆ KÆ F ¸ıªŒø , Ie B ø ØŁØ K ŒıEÆ æe ÆP . H calls her virgo because that is how the Danaids were described (otherwise Cairns, loc. cit.). 37. ‘surge’ quae dixit iuveni marito: for exhortations to rise up in various contexts cf. Hom. Il. 18. 170 (Iris to Achilles) Zæ, Virg. Aen. 3. 169, 8. 59, Ov. her. 14. 73 (Hypermestra to Lynceus) ‘surge age, Belide’, Val. Fl. 2. 249 f. (Hypsipyle speaks) ‘fuge protinus urbem, / surge, pater’, Aus. ephem. 1. 17 ff. (an amusing adaptation of our passage). Such imperatives are commonly found in the ‘Aubade’, where the woman urges her lover to leave at dawn; cf. anon. PMG 853. 2 Iø, A. T. Hatto, Eos, An Enquiry into the Theme of Lovers’ Meetings and Partings at Dawn in Poetry, 1965, Cairns (1972), 84 f. (on the ‘diegertikon’) and op. cit. 135 f. iuveni marito echoes the pathos of virgo; Lynceus, too, is unnamed. marito suggests ‘bridegroom’; the murder was committed within hours of the wedding. 38–9. ‘surge, ne longus tibi somnus unde / non times detur: longus is euphemistic for aeternus (N–H on 2. 14. 19) and somnus for mors (N–H on 1. 24. 5). ‘From where you least expect it’ is vaguely sinister; the source of the danger is then specified in 39 f. 39–40. socerum et scelestas / falle sorores: the alliterative sibilants bind the phrase and suggest a furtive whisper. Family affection should have
162
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
been expected from a socer (a more emotive word than ‘father-in-law’); cf. Catull. 72. 3 f. ‘dilexi tum te . . . pater ut gnatos diligit et generos’; so scelestum should probably be understood, though the emphasis is on sorores. sorores can include ‘sisters-in-law’; cf. the corresponding use of frater (OLD 2); after socerum (tuum) it would be awkward to understand meas. falle, like ºŁ, means ‘give the slip to’; cf. 1. 10. 16, epist. 1. 5. 31 ‘postico falle clientem’, Bo¨mer on Ov. met. 4. 85. 41–2. quae velut nactae vitulos leaenae / singulos eheu lacerant: the simile of lion and cattle comes from high poetry; cf. Hom. Il. 5. 161, Eur. IT 296 f. (on Orestes) › b æd Æ , = ı OæÆ N Æ ºø ‹ø , = ÆØ Øæfiø ºÆª Æ . vitulos suits both animals and young men (cf. 2. 8. 21 iuvencis); for nactae of finding prey cf. epist. 1. 15. 38, Ter. hec. 65 ‘spolies mutiles laceres quemque nactus sis’. After the collective hunt, singulos turns to the separate murders; cf. [Aesch.] Prom. 862 (on the same story) ªıc ªaæ ¼æ (ŒÆ ÆNH æE. lacerant (‘rend’), though possible of daggers, is particularly suited to lions’ claws; for the transference of elements from the simile to the thing illustrated see M. S. Silk, Interaction in Poetic Imagery, 1974, passim, Davies on Soph. Trach. 31 ff. The horror of lacerant is emphasized by the interjection eheu and the delay imposed by the parenthesis; for Hypermestra’s imaginative sympathy cf. Ov. her. 14. 35 ‘circum me gemitus morientum audire videbar’. 42–4. ego illis / mollior nec te feriam, neque intra / claustra tenebo: mollior makes a contrast with duro (31). claustra can mean either ‘bolts’ (which suits a bedroom) or ‘an enclosed chamber’ (which suits intra); as the word is sometimes used of an animal’s cage, RN thinks it may be relevant that Lynceus suggests ‘a lynx-man’. Hypermestra refuses even to detain her husband till Danaus’ arrival. 45–6. me pater saevis oneret catenis: Hypermestra is willing to be imprisoned as long as Lynceus escapes. Her forebodings were justified in the usual form of the legend (otherwise Cairns, op. cit. 136): see Apollod. 2. 1. 5 ŒÆŁæ Æ ÆPc ˜ÆÆe KææØ, Ov. her. 14. 3 ‘clausa domo teneor gravibusque coercita vinclis’. For the use of oneret cf. TLL 9. 631. 52 ff. 46. quod viro clemens misero peperci: viro, set against pater (45), illustrates the conflict of family loyalties; but in the general sense of ‘man’ it can refer to Horace, hinting that Lyde should similarly spare the poet. clemens combines naturally with misero; for the juxtaposition of complementary words cf. 1. 3. 10 ‘fragilem truci’, 3. 7. 13 ‘perfida credulum’.
1 1 . M ERC V R I , NA M T E D O C I LI S M AG I S T RO
163
47–8. me vel extremos Numidarum in agros / classe releget: Danaus was king of Libya as well as of Argos. Numidarum suggests savagery; cf. 2. 6. 3 ‘barbaras Syrtis’, Eur. Hel. 404, Pease on Virg. Aen. 4. 41. extremos means ‘at the end of the earth’, not ‘the most remote parts of Numidia’; cf. 3. 10. 1. relegare is used by the poets in a non-technical sense (‘to banish’); cf. Cic. poet. frag. e Sophocle, 70. 16. T ¼ Cic. Tusc. 2. 20 (vers.) 16, Virg. georg. 3. 212, Aen. 7. 775, OLD 2. classe seems to have the general meaning ‘by ship’ (OLD 3b); cf. the use of Æı at Pind. P. 10. 29, where it is contrasted with . RN thinks H may be alluding to Danaus’ connection with the beginning of navigation (Plin. nat. hist. 7. 206 ‘nave primus in Graeciam ex Aegypto Danaus advenit’, Hygin. fab. 277. 5); note the references to ships in Aeschylus’ Suppliants (177 fiH ÆıŒºæfiø Ææ, 713 ff., 764 ff.). 49. i pedes quo te rapiunt et aurae: Lynceus is to go quickly by land and sea wherever chance takes him (cf. epod. 16. 21 f. ‘ire pedes quocumque ferent, quocumque per undas / Notus vocabit aut protervus Africus’); the present rapiunt is livelier than the more literal future. When the feet are said to carry someone, that may simply describe walking (Hom. Il. 18. 148); but usually the expression suggests non-deliberate movement, either because the journey is familiar (Plin. epist. 7. 5. 1) or because the direction is left to chance (Theoc. 13. 70 fi Æffl pª K æØ with Gow, paroem. Gr. 1. 404, Otto 275 f.). aurae carries the same connotation; cf. Plat. rep. 394 d ‹ i › º ª uæ FÆ æfi . 50. dum favet Nox et Venus: for the warning cf. Ovid’s imitation, her. 14. 77 ‘dum nox sinit, ‘‘effuge,’’ dixi’. Apart from hints in 35 f., the combination of Nox and Venus (cf. 3. 28. 13 ff.) is the first clear indication of a love interest to balance the poet’s courtship of Lyde; this feature is lacking in Ovid’s version, where Hypermestra concentrates on pietas and duty (H. Jacobson, Ovid’s Heroides, 1974: 125 f.). Yet in Aeschylus’ Danaids Aphrodite brings about her acquittal by an Argive court; the famous lines on the marriage of Earth and Heaven were spoken by the goddess on that occasion (TrGF fr. 44); and when the case was over, Hypermestra dedicated a statue to her (Paus. 2. 19. 6). A glass vessel of the third century ad shows Lynceus fleeing in the presence of a Pothos or Cupid (W. H. Friedrich, A & A 12, 1966: 6 with Abb. 2 ¼ LIMC 5. 1. 589 f.) For the rejection of sex by the other Danaids see F. Zeitlin, Playing the Other, 1996: 123 ff. 50–2. i secundo / omine et nostri memorem sepulcro / scalpe querelam’: these lines contain standard features of the propempticon: the departing friend is sent on his way with a hope for good omens (contrast
164
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
3. 27. 1 ff.), and urged not to forget the speaker (cf. 3. 27. 14 ‘et memor nostri, Galatea, vivas’ with the note ad loc.). The tomb belongs to Hypermestra herself, who with growing pessimism realizes that the parting is permanent; cf. Porph.’s gloss ‘monumento meo’ and Ov. her. 14. 128 ff. ‘sculptaque sint titulo nostra sepulcra brevi’. It cannot be that of Lynceus (thus L. Mu¨ller, Williams) after he has been sent away secundo omine; rather he is to write an inscription in the manner of the laudatio Turiae (OCD 822). Cairns (op. cit. 136) refers to the tradition that the pair were buried together (Paus. 2. 21. 2): ‘by mentioning the tomb, which everybody was familiar with, Horace is delicately implying this happy ending without destroying the pathos which he needs to conquer Lyde’. But in Ovid’s expanded imitation Hypermestra’s epitaph is to read ‘exul Hypermestra, pretium pietatis iniquum, / quam mortem fratri depulit, ipsa tulit’ (her. 14. 129 f.), and Horace’s closure seems equally sombre (even though such heroism will not be expected of Lyde); some editors think of a cenotaph, but H leaves the question of location open. sculpe is a variant without authority or merit; the older form scalpe could mean ‘sculpt’ or ‘carve’ as well as ‘scratch’, though in the later Empire the words were differentiated (Ernout–Meillet, Dictionnaire e´tymologique 2. 1055 f.). sculpo is used in an imitation of our passage carved by a Roman lady on the pyramid of Gizah during a visit to Egypt in the second century ad: ‘Vidi pyramidas sine te, dulcissime frater, / et tibi, quod potui, lacrimas hic moesta profudi, / et nostri memorem luctus hanc sculpo querelam.’ For the whole inscription and comment see Mus. Lap. no. 74 ¼ CLE 270.
1 2 . M I S ER A RV M ES T [F. Cairns, QUCC 24, 1977: 138 ff.; Cavarzere 229 ff.; R. W. Fortuin, Der Sport im augusteischen Rom, Palingenesia 57, 1996: 196 ff.; W. Kissel, WS 14, 1980: 125 ff.; R. M. Nielsen in Studies in Latin Literature and Roman History (ed. C. Deroux) 2, 1980: 237 ff.; Pasquali 86 ff.; Po¨schl 324 ff.; Williams 203 ff.]
1–3. Wretched are the girls who can neither enjoy love nor drown their sorrows in wine without incurring an uncle’s wrath. 4–9. You are distracted from your household tasks, Neobule, by the winged Cupid and the gleaming shoulders of Hebrus when he has swum in the Tiber—a better horseman than Bellerophon, undefeated at boxing and running, (10–12) skilled too at shooting the fleeing deer and waylaying the lurking boar. The opening of this ode imitates in theme and metre the opening of a fragmentary poem by Alcaeus: ºÆ, ÆÆ ŒÆŒø
1 2 . M I S ER A RV M ES T
165
ØÆ (10 L–P, cf. Page, Sappho and Alcaeus, 1955: 291 ff.); for such ‘mottoes’ see Cavarzere, op. cit. There the poet speaks unusually in the character of a woman (for such role-playing cf. Anacr. PMG 385, Asclepiades, anth. Pal. 12. 153 with Gow–Page, HE 898 ff., Theoc. 2, Fu¨hrer, 1967: 5 ff., H. Jacobson, Ovid’s Heroides, 1974: 343 ff., Fortuin, op. cit. 196 n.); she is clearly lamenting an unhappy love-affair (cf. 380 L–P ˚ıæªÆ ƺÆØØ, which may well come from the same poem). Because of this parallel most commentators think that Horace too has assumed the character of a woman, though almost always he speaks in propria persona (for exceptions cf. introduction to 3. 9); on the other hand, the ancient commentators thought the poet himself was the speaker, in which they are followed by Mu¨ller, Syndikus, Cairns, and Po¨schl. According to the former view, when the speaker says tibi (4), the girl is addressing herself (for this practice cf. 2. 5, Catull. 8 etc., W. Schadewaldt, Monolog und Selbstgespra¨ch, 1926: 35 ff., Williams 461 ff.); but in this context Horace might have been expected to follow his source and write mihi for the sake of clarity. It is alleged that the emphasis on the young athlete’s looks and accomplishments is more natural in the mouth of a woman, but this is not a necessary assumption (cf. 1. 8, 3. 20. 13 ff., 4. 1. 38 ff.); the jaunty references to sex and drink (1–2) suit a confident male better than a carefully supervised young girl. Nor need the mention of the stern uncle (3) and wool-making (4) come from the girl: it is a stock situation, and individualizing touches are not to be expected. The ode also has affinities with a poem by Sappho (102 L–P): ªºŒÆ Aæ, hØ ÆÆØ ŒæŒ e Y = Łfiø ØÆ ÆE æÆÆ Ø A æÆ. Here as in Alcaeus the woman is describing her own unfulfilled love, and as in Horace this is distracting her from her domestic tasks (4 n.). The theme, which may belong to traditional folk-song, is repeated in Goethe’s Gretchen am Spinnrad (Faust, part 1, 3374 ff.) and Landor’s ‘Mother I cannot mind my wheel’ (for singing at work see further Fortuin, op. cit. 202 n.). The despair of lovesickness, particularly in women, is a typically Hellenistic motif (with some encouragement from Euripides); cf. Theoc. 2, the ‘fragmentum Grenfellianum’ (Collectanea Alexandrina, ed. Powell, 177 ff.), Rohde (1914), 173 ff., S.Trenkner, The Greek Novella in the Classical Period, 1958: 66 (adding references to medical writers), Jacobson, loc. cit. No such sentimentality is present in Horace’s poem, and none of the emotional intensity of Alcaeus: the grievous hurt (Aæ IÆ) and the frenzy (ÆØ ) have disappeared, and the tone is one of slightly ironic detachment. Instead of showing the empathy with women that we find in Virgil and sometimes in Ovid, Horace concentrates on the vigour of the male athlete, which he describes with appropriate verve. It is quite characteristic for him to take a ‘motto’ from a Greek poet and then to give his ode an original direction; cf. 1. 9, 1. 18, 1. 37.
166
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
As usual with poems of this type, Horace gives the characters Greek names (5–6 nn.), and his use of Greek mythology heightens the stylistic level (4 n., 8 n.). At the same time, he sets the scene in the Campus Martius, so the characters are felt to be Roman: a young man shows off his prowess in swimming, riding, boxing, and running, sports encouraged by Augustus (N–H vol. 1, pp. 108 f., Fortuin, op. cit.). In a Greek situation such activities attracted male admirers (though note Theoc. 2. 77 ff., Aristaenetus 1. 8, where the athlete is æØ Ł ! A øØ ÆE ÆæÆØ ). In Horace it is a girl who is attracted, and her ambiguous status perhaps reflects social realities: she is freer than most Greek women to watch and admire, yet she has an old-fashioned guardian (3 n.) who denies her wine (1–2 n.). At the end the poet turns to the very Roman sport of boar-hunting (11–12 n.), but though such activities might be found near the city (epist. 1. 6. 57), they would lie outside a young girl’s experience; examples of women hunting are fictional, like Atalanta in Ov. Met. 8. 317; see Anderson (1985), 89 ff. The poem is written in ionics a minore (^^ — —), like the prototype in Alcaeus (10 L–P); cf. M. L. West, Greek Metre, 1982: 124 ff. Synaphea prevails throughout, i.e. there is metrical continuity between the lines and no variation of prosodic rules at the end of a line; thus in v. 4 telam (or vellus) would be impossible before the opening vowel of operosae. The endings of the metra coincide with word-endings to an unusual extent (Kissel, op. cit.); for exceptions note ex-animari (2), ver-bera (3), operosae-que (5), la-vit (7), Bel-lerophonte (8), ex-cipere (12). Kissel suggests that the monotony of the metre reflects the sound of Neobule’s loom, for which see Horsfall on Virg. Aen. 7. 14; but the metre comes from Alcaeus (where there is nothing about weaving in the surviving fragment), and in Horace’s ode Neobule has given up weaving. RN thinks the unremitting onset of Horace’s lines may suit the verve of Hebrus, the true subject of the poem. Following Bentley and most editors we have posited four three-line stanzas with lines of 4 þ 4 þ 2 ionic metra. Alternatively one could consider stanzas with lines of 4 þ 3 þ 3 metra (Cavarzere op. cit. 229 n.), which suits best the limited evidence from Alcaeus (R. Fu¨hrer, NAG phil.hist. Kl. 6, 1976: 253 ff.); this also avoids word-breaks at line-endings, but if we begin new lines at metuentis (2) and Neobule (5), that impairs the typical pattern of patruae verbera linguae and Liparaei nitor Hebri, where adjective and noun frame the line. K. E. Bohnenkamp, following the Latin metrical writers, posits lines of 3 þ 3 þ 4 metra. (Die Horazische Strophe, 1972: 88 ff.); this produces word-breaks at line-endings (ex-animari, la-vit, Bel-lerophonte). Heinze posits a single four-line stanza, in which each line has 10 metra; this suits the principle (observed by Meineke and Lachmann) that the norm for a Horatian stanza is four lines, not three, though the Lesbian poets sometimes used three-line stanzas.
1 2 . M I S ER A RV M ES T
167
1. Miserarum est neque amori dare ludum: ‘wretched are the girls whose lot it is . . . ’; for a similar movement from general to particular cf. Alpheus, anth. Pal. 12. 18. 1 ff. T º , x IæÆ ı h ªaæ æ ÆØ = PÆæ , h NE K Ø Ø Łø, followed by ŒÆd ªaæ Kªg F Nd º æÆ . Some editors see a statement about the female sex as a whole (cf. Agathias, anth. Pal. 5. 297 H œŁØ PŒ Ø , › E = ÆE Iƺł Ø æÆ ŁºıæÆØ , Ov. her. 19. 9 ff., pointing a contrast with the male pursuits of hunting, wrestling, riding, and drinking); but it is not the case that in Augustan Rome all women were as restricted as the girl here, or that they all had censorious uncles. dare ludum means ‘to allow enjoyment to’, i.e. ‘to indulge’; cf. Plaut. Bacch. 1083 ‘nimi’ nolo desidiae ei dare ludum’, Cic. Cael. 28 ‘datur enim concessu omnium huic aliqui ludus aetati’, TLL 7. 2. 1791. 45 ff. 1–2. neque dulci / mala vino lavere: lavere (third conjugation) is an old form (‘antiqua declinatione’ Porph.) that is particularly used in metaphorical contexts (2. 3. 18 ‘villa . . . quam Tiberis lavit’, cf. Fronto p. 58 van den Hout). Though it is supported here by Porph.’s comment and by several testimonia (GL 6. 129, 169, 303, 387), the use of the simple verb for ‘to wash away troubles’ is surprising, especially as lavit is found in a literal sense in v. 7; the word is more natural at Ter. Phorm. 973 ‘venias nunc precibus lautum peccatum tuum?’ (where the supine lautum means ‘to cleanse’), but there are no close parallels to our present case till late Latin (cf. TLL 7. 2. 1052. 74 ff. for the meaning ‘abluendo tollere’). As early corruption cannot be excluded, one might consider Withof ’s conjecture eluere (cf. 4. 12. 19 f. ‘(cadus) amaraque / curarum eluere efficax’, Sen. dial. 9. 17. 8); another possibility is abluere (cf. Cic. Tusc. 4. 60 ‘omnis . . . perturbatio animi placatione abluatur’). As the passage was of interest to writers on metre, they might have got rid of the elision in the interest of simplicity; for this kind of corruption cf. N–H on 1. 8. 2. The lover’s sorrows were traditionally drowned in wine; cf. epod. 11. 11 ff., Tib. 1. 5. 37 f. with Murgatroyd, Prop. 3. 17. 6 ‘tu vitium ex animo dilue, Bacche, meo’. In earlier days Roman women were not supposed to drink wine, though there was no such restriction in Greece (Pasquali 92 f.), and according to Cato their male relatives kissed them to detect breaches of the rule (Plin. nat. hist. 14. 90); Augustus followed the ancient custom by denying wine to the banished Julia (Suet. Aug. 65. 3); see further Polyb. 6. 11a. 4 with Walbank, Plut. quaest. Rom. 6, Gell. 10. 23. 1, Blu¨mner (1911), 365. dulce like is a conventional epithet referring to the pleasurable quality of wine; elsewhere it distinguishes sweet from dry wines (Plin. nat. hist. 14. 63). 2–3. aut exanimari metuentis / patruae verbera linguae: aut is elliptical and implies ‘or else’ (cf. 3. 24. 24, Plaut. Pseud. 995 ‘necesse hodie Sicyoni
168
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
me esse aut cras mortem exsequi’, OLD s. v. 7); the construction is also found in Greek (cf. Plut. Sol. 21. 1 HÆ b ŒÆŒH ºªØ KŒºı . . . j æE æÆ a . . . IØ, LSJ X A3). exanimari perhaps refers not just to fainting (Ter. Andr. 251 ‘me miseram exanimavit metu’) but hyperbolically to dying (cf. 2. 17. 1). The paternal uncle, unlike the avunculus or maternal uncle, was proverbially censorious; cf. serm. 2. 2. 97, 2. 3. 88 ‘ne sis patruus mihi’, Catull. 74. 1, Cic. Cael. 11 ‘fuit in hac causa pertristis quidam patruus censor magister’, Pers. 1. 11 with Kissel. In Rome agnate relatives (i.e. on the male side) had an interest in preserving the family fortune, and so were regularly appointed tutores or guardians (Crook 113 ff.); the position was different in Greece (Pasquali 89 f.), though we are told that Philemon wrote about a patruus obiurgator (Apul. flor. 16a). patruus as an adjective is very rare when textual corruptions are excluded (TLL 10. 1. 794. 33 ff.). For ‘tongue-lashings’ cf. Cic. rep. 1. 9 ‘neque liberi (esse) . . . contumeliarum verbera subire’, OLD 3b; verberare is often so used, sometimes in combination with verbis (OLD 1b). 4. tibi qualum Cythereae puer ales, tibi telas: the qualum or quasillum was a work-basket (calathus) that held wool for spinning (D–S 1. 812 with an illustration, Hilgers 42 ff., 128 f.); for the virtuousness of such activities cf. 3. 15. 13–14 n. Cythera is the island off the south coast of the Peloponnese where Aphrodite came ashore after her birth. The grandiose periphrasis for Cupid (‘The winged son of the Cytherean’) is faintly ironical (at Prop. 2. 30B. 31 he is simply called Ales); for similar Greek epithets cf. Bruchmann 115. The presentation of Eros as a mischievous boy is Hellenistic; for a lost wall-painting from Pompeii in which he steals a basket from Leda see W. Helbig, Wandgema¨lde der von Vesuv verschu¨tteten Sta¨dte Campaniens, 1868: 43, and for a similar theft K.Schefold, Die Wa¨nde Pompeiis, 1957: 209. Cythereae is contrasted with Minervae below, and so is placed before puer ales rather than in the middle; for this common opposition cf. anon. anth. Pal. 6. 48, 6. 283, Tara´n (1979), 115 ff. For love as a distraction from domestic tasks cf. Sappho 102 (cited in the introduction), Sen. Phaedr. 103 ‘Palladis telae vacant’; for the neglect of other activities cf. Theoc. 11. 72 ff., Virg. ecl. 2. 70 ff., Aen. 4. 86 ff., ciris 177 ff., Longus 1. 13. 6. We combine tibi telas with tibi qualum (aufert Cupido); most editors combine it with operosaeque Minervae studium (aufert Hebrus). The former interpretation suits the line-division suggested in the introduction, and also keeps the clauses more evenly balanced. It may be objected that Cupid would find it difficult to steal the web from the loom, but such thefts could be implausibly outrageous (1. 10. 11). aufert with studium is not referring to theft but simply to distraction; it therefore readily admits a second subject. que (5) need not join telas and studium; it can link the two clauses just as easily.
1 2 . M I S ER A RV M ES T
169
4–5. operosaeque Minervae studium aufert, Neobule: Minerva was an old Italian deity who acquired some of the characteristics of Athena, including the patronage of both spinning and weaving (Bo¨mer on Ov. met. 4. 33 f., Simon 168 ff.); her temple on the Aventine was a centre for artisans (L. Richardson 254). operosa represents Kæª or Kæª , epithets of Athena (Bruchmann 8); the objective genitive with studium (OLD 2) is made easier because minervae can be used as a common noun for spinning and weaving (Murgatroyd on Tib. 2. 1. 65). The only Neobule otherwise attested is the woman derided by Archilochus (fr. 171 with West’s testimonia), but nothing in the surviving fragments points to an allusion here. The name suggests that she has ‘new designs’. 6. Liparaei nitor Hebri: the form of the phrase mirrors Cythereae puer ales: the power of Cupid is manifested in Hebrus. The focus now moves from the girl to the young man, who is described in a series of clauses that continue to the end of the poem. nitor refers to shining beauty (cf. 1. 19. 5 ‘urit me Glycerae nitor’), here enhanced because athletes rubbed themselves with olive oil (‘unctos . . . umeros’ in v. 7); cf. Cic. div. 1. 22 ‘nitidoque Lyceo’ with Pease, Ov. fast. 5. 667 ‘nitida . . . palaestra’ with Bo¨mer, Theoc. 2. 79 with Gow (Simaetha admires the ŁÆ ºÆ of Delphis as he leaves the wrestling-school), Call. Hec. 71. 3 with Hollis. Hebrus is said to come from Lipari (off the north coast of Sicily) because ºØÆæ is used of the sheen of oil (for such verbal play see O’Hara (1996), Paschalis (1997)); cf. Hom. Od. 15. 332, Ar. nub. 1002 ºØÆæ ª ŒÆd PÆŁc K ªıÆØ ØÆæłØ , Theoc. 2. 51 ºØÆæA . . . ƺÆæÆ with Gow. ‘Hebrus’ is properly the great Thracian river, and as such balances Tiberinis below; it is attested as a man’s name in a few inscriptions (LGPN 2. 138, 3A. 137), as an early Virgilian scholar (RE 7. 2589 f.), and in epic (Virg. Aen. 10. 696, Val. Fl. 3. 149, 6. 618); fictitious characters are sometimes named after rivers (3. 7. 23 ‘Enipeus’, also a swimmer in the Tiber (ibid. 27 f.), C. Saunders, TAPA 71, 1940: 544 f., Dewar on Stat. Theb. 9. 152). One would like to find a specific explanation here: thus M. Treu (WJA 4, 1949–50: 224 f.) follows H. Fra¨nkel in seeing an allusion to Alcaeus 45 L–P; there the Hebrus is described as the fairest of rivers, and its water, where the girls bathed, is compared to unguent (7 f. e e ‰ ¼ºØÆ = Łœ høæ with Page, Sappho and Alcaeus, 286 ff.). One might also point to the notorious chilliness of the river (epist. 1. 3. 3, 1. 16. 13, RE 7. 2588 f.); that might suggest that the young man is cold and unresponsive; cf. Sithonia nive in 3. 26. 10 (also Thracian). 7. simul unctos Tiberinis umeros lavit in undis: for swimming in the Tiber cf. 1. 8. 8 with N–H, 3. 7. 27 f., Cic. Cael. 36, Griffin (1985), 89 ff., RE Suppl. 5. 847 ff.; for other passages where an athlete impresses women
170
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
cf. 3. 7. 25 ff., Tib. 1. 4. 11 f. (again riding and swimming), Ov. her. 18. 95 f. (Leander) ‘nunc etiam nando dominae placuisse laboro, / atque oculis iacto bracchia nostra tuis’. The bathing follows the anointing, which in its turn follows the riding, boxing, and running, olive oil being the equivalent of soap; for this sequence of events cf. serm. 2. 1. 7 f. ‘ter uncti / transnanto Tiberim’, Ov. trist. 3. 12. 21 f., Veg. mil. 1. 3. 4, 1. 10. 3 ‘Romani veteres . . . Campum Martium vicinum Tiberi delegerunt in quo iuventus post exercitium armorum sudorem pulveremque dilueret ac lassitudinem cursus natandi labore deponeret’. In our passage the events are not mentioned in chronological order, any more than in 1. 8. 3 ff. 8. eques ipso melior Bellerophonte: eques is in apposition to Hebrus, the subject (understood) of lavit. With Athena’s help Bellerophon succeeded in breaking in and riding the winged horse Pegasus; see 4. 11. 27 f., Pind.O. 13. 84 ff., I. 7. 44 ff., LIMC 7. 1. 221 ff., 7. 2. 152 ff. Bellerophonte is the ablative of Bellerophontes (not Bellerophon); metre requires that the final vowel should be long. The accusative is probably Bellerophonten at 4. 11. 28 (Bentley for Bellerophontem), the dative Bellerophontae at 3. 7. 15. For the declension of such names see Housman 2. 829 and 833, M. Leumann, MH 2, 1945: 237 ff. 8–9. neque pugno / neque segni pede victus: vincere is sometimes combined with an instrumental ablative (Ov. met. 1. 448 f. ‘quicumque manu pedibusve rotave / vicerat’). The phrase here would have to mean ‘defeated because of slowness of fist or foot’ (ibid. 1. 544 ‘victa labore fugae’), but unfortunately it might more naturally be taken as ‘surpassed in slowness’ (cf. Plaut. Poen. 532 ‘vicistis cochleam tarditudine’). RN (PCPS suppl. 15, 1989: 89 ¼ Collected Papers 263 f.) has considered emending segni to a proper name like Cycni (in late Latin the spelling cigni would be close, particularly if c was already pronounced like s); the genitive would then be Ie ŒØF with pugno and pede. Cycnus is mentioned along with Bellerophon as a participant in the games for Pelias (Hyg. fab. 273. 11 ‘Cycnus Martis filius armis occidit Pilum Diodoti filium, Bellerophontes vicit equo’, perhaps from Stesichorus); but nothing is said there about boxing or running. 10–11. catus idem per apertum fugientis agitato / grege cervos iaculari: Porph. comments ‘catus acutus et per hoc doctus’ (cf. Varro, lL 7. 46); the word refers to practical skills at 1. 10. 3, Cic. Arat. 304 ‘tornare cate contortos . . . orbis’, Auson. epigramm. 104. 1 ‘doctus Hylas caestu, Phegeus catus arte palaestrae’; it is somewhat archaic in tone, and is avoided by Virgil, Ovid, Lucan, Valerius, Silius, and Statius; for the following infinitive cf. 1. 29. 9 ‘doctus sagittas tendere Sericas’, N–H on 1. 1. 8, Bo 268. Bentley considered transposing catus with celer (11), and though he
1 3 . O F O N S BA N DV S I A E
171
dropped the idea it is worth noting: shooting at a moving target requires speed (cf. Virg. Aen. 9. 178 ‘iaculo celerem levibusque sagittis’), whereas tracking a hidden boar calls for cunning (see, however, 11–12 n.). For agitare of driving animals in the hunt cf. 2. 13. 40. 11–12. et celer arto latitantem / fruticeto excipere aprum: there is substantial manuscript support for the omission of et, but the asyndeton is unconvincing; see above on 1–2 for a possible attempt by writers on metre to get rid of elision in this poem. celer excipere balances catus iaculari; for Bentley’s doubts see above. celer seems better suited to an infinitive like exigere ‘to drive out’, but Horace may be telescoping events for the sake of vividness: the boar lurks in the thicket, and when it bursts out a quick reaction is needed. latitantem makes a contrast with fugientis, and arto fruticeto with per apertum; for the haunts of boars cf. Xen. cyn. 10. 5, Ov. met. 8. 334 ff. arto goes well with both fruticeto and latitantem (cf. Hom. Il. 11. 118, Od. 19. 439 K º ıŒØfi Ð ŒÆŒØ ªÆ F , Ov. met. 1. 122 ‘densi frutices’); it should be preferred to the variant alto, a commoner but here less precise word (cf. Hom. Il. 11. 415 ÆŁ KŒ ıº Ø, Ov. her. 4. 170, Sen. Ag. 892). excipere is the vox propria for receiving an animal’s onset; cf. Virg. ecl. 3. 18, Sen. dial. 3. 11. 2 ‘(venator) venientis excipit et fugientis persequitur’, OLD 13. aprum makes an effective climax after latitantem has aroused our curiosity; for boar-hunting cf. 1. 1. 28 with N–H, epod. 2. 32, epist. 1. 18. 49 ff., Anderson (1985), index.
1 3 . O F O N S BAN DV S I A E [ L. and P. Brind’Amour, Phoenix 27, 1973: 276 ff.; F. Cairns, AC 46, 1977: 523 ff.; Commager 322 ff.; Fraenkel 202 ff.; R. Hexter in Homo Viator (ed. M. Whitby et al.), 1987: 131 ff.; M. R. Lefkowitz, CJ 58, 1962: 63 ff.; G. Nussbaum, Phoenix 25, 1971: 151 ff. and ANRW 31. 3. 2133 ff.; Oliensis 98 ff.; Pasquali 553 ff.; K. Quinn, Latin Explorations, 1963: 75 ff.; Ernst A. Schmidt, Antike und Abendland 23, 1977: 105 ff. ¼ Zeit und Form, 2002: 131 ff.; D. R. Smith, Latomus 35, 1976: 822 ff.; D. W. T. Vessey in Studies in Latin Literature and Roman History (ed.C. Deroux) 4, 1986: 383 ff.; R. Westman, Classica et Mediaevalia, Diss. 9, 1973: 301 ff.; Williams 673 ff.; J. R. Wilson, CJ 63, 1967–8: 289 ff.]
1–8. Spring of Bandusia, more glittering than glass, tomorrow you will receive the sacrifice of a kid. 9–12. You provide welcome coolness for oxen and goats. 13–16. You will be counted among the famous springs because of my poem. Water was a mysterious substance in the Graeco-Roman world, and could never be taken for granted. Hippocrates discussed its healing
172
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
properties and its effects on various localities (Airs, Waters, and Places, Loeb edn. vol. 1); Roman agricultural writers stressed the necessity of irrigation (cf. Horden–Purcell 238 ff.); Vitruvius (8. 3), Strabo (3. 5. 7), Seneca (nat. quaest. 3), and Pliny (nat. hist. 2. 227–32) recorded miscellaneous lore about unusual sources; Frontinus savoured the qualities of the different aqueducts that meant so much for urban civilization (aqu. 1. 13–15, 2. 89–92). In a hot climate where water was scarce and most rain fell in the winter the perennial spring had a particular appeal, and figured regularly in descriptions of beauty-spots; cf. serm. 2. 6. 2 (quoted below), Hom. Od. 17. 205 ff., Sappho 2 L–P, Plat. Phaedr. 230b, Scho¨nbeck (1962), 21 ff., N–H on 2. 3. 12 and vol. 2, pp. 52 ff., below 14–15 n. In these circumstances springs played an important part in cult: cf. Serv. Aen. 7. 84 ‘nullus enim fons non sacer’, N–H on 1. 1. 22, Prop. 1. 18. 27 ‘divini fontes’ with Fedeli, Horden–Purcell 412 f. Water was connected with prophecy and inspiration (M. Ninck, Die Bedeutung des Wassers im Kult und Leben der Alten, Philol. suppl. 14, 1921; repr. 1960, Kambylis 23 ff.); the Muses were associated with Hippocrene and the rest (T. R. Glover, Springs of Hellas, 1945, ch. 1), and the Latin Camenae were originally water-nymphs (3. 4. 25 n.). At Rome there was an ancient deity called variously Fons, Fontus, Fontanus (ILS 3882–9, Wissowa 221 f., RE 6. 2838 ff.); he had an altar on the right bank of the Tiber (Cic. leg. 2. 56) and a temple founded in 231 bc (Steinby 2. 256 f., Pease on Cic. nat. deor. 3. 52). This feeling of reverence persisted long after the period of classical antiquity; churches were built by ancient wells, and even today people still throw coins into fountains— an unconscious survival of primitive animism. The whereabouts of Bandusia has been disputed. Since the name is too unusual to be a fiction (contrast Greek epigrams, which do not specify their springs), it is reasonable to assume that it was situated near Horace’s Sabine villa (thus ps.-Acro on 3. 13. 1 and Porph. on epist. 1. 16. 12); substantial support is provided by serm. 2. 6. 2 ‘tecto vicinus iugis aquae fons’ and epist. 1. 16. 12 ff. ‘fons etiam rivo dare nomen idoneus, ut nec / frigidior Thracam nec purior ambiat Hebrus’ (for the ‘Fonte Oratina’ see the map in Encicl. oraz. 1. 254). It is true that a papal bull of 1103 mentions ‘ecclesia sanctorum martyrum Gervasii and Protasii in Bandusino fonte apud Venusiam’ together with a neighbouring ‘castellum Bandusii’ (P. Jaffe`, Regesta Pontificum, edn. 2, 1881–5: no. 5945); for modern attempts to identify the site at San Gervasio, 7 miles south of Venosa, see B. Capmartin de Chaupy, De´couverte de la maison de campagne d’Horace 3, 1769: 536 ff., E. T. Ramage, The Nooks and Byways of Italy, 1868: 210, N. Douglas, Old Calabria, 1915: ch. 7. ‘Bandusia’ looks like a south Italian corruption of the Greek Pandosia, ‘giver of everything’ (cf. Skutsch on Enn. ann. 166, Burrus for Pyrrhus); Pandosia was
1 3 . O F O N S BA N DV S I A E
173
the name of several places in S. Italy (RE 18. 3. 549 ff.), and is paralleled by similar formations (Venusia, Canusium, Brundisium), whereas in Latium a Greek name would be unexpected, and the intervocalic s should have changed to r (see further F. Ribezzo, Rivista IndoGreco-Italica 21, 1937: 63 f., 93 f.). The best way of accounting for this evidence is to assume that Horace gave to a Sabine spring the name of a famous landmark near his birthplace; for this practice cf. Cicero’s ‘Academia’ and ‘Lyceum’ at Tusculum (Tusc. 2. 9, div. 1. 8), Augustus’ ‘Syracuse’ in his Palatine palace (Suet. Aug. 72. 2), Andromache’s ‘falsi Simoentis’ in Epirus (Virg. Aen. 3. 302), W. Go¨rler, ‘Sentimentale Namengebung’ in Pratum Saraviense (ed. W. Go¨rler and S. Koster), Palingenesia 30, 1990: 169 ff. The professed occasion of the ode is uncertain. When Horace says that a kid will be offered to the spring ‘tomorrow’ (3), he seems to be thinking of a particular festival. As the poem is addressed to a fons, most commentators refer to the Fontinalia on 13 October (Latte 77). Varro says garlands were offered to Fons on that day (lL 6. 22: ‘(Fontinalibus) in fontes coronas iaciunt et puteos coronant’), but in mid-October coronae were probably made of leaves and other greenery rather than flowers (2 n.); again, the libation of wine need not be connected with the October vintage. For blood-sacrifices to Fons cf. Ov. fast. 3. 300 (Numa offers a sheep on 1 March), Acta Fratrum Arvalium (ed. G. Henzen, 1874, p. 146), ‘Fonti verbeces II’ (on 8 Feb. and 7 Nov.); but a sacrifice on the Fontinalia is not attested. More importantly, this theory does not allow the most direct and immediate interpretation of the reflected sunlight (1), the ‘burning Dog-Star’, which rose on 18 July (9 n.), and the shade provided for ploughing-oxen (10–12 n.). Cairns, however, sees these as representing the most striking features of the spring, regardless of date. There is also a further complication. The usual pattern of goatbreeding was for the animals to mate in the autumn and for the kids to be born in the following spring (Varr. rust. 2. 3. 8 of the nanny-goat ‘quae concepit [desistente autumno], post quartum mensem reddit tempore verno’, Plin. nat. hist. 8. 200 ‘concipiunt Novembri mense ut Martio pariant’, Colum. 7. 6. 6). As a kid’s horns begin to bulge a month after birth, and have normally broken through after two, Horace’s kid (4–5) could not have been at the stage described much after the middle of May—five months too soon for the Fontinalia. So one has to assume a later birth. K. D. White (1970), 314 says kids could be born twice a year; cf. D. Mackenzie, Goat Husbandry edn. 3, 1978: 218, who refers to cases in Africa, and Virg. georg. 2. 150 who cites ‘bis gravidae pecudes’ as one of the marvels of Italy, though the animals are not specified. If Horace’s kid was born in early September, it would be at the right stage for the Fontinalia in October. In any case,
174
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
some variation in the pattern must be assumed in order to account for the sacrifice of a tener haedus on 5 December (3. 18. 5) and a possibly older haedus on 13 February (1. 4. 11 f.); for information of this topic we are indebted to Dr Catharine Bazeley of the Bristol University Veterinary School. Schmidt (op. cit. 109) sets Horace’s sacrifice at the festival of the Camenae on 13 August; but when Horace refers to his own poetry in the last stanza, he gives no hint that the Camenae have inspired him. Others set Horace’s sacrifice at the Neptunalia on 23 July (thus the Brind’Amours, op.cit.); this festival was originally concerned not with the sea but with springs, whose continuing existence in midsummer occasioned popular rejoicing (see introduction to 3. 28). The date fits the references to sunlight, heat, and leafy shelter mentioned above; it also suits the ploughing-oxen (10–12 n.). The sacrifice to Neptune was regularly a bull (RE 16. 2. 2520), but so grand an offering was appropriate only to public occasions. As with the Fontinalia, the date finds no support in the statements of Varro, Pliny, and Columella; one notes, however, that Hesiod (op. 592) enjoys the flesh of young kids (æøª ø Kæø) ‘when Sirius parches head and knees’ (587). It is true that if Horace was thinking of the Neptunalia one might have expected him to mention it, as he does in 3. 28, but he may have thought that the poetic details referred to above gave a sufficient indication of the season.To sum up: if one is prepared to rely on Hesiod to fill the gap in our knowledge of Italian goat-breeding, the Neptunalia meets the other criteria and seems on balance the most attractive hypothesis. The description of the sacrifice has provoked disagreement of a different kind. When Horace contrasts the glittering spring with the stain of the victim’s blood (inficiet in v. 6), Campbell (1924: 2) comments ‘who wants a drink after that?’ But Horace says nothing about drinking, and the blood would soon be washed away. Fraenkel sees only sympathy for the kid ‘warm, pretty, and amusing in its youthful pranks, which only too soon will come to an end’ (203, comparing 4. 2. 54 ff.). David West speaks of ‘a complex stimulus, the life spurting from the animal’s jugular, an ancient religious observance of your race, the promise of a good supper, good wine and good company, perhaps with some music and love’ (Reading Horace, 1967: 130). True, an agricultural society was not squeamish about slaughtering animals (for the clash of attitudes cf. Hardy’s Jude the Obscure part 1, ch. 10); and in the ancient world sacrifice had a potency not now easily understood (see W. Burkert, Homo Necans, English edn. 1983: 40 for the excitement generated on such occasions). None of this primitive emotion is apparent in Horace’s poem, but some moderns find a disconcerting element in the aesthetic contrast of red blood and cool water (cf. J. Griffin, JRS 87, 1997: 63); this impression is
1 3 . O F O N S BA N DV S I A E
175
not removed by observing that the sacrifice lies in the future (Smith and Vessey, opp. citt.). It is perhaps worth adding that in presenting the natural scene Horace, unlike a romantic poet, says nothing directly about his feelings. Formally the ode has features of a hymn, even if such a hymn could not figure in the ceremony envisaged: here we may note the opening address (1 n., 2 n.), the praise of the spring’s virtues (9–12), the anaphora of tu . . . tu . . . tuae; cf. Norden (1913), 149 ff., N–H on 1. 10. 9. But in practice it owes more to Greek epigrams (Pasquali, op. cit.). Sometimes these are descriptive, emphazing cool water and leafy shade (see e.g. Anyte, anth. Pal. 9. 313, anth. Plan. 228, Gutzwiller 68 ff.); rocks and a solitary tree may also be mentioned (14–15 n.). Dedicatory epigrams are another influence (Cairns, op. cit.); here we may compare Leonidas, anth. Pal. 6. 334 and 9. 326, Crinagoras, ibid. 6. 253 (all illustrating natural features). Yet it would be wrong to characterize Horace’s very original lyric too schematically; the offering is promised more indirectly than is usual in an epigram (3 n.), the conventional themes are attached to a real place in the Italian countryside and are associated with a real Italian ritual, while the final stanza displays a different and deeper purpose. Although the concluding vignette matches the opening line, Horace now reveals that he is offering more than a kid: because of this very ode Bandusia will be counted with the springs celebrated by Greek poets. For such claims cf. Theog. 237, Ibycus, PMG 282. 47 f. ŒÆd , —ºŒæÆ , Œº ¼ŁØ ( Ø = ‰ ŒÆ IØa ŒÆd Ke Œº , Prop. 3. 2. 17 f., Ov. trist. 5. 14. 4 ‘tu tamen ingenio clara ferere meo’, Shakespeare, sonnet 18. 13 f. ‘So long as men can breathe and eyes can see / So long lives this and this gives life to thee’ (with J. B. Leishman, Themes and Variations in Shakespeare’s Sonnets, 1961: ch. 1). In spite of Horace’s hymnal style, the boast could not have been made in addressing a deity, or for that matter a ruler (though note 4. 9. 25 ff. to Lollius); for a similar claim with reference to a natural feature cf. Cic. leg. 1. 1 (the oak at Arpinum described in Cicero’s Marius) ‘manet . . . et semper manebit; sata est enim ingenio’. Most critics see that the ode is more than a pretty nature-poem, but some of their efforts to formulate a more profound interpretation only muddy the waters. One says that ‘as [the] warm blood mingles with the lucid water it is easy to sense a suggestion of the transformation of life into art’; another, noting that frons and cornua were parts of a book-roll, thinks that ‘the death of the kid . . . would be no less the death of poetic overreaching in epic vein, a kind of recusatio under the veil of metaphor’; another believes that ‘the sacrifice of the kid represents the sacrifice of the living individual that poetry itself demands’; another, commenting on me dicente (14) writes ‘Horace’s perfectly self-reflexive participial
176
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
construction thus harbors its own semantic turgidity, like the kid’s brow and like the spring itself, forever brimming over into the future’. Such notions remind us that to be open and receptive is not the critic’s only business. Metre: two Asclepiads followed by a Pherecratean and a Glyconic. 1. O fons Bandusiae, splendidior vitro: the formal o is not generally used with Latin vocatives but here suits the hymnal style. The genitive gives the name of the spring (for which see the introduction), not of a nymph, who would have been addressed directly, nor yet of a district (thus ps.-Acro, but that would be too colourless); for the construction, where Cicero would have said fons Bandusia, cf. Virg. Aen. 1. 247 ‘urbem Patavi’, H–Sz 62 f. splendidior means ‘more glittering’, and refers to the reflection of the sunlight; cf. Call. Hec. fr. 18. 2 Hollis (¼ 238. 16 ff.) æÆ ºØ Ææ PæÆe qł, Ov. met. 13. 791 9 (to Galatea) ‘splendidior vitro’. More usually glass suggests translucence, sometimes with a hint of green (N–H on 1. 17. 20); cf. 1. 18. 16 ‘perlucidior vitro’, 4. 2. 3 f. ‘vitreo . . . ponto’, Virg. Aen. 7. 759 ‘vitrea . . . unda’ (with Horsfall), Plin. epist. 8. 8. 2 ‘purus et vitreus’ (on the source of the Clitumnus); see further M. L. Trowbridge, ‘Philological Studies in Ancient Glass’ (Univ. of Illinois Stud. in Lang. and Lit. 13, 1928: 59 ff.). 2. dulci digne mero non sine floribus: ‘unmixed wine’ was used in libations and other ritual offerings; ‘sweet’ is a conventional epithet applied to wine in general, but here it may emphasize literal sweetness (3. 12. 1–2 n.). digne suits the religious language (3. 21. 6); the alliterative dulci digne (balanced by donaberis below) helps to suggest an archaic rite. For the offering of wine to springs cf. Longus 4. 32. 3 (of Chloe) KŒæÆ b ŒÆd c ªc Yfiø, Schmidt, op. cit. 108 n. For the litotes non sine cf. 3. 7. 7 n. Flowers suit summer better than autumn, unless we are supposed to see a contrast between the usual offerings and tomorrow’s special sacrifice. 3. cras donaberis haedo: a real dedication would normally use a ‘performative’ present tense (‘I hereby give’), unless where the offering depended on a reciprocal benefit (Virg. ecl. 7. 31 f., Petr. 85. 6); here a promise is made on the eve of the celebration (cf. 3. 17. 14, epist. 1. 5. 9 f.). Similarly the passive verb detaches the lyric from the usual dedicatory formulae and puts the emphasis on the spring rather than on the poet, whose most important offering turns out to be, not the kid, but the ode itself. For blood-sacrifices at springs see the introduction; add Hom. Od. 17. 240 ff. (Odysseus offers sheep and kids to the nymphs), Mart. 6. 47. 5, P. Stengel, Die griechischen Kultusaltertu¨mer, edn. 3, 1920: 135 ff.
1 3 . O F O N S BA N DV S I A E
177
4–5. cui frons turgida cornibus / primis et Venerem et proelia destinat: the emphatic primis means ‘earliest’ (cf. Sen. Tro. 538 ‘primisque nondum cornibus findens cutem’), balancing destinat, not ‘tips of the horns’ (Quinn, Williams) which are not yet evident; for the picture cf. Lucr. 5. 1034 f. (of a bull calf ) ‘cornua nata prius vitulo quam frontibus extent, / illis iratus petit atque infestus inurget’, Sen. Hf 142 with Billerbeck, Mart. 6. 38. 8, Juv. 12. 9, Galen, de usu partium 1. 3. 6 (p. 4 Helmreich). For ‘Venus’ applied to animals cf. 2. 5. 3 (with N–H vol. 2, p. 78), Virg. georg. 2. 329 ‘et Venerem certis repetunt armenta diebus’, 3. 210, OLD 4b; horns are symbols of aggressive masculinity, for they are used to repel sexual rivals (Onians 238 ff.). proelia is smilingly grandiloquent in this context; cf. Virg. georg. 3. 219 f. ‘pascitur in magna Sila formosa iuvenca: / illi alternantes multa vi proelia miscent’ and 4. 5. 6–7. frustra; nam gelidos inficiet tibi / rubro sanguine rivos: for the detached frustra followed by nam cf. 3. 7. 21 n., E. Wo¨lfflin, ALL 2. 10 f. inficiet (‘discolour’) is set against the purity of splendidior (1); for a similar prediction cf. Theoc. epig. 1. 5 f. (¼ anth. Pal. 6. 336. 5 f.) øe , ƃ Ø ŒæÆe æª y › ƺ , = æŁı æªø Æ IŒæ Æ (as in our poem there is a contrast with the living animal). gelidos implies that the blood is warm, rubro that the spring is clear (Kiessling ad loc., Bell 341, Schmidt 344 ff.). RN thinks that tibi has some emphasis as part of the sacral anaphora at 9 ff., NR prefers to take it as enclitic with inficiet. For the plural rivos (ÞŁæÆ) cf. Tib. 1. 1. 28. 8. lascivi suboles gregis: lascivi picks up Venerem; as applied to goats it means not only ‘frisky’ but ‘lustful’ (OLD 4). suboles [sub þ alo] is used of an animal that replenishes the stock; according to Cicero (de orat. 3. 153), the word has an archaic tinge and suits poetry (Tusc. 2. 23 ‘Titanum suboles’) rather than oratory (yet cf. Marc. 23 ‘propaganda suboles’). 9–10. te flagrantis atrox hora Caniculae / nescit tangere: for the emphatic te see the introduction. Canicula is Sirius, the Dog-Star (Hom.Il. 22. 26 ff., Hes. op. 417 ff. with West, 587, N–H on 1. 17. 17, serm. 1. 7. 25 f., anon. anth. Pal. 10. 12. 7 Ø b ıª OøæØF Œıe pŁÆ, Le Boeuffle 134 ff.); its ‘rising’ on 18 July (Plin. nat. hist. 2. 123), i.e. the date when this came closest before sunrise (3. 1. 27 n.), coincided with the hottest time of the year, and its invisible presence was supposed to have caused the heat (3. 1. 32 n., Plin. nat. hist. 18. 269 f.); for the ‘Dog-Days’ see further B. Blackburn and L. Holford-Strevens, The Oxford Companion to the Year, 1999: 595 f. hora here means ‘season’, a Greek usage not attested in Latin before Horace; cf. 1. 12. 16 with N–H, ars 302 ‘sub verni temporis horam’, TLL 6. 3. 2964. 1 ff. (for the Greek cf. Alc. 347. 2 L–P I þæÆ
178
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
ƺÆ, Opp. hal. 3. 47 f. łØ ‰æ = &Øæı). atrox, a strong word sometimes used of weather (OLD 1b), also suits a savage dog (OLD 5); cf. epist. 1. 10. 16 ‘rabiem Canis’, Manil. 1. 396 f., Pers. 3. 5. nescit, although like atrox grammatically attached to hora, suggests a sentient creature that is at a loss how to hurt. The euphemistic tangere suits both climatic afflictions (OLD 4) and dog-bites. 10–12. tu frigus amabile / fessis vomere tauris / praebes et pecori vago: for the picture cf. 3. 29. 21 ff., Virg. ecl. 2. 8 ‘nunc etiam pecudes umbras et frigora captant’. frigus is set against flagrantis, and amabilis against atrox; as the noun often has unpleasant connotations, there is an element of paradox here. The agricultural writers distinguished vomer ‘ploughshare’ from aratrum ‘plough’, e.g. Cato, agr. 10. 2 ‘aratra cum vomeribus’, Varro, rust. 1. 29. 3, but the poets often used vomer for ‘plough’ by synecdoche; cf. carina, ‘keel’, for ‘ship’. Ploughing is compatible with both summer and autumn; for the former cf. Xen. oec. 16. 14, Theophr. caus. plant. 3. 20. 7, Theoc. 25. 25 (with Gow), Varro, rust. 1. 32. 1, Colum. 11. 2. 54; this ploughing was supposed to be completed between the solstice and the Dog-Star. The normal word for ploughing oxen was boves (epod. 2. 3 ‘bobus exercet suis’), the uncastrated taurus being used for breeding, but poets sometimes ignored the distinction; cf. Virg. georg. 1. 45 (with Mynors), Ov. fast. 1. 698. pecori vago here refers not to sheep (OLD 1b) but to goats (corresponding to gregis in v. 8), which unlike the yoked oxen can range freely (cf. 1. 17. 6 f. ‘deviae / olentis uxores mariti’, culex 104 f. ‘vagae . . . capellae’). The adjective vago balances fessae in a chiastic pattern. 13. fies nobilium tu quoque fontium: H is thinking of such celebrated springs as Arethusa, Castalia, and Hippocrene; but whereas they inspired poets and made them famous, here it is the poet who confers the fame (see the introduction). For this type of partitive genitive cf. epist. 1. 9. 13 ‘scribe tui gregis hunc’, Plaut. mil. 1016 ‘cedo signum si harunc Baccharum es’, Strab. 8. 6. 12 , ¯æØ Kd H PŒ Iø ºø, K–S 1. 453. 14–15. me dicente cavis impositam ilicem / saxis: me is emphatic, answering tu (13). dicente as often refers to celebration in song or poetry (OLD 7b). For the combination of rock and water cf. Hom. Il. 9. 14 f. Œæ ºıæ , = l ŒÆ ÆNªºØ æ æe Ø oøæ, Leonidas, anth. Pal. 9. 326. 1, Theoc. 1. 8, 7. 136 f., Ap. Rhod. 3. 227, Ov. fast. 3. 295 ff. (also with an ilex), T. B. L. Webster, Hellenistic Poetry and Art, 1964: 164. The rocks are described as hollow because a grotto was regarded as picturesque (Bo¨mer on Ov. fast. 2. 315), perhaps also to suggest an echo. The solitary tree makes a conspicuous vertical
1 4 . H ERC V LI S R I T V
179
feature (as at 3. 22. 5); for its position by the spring cf. Plat. Phaedr. 230b, Leonidas, anth. Pal. 6. 334. 2, anth. Plan. 230. 4 ff. aæ Œfi Æ Øfi Æ ıœ = æØ ŒºÆæ Kߌæı Øa æ = AÆ, ´æØÆ łı æ æ Ø , Theoc. 1. 1 f. The ilex or holm-oak (instead of the conventional plane or pine) is an Italian touch (RE 5. 2058 ff., Abbe 87 f., Meiggs 45, 218); it may be significant that the tree is evergreen and longlived (Lefkowitz, op. cit., Plin. nat. hist. 16. 237 ‘vetustior autem urbe in Vaticano ilex’). Rocks, trees, water, and goats are regular components of the so-called ‘sacral-idyllic landscape’; see E. W. Leach, Virgil’s Eclogues: Landscapes of Experience, 1974: 86 ff., R. Ling, Roman Painting, 1991: 39 and fig. 38, 55 and fig. 55, 142 f. with fig. 153. 15–16. unde loquaces / lymphae desiliunt tuae: loquaces is predicative with desiliunt; the adjective is not attested for water before H. For leaping water cf. OLD salio 3, Catull. 68. 58 ‘prosilit’, epod. 16. 47 f. ‘mella cava manant ex ilice, montibus altis / levis crepante lympha desilit pede’—a passage very like this in its sound and in its personification of lympha, which was in fact connected with nympha (OLD 1, serm. 1. 5. 97, RE 17. 2. 1581 f.). The alliteration of l, qu, c, l, found also in ilicem above and in the lines from epod. 16, has an onomatopoeic appeal; cf. Virg. georg. 1. 108 ff. ‘ecce supercilio clivosi tramitis undam / elicit; illa cadens raucum per levia murmur / saxa ciet’, elaborating Hom. Il. 21. 260 ff., L. P. Wilkinson, Golden Latin Artistry, 1963: 57. tuae in the final position picks up tu (13) and balances me (14), bringing out the close, quasipersonal, relationship between the poet and the object addressed. The ode ends, as it began, with an aesthetic response to the spring’s beauty.
14. HERC VLIS RITV [Cairns 179 ff.; M.Dyson, G&R 20, 1973: 169 ff.; Fraenkel 288 ff.; T. S. Johnson, Philologus 141, 1997: 323 ff.; D.Kienast, Chiron 1, 1971: 239 ff.; Lyne (1995), 169 ff.; R. G. M. Nisbet, PLLS 4, 1983: 105 ff.; Pasquali 195 ff.; M. C. J. Putnam, Zeitgenosse Horaz (ed. H. Krasser and E. A. Schmidt), 1996: 442 ff.; U. W. Scholz, WS 5, 1971: 123 ff.; E. Wistrand, Miscellanea Propertiana, 1977: 20 ff.]
1–12. Augustus, who was thought to be dying, is returning victorious like Hercules from Spain. Let his wife come forth with other matrons in solemn thanksgiving, while the children keep ritual silence. 13–16. I shall not fear internal strife while Augustus rules the world. 17–28. Bring me old wine for my private celebration, if a jar has escaped the Italian wars; ask Neaera to join me, but if the doorman stops her, come away. I am less hot-blooded than I was in the year of Philippi.
180
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
This ode celebrates the return of Augustus from Spain in the early summer of 24 bc; he had left for Gaul in 27 and had not been back since. In 26 he commanded in person against the Cantabrians in the mountains of northern Spain (see the introduction to 3. 8 citing Syme, and the note on 3. 8. 21). Later he fell ill and retired to Tarraco on the east coast (Dio 53. 25. 7); the campaign of 25 against the Astures was fought by his legates, and at the end of the year his nephew Marcellus came home without him to marry his daughter Julia (9 n.). When Augustus finally reached Rome, he declined a triumph (Flor. 2. 33. 53), but was voted other honours to celebrate his recovery and return (Dio 53. 28. 3). Though the temple of Janus had been closed at the end of 25 (Dio 53. 26. 5), the war had taken longer than expected, and the illness of Augustus had caused grave anxiety. The ode contains features of a conventional type of panegyric, the celebration of a great man’s arrival (adventus): apart from descriptions in Greek (Polyb. 16. 25, Posidonius fr. 253. 35 f. Kidd, Matthew 21: 8–11, etc., Pasquali, loc cit.), cf. two other odes (4. 2. 33 ff. and 4. 5), Cicero’s account of his return from exile (Att. 4. 1. 4–5, Sest. 131, Pis. 51–2), a couple of epigrams by Martial (7. 8, 10. 6), the panegyrici of Pliny (22–3) and his fourth-century followers, the prescriptions of Menander Rhetor 377–88 on the epibaterios logos (speech of welcome on arrival), and the poems by Dryden and Cowley on Charles II’s restoration. Typical commonplaces are the comparison with Hercules (1 n.), the participation of all classes (1 n.), the hint of an IØ or ‘coming to meet’ (6 n.), the religious ceremonies (6 n.), the presence of children (10 n.), the brightness of the great day (13–14 n.). Some features are also found in private addresses of welcome (N–H vol. 2, p. 107, Cairns 21 ff.): the dangers past (‘morte venalem’ in 2), the distant lands visited (3 f.), the return to the Penates (3), the celebratory symposium (17 ff.). For adventus see further A. Alfo¨ldi, Die monarchische Repra¨sentation im ro¨mischen Kaiserreiche, 1970: 88 ff., T. E. V. Pearce, CQ 20, 1970: 313 ff., S. MacCormack, Historia 21, 1972: 721 ff., I. M. Le M. Du Quesnay in S. J. Harrison, 1995: 135 ff. (with bibliography). The ode also describes a supplicatio (cf. ‘supplice vitta’ in v. 8); this was a national day either of prayer for the future or thanksgiving for the past (Wissowa 423 ff., RE 4A. 1. 942 ff.), and as here (5 ff.) women played a central part in the rituals (Liv. 27. 51. 9 ‘cum matronae amplissima veste cum liberis . . . omni solutae metu deis immortalibus grates agerent’). Such supplicationes were often voted on news of a victory, sometimes as a preliminary to a triumph (L. Halkin, La Supplication d’action de graˆces chez les Romains, 1953, G. Freyburger, ANRW 16. 2. 1418 ff.), but here the situation is different as the victory lies in the past. repetit (3) shows that Augustus is now on his way back, iustis divis (6) implies that the gods have delivered him safe from both war and illness (so one assumes he is
1 4 . H ERC V LI S R I T V
181
nearing home), dies festus (13) is the day of his arrival, but the nature of the preparations suggests that by now he is known to have refused a triumph. In determining the occasion of the poem we are not obliged to choose between an adventus (thus e.g. Syndikus 2. 137) and a supplicatio (Heinze, Kienast, Wistrand). The first three stanzas celebrate the public occasion with patriotic and religious language, e.g. Herculis ritu (1), morte venalem (2), victor (4), operata divis (6), supplice vitta (8), sospitum (10), male nominatis (11). Here Horace first addresses the people in a way unrealistic for a Roman (plebs 1 n.); then, following a Callimachean technique (Pasquali 196 cites hymns 2, 5, and 6), he announces what everybody is expected to do. Even in this formal part of the poem there is a significant emphasis on the private sphere: Augustus’ domestic Penates (3), Livia’s joy in her husband (5), Octavia’s affection for her brother (7 n.), the grace and reverence of the matrons (7 f.), the stilling of the children’s chatter (10 ff.). The rites evoke the traditional piety of the Roman people, in contrast to 4. 5 (the return of Augustus in 13 bc), where the libations are poured to Augustus himself and there are already hints of the imperial cult. The fourth stanza occupies the centre of the poem and links the very different sections that come before and after; for the significance of this position see introduction to 3. 8. Horace now turns from the public ceremonies to his personal reactions (for the same movement cf. 1. 31. 15 ff., 4. 2. 45 ff.). The transition is marked by mihi (13) and ego (14), which point forward, balancing non ego at the end of the poem. At the same time Horace looks back to the patriotic themes of the earlier part: Caesar (3) is picked up by Caesare (16) and morte (2) by mori (15). But now the emphasis is not on Spanish victories but on the freedom from civil strife that Augustus’ return will surely guarantee. This reminds us that, in spite of the air of confidence conveyed by the poets, this was a time of crisis for the Principate; cf Syme (1939), 333, Kienast, op.cit. In the last three stanzas Horace prepares for his private symposium in a way that recalls the home-coming of Numida (1. 36) and Pompeius (2. 7). The brisk instructions to a slave (i in 17, dic in 21) are set against the hushed procession in the first part of the poem; Neaera and her perfumed hair belong to a different world from that of the pious matrons of 7 f. ‘decorae supplice vitta’. Scholars are worried by the dichotomy, but Horace is contrasting the formal rites of the imperial family with the spontaneous rejoicing of an ordinary citizen, which in the poet’s case takes the form of a symposium; in the same way Propertius hopes to watch a triumph ‘in sinu . . . nixus . . . puellae’ (3. 4. 15), and commemorates Actium with an all-night carousal (4. 6. 85 f.). Far from complaining about a lack of unity, we should be fascinated by the
182
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
ingenious juxtaposition of diverse elements (cf. the introduction to 3. 11 and N–H vol. 1, p. xix). What is more, Horace’s symposium contains a serious message; for just as the public stanzas take account of family affections, so the private stanzas contain allusions to the nation’s troubled past: Horace sends for a wine that recalls the Italian conflicts of 91–87 bc and has eluded the marauding bands of Spartacus (73–71 bc); and if the glamorous Neaera is kept from coming to his party, so be it; there are to be no rows. This may sound like no more than a wistful statement about his changed attitude to sex, but when he says he is now less hot-headed and pugnacious than in the year of Philippi (27–8 n.), he is also distancing himself (not without a twinge of nostalgia) from the political fervour of his youth; the way to a peaceful future lies in supporting Augustus. Metre: Sapphic. 1. Herculis ritu: the phrase should be combined with repetit (3), as ps.Acro saw, not with petiisse (2), as is usually done; the victorious return from Spain is the point of the comparison (Nisbet, op. cit. 106 f.). ritu ‘in the manner of ’ keeps its original suggestion of a solemn ceremony (cf. Suet. Vit. 10. 2 ‘ritu triumphantium’); elsewhere it is applied to ways of life (Cic. amic. 32 ‘pecudum’), natural phenomena (3. 29. 33 ‘fluminis’), or old precedents (serm. 2. 1. 29 ‘Lucili’). Augustus was often compared with Hercules, the civilizer of the world (3. 3. 9 n., 4. 5. 36, Virg. Aen. 6. 801 ff., Dio 56. 36. 4, the funeral oration ascribed to Tiberius). On his return from the East in 29 bc he had entered the city on 13 August, the day after the ceremonies devoted to Hercules at the Ara Maxima; an association is presumed by Virgil in Aen. 8. 102–305 (Binder 42 ff., 145 ff.). Similarly on this occasion orators must have suggested an analogy between Augustus’ return from the Cantabrian wars and Hercules’ visit to the site of Rome after his defeat of the Spanish giant Geryon (Aen. 8. 201 ff., Apollod. 2. 5. 10 with Frazer). See further E. Norden, RhM 54, 1899: 466 ff. ¼ Kl. Schr. (1966), 422 ff. (on a commonplace originating with Alexander), A. R. Anderson, HSCP 39, 1928: 44 ff., Christ (1938), 129 ff., R. Schilling, RPh 16, 1942: 31 ff., E. Doblhofer, RhM 107, 1964: 327 ff., Scholz, op. cit. 127 ff., K. Galinsky, The Herakles Theme, 1972: 136 ff. 1–2. modo dictus, o plebs, / morte venalem petiisse laurum: ‘who was reported but lately. . . to have sought a bay-crown at the cost of his life’. The content of the rumours is given by the emphatic morte venalem, not by petiisse laurum (as translators often imply); dictus would not be applied to anything so obvious as Augustus’ quest for glory, and modo
1 4 . H ERC V LI S R I T V
183
suits the illness of 25 bc better than the departure of 27. For morte venalem cf. Pind. P. 6. 39 æÆ b ŁÆØ ŒØa Ææ , Xen. Cyr. 3. 1. 36, Isoc. 6. 109, Virg. Aen. 5. 230, 9. 205 f. ‘istum / qui vita bene credat emi, quo tendis, honorem’, Quint. inst. 9. 3. 71. The vocative plebs is paralleled perhaps only at Ov. Ib. 79, and populus and vulgus are very rare as vocatives; see J. Svennung, Anredeformen, 1958: 237 ff., 284 ff., Fraenkel 289 n. 1, Dickey 295, H–Sz 24. Roman poets followed their Greek predecessors in addressing the citizen body, though in real life they had no such right; cf. 3. 24. 45 ff., epod. 7. 1 ff., 16. 15 ff. (with Fraenkel 42 ff.). Descriptions of an adventus often emphasize the participation of all classes; cf. Cic. Pis. 52 ‘omnes viri ac mulieres omnis fortunae ac loci’, Ov. fast. 4. 293, trist. 4. 2. 15 ‘plebs pia cumque pia laetetur plebe senatus’, Stat. silv. 1. 6. 44, Dio 51. 19. 2 (30 bc). It is relevant that in 24 Augustus made donations to the urban plebs (Dio 53. 28. 1); his assumption of the tribunicia potestas in 23 represented another populist gesture (CAH edn. 2, 10. 86, otherwise Lacey 154 ff.). 3–4. Caesar Hispana repetit Penatis / victor ab ora: Hispana gains emphasis from the long hyperbaton and underlines the analogy with Hercules; its juxtaposition with Caesar associates the man and the country as in the triumphal Fasti. repetit makes a formal contrast with the similarly placed petiisse (2). Victor, like Invictus, was sometimes a title of Hercules (Carter 43 f.), and he had two temples at Rome under this name (L. Richardson 188 ff. and Steinby 3. 22 ff.). ora probably refers to the northern coast of Spain, where Augustus had won his victories (cf. 3. 8. 21 ‘servit Hispanae vetus hostis orae’); the word, which primarily means ‘edge’, here suggests ‘distant shores’ (epist. 1. 3. 1 ‘quibus terrarum militet oris’). It is true that Augustus had returned from Tarraco on the east coast, where he had been ill for much of 25 bc, but if that were the reference, ora would strike a less heroic note. 5. unico gaudens mulier marito: the formidable Livia, a daughter of the Livii Drusi, had married Octavian in 39, and their marriage lasted over fifty years. unico means ‘one and only’, i.e. ‘incomparable’ (E. Dutoit, Latomus 15, 1956: 481 ff.); for its application to husbands and wives cf. Plaut. merc. 768, Tac. ann. 15. 63 ‘unice dilectam’, Suet. Aug. 62 ‘dilexitque et probavit (Liviam) unice ac perseveranter’. unicus can also be used of military and political leaders; cf. Catull. 29. 11 ‘imperator unice’ (there ironic), Liv. 6. 6. 17 ‘unico imperatore’ (Camillus), A. Cameron, Hermes 104, 1976: 156 ff. (who suggests that the phrase belonged to imperatorial acclamations). In this passage we are perhaps
184
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
led to expect a political compliment, then by the delayed marito the force of the adjective is shifted to domestic affection. It is wrong to point to the Roman esteem for the univira (the woman who had married only once); Livia had been married previously to the father of Tiberius, who had lost her to Octavian in scandalous circumstances, and it would be embarrassing to suggest that she was a kind of honorary univira. 6. prodeat: ‘let her come forth’ (i.e. from the imperial palace), not ‘let her advance in procession’; the verb suggests a formal appearance as at Catull. 61. 96 ‘prodeas, nova nupta’. Nisbet (op. cit. 108 f.) at one time compared obviam prodire (to go out of the city gates to meet someone, especially at a formal adventus), but here there is no obviam and no indication of place, and Livia’s immediate purpose is to offer sacrifice (see next note). Even so, ‘prodeat (domo)’ balances ‘repetit Penatis’; so a meeting in the near future is implied. iustis operata divis: operata refers to a sacrifice; such a rite suited any home-coming (1. 36. 1 f., 2. 7. 17 with N–H), in particular a public adventus, and it played a central part in a supplicatio. Before the elder Pliny the word is attested only in the -atus form, which seems originally to have been an adjective like feriatus (see J. P. Postgate, JPh 26, 1899: 314 ff., TLL 9. 2. 690. 7 ff.); so here it means not ‘having sacrificed’ (where it would have to refer to the household gods), but ‘performing due ritual’ without any indication of priority (cf. Porph. ‘pro prodeat et operetur divis, id est sacrificet’). The gods are just because they have repaid the nation’s prayers and sacrifices; cf. Ov. her. 6. 151 f. ‘quod si quid ab alto / iustus adest votis Iuppiter ipse meis’, trist. 4. 2. 11 f. ‘cumque bonis nuribus pro sospite Livia nato / munera det meritis saepe datura deis’. The variant iustis . . . sacris is equally well attested (though the scholiasts support divis); the case would still be dative rather than ablative (cf. Liv. 1. 31. 8 ‘operatum his sacris’, Quint. 10. 3. 13 ‘scholae adhuc operatum’, OLD s.v. operatus 2). The phrase would naturally be taken as ‘conventionally appropriate rites’ (not ‘rites that Augustus deserved’); and this is less pointed than iustis . . . divis. The latter reflects the ancient feeling that gods can be held to bargains. 7. et soror cari ducis: Octavia; she had additional importance at this time as the mother of Marcellus. One side of the manuscript tradition reads clari, which would be more usual; cf. Cic. Marc. 30, Sen. Tro. 255 ‘clari ducis’, TLL 5. 1. 2327. 48 ff. Yet the affectionate cari provides a better parallel to unico . . . marito; for the unexpected collocation with ducis cf. 1. 1. 2 ‘dulce decus meum’, which also combines the public and private spheres.
1 4 . H ERC V LI S R I T V
185
7–8. et decorae / supplice vitta: decorae (‘seemly’) suggests grace as well as propriety. The vitta was a headband reserved for matrons (Plaut. mil. 792, Tib. 1. 6. 67, Blu¨mner 273); woollen vittae were used on religious occasions (Bo¨mer on Ov. fast. 3. 29 f., Headlam on Herodas 8. 11). supplice refers not to a petition but to a thanksgiving (Sen. Hf 875 f. ‘Thebis laeta dies adest: / aras tangite, supplices’); for the application of the adjective to things cf. OLD s.v. 2. Soph. OT 3 ƒŒæØ ŒºØØ K Ø. 9–10. virginum matres iuvenumque nuper / sospitum: iuvenum refers to officers who have recently returned from Spain; the virgines are their fiance´es whose marriage has been delayed by the war. These categories include Octavia’s son Marcellus and Augustus’ daughter Julia, who are indirectly alluded to here. Marcellus was still in Spain at the end of the campaign of 25 (Dio 53. 26. 1), but then returned to Italy after his depositio barbae (cf. Crinagoras, anth. Pal. 6. 161. 3 f. ÆŁc æH ŒØæ ªØÆ _ º Ææd = oø , ŒÆd łÆØ ÆEÆ ŒÆd ¼æÆ ºÆE); this was a preliminary to his marriage to Julia, which took place still in 25, before Augustus had returned (Dio 53. 27. 5). Livia’s son Tiberius had also served in the war (Suet. Tib. 9. 1, Dio 53. 26. 1); so she as well as Octavia is associated with the matres. sospitum is more solemn than salvorum and here suggests sacral language (cf. 1. 36. 4 ‘Hesperia sospes ab ultima’, Ov. trist. 4. 2. 11 quoted above on v. 6). The adjective must be taken with virginum as well as with iuvenum, otherwise it is not clear who these young women are; their fate depends on the survival of their loved ones (cf. Plaut. Epid. 556 ‘salva sum quia te esse salvom sentio’). 10–11. vos, o pueri et puellae / yiam virum expertaey: vos should be preceded by a semi-colon; the shift to the vocative not only adds liveliness (note o), but detaches the pueri and puellae from the official procession of matrons. If the transmitted text is right (and it is supported by ps.-Acro), one has to assume that the girls who were virgines when their fiance´s returned at the end of 25 were now married women (like Julia) when Augustus arrived in 24; thus W. H. Alexander, CW 36, 1943: 162 f. But pueri does not suit victorious officers (when Marcellus is addressed as ‘miserande puer’ at Aen. 6. 882, that intentionally evokes pathos), and the collocation with puellae seems too sentimental for the context. In the description of a ceremony it is more natural to take pueri et puellae as children, who might well be reminded not to chatter. For their presence on religious occasions cf. 1. 21. 1 f., 4. 6. 31 f., carm. saec. 6 ‘virgines lectas puerosque castos’, epist. 2. 1. 132 ‘castis cum pueris ignara puella mariti’ with Brink, Catull. 34. 2 ‘puellae et pueri integri’; note
186
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
particularly the mention of children in the context of a supplicatio (Cic. Cat. 3. 23, Liv. 27. 51. 9 etc.) as well as their appearance on the Ara Pacis. As iam virum expertae is now impossible, Bentley proposed non virum expertae, which NR is inclined to accept, even though it is rather close to virginum above, who represent a different category. J. Delz has suggested coniugi expertes (MH 30, 1973: 53 f.) on the lines of 3. 11. 11 f. ‘nuptiarum expers et adhuc protervo / cruda marito’; again the expression seems too close to virginum. RN has conjectured labis expertes (the spelling lavis could have originated the corruption); similar expressions are used of moral purity (e.g. Ov. trist. 1. 9. 43 ‘vitae labe carentis’, Sen. epist. 4. 1 ‘mentis ab omni labe purae’) and of victims in ritual contexts (Ov. fast. 4. 335 ‘sine labe iuvencam’, met. 15. 130 ‘victima labe carens’). The phrase is applicable to the boys as well as the girls and is more comprehensive than casti: children taking part in religious ceremonies had to be not just chaste, but also free-born with both parents living (cf. Wissowa 496); note especially Liv. 37. 3. 6 (in the context of a supplicatio) ‘decem ingenui decem virgines, patrimi omnes matrimique ad id sacrificium adhibiti’, Macr. sat. 1. 6. 14. Other interpretations, some very implausible, are recorded by P.Tremoli, GIF 7, 1954: 159 ff., Nisbet, op. cit. 112. 11–12. male nominatis / parcite verbis: male nominatis is not normal Latin for ‘ill-omened’, but can be defended as a literal translation of the Greek ıı ; for such ‘calques se´mantiques’ cf. N–H on 1. 27. 9 and 2. 19. 29. ıı can mean not only ‘bearing an unlucky name’ (Soph. Aj. 914) or ‘unmentionable’ (West on Hes. theog. 171) but ‘of ill omen’; cf. the euphemistic use of Pı to mean ‘inauspicious’. To apply male nominatis to verbis is a further oddity, but H might be attracted by the play on nomen and verbum; cf. the archaic nuncupare verba of ritual formulae, as J. G. F. Powell suggests to us (cf. Liv. 9. 9. 5 ‘verba legitima dedentium urbes nuncupare’, Val. Max. 5. 10. 1 ‘nuncupationem sollemnium verborum’). There is some manuscript support for male ominatis, but the hiatus is surely impossible; the alleged parallels cited by Williams (1969) 94 ff. are all different. Bentley proposed male inominatis, in which the informal male hardly suits the solemn context; the adverb is found with negative adjectives like insulsus and ineptus, but these words admit intensification more naturally than inominatis, as Williams points out. Delz (MH 30, 1973: 54) proposes ab inominatis (after expertes); for this rare construction he compares Liv. 25. 25. 6 ‘precantes ut a caedibus et ab incendiis parceretur’. 13. hic dies vere mihi festus: the day will be festus for H in more than the technical sense; for the same sort of point cf. Claud. de sext. cons. Hon. 603 ff. ‘hinc te iam patriis laribus Via nomine vero / Sacra refert’.
1 4 . H ERC V LI S R I T V
187
13–14. atras / exiget curas: ater is associated not only with worries (3. 1. 40 n., 4. 11. 35), but with death (serm. 2. 1. 58, epist. 1. 7. 6, Andre´, 1949: 51). The curae refer both to Augustus’ health and to the violence mentioned in the following words. The important codex Bernensis has exiget; Priscian, GL 3. 189 has exigit, but the day is only beginning, and it is desirable to have a parallel to metuam (15). For exigere cf. Gratt. cyn. 475 f. ‘Liber tenuis e pectore curas / exigit’, epist. 1. 15. 19 ‘quod curas abigat’; it combines well with hic dies and atras (Sil. 15. 251 ‘Aurora . . . terris exegerat umbras’), and suits the imagery of an adventus (4. 5. 5 ‘lucem redde tuae, dux bone, patriae’ with Doblhofer 86 ff., Claud. de sext. cons. Hon. 537 ff. ‘solitoque decentior aer / . . . principis et solis radiis detersa removit / nubila’ with Dewar’s parallels). The preponderance of the MSS have eximet, which is found elsewhere of the removal of anxieties (epist. 1. 5. 18 ‘sollicitis animis onus eximit’, Cic. Tusc. 2. 29), but the verb is less forceful (cf. A. Minarini, Boll. d. stud. lat. 9, 1997: 42 ff.), and contributes nothing to the imagery. 14–15. ego nec tumultum / nec mori per vim metuam: the emphatic ego balances Caesare below and marks the beginning of the transition described in the introduction above. tumultus was a traditional euphemism for insurrection in Italy or Gallia Cisalpina; cf. Cic. Phil. 8. 3 ‘maiores nostri tumultum Italicum, quod erat domesticus, tumultum Gallicum, quod erat Italiae finitimus, praeterea nullum nominabant’, T. N. Habinek, The Politics of Latin Literature, 1998: 78 f. Similarly vim refers not to foreign battles but to violent disorder at home (Mommsen, Strafrecht, 1899: 652 ff.); the jurists associated vis with metus or terror (Ulp. dig. 4. 2. 1 ‘quodcumque vi atroci fit, id metu quoque fieri videtur’). For the combination with civil war cf. 4. 15. 17 f. ‘custode rerum Caesare, non furor / civilis aut vis exiget otium’ with Heinze’s note. The infinitive mori with nec metuam would normally mean ‘I shall not hesitate to die’ (cf. 3. 9. 11 ‘pro qua non metuam mori’); it is argued that exiget curas and the parallelism of tumultum with mori prevent misunderstanding, but RN shares the doubts of some editors (Peerlkamp, L.Mu¨ller, Campbell). 15–16. tenente Caesare terras: for the Roman claim to mastery of the world cf. 3. 3. 45–6 n. The protection of Augustus is a guarantee of internal peace; cf. 4. 15. 17 ff. (quoted in the last note), A. Alfo¨ldi, op. cit. (introduction above), 86 ff. on the theme ‘te salvo salvi sumus’. 17. i, pete unguentum, puer, et coronas: for i, puer cf. serm. 1. 10. 92, Prop. 3. 23. 23; for shopping-lists in comedy and sympotic poetry cf. N–H vol. 1, pp. 421 ff.
188
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
18. et cadum Marsi memorem duelli: the wine-jar recalls the ‘Social War’ of 91–87 bc, when Venusia had joined the revolt of Rome’s Italian allies (App. civ. 1. 52, Diod. 37. 2. 10); this may have caused the enslavement of H’s father (G. Williams ap. S. J. Harrison, 1995: 300 ff.). At this period the war was usually called bellum Marsicum (cf. epod. 16. 3) because the Marsi were the first to take up arms (Diod. 37. 2. 1) or bellum Italicum; the archaic form duelli, with its suggestion of ‘old unhappy far-off things’ makes a contrast with the delights of the symposium. For the associations of old wines cf. Juv. 5. 31 ‘calcatumque tenet bellis socialibus uvam’ (hyperbolic), B. Baldwin, AJP 88, 1967: 173 ff. (on Opimianum). Here H’s jar can tell a cautionary tale about the tumultus of sixty-five years before, and though wine is by nature ‘oblivious’ (N–H on 2. 7. 21) this one remembers, cf. Oliensis 148. 19–20. Spartacum si qua potuit vagantem / fallere testa: the terrible slave-revolt of 73–71, which was led by Spartacus (RE 3A. 1528 ff., R. Seager, CAH edn. 2, 9. 221 ff.), is described by Caesar as a tumultus (bG 1. 40. 5). The insurrection started at Capua in the wine-growing country and spread over southern Italy (Flor. 2. 8. 5 ‘totamque pervagantur Campaniam’, Plut. Crass. 9. 6 K æŁı KØæı Ø c +ƺÆ); though the slaves were well enough organized to defeat consular armies, H’s picture of a marauding band (vagantem) looting wine-stores doubtless contained an element of truth. Charisius, who quotes the line for another purpose, reads vagacem (GL 1. 66), and this might be right (Brink on ars, pp. 34 f.); although the word (‘rampageous’) is not attested elsewhere, the drily humorous coinage suits H’s tone (cf. epist. 2. 1. 70 f. ‘plagosum . . . Orbilium’), and a grammarian is unlikely to have used it by a mere slip of the pen. si qua means either ‘if anywhere’ or ‘if by any means’. qua cannot be nominative, as some translations imply, as the syllable must be long; si quae (considered by Lambinus) is implausible, as H does not use this form for the indefinite. testa (presumably nominative) seems repetitious after cadum; perhaps the colloquial word implies that a smaller pot would do. Bentley saw the difficulty when he took ‘si qua testa’ together as ablatives (cf. N–H on 2. 3. 12 for places where the ablative comes close to repeating the subject); he compared Phaedr. 3. 1. 1 ff., ‘amphoram / . . . testa nobili / odorem quae iucundum late spargeret’, but there testa suggests the material that diffused the fragrance. One might have expected an ablative agreeing with qua to describe the place where the jar was hidden; RN has tried cista, ‘hamper’ (Blu¨mner, 1911: 131), perhaps suggesting the cista where the emblems of Bacchus were concealed (N–H on 1. 18. 12).
1 4 . H ERC V LI S R I T V
189
21. dic et argutae properet Neaerae: the position of properet is artificial, but it adds emphasis and urgency; for the request cf. 2. 11. 22 ff. ‘eburna dic age cum lyra / maturet’ with N–H (for further resemblances in that passage see below, 22 n.). argutae means ‘clear-sounding’ (ºªØÆ); here it implies that the girl is a singer (ps.-Acro comments ‘citharistae sive cantrici’). Neaera was a name borne by hetaerae, including heroines of comedies (see B. L. Ullman, CQ 9, 1915: 29); as the word means ‘young’, it supplies a contrast to albescens (25). 22. murreum nodo cohibente crinem: murreum means ‘scented with myrrh’ (ps.-Acro); cf. Archil. 48. 5, Meleager, anth. Pal. 5. 175. 2, Prop. 1. 2. 3 ‘crines perfundere murra’, Virg. Aen. 12. 100. Editors believe Porph. when he mentions a colour ‘inter flavum et nigrum’, but whatever the usage may have been in his day (hodie), that does not certify the adjective murreus as meaning ‘yellow’ here, in spite of Ov. met. 15. 399 ‘fulva . . . murra’. Some cite as parallels for the alleged colour Prop. 3. 10. 22 ‘et crocino nares murreus ungat onyx’, [Tib.] 3. 4. 28 ‘stillabat Syrio myrrhea rore coma’ (myrtea codd.), but in both these passages the adjective must refer to a scent. We interpret nodo here as a simple band tied by a knot; cf. 2. 19. 19 f. ‘nodo coerces viperino / . . . crinis’, Sen. Tro. 100 f. ‘coma demissa est / libera nodo’, Phaedr. 401 f. ‘et nodo comas / coegit emisitque’, especially HO 1546 ‘comas nullo cohibente nodo’, OLD s.v. 6a. In some other passages it is better taken as a bun (Ov. met. 3. 169 f., 8. 319 ‘crinis erat simplex nodum collectus in unum’); but here cohibente suits a band better, and it takes less time to put on a band than to arrange a bun. At 2. 11. 23 f., where there are difficult textual problems, N–H read ‘maturet, incomptum Lacaenae / more comae religata nodum’ (taking nodum as a bun); there Bentley and others prefer ‘incomptam Lacaenae / more comam religata nodo’ (taking nodo as a band). cohibente is Muretus’ conjecture (endorsed by Bentley) for the cohibere of the manuscripts and apparently the scholiasts. H’s chief point is that Neaera should come quickly, not that she should make haste to put her hair in a band; cf. Sen. HO 1546 f. quoted above. With cohibere the pace of the sentence is checked, for we have to revise our view of the syntax. Moreover, mora (23) should answer to properet; the janitor may try to obstruct Neaera’s departure, but he is not going to interfere with her hair-style. Our passage may have influenced Milton at Lycidas 67 ff. ‘Were it not better done as others use / To sport with Amaryllis in the shade / Or with the tangles of Neaera’s hair?’ There the second ‘with’, which seems inert as a preposition, has been taken by some as the verb ‘withe’. For the source of these lines see J. B. Leishman, Milton’s Minor Poems, 1969: 280 ff. (citing also George Buchanan and Johannes Secundus).
190
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
23–4. si per invisum mora ianitorem / fiet—abito: the concierge is conventionally a surly slave; cf. Sen. dial. 2. 14. 2 ‘sapiens non accedet ad fores quas durus ianitor obsidet’, 5. 37. 3, Blu¨mner (1911), 29. Sometimes he was employed as a custos by the woman’s vir (e.g. Ov. am. 3. 4. 1 f.), and as such was an unpopular figure in erotic poetry; see Antip. Thess. anth. Pal. 5. 30. 3 f., Prop. 2. 23. 9 (‘vultum custodis amari’), Tib. 1. 2. 5, Ov. am. 1. 6, ars 3. 587 f. Usually, however, the door-keeper prevents the man’s entry rather than the girl’s exit. invisum is amusingly overplayed and makes a contrast with Neaera’s glamour. abito is a ‘future imperative’; the form is used in instructions that are not to be immediately fulfilled, and is therefore regularly found in legal texts and general precepts (K–S 1. 198, H–Sz 340 f., Woodcock 126). Here the word means ‘come away’ and balances i (17). The unusual break in the adonius underlines the surprise (we had half expected the slave to be ordered to use force). 25. lenit albescens animos capillus: for H’s grey hair see the parallels cited by N–H on 2. 11. 15; capillus is more prosaic than crinem (22), cf. the tables in TLL 3. 314. For the sentiment cf. Philodemus, anth. Pal. 5. 112. 3 f. ºØc ªaæ KªÆØ Id ºÆ = Łæd X, ıB ¼ªªº ºØŒ (with reference to sex); for the opposite view cf. Herodas 1. 67 f. ˆıºº, a ºıŒa H æØ H IÆºØ = e F. The plural animos means ‘fiery spirit’ (cf. epist. 1. 19. 24 f. ‘animos . . . Archilochi’, Virg. Aen. 1. 57 ‘mollitque animos ac temperat iras’, OLD s.v. 11); for H’s hot temper cf. 3. 9. 23 n. For the mollifying effect of age cf. epist. 2. 2. 211 ‘lenior et melior fis accedente senecta?’ 26. litium et rixae cupidos protervae: litium refers to verbal wrangling; cf. Juv. 6. 268 f. ‘semper habet lites alternaque iurgia lectus / in qua nupta iacet’ with Courtney. rixae goes further and suggests physical brawling (cf. Prop. 3. 8. 1 on a row with Cynthia); particularly relevant is the violence of the exclusus amator (3. 26. 7 f., Ov. ars 3. 71, Copley 148 n. 26). protervae also indicates the young man’s aggressive pursuit of sex (1. 25. 2, 2. 5. 15). 27–8. non ego hoc ferrem calidus iuventa / consule Planco: non ferrem can mean the same as non tulissem in early Latin, and has often this sense even in Cicero; cf. Handford 123 ff. For the fervour of youth cf 1. 16. 23 ff., ars 115 f. For similar reflections cf. Homer Il. 23. 626 ff. (Nestor), Ar. Ach. 211 ff. PŒ i K KB ª - = , ‹ ªg æø = IŁæŒø æ = MŒºŁı 6Æ7ººfiø æ ø, = z ƺø i › æ y K- = F ØøŒ = K ıª, Herodas 2. 71 ff. with Headlam, Virg. Aen. 5. 398 ff. H’s adaptation of the motif provides a typically self-depreciating
1 5 . V XO R PAV P ER I S I B YC I
191
closure (cf. 1. 33. 13 ff., 2. 4. 22 ff., 3. 19. 28, epod. 14. 15 f.). For L. Munatius Plancus see RE 16. 1. 545 ff., N–H vol. 1, pp. 90 ff. This eminent man was still alive at the time of writing (censor in 22 bc); he had been consul in 42 bc, when Horace was 22–3, and no contemporary was likely to forget that this was the year of Philippi.
15. VXOR PAVPERIS IBYCI [C. C. Esler in Old Age in Greek and Latin Literature (ed. T. M. Falkner and J. de Luce), 1989: 174 ff.; Pasquali 449 ff.; M. C. J. Putnam, CP 71, 1976: 90 ff. ¼ Essays on Latin Lyric, Elegy, and Epic, 1982: 126 ff.]
1–6. Wife of Ibycus, set a limit to your misbehaviour, and now that you are growing old, stop casting a cloud over the frolics of the girls. 7–10. It is more defensible for your daughter Pholoe to storm young men’s houses, but it is inappropriate, Chloris, for you. 11–16. It is all right for her to frolic like a frisky young animal, but wool-working is suitable for you, not lyres or roses, or wine-casks drunk to the dregs. Mockery of ageing women had a long literary tradition behind it. Archilochus’ gibes at Neobule already show the pattern: see 188. 1 f. W PŒŁ ›H ŁººØ ±Æºe æ Æ, Œº., 196a (edn. 2). 26 ff. ÆNÆE, ØæÆ, d (‘over-ripe, twice your age’) / ¼Ł IææŒ ÆæŁœ = ŒÆd æØ m æd KB, A. P. Burnett, Three Archaic Poets, 1983: 77 ff. (for Hipponax and Semonides see Grassmann 12 f.). Comedy depicts old women as grotesquely devoted to sex and drink; see H. G. Oeri, Der Typ der komischen Alten in der griechischen Komo¨die, Diss. Basel, 1948, J. Henderson, TAPA 117, 1987: 105 ff. For Greek epigram see Rufinus, anth. Pal. 5. 21, 27, 28, 76; in Roman elegy (Prop. 3. 25. 11 ff.) an unresponsive woman is told ‘one day you will be old and ugly, and then you will be sorry’ (cf. N–H vol. 1, pp. 289 ff.). In satire Lucilius speaks of a ‘vetulam atque virosam / uxorem’ (282 f.).The impulse for such invective can sometimes be explained by jealousy or a wish for revenge; for apparently impersonal abuse for its own sake see for instance Mart. 3. 93, 11. 29 (with Kay), Juv. 6. 119 ff. See further K. Cokayne, Experiencing Old Age in Ancient Rome, 2003: 134 ff. Horace wrote a handful of poems within this tradition. In his epodes he reviles older women with the obscene physical detail that went with the iambic genre (Grassmann 5 ff.): 8. 1 ff. ‘rogare longo putidam te saeculo / viris quid enervet meas, / cum sit tibi dens ater . . . ’, 12. 7 ff. ‘qui sudor vietis et quam malus undique membris / crescit odor, cum
192
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
pene soluto / indomitam properat rabiem sedare’. In carm. 1. 25 he predicts Lydia’s old age; in a later poem he exults that Lyce’s old age is now arriving (4. 13. 2 ff. ‘fis anus et tamen / vis formosa videri / ludisque et bibis impudens . . . ’). Our poem contains some of the traditional sneers: Chloris has one foot in the grave (4 n.), but shows an unseemly addiction to sex (12 n.) and drink (16 n.). There is none of the overt obscenity associated with iambi, and no display of the personal bitterness found in epigram and elegy; the censure is conveyed with some degree of moderation (e.g. laboribus in v. 3, ludere in v. 12), and the criticism is ostensibly based on decorum (decet in v. 8, decent in v. 14). Nevertheless, the tone throughout is derisive rather than genuinely moralistic; and though Horace’s manner is more restrained than in most of the prototypes, a good deal of their inhumanity remains. One may contrast the rueful realism with which he contemplates his own advancing years (cf. J. N. Bremmer in Sexual Asymmetry (ed. J. Blok and P. Mason), 1987: 191 ff., Esler, op. cit. 177 ff ). Metre: alternating Glyconics and Asclepiads. 1. Vxor pauperis Ibyci: the form of address does not reflect Roman custom, whereby married women retained their gentile name, but indicates the wife’s domestic responsibilities. If the scene is some Apulian town, as one might infer from Luceriam (14), then an Apulian wife ought to have behaved better; cf. epod. 2. 41 ff. ‘Sabina qualis aut perusta solibus / pernicis uxor Apuli . . . ’ (where RN has proposed parcentis)—a passage imitated at Stat. silv. 5. 1. 122 ff. ‘velut Apula coniunx / agricolae parci vel sole infecta Sabina . . . ’. uxor is the everyday word for ‘wife’, avoided in epic but found seven times in the Odes; cf. Axelson 57, P. Watson, CQ 35, 1985: 431 f., Lyne (1989), 43 ff., 60 ff. pauperis suggests respectable frugality rather than destitution (3. 2. 1 n.), and makes a contrast with the wife’s flightiness. The name Ibycus is thought to recall the sixth-century poet from Rhegium; but his hedonism and reputed lechery (Cic. Tusc. 4. 71) are not in point here. Commentators invoke the proverbs Iæ ÆØ æ (or Iæ ) +Œı ( paroem. Gr. 1. 207, 1. 251): the paroemiographer explains that Ibycus was called old-fashioned (or silly) because he declined the position of tyrant, but the analogy to the hapless husband is hardly close enough. It might be more relevant that an early Pythagorean (presumably also from the South of Italy) was called Ibycus (Athen. 2. 69e cites him on lettuce); as the frugality of the sect was notorious (Mayor on Juv. 15. 173 f., Kerkhecker on Call. iamb. p. 40), that would provide a possible association with pauperis. ‘Antiquated’ would suit the Pythagorean better than the poet, and the same could be true of
1 5 . V XO R PAV P ER I S I B YC I
193
the offer of the dictatorship, for the Pythagorean Archytas did become strategos at Tarentum. 2. tandem nequitiae fige modum tuae: the emphatic tandem suggests impatience; cf. 1. 23. 11 f. ‘tandem desine matrem / tempestiva sequi viro’. fige modum ‘fix a limit’ is stronger than the variant pone; cf. Cic. parad. 25 ‘si quidem rerum modum figere non possumus, animorum modum tenere possumus’, Arnob. nat. 1. 10. When H says ‘limit’ rather than ‘end’, he is being sarcastically polite (cf. N–H on 1. 16. 2), as if moderation was the best that could be hoped for. nequitia is the quality of the nequam or ‘good-for-nothing’, and is used with various degrees of censoriousness; the following line shows that here it refers to sexual misconduct; cf. Gallus, fr. 2. 1 ‘tristia nequitia . . . Lycori, tua’, Prop. 1. 15. 38, Ov. ars 2. 392, fast. 1. 414. The postponed possessive tuae may indicate a contrast with the husband’s frugality (‘that profligacy of yours’); possessive adjectives in this position sometimes have more emphasis than is usually realized; cf. 1. 3. 8, 2. 13. 10, 2. 17. 1, 3. 13. 16, 3. 16. 30, 3. 19. 28, Nisbet in Adams–Mayer 143. 3. famosisque laboribus: ‘scandalous exertions’; famosis makes something of an oxymoron with the laboribus expected of an Apulian housewife. 4. maturo propior desine funeri: in this kind of context we expect maturus to refer to a ripe old age (OLD s.v. 6), so funeri comes as a surprise; cf. Ar. vesp. 1365 (of a randy old man) ŁE KæA ØŒÆ ‰æÆÆ æF, where ‘coffin’ is an unexpected substitute for ‘girl’. propior means ‘quite close’, not ‘daily nearer’ (Page), or ‘closer to death than to the girls’ (Williams), or ‘nearer than the virgines of v. 5’ (Quinn); for a similar point cf. 2. 18. 18, where the greedy old man continues to build mansions ‘sub ipsum funus’. Derision of the elderly sometimes suggests they have ‘one foot in the grave’; cf. epod. 8. 11 f., Ar. eccl. 905, 926, 996, 1073 with L. K. Taaffe, Aristophanes and Women, 1993: 123 ff., Plut. 1008, 1033, Nicarchus, anth. Pal. 11. 71. 4, Plaut. merc. 290 f. ‘Acherunticus / senex vetus decrepitus’ with Enk’s note, Mart. 3. 32. 2 ‘sed tu mortua non vetula es’, 3. 93. 19 ‘virumque demens cineribus tuis quaeris’, Rufinus, anth. Pal. 5. 21. 6. Sometimes the old person is actually described as a tomb; cf. Eur. Med. 1209 f. e ªæÆ OæÆe Ł = ŁØ; with Page, Ar. Lys. 372 t with Taillardat (1962), 53, anon. anth. Pal. 11. 425. 2, Plaut.Pseud. 412 ‘ex hoc sepulchro vetere viginti minas / effodiam ego hodie’, Priap. 57. 1 ‘cornix et caries vetusque bustum’, Grassmann 16 f., 21.
194
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
5. inter ludere virgines: for the position of inter cf. 3. 3. 37, 3. 27. 51, epist. 1. 3. 4, K–S 1. 588, TLL 7. 2147. 52 ff.; the word-order does not accord with normal prose usage, but we doubt whether it is meant to reflect the woman’s position in the ring of dancers (contrast the passage from PLM quoted below). ludere, ‘frolic’, here suggests choral dancing; cf. 2. 12. 18 f. ‘nec dare bracchia / ludentem nitidis virginibus’, PLM 5. 77. 59 f. (a postclassical imitation) ‘tuque puellarum dum ludis in agmine princeps / inter virgineos lucida stella choros’. The Suda 1. 539. 30 f. cites as a proverb (cf. 10 n.) ˆæÆF æØ Kd H Ææ uæÆ Ø ØÆæÆø ÆE ªaæ ÆØ æØ e æØ (cf. decet in v. 8). The impropriety is aesthetic rather than sexual (as is shown by v. 6), though ludere is repeated with a sexual implication in v. 12. 6. et stellis nebulam spargere candidis: epic describes how heavenly bodies are obscured by cloud (Hom. Il. 11. 62 f., Od. 9. 144 f., Ap. Rhod. 4. 1696 ff., Virg. Aen. 3. 586). It is a convention of panegyric to compare the superiority of the laudandus over his company to that of one heavenly body over others (1. 12. 48 with N–H); cf. also Ap. Rhod. 1. 239 f. ƒ b ÆØd = Iæ S Ø æ. In our passage this latter image is reversed: the old woman casts a shadow over the radiant girls. candidis suits both bright stars (Plaut. rud. 3) and beautiful girls; they are perhaps thought of as wearing their whitest dresses for the dance (cf. 2. 12. 19 nitidis, cited in 5 n.). 7. non, si quid Pholoen satis: non negates decet (8); for the hyperbaton see K–S 1. 819. As Chloris (8) is the uxor (1), so Pholoe seems to be her filia (8); otherwise her appearance is unmotivated and the balance of the passage is upset. The two names are combined also at 2. 5. 17 f. ‘dilecta quantum non Pholoe fugax, / non Chloris albo . . . umero nitens’. The parallel is hard to explain, for here Chloris is not beautiful; perhaps there was a Greek prototype which H has developed in two different ways. ‘Pholoe’ is a name persistently used of a girl who is hard to get; see 1. 33. 6 f. ‘Cyrus in asperam / declinat Pholoen’, 2. 5. 17 ‘Pholoe fugax’ with N–H, Tib. 1. 8. 27 ‘nec tu difficilis puero tamen esse memento’, 1. 8. 69 ‘oderunt, Pholoe, moneo, fastidia divi’, Stat. silv. 2. 3. 10 (a nymph pursued by Pan). One assumes in our passage that she is one of the dancing virgines (5). 8. et te, Chlori, decet: the adjective ºøæ often suggests a pale yellow, the colour of withered grass (Sappho 31. 14 f. ºøææÆ b Æ = Ø) or of frightened people; cf. Irwin (1974), 62 ff., A. Lorenzoni, Eikasmos 5, 1994: 139 ff. The name ‘Chloris’ (Pape–Benseler 2. 1687) was given to a daughter of Niobe who grew pale when her brothers and sisters were killed (Paus. 2. 21. 9). More relevant, perhaps, is the fact that a Chloris
1 5 . V XO R PAV P ER I S I B YC I
195
was the mother of Nestor (Hom. Od. 11. 281 ff., Hyginus 97); for similar sneers at vetulae cf. Lollius Bassus, anth. Pal. 11. 72. 2 ªæÆEÆ Ø m ˝øæ PŒØ æÆ , Myrinus, ibid. 11. 67. 2 f., Priap. 57. 3 f. ‘quae forsan potuisset esse nutrix / Tithoni Priamique Nestorisque’ (cf. 12. 1 f.), Mart. 3. 76. 4, 10. 67. 1. Admittedly ºøæ , like ºæ , sometimes implies greenness and the sap of youth (Onians 177 n. 9), the name Chloris could mean ‘greenfinch’, and at 2. 5. 18 it suggests a beautiful paleness which can have nothing to do with Nestor’s mother; but it is hard to see an ironical suggestion of youthfulness in our present passage. Ancient moralists sensibly emphasize that what is decorum (æ) varies according to one’s temperament, status, and notably age (Dyck on Cic. off. 1. 93–107); cf. also off. 1. 110 ff., especially 122 ‘et quoniam officia non eadem disparibus aetatibus tribuuntur aliaque sunt iuvenum, alia seniorum . . . ’, 123 ‘luxuria vero cum omni aetati turpis, senectuti foedissima est . . . ’; see further epod. 13. 5, epist. 1. 14. 36 ‘nec lusisse pudet sed non incidere ludum’ (echoing Philodemus, anth. Pal. 5. 112. 5 f. ŒÆd ÆØ ‹ ŒÆØæ , KÆ Æ ŒÆ ŒÆd F = PŒØ, ºøœæ æ ±ł ŁÆ), 2. 2. 216 ‘lasciva decentius aetas’, Cic. Cael. 41–2, Otto 106. 8–9. filia rectius / expugnat iuvenum domos: ‘it is more appropriate for your daughter . . . ’; for this use of an adverb cf. ars 129 ‘rectius Iliacum carmen deducis in actus’, 3. 16. 39–40 n. expugnat, ‘takes by storm’, belongs to the militia amoris; cf. 3. 26. 2 n., Lyne (1989), 34 f. Here there is a hyperbolical reversal of roles, as conventionally it is the roistering male who breaks down doors (3. 26. 6–8 nn.). For such aggressive behaviour by a woman cf. Plaut. mil. 1249 f. (a meretrix converses with her maid) ‘durare nequeo / quin eam intro.—occlusae sunt fores.—ecfringam.—sana non es’, Sen. nat. quaest. 4a, praef. 6 ‘Crispus Passienus saepe dicebat adulationi nos non cludere ostium sed operire, et quidem sic quemadmodum opponi amicae solet, quae si impulit grata est, gratior si effregit’. These are extreme instances of the mulier proterva who takes the sexual initiative; cf. 1. 33. 13, 2. 5. 13 with N–H, Ar. eccl. 877–1111. Yet if the filia is indeed Pholoe, this behaviour is strangely out of line with the normal implications of her name (7 n.). To meet this difficulty we suggest reading expugnet (‘it would be more appropriate for your daughter’), without implying that she is actually behaving in this way; in fact it is the elderly Chloris who is supposed to storm young men’s houses and to behave like a Bacchanal (10 n.).This would require reading L. Mu¨ller’s cogat in v. 11 (see note). 10. pulso Thyias uti concita tympano: a Thyias was a Bacchanal (N–H on 2. 19. 9, below on 3. 25); the word, which is a trochee, is supposed to
196
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
be derived from ŁØ, ‘to rush’. Similes comparing emotional women to Bacchanals suited the male perception of female psychology, and were a long-standing poetic motif; cf. Hom. Il. 22. 460 ªæØ Øı ÆØØ Y, h. Dem. 386 with Richardson, Virg. Aen. 4. 301 f. ‘qualis commotis excita sacris / Thyias’ with Pease, Prop. 3. 18. 14 with Fedeli. The old woman playing the Bacchanal became a proverb; see paroem.Gr. 1. 57 ˆæÆF ÆŒ Ø, 1. 228 (so above, 5 n.). The tympanum or tambourine (1. 18. 14 with N–H, Wille 53 f.) was particularly associated with Bacchus and Cybele; cf. Ov. fast. 4. 183 ‘ibunt semimares et inania tympana tundent’; the ancients were well aware of the unnatural excitement produced by a throbbing drum-beat. 11. illam cogit amor Nothi: L. Mu¨ller proposed cogat (accepted by SB), taking the clause as concessive. If expugnet is read in v. 9 (see note), that would import a different nuance: ‘let love of Nothus drive her (not the mother, as is in fact the case)’. This interpretation allows the mother to remain on centre stage. The name Nothus (the Greek for ‘bastard’) is attested in S. Italy (LGPN 3A. 329) and several times in the index to CIL 6 (Rome). Though ‘bastard’ was not a regular term of abuse in antiquity, it may hint at a background which is not quite respectable; cf. Putnam, op. cit. 129 n. 11. 12. lascivae similem ludere capreae: a caprea is normally a small roedeer, the feminine of capreolus (Varr. lL 5. 101 ‘caprea a similitudine quadam caprae’) and conventionally in poetry a victim of wild animals (1. 33. 8, epod. 12. 26); see RE 1A. 512 f. There is a difficulty here, for elsewhere it is shy young girls who are compared with deer (1. 23. 1 ‘vitas inuleo me similis, Chloe’ with N–H). Ps.-Acro comments on our passage ‘genus pecudis libidini et lasciviae aptius’; but pecudis suggests that he has made a simple confusion with the domestic goat (capra or capella). It would make sense here if the caprea could be a kind of wild goat or ibex (RE 3A. 2. 2238 ff.); possible parallels, none of them decisive, are Virg. Aen. 10. 724 f. ‘si forte fugacem / conspexit capream aut surgentem in cornua cervum’ (imitating Hom. Il. 3. 24 j ºÆ ŒæÆe j ¼ªæØ Ær ªÆ), Ov. fast. 2. 491 ‘est locus, antiqui Capreae dixere paludem’ (cf. Liv. 1. 16. 1 ‘Caprae paludem’, which is a variant in Ovid), Mart. 13. 98. 1 ‘pendentem summa capream de rupe videbis’ (imitating Virg. ecl. 1. 76 of goats ‘dumosa pendere procul de rupe videbis’), Juv. 10. 93 f. ‘principis angusta Caprearum in rupe sedentis / cum grege Chaldaeo’ (the island of Capri is suited to goats rather than deer, a point underlined by grege). ludere echoes ‘inter ludere virgines’ (5), but this time it is a sexual euphemism, like ÆØ; cf. 4. 13. 4, Pub. Syr. 30 ‘anus cum ludit, morti
1 5 . V XO R PAV P ER I S I B YC I
197
delicias facit’, Adams (1982), 162 f. For an older woman’s sexual interests see the introduction above with Oeri, op. cit., Grassmann 14, 17 f., 26, F. J. Brecht, Philologus suppl. 22. 2, 1930: 62 f. 13–14. te lanae prope nobilem / tonsae Luceriam: the plural is natural with materials in prose and verse, cf. 2. 16. 37, K–S 1. 75; so more often in Greek (K–G 1. 15). The virtuous Roman housewife is conventionally portrayed as either spinning herself or superintending others (but not as shopping or cooking). See especially Liv. 1. 57. 9 (Lucretia) ‘nocte sera deditam lanae inter lucubrantes ancillas in medio aedium sedentem inveniunt’ (with Ogilvie), Suet. Aug. 64. 2, 73. 1 (the Augustan ideal), Treggiari, 1991: 243 f.; so in inscriptions ILS 8403. 8 ‘domum servavit lanam fecit’, 8394, 8402. 2 ‘lanifica pia pudica frugi casta domiseda’, laud. Turiae 1. 30, Lattimore 297. Such labours were particularly important for the poor and the elderly; cf. Ter. Andr. 75 f. ‘primo haec pudice vitam parce et duriter / agebat lana ac tela victum quaeritans’, heaut. 285, perhaps from New Comedy (F. Leo, Plautinische Forschungen, 144), Phaedr. 4. 5. 4 f. ‘unam formosam et oculis venantem viros, / at alteram lanificam et frugi rusticam’. The Greek attitude was very much the same, see e.g. Xen. rep. Lac. 1. 3, Plat. Lys. 208d, Musonius p. 18 Hense ¼ p. 48 Lutz; for some parallels emphasizing poverty see Hom. Il. 12. 433 ff., Ap. Rhod. 3. 291 ff., 4. 1062 ff. (imitated at Aen. 8. 409 ff.), anon. anth. Pal. 6. 283 (a hetaera reduced to weaving), and S. Tara´n, The Art of Variation in the Hellenistic Epigram, 1979: 115 ff. Luceria was one of the leading towns in Apulia, though its importance had diminished (Strabo 6. 3. 9); cf. RE 13. 1565 f., E. T. Salmon, Samnium and the Samnites, 1967 (index). For Apulian wool see Strabo loc. cit. KæÆ ÆºÆŒøæÆ b B 3ÆæÆ K, ºÆæa b w, Plin.nat. hist. 8. 190, Mart. 14. 155. 1 f. ‘velleribus primis Apulia, Parma secundis / nobilis’, CIL 9. 826 (a lanarius from Luceria), Salmon, op. cit. 67 ff., Brunt (1971), 366 ff. Luceria boasted a temple of Minerva (cf. 3. 12. 5 ‘operosaeque Minervae’) with a statue reputedly brought by Diomedes from Troy (Strabo 6. 1. 14, 6. 3. 9); this association must have been familiar to the Apulian Horace. By nobilem H is adding dignity to the place as if it were a famous Greek city, cf. 1. 7. 1 ‘claram Rhodon’; some interpret the word as ‘famous for its wool’ (as in Mart. loc. cit.), but here there is no ablative. 14. non citharae decent: to provide music at a symposium was not the business of an elderly woman; cf. 3. 28. 11 n. decent echoes decet (8). 15. nec flos purpureus rosae: roses were a regular feature of the symposium, where their petals might be scattered (see e.g. 3. 19. 22 ‘sparge rosas’, Prop. 4. 8. 40 of a castanet-girl showered with roses, Ov. fast. 5.
198
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
360), or their blooms might be woven into wreaths or garlands (e.g. 2. 11. 14 ‘rosa / canos odorati capillos’, 3. 29. 3, Cic. Tusc. 3. 43 ‘sertis redimiri iubebis et rosa?’), but their beauty soon withered; cf. 2. 3. 13 f. ‘nimium brevis . . . rosae’. purpureus is conventionally used of roses but may also hint at the rosy complexion of youth; cf. 2. 5. 12 with N–H, 4. 10. 4 ‘qui color est puniceae flore prior rosae’, Phrynichus fr. 13 (TrGF 1 p. 77) ºØ Kd æıæÆØ Ææfi Ø Ð H æø . In that case there would be a contrast with the pallor of Chloris (8 n.). 16. nec poti vetulam faece tenus cadi: the bibulous old woman, as remarked in the introduction, is a stereotype of comedy and epigram; cf. 4. 13. 4 f. ‘ludisque et bibis impudens’, Ar. nub. 555 æŁd . . . ªæÆF Ł F Œ æÆŒ o with Dover, Athen. 10. 440d–442a (citing Middle Comedy), anth. Pal. 7. 353, 455, 456, 11. 73, 297–8, Plaut. Curc. 96–140. For abundant further material see Brecht, op. cit. (12 n.) 66, Oeri, op. cit. (in the introduction above), 13 ff., Grassmann 21, P. Zanker, Die Trunkene Alte, 1989 (with illustrations, including the famous sculpture from Munich). For ‘drinking to the lees’ cf. 1. 35. 26 f. ‘cadis / cum faece siccatis’ with N–H, Theoc. 7. 70, Gaetulicus, anth. Pal. 11. 409. Here citharae, flos purpureus rosae, and poti faece tenus cadi represent, in an increasing tricolon, pleasures which are suited to attractive young women. The isolated vetulam (read by the scholia where the bulk of the MS tradition offers vetula) underlines the embarrassing incongruity of Chloris’s behaviour. Pasquali (453) (not followed by NR) suggests that v. 16 has an ironic dimension that distinguishes it from its predecessors: in one sense of decet music and roses do not ‘grace’ an old woman as they do the young; but the verb can also mean ‘suit’ (cf. epist. 1. 7. 44 ‘parvum parva decent’), and in this sense heavy drinking does suit the stereotype of the vetula (a derogatory word). Taking a hint from Pasquali, RN has considered the further insult that she herself has now reached the dregs; cf. Ar. plut. 1084 ff. XP. KØc ŒÆd e r M ı = Ø, ıŒ K Ø ŒÆd c æªÆ. NE. Iºº Ø ŒØfi Ð æf ƺÆØa ŒÆd Ææ— ‘old and fusty dregs’. (For another metaphor from the symposium directed at an older woman see 4. 13. 26 ff. ‘possent ut iuvenes visere fervidi / . . . dilapsam in cineres facem’.) With the above interpretation one might think of accepting vetula; by applying to the wine-lees the adjective often used of old women Horace would be underlining the analogy. But though vetulus is used affectionately of old wine (Catull. 27. 1 ‘minister vetuli puer Falerni’, Mart. 1. 18. 1 with Citroni, cf. Eubulus fr. 121 ¼ PCG 5, p. 263 ¸Ø ªæÆ ŒÆæƪB), it is not attested in a disparaging sense of lees; the nearest equivalent would be Aristophanes, loc. cit.
16. INCLVSAM DA NAEN [R. W. Carrubba, MH 47, 1990: 139 ff.; Fraenkel 229 ff.; Lyne (1995), 122 ff.; R. J. Schork, TAPA 102, 1971: 515 ff.; D. West ap. Costa 36 f.; Williams 600 ff.]
1–8. When Danae was confined in a brazen tower, Jupiter gained access by turning himself into a bribe. 9–16 Gold breaks through all barriers, as is shown by instances from mythology and history. 17–20. Yet as money brings worry and grander ambitions, I have been right, Maecenas, to keep my head low. 21–32. The more one denies oneself, the more the gods will bestow. I gain more glory from the possessions I reject than if I hoarded all the grain in Apulia, and more happiness from my modest estate than the owners of provinces. 33–44. Though I derive no wealth from agriculture, I am not poor, and you would not refuse me if I asked for more; I shall expand my revenues by limiting my desires rather than by ruling the kingdoms of the East. Those who seek much lack much; he is well-off who is granted enough. The ode begins with an arresting exemplum, whose full implications are not immediately apparent. Danae and the shower of gold show the irresistible power of money; in this Horace follows not the traditional myth (1 n.) but the later rationalization (8 n.). The story is sketched light-heartedly, as suits the cynical intention; cf. adulteris (which includes Jove), custodem pavidum (of the anxious Acrisius), and the metamorphosis converso in pretium deo. It is pointless to complain with Fraenkel that the ode ‘has no wings’; Horace knew many ways of writing a poem (cf. Schork, op. cit.), and this amusing opening is highly effective. In the third and fourth stanzas he rubs in the moral with instances ranging from Greek myth to contemporary Roman history. With exaggerated sententiousness he rings the changes on words for money (9 n.), and exemplifies its power with a series of forceful verbs that are varied to suit the context, such as perrumpere (10), demersa and diffidit (13), subruit (14), inlaqueant (16). In the fifth stanza (17–20) there is an unexpected change of direction: instead of emphasizing the power that money confers on the donor, he points to the trouble it causes the recipient. He gives his maxim a personal application by referring to his own modest aims (18 f.); then in v. 20 he at last mentions Maecenas, the addressee and in part the subject of the poem. This stanza provides the pivot of the ode, as it looks back to the exempla of vv. 1–16 and forward to the personal affirmations of vv. 21–44. In the sixth, seventh, and eighth stanzas Horace continues the account of his own life-style. With a parody of the military imagery used by philosophers he presents himself as a
200
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
deserter from the camp, not of virtue, but of riches (23 n.). Great estates are rejected with the hyperboles of diatribe and the paradoxes of Stoicism (25 n., 28 n.), which on Horace’s lips could only be half-serious. The description of the Sabinum (29–32) gives a personal and original note to his moralizing; by describing alike its blessings and its simplicity, the poet shows himself both grateful and ungrasping in his relations with his benefactor. The final three stanzas repeat the themes of their three predecessors, though in a different order; the sequence is roughly ABC: BCA. Horace turns once more from the latifundia that he rejects (33–6 answer 25–8) to the sufficiency that he owes to his patron (37–8 answer 29–32); he then winds up by reverting to more general sententiae (39–44), first stated in a personal, then in an impersonal, form (the reverse order from 21–4). The balance of the two sections is underlined by several significant repetitions (cf. Syndikus, 2. 157): quam si (41) corresponds to quam si (26), multa petentibus (42) to nil cupientium (22), multa . . . multa (42 f.) to plura . . . plura (21 f.), deus (43) to ab dis (22). Though Horace is too discreet to press the point, the god who has given such blessings recalls the poet’s human patron (cf. serm. 2. 6. 5 and 41, Virg. ecl. 1. 7 ‘namque erit ille mihi semper deus’). The beneficent deity who knows where to stop also allows a contrast with the Jupiter of the opening parable (8). So the poem is not just about ostentation versus simplicity, but also about the right relation to one’s benefactors. ‘How to receive’, was a standard theme of the ancient literature de beneficiis (Sen. ben. 6); if the topic is unwelcome to modern readers, that is because we feel uncomfortable with a system that accepted inequalities of wealth and status, where liberality was a duty owed, not to suffering strangers, but to grateful relatives, friends, and clients. If the situation of poet and patron is related to stanzas 1 and 2, we have an implied contrast: Maecenas is quite unlike the scheming Jupiter; and Horace, unlike Danae’s guards, is not open to corruption. (In the same way, the anecdote about Philippus in epist. 1. 7 shows the wrong way to be a benefactor.) Any possible offence is dissipated by the humour, which shows an easy friendship without sycophancy in spite of the difference in status. Horace’s refusal to make himself conspicuous includes a sally at Maecenas himself (20 n.); the allusion to Lydian latifundia is a friendly gibe at the descendant of Etruscan kings (41–2 n.); the final reference to the god’s measured generosity is a deft compliment to Maecenas’ practice. If the ode is seen as a comment on a personal relationship within a vanished social framework, it is not so trite or so smug as is sometimes supposed. For the expression of thanks to a benefactor (eucharisticon) see further 2.18 (with N–H, p. 290), Cairns 74 f., I. M. Le M. DuQuesnay, PLLS 3, 1981: 97 ff.
1 6 . I N C LV S A M DA NA EN
201
The ode begins the second half of the book (see G. B. Conte on ‘delayed proems’ in YCS 29, 1992: 147 ff.). The same central position is occupied by other poems to Maecenas (epod. 9, serm. 1. 6, carm. 1. 20); in all these books Maecenas is also addressed in the opening poem. In the present ode the praise of a quiet life on the Sabine estate (29 ff.) recalls the conclusion of 3.1 ‘cur invidendis postibus et novo / sublime ritu moliar atrium? / cur valle permutem Sabina / divitias operosiores?’ Metre: quatrains of three Asclepiads followed by a Glyconic. 1. Inclusam Danaen: when Acrisius was told by an oracle that he would be killed by his grandson, he imprisoned his daughter Danae in a bronze chamber; but Zeus descended to her in a shower of gold, and she gave birth to Perseus. See Apollod. bibl. 2. 4. 1 with Frazer, RE 4. 2084, LIMC 3. 1. 327 ff., 3. 2. 243 ff., CMA 1. 319 ff. (remarking that in medieval interpretations Danae became a symbol of chastity and her story prefigured the annunciation). Originally the myth probably suggested the divine semen (see the illustrations in LIMC); for later rationalizations see 8 n. For inclusam cf. Men. Sam. 591 ŒÆŁØæª (also of Danae); for nonmythical women cf. Call. fr. 401. 1 ÆE ŒÆŒºØ , Prop. 3. 14. 23 ‘clausae tutela puellae’, Ov. am. 1. 4. 61 ‘nocte vir includet’. The epithets in the first three lines are all placed next to their nouns, contrary to H’s usual practice; they reinforce one another to emphasize the security of Danae’s imprisonment (West, op. cit.). turris aenea: for Danae’s bronze prison cf. Soph. Ant. 945 K
ƺŒØ ÆPºÆE , Apollod. bibl. 2. 4. 1, Pausanias (2. 23. 7), who claims to have inspected the site at Argos. The tower seems to appear for the first time here, but is unlikely to have been H’s invention; it may be relevant that æª could be used for the women’s part of the house. For brazen structures cf. 3. 3. 65 ‘murus aeneus’ with note, 3. 30. 1 n., Prop. 2. 32. 59 ‘aerato . . . muro’ (again of Danae). 2. robustaeque fores: the doors are not just ‘strong’ but more literally ‘oaken’; the adjective balances aenea (1); cf. 1. 3. 9 ‘robur et aes triplex’ with N–H. The noun robur was applied to the Tullianum at Rome; cf. 2. 13. 18 f. with N–H, Plaut. Curc. 692 ‘in robusto carcere’. 2–3. et vigilum canum / tristes excubiae: dogs are regularly mentioned as an obstacle to the lover; cf. epod. 5. 57 f. ‘senem quod omnes rideant adulterum / latrant Suburanae canes’, Ar. Thesm. 416 f. 1ºØŒf = æıØ æºıŒEÆ E Ø E ŒÆ , Ov. am. 2. 19. 40 with McKeown. The power of money could surmount such barriers; cf. Tib. 2. 4. 33 f. ‘nam pretium si grande feras, custodia victa est / nec
202
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
prohibent claves et tacet ipse canis’, Antip. Thess. anth. Pal. 5. 30. 3 f. j b ªaæ e æÆªÆ æfi , º , h Łıæøæe = K , h Œø K æŁæØ ÆØ. excubiae, like vigilum, is properly used of a human picket (Ov. am. 1. 6. 7); a contrast can be heard with the prefix of inclusam. The word tristes, which is not normally applied to dogs, suggests the grim aspect of a human concierge (3. 14. 23 n.). For watch-dogs see further Toynbee, 1973: 107 ff. with pl. 43 (the familiar mosaic from Pompeii). 3. munierant satis: the indicative, like the off-hand satis, underlines Acrisius’ assurance; what appears to be a statement of fact is then falsified by si non risissent. In such conditional sentences the apodosis regularly precedes the protasis (2. 17. 28 with N–H). For the theme cf. Apollod. Caryst. 6. 1 ff. (PCG 2, p. 491) ŒÆd ŒºŁ ŁæÆ ºE . (B) Iºº Pb x = Œø O ıæa oø K ŁæÆ, = Ø w ªÆºB ŒÆd Ø e PŒ Næ ÆØ. 4. nocturnis ab adulteris: adulter, like moechus, does not always imply a married accomplice; cf. 1. 33. 9, 1. 36. 19, 1. 25. 9. Here the word points forward to Jupiter himself; for the cynical treatment cf. Plautus’ Amphitruo. 5–6. si non Acrisium virginis abditae / custodem pavidum: the ‘jailer’ is a derisive way of describing Acrisius himself; pavidum makes a paradox, as normally the prisoner is afraid of the custos. Traditionally an oracle is said to account for Acrisius’ fear (see n. 1 above), but here the adjective may simply describe the fussy father of the fille mal garde´e; the very name ‘Acrisius’ suggests indecision and lack of judgment. 6–7. Iuppiter et Venus / risissent: Venus’ traditional smile (Hom. Il. 3. 424 etc., Pease on Virg. Aen. 4. 128) often turns to the mockery of lovers’ ways, while Jupiter laughs at lovers’ perjuries (for both deities see N–H on 2. 8. 13); but in our passage the gods’ cynicism is diverted from mortals’ inconstancy to their corruptibility. Bentley proposed risisset, as H normally uses a singular verb when two singular subjects are combined (cf. 2. 11. 2, 2. 13. 38, 3. 3. 10 n., 3. 11. 22, C. O. Brink PCPS 28, 1982: 30 ff.), and his conjecture is supported by the scholium on Stat. Theb. 6. 265 (287), which reads the corrupt misisset in quoting our passage. Exceptions to the rule seem to have particular explanations, and the singular may well be right.The humorous climax is helped by the position of the verb and the pause which follows it. 7. fore enim tutum iter et patens: tutum points back to the fierce dogs and patens to the stout doors, thus forming a chiasmus. A verb of thinking is understood with fore; though the construction is commoner
1 6 . I N C LV S A M DA NA EN
203
in the historians than in the poets, it is found e.g. at Virg. Aen. 1. 444 f., Ov. met. 1. 250. 8. converso in pretium deo: dative after tutum and patens rather than ablative absolute. The amusingly cynical in pretium goes beyond the expected in aurum; cf. Ovid’s imitation ‘Iuppiter admonitus nihil esse potentius auro / corruptae pretium virginis ipse fuit’ (am. 3. 8. 29 f.). The rationalization of the golden shower goes back at least to the Danae of Euripides (TGF fr. 324 t æı, øÆ ŒººØ æE ). Treatments of the tale in New Comedy are found in Men. Sam. 590 f. ‰ ª æıe › ˘f Kææ = Øa ªı ŒÆŁØæª ÆE K ı , Ter. eun. 584 ff. with Donatus. A Menippean narrative lies behind Lucian, gall. 13 (Zeus) PŒ ø . . . ‹ø i ØÆŁæØ F #ŒæØı c æıæ---IŒØ ı ‰ æı Kª (cf. R. Helm, Lucian und Menipp, 1906: p. 325). The Greek epigrammatists blame Danae’s own avarice; e.g. Antip. Thess. anth. Pal. 5. 31. 5 f. Œø ‹Ø ŒÆd ˜Æfi ˘f = P æı , æıF qºŁ æø ŒÆ , Parmenio, ibid. 5. 33 and 34, Strato 12. 239. 2. H implies that guards were bribed (as in Lucian) rather than Danae herself; the former follows better from ‘tutum iter et patens’ and leads better to ‘per medios ire satellites’. 9. aurum per medios ire satellites: though gold is softer than bronze, it turns out to be stronger; cf. Asclepiades, anth. Pal. 5. 64. 6 Øa ƺŒø
æıe ı ŁÆºø, Paul. Sil. ibid. 5. 217, Apul. met. 9. 18. 2. For similar aphorisms on the power of money cf. Soph. Ant. 296 f. F ŒÆd ºØ = æŁE, ¼æÆ K ÆØ ø, TGF adesp. 129, Cic. Verr. 1. 2. 4 ‘nihil esse tam sanctum quod non violari, nihil tam munitum quod non pecunia expugnari possit’, Otto 50. satellites describes the henchmen at a despot’s court. 10–11. et perrumpere amat saxa potentius / ictu fulmineo: in a world ignorant of electricity, and without lightning-conductors (which were not invented until the eighteenth century), lightning was a terrifying thing; this fear can be seen in the practice of railing off the structure which had been hit and declaring it a consecrated site (see ars 471 ‘triste bidental’ with Porph.’s note). It was a truism that lightning could cleave rocks (Lucr. 6. 229 ‘transit per saxa’), or as here man-made fortifications (ibid. 240 ‘potest ictu discludere turris’). amat is often translated ‘is accustomed’ (غE), but it seems to include a hint of capriciousness: perhaps ‘has a way of ’. For potentius cf. Diphilus, fr. 103 (PCG 5, p. 111) N ıæ æ Œæø e æØ º = a Æ fiø ÆØ ŒÆd æÆØ, Ov. am. 3. 8. 29 (cited 8 n.). fulmineo recalls Jupiter’s thunderbolt, and so follows well from 8; the use of the adjective for the genitive is poetical (Lucr. 2. 382, cf. 3. 1. 7, 3. 4. 72 n.).
204
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
11–12. concidit auguris / Argivi domus: here H varies his exempla by describing the victim of bribery. Amphiaraus joined the ‘Seven against Thebes’ under the persuasion of his wife Eriphyle, who had been bribed by Polynices with a golden necklace. The episode was mentioned in passing by Homer (Od. 11. 326 f., 15. 244 ff.) and was the subject of a poem by Stesichorus and plays by Sophocles and Accius. It was often used as a moral object-lesson (Plato, rep. 590a, Cic. Verr. 4. 39, Prop. 2. 16. 29, 3. 13. 57 f., Stat. Theb. 4. 193 ff., Hense on Musonius 4 p. 14). See further Diod. 4. 65 f., Apollod. bibl. 3. 6. 2 with Frazer, RE 6. 460 ff., LIMC (Eriphyle) 3. 1. 843 ff., 3. 2. 606 ff. The crime led to the deaths of Amphiaraus (see next note), Eriphyle, and ultimately their son, Alcmaeon, who had taken revenge on his mother. concidit domus refers to the whole family (as at 1. 6. 8 ‘saevam Pelopis domum’), but the image also suggests the collapse of a building; in this metaphorical sense it balances perrumpere (10), diffidit (13), subruit (14). Amphiaraus was an augur or Ø (cf. 1. 2. 32 ‘augur Apollo’) who on this occasion foresaw his own death (cf. Cic. fam. 6. 6. 6, Stat. Theb. 3. 546 ff.). 12–13. ob lucrum / demersa exitio: ob lucrum should be taken at least partly with demersa exitio, which otherwise seems a weak appendage. Though (de)mergere is used elsewhere for ‘to ruin’, it recalls here how Amphiaraus and his chariot were swallowed up by the earth; cf. Apollod. 3. 6. 8, Pind. O. 6. 13 ff., N. 9. 24 ff. › #ØÆæE ŒæÆıfiH Æfi Æ = ˘f a ÆŁæ Ł Æ, Œæł – ¥ Ø (for the thunderbolt cf. ictu fulmineo above), Stat. Theb. 7. 794 ff., 9. 646 f. ‘demersi funera . . . / auguris’, Apollod. 3. 6. 8 with Frazer, RE 1. 1891, LIMC 1. 1. 698 ff., 1. 2. 560 ff. exitio is ablative; cf. Virg. Aen. 6. 429 ‘funere mersit acerbo’, Housman, Classical Papers, 3. 915 f. 13–14. diffidit urbium / portas vir Macedo: the delayed muneribus (15) shows that diffidit is metaphorical. H is referring to Philip II, father of Alexander the Great; the periphrasis vir Macedo, which balances auguris Argivi (11–12), alludes to the hostile use of the phrase 1ÆŒg Iæ in Dem. Phil. 1. 10. His capture of the Thracian coastal cities, and especially Olynthus (348 bc), was attributed in part to bribery; cf. Dem. fals. leg. 265–8, Cic. Att. 1. 16. 12 ‘Philippus omnia castella expugnari posse dicebat in quae modo asellus onustus auro posset ascendere’, Diod. 16. 53. 2, Val. Max. 7. 2. ext. 10, Plut. Aem. Paul. 12. 6, Juv. 12. 47 ‘callidus emptor Olynthi’ with Mayor, paroem. Gr. 1. 209 (an oracle to Philip) IæªıæÆE º ª ÆØ ı, ŒÆd ø ŒæÆØ . Of course Philip’s mastery of siege-warfare was the most important factor; cf. G. Cawkwell, Philip of Macedon, 1978: 160 ff., N. G. L. Hammond and G. T. Griffith, A History of Macedonia 2, 1979: 444 ff.
1 6 . I N C LV S A M DA NA EN
205
14–15. et subruit aemulos / reges muneribus: subruit, ‘undermined’, keeps up the military imagery; tunnels played an important part in ancient siege-warfare. The particular reference is uncertain, but aemulos reges probably refers to rival Macedonian princes (OLD s.v. rex) rather than external enemies. For instance, about 359 bc Philip bribed the Paeonians to thwart Argaeus and Pausanias; cf. Diod. 16. 3. 4, Hammond and Griffith, op. cit. 2. 210 f. It may also be relevant that by one account he destroyed Olynthus so as to capture his rival half-brothers Arrhidaeus and Menelaus ( Justin 8. 3. 10–12, CAH edn. 2, 6. 748 ff.); H’s muneribus connects the subversion of princes with the destruction of cities. 15–16. munera navium / saevos inlaqueant duces: H turns from land to sea to show the universal sway of money; for the collocation of muneribus and munera in successive clauses cf. 3. 5. 21 n., Wills 271 ff. He must be referring to a particular case, like those of Amphiaraus and Philip above; in view of the present inlaqueant and the omission of the name, this must be a fairly recent instance. Editors plausibly refer to the freedman Menas, later called Menodorus, who in the naval war of 38 deserted Sex. Pompeius and was rewarded by Octavian with gold rings and equestrian status (App. civ. 5. 80, Dio 48. 45. 7). Conceivably Maecenas played a part in this transaction, for his reputation as a fixer was high at this time. To give the reference more precision RN has considered reading servos duces (a sneer at Menas’ lowly origin); but though this would produce an effective oxymoron, saevos combines well with inlaqueant to suggest the trapping of a wild beast. 17. crescentem sequitur cura pecuniam: as in 3. 1. 48 ‘divitias operosiores’, H. refers to the complications that wealth brings; he follows Epicurus in regarding such anxieties as unnecessary (KD XV, frr. 468–79 Usener, Lucr. 5. 1118 f.; so already Democritus B283–4 ). pecunia is a prosaic word (Axelson 108); here it has a derogatory sense that suits the moralizing tone of the passage (see 3. 24. 61, 4. 9. 38). 18. maiorumque fames: for the neuter plural in gnomic utterances cf. 2. 16. 26, epist. 1. 10. 32 ‘fuge magna’, Alc. 38. 4 L–P, Theoc. 16. 65, Paul, Romans 12: 16. As a man becomes richer he longs for greater things, a thought that leads to ‘tollere verticem’ (19). This is a development of the commonplace that the love of money grows with what it feeds on; cf. 2. 2. 13 ‘crescit indulgens sibi dirus hydrops’ with N–H, epist. 2. 2. 146 f., Sen. ben. 2. 27. 3, Juv. 14. 139 with Mayor. For the metaphorical fames see epist. 1. 18. 23, Virg. Aen. 3. 57 ‘auri sacra fames’ (so also ØA, ‘to crave for’); sitis is more common (2. 2. 14, serm. 1. 1. 68 etc.).
206
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
18–19. iure perhorrui / late conspicuum tollere verticem: H’s horror is humorously exaggerated; yet it is true that at some stage he declined to become Augustus’ private secretary (Suet. vita). The high head is a sign of both eminence and pride; cf. 1. 1. 36 ‘sublimi feriam sidera vertice’ (also addressed to Maecenas), 1. 18. 15 with N–H. conspicuum is proleptic; here it is combined with late (cf. 3. 3. 45 n.), which makes a contrast of dimensions with tollere. 20. Maecenas, equitum decus: a discreet reminder that Maecenas claimed to keep a low profile; cf. serm. 1. 6. 98 ‘iudicio . . . sanus fortasse tuo’, ps.-Acro ‘Maecenas enim eques Romanus fuit nec voluit transire in ordinem senatorium’, eleg. in Maec. 1. 31 ff., Vell. 2. 88. 2, Dio 55. 7. 4; he preferred to exercise influence from a private station rather than face the hazards of elections. There is humour in using so rich and magnificent a person as an example of moderation; H is imitated by Prop. 3. 9. 2 ‘intra fortunam qui cupis esse tuam’, 22 ‘cogor et exemplis te superare tuis’. At the same time decus is a term of panegyric that H applies elsewhere to Maecenas (1. 1. 2, 2. 17. 4); it was tactful to note that he was no ordinary equestrian. 21–2. quanto quisque sibi plura negaverit / ab dis plura feret: H now turns from the anxieties brought by cupidity to the positive advantages of self-denial. It was a philosophical paradox that to limit one’s desires is in itself to increase one’s wealth; cf. 2. 2. 9 ff. ‘latius regnes avidum domando / spiritum quam si Libyam remotis / Gadibus iungas’ (see N–H for Epicurean parallels), Cic. parad. 51 ‘non esse cupidum pecunia est, non esse emacem vectigal est; contentum vero suis rebus esse maximae sunt certissimaeque divitiae’, Sen. epist. 14. 17. The preposition ab is often combined with dis even in Cicero, perhaps giving a slightly archaic effect ( J. C. Rolfe, ALL 10, 1898: 468). 22–3. nil cupientium / nudus castra peto: a particular consequence of the preceding maxim; H sometimes dispenses with conjunctions to connect his argument. For the philosophic nil cupere cf. Sen. Thy. 389 ‘rex est qui cupiet nihil’, TLL 4. 1430. 48 ff. In the terms of the metaphor nudus means ‘without weapons’ (see next note), but at the literal level it refers to the renunciation of superfluous possessions. 23–4. et transfuga divitum / partis linquere gestio: a humorous reversal of the philosophers’ metaphor by which ‘to desert the camp of virtue’ is disgraceful; cf. epist. 1. 16. 67 ‘perdidit arma, locum virtutis deseruit’, Cic. fam. 9. 20. 1 ‘in Epicuri nos, adversarii nostri, castra coiecimus’, Sen. epist. 2. 5, dial. 12. 5. 2. To amuse his benefactor H suggests that he himself belongs to the camp of the rich; vis-a`-vis
1 6 . I N C LV S A M DA NA EN
207
the pauperiorum turba, this is not unrealistic, but in comparison with Maecenas and the very rich H was no more than comfortably off. gestio suggests physical excitement (3. 3. 54, Austin on Cic. Cael. 67); it is applied paradoxically to self-denial, which is presented as a fulfilment of desire. 25. contemptae dominus splendidior rei: ‘a more glorious master of the wealth that I reject’; cf. Cowley’s imitation: ‘Slaves to the things we too much prize, / We masters grow of all that we despise’. dominus is used in two senses: he is more in control of the wealth that he rejects than if he were an owner of large tracts of land; cf. serm. 2. 7. 75, 93, Cic. Stoic. parad. 5. 33, Min. Fel. 36. 5 ‘omnia si non concupiscimus, possidemus’, Maxim. eleg. 1. 54 ‘et rerum dominus nil cupiendo fui’. For the use of contemnere cf. Virg. Aen. 8. 364 ‘aude, hospes, contemnere opes’, Sen. epist. 62. 3 ‘brevissima ad divitias per contemptum divitiarum via est’. Most editors understand contemptae rei as ‘the property despised by others’; that is a less pointed interpretation of this condensed passage, it fails to take proper account of the topos cited above, and such a description of the Sabine estate might well be discourteous to Maecenas. 26. quam si quidquid arat impiger Apulus: arat here means ‘produces by tilling’, i.e. ‘harvests’, as occultare horreis shows (cf. Cic. Verr. 3. 113 ‘ut plus quam decem medimna ex iugero ararent’, Sen. clem. 1. 6. 1, TLL 3. 627. 24 ff.); in other places it indicates the extent of a landowner’s property, e.g. Virg. georg. 2. 224–5, Persius 4. 26 ‘dives arat Curibus quantum non miluus errat’. For the lengthening of -at before a vowel see 2. 13. 16 with N–H, 3. 5. 17 n. The hyperbolical quidquid suits descriptions of latifundia (cf. below 31 n.). The fertility of Apulia is mentioned by Varro, rust. 1. 2. 6 ‘quod triticum Apulo (conferam)?’, 1. 57. 3, Strab. 6. 3. 9, Brunt (1971), 368 f. impiger Apulus is a tribute to H’s hard-working fellow-countrymen; cf. 3. 15. 1 n., Lucan 5. 403 ‘piger Apulus’ (a paradoxical result of war). 27. occultare meis dicerer horreis: the large landowner is a hoarder who does not understand that wealth is for use (serm. 1. 1. 44 ‘quid habet pulchri constructus acervus?’, epist. 2. 2. 177 ff.). By a paradox his hidden riches can only be a matter for report (dicerer), while the man who rejects wealth enjoys a brighter lustre (splendidior in 25). meis in this emphatic position brings out the pride of possession. 28. magnas inter opes inops: the rich man is ‘without resources’ because he does not use his wealth; the epigram is the counterpart of v. 25. For similar paradoxes cf. serm. 2. 3. 142 ‘pauper Opimius (suggesting
208
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
opimus) argenti positi intus et auri’, Sen. epist. 74. 4 ‘in divitiis inopes’, dial. 12. 11. 4, Hf 168, Otto 51. 29–30. purae rivus aquae silvaque iugerum / paucorum: for similar descriptions of H’s estate see serm. 2. 6. 1 ff. ‘modus agri non ita magnus, / hortus ubi et tecto vicinus iugis aquae fons, / et paulum silvae super his foret’, epist. 1. 16. 9 ff., 1. 18. 104 ‘gelidus Digentia rivus’. Ps.-Acro well comments on our passage ‘laus mediocritatis sub agelli descriptione’; the stream of pure water belongs to the traditional blessings of simplicity (serm. 1. 1. 54 ff., 2. 11. 20 with N–H, Lucr. 2. 30), while ‘iugerum paucorum’ suggests antique frugality (2. 15. 1, Virg. georg. 4. 127 f. ‘cui pauca relicti / iugera certa soli’). 30. et segetis certa fides meae: cf. Cic. fam. 16. 17. 1 ‘ager etiam fidelis dici potest’. In RN’s view certa presents a problem: most farming was unreliable (cf. 3. 1. 30 ‘fundusque mendax’ with note), and one does not expect exaggerated claims for the fertility of H’s estate; cf. epist. 1. 14. 26 ff. and (of Mena’s Sabine property) 1. 7. 87 ff. ‘spem mentita seges’; on the other hand, a reference here to spiritual benefits impairs the contrast with beatior below. RN has therefore considered curta fides, ‘defective gratitude’ (cf. Juv. 14. 166 f. ‘ingratae / curta fides patriae’); this takes one step further the unassuming tone of rivus aquae and iugerum paucorum; the phrase might be defended as a tease of Maecenas that is heavily outweighed by the following eulogy. In NR’s view harsh comments about the land (3. 1. 30 etc.) and friendly ones (serm. 2. 6. 1 ff. etc.) are a matter of mood (contrast Virg. georg. 1. 199 ff. with 2. 458 ff.); here meae, which seems to stress the pride of ownership (cf. 27), suits a complimentary adjective like certa, and fallit (32) makes a typical verbal contrast with fides. 31. fulgentem imperio fertilis Africae: this means the imaginary owner of impossibly large estates in the province of Africa, the modern Tunisia (cf. OCD 34); the fertility of the area is referred to in serm. 2. 3. 87 ‘frumenti quantum metit Africa’, Juv. 8. 117 f. ‘messoribus illis / qui saturant Vrbem’ with Mayor. He is described hyperbolically as ruling over the country; cf. 2. 2. 9 ff. (quoted on 21–2 above). H does not have in mind a real contemporary king (for Africa was a Roman province), nor yet a Roman proconsul (for the genitive Africae suggests a personal domain, and the fertility of the land would not enhance a proconsul’s magnificence). fulgentem suits the imaginary monarch and balances splendidior (25); for the ablative imperio cf. 3. 2. 18 ‘(virtus) intaminatis fulget honoribus’, Sil. 13. 605, Juv. 8. 42. Bentley proposed fulgente imperio, looking for an ablative of comparison with beatior; but this can easily be understood, and it is confusing to combine beatior with two ablatives of different categories.
1 6 . I N C LV S A M DA NA EN
209
32. fallit sorte beatior: the poet’s modest property ‘escapes the notice’ of the big landowner ‘as being a more blessed allocation’. In Greek one could say ºÆŁø OºØæ þ ‘I escape your notice being more fortunate’, but esse lacks a present participle, and so the construction is less clear; cf. Virg. Aen. 12. 634 ‘nequiquam fallis dea’, TLL 6. 1. 189. 79 ff., S. Eklund, The Periphrastic, Completive and Finite Use of the Present Participle in Latin, 1970: 89 ff. (who underestimates the Greek influence). beatus can be used of things that bring blessedness, as in 1. 29. 1 f. ‘beatis . . . / gazis’. sorte is an ablative of respect, common with words like felix; by an odd extension it is used here where the subject is not the possessor of the lot but the actual blessing itself. 33. quamquam nec Calabrae mella ferunt apes: in ancient times Calabria was in south-east Italy; speaking of Tarentum, H praises its honey, olives, and vines (2. 6. 14 ff.); Virgil mentions the abundance of flowers from which the old bee-keeper profited (georg. 4. 109 ff.); Matine bees (4. 2. 27) belonged to the same district (N–H on 1. 28. 3); see also Varro ap. Macrob. sat. 3. 16. 12. For the plural applied to substances cf. K–S 1. 73 ff., Wackernagel 1. 96 f.; mella is metrically convenient and is found in the satires (2. 2. 15, 2. 4. 24) as well as the odes. Similar lists of dispensable luxuries occur in 2. 18. 1 ff. and 3. 1. 41 ff. 34–5. nec Laestrygonia Bacchus in amphora / languescit: the Homeric Laestrygones (Od. 10. 80 ff.) were traditionally located at Formiae, on the coast of South Latium; cf. 3. 17. 6 n. The adjective is humorously grandiose: the Laestrygones were cannibals. It may be relevant that Maecenas’ wife, Terentia, seems to have had roots in the area; a Murena, perhaps her brother, is attested there at serm. 1. 5. 38 (cf. below 3. 19. 7 n.). Formian wine is mentioned in 1. 20. 11, Athen. 26e; for the transferred epithet cf. 1. 9. 7 f. ‘Sabina / . . . diota’, 1. 31. 9 ‘Calena falce’; there were no vines on H’s estate (epist. 1. 14. 23). languescit refers to mellowing with age (cf. 3. 21. 8). 35–6. mihi nec pinguia Gallicis / crescunt vellera pascuis: mihi is emphatic (¼ K) as in 2. 16. 37 ‘mihi parva rura’. So it comes at the beginning of the clause (preceded by a comma), and should be taken primarily with crescunt, though it has to be understood also with the two previous verbs. If it were combined primarily with languescit, it would be unemphatic and would be oddly placed at the end of its clause. For the wool of Cisalpine Gaul cf. Strabo 5. 1. 12 (Padua), Plin. nat. hist. 8. 190 ‘alba (lana) circumpadanis nulla praefertur’, Colum. 7. 2. 3, Blu¨mner (1911), 238 f. pinguis is used of thick fleeces in Claud. 20. 384; the word is also applied, sometimes pejoratively, to thick clothes (Mart. 6. 11. 7 ‘te Cadmea Tyros, me pinguis Gallia vestit’, Juv. 9. 28, Suet. Aug.
210
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
82 ‘cum pingui toga’) and luxuriant hair (Suet. Ner. 20). crescunt implies physical growth (cf. 3. 23. 11, Sen. dial. 10. 12. 3 of a barber ‘dum decerpitur si quid proxima nocte succrevit’) with the hint of a capital increment, as in ‘crescentem . . . pecuniam’ (17). 37. importuna tamen pauperies abest: pauperies is a relative term; it is often used by H to mean ‘modest circumstances’ in contrast to the great wealth possessed by many of his acquaintances (e.g. 2. 18. 10, 3. 29. 56), but here it describes actual distress (cf. epist. 2. 2. 199 ‘pauperies immunda’). importuna refers to the insistent demands of the body, as in Plaut. St. 387 ‘importunam exigere ex utero famem’, Lucr. 2. 17 ‘nil aliud sibi naturam latrare’; it leads to the idea of nagging one’s patron (cf. epist. 1. 17. 46 ff.) that is mentioned in the following line (deneges). In the context of possessions abest normally refers to material deficiencies (3. 24. 64, Lucr. 3. 957 ‘sed quia semper aves quod abest, praesentia temnis’), but here it is used paradoxically: what H lacks is poverty. 38. nec si plura velim, tu dare deneges: H declines further enrichment in a way that shows gratitude for past benefits; cf. 2. 18. 12 ff., epod. 1. 31 f., serm. 2. 6. 4. 39–40. contracto melius parva cupidine / vectigalia porrigam: H resumes the theme of 21 f. (see note); add Epicur. fr. 135 Usener ¼ C28 Bailey N ºØ ºØ —ıŁŒºÆ ØBÆØ, c æø æŁØ, B b KØŁıÆ IÆæØ (translated by Sen. epist. 21. 7). melius qualifies the whole clause (‘I shall do better to . . . ’); cf. 1. 2. 22 ‘melius perirent’ with N–H, 3. 15. 8 (rectius), K–S 1. 795, H–Sz 827. cupidine is ‘avarice’ (for the metrically impossible cupiditate); the word is always masculine in H. vectigalia refers to private rents from the Sabine estate (epist. 1. 14. 2 f.); cf. Cic. Att. 12. 19. 1 ‘nihil egeo vectigalibus et parvo contentus esse possum’, rep. 4. 7, parad. 49 ‘non intellegunt homines quam magnum vectigal sit parsimonia . . . ex meo tenui vectigali, detractis sumptibus cupiditatis, aliquid etiam redundabit’. Of course the word normally refers to public revenues (Porph. ad loc.), particularly from Asia Minor; so it makes a good contrast with the kingdom of Alyattes below (cf. serm. 2. 2. 100 f. ‘ego vectigalia magna / divitiasque habeo tribus amplas regibus’). porrigam (‘extend’) forms a contrast with contracto (the two words frame the sentence); it also suits the expansion of property (cf. Sen. epist. 89. 20 ‘quo usque arationes vestras porrigetis?’) and so leads well to 41 ff. 41–2. quam si Mygdoniis regnum Alyattei / campis continuem: Mygdon was a legendary king of Phrygia (Hom. Il. 3. 182 ff.);
1 7 . A ELI V E T V S T O N O B I LI S A B L A M O
211
cf. 2. 12. 22 ‘aut pinguis Phrygiae Mygdonias opes’. Alyattes was a sixth-century king of Lydia, the father of Croesus; for the genitive Alyattei (a five-syllable name), restored by Faber for aliat(t)hii or halyattici, cf. 1. 6. 7 Vlixei, 1. 15. 34 Achillei. It is significant that Maecenas could claim a Lydian origin (serm. 1. 6. 1; cf. N–H on 2. 18. 6). For continuare cf. Cic. leg. agr. 2. 70 ‘Sullanus ager . . . latissime continuatus’, 2. 78, 3. 14, Sall. Cat. 20. 11; the whole expression continues the hyperbole of 26 and 31; cf. epist. 2. 2. 178. For similar rejections of wealth cf. N–H on 2. 12. 21, Lucil. 671 f. with Marx, Alphaeus, anth. Pal. 9. 110. 1 f. ˇP æªø ÆŁıº.ı IææÆ , = PŒ Zº º æı, x Æ ˆª . . . Phrygia was associated with Midas, and Lydia with silver coinage and gold-bearing rivers, but here H is thinking of agricultural wealth. 42–3. multa petentibus / desunt multa: the chiastic repetition gives epigrammatic form to the Stoic commonplace; cf. 25 n., Cic. paradox. 44 ‘qui . . . innumerabiles cupiditates habet . . . hunc quando appellabo divitem, cum ipse egere se sentiat?’, Sen. epist. 90. 38, 108. 9 quoting Publil. 1.7 (¼ Min. Lat. Poets, Loeb edn. 275) ‘desunt inopiae multa, avaritiae omnia’. 43–4. bene est cui deus obtulit / parca quod satis est manu: bene est is an expression of contentment; cf. serm. 2. 6. 4 ‘bene est; nil amplius oro’, OLD 8 b. The omission of ei suits a somewhat archaic aphorism; cf. 2. 16. 13 ‘vivitur parvo bene cui etc.’, K–S 2. 281 ff.; the singular cui, in contrast to the plural petentibus, allows the sententia to point to H himself. parca manu would normally suggest a lack of generosity, but here paradoxically is a blessing. After bene est the word satis expresses positive satisfaction; cf. 2. 18. 14 ‘satis beatus unicis Sabinis’, epod. 1. 31 f. ‘satis superque me benignitas tua / ditavit’.
1 7 . A ELI V E T V S T O N O B I LI S A B L A M O [L. Mondin in Temi Augustei (ed. G. C. Marrone), 1998: 37 ff; Syme (1986), 394 f.; S. Treggiari, Phoenix 27, 1973: 246 ff.; T. P. Wiseman, G&R 21, 1974: 153 ff. ¼ Roman Studies, 1987: 207 ff.]
1–9. Aelius, illustrious descendant of ancient Lamus (for all the Lamiae derive from the founder of Formiae who held sway as far as Minturnae)— 9–14. Tomorrow there will be a rainstorm, if the prophetic crow can be relied on; so gather dry firewood while you can. 14–16. Tomorrow you will enjoy a simple meal with your household, released from work by the weather.
212
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
The recipient of this ode, L. Aelius Lamia, belonged to a family of growing importance; for his place in it see N–H on 1. 26, Treggiari, op. cit., Syme, loc. cit. His homonymous father, a man of far-reaching business interests (Syme, 1939: 82 n. 1), became plebeian aedile in 45 bc and praetor probably in 42; as a leading eques he had rallied support for Cicero at the time of his exile (Sest. 29, fam. 11. 16. 2), and when Cicero was killed near Formiae at the end of 43, he used his position as a local magnate (6 n.) to give his maimed body a funeral (anth. Lat. 2. 608, 611, 614 Riese, H. H. Davis, Phoenix 12, 1958: 174 ff.). Horace’s friend may be one of the people who acquired patrician status about 29 bc (Syme, 1939: 382), and at some stage he became a xvvir sacris faciundis (AE, 1948: n. 93); this suits the antiquarian concerns suggested by vv. 1–8. When Augustus returned from Spain in 24 he left Lamia in Hispania Tarraconensis as legatus pro praetore (Dio 53. 29. 1, PIR edn. 2, A199, Syme, Roman Papers 2, 1979: 829, 848 f.). Thereafter the man surprisingly disappears from view, and Syme (1986: 395) suggests that he might be the Lamia who is mourned by his brother at epist. 1. 14. 6 ff. Like the other ode to Lamia (1. 26), which is dated to 26–25 by the reference to Tiridates, our poem must have been composed before the Spanish appointment. A son of the legate, another L. Aelius Lamia, rose to be consul in ad 3 and prefect of the city in 32 (Tac. ann. 6. 27. 2, PIR edn. 2, A200), and it used to be thought that he was the recipient of Horace’s poems. N–H (loc.cit.), while contesting this view, identified the future consul with the Lamia of 1. 36. 7–9 (otherwise Treggiari, op. cit.), and also with the Lamia who mourns for his brother; these suggestions are rejected by Syme (1986), 394, who thinks that the future consul was born about 32 bc, i.e. too late for him to figure in Horace. The family continued to be important in the early empire; cf. Juv. 4.154 of Domitian ‘Lamiarum caede madenti’ with Courtney. Though his friend was not a nobilis (1 n.), Horace teasingly celebrates his descent from Lamus, the ruler of Homer’s Laestrygones (1 n.). Aristocratic Roman families were always very aware of their ancestors, with whom they identified (Griffin 188 ff.); we have only to think of the stemmata in the atrium (Courtney on Juv. 8. 1–9) and the masks worn at great men’s funerals (Flower, 1996). M. Messalla Rufus (cos. 53 bc) wrote a book de familiis (Plin. nat. hist. 35. 8), Atticus investigated several genealogies (Nepos, Att. 18. 2–4 with Horsfall), and Brutus had the resulting tree painted on a wall of his house (Cic. Att. 13. 40. 1); see Rawson, 1985: 231 f. Apart from this genuine antiquarianism, families traced their origin to mythical Greek heroes (see especially Wiseman, op. cit.)—a practice encouraged by the works of Varro and Hyginus de familiis Troianis (P. Toohey, Arethusa 17, 1984: 1 ff.); thus the Julii claimed descent from Aeneas, the Antonii from Anto, a son of
1 7 . A ELI V E T V S T O N O B I LI S A B L A M O
213
Hercules, the Memmii from Mnestheus, the Licinii apparently from the kings of Argos (see below on 3. 19). For a parallel to our passage Mondin cites Suet. Vitell. 1. 2–3 ‘extat Q. Elogii ad Quintum Vitellium Divi Augusti quaestorem libellus, quo continetur Vitellios Fauno Aboriginum rege et Vitellia quae multis locis pro numine coleretur ortos, toto Latio imperasse . . . ’. But needless to say, when Horace connects Lamia with the man-eating Laestrygones, he does not expect his ponderous excursus to be taken seriously (1 n.). After the disquisition on genealogy (1–9) the ode looks forward to a modest meal on the following day (cf. 3. 13. 3), not to celebrate a festival or a birthday (14–15 n.), but because the weather is likely to be wet; in poems of this kind storm outside makes a contrast with the snugness within, and sometimes gives a reminder of life’s vicissitudes (cf. 1. 9. 1 ff. with N–H 116 ff., epod. 13. 1 ff.). The scene is set near the coast, presumably at Lamia’s estate near Formiae (Porph. on 13–16); the wine is not specified, though the area was famous for its vintages (1. 20. 11, 3. 16. 34). The main course is to be a sucking piglet (an exception to the tendency for people to eat in the Satires and drink in the Odes), and the household slaves participate (16 n.), again a sign of wholesome simplicity. Campbell exclaimed, ‘From the ancestry of Aelius Lamia to dry faggots and a sucking pig! What is the point? And where is the poetry?’ (1924: 5); but as he himself seems to realize (113 f.), the point and the poetry lie precisely in the contrast between pretentious fantasies about remote ancestors and the actual pleasure provided by a simple meal consisting of a recently born piglet. Aelius Lamia was no doubt as ambitious as the rest of his family, but he must have had some literary understanding: otherwise the tribute in 1. 26 could not have been addressed to the Muse. Ps.-Acro (on ars 288) mentions a Lamia who wrote togatae and praetextae (for a mutilated reference cf. also Fest. 181 M ¼ 192 L); and though this man’s date is uncertain, he appears in a list of dramatists that also includes Maecenas’ secretary Melissus (Schanz–Hosius 2. 176 f., 292 f.). If the two are identical, then Lamia has something in common with Fuscus, who figured in serm. 1. 9. and according to Porph. on epist. 1. 10. 1 also wrote comedies. However that may be, Horace’s friend seems to have been the sort of person who could accept friendly banter and perhaps even a tactful admonition (13–14 n.). Metre: Alcaic. 1. Aeli, vetusto nobilis ab Lamo: in Roman political life a nobilis was somebody directly descended in the male line from a consul; cf. D. R. Shackleton Bailey, AJP 107, 1986: 255 ff. ¼ Selected Classical Papers, 1997: 309 ff., Syme (1986), 50 ff. Aelius Lamia could not claim this distinction,
214
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
so H gives him nobilitas in a non-technical sense through his descent from Lamus; this mythical figure appears in Homer as ruler of the Laestrygones (Od. 10. 81 f.), who were fancifully located at Formiae, where the Aelii Lamiae had their estate (for similar cases see 6–9 n. below). Lamia was a hideous bogy in Greek mythology ( J. Fontenrose, Python, 1959 and 1980: 100 ff., DNP 6. 1079 f., LIMC 6. 1. 189, 6. 2. 90 f.), and she is described in one source as queen of the Laestrygones (schol. Theoc. 15. 40). The cognomen may in fact go back only to the grandfather of H’s friend, yet another L. Aelius Lamia; he suffered from some disfigurement, and when L. Crassus the orator sneered ‘audiamus pulchellum puerum’, he retorted ‘non potui mihi formam ipse fingere, ingenium potui’ (Cic. de orat. 2. 262). As the Romans were insensitive about such things, the combination of disfigurement with residence at Formiae would have been enough to produce the cognomen; it is not clear that the family itself claimed descent from Lamia the baby-killer (ars 340) and Lamus the cannibal king. Lineage was affirmed on coins and inscriptions and was a standard topic of encomium; for such compliments at the beginning of a poem cf. 1. 1. 1, 3. 29. 1, Prop. 3. 9. 1, Pind. P. 10. 2 etc. vetustus is relatively rare in Cicero, but is found in Virgil and Ovid, particularly in solemn contexts, but also in more mundane passages (epod. 2. 43 ‘vetustis . . . lignis’, Colum. 3. 11. 4 ‘stercore vetusto’). It may have an archaic ring, like ante-consonantal ab (3. 5. 43, 3. 16. 22 n.). 2–3. (quando et priores hinc Lamias ferunt / denominatos: in Latin, as in Greek, a parenthesis sometimes follows a vocative, either to give reasons for the address (3. 11. 1 n.) or to justify a statement that it contains; for some poetical uses of the construction see R. J. Tarrant in Style and Tradition (ed. P. Knox and C. Foss), 1998: 141 ff. Here the parenthesis continues for half the poem, and is meant to give the illusion of a precise argument; cf. 4. 4. 18 ff., Catull. 44. 1 ff. ‘o funde noster seu Sabine seu Tiburs (nam te esse Tiburtem autumant . . . ’). quando in the sense of ‘since’ contributes to the didactic tone; apart from instances in Lucretius cf. serm. 2. 5. 9, 2. 6. 93. priores refers to the earliest Lamiae before there were written records; ferunt suggests an oral tradition, as does dicitur below (6). The prosaic denominatos again suits the pretence of a serious historical disquisition; cf. Hygin. fab. 127 ‘Italus qui Italiam ex suo nomine denominavit’, TLL 5. 1. 535. 41 ff. hinc means ‘from Lamus’; cf. Virg. Aen. 1. 21 f. ‘hinc populum . . . / venturum’, 1. 234 f. 3–5. et nepotum / per memores genus omne fastus / auctore ab illo ducit originem: nepotum refers to the remoter descendants of Lamus, as opposed to the priores Lamias (a different view is mentioned at the
1 7 . A ELI V E T V S T O N O B I LI S A B L A M O
215
end of this note). For memores cf. 4. 14. 4 ‘per titulos memoresque fastus’ (of Augustus); the fasti have an accurate memory in contrast to the vague tradition implied by ferunt (2). In our passage fastus (TLL 6. 1. 326. 36 ff.) is as well attested as fastos, and in 4. 14. 4 has better support (Priscian, GL 2. 256 says he found both forms in MSS of Horace); it should probably be preferred as an appropriate archaism and the less obvious reading. The word cannot refer here to the consular fasti, as no Lamia so far had achieved the consulship, but it is sometimes used generally for ‘records’; cf. 4. 13. 14 ff. ‘tempora quae semel / notis condita fastis / inclusit volucris dies’, serm. 1. 3. 112, TLL 6. 1. 328. 57 ff. auctore refers to the ancestor of the family (i.e. Lamus); cf. 1. 2. 36, OLD 15. ducit is the conjecture of D. Heinsius, supported by Bentley, for ducis of the MSS; ‘derives its origin from’ goes well with nepotum genus omne, which is now the subject. ducis is explained in two different ways, both implausible. (a) If the parenthesis is closed after fastus (4), the remarks on Lamia’s ancestry are pointlessly divided; what is worse, the transition at cras (9) is intolerably abrupt, for there is no connection between the legendary Lamus and the coming storm. (b) If the parenthesis is closed after tyrannus (9), quando no longer explains v. 1 (as one expects), but simply the following clause; this produces the banal truism ‘since the Lamiae are all descended from Lamus, you are descended from Lamus’. Moreover, if ducis is retained, nepotum genus omne has to be an accusative coordinate with priores Lamias; but ferunt and denominatos suit the earlier members of the family better than the nepotes. Shackleton Bailey (1982: 95) has proposed ducet; in his view nepotum refers to the descendants of H’s addressee. He finds this more natural than ‘the descendants of the earlier Lamiae’, but probably the meaning is ‘the descendants of Lamus’; there is a progression from vetusto to priores and nepotum (all three words are given emphasis by their position). H has allowed his friend a kind of nobilitas because of his ancestors, and it seems an irrelevance to introduce future generations. SB argues that his conjecture would allow fastus to bear the usual meaning of ‘consular fasti’, but these would not record a mythical ancestor; and it blunts the compliment to suggest that Lamia would have descendants more eminent than himself. 6–9. qui Formiarum moenia dicitur / princeps et innantem Maricae / litoribus tenuisse Lirim, / late tyrannus): Formiae, a coastal town in the south of Latium, some 80 miles south-east of Rome, was associated with Homer’s Laestrygones (1 n., 3. 16. 34, Cic. Att. 2. 13. 2 ‘si vero in hanc 3ºıº veneris ¸ÆØæıª, Formias dico’, Ov. fast. 4. 69 with Bo¨mer, met. 14. 233 f., Plin. nat. hist. 3. 59, RE 6. 2857). The
216
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
grandiose reference to the city walls suits foundation legends; cf. Virg. Aen. 3. 132 etc., Horsfall 21 in the article cited below. princeps means ‘first’, a word naturally applied to founders as to other originators (3. 30. 13 n.); it does not mean ‘ruler’ here, as that notion is supplied by tyrannus (9). Many Italian towns were similarly linked with legendary Greeks, Tibur with Catilus (1. 18. 2), Lanuvium and others with Diomedes (3. 19. 1 n.), Tusculum with Telegonus (3. 29. 4), Patavium with Antenor (Virg. Aen. 1. 242 etc.). See further T. P. Wiseman, op. cit. 209 f., N. Horsfall, Vergilius 35, 1989: 3 ff.; for ŒØ in the Greek world add F. Cairns, Tibullus, 1979: 68 ff., T. J. Cornell, RAC 12, 1983: 1108 ff., C. Dougherty, The Poetics of Colonization, 1993. The Liris (now called Garigliano in its lower course) enters the sea near Minturnae, nine miles east of Formiae. There were extensive marshes at the mouth (epist. 1. 5. 4 f., ‘palustris / . . . Minturnas’), where Marius hid from his enemies (Vell. Pat. 2. 19. 2 ‘nudus ac limo obrutus, oculis tantummodo ac naribus eminentibus, extractus harundineto circa paludem Maricae’, Plut. Mar. 39. 4); the whole coast in antiquity was swampier than today (M. Frederiksen, Campania, 1984: 17 ff.). innantem refers to the inundation of the flood-plain; cf. Manil. 4. 757 (as emended by Housman) ‘ultimus et sola vos tranans colit Indica Ganges’, Plin. nat. hist. 5. 54 (of the Nile) ‘fecundus innatat terrae’, Plin. epist. 8. 17. 2 (for a similar use of ÆØ see Gow on Theoc. 21. 17 f.). Between Minturnae and the sea were the shrine and grove of the goddess Marica which seems still to have existed in Porph.’s day (see his note on 7–8); cf. Liv. 27. 37. 2, Strab. 5. 3. 6, Horsfall on Virg. Aen. 7. 47, Latte 192, DNP 7. 894 f. The stately late tyrannus is meant to recall Pæf Œæø (Homer, Il. 1. 102 of Agamemnon) and Pæıø (Pind. O. 8. 31 of Poseidon); for the attachment of the adverb to the noun (here influenced by the Greek parallels) cf. Virg. Aen. 1. 21 ‘populum late regem’, Plin. epist. 3. 5. 4 ‘Germaniae latissime victor’. tyrannus here has a nuance of friendly irony; but it is used straightforwardly by Virgil of Latinus (Aen. 7. 342) and by Latinus of Aeneas (ibid. 266). When H extends the sway of Lamus beyond Formiae, this may suggest that Lamia had his villa near Minturnae (Heinze). 9–12. cras foliis nemus / multis et alga litus inutili / demissa tempestas ab Euro / sternet: by nemus H can hardly have in mind the sacred grove of Marica, where ‘cutting wood’ and ‘carting away anything that belongs to the grove’ (cf. CIL 1. 2. 366 ¼ ROL 4, p.154) are likely to have been prohibited. multis in this emphatic position may seem colourless to moderns; yet cf. 4. 2. 29 f. ‘per laborem / plurimum circa nemus’ (where Bentley took the adjective with nemus), 4. 11. 4 f. ‘est hederae vis / multa’ (again in an emphatic position); for much seaweed cf. Hom. Il. 9. 7 (ŒFÆ) ººe b Ææb –ºÆ FŒ ı.
1 7 . A ELI V E T V S T O N O B I LI S A B L A M O
217
Wet leaves (and by implication wet firewood) were useless for burning; seaweed was proverbially useless (for vilior alga cf. serm. 2. 5. 8, Virg. ecl. 7. 42). 12–13. aquae nisi fallit augur / annosa cornix: a seemly caution is commonly found with prophecies; cf. epist. 1. 20. 9 ‘quod si non odio peccantis desipit augur’, Soph. OT 1086, Fraenkel 358 n. 3, J. J. O’Hara, Death and the Optimistic Prophecy in Vergil’s Aeneid, 1990: 55 f.; how much actual uncertainty is intended is often hard to decide. For augur in the sense of ‘prophet’ cf. 3. 16. 11, serm. 2. 5. 22, OLD 2; it may be relevant that Lamia was a priest (see introduction), and certainly the crow was important in Roman augury (3. 27. 16 n.). In particular it was believed to forecast rain by its caw; cf. Euphorion 89 Powell (¼ 93 van Groningen) ÆØ ‹ Œæ Ø Œæ, Theoph. sign. 6. 3. 39, Arat. phaen. 949 ff., 1022, Lucr. 5. 1084 ff., Virg. georg. 1. 388, Thompson 171 f. aqua of rain is commoner in the plural, but H’s phrase represents ÆØ ; the word’s prominent position makes a contrast with aridum below. For the legend of the crow’s longevity cf. 4. 13. 25, Hes. fr. 304 M–W (it lives for nine generations of men), Ar. aves 609 with Dunbar (who gives five to ten years as a typical life-span), Juv. 10. 247 with Courtney, Thompson 169. Because it is ‘full of years’, it knows a thing or two; hence in Callimachus it can describe what happened many generations earlier (Hecale fr. 260. 42 ff. ¼ 73. 13 Hollis). Davis suggests a contrast with the brevity of human life (1991: 154). The termination of annosus does not prove that the word is colloquial and prosaic (cf. Brink on epist. 2. 1. 26 with p. 579); in fact it is found mainly in poetry, perhaps representing ºı . 13–14. dum potes, aridum / compone lignum: the archaic potis has some MS support and is read by Bentley (the rare word was exposed to corruption); for potis without est cf. Enn. ann. 164 ‘quis potis ingentes oras evolvere belli?’ with Skutsch, Virg. Aen. 3. 671, TLL 10. 2. 336. 63 ff., but its dignity is perhaps too great for this context. compone means ‘gather’ (OLD 2a), not ‘heap on the fire’ (Lambinus, Orelli); the coming rainstorm will soak the wood that needs to be dry. The collection of firewood was part of country life (3. 6. 39–40 n.); we are not expected to dwell on the fact that an important man like Lamia would have had ample stores of wood, or that others would have collected it. Here we have a variation of the carpe diem theme (cf. 2. 11. 16 ‘dum licet’ with N–H, 4. 12. 36); for those concerned are to take advantage of the day (cf. epod. 13. 3 f, though in our passage it is the next day); when the storm is over there will be no more leisure; other variations are found in 1. 7, 1. 9, and 1. 11. Another theme is also seen to be present, namely ‘uti
218
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
compositis’ (serm. 2. 3. 109 f., 1. 1. 37 ff., epist. 1. 1. 12 ). Such combinations are typical of Horace. 14–15. cras Genium mero / curabis et porco bimestri: the Genius was a man’s guardian spirit (see epist. 2. 2. 187 ff. with Brink, appendix 19); he can be given offerings as an external being (‘unmixed wine’ suggests a libation as at Pers. 2. 3 ‘funde merum Genio’), but where the enjoyment of life is concerned he is almost identified with the individual himself; cf. epist. 2. 1. 144 ‘(piabant) floribus et vino Genium memorem brevis aevi’, where RN is tempted to read memores (Porph. ad loc. ‘qui indulgent genio suo memores sunt vitam humanam non esse diuturnam’), ars 210, Pers. 5. 151 ‘indulge Genio, carpamus dulcia’, Serv. georg. 1. 302 ‘quotiens voluptati operam damus, indulgere dicimur genio’, Mondin, op. cit. 47. Offerings to the Genius were particularly associated with birthdays, which one’s Genius was thought to share (Tib. 2. 2. 5, Pers. 2. 3, Censorinus, de die nat. 2. 2, RE 7. 1143), but that cannot be the case here (as Heinze points out); for the repetition of cras shows that the festivity is caused by the bad weather. curare corpus ‘to look after onself ’ is a common phrase (OLD s.v. curo 1 b), but curare by itself can mean ‘to refresh’ (Enn. ann. 367 ‘vino curatus’, Liv. 34. 16. 5); the future is not so much a command as a tactful prediction (‘tomorrow you will be refreshing . . . ’). The Genius was not normally offered blood-sacrifices (Censorinus, de die nat. 2. 2 citing Varro ‘ut . . . manum a caede ac sanguine abstinerent, ne die qua ipsi lucem accepissent aliis demerent’); our passage has been thought to contradict this (I. M. Le M. Du Quesnay, PLLS 3, 1981: 108 f.), but perhaps the rule applied only to birthdays. Pigs were not weaned under two months (Varro, rust. 2. 1. 20, 2. 4. 13) and sucking pigs were regarded as a great delicacy; cf. Apic. 8. 7. 6 ‘porcellum lacte pastum’. The poem is set in the autumn when the storm brings down the leaves; a twomonth-old piglet might have been born in July (Colum. 7. 9. 3) or soon after. 16. cum famulis operum solutis: in vignettes of country life the slaves appear as members of the familia (cf. epod. 2. 65, serm. 2. 6. 66, Mart. 3. 58. 22); for their part in household cults in both Greece and Rome see Fraenkel on Aesch. Ag. 1036–8. In the case of regular holidays Cicero says (leg. 2. 29) ‘feriarum festorumque dierum ratio in liberis requietem habet litium et iurgiorum, in servis operum et laborum’. Bad weather also could allow leisure: when Ofellus is operum vacuus, a friend comes for a meal through the rain (serm. 2. 2. 119 f.), but strict masters might see such conditions as an opportunity for indoor occupations (Cato, agr. 2. 3, 39. 2 ‘per imbrem in villa quaerito quid fieri possit . . . cogitato, si nihil fiet, nihilo minus sumptum futurum’, Virg. georg. 1. 259 ff.). solutus
1 8 . FAV N E , N Y M P H A RV M F VG I EN T V M A M AT O R
219
usually takes the ablative (4. 2. 12, epod. 2. 4, serm. 1. 6. 129 ), but adjectives expressing lack or separation can take the genitive (cf. operum vacuus cited above, ars 212 ‘liberque laborum’, H–Sz 78); the same is true of verbs in early Latin (Plaut. rud. 247 ‘ut me omnium iam laborum levas’, H–Sz 83), but in our passage the construction of ºø may have had some influence (Lo¨fstedt 2.417).
1 8 . FAV N E , N Y M P H A RV M F VG I EN T V M A M AT O R [W. Warde Fowler, The Roman Festivals of the Period of the Republic, 1899: 256 ff.; Pasquali 559 ff.]
1–8. Walk gently through my lands, Faunus, and be kind to the new-born animals, seeing that a kid is sacrificed to you at the end of every year. 9–16. At your December festival beasts and men keep holiday in your honour; the lambs do not fear the wolf, and the peasants dance. Fauni were spirits of the woods who disturbed the countryside with their ‘noctivago strepitu ludoque sonanti’ (Lucr. 4. 582); their mysterious voices were thought prophetic (Skutsch on Enn. ann. 207, Pease on Cic. nat. deor. 2. 6). Their name was probably derived from favere (Serv. georg. 1. 10, RE 6. 2057), not fari (Varr. lL 7. 36, cf. Maltby 226); it may have been used euphemistically of potentially sinister beings (cf. 3–4 n.). At some stage an individualized Faunus was identified with the pastoral god Pan, whom the Greeks, with their more visual imagination, portrayed in the likeness of a goat; many authorities think that the Fauni were derived from Faunus on the lines of the Greek Panes, but in the context of Roman religion it would make sense if the more nebulous beings came first (note ps-Acro on v. 10 ‘Nonis enim Decembribus Faunalia, et Faunorum culta dicebantur’). With their genius for regularizing superstition the Romans gave Faunus a temple on the Insula Tiberina (Ov. fast. 2. 193 with Bo¨mer, Steinby 2. 242); the dedication day was 13 February 194 bc, only two days before the festival of Lupercus, with whom Pan was sometimes identified (Ov. fast. 2. 267 with Bo¨mer, Plut. Rom. 21. 7). Horace’s poem suggests that the rural festival on 5 December was much more significant, when Faunus was honoured for his protection of flocks throughout the past year; he is given this same function in 1. 17. 12 when he leaves Pan’s habitat in Arcadia to visit the Sabine estate. See further Wissowa 208 ff., Otto, RE 6. 2054 ff., Latte 83 ff.
220
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
Horace’s ode has some of the formal characteristics of a hymn. The opening vocative is followed by a phrase in apposition describing an attribute of the god (1 n.). The summons to Faunus categorizes the hymn as ‘kletic’ (cf. 1. 30 with N–H, Menander Rhetor 334. 25 ff., Murgatroyd on Tib. 2. 5, pp. 164 ff.); words for ‘propitious’ like lenis (3 n.) and aequus (4) are regular in such hymns. The poet promises an appropriate sacrifice in return for the god’s protection; for such bargaining see 5 n. It is not specified when the promise is made; the sacrifice to Faunus at 1. 4. 11 should probably be associated with 13 February, the date of the urban Faunalia (N–H are too cautious), but in our poem aprica rura (2) suggests something later in the year. Of the animals mentioned in the first stanza lambs were born from mid-October to mid-December and weaned in March (K. D. White, 1970: 305); kids were normally born in March, so the tener haedus of v. 5 seems to belong to a later brood (see the introduction to 3. 13). In the second half of the poem Horace vividly describes the Faunalia on 5 December, when the god receives his annual reward; the regard for the precise date is typically Roman, though the rural festival is not recorded in the official calendars. The stressed tibi (cf. ‘Thy kingdom come’) keeps up the sacral tone (10 n., 14 n.), but a more realistic cult hymn would not describe an occasion that was due to occur at some distance in the future. V. Bartoletti (SIFC 15, 1938: 75 ff.) compares Sappho 2, a hymn in Sapphics to Aphrodite with a tricolon similar to Horace’s; there too we meet altars, incense, leaves, and a meadow; but rather than a specific imitation we should recognize a natural structure and shared commonplaces (a god summoned to a locus amoenus). Greek epigrammatists describe dedications to Pan (Leonidas, anth. Pal. 6. 13, 6. 35, etc.), sometimes in return for protection from wolves (Philippus, ibid. 6. 99), and Theocritean shepherds invoke him (1. 123 ff, 7. 103 ff.); Longus’ Daphnis and Chloe is described as an offering to Pan and the Nymphs (praef. 3), and his important part in the love-story may sometimes reflect the influence of Philitas (I. M. Le M. Du Quesnay in Creative Imitation and Latin Literature, ed. D. West and T. Woodman, 1979: 60). But instead of including such frivolities Horace draws on the time-honoured rituals of a real fiesta in the Italian countryside; Warde Fowler, loc. cit., looks beyond antiquarian details and anthropological speculations to catch the underlying spirit of such occasions. For parallels to Horace’s vignette see Lucr. 5. 1379 ff., Virg. georg. 1. 338 ff. and 2. 380 ff. with Mynors, Tib. 2. 1 with Murgatroyd, Ov. fast. 1. 657 ff. with Bo¨mer, Calp. Sic. 4. 122 ff., H. Kier, De Laudibus Vitae Rusticae, Diss. Marburg 1933: 67 ff. Heinze comments on the elegant balance of the poem, which is very different from the archaic formulae of genuine Roman cult. The first pair of stanzas summons Faunus and promises a sacrifice; the second
1 8 . FAV N E , N Y M P H A RV M F VG I EN T V M A M AT O R
221
pair describes the fulfilment of the vow. All four stanzas break into three clauses: in the first pair these clauses occupy 1 þ 1 21 þ 1 21 , in the more end-stopped second pair 1 þ 1 þ 2 lines. The word-patterns at the end of each stanza also correspond: 3 f. ‘parvis / aequus alumnis’ is picked up by 7 f. ‘multo / fumat odore’, and 12 ‘cum bove pagus’ by 16 ‘ter pede terram’. In the third stanza two lines on animals are followed by two lines on people—a pattern repeated in the fourth stanza. We may also note the rhyming long o’s: pleno . . . anno (5), multo (7), herboso . . . campo (9), otioso (11). So like many other ‘simple’ poems, this proves to be carefully crafted. Metre: Sapphic. 1. Faune, nympharum fugientum amator: in hymns and prayers the vocative name is often followed by a phrase in apposition that gives a standing attribute of the god; cf. 1. 10. 1 ‘Mercuri, facunde nepos Atlantis’ with N–H, 3. 22. 1 (with the order reversed) ‘Montium custos nemorumque Virgo’, PMG 887, carm. conv. 1 f. t —a #æŒÆÆ ø ŒºA , = Oæ a æÆØ OÆb ˝ÆØ , frag. adesp. 936. 1 f. (also to Pan), Norden (1913), 148. Here Faunus, taking over the goat-like qualities of Pan, is presented as both nimble (cf. 1. 17. 1 velox) and lustful (for the tone of amator see 3. 4. 79 n.); cf. Eur. Hel. 187 ff., Ov. met. 1. 691 ff. (Pan and Syrinx) with Bo¨mer, her. 5. 137 f., Ach. Tat. 8. 6. 7 › —a s KøŒ ÆPc æ KæøØŒ , Longus 2. 39. 3 ÆÆØ b P ˜æıØ K ºH ŒÆd ¯ ØºØ ˝ÆØ Ææ ø æªÆÆ. Naturally H’s humorous formulation would be impossible in genuine cult, but belongs rather to the sensual world of Graeco-Roman literature and art; moderns deplore the sexual harassment (L. C. Curran, ‘Rape and rape victims in the Metamorphoses’, in Women in the Ancient World, ed. J. Peradotto and J. P. Sullivan, 1984: 263 ff.), but typically of the ancient world Porph. emphasizes the lascivia of the nymphs (he cites Virg. ecl. 3. 65 ‘et fugit ad salices et se cupit ante videri’). fugientum is an archaic form, metrically convenient for fugientium, the standard genitive plural of the present participle; cf. also 3. 24. 21 n. 2–3. per meos finis et aprica rura / lenis incedas: meos preceding its noun is in its stronger position: in a prayer it is natural to underline the reciprocal relationship of worshipper and god. The possessive should also be understood with rura, the land that H owns (cf. epod. 2. 3 ‘paterna rura bobus exercet suis’). aprica presents an idyllic picture of the sunny Sabinum in spring or summer (cf. epist. 1. 14. 30, 1. 16. 6 f.). Kletic hymns naturally contain a word for ‘come’ (1. 2. 30 venias with N–H, Pulleyn 136 ff., 219), and here incedas is often taken to mean no more (cf. TLL 7. 1. 856. 31 ff.), but with lenis (¼ leniter) it means ‘walk
222
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
gently’, suggesting a contrast with the boisterous pursuit of the Nymphs; in ancient prayers a god’s manner of approach is sometimes specified (Fraenkel 204 n., citing such passages as the prayer to Dionysus in PMG, carm. pop. 871 KºŁE læø ˜Ø ı = . . . fiH fiø d Łıø, Ar. ran. 326 ff., Catull. 61. 9 f. ‘huc veni, niveo gerens / luteum pede soccum’). lenis also suggests that Faunus should be gentle to the flocks; for such adjectives in kletic hymns cf. 1. 19. 16 ‘mactata veniet lenior hostia’ with N–H, Anacr. PMG 357. 6 f. f Pc = ºŁ , Eur. Hec. 538 æıc E ªF, Ar. Thesm. 1148 lŒ hæ , YºÆØ, Virg. georg. 1. 18 (to Pan) ‘adsis, o Tegeaee, favens’, Ov. am. 2. 13. 21 (to Ilithyia) ‘lenis ades’, Pulleyn 145. 3–4. abeasque parvis / aequus alumnis: by saying ‘come and go favourably’ H refers to the whole time of Faunus’ sojourn; so ‘te veniente die, te decedente canebat’ (Virg. georg. 4. 466) implies that Orpheus mourned Eurydice all day. For similar ‘polar expressions’ (some more difficult than this) cf. Aesch. Ag. 634 f. H ªaæ ºªØ ØHÆ ÆıØŒfiH æÆfiH = KºŁE ºıBÆ ÆØ ø Œ fiø; Eur. Phoen. 533 f. (on Ambition) ººf K YŒı ŒÆd ºØ PÆÆ = KBºŁ ŒI BºŁ K OºŁæfiø H æøø, Rhes. 811 f., Xen. Hell. 5. 2. 39 (cited among other passages by E. Kemmer, Die polare Ausdrucksweise in der griechischen Literatur, 1903: pp. 225 ff.). So also Psalm 121: 8 ‘The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in’; comprehensiveness is a natural feature of religious language. Some scholars have supposed that Faunus is being urged to leave before he does any harm (cf. Pasquali 563, A. W. J. Holleman, AC 41, 1972: 563 ff.). It is true that in some contexts he had a dangerous aspect (Porph. on v. 1 ‘pestilentem deum’, RE 6. 2060 ff.), just like Pan (Gow on Theoc. 1. 16); but here he is a protector of flocks. The reading adeas appears in the ninth-century codex Bernensis, and that verb is occasionally used in similar contexts (Cic. har. resp. 62, Virg. Aen. 8. 302 ‘et nos et tua dexter adi pede sacra secundo’). But abeas (supported by Servius on Aen. 7. 91) gives a good contrast to incedas and leads more smoothly to the next stanza, which implies that Faunus’ visit will last till his December festival; so also 1. 17. 2 ff. ‘igneam / defendit aestatem capellis / usque meis pluviosque ventos’. The alumni are lambs and kids (not slave-boys as ps.-Acro oddly supposes); parvis gains emphasis from the hyperbaton and stresses their need for protection. Most editors understand meis from meos above (cf. 1. 17. 3 f. ‘capellis . . . meis’) suggesting H’s pride of ownership; Heinze understood tuis, but that takes the god’s concern too much for granted. If meis is regarded as too sentimental, one might think rather of the unweaned nurslings (ŁæÆÆ) of the flock itself; the same alternative is available at 3. 23. 7. aequus means ‘favourable’ or ‘kindly’ (cf. serm.
1 8 . FAV N E , N Y M P H A RV M F VG I EN T V M A M AT O R
223
2. 3. 164 f. ‘immolet aequis / hic porcum Laribus’, carm. saec. 65); in the ancient world Faunus was already connected by some with favere (see the introduction above). 5. si tener pleno cadit haedus anno: the conditional clause gives a justification for the god’s help (N–H on 1. 32. 1, Pulleyn 16 ff.). Normally the tense is either past or future (Hom. Il. 1. 40 f. N Ø ŒÆa Æ æ ŒÆ = Ææø M ÆNªH, Ø Œæ Kºøæ, Virg. Aen. 1. 334 ‘multa tibi ante aras nostra cadet hostia dextra’ with Austin); but here the present tense underlines that the sacrifice recurs every year. The euphemistic cadere of a sacrificial victim (TLL 3. 25. 9 ff.) is a vox propria rather than a poeticism. As Faunus was assimilated to the goat-like Pan, he is offered a male kid (less appropriately a ewe at Ov. fast. 4. 653); at 1. 4. 12 he is given the choice. pleno . . . anno means ‘when the calendar year is complete’ and refers to the Faunalia on 5 Dec. (an idea developed in the next two stanzas); distinguish 3. 22. 6 ‘per exactos . . . annos’, which refers to anniversaries. 6–7. larga nec desunt Veneris sodali / vina creterrae: the MSS vary between creterrae and craterae; the former was naturalized in Latin at an early stage, but being less familiar in late antiquity was often corrupted (W. Clausen, CQ 13, 1963: 85 ff.). The mixing-bowl was needed in the first instance for a libation at the sacrifice (see RE 15. 2039, Hilgers 157 ff.); cf. especially Leonidas, anth. Pal. 9. 99. 6, where the goat is sprinkled with wine from the vine that he has nibbled. But H envisages an uninhibited rustic festival that goes beyond the thank-offering to Faunus; hence the emphatic larga (which balances pleno in a purely formal way) and the litotes nec desunt (cf. 1. 36. 15 ‘nec desint epulis rosae’). Hence, too, the mention of Venus, which would not belong to the authentic cult; for the association of wine and sex cf. Ar. PCG 3. 2 fr. 613 ¼ Athen. 10. 444d Ø r #æ ªºÆ, Eur. Bacch. 773 Yı b Œ Z PŒ Ø ˚æØ , Ter. eun. 732 ‘sine Cerere et Libero friget Venus’ (with Pease on Cic. nat. deor. 2. 60), Ov. ars 1. 244 ‘Venus in vinis, ignis in igne fuit’, Otto 366. For the mixing-bowl as ‘boon-companion of Venus’ cf. 1. 25. 19 f. ‘hiemis sodali / . . . Euro’ with N–H, Hom. Od. 17. 271 (where the lyre is the companion of the feast), h. Hom. 4. 31 with Allen and Halliday, anon. anth. Pal. 5. 135. 3 ´Œ ı ŒÆd 1ıø ƒºÆæc ºæØ ŒÆd ˚ıŁæ (to a wine-jar). 7–8. vetus ara multo / fumat odore: Peerlkamp inserted et before vetus, unnecessarily; for the asyndetic combination of two parallel subordinate clauses cf. Lucr. 3. 957 ‘sed quia semper aves quod abest, praesentia temnis . . . ’, Leo (1912), 272 n. 4. For the hallowed associations of the altar of Faunus cf. Men. dysc. 1 ff. (set at Pan’s famous altar at Phyle),
224
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
E. W. Leach, Vergil’s Eclogues: Landscapes of Experience, 1974: ch. 3 (illustrating ‘sacral-idyllic’ scenes from poetry and wall-painting). vetus evokes the age-old rhythms of the agricultural year, and reinforces the impression that cadit (5) refers to an annual event. multo . . . odore refers to incense, as Porph. says (cf. 1. 30. 3. to Venus ‘ture te multo’, 3. 23. 3 to the Lares); this was used even in simple sacrifices, perhaps to exclude less agreeable smells (see S. Lilja, The Treatment of Odours in the Poetry of Antiquity, 1972: 31 ff.). For smoking incense cf. Eur. Andr. 1026, Bacch. 144 ff. &ıæÆ ‰ ºØı ŒÆ- = e › ´ÆŒ f I ø = ıæ º ªÆ ŒÆ , Ov. met. 10. 273 ‘turaque fumabant’, Sil. 7. 457 ‘Paphos centum mihi fumet in aris’; fumare is more often applied to the burnt offerings themselves (Ov. fast. 2. 193 ‘Idibus agrestis fumant altaria Fauni’), but after the sacrifice (5) H turns to its concomitants, wine and incense. 9. ludit herboso pecus omne campo: this is no longer part of the conditional clause, but a new sentence describing the winter Faunalia (as Bentley saw). For ludere of animals cf. 3. 11. 10 (a frisking horse), Lucr. 1. 261, 2. 320 ‘et satiati agni ludunt blandeque coruscant’, Ov. fast. 1. 156, anth. Lat. 238a. 1 ‘adludunt pavidi tremulis conatibus agni’, TLL 7. 2. 1771, 16 ff.; the prominent opening verb sets the tone for the human merrymaking that follows. herboso suggests that there was still grass on the lower ground when the flocks left the hills for the winter; for ‘transhumance’ cf. Varro, rust. 2. 2. 9, K. D. White (1970), 507 n. 130, Mynors on Virg. georg. 3. 146, Horden–Purcell (2000), 549 ff. 10. cum tibi Nonae redeunt Decembres: for the festival on 5 Dec. see the introduction above. tibi (repeated in 14) is the emphatic pronoun often found in hymns and prayers (Norden, 1913: 149 ff., N–H on 1. 10. 9). For redire of an anniversary cf. 3. 8. 9. 11–12. festus in pratis vacat otioso / cum bove pagus: vacat and otioso emphasize that the festival is a day of rest for the farm-workers and the ploughing-oxen; cf. 3. 17. 16 ‘cum famulis operum solutis’, Tib. 2. 1. 5 ff. ‘luce sacra requiescat humus, requiescat arator, / et grave suspenso vomere cesset opus . . . ’ with K. F. Smith. Sacral law forbade work on such a day, but there were various reasonable exceptions (Virg. georg. 1. 268 f. with Mynors, Nock, 1972: 2. 738). A pagus was a scattered rural community that had some administrative and religious responsibilities (RE 18. 2. 2318 ff., Bo¨mer on Ov. fast. 1. 669, OCD 1092). H’s pagus included Mandela and apparently Varia, now Vicovaro; cf. 2. 13. 4, epist. 1. 18. 104 f. ‘gelidus Digentia rivus, / quem Mandela bibit, rugosus frigore pagus’, epist. 1. 14. 3 (for the topography of the area see S. Q. Gigli in Encicl. oraz. 1. 253 ff.).
1 8 . FAV N E , N Y M P H A RV M F VG I EN T V M A M AT O R
225
pardus is read in a number of significant MSS (sometimes as a variant), though pagus is supported by ps.-Acro’s comment and the preponderance of the tradition (cf. also Ov. fast. 1. 669 ‘pagus agat festum, pagum lustrate coloni.’). As Bentley pointed out with amusement, the former reading is due to a reminiscence of Isaiah 11: 6 ‘habitabit lupus cum agno et pardus cum haedo accubabit’; for monastic corruptions cf. Petr. 43. 1 ‘abbas secrevit’ (for ‘ab asse crevit’), R. M. Ogilvie, G & R 18, 1971: 32 ff., J. Willis, Latin Textual Criticism, 1972: 100 ff. 13. inter audacis lupus errat agnos: the wolf is proverbially the enemy of the flock (cf. epod. 4. 1, 12. 25 f., 15. 7, TLL 7. 2. 1855. 31 ff.), but here the lambs are unnaturally bold (audacis is emphasized by the hyperbaton). It was a proverbial impossibility (‘adynaton’) for the laws of animal nature to be reversed; cf. 1. 33. 8 with N–H, Ar. pax 1076 æ Œ ºŒ r ÆØE, Virg. ecl. 8. 52 ‘nunc et ovis ultro fugiat lupus’, Otto 198, TLL 7. 2. 1853. 8 ff. In descriptions of an ideal world this impossibility is portrayed as an actuality; here a major influence is Virg. ecl. 5. 60 ‘nec lupus insidias pecori . . . ’, 4. 22 ‘nec magnos metuent armenta leones’ (probably drawing on the paraphrase of Isaiah 11: 6 at orac. Sib. 3. 791 f.). In our passage H’s idyllic fantasy goes beyond the parallel at 1. 17. 8 f. ‘nec viridis metuunt colubras / nec Martiales haediliae lupos’; for a further elaboration cf. Prud. cath. 3. 153 ff., who in addition to fearless flocks speaks of an ineffectual serpent (153), obedient lions (162), and an aggressive dove (164 f.). 14. spargit agrestis tibi silva frondes: the wood scatters leaves in honour of Faunus; the repeated tibi suits the hymnal style (10 n.), and the position in the line is emphatic (Nisbet, ap. Adams–Mayer 144 f.). For the scattering of flowers or leaves as a mark of honour (IŁºE or ıºººE) cf. Pind. P. 9. 123 f. ººa b ŒEØ Œ = ºº Ø ŒÆd ı , Virg. ecl. 5. 40 ‘spargite humum foliis’, Ov. trist. 4. 2. 50, Matthew 21: 8 ¼ººØ b Œ Œºı Ie H æø ŒÆd Kæı K fi Ð ›fiH (cf. Mark 11: 8), Apul. met. 11. 9. 2 with Griffiths, RE 20. 1025, Browning, The Patriot 1 f. ‘It was roses, roses, all the way / With myrtle mixed in my path like mad’. For such tributes by inanimate Nature cf. Lucr. 1. 7 f. (the hymn to Venus) ‘tibi suavis daedala tellus / summittit flores’, Virg. ecl. 4. 18 ff. agrestis (accusative) shows that the foliage belongs to the wild woods rather than being made up by some coronarius; cf. Virg. ecl. 10. 24 ‘agresti capitis Silvanus honore’, Tib. 2. 5. 117 ‘lauro devinctus agresti’, TLL 1. 1418. 11 ff. Faunus himself is called agrestis (Ov. fast. 2. 193, cf. 3. 315), just as Pan is Iªæ Æ (Leonidas, anth. Pal. 6. 13. 2) or Iªæƺfiø (Archias, ibid. 6. 179. 1).
226
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
Cornelissen proposed arentes (Mnem. 16, 1888: 310), but withered leaves would be a poor compliment; he himself cites 1. 25. 19 f. ‘aridas frondes . . . / dedicet Euro’ (a pejorative passage that does not help his case). To avoid this difficulty Lucian Mu¨ller combined arentes with ubi (for tibi); and this has been accepted by Shackleton Bailey. But though leaves in Italy might fall as late as December (epod. 11. 5 f. ‘hic tertius December . . . / silvis honorem decutit’), H could not say ‘when the leaves fall’ as a way of pointing to the Faunalia on 5 December. 15–16. gaudet invisam pepulisse fossor / ter pede terram: fossor is sometimes used contemptuously for a clodhopper (Catull. 22. 10 ‘caprimulgus aut fossor’, Pers. 5. 122), but here it has the more genial tone of Virg. georg. 2. 264 ‘labefacta movens robustus iugera fossor’. ‘To beat the ground with one’s feet’ describes the vigorous dancing of antiquity (cf. 1. 4. 7 ‘alterno terram quatiunt pede’ with N–H, 1. 37. 2. ‘pulsanda tellus’); for rustic dances cf. epist. 1. 14. 24 f. (to the vilicus) ‘meretrix tibicina cuius / ad strepitum salias terrae gravis’, Lucr. 5. 1402 ‘duriter et duro terram pede pellere matrem’, Nonn. 47. 37. But stamping with the feet could also be a sign of anger; cf. Cic. de orat. 1. 230 with Wilkins, Sen. de ira 1. 1. 4 ‘complosae saepius manus et pulsata humus pedibus’. Here invisam suggests that the fossor gets his own back by kicking the earth that has cost him so much trouble; cf. Porph. ‘naturale est enim omnibus odisse laboris sui materiam’. A dance with triple beat (tripudium) was associated with the Salii (1. 36. 12 with N–H, 4. 1. 28) and the Arval Brethren (ILLRP 4, ROL 4, p. 250, E. Norden, Aus altro¨mischen Priesterbu¨chern, 1939: 238 f.). The movements described by Plut. Num. 13. 4 f. must have been much more sophisticated than the rustic dances referred to here and at Ov. fast. 6. 330 ‘et viridem celeri ter pede pulsat humum’, Calp. Sic. 4. 128 f. Although ps.-Acro’s comment is not clearly expressed (‘ter vero ad rhythmum rettulit sonos’) it is plain that H’s ter pede terram has an onomatopoeic effect. pepulisse here means ‘to strike’, not ‘to have struck’; the poets find the perfect infinitive metrically convenient, and often there is no clear distinction between it and the present (cf. K. F. Smith on Tib. 1. 1. 29–32, Bo 270). But in our passage as sometimes elsewhere H seems to emphasize an instantaneous action as opposed to a continuing state; cf. 1. 34. 16 ‘posuisse gaudet’, 3. 4. 51 f. ‘fratresque tendentes opaco / Pelion imposuisse Olympo’, serm. 1. 2. 28, 2. 3. 187. We may compare the ‘aspect’ of the Greek aorist infinitive, where OæªØŁBÆØ means ‘to get angry’ as opposed to the present OæªŁÆØ ‘to be angry’ (cf. Arist. eth. Nic. 1173b 1 f., W. W. Goodwin, Syntax of Moods and Tenses of the Greek Verb, edn. 2, 1889: 28 ff.). So in Latin we find S. C. de Bacchanalibus 2 (ROL 4, p. 256) ‘neiquis eorum Bacanal habuise velet’, Cato, agr. 5. 4, tabulae
1 9 . QVA N T V M D I S T E T A B I NAC H O
227
Vindolandenses 2. 505 (A. K. Bowman and J. D. Thomas, Britannia 27, 1996: 324) ‘cras quid velis nos fecisse rogo, domine, praecipias’; these are clearly not literary affectations. See further K–S 1. 133 ff., H–Sz 351 f., A. Ernout and F. Thomas, Syntaxe latine, 1953: 259 f., Adams–Mayer 8 (with R. G. G. Coleman, ibid. 83).
1 9 . QVA N T V M D I S T E T A B I NAC H O [E. Bignone, RFIC n s . 7, 1929: 457 ff.; J. F. G. Gornall, G&R 18, 1971: 188 ff.; H. U. Instinsky, Hermes 82, 1954: 124 ff.; J. Ru¨pke, MH 53, 1996: 217 ff.; H. Tra¨nkle, MH 35, 1978: 48 ff.; L. Wickert, RhM 97, 1954: 376 f.; Williams 115 ff.]
1–8. You keep talking of remote chronologies, but say nothing about a symposium this cold night. 9–17. Pour a toast to the new month, the new day, and the augurate of Murena: the bard shall have nine measures and the decorous only three. 18–28. Let us have wild music and a profusion of roses, so that old Lycus next door may be envious. Rhode makes advances to handsome young Telephus; I am smouldering with love for my Glycera. This ode celebrates the installation as augur of a certain Murena, though the situation does not emerge until vv. 10 ff. He is identified by some with the Licinius (Murena) of 2. 10, (the brother of Maecenas’ wife Terentia), who was accused of conspiracy probably in 22 bc (Dio 54. 3. 4 f.) and killed ‘while intending to escape’; that ode’s commendation of the Golden Mean suits the Peripatetic interests of ‘the conspirator’, as shown by N–H vol. 2, pp. 152 f.. However, the Murena of our poem was probably not the same person but perhaps his brother, perhaps the A. Terentius Varro Murena who was elected consul for 23 bc but was for some reason replaced; for the difficult prosopography of this family see especially G. V. Sumner, HSCP 82, 1978: 187 ff., Syme (1986), 387 ff., J. S. Arkenberg, Historia 42, 1993: 326 ff., 471 ff. A relationship to Maecenas would give a point of contact with Horace; at the same time the ode’s indirect approach suits a nobilis who was not a close intimate, just as 3. 21 is addressed not to Messalla but to a wine-jar. The poem begins abruptly with a protest: somebody is going on about chronological questions that all seem very remote (1–4). The natural scene for such a discourse is not a casual encounter but a dinner: one recalls Callimachus’ aetiological questions to the Ician (aet. fr. 178), as well as such treatises as the Quaestiones Conviviales of Plutarch, the Deipnosophistae of Athenaeus, the Noctes Atticae of Aulus Gellius, the Saturnalia of Macrobius ( J. Martin, Symposion, 1931). A suitable
228
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
occasion would be the cena aditialis at Murena’s installation as augur, where boring antiquarians were likely to be found. For such banquets cf. Varr. rust. 3. 6. 6 ‘primus (pavones) Q. Hortensius augurali cena posuisse dicitur’, Sen. epist. 95. 41 ‘et deciens tamen sestertio aditiales cenae frugalissimis viris constituerunt’, Wissowa 491, RE 2. 2319; for pontifical dinners in general cf. also 2. 14. 28, Macrob. Sat. 3. 13. 10–12 (with a long menu). If Horace’s comments sound too discourteous for a formal dinner of this kind, we can always understand them as an interior monologue. In the second stanza it becomes clear that Horace would sooner hear about arrangements for the coming symposium (5–8); when in v. 8 he speaks of escaping from the cold, we must assume that it is a chilly night and that he has in mind the walk to the venue of the drinking-party. It was a poetic convention to say that guests should concentrate on enjoyment rather than serious preoccupations. Sometimes these were questions of war and politics; cf. 1. 26. 3 ff., 2. 11. 1 ff., 3. 8. 17 ff., Theog. 763 f., Anacr. eleg. 2. 1 ff., Xenophanes, eleg. 1. 21 ff. For other rejected topics cf. 1. 11. 1 ff. (astrology), Anacreontea 50. 1 ff. Bergk ¼ 52 (a) Campbell (schemes), Alexis (?) PCG 2 fr. 25. 1 ff. ¼ pp. 822 ff. in W. G. Arnott’s commentary (philosophy): ÆFÆ ºæE , ºÆH ¼ø Œø = ¸ŒØ, #ŒÆØÆ, 4Øı ºÆ , = ºæı ØH; Pb £ ø ŒÆº = ø, Kø . . . Particularly relevant are some myuric or mouse-tailed hexameters of the Roman period ( J. U. Powell, Coll. Alex. p. 199, no. 37. 7 ff. ¼ Page, GLP no. 125. 8 ff. or N. Hopkinson, A Hellenistic Anthology, 1988: pp. 80 f.): c ŒÆ E Ł lºØ j Ł oøæ, = Iººa Ł e æ ŒÆd f ı Iªæfi . Here, as in our ode, the rejection of serious themes is followed by questions about purchases for the symposium (6 n.); the Greek poem next mentions measures of various liquids (3 of honey, 5 of milk, 10 of wine, 12 of myrrh, and 2 of spring water), and goes on to speak of a girl, a lyre, and a Phrygian pipe. The resemblances suggest shared antecedents in the drinking-songs of the Greek symposium if not a direct borrowing by Horace (thus Bignone, op. cit.). The last five stanzas describe the ensuing symposium; it was a common practice for diners to go elsewhere for their drinking (Plaut. most. 315 ff. ‘nam illi ubi fui inde ecfugi foras, / ita me ibi male convivi sermonisque taesumst. / nunc comissatum ibo ad Philolachetem’, Liv. 40. 7. 5 ‘quin comissatum ad fratrem imus?’, Blu¨mner, 1911: 400); for a similar progression cf. 3. 14. 17 ff. (again moving from an official occasion to an informal party). In our poem, however, the change of scene is disconcertingly abrupt. Some think that Horace interrupts a boring dinner with a call for wine, but that is too rude; it is also too late to discuss the price (5 n.), and nonsensical to ask about the place and time of the festivities (see 5–6 n. and 7 n.). Some commentators have regarded
1 9 . QVA N T V M D I S T E T A B I NAC H O
229
the last five stanzas as a scene imagined by the diner, in anticipation of the coming symposium; but that loses vividness and raises questions at v. 23 Lycus and perhaps v. 27 petit (see the notes below). In view of the very real difficulty it might be worth considering that after v. 8 a transitional stanza has fallen out (as once suggested to RN by W. A. Camps). Preparations for the drinking-party were a standard poetic theme (5–6 n.); here Horace envisages an ‘eranos’ on the Greek model, in which one man provides the accommodation (‘praebente domum’ in v. 7) and another prepares the hot drinks (6 n.). Not only does he propose toasts (9 n.), which any guest could do, but as self-appointed magister bibendi (N–H on 1. 4. 18) he prescribes the quantities to be drunk (11 ff.). Then, as commentator on a developing scene, he keeps up a flow of instructions and descriptions till the end of the poem; for this mime-like technique cf. 1. 27 with N–H, E. Stemplinger, Philologus 75, 1919: 466 ff. The typical concomitants of a drinking party are duly recorded (N–H vol. 1, p. 402, vol. 2, p. 168, RE 4. 618, Blu¨mner, 1911: 410 ff.): the Chian wine with its possibly significant origin (5 n.), the wild music that annoys the neighbours (18 ff., 22 ff.), the roses that are scattered with hyperbolical abandon (22 n.), the on-coming girl (27 n.). The wintry evening is also traditional (8 n.) and is set against a very Roman use of hot wine (6 n.). The wildness of the party is reflected in the style (Syndikus 2. 171 f.) with its rapid choriambic metre (cf. 1. 11, 1. 36, and for different reasons 3. 25), its increasingly short sentences (contrast the opening period with its leisurely A et B et C), its mixture of crisp imperatives and impatient questions, its sudden breaks in unexpected places (11, 15, 17, 22). In all this there is none of the mellow wisdom that usually characterizes Horace’s sympotic odes; cf. A. La Penna in O. Murray and M. Tecus˛an (1995), 275. The poet mentions the restraining influence of the Graces (16 n.), but he himself chooses the bigger drinks (14 f. with 11 n.), and the less sober role (18 insanire). But though the fleeting pleasures of youth make an arresting contrast with the antiquated concerns of pedants, Horace seems no longer quite at home even with the former: though he is not jealous like the misanthrope next door (22–3), he cannot match young Telephus’ lustrous hair (25 n.) and sexual magnetism (28 n.). Here he not only paints a vivid and economical picture, but communicates an emotion. Once again he has shown how to celebrate an official occasion without abandoning his lyric persona (cf. 3. 14. 17 ff. and in its different way 1. 31. 17 ff.); contrast the formality of Tibullus 2. 5. 1 (on the elevation of Messalinus to a priesthood) ‘Phoebe fave; novus ingreditur tua templa sacerdos’. Metre: alternating Glyconics and Asclepiads.
230
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
1. Quantum distet ab Inacho: Inachus was the legendary first king of Argos; for his proverbial antiquity cf. N–H on 2. 3. 21. He became a point of reference for ancient chronographers (E. Schwartz, AGG 40. 2, 1895: 11 ff.); cf. Ocellus Lucanus 42, pp. 218 ff. Harder E ºªıØ c B , ¯ ººØŒB ƒæÆ Iæ c Ie + ı r ÆØ F #æªı, Castor of Rhodes (1st cent. bc) FGrH 250 F3, cf. RE 9. 2. 1218 f., 10. 2352 (Inachus begins the list of Argive kings), Cens. 21. 2 ‘a priore scilicet cataclysmo ad Inachi regnum anni sunt circiter quadringenti’, Apollodorus, 2. 1. 1 (Inachus begins the book), Clem. strom. 1. 102. 1, Aug. civ. Dei 18. 3 (from Varro). But though the king was so remote, the pedant in the ode must fix him on a time-scale. For the place of Inachus in early Greek genealogies add M. L. West, The Hesiodic Catalogue of Women, 1985: 177, R. L. Fowler, PCPS 44, 1998: 7 ff.; for later calculations see A. A. Mosshammer, The Chronicle of Eusebius and Greek Chronographic Tradition, 1979. One is tempted to try a further speculation about the function of the Argive king in the ode. The Licinii Murenae came from Lanuvium (Cic. Mur. 86), and must have been its most distinguished family; the foundation of the place was attributed to the Argive Diomedes (App. civ. 2. 20), and its famous cult of Juno Sospita (Cic. Mur. 90, Wissowa 188) was associated with Argive Hera (Ael. nat. an. 11. 16); a sculpture of Alexander in the precinct and fragmentary inscriptions have been connected with the victories of L. Murena (cos. 62) and Lucullus (also a Licinius) over Mithridates (F. Coarelli, Coll. de l’e´cole fr. de Rome 55, 1981: 251 ff.). The name Licin(n)ius could have been associated with Licymnius (RE Suppl. 8. 259 ff.), the eponymous hero of Licymna (the acropolis at Tiryns), whose grave was still shown at Argos (Paus. 2. 22. 8, Plut. Pyrrh. 34. 2), and who in Apollodorus comes twelfth in line from Inachus (2. 1. 1–2. 4. 5); at 2. 12. 13 ps.-Acro identifies Licymnia with Terentia, the sister of Licinius the alleged conspirator (see N–H ad loc. and vol. 2, pp. 180 ff.). There was a vogue at the time for imaginative family history (cf. the introduction to 3. 17); so Murena may have traced his roots to the kings of Argos (cf. 2. 3. 21 to Dellius who might have claimed to be ‘prisco natus ab Inacho’). The pedant could then have been shown as flattering Murena by referring to his ancestors. 2. Codrus pro patria non timidus mori: the legendary last king of Attica is significantly combined with the first king of Argos; his death marked a stage in chronological systems (cf. Vell. 1. 2. 1, RE 11. 986 ff., E. Schwartz, op. cit (1 n.), 16). The name was proverbial for oldfashioned ways; cf. paroem. Gr. 2. 148 etc. Iæ ÆØ æ ˚ æı, RE 11. 993 f. When the Spartans invaded Attica, and the Delphic oracle promised victory to the side that lost its general, Codrus disguised himself, picked a quarrel with some Spartan soldiers, and was duly
1 9 . QVA N T V M D I S T E T A B I NAC H O
231
killed. The story flowed from Greek patriotic discourse to Roman exempla (Hellanicus, FGrH 4 F125, Lycurgus, Leocr. 84–6, Cic. nat. deor. 3. 49 with Pease). With non timidus mori cf. 4. 9. 51 f. ‘non ille pro caris amicis / aut patria timidus perire’; for H’s use of the infinitive see N–H on 1. 1. 8. 3. narras: emphatically placed, to balance taces (8). narrare has various idiomatic nuances (Lejay on serm. 1. 9. 52) and here suggests ‘a long story’; cf. Petr. 44. 1 ‘narratis quod nec ad caelum nec ad terram pertinet, cum interim nemo curat quid annona mordet’ (the same sort of contrast as here), Mart. 4. 61. 15 f. For tedious talk at a convivial occasion cf. Plut. quaest. conv. 614e, Gell. 13. 11. 4. et genus Aeaci: the line consisted of Aeacus, Peleus, Achilles, Neoptolemus; the last was pre-eminent in the capture of Troy, where Eratosthenes began his chronography (FGrH 241 F1, RE 6. 382). 4. et pugnata sacro bella sub Ilio: the adjective is Homeric (Il. 4. 46 ! +ºØ ƒæ) and the preposition is also traditional (Il. 2. 216 e ! +ºØ qºŁ Virg. Aen. 5. 261 ‘sub Ilio alto’). The plural bella seems to include a reference to Troy’s earlier capture by Telamon, who was himself a son of Aeacus. For the irrelevance of Homeric scholarship Bignone op. cit. cites Diog. Laert. 6. 27 (on Diogenes) ªæÆÆØŒf KŁÆÆ a b F ˇıø ŒÆŒa IÆFÆ , a YØÆ IªFÆ , Sen. epist. 88. 6–7 ‘quid, inquam, annos Patrocli et Achillis inquirere ad rem existimas pertinere?’ RN speculates that there may also be an indirect allusion to the augur Murena’s great-grandfather (by adoption), L. Licinius Murena. When Sulla rescued Ilium in 85 after its sack by Fimbria, Murena as one of his principal subordinates may have played a significant part; these sensational events were naturally compared with the Trojan War (Strab. 13. 1. 27, App. Mith. 53, Aug. civ. Dei 3. 7), and were commemorated in the Augustan sanctuary (A. Barchiesi in Style and Tradition, ed. P. Knox and C. Foss, 1998: 139). So they would have made an appropriate topic of conversation at the installation of the augur (see also the following note). 5–6. quo Chium pretio cadum / mercemur: for Chian wine cf. Hermippus ap. Athen. 1. 29e (Dionysus calls it the best of all), Plaut. Poen. 699, Lucil. 1131M, Varro, rust. 2, praef. 3, Tib. 2. 1. 28, Plin. nat. hist. 14. 73, 96, RE 3. 2291; H refers to it at serm. 1. 10. 24, 2. 3. 115 f., 2. 8. 15, epod. 9. 34 (in connection with Actium), but only here in the Odes, where it suits the Greek type of symposium. His wines sometimes have a particular significance, so there may again be a reference to the achievements of Murena’s great-grandfather. In 86 bc Mithradates
232
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
deported the Chians (App. Mith. 47), but the island was recaptured by Lucullus in 85 (Plut. Luc. 3. 3), and in the peace treaty of Dardanus in that year Sulla insisted on the restoration of the inhabitants (App. Mith. 55, D. Magie, Roman Rule in Asia Minor 1, 1950: 224 ff.). On Sulla’s return to Rome, Murena was left as governor of Asia for 84; in view of the other honours which he received from Greek cities (SIG edn. 3, 745, RE 13. 445), he may have won some of the credit for restoring the Chians, and perhaps even established a hereditary connection. When Lucullus returned to Rome from the East in 80 he was said to have distributed more than 100,000 jars of Greek wine (Plin. nat. hist. 14. 96). mercemur is an indirect deliberative subjunctive; for similar preparations cf. 1. 38 with N–H vol. 1, pp. 421 ff., 3. 14. 17 ff., and especially Page, GLP 125. 8 ff. (cited in the introduction above). The plural verb implies that the cost is being shared (cf. the Greek æÆ ). It has been argued that the price is not money, but a song that begins at v. 9 (Gow), or clever conversation (Wickert, op. cit.), or toasts to Murena (Tra¨nkle op. cit.); for such a quid pro quo at a symposium cf. 4. 12. 16 ‘nardo vina merebere’, Catull. 13, Gell. 7. 13. 2. But as literal purchases are natural in a poem of this kind, and as the following clause ‘quis aquam temperet ignibus?’ admits no metaphorical explanation, the obvious interpretation should be accepted. 6. quis aquam temperet ignibus: temperare is used of modifying an extreme (1. 20. 11 with N–H), here of warming cold water. Horace is not giving orders to slaves (as at 2. 11. 18 ff.) but allocating functions among the contributors to the symposium (as at 2. 7. 23 ff.); this is shown by the parallel quo praebente domum. Ps.-Acro says that the hot water is for mixing with the wine; for this Roman custom note the thermipolium already in Plautus (cf. Fraenkel, 1960: 149 n. 2, 415 f.), and see further Marquardt–Mau 332 f., Blu¨mner (1911), 401, Mayor on Juv. 5. 63, T. Kleberg, Hoˆtels, restaurants et cabarets dans l’antiquite´ romaine, 1957: 24 f. On this interpretation hot water follows easily after the mention of wine, and explains the escape from the cold in v. 8 (frigoribus balances ignibus). It is objected that the owner of the house could easily have supplied the amount of hot water that was needed, but the Greek type of symposium may have had a tradition of self-service, with the help of an authepsa or portable stove (Blu¨mner, 1911: 402, fig. 59) and personal slaves; anything to do with the mixing of the wine played a central part in the rituals. Lambinus and others have seen a reference to water for baths; normally these were taken before dinner (cf. R. Ginouve`s, Balaneutike`, BEFAR 200, 1962: 157), and though they were sometimes available afterwards (Petr. 72. 3, Mayor on Juv. 1. 143), they were not central to the symposium.
1 9 . QVA N T V M D I S T E T A B I NAC H O
233
7. quo praebente domum: the phrase is co-ordinate with quota (see next note); that is to say it goes with caream (8), not with temperet (6) as Orelli supposes. praebere domum applies to one who simply makes his house available (here as his contribution to the symposium); cf. serm. 1. 5. 37 f. ‘in Mamurrarum lassi deinde urbe manemus / Murena praebente domum, Capitone culinam’ (though on that occasion Murena apparently provided accommodation too), Plin. epist. 8. 12. 2 (for a poetry recital), Tac. ann. 11. 4. 1 (for a sexual assignation; cf. Catull. 68. 68). Some think that our Murena, who may be the man mentioned in the first parallel above, is actually the host (Instinsky, op. cit. 125 f.); but a great man would hardly lend his house for a celebration of his augurate without offering further hospitality; and if he were present, our attention would surely be focused on him, Horace would not be acting as the magister bibendi, and we would not expect to hear about the poet’s sexual aspirations, much less those of a meretrix. et quota: ‘and at what (hour)?’; quota corresponds to an ordinal numeral. The time is naturally mentioned in invitations (epist. 1. 7. 71 ‘post nonam venies’, 1. 5. 3 ‘supremo te sole domi, Torquate, manebo’, Ter. eun. 541 ‘locus, tempus constitutum est’, Varro, Men. 335 ¼ Gell. 13. 11. 3). Heinze (followed by Gornall, loc. cit.) thought that domum referred to the guests’ lodging after the symposium and quota to the time when the party was scheduled to break up. But as the scene is presumably Rome (8 n.), the guests would not be looking for a bed; and an interest in when the party is going to finish accords badly with the wild mood of the latter part of the poem. It is also wrong to suppose that the ‘house’ is the scene of the function already taking place (the information would then be superfluous), and that quota refers to the time of the toasts (cf. 10 noctis mediae): the guests cannot be expected to wait around till midnight before they get a hot drink. 8. Paelignis caream frigoribus taces: the district of the Paeligni, i.e. the valley of Corfinium and Sulmo in the central Apennines, is almost surrounded by mountains (the Maiella is over 9,000 ft. high), and the cold was commemorated by its greatest son: see Ov. am. 2. 16. 36, fast. 4. 81, trist. 4. 10. 3, also Sil. 8. 510, Nissen, 2. 1 (1902), 445 ff., RE 18. 2. 2230. The sophisticated symposium with its winter roses and familiar hetaerae is surely not set in this remote area (thus Shackleton Bailey, 1982: 96 f.); rather the proper name suggests chill East winds and corresponds to literary epithets like ‘Sithonia nive’ (3. 26. 10) or Ø ˚ºØ (Philodemus, anth. Pal. 10. 21. 4). Wintry weather often supplies a background to symposia, making a contrast with the snugness within (cf. 1. 9 with N–H, vol. 1, p. 117). caream is deliberative (like mercemur and temperet) and means ‘escape from’ (cf. N–H on 2. 14. 13),
234
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
particularly by drinking hot wine; cf. Petr. 42. 2 ‘sed cum mulsi pultarium obduxi, frigori laecasin dico’. 9–10. da lunae propere novae, / da noctis mediae: for the difficult change of place see the introduction above. On our interpretation all the questions asked in the second stanza have now been answered. As the wine was ladled in the cyathus from mixing-bowl to cup, a toast could be named with each ladleful; cf. Porph. ‘veteres singulos vini cyathos sub singulorum deorum aut carissimorum sibi nominibus solebant in poculum defundere’, Alexis, fr. 116. 1 ff. (below, 11 n.), Call. ep. 29. 1, Meleager, anth. Pal. 5. 136. 1 f., Argentarius, ibid. 5. 110. 1 f., RE 4. 614 f. The Greek character of the party is underlined by the use of the genitive for the toast; see 3. 8. 13 n., W. G. Arnott on Alexis, PCG 2, frr. 59 and 116 (composite toasts to a deity and a person). lunae novae refers not to the new moon (which would be unlikely to coincide with the right date) but the new month when Murena assumed his augurate; cf. the Greek ıÆ for the beginning of the month. As the time is winter (8) one is tempted to think of the first of January, but then one would expect the new year to be mentioned; perhaps the first of February is meant, which might have been agreeable to Murena as the day of Juno Sospita in Rome (Ov. fast. 2. 55 f. with Bo¨mer) and perhaps also Lanuvium (cf. 1 n.). Midnight marks the beginning of Murena’s augurate. 10–11. da, puer, auguris / Murenae: puer, like ÆE, is a normal address to a slave (cf. 1. 38. 1), notably in contexts that refer to pouring wine (epod. 9. 33, Alexis fr. 116 cited 11 n., Stat. silv. 1. 5. 10); so it is unlikely to refer to a symposiast (like Thaliarchus in 1. 9), though in the Greek symposium free-born young men could act as wine-pourers ( J. Bremmer in Sympotica, ed. O. Murray, 1990: 139 ff.). In the phrase auguris Murenae the emphasis is on auguris; cf 3. 8. 13 f. ‘sume, Maecenas, cyathos amici / sospitis centum’ with note. The repeated rhymes lunae, novae, mediae, Murenae enforce the impression of a ritual (cf. Virg. ecl. 4. 4–10, 8. 80), just like the magic numbers that follow. 11. tribus aut novem: the reference is to the numbers of ladlefuls poured; cf. 3. 8. 13 f. ‘cyathos . . . centum’, Alexis, PCG 2 fr. 116. 1 f. with Arnott’s commentary pp. 324 ff. ÆE, c ªº , Æ = ØºÆ ŒıŁı <f > H Ææ ø ÆæÆ , = f æE ! ¯æø æÆØ oæ= ( #ت ı F Æغø Œ ŒÆºH = ŒÆd F ÆŒı ŒÆŁ ˜æı: = æ e æ . . . 6ºÆ #æ , Plaut. Stich. 706 f. ‘vide quot cyathos bibimus?—tot quot digiti sunt tibi in manu. / cantio Graeca est: j j æÆ E j c ÆæÆ’ (in the Greek saying ‘five’ and ‘three’ are total quantities, as is clear from Plut.
1 9 . QVA N T V M D I S T E T A B I NAC H O
235
quaest. conv. 657c), Auson. XV (Green) griphus ternarii numeri 1 ff. ‘ter bibe vel totiens ternos; sic mystica lex est . . . ’ (explicitly imitating our passage), Marquardt–Mau 334 ff., Blu¨mner (1911), 403. For three and nine as significant numbers cf. 3. 22. 3 n., E. Wo¨lfflin ALL 9, 1894–6: 333 ff., W. Deonna and M. Renard, ‘Croyances et superstitions de table dans la Rome antique’ (Collection Latomus 46, 1961: 67 ff.). Bentley commended aut tribus aut novem, which he found in a minor manuscript; but the elision of (Muren)ae is unattractive, particularly at a major pause (3. 8. 27–8 n.). Some commentators think that H is referring to the proportions of wine and water: as 12 cyathi make one sextarius or pint, one man drinks 3 parts of wine to 9 of water, and another 9 parts of wine to 3 of water (for this and similar proportions see Hes. op. 596 with West, RE 4. 613). A common mixing-bowl was generally used at the symposium, though at the cena the drinker could follow his own taste (Marquardt–Mau 333, Blu¨mner, 1911: 402); the distinction is doubted by K. M. D. Dunbabin in Murray–Tecus˛an 261, but that does not affect the issue here. Where a toast was offered with each cyathus (cf. Call. ep. 29. 1 ª Ø ŒÆd ºØ Nb ,˜ØŒº ), the wine must have been already mixed in proportions laid down by the magister bibendi. Note also T. E. Page’s comment: ‘how wine that was palatable with the addition of three times its own bulk of water could be drinkable when mixed with a third of its own bulk of water I cannot conceive’. 12. y miscentur y cyathis pocula commodis: the number of ladlefuls has to be consonant with the subjects of the toasts in vv. 9–11 (Heinze), i.e. to be three or a multiple of three; cf. Auson. XV griphus ternarii numeri ‘Flacci ecloga in qua propter mediam noctem et novam lunam et Murenae auguratum ternos ter cyathos attonitus petit vates’. Others connect commodis with the three Graces and the nine Muses of the following lines (thus ps.-Acro); but the reference would not yet be clear. Some again translate ‘full ladlefuls’ (cf. Plaut. rud. 1318 ‘talentum argenti commodum magnum’); but even if H is glancing at this usage, he surely means something more. Horace should be expressing his wishes as the arbiter bibendi, so one expects a verb in the present subjunctive or future indicative; he is not laying down a rule that applies to all symposia, as the number of ladlefuls is chosen to suit the particular occasion. Rutgers proposed miscentor (approved by Heinsius, Bentley and Shackleton Bailey); this ‘future imperative passive’ is attested only in grammarians (Prisc. GL 3. 456 docentor, Tra¨nkle, op. cit. 57 f.), and seems impossibly archaic for this context. It is an even more serious difficulty that misceri seems the wrong verb (11 n.). RN once proposed mitescent or mitescant (cf. 4. 7. 9 ‘frigora mitescunt zephyris’); but it can be objected that this is a tepid
236
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
way of referring to a hot drink. He now tentatively proposes umescent or uvescent (or the corresponding subjunctives); no exact parallel presents itself, but cf. Lygdamus (ap. Tib. 3. 6. 5) ‘care puer, madeant generoso pocula Baccho’. 13. qui Musas amat imparis: a humorous periphrasis for Horace himself; for a poet’s love of the Muses and vice versa see N–H on 1. 26. 1. imparis avoids the obvious novem. Porph. compares Virg. ecl. 8. 75 ‘numero deus impare gaudet’, and in our passage too there is a hint of a magic number (cf. 14 n.). 14–15. ternos ter cyathos attonitus petet / vates: H humorously proclaims that he himself will take the larger total to match the number of the Muses. ternos ter again suggests a magic number (cf. Virg. ecl. 8. 77 ‘necte tribus nodis ternos, Amarylli, colores’); that is why Ausonius speaks of a mystica lex (11 n.). attonitus, ‘thunderstruck’ represents the Greek Kæ ; cf. also Archil. 120. 2W, Yfiø ıªŒæÆıøŁd æÆ . vates, as often, has a mock-grandiloquent note; cf. 2. 6. 24 ‘vatis amici’, epist. 1. 7. 11 ‘vates tuus’. 15–16. tris prohibet supra / rixarum metuens tangere Gratia: tris supra means ‘more than three’ (OLD supra 5a); in vv. 11–15 the numbers ‘three’ and ‘nine’ form a chiasmus. rixarum metuens equals quae rixas metuit (cf. K–S 1. 450 f.); for the avoidance of brawls cf. 1. 27. 5 with N–H. tangere has a suggestion of ‘touching forbidden things’ and so goes well with prohibet. The Graces were sometimes connected with Dionysus and the symposium (e.g. Pind. O. 14. 8), where their presence had a restraining effect; cf. 3. 21. 22 n., Panyassis fr. 13 Kinkel. For the play on the nine Muses and the three Graces cf. Varro, Men. 333 (¼ Aul. Gell. 13. 11. 1) ‘dicit convivarum numerum incipere oportere a Gratiarum numero et progredi ad Musarum’, though this refers to a cena, not a symposium. 17. nudis iuncta sororibus: an elegant way of referring to the three Graces; cf. 4. 7. 5 f. ‘Gratia cum Nymphis geminisque sororibus audet / ducere nuda choros’. iuncta describes the characteristic grouping in art, which survives in Botticelli’s Primavera and Canova’s sculpture; cf. E. Wind, Pagan Mysteries in the Renaissance, 1958: ch. 7, LIMC 3. 1. 203 ff., 3. 2. 151 ff., CMA 474 ff. nudis implies unadorned beauty, as at 4. 7. 6; ps.-Acro adds ‘ideo Gratiae nudae pinguntur veluti sine dolo, sine fraude, sine aliquo velamine’. In Hellenistic and Roman art the Graces were often portrayed naked. 18. insanire iuvat: there may be something of an oxymoron here as at 2. 7. 28 ‘dulce . . . furere’; see N–H.
1 9 . QVA N T V M D I S T E T A B I NAC H O
237
18–19. cur Berecyntiae / cessant flamina tibiae?: Mt. Berecyntus in Phrygia was one of the cult centres of the great goddess Cybele, whose wild processions could still sometimes be observed in Rome in spite of official discouragement (Wiseman ap. Woodman and West, 1984: 117 ff.). The Phrygian tibiae were two pipes held outwards from the mouth and played with a band around the cheeks to keep the instrument steady. One of the pipes was curved at the end and emitted a deep note (1. 18. 13 f. with N–H, Soph. TrGF 4, fr. 513 ´æŒıÆ æ with Pearson, Ov. fast. 4. 181 f. ‘inflexo Berecyntia tibia cornu / flabit’ with Bo¨mer, The New Oxford History of Music 1.404 ff. with plates 11a and 12). For blasts of music cf. Eur. Bacch. 127 f. ŒæÆÆ ±ı fi Æ 6æıªø = ÆPºH ÆØ. cessant suits the metaphor of ‘winds’ (TLL 3. 961. 33 ff.), though here it suggests, not a lull, but a failure to begin. 20. cur pendet tacita fistula cum lyra: the fistula is the syrinx or panpipe, in which reeds of different length were laid side by side; cf. Virg. ecl. 2. 32, D–S 4.1596 ff., RE 4A. 2. 1779, Wille 112 ff. The instruments are pictured as hanging on a peg; cf. Hom. Od. 8. 67, Pind. O. 1. 17, Bacchyl. 20b1. As the verb implies a lack of use it is balanced by tacita (for which cf. Call. h. 2. 12 Øøºc ŒŁÆæØ). For the combination of pipe and lyre cf. 3. 4. 4 n. 21–2. parcentis ego dexteras / odi: dexteras implies more vigour than manus; there must be no holding back. For odi of overt rejection see 3. 1. 1 n. 22. sparge rosas: for the scattering of flowers at a symposium cf. 1. 36. 15 with N–H, epist. 1. 5. 14 f. ‘potare et spargere flores / incipiam, patiarque vel inconsultus haberi’. Winter roses were a luxury (N–H on 1. 38. 4), so there is something extravagant about sparge. 22–3. audiat invidus / dementem strepitum Lycus: with the attitude typical of a party-goer H implies that the old man will object to the row only because he is jealous; as invidus implies ‘looking in a marked manner’, it seems to be pointedly combined with audiat. Lycus is a genuine Greek name (Pape–Benseler 2. 824 f., LGPN 2. 287 f. etc.), which may here suggest a misanthropic wolf; for lone wolves cf. R. Buxton in Interpretations of Greek Mythology (ed. J. Bremmer), 1988: 63 ff. If the latter part of the ode were a scene in the mind of the diner and the location were still unsettled, the specific mention of Lycus and his wife would be out of place. dementem,which personifies the strepitum, picks up insanire (18); for noisy parties cf. Ion of Chios 27. 7 W, Cic. Sex. Rosc. 134, Verr. 5. 31, Prop. 3. 10. 26 ‘publica vicinae perstrepat aura viae’.
238
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
24. et vicina seni non habilis Lyco: ‘the woman next door’ (understand nobis) is presumably the wife of Lycus rather than a mistress (who would have had more freedom of action). non habilis means ‘incompatible’ (OLD 2), perhaps also ‘hard to handle’ (OLD 1); as she is much younger than her husband (seni), she hears the party with lively interest. For the repetition Lycus . . . Lyco (polyptoton in successive clauses) cf. Wills 272 ff.; it may underline the man’s disagreeable character. 25. spissa te nitidum coma: Telephus has the thick glossy hair of youth; nitidum can also suggest hair-oil (cf. 2. 7. 7 f. ‘nitentis / malobathro Syrio capillos’ and 1. 4. 9 with N–H). In view of the balance of te and me (26, 28), there is probably an implied contrast with H’s hair, which was going thin and grey; cf. 3. 14. 25 n., epist. 1. 7. 25 f. ‘reddes / . . . nigros angusta fronte capillos’. 26. puro te similem, Telephe, Vespero: in view of Vespero (the evening star and the planet Venus), the name Telephus may have suggested ‘shining far’ (Bº and H ); for encomiastic comparison with stars cf. 3. 9. 21, N–H on 1. 12. 47. This glittering young man cannot be the boring antiquarian of the opening stanza, as Porph. and some commentators suppose, nor is there anything to identify him with the wine-pourer of v. 10. puro suggests a cloudless sky and unimpaired beauty (2. 5. 19 with N–H); as the word can be used of a clear space (epist. 2. 2. 71 ‘purae sunt plateae’), RN sees a formal contrast with spissa (both adjectives are given an emphatic position). Like the repeated Telephi at 1. 13. 1 (see N–H), the repeated te emphasizes the girl’s fixation. 27. tempestiva petit Rhode: for the name (¼ ‘rose-bush’) cf. Men. fr. 210. 6K, Acts 12: 13, Pape–Benseler 2.1310, LGPN 2. 391. She has been identified, without good reason, with Lycus’ wife in v. 24 (Ru¨pke, op. cit.); with that name she is more likely to be a hetaera, like Glycera (28). tempestiva means ‘the right age for you’; there is a contrast with non habilis (24). For petere of sexual initiative (paradoxically ascribed to a woman) cf. N–H on 1. 33. 13 and 2. 5. 16. Hints of erotic activity at the end of a sympotic ode also occur in 1. 36. 17 ff., 3. 28. 13 ff.; for comments on a guest’s love-affair cf. 1. 27. 10 ff., epod. 11. 9 f., Asclepiades, anth. Pal. 12. 135, Call. ep. 43. If the latter part of the poem were just imagined, petit would have to be seen as a vivid ‘present for future’; it would then be in a different category from torret below, which in view of lentus should refer to a genuinely present situation. 28. me lentus Glycerae torret amor meae: Porph. says ‘lentus ignis dicitur qui latens ac sine flamma urit’; cf. 1. 13. 8 ‘quam lentis penitus
2 0 . N O N V I D ES QVA N T O M OV E A S P ER I C LO
239
macerer ignibus’ (where N–H cite evidence for ø and ø), Call. ep. 44. 1 f. Ø Ø Æd e —AÆ ŒŒæı, Ø Ø Æfi = Æd a ˜Øı Fæ e fi Ð Øfi , Ð Tib. 1. 4. 81, Ov. ars 3. 573 with R. K. Gibson. A Glycera also appears as a love of Tibullus at 1. 33. 2, who is said to be less sweet than her Greek name implies (‘immitis Glycerae’). H’s poems sometimes end with a depreciating contrast between himself and somebody more successful (2. 16, 2. 17, 4. 2, Esser 9 ff., 32 f.); cf. especially epod. 14. 15 f. ‘gaude sorte tua: me libertina nec uno / contenta Phryne macerat’. Here he occupies an intermediate position between the jealous and disapproving old Lycus and the glamorous and soughtafter young Telephus.
2 0 . N O N V I D ES QVA N T O MOVEAS PERICLO [Lyne (1980), 230 ff.; E. Oliensis ap. Woodman and Feeney (2002), 100 ff.]
1–8. Do not disturb the lioness’s cubs, Pyrrhus; you will be worsted when she comes to reclaim Nearchus. 9–12. While you and she prepare for battle, the boy shows his indifference, while posing exquisitely like Nireus or Ganymede. According to traditional Roman mores homosexuality was reprehensible. This attitude was beginning to change, at least in certain sections of society, by the second century bc, when, as the result of Rome’s conquests, an increasing influx of Greeks entered the city, bringing with them the palaestra, the symposium, and a much freer view of sexual relations. Polybius said that in the period after Pydna (167 bc) many young Romans abandoned themselves to boy-friends and courtesans (31. 25. 3 f.). The new attitudes did not go unopposed, as is clear from remarks in the speeches of Scipio Aemilianus (Gell. 6. 12. 5, Macrob. sat. 3. 14. 7) and Cato the Censor (e.g. Liv. 39. 42. 8–12, Gell. 9. 12. 7); Lucilius, too, had some harsh things to say (e.g. 74, 418 ff., 1058). In assessing the evidence from the closing decades of the Republic one has to take account of the speaker, the occasion, and the social milieu. Cicero’s invectives against the practice (e.g. Verr. 2. 1. 32 ff., Cat. 1. 13, Phil. 2. 44) must have been acceptable to the majority of his audience (cf.R. MacMullen, Historia, 31, 1982: 484 ff.). But among the poets a more indulgent attitude was common, as in Catullus’ Iuventius poems, Virgil’s Eclogues, and the Marathus elegies of Tibullus; on the other hand, Propertius refers only once to pederasty (2. 4. 18 ff.), and for Ovid it had little attraction (ars 2. 683 ff.). With many versifiers it is not easy to
240
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
tell the conventional and sentimental from the realistic; cf. Shackleton Bailey (1982), 67 ff. One has to bear in mind that the active role attracted much less censure than the passive; and whereas stuprum with ingenui was forbidden by the lex Scantinia de infanda venere, which was still in force in 50 bc (Rotondi, Leges publicae populi Romani, 293), a dominus had complete power over his own slave-boys. During his schooling Horace was carefully protected by his father (serm. 1. 6. 81 ff., cf. Pliny, epist. 3. 3. 3 f. and Quint. 2. 2. 15); yet as a young man he could advise the reader to avoid adultery by exploiting a girl or boy slave (serm. 1. 2. 116 ff.; cf. epist. 1. 18. 72 ff.). See further S. Lilja, Homosexuality in Republican and Augustan Rome, 1983; E. Cantarella, Secondo natura: La bisessualita` nel mondo antico, 1988 (English translation, 2002); J. P. Sullivan, Martial, The Unexpected Classic, 1991: 186 ff., 207 ff.; D. M. Halperin, OCD 720 ff.; T. K. Hubbard, Homosexuality in Greece and Rome, 2003. In the present ode Horace warns Pyrrhus not to appropriate the boy Nearchus, who is in the clutches of a possessive woman; for such an ambivalent stage of adolescence cf. 1. 4. 19 f. ‘nec tenerum Lycidan mirabere, quo calet iuventus / nunc omnis et mox virgines tepebunt’ (a more common sequence of events), 2. 5. 21 ff., Petr. 113. 7, Mart. 11. 22. 9 f. (quoted below on 7–8). He begins with a tease by presenting Pyrrhus as a hunter who is disturbing the lioness’s cubs; the Homeric imagery (2 n.) is sustained throughout the poem. In the second stanza the metaphor is clarified: the ‘lioness’ (i.e. a predatory woman) will charge through the bands of huntsmen (i.e. rival suitors) and reclaim the handsome boy, who is attractive to both sexes (7–8 n.). The third stanza begins with more mock-heroic diction (9–10 nn.), but the reader’s interest is then transferred to Nearchus. By standing on the victor’s palm (11–12 n.) he shows his contempt for the whole business; cf. Theoc. 1. 33 ff. (a scene engraved on a cup) where a woman is untouched by the wrangles of rival suitors. The final cameo has the static quality found in descriptions of works of art (cf. 13–14 n. for a parallel on Narcissus in the Imagines of Philostratus); and though the poem concludes with more Homeric illustrations, they come through the medium of Hellenistic erotic writing. Lyne (loc. cit.) thinks Pyrrhus is being warned that Nearchus is not worth having; but the description of the boy seems too sensuous for that. The ode really has no serious purpose, but simply shows an amusement which is perhaps not wholly detached. Metre: Sapphic. 1. Non vides quanto moveas periclo . . . ?: a question is livelier than a statement; elsewhere H says nonne vides? (1. 14. 3), videsne? (epod. 4. 7), or plain vides? (so probably 1. 9. 1 ff., 3. 27. 17 f.). moveas means ‘disturb’ (ŒØE); cf. paroem. Gr. 1. 277 c ŒØE ŒÆŒe s Œ (with parallels).
2 0 . N O N V I D ES QVA N T O M OV E A S P ER I C LO
241
Heinze less naturally interprets as ‘amoveas’ (cf. ps.-Acro ‘coneris auferre’, 1. 10. 10 ‘per dolum amotas’ with N–H); but H is leading only gradually to the more drastic raptor (4). quanto periclo is an ‘ablative of attendant circumstances’ (K–S 1. 410 f., Woodcock 47); cf. the common periculo suo. 2. Pyrrhe: the Greek name as elsewhere dissociates the poem from any actual situation, even if the pattern is true to life. Pyrrhus implies red hair (ıææ , burrus), and may suggest a fiery temperament; cf. R. Fo¨rster, Scriptores Physiognomici Graeci et Latini 1. 250 ‘saepenumero capillum vidi illo etiam rubicundiorem et simul mores eorum ferarum similes et in ipsis impudicitiam et concupiscendi amorem’. RN thinks we are perhaps encouraged to remember Pyrrhus (Neoptolemus), the aggressive and cowardly son of Achilles (cf. Virg. Aen. 2. 469 ff.), who abducted Andromache at the sack of Troy. Gaetulae catulos leaenae: the lion that protects its cubs, or looks for them when robbed, was a motif of poetic similes from the time of Homer; cf. Il. 17. 133 ff., 18. 318 ff. (of Achilles mourning Patroclus) ıŒa ºÆ ø u ºd MßªØ , = fiøffl Þ Ł e Œı KºÆ º ±æfi Icæ = oº KŒ ıŒØB . Some writers refer explicitly to the female of the species (a lioness or later a tigress); see Theoc. 26. 20 f. æ b ŒÆºa ıŒÆ ÆØe ºEÆ, = ‹ æ Œ ºŁØ ŒÆ ºÆÆ , RE 13. 988. The plural catulos suits a real lioness rather than the woman of the ode, in which only one boy is being stolen; it can be justified because of the semi-proverbial nature of the expression, just as we could say ‘let sleeping dogs lie’ even if only one person was involved. ‘Gaetulian’ (from north-west Africa) was a conventional epithet of lions (cf. 1. 23. 10, Virg. Aen. 5. 351); it has associations of savagery (Pease on Virg. Aen. 4. 40). The identification with a lioness suits a dominating woman; it may be worth noting that the name was borne by courtesans (Pape–Benseler 2. 779, LGPN 2. 280). 3–4. dura post paulo fugies inaudax / proelia raptor: for ‘hard-fought battles’ cf. 2. 13. 28 ‘dura fugae mala, dura belli’, Prop. 3. 5. 2 ‘sat mihi cum domina proelia dura mea’, Liv. 40. 16. 8, Sil. 17. 571. In our passage the adjective, emphasized by hyperbaton, seems less to the point, as the contest would be a short one (post paulo). RN has considered dira, ‘terrifying’; cf. periclo (1), inaudax (2), timendos (10); so Lucan 3. 312 f. ‘at si funestas acies, si dira paratis / proelia’, 7. 689, Sil. 8. 300, 17. 397. For similar textual problems cf. 2. 12. 2 ‘durum Hannibalem’ (where the convincing dirum has negligible manuscript support), serm. 1. 2. 40 ‘dura inter saepe pericla’ (where RN proposed dira in CR 16, 1966: 327). paulo post is the normal word-order in Cicero, but for post paulo cf. serm. 1. 2. 120, epist. 1. 6. 43, 1. 18. 33, TLL 10. 1. 833. 8 ff. (citing Caesar,
242
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
Sallust, Livy); in H’s Sapphics the fifth syllable is never a monosyllable unless it is preceded by another monosyllable as in dum tu (9). inaudax (‘unbold’), not found elsewhere, is presumably a Horatian coinage (¼ ¼º ); this is the earliest occurrence of an adjective in -ax with a negative prefix (Wackernagel 2. 290). It makes an amusing oxymoron with raptor, which sometimes refers to predatory animals (Virg. Aen. 2. 356 ‘lupi . . . raptores’), but here is applied to a hunter (so Mart. 8. 26. 2 where he is also frightened). In classical Latin agent-nouns in -tor normally refer to repeated actions (cf. 3. 4. 79 amatorem), but in verse (as in early Latin) only a single action may be represented (cf. Plaut. Men. 65 of a river ‘rapidus raptori pueri subduxit pedes’). For the change from bluster to cowardice cf. epod. 6. 1 f. ‘quid immerentis hospites vexas canis / ignavus adversus lupos?’ 5–6. cum per obstantis iuvenum catervas / ibit: metaphorically catervas refers to parties of hunters (the ŁÆºæd ÆN of Hom. Il. 3. 26), but literally to the numerous male admirers of Nearchus (cf. 1. 4. 19, 2. 8. 7 f. ‘iuvenumque prodis / publica cura’). ibit suggests purposeful movement (OLD s.v. 7). 6. insignem repetens Nearchum: after the mock-heroic teasing the situation now becomes explicit. The proper name is a genuine one in Greek (LGPN 2. 328) and here suggests the literal meaning ‘leader of the youth’ (cf. 1. 9. 4 ‘Thaliarche’). insignem ‘outstanding’ goes well with the proper name; normally the adjective would be given further specification, as at 1. 33. 5 ‘insignem tenui fronte Lycorida’, but here it is clear that striking looks are the relevant point; cf. Virg. Aen. 7. 762 ‘Virbius insignem quem mater Aricia misit’. repetens (IÆØH) suggests a claim for what is due, and is used in legal and similar contexts; cf. 1. 15. 6 ‘quam multo repetet Graecia milite’ with N–H. 7–8. grande certamen, tibi praeda cedat / maior an illi: if the text is sound, then in Po¨schl’s view (270 n. 8) the victor will get more satisfaction from the sexually ambivalent Nearchus (cf. Mart. 11. 22. 9 f. ‘divisit natura marem: pars una puellis, / una viris genita est’), and so perhaps will fight harder (RN). Some interpret maior as ‘relatively big’ (cf. A. Ker, PCPS 10, 1964: 45 f.); the comparative is similarly used with hostia (TLL 6. 3. 3064. 72), but after certamen and before an one expects a genuine comparison, and the sense produced is feeble. Most modern editors accept Peerlkamp’s conjecture ‘tibi praeda cedat, maior an illa (sit)’ (cf. epist. 1. 10. 35 ‘minor in certamine longo’), but it is unnatural to separate maior from praeda (especially in the third and fourth lines of a Sapphic stanza), and the ellipse of the subjunctive sit is unparalleled in the Odes; see E. Kraggerud (SO 57, 1982: 101 ff.).
2 0 . N O N V I D ES QVA N T O M OV E A S P ER I C LO
243
Shackleton Bailey has considered ‘tibi praeda cedat, cedat an illi’. The question remains open. The construction of grande certamen is generally thought to be the so-called ‘accusative in apposition to the sentence’, a kind of internal accusative that extends and explains the action of the previous clause; cf. Sall. hist. 4. 69. 8 ‘Eumenen . . . prodidere Antiocho, pacis mercedem’, Virg. Aen. 6. 223 with Austin, Tac. ann. 1. 27. 1 with Goodyear. But the intervention of the woman cannot be described as either a contest or a point of dispute, as one might expect on a strict interpretation of the appositional accusative (the usage in Tacitus becomes more free). Accordingly we are inclined to take the phrase as a loosely attached nominative; cf. Cic. Tusc. 1. 65 ‘nec Homerum audio qui Ganymeden ab dis raptum ait propter formam . . . : non iusta causa cur Laomedonti tanta fieret iniuria’ with Dougan, K–S 1. 248, H–Sz 430; when the noun is neuter, the case may be difficult to determine (see Fordyce on Virg. Aen. 8. 683). grandis occurs in the Odes also at 1. 6. 9, 2. 1. 11, 2. 17. 4 but 10 times in the hexameters; in Virgil only twice in the Aeneid, but 8 times in the Eclogues and Georgics; the word encroaches at the expense of magnus in late Latin and especially in the Romance languages. praeda suits the hunt as ‘prey’, but the contest as ‘prize’; for its application to a person cf. Vell. 2. 86. 3 ‘ero praeda victoris’ (from Pollio), Petr. 80. 1, Sen. HO 511. cedat ‘fall to’ is common in legal contexts; cf. serm. 2. 2. 134 f. ‘cedet in usum / nunc mihi nunc alii’, epist. 2. 2. 174 ‘cedat in altera iura’. 9–10. interim dum tu celeris sagittas / promis: interim refers to the run-up to the fight. Shooting at animals continues the Homeric illustration (cf. Il. 11. 475 f. I ºÆ ŒæÆe º, ‹ ƺ Icæ = NfiH Ie ıæB ). 10. haec dentes acuit timendos: another dum-clause parallel to its predecessor (the teeth balance the arrows); for such asyndeton in subordinate clauses cf. 3. 18. 7 n. dentes acuit is again mock-Homeric; cf. Il. 11. 416 Łªø ºıŒe O Æ, 13. 474 f., Virg. georg. 3. 255, [Tib.] 3. 9. 3 (all of boars). For lions frendere is the usual term (Cic. Tusc. 2. 22 ‘vestrone pressu quondam Nemeaeus leo / frendens efflavit graviter extremum halitum’), but cf. rhet. Her. 4. 51 ‘statim, sicut e cavea leo emissus aut alia aliqua taeterrima belua soluta ex catenis, volitabit et vagabitur . . . acuens dentes’. 11. arbiter pugnae: it now appears that the result depends not on the contestants but on Nearchus, who is supremely indifferent to the squabble (see next note) and will bestow his favours simply according to his own caprice. In Roman law an arbiter was a single official appointed to settle a dispute, sometimes outside the normal judicial
244
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
process (Crook, 1967: 78 ff.); for a less formal use cf. Ov. her. 16. 69 of Paris ‘arbiter es formae: certamina siste dearum’; that is the sense of the present phrase. In other contexts the word may simply mean ‘witness’; cf. Plaut. Cas. 90 ‘circumspicite ne quis adsit arbiter’ and OLD (1); for the idea of ‘onlooker’ cf. Soph. Trach. 523 ff. (Deianira stands by while Heracles fights Achelous) ± PHØ ±æa = ºÆıªE Ææ Z Łfiø = w, e n æı IŒÆ, Theoc. 1. 33 ff., Ov. am. 2. 12. 25 f. ‘vidi ego pro nivea pugnantes coniuge tauros: / spectatrix animos ipsa iuvenca dabat’, Virg. Aen. 12. 718 f. 11–12. posuisse nudo / sub pede palmam: the palm was a symbol of victory from the fourth century (not in early Greek poetry); cf. 1. 1. 5 ‘palmaque nobilis’ with N–H, RE 20. 401 ff. For its metaphorical use in erotic contexts cf. Tib. 1. 9. 81 f. with Murgatroyd, Prop. 4. 1. 140 ‘eludet palmas una puella tuas’. Here, instead of handing the palm to the victor (as Paris handed the apple to Aphrodite), the boy stands on it; for similar acts of disdain cf. Lucr. 1. 78 ‘religio pedibus subiecta’, Cic. Pis. 61 (on Piso’s supposed contempt for military glory) ‘ut ad portam Esquilinam Macedonicam lauream conculcarim’, Prop. 1. 1. 4 ‘et caput impositis pressit Amor pedibus’, Meleager, anth. Pal. 12. 101. 4, Sittl 107. 13. fertur: the verb sustains the mock-heroic tone, as if Nearchus were a legendary figure. At the same time it distances H from the vignette, as if to imply that he disclaims any personal erotic interest; for Horace’s own bisexuality cf. serm. 2. 3. 325 ‘mille puellarum, puerorum mille furores’, epod. 11. 27 f., carm. 4. 1. 29. 13–14. et leni recreare vento / sparsum odoratis umerum capillis: a typical picture of the puer delicatus whose long hair flutters in the breeze; cf. 4. 10. 3 ‘quae nunc umeris involitant comae’, Chaeremon fr. 1. 5 ff. (TrGF 1 edn. 2, p. 216) Œ ÆØ b Œæ æø ‰ IªºÆ = ÆPEØ æ ØØ KŒºÆı = ıŁEØ IØ Kæø æÆØ, Theoc. 5. 91 ºØÆæa b Ææ ÆP Æ ŁØæÆ, Philostratus, imag. 1. 23. 5 (Narcissus) ıæÆØ ªaæ ÆPB [B Œ ] ƃ ŒØØ K fiH æ fiø ŒÆd Aºº KØa e Iı Ø ı ªÆØ, Rufinus, anth. Pal. 5. 28. 3 f. recreare means ‘to refresh’ in the sense of ‘cool’; cf. 1. 22. 17 f. ‘ubi nulla . . . / arbor aestiva recreatur aura’. The perfumed hair suits the romantic picture; see N–H on 1. 5. 2, and Ov. fast. 2. 309 (of a woman) ‘ibat odoratis umeros perfusa capillis’. 15. qualis aut Nireus fuit: the MSS generally read Nereus, but Nireus was a common exemplum of good looks, as Porph. recognizes; cf. epod. 15. 22 ‘formaque vincas Nirea’ (where again Nerea has far better manuscript support), Hom. Il. 2. 673 f. ˝Øæ , n ŒººØ Icæ e ! +ºØ qºŁ,
2 1 . O NATA M E C V M
245
Prop. 3. 18. 27, Ov. ars 2. 109, Quint. Smyrn. 7. 7 ff., Otto 243 f., RE 17. 1. 708, Burton, Anatomy of Melancholy 3. 2. 5. 3 ‘Beautiful Nireus, by that Homer so much admired, once dead, is more despised than Thersites’. 15–16. aut aquosa / raptus ab Ida: as often in heroic poetry two similes are combined. Ganymede was described by Homer as the fairest of mankind (ŒººØ ŁH IŁæø), and he was snatched away to be the cupbearer of Zeus (Il. 20. 232 ff.); the erotic element of the story was already made explicit by Ibycus (PMG 289) and Theognis (1345 f.), and is well attested in Strato’s Musa Puerilis (anth. Pal. 12). In particular the abduction by an eagle was a favourite theme in art and descriptions of art; cf. Theoc. 15. 123 f., Plaut. Men. 143 f. ‘dic mi, enumquam tu vidisti tabulam pictam in pariete / ubi aquila Catamitum raperet?’ (significantly catamitus is derived from Ganymedes through Etruscan), Virg. Aen. 5. 252 ff., Petr. 83. 3, Plin. nat. hist. 34. 79 (the sculpture by Leochares), J. Carcopino, La Basilique pythagoricienne de la porte majeure, 1946: 111 ff., LIMC 4. 1. 159 ff., 4. 2. 82 ff., CMA 1. 452 ff. For further references see Pease on Cic. nat. deor. 1. 112, RE 7. 741 ff., and cf. Tennyson, The Palace of Art 122 f. ‘Or else flush’d Ganymede, his rosy thigh / Half-buried in the Eagle’s down’. aquosa recalls ºıEÆ and ØÆ, the Homeric epithets for Mt. Ida in the Troad (Il. 8. 47, 11. 183); hence Tennyson’s refrain in Oenone: ‘O mother Ida, many-fountained Ida’. That was the traditional scene of Ganymede’s abduction; cf. RE 7. 741 ff. raptus ¼ ‘he who was snatched’ (› ±æÆŁ ), a usage particularly rare with the nominative singular; cf. 2. 16. 2 ‘in patenti / prensus Aegaeo’, Ov. am. 1. 10. 1 f. ‘qualis ab Eurota Phrygiis avecta carinis / coniugibus belli causa duobus erat’, K–S 1. 223 f., H–Sz 156. The omission of the name bears witness to the fame of the story, cf. Theoc. loc. cit., Petr. loc. cit. (Idaeum), Lucan 9. 972, Stat. Theb. 1. 548.
2 1 . O NATA M E C V M [I. Borzsa´k, Acta Classica (Debrecen) 12, 1976: 47 ff.; J. N. Grant, CJ 73, 1977–8: 22 ff.; R. G. M. Nisbet ap. Woodman and Feeney (2002), 80 ff.; Norden 143 ff.; Pasquali 613 ff.]
1–8. O born with me in the consulship of Manlius, whether you carry reproaches or fun or easy sleep, kindly jar, under whatever title you preserve the Massic wine, descend at Messalla’s bidding. 9–12. Though he is steeped in Socratic dialogues, he will not disregard you; even the austerely virtuous Cato is said to have grown hot with unmixed wine. 13–20. You apply gentle torture to minds that are usually stiff. You give hope to the anxious and confidence to the poor. 21–4 You will proceed with Venus and the Graces till Phoebus returns to rout the stars.
246
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
The opening of this ode keeps the reader guessing about its purport. First we think that Horace is addressing a woman (Grant, op. cit. with some exaggeration); this implication can still be felt in vv. 2 and 3. At the same time he uses the language of a hymn—a feature that continues throughout the poem (cf. especially Norden, loc. cit., with N–H on 1. 10 and 2. 19); for details see the notes on nata (1), seu . . . sive (2), pia (4), quocumque . . . nomine (5), moveri and bono die (6), descende (7), tu . . . tu . . . te (13 ff.), the divine retinue (21 ff.), producent (23). At v. 4 it transpires that the poet is really addressing a wine-jar; such personifications are found in comedy (Taillardat 139 ff.) and more relevantly in epigrams by Posidippus (3rd cent. bc) and others, e.g. anth. Pal. 5. 134, 135 (quoted 21 n.); see particularly Marcus Argentarius, ibid. 9. 229 #æ Æ Ø, ŒÆºØŒa æÆ ØºFÆ, = hºÆº, æ7ªºø , h, ÆŒææı , = ÆNb KB æÆ ıº Ø, ºªı, = qºŁ ‹ø Kc Eæ æ Ø . = ÆYŁ Zº ŒÆd ¼ØŒ Iı Ææ , = ¼Łæ ‰ Œæ æe Ø Kæ . Here, as in Horace, the flagon is personified as a woman, given a series of attributes, and characterized with a number of ingenious puns (thus Ø means both ‘drink’ and ‘husband’); the epigram may have been influenced by the ode (it was probably written a little later); certainly both poems drew on a common tradition. In v. 7 we meet at last the real recipient of the ode, M. Valerius Messalla Corvinus, the most versatile aristocrat in Augustan Rome (see especially Syme, 1986: 200 ff., Nisbet, op. cit.). He fought for the Republic at Philippi and for Octavian at Actium; in 27 bc he celebrated a triumph for the conquest of Aquitania. He became consul in 31 and prefect of the city in 26 (though he soon resigned); he was made an augur when still under 30 and later an Arval Brother. He was the most eloquent and charming orator of his day, and as a young man he had written bucolic poetry in Greek (for his identification with the Codrus of Virg. ecl. 7. 21 ff. see A. Rostagni, Virgilio minore, edn. 2, 1961: 405 ff., Nisbet, op. cit. 90 ff.). Among the poets befriended by him were Virgil, Horace, Tibullus, his own niece Sulpicia, and later Ovid; the poems written for him included the Panegyricus Messallae, Tibullus 1. 3 and 1. 7, catalepton 9, and later the ciris. Horace says nothing of Messalla’s achievements in war and politics, but alludes obliquely to certain aspects of his life and personality (for detailed suggestions see Nisbet, op. cit.). He was born in 64 bc, as is now generally believed (Syme, 1986: 201), or possibly in 65 (Nisbet, op. cit.), which would make him an exact coeval of Horace and the wine-jar. The liturgical language would please a man at the heart of Rome’s religious establishment. The Massic wine may be chosen to recall the campaigns of his ancestor, the first Valerius Corvus (5 n.). The allusion to Socratic dialogues (9 f.) would appeal to the Attic purist
2 1 . O NATA M E C V M
247
who translated Hyperides’ defence of Phryne (Quint. inst. 10. 5. 2) and had studied in Athens at the same time as Horace. The reference to Cato’s drinking habits might have an additional resonance if there was a family connection with the younger Cato (11 n.). In the last stanza the Graces (22 n.) are relevant to an elegant stylist in both prose and poetry. In particular the praises of wine in the last three stanzas link up with a fragment of Maecenas’ Symposium where in the company of Virgil and Horace a certain Messalla commends the virtues of wine (Serv. auct. Aen. 8. 310 ‘idem umor ministrat faciles oculos, pulchriora reddit omnia, et dulcis iuventae reducit bona’). The identification with Messalla Corvinus was disputed by Cichorius (Ro¨mische Studien, 1922: 233 ff.), but his reasons were inadequate (Nisbet, op. cit. 87 f.); the nostalgia for ‘sweet youth’ in no way rules out the middle-aged Corvinus, and as he had an estate at Arezzo (Sulpicia ap. Tib. 3. 14), which was Maecenas’ home town, Messalla made a suitable interlocutor. We may infer from the common theme of the dialogue and the ode that Messalla was a connoisseur of wine; it is also possible that some of the topics found in the ode (see notes on 13–20) had figured in the dialogue. Certainly we can be sure that Horace’s suavity and humour were calculated to suit Messalla himself. Metre: Alcaic. 1. O nata mecum consule Manlio: o nata suggests an address to a woman, as at 1. 16. 1 ‘O matre pulchra filia pulchrior’; mecum recalls poems to coevals (1. 36. 9) and comrades (2. 7. 1 with N–H). When we see that H is using religious language, the grandiloquent O nata is appropriate, for hymns sometimes mention a god’s birth (1. 10. 1 with N–H). When at v. 4 we find that H is addressing a wine-jar, it becomes relevant that natum can be used of wine; cf. serm. 2. 8. 47 ‘vino . . . citra mare nato’, Cic. Brut. 287, ILS 8580 (quoted below); as with the English ‘bottle’, the container can stand for the contents. The formal dating exemplifies the Roman organization of chronology (Greek poetry had nothing similar), and with its prosaic associations makes a stylistic contrast with the hymnal invocation. L. Manlius Torquatus (RE 14. 1. 1199 ff.) was consul in 65 bc, the year of H’s birth; cf. epod. 13. 6 ‘tu vina Torquato move consule pressa meo’. Wine-jars were sometimes dated by the year when the wine was transferred (diffusum) from the large dolium to the amphora (epist. 1. 5. 4 ‘iterum Tauro diffusa’, ILS 8583–4, Marquardt–Mau 462 f., Mayor on Juv. 5. 30), sometimes by the year of the vintage; cf. ILS 8580 ‘Ti. Claudio P. Quinctilio cos. (13 bc) a.d. XIII k. Iun. vinum diffusum quod natum est duobus Lentulis cos (18 bc) autocr(atum)’. A wine could be known familiarly by the name of only one of the
248
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
two consuls (cf. Plin. nat. hist. 14. 94 on Opimianum), and a poet had no room for both; though Manlius Torquatus came second to L. Cotta on the fasti, he was the grandfather of the friend addressed in 4. 7 and epist. 1. 5, and his family had an old association with Messalla’s (below, 5 ad fin.). 2. seu tu querelas sive geris iocos: this line is compatible with the suggestion that a woman is being addressed: querelae suits a mistress’s reproaches, and ioci (‘fun’) is often used in erotic contexts (1. 2. 34, epist. 1. 6. 66 etc.). The use of seu . . . sive to mark alternative attributes or functions is a feature of the sacral style (see below, 5 n.); the mention of two extremes ascribes comprehensiveness to the god (cf. 2. 19. 27 with N–H). geris of a person means ‘bring’, of a wine-jar ‘contain’; cf. Mart. 4. 88. 6 ‘nec quae (testa) cottana parva gerit’, 7. 94. 1, TLL 6. 1935. 78 ff.. 3. seu rixam et insanos amores: the line goes a stage further than its predecessor: the querelae have developed into a brawl (cf. 1. 13. 10 f. ‘immodicae mero / rixae’ of lovers), the light-hearted ioci into obsessive passion. For the conventional insanus amor cf. Virg. ecl. 10. 44, serm. 1. 4. 49, Prop. 2. 14. 18 with Enk, Otto 18 (amens amans), TLL 7. 1. 1833. 79 ff. 4. seu facilem, pia testa, somnum: H’s climax corresponds to a possible sequence of events at a drinking-party (cf. Plat. symp. 223d). For the soporific qualities of wine cf. Eur. Bacch. 282 with Dodds, Euenus, anth. Pal. 11. 49. 6, Sil. 7. 205, ‘Somnus, Bacche, tibi comes additus’, Plut. Mar. 45. 3. For facilem of sleep which comes when asked cf. 2. 11. 8 with N–H. The separation of the vocative noun from nata (1) suits the hymnal style (N–H on 2. 19. 8) and delays the identification of the addressee (cf. 3. 8. 5). The everyday testa (1. 20. 2, 3. 14. 20, Hilgers 286 f.) is humorously incongruous with the religious pia. The adjective here means, not ‘devout’ (which does not suit a deity), but ‘kindly’, ‘loving’, ‘caring’ (qualities that reciprocate human devotion). For this rare usage cf. Virg. Aen. 2. 536 ‘di, si qua est caelo pietas quae talia curet’ with Austin’s note, 4. 382 with Pease, 5. 688 f. (addressed to Jupiter) ‘si quid pietas antiqua labores / respicit humanos’, Martial 11. 3. 9 ‘cum pia reddiderint Augustum numina terris’, Weinstock 249 (citing Oscan material), RE 20. 1. 1180, Encicl. virg. 4. 95. This is the meaning of pie Jesu, and pietas in this sense has given rise to the English ‘pity’. 5–6. quocumque y lectum y nomine Massicum / servas: in sacral language it was prudent to address a god by alternative names or
2 1 . O NATA M E C V M
249
epithets; cf. serm. 2. 6. 20 ‘matutine Pater, seu Iane libentius audis’, carm. saec. 14 ff. To avoid any possibility of error, these might be followed by the kind of blanket clause imitated here; see Catull. 34. 21 f. ‘sis quocumque tibi placet / sancta nomine’, Lucian, Tim. 1 ŒÆd Y ¼ºº ƒ Kæ Ø ØÆd ŒÆºFØ, Apul. met. 11. 2. 1–3, CIL 11. 1823 ‘hunc ego aput vostrum numen demando devoveo desacrifico uti vos, Aquae ferventes, sive vos Nimfas sive quo alio nomine voltis adpellari, uti vos eum interemates interficiates intra annum’, Burns, To the Deil ‘Oh thou, whatever title suit thee, Auld Hornie, Satan, Nick or Clootie’. For further examples see Appel 76 ff., Norden, op. cit. 144 ff., Fraenkel on Aesch. Ag. 160 ff., S. Pulleyn, CQ 44, 1994: 19 ff. H humorously suggests that different jars have different titles or functions (‘bringer of sleep’ etc.), and here he covers himself against any omissions. lectum is usually translated as ‘choice’ (OLD 2), but this makes no sense when the word is taken with quocumque nomine, as the order naturally suggests. RN has therefore proposed laetum (‘in whatever form of address the Massic that you preserve rejoices’); for similar developments of the religious formula cf., in addition to the passages just quoted, Plat. Crat. 400e K ÆE P ÆE Kd E h ŁÆØ, ¥ Ø ŒÆd › Ł ÆæıØ OÆ Ø, ÆFÆ ŒÆd A ÆPf ŒÆºE, Prot. 358a, Cic. Tim. 4 ‘omne igitur caelum sive mundus sive quo alio vocabulo gaudet . . . ’. In NR’s view the nomen should belong not to the Massic but to the testa addressed in geris, servas, and descende; so he would prefer laetans. The Mons Massicus, on the north-western edge of Campania, produced one of the finest Italian wines; cf. 1. 1. 19, 2. 7. 21, RE 14. 2. 2153. There is perhaps a personal compliment here: about 340 bc Messalla’s ancestor Valerius Corvus may have played a part in the conquest of the area in conjunction with the first Manlius Torquatus (see Nisbet, op. cit. 84). servas suits both the storing of wine (2. 14. 26, Cato, agr. 114. 2, OLD 8) and protection by a deity (1. 35. 29). 6. moveri digna bono die: the wine-jar is to be moved from its restingplace in the apotheca; cf. epod. 13. 6 (quoted in 1 n.). As the jar is holy, the verb may also hint at the bringing out of sacred emblems at a festival; cf. Pease on Virg. Aen. 4. 301 ‘commotis excita sacris’ (though there the compound suggests violent brandishing), Serv. auct. ad loc. ‘moveri enim sacra dicebantur cum sollemnibus diebus aperiebantur templa instaurandi sacrificii causa’; cf. epod. 11. 14 ‘arcana promorat loco’. bono die is used of religious festivals (cf. Plaut. Poen. 497 ‘die bono Aphrodisiis’, Catull. 14. 15 ‘Saturnalibus, optimo dierum’, Ov. fast. 1. 72, TLL 2. 2092. 66 ff.); the day is also auspicious because of the happy symposium.
250
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
7. descende: i.e. from the loft, where according to Columella 1. 6. 20 wines should be stored (see 3. 8. 11 n.).The verb suits not only the personified wine-jar but also the divinity invoked in a kletic hymn (Norden, op. cit. 148, compares KºŁ, ÆE, ƒŒF, º); cf. 3. 4. 1 ‘Descende caelo’, TLL 5. 1. 642. 46 ff. (Christian instances). In a context like this such humour would not have been thought blasphemous; for other instances see H. Kleinknecht, Die Gebetsparodie in der Antike, 1937. 7–8. Corvino iubente / promere languidiora vina: H’s use of Messalla’s agnomen may be intended to associate him with his ancestor’s campaigns near the Mons Massicus (5 n.). The scene takes place in the poet’s own house (otherwise descende would be discourteously impatient); for similar requests by guests cf. 2. 3. 14 ‘ferre iube’, 2. 11. 18 ‘quis puer ocius . . . ?’ promere is used of bringing out wine (3. 28. 2 n.), but might also suit the production of sacred emblems from their cista. languidiora means ‘vetustate lenita’ (Porph.); so 3. 16. 35 languescit of wine. The comparative means ‘more mellow than on ordinary occasions’; cf. epod. 9. 33 ‘capaciores adfer huc, puer, scyphos’. RN thinks that the wine may be meant to suit Messalla’s relaxed demeanour. 9–10. non ille, quamquam Socratibus madet / sermonibus: Messalla is steeped in the Socratic dialogues, especially those of Plato and Xenophon; cf. ars 310 ‘Socraticae . . . chartae’, Lucil. 709M, Cic. Tusc. 3. 43, Prop. 2. 34. 27. H is referring here to their ethical content, as quamquam shows; in spite of his serious reading-matter Messalla enjoyed his wine. Messalla must also have been attracted by their informal elegance of style; cf. Cic. off. 1. 134 ‘sermo in quo Socratici maxime excellebant lenis erat minimeque pertinax’, Plin. epist. 3. 12. 1 ‘sit expedita, sit parca (cena), Socraticis tantum sermonibus abundet’; for his Atticizing tastes cf. the introduction above. For madet of the drinker cf. Plaut. Cas. 245 ‘ubi bibisti? mades mecastor’, OLD 3; for metaphorical instances cf. Sen. anth. Lat. 405. 8 ‘cuius Cecropio pectora melle madent’, Mart. 1. 39. 3 f. ‘si quis Cecropiae madidus Latiaeque Minervae / artibus’ with Citroni, TLL 8. 34. 78 ff. 10. te negleget horridus: te is emphasized by its position as first word in its clause and as a single monosyllable before the caesura (N–H vol. 1, p. xli). RN thinks H is suggesting that ‘a Corvinus at any rate will not neglect Massic’ (see the observation about his ancestor in 5 n. and 7–8 n. above). negleget suits religious dereliction (3. 6. 7 ‘di . . . neglecti’); the future should be preferred to the variant neglegit as the drinking has not yet begun. horridus suggests the uncouth and forbidding appearance of the ascetic philosophers with whom Socrates was associated (Ar. aves 1554 ¼ºı , cf. nub. 835 ff. z e B ØøºÆ = IŒæÆ Pd
2 1 . O NATA M E C V M
251
P MºłÆ = P K ƺÆE qºŁ ºı ); as it primarily describes a dry unkemptness, RN sees a verbal contrast with madet above. Of course Messalla was a model of nitor alike in his demeanour and his writings (Quint. inst. 1. 7. 35, 10. 1. 113). 11–12. narratur et prisci Catonis / saepe mero caluisse virtus: narratur appeals to tradition without implying that the story is false (3. 5. 41 n.); the verb, reinforced by prisci, points to the elder Cato, censor in 184 bc (thus ps.-Acro); cf. epist. 2. 2. 117 ‘priscis memorata Catonibus atque Cethegis’, Sulpicia minor, sat. 48 ‘prisci sententia dia Catonis’. Plut. Cato maior 1. 2 says he was originally called ‘Priscus’, but the name was perhaps used to differentiate him from his great-grandson, Cato Uticensis (A. E. Astin, Cato the Censor, 1978: 1 n. 1), and NR thinks it must have that function here. The Censor is often mentioned as an example of oldfashioned austerity (2. 15. 11 ‘intonsi Catonis’, Astin, 8), but he was said to enjoy convivial occasions in the country (Plut. ibid. 25. 3); cf. Cato, agr. 156. 1 ‘si voles in convivio multum bibere cenareque libenter . . . bibesque quantum voles’, Cic. sen. 46 ‘non intellego ne in istis quidem ipsis voluptatibus (sc. potionis et cibi) carere sensu senectutem. . . . et pocula (delectant), sicut in Symposio Xenophontis est, minuta et rorantia’. RN suspects there may also be a secondary hint at the younger Cato (praetor 52); in his case prisci would be limited to ‘old-fashioned’, and narratur would be used humorously of a recent tradition. The younger Cato’s heavy drinking is attested much more explicitly than the Censor’s, and figured in Caesar’s Anticato (see Plin. epist. 3. 12. 3); cf. Mart. 2. 89. 1 f. ‘quod nimio gaudes noctem producere vino / ignosco: vitium, Gaure, Catonis habes’, Plut. Cato minor 6. 1. æ.Ø b fiH
æ fiø ºØÆ æ e Ø, u ººŒØ K Yfiø ØªØ N ZæŁæ. It is possible that Messalla’s wife Calpurnia was the stepdaughter of Cato’s daughter (Syme, Roman Papers 6, 1991: 198 ff., Nisbet, op. cit. 2002: 86); in that case H could be implying that Messalla had authority within his own family for drinking. virtus Catonis, a phrase which resembles serm. 2. 1. 72 ‘virtus Scipiadae’ (cf. Il. 5. 781, ˜Ø ), refers to the tough old Roman manliness of the Censor. If there is also a hint of the younger Cato in this stanza, virtus Catonis could include a philosophical dimension, picking up Socraticis sermonibus. 13–14. tu lene tormentum ingenio admoves / plerumque duro: the repeated tu, listing a god’s functions and achievements, is a mark of the hymnal style (Norden, op. cit. 149 ff., N–H on 1. 10. 9); for poetical catalogues of wine’s virtues cf. 1. 18. 3 (with N–H vol. 1, p. 228), epist. 1. 5. 16 ff.; there was also a large prose literature on the symposium, notably in the first two books of Plato’s Laws. Wine is said to apply torture
252
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
because it makes people talk; cf. epist. 1. 18. 38 ‘commissumque teges et vino tortus et ira’, ars 434 f. For the oxymoron with lene cf. Bacchyl. fr. 20B. 6 ªºıŒE IªŒÆ (of wine). admoves (ææØ ) ‘bring to bear’ suits an instrument of torture; cf. Cic. Verr. 5. 163, TLL 1. 770. 65 ff., OLD s.v. 6b. duro, ‘stiff ’, makes a contrast with tormentum. In NR’s view H is thinking here specifically of a rack; cf. OLD, torqueo 3 (the rack was of course operated by a twisting mechanism), Sil. 1. 176 f. ‘extenti, quantum tormenta iubebant, / creverunt artus’; see also LSJ under æº ø II. 2. Taciturn natures are loosened by wine; cf. epist. 1. 5. 19 ‘fecundi calices quem non fecere disertum?’, Plut. quaest. conv. 715e ‘Some people have an inventive nature that as long as they are sober remains unadventurous and stiff (Ø . . . IºæÆ ŒÆd ªıEÆ), but when they start drinking they give out exhalations like incense from the heat’. Bentley thought that H was referring to himself, but that does not suit sapientium curas below. 14–16. tu sapientium / curas et arcanum iocoso / consilium retegis Lyaeo: for wine as a reliever of cares cf. 1. 18. 4 with N–H, 2. 11. 17 f. Here ‘the wise’ are not philosophers but serious people whose anxieties could be relaxed at a symposium (cf. 4. 12. 28 ‘dulce est desipere in loco’). It was also a commonplace that wine reveals a person’s character and intentions (in vino veritas); cf. Alc. 366, Theoc. 29. 1 with Gow, paroem. Gr. 1. 85, Otto 372, W. Ro¨sler in Murray–Tecus˛an 106 ff. arcanum consilium seems to refer to the drinker’s own inmost thoughts; cf. epod. 11. 13 f. H is much less tolerant about the betrayal of others’ secrets (1. 18. 16 with N–H, 3. 2. 25 f., epist. 1. 18. 38, ars 434 ff., Sen. epist. 83. 9–15). retegis makes a contrast with arcanum, which suggests something inside an arca or strong-box; the verb is reinforced by Lyaeo ‘the Loosener’, the cult-title of Bacchus (epod. 9. 37 f. ‘curam metumque . . . iuvat dulci Lyaeo solvere’, N–H on 1. 7. 22, Plut. quaest. conv. 613c). 17. tu spem reducis mentibus anxiis: for the hopes of the drinker cf. 4. 12. 19 ‘spes donare novas largus amaraque / curarum eluere efficax’, epist. 1. 5. 17 ‘spes iubet esse ratas’, 1. 15. 19, Arist. eth. Nic. 1117a14 ƒ ŁıŒ Ø . . . PºØ . . . ªÆØ. The theme was imaginatively developed by Pind. fr. 124 and Bacchyl. fr. 20B; there as here hope is contrasted with anxiety. 18. viresque et addis cornua pauperi: the artificial word-order (instead of ‘viresque addis et cornua’) suggests a schema of Greek lyric, perhaps particularly common in hymns (3. 4. 11 n.). The bull’s horns, indicating courage and pugnacity, are often attributed to Bacchus (2. 19. 29 with N–H); for the use here cf. paroem. Gr. 1. 302 ŒæÆÆ Ø, Ov. ars 1. 239
2 1 . O NATA M E C V M
253
‘tunc pauper cornua sumit’, Paul. Fest. 33L ¼ 37M ‘cornua Liberi patris simulacro adiciuntur . . . eo quod homines nimio vino truces fiunt’, TLL 4. 973. 21 ff. Wine’s relief of the poor man is part of the commonplace in both Greek and Latin; cf. 1. 18. 5 ‘quis post vina gravem militiam aut pauperiem crepat’ with N–H, epist. 1. 5. 20, Macedonius, anth. Pal. 11. 63. 2, together with the passages from Pindar and Bacchylides mentioned above (17 n.). 19–20. post te neque iratos timenti / regum apices neque militum arma: for the brachylogy post te (¼ ‘after drinking wine’) cf. 1. 18. 5 ‘post vina’ with N–H. . apex refers here to the mitres of eastern kings (Call. h. 4. 166), more usually to the conical caps of some Roman priests, a relic of the days when the king had also been the chief priest (D–S 2. 1167 ff.); cf. 1. 34. 14 ff. with N–H (alluding both to eastern kings and to the Roman Tarquinius Priscus). iratos can count as a ‘transferred epithet’ (cf. 1. 3. 40 ‘iracunda Iovem ponere fulmina’); yet the construction emphasizes the intimidating character of the towering apex. For courage given by drinking cf. 1. 18. 5 (quoted in 18 n.), epist. 1. 5. 17 ‘ad proelia trudit inertem’, Diphilus fr. 86. 3 ff. (PCG 5 p. 104), Macedonius, anth. Pal. 11. 63. 5 ff. 21. te Liber et si laeta aderit Venus: ‘Liber’, like the Greek ‘Lyaeus’ above (16), emphasizes the god’s liberating power. Here the wine-god himself is a member of the wine-jar’s thiasos (for such retinues in hymnal contexts cf. 1. 30. 5 ff., 1. 35. 17 ff.); for a more normal precedence cf. anon. anth. Pal. 5. 135. 3 (to a flagon) ´Œ ı ŒÆd 1ıø ƒºÆæc ºæØ ŒÆd ˚ıŁæ . Venus is often associated with Bacchus (1. 18. 6, 1. 19. 2 with N–H, 1. 32. 9); H is discreetly referring to sexual activity at the symposium (cf. Griffin 15 ff.), but Venus’ favour cannot be taken for granted, while Bacchus’ presence is inevitable. laetus is regularly used of gods’ visitations (1. 2. 46, Catull. 61. 8 f. ‘laetus huc / huc veni’, TLL 7. 888. 49 ff.), but it is particularly appropriate for Venus. 22. segnesque nodum solvere Gratiae: the three Graces or Charites were named by Hesiod (theog. 907–9) as Aglaea (Radiance), Euphrosyne ( Joy), and Thalia (Bloom). For their presence at a symposium cf. 3. 19. 16 f., Pind. O. 14. 8. They suit the personality and literary style of Messalla (cf. his association with Aglaie at catalepton 9. 60); see Quint. inst. 1. 10. 21 for their connection with educated people, and 10. 1. 82 for their influence on style. The Graces were regularly depicted arm-in-arm or hand-in-hand as a symbol of the bond of love and friendship; according to Sen. ben. 1. 3. 4, their ring of three is ruined if the circle is broken and is ‘pulcherrimus si cohaeret et vices servat’; cf. Serv. Aen. 1. 720 ‘ideo connexae, quia insolubiles esse gratias decet’.
254
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
NR follows the scholiasts and most editors in referring nodum to this traditional ring (for the metaphorical nodum cf. Cic. amic. 51 ‘amabilissimus nodus amicitiae’). RN prefers to interpret nodum as ‘belt’ (cf. Mart. 9. 101. 5 ‘Scythico discinxit Amazona nodo’, OLD 2a); at 1. 30. 5 the Graces are invited to come to a hetaera’s house ‘solutis . . . zonis’, and it is economical to take solvere in the same sense in both passages. For this view cf. D. West, Reading Horace, 1967: 147 n. 55 ‘the point here may be that the full delights of beauty, joy, and conviviality cannot be rushed’. 23. vivaeque producent lucernae: for lamps as symbols of the symposium cf. 3. 8. 14–15 n.; for vivae cf. OLD 5, Eur. Bacch. 8 Ø HÆ º ªÆ (contrast mori of dying fires, OLD 4b). producent suits a religious or other escort; cf. Stat. Theb. 2. 313 f. ‘una soror producere tristis / exsulis ausa vias’. It also carries the sense of prolongation (serm. 1. 5. 70 ‘cenam produximus illam’, Mart. 2. 89. 1 f. ‘quod nimio gaudes noctem producere vino / ignosco’, OLD s.v. 10.); perhaps ‘will proceed with you’ would bring out the two implications. 24. dum rediens fugat astra Phoebus: when dum meant ‘until’, and there was no idea of purpose or anticipation, the indicative was normal (as here) in republican Latin, but from the time of Livy the subjunctive tended to encroach; see K–S 2. 378 ff., Tib. 1. 9. 61 f. ‘convivia ducere Baccho / dum rota Luciferi provocet orta diem’, Prop. 4. 6. 85 f. ‘sic noctem patera, sic ducam carmine, donec / iniciat radios in mea vina dies’. For such prolonged parties cf. 3. 8. 15 n. For fugare and fugere of heavenly bodies cf. N–H on 2. 9. 12, Fitzgerald, The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, 2 ‘has flung the stone that put the stars to flight’. Phoebus balances not only lucernae (23) but also Liber and Venus (21).
22. MONTIVM CVSTOS [F. Cairns, Philologus 126, 1982: 227 ff.; Fraenkel 201 f.; J. Henderson, Ramus 24, 1995: 103 ff. ¼ Writing down Rome, 1998: 114 ff.; Reitzenstein 7 ff.; W. H. D. Rouse, Greek Votive Offerings, 1902.]
1–4. Diana, guardian of woods and helper of women in childbirth, (5–8) let the pine that overhangs my villa be dedicated to thee, so that on each anniversary I may gratefully offer it a male piglet. The first stanza of this poem takes the form of a hymn. The goddess is addressed, not by name, but by her common appellation Virgo (1 n.);
22. MONTIVM CVSTOS
255
her attributes are recorded in hymnal style by appositions and a relative clause; cf. Norden (1913), 168. Her last title, diva triformis, is separated from the main vocative, as often in Greek and Latin hymns (3. 21. 4 n.); diva is a common way of addressing goddesses, and triformis bears witness to her triple nature (4 nn.). For other hymns to Artemis or Diana see h. Hom. 9 and 27, Alcaeus (?) 304 L–P (expounded with supplements by Page, Sappho and Alcaeus, 1955: 261 ff.), Anacreon, PMG 348, Eur. Hipp. 61 ff. (so Sen. Phaedr. 54 ff.), Call. h. 3, not to mention Horace’s own 1. 21 and carm. saec. (where she is addressed alongside Apollo). An illuminating comparison may be drawn with Catull. 34. 9 ff. ‘montium domina ut fores / silvarumque virentium / saltuumque reconditorum / amniumque sonantum. / tu Lucina dolentibus / Iuno dicta puerperis, / tu potens Trivia et notho’s / dicta lumine Luna’; here as in the ode we have Diana’s dominion over mountains and woods, her assistance to women in childbirth, and her identification with other goddesses. But Catullus is more comprehensive than Horace: he also mentions Diana’s birth (1 ff.), her nourishment of crops (17 ff.), and her protection of the Roman state (21 ff.). In the ode, on the other hand, the hymnal aspect is not developed; by the ‘crossing of the genres’ familiar in Horace (Kroll 209 ff.) the second stanza has more of the character of a dedicatory epigram (for dedications see below). In the article cited above, Cairns points to such standard elements as the donor (as the Odes are written in propria persona, Horace does not name himself ), the recipient, here Diana, with her attributes (1–4), the gift with a short description (5 ‘imminens villae pinus’), the formula of dedication (for some abnormalities see 5 n.), the function of the gift (the tree is to serve as a rustic shrine for annual sacrifices), the donor’s gratitude (6 laetus) and the modesty of his offering (below; Cairns, op. cit. 236). It is also natural to give a reason for the offering: thus in a Greek epigram that begins like Horace’s ode a farmer promises Artemis a she-goat and some lambs if she shoots robbers (Theodoridas, anth. Pal. 6. 157): @æØ , ˆ æªØ ºÆ Œø ŒÆd IªæF, = fiø b ŒºHÆ ºº, ı b ºı = ŒÆ Ø KØææ Ø ˆ æª ØæØ Ø = Æx Æ ŒÆd ‰æÆı ¼æÆ Kd æŁæØ . But in Horace’s ode the justification for the tree and the sacrifice is left inexplicit; some theories will be mentioned below. For the dedication of trees cf. Catull. fr. 1. 1 ‘hunc lucum tibi dedico consecroque, Priape’, Virg. Aen. 7. 62, Thyillus, anth. Pal. 6. 170. 1 ff. `ƒ ºÆØ fiH —Æ, ŒÆd ƃ ÆıŒ ÆyÆØ = NÆØ, l Ł ƒæa ŒIغÆc ºÆ = . . . ¼ªŒØÆØ, Plin. nat.hist. 12. 3 ‘prisco ritu simplicia rura etiamnunc deo praecellentem arborem dicant’, CLE 19. 10 ff. ¼ Mus. Lap. 149. 8 ff. (to Silvanus) ‘tu me meosque reduces Romam sistito, / daque Itala rura te colamus praeside: / ego iam dicabo mile magnas
256
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
arbores’, Rouse, op. cit. 39 ff., Cairns, op. cit. 228 ff. Trees could also serve as informal shrines for other dedications (Rouse, op. cit. 50 f.); thus Callimachus told how a hunter dedicated a boar’s head to himself rather than Artemis, only to be killed when it fell on him from the poplar tree where it hung (aetia fr. 96 ff.; cf. Ov. Ibis 505 f.). Leonidas describes how the antlers of a stag were fixed to a tall pine (anth. Pal. 6. 110. 3 f.); in Erucius a steer’s horns are dedicated to Pan on a plane tree (ibid 6. 96). For similar passages in the Roman poets cf. Virg. ecl. 7. 29 f. (to Diana), Prop. 2. 19. 17 ff., Ov. met. 12. 266 f., Stat. Theb. 9. 585 ff. with Dewar. Celebrations of the hunt are well attested in real life ( J. Aymard, Essai sur les chasses romaines, 1951: 582 ff.). See for instance the inscriptions on a shrine to Diana at Leo´n in Spain, belonging probably to the second century ad (CLE 1526 ¼ Mus. Lap. 141); here a legionary commander offered the goddess various trophies of the chase: ‘aequora conclusit campi divisque dicavit / et templum statuit tibi, Delia virgo triformis, / Tullius e Libya rector legionis Hiberae / ut quiret volucris capreas, ut figere cervos, / saetigeros ut apros . . . ’, cf. Mus. Lap. 139, 140 ‘umbrarum ac nemorum incolam, / ferarum domitricem, / Dianam deam virginem . . . ’, 142 ‘Latonia sancta virago’. A relief from Sorrento of the first century ad shows a boar being brought to Diana near a pinetree (Simon 57 f. with pl. 73). Horace, however, is not offering a wild boar that has already been killed, or even promising one in the future. Rather he is undertaking to sacrifice an animal at present living on his estate, and to do this every anniversary (6 n.). Therefore the verres that he promises is not a wild boar at all (which would be called an aper), but a domestic pig, one of the commonest sacrificial victims (3. 23. 3–4 n.); when he speaks of the animal’s sidelong blow, just as if it were a wild boar (7–8 n), he is whimsically comparing himself to the mighty hunters of literature and life. Normally the victim would be of the same sex as the deity (Arnob. 7. 19 ‘feminas feminis, mares autem hostias dis maribus immolari sacrificiorum iura praescribunt’), but exceptions occur (1. 4. 11 f., 2. 17. 32, Latte 380); a wild boar is offered to Artemis at anth. Pal. 6. 240. 6, and here the sacrifice of a male pig keeps up the parallel with hunting. For the occasion of the ode Cairns suggests 13 August (op. cit. 237), the foundation date of the temple of Diana on the Aventine (2. 12. 20 ‘Dianae celebris die’); this anniversary might have been celebrated even in local cults. For annual offerings in return for success in hunting cf. ILS 3257 ‘Dianae deae, nemorum comiti, victrici ferarum, annua vota dedi’; but after the first line Horace gives no hint of this activity, and (as noted above) the sacrificial pig is a domestic animal. Unlike Catullus 34, the whole emphasis of the poem is on Diana as a goddess of childbirth (2 n.). In Greek epigrams women dedicate gifts to Artemis or Ilithyia in return for successful childbirth; cf. anth. Pal. 6. 146, 202 (quoted in
22. MONTIVM CVSTOS
257
2 n.), 270, 272, Rouse, op. cit. 251 ff.; in the Roman world the goddess’s grove at Nemi was hung with ribbons as thank-offerings (Frazer and Bo¨mer on Ov. fast. 3. 267, ILS 3234 ‘pro Cn. filiod’); but in the present ode, as some editors have noticed, such concern seems strange for a bachelor like Horace. Darnley Naylor thought that a friend’s wife had come safely through a confinement; Verrall talked wildly of the infant son of Julia; Dacier and his French followers mention the women of the Odes (Glycera and the rest); R. S. Conway, more intriguingly, suggested that a girl on the estate bore a child ‘in which Horace had the best of reasons to be interested’ (PCPS 136, 1927: 37), and Quinn, after talking of Horace’s position as paterfamilias to the slaves on the estate (serm. 2. 6. 65 ff.), cites Mart. 1. 84. 4 ff. ‘futuit ancillas / domumque et agros implet equitibus vernis. / pater familias verus est Quirinalis’. The hypothesis cannot be proved; but it is not refuted by the social policy of Augustus, which was concerned with adultery in the governing classes, not with irregular unions in Sabine villages; and it does give a precise and significant point to the last three lines, for the happy anniversaries will then be the child’s birthdays. There can be little doubt that the hills and woods which Diana is asked to protect are those of the Sabine countryside, and that the setting of the ode is the poet’s own estate, though he does not describe it elsewhere as a villa. One critic has detected a pessimistic tone in the mention of menacing pine, suffering woman, and slaughtered animal (C. J. Carter, Proc. Class. Ass. 70, 1973: 39, even suggesting an antiAugustan element). Fraenkel’s sentimental approach is more appealing: ‘the simple words imminens villae tua pinus esto cause a surge of delight and nostalgia in the heart of everyone who is as fond of the Italian countryside as he is fond of Horace’ (op. cit. 202). By using his imagination an urban rationalist can still recapture something of the feeling for rural cults, the communion with the spirits of the wild, a sense of the sanctity of trees, and the significance of an annual blood-sacrifice in gratitude for the renewal of life. Metre: Sapphic. 1. Montium custos nemorumque Virgo: ‘Virgin that guardest the mountains and the woods’. The whole line makes a single unit; editors print a comma after nemorumque, but that encourages the modern reader to pause, perhaps also to take Virgo primarily with the relative clause (which impairs the balance). For Virgo as an epithet of Diana see Carter 31 (with Bruchmann 49 for —ÆæŁ of Artemis); in such contexts the word suggests fierce independence (Sen. Phaedr. 54 ‘diva virago’) rather than maidenly modesty. By modern conventions it
258
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
should be spelt with a capital; like (Athena) Parthenos and the Virgin (Mary) the goddess does not need to be named. As a huntress Artemis belonged to the wilds (L. R. Farnell, The Cults of the Greek States 2, 1896: 434, Burkert 149 ff.); cf. Hom. Il. 5. 51 f. Æ ªaæ ` ! æØ ÆPc = ººØ ¼ªæØÆ Æ, æØ hæØ oº, Alcaeus (?) 304. 6 L–P (see introduction above), Call. h. 3. 10. In Roman life and poetry Diana was particularly associated with woods (for the cult of Diana Nemorensis at the Lago di Nemi see Wissowa 247 ff.); cf. 1. 21. 5 ff., carm. saec. 1, Catull. 34. 9 ff., Virg. Aen. 11. 557, Sen. Phaedr. 406 ff., ILS 3257 (introduction above), 3258. In our passage the word-order highlights both genitives; cf. 3. 25. 14 f. ‘Naiadum potens / Baccharumque’. custos is found in religious contexts for a divine protector (see serm. 2. 6. 15, Virg. Aen. 9. 405, and Carter 116); similarly ºÆ is applied to Artemis at anth. Pal. 6. 157. 1 (introduction above). 2. quae laborantis utero puellas: Artemis was invoked by Greek women in childbirth, an agonizing experience before the invention of chloroform; cf. Eur. Med. 250 f. ‰ æd i Ææ IÆ = BÆØ ŁºØ i Aºº j ŒE –Æ , Hipp. 166 f., Leonidas, anth. Pal. 6. 202 ¯PŁÆ Ø ›F ŒÆd ŒÆØ = #Łd ÆæŁø ŁBŒ oæŁ ŁıæH, = KŒ Œı, t ¸ø., Ææı ‹ f (¼ utero) / øe I Tø ºÆ B æ (with Gow–Page, HE 1955 ff.), Call. h. 3. 21 f. In Rome this function normally belonged to Juno Lucina; cf. Plaut. aul. 691 f. ‘perii, mea nutrix, obsecro te, uterum dolet. / Iuno Lucina, tuam fidem’, Ter. Andr. 473 ‘Iuno Lucina, fer opem, serva me, obsecro’ (Donat. ad loc. ‘obstetriciam hanc potestatem Iunoni attribuit quamquam illam Menander Dianam appellet’), Cic. nat. deor. 2. 68 with Pease, Dion. Hal. ant. Rom. 4. 5. 5, Appel 86. But sometimes the role is given to Diana, usually with other epithets; cf. carm. saec. 13 ff. ‘rite maturos aperire partus / lenis Ilithyia, tuere matres, / sive tu Lucina probas vocari / seu Genitalis’, Catull. 34. 13 f. (cited above), CIL 10. 1555 (Puteoli), ‘Dianae Loch(iae)’, Tert. anim. 39. 2 ‘itaque omnes idololatria obstetrice nascuntur . . . dum in partu Lucinae et Dianae eiulatur’. Clearly Diana suits the rustic setting better than the matronly Juno, especially if an extra-marital relationship is involved. For puellae in the context of childbirth cf. Ov. am. 2. 13. 19 (to Ilithyia) ‘tuque laborantis utero miserata puellas’ (imitating Horace), fast. 2. 451, and so even in prose: Sen. epist. 24. 14, Tac. ann. 14. 64. 1 (of Octavia), Gell. 12. 1. 4; see P. Watson, Glotta 61, 1983: 135 ff. Here the word seems to suggest a contrast with Virgo at the same place in the previous line (an instance of ‘vertical responsion’). It was a familiar paradox that the virgin goddess was invoked in childbirth; cf. Plat. Theaet. 149b, Call. aet. fr. 79 with Pfeiffer, h. Orph. 36. 4 (to Artemis), Serv. on Aen. 3. 73 ‘cum Diana sit virgo tamen a parturientibus invocatur’.
22. MONTIVM CVSTOS
259
3. ter vocata audis: cf. Call. h. 6. 138 ¥ ºÆŁ Ø æººØ ªÆ ŒæØÆ Łø, ILLRP 4 ¼ ROL 4 p. 250 ‘enos Lases iuvate’ (repeated three times in all), Virg. Aen. 6. 506 ‘magna manis ter voce vocavi’. The number three was significant in many forms of ritual; cf. 1. 28. 36, 3. 19. 11 n., serm. 2. 1. 7, epist. 1. 1. 37, Theoc. 2. 43 with Gow, Virg. ecl. 8. 75, Aen. 4. 510 with Pease, M. Alexiou, The Ritual Lament in Greek Tradition, 1974: index s.v. ‘repetition’. audis implies that the goddess not only hears but listens; cf. 1. 2. 27, Antip. Thess. anth. Pal. 9. 46. 5 . . . ` ! æØ KŒ (on the birth of a child), Addaeus, ibid. 9. 303, IG 14. 964 (¼ IGRR 1. 35) c ŒıæÆ ŒÆd PæªØ ŁÆ KŒ ÆæŁ [!`æ]Ø ¯ [ØÆ, O. Weinreich, Ausgewa¨hlte Schriften 1, 1969: 138 f. adimisque leto: for the ‘dative of disadvantage’ cf. 3. 8. 11–12 n. leto is more grandiose than morti, and leto dare was a phrase used in sacral language (3. 7. 17 n.); the word may be derived from the name of an Etruscan deity (cf. Lucr. 1. 852 ‘leti sub dentibus ipsis’, J. H. Waszink, Mnem. ser. 4, 19, 1966: 249 ff. ¼ Opuscula 260 ff., RE 12. 2148). Cairns, op. cit. 235, suggests a play on Leto, the Greek equivalent of Diana’s mother, Latona, but the point of such a play is not obvious. It is perhaps more significant that the phrase leads into diva triformis (4), which recalls Hecate, Diana’s infernal aspect (see next note). 4. diva triformis: goddesses are often addressed as dea or diva, whereas the vocative of divus is seldom used, and that of deus never in pre-Christian Latin; cf. Lo¨fstedt (1942), 92 ff. tri- balances ter above, reinforcing the suggestion of ritual; cf. Virg. Aen. 4. 510 ‘ter centum tonat ore deos Erebumque Chaosque / tergeminamque Hecaten, tria Virginis ora Dianae’. A triple aspect is common in mythological and religious beings; one thinks of three-headed Cerberus, the threebodied Geryon, the three Graiae, Fates, and Graces, the Capitoline triad ( Jupiter, Juno, Minerva), the Holy Trinity (cf. H. Usener, ‘Dreiheit’, RhM 58, 1903: 1 ff., 161 ff., 321 ff. ¼ Vortra¨ge und Aufsa¨tze, 1907: 159 ff.). In her capacity as a goddess of witchcraft and magic, Hecate was associated with the moon (RE 7. 2778 f.); on earth she haunted junctions where three roads met (Soph. TrGF 535, Burkert 171); and she was also a goddess of the underworld. So a triple form was assigned to her at least as early as the fifth century (Pease on Virg. Aen. 4. 511, Bo¨mer on Ov. fast. 1. 141), and she is often represented thus in Greek art (Roscher 1. 1903 ff., LIMC 6. 1. 1014 ff., 6. 2. 661 ff.). Since Artemis/Diana was, for different reasons, a moon goddess (LIMC 2. 1. 689 f., 2. 2. 512 ff., Pease on Cic. nat. deor. 2. 68), she also, by a typical process of syncretism, became associated with Hecate as a goddess of crossroads and of the underworld (Roscher 1. 1896 f., RE 7. 2770 f., LIMC 2. 1. 686 ff.). Hence triformis came to refer to Diana’s power in heaven, earth, and the
260
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
underworld; cf. a coin of 43 bc illustrated by Beard–North–Price 2. 15, and the three statues portrayed on a wall-painting in the ‘House of Livia’ on the Palatine (Simon 57 with pl. 69). 5. imminens villae tua pinus esto: ‘let the pine that overhangs the villa be thine’. tua is predicative and emphatic, which suits its position after the main caesura of the Sapphic hendecasyllable. The possessive has a semi-legal nuance; Cairns, op. cit. 231, cites Virg. ecl. 9. 4 ‘haec mea sunt: veteres migrate coloni’, Ov. am. 1. 4. 40 ‘et dicam ‘‘mea sunt’’ iniciamque manum’, and the formula of mancipatio ‘hunc ego hominem ex iure Quiritium meum esse aio, isque mihi emptus esto hoc aere aeneaque libra’ (note the formal esto, as in our passage). Horace’s language is unusual for a dedication, which normally uses a deictic pronoun (e.g. hanc) and a verb like do, dono, or dedico; in the same way the subjunctive donem (8) avoids the formulae of genuine inscriptions. As well as being in harmony with the intimate setting of Horace’s villa (cf. 2. 3. 9, 2. 11. 14, Henderson, op. cit. 110 ff.), the umbrella pine fits Diana as ‘montium custos nemorumque Virgo’ (just as elsewhere it is associated with Pan). Editors compare the ‘sacral-idyllic’ landscapes of Campanian wall-painting, see 3. 13. 14–15 n., but Horace’s poem is typically less cluttered and concentrates on a single picturesque pine. 6. quam per exactos ego laetus annos: ego balances tua (5) and quam balances quae (2). per exactos annos means ‘as each year is completed’; cf. 2. 3. 6 f. ‘per dies / festos’ with N–H, 2. 14. 15 ‘per autumnos’. The phrase shows the Roman feeling for the calendar and anniversaries; cf. 3. 8. 9 ‘anno redeunte’, Virg. Aen. 5. 46 ‘annuus exactis completur mensibus orbis’, 8. 268 f., ILS 3257 ‘annua vota’ (introduction above). laetus, which commonly occurs in such rituals, shows the joy of the worshipper as he pays his return for services rendered; cf. the abbreviation in inscriptions VSLLM ¼ ‘votum solvit laetus libens merito’ (ILS 3. 2, p. 795). 7–8. verris obliquum meditantis ictum / sanguine donem: a sacrifice to the goddess’s tree is a sacrifice to the goddess herself. The piglet is already practising with its tusks (cf. Virg. georg. 3. 255 ‘dentesque Sabellicus exacuit sus’); as with the kid in 3. 13. 6 f., the animal’s promise will not be fulfilled. meditatur suits poetic descriptions of a wild boar about to charge; cf. Hes. scut. 387 Œæ ÆıºØ ø æØ ŁıfiH Æ ÆŁÆØ, Pind. fr. 234. 3 f. Œæfiø b ıºØ ŒÆ æ = ºŁı K ıæE. In the same way obliquum alludes to the sideways cut familiar from descriptions of boar-hunts: Hom. Il. 12. 148 ø I., Od. 19. 451 ºØŒæØd I. Æ , Hes. scut. 389 øŁ , Ov. met. 8. 344 (of the Calydonian boar) ‘obliquo latrantis dissipat ictu’.
2 3 . CA ELO S V P I NA S S I T V LER I S M A N V S [A.Barigazzi, Rivista di cultura classica e medioevale 18, 1976: 71 ff.; F. Cairns, AC 46, 1977: ´ cole 535 ff.; A. Dubourdieu, Les Origines et le de´veloppement du culte des Penates a` Rome, E franc¸aise de Rome, 1989: esp. 89–91; Pasquali 603 ff.; M. J. C. Putnam in Rome and her Monuments (ed. S. K. Dickison and J. P. Hallett), 2000: 521 ff.; F. A. Sullivan, CP 55, 1960: 109 ff.]
1–8. If you sacrifice to the Lares at the new moon, Phidyle, the crops and animals will not suffer in the unhealthy autumn. 9–16. The pontiffs of the state cults may slaughter cattle, but for you a sweet-smelling garland is a sufficient offering. 17–20. The hand that has brought no contribution can placate the Penates with grain and salt. The Lares had no Greek counterpart, and although Festus p. 108L says ‘Lares . . . animae putabantur esse hominum redactae in numerum deorum’, their origin is still unclear (OCD 815 f.). Their images stood by the hearth, sometimes in a cupboard, where offerings were regularly made to them (3–4 n., 15–16 n.). Their protection included the countryside (as in Horace’s poem), and the Lares compitales were worshipped at simple roadside shrines. They were particularly important for the underprivileged and excluded, that is to say for women, freedmen, and slaves (cf. epod. 2. 65 f., serm. 1. 5. 66). When Cato told his vilica that religion was his business, he made an exception for the Lares (agr. 143. 2): ‘Kalendis, Idibus, Nonis, festus dies cum erit, coronam in focum indat, per eosdemque dies Lari familiari pro copia supplicet’; here pro copia means ‘as resources permit’, which also suits the tenor of our poem. See further Wissowa 166 ff., RE 12. 814 f., Latte 90 ff., D. G. Orr, ANRW 2. 16. 2. 1563 ff., Simon 119 ff. (with lively illustrations), T. P. Wiseman, JRS 91, 2001: 185 ff. When Horace instructs Phidyle on her offerings to the Lares, he does not imply criticism: good advice (paraenesis) is a regular feature of his lyrics, which give the illusion of speech, and is a way of suggesting the ethos of the addressee (N–H vol. 2, pp. 3 f.). He gives the woman a significant Greek name (2 n.), and so avoids the banality of mentioning an individual Italian countrywoman. The place is not identified either, though the reference to the Alban Hills (9 ff.) would suit the general vicinity of Rome; we cannot specify the poet’s Sabine estate, as the fruitful vine of v. 6 did not grow there (epist. 1. 14. 23). But though not as particularized as a modern might expect, the ode reflects the sympathy for ordinary country people that Horace shows elsewhere (cf. serm. 2. 2 on Ofellus, 2.6 on the country mouse). At the same time its idealization of rustic piety is a truly Augustan theme (cf. Virg. georg. 2. 493 ff. etc.).
262
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
Horace is unlikely to have believed that the Lares could protect the crops; but the traditional cults required no formal creed, and rituals were performed because they always had been. It is important to distinguish emotional from intellectual sincerity; elsewhere Horace repeatedly demonstrates his love of the countryside, and religion formed an integral part of that life (cf. 3. 13 on Bandusia, 3. 18 on the Faunalia, 3.22 on the sacrifice to Diana). The recurring ceremonies followed the rhythms of the natural world, linked present to past, and gave the participant a sense of belonging. This may have been important for the poet as well as for a peasant. The poem claims that the widow’s mite is as acceptable to the gods as the most grandiose sacrifice; this is a commonplace, sometimes with the added thought, implicit here, that the piety of the donor is what matters. See Hes. op. 336 Œa ÆØ æØ ¥ æ IŁÆØØ ŁEØ = ±ªH ŒÆd ŒÆŁÆæH (quoted with approval by Socrates according to Xen. mem. 1. 3. 3), Eur. TGF 327. 4 ff. (no doubt reflecting sophistic enlightenment) Kªg b ººŒØ øæı = Æ ¼æÆ NæH H ºıø = ŒÆd <f > ŁEØ ØŒæa ŁÆ º = H ıŁıø ZÆ Pæı , 946, [Plat.] Alc. 2. 149e ŒÆd ªaæ i Øe Y N æe a HæÆ ŒÆd a ŁıÆ IºıØ H ƒ Łd Iººa c æe c łı , ¼ Ø ‹Ø ŒÆd ŒÆØ J ıª fi . Horace’s ode has a particular affinity with various epigrams of the Greek Anthology; cf. Archias, 10. 7. 5 ff. (hecatombs unnecessary), Antip. Thess. 9. 93. 4 (incense enough), as well as the dedications cited by Cairns, op. cit. 537 (though he goes too far when he assigns our ode to the category of ‘anathematikon’). For instances of the topic in Latin cf. Cic. nat. deor. 2. 71 with Pease, leg. 2. 24 ‘probitatem gratam esse deo, sumptum esse removendum’, paneg. Mess. 14 f. (cited below, 19–20 n.), Ov. trist. 2. 75 f. ‘sed tamen ut fuso taurorum sanguine centum, / sic capitur minimo turis honore deus’ (with Luck’s parallels), Pont. 4. 8. 39 f., Sen. ben. 1. 6. 3 ‘itaque boni etiam farre ac fitilla religiosi sunt’, Pers. 2. 75 ‘haec [spiritual and moral qualities] cedo ut admoveam templis, et farre litabo’, Plin. nat. hist. praef. 11 ‘verum dis lacte rustici et mola tantum salsa litant qui non habent tura’. In the JudaeoChristian tradition cf. 1 Samuel 15: 22 ‘to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams’. As always the ode is carefully structured (R. E. Deutsch, CW 36, 1942–3: 165 ff., with some overstatement). The first two stanzas list the offerings that Phidyle is to make and the blights that will be avoided: fruge (4) is picked up by seges (6), and porca (4) by alumni (7); the correspondence between ture (3) and vitis (6) is less clear, though wine and incense are combined at 3. 18. 7 f. The third stanza describes the cattle sacrificed by the pontiffs in two closely parallel clauses; the fourth mentions the two types of simple garland offered by Phidyle. The fifth stanza, with its ethical focus and token offerings, forms the culmination
2 3 . CA ELO S V P I NA S S I T V LER I S M A N V S
263
of the ode; Horace has already proceeded from incense and a pig to garlands of rosemary and myrtle, now he says that even emmer and salt on their own are sufficient. The final stanza, though a general statement rather than an address to Phidyle, balances the first: ‘si tuleris manus’ (1) is answered by ‘tetigit manus’ (17), ‘placaris . . . Lares’ (3 f.) by ‘mollivit Penates’ (19), ‘fruge . . . avidaque porca’ (4) by ‘farre et saliente mica’ (20) (the latter phrase also balances ‘marino rore . . . fragilique myrto’ in 15 ff.). The date of the ode is uncertain, as is usually the case in non-political poems. Syndikus suggests that the diction points to an early date (2. 193 n.): sumptuosa and nihil attinet are prosaic, while pomifer is an unusual compound for Horace’s middle period. These arguments carry little weight, as variations of style depend on the nature of the poem rather than on the exact time of writing; yet the conclusion may be correct. The last line of the ode is closely similar to paneg. Mess. 14 (see below, 19 n.); it is unlikely that Horace would imitate so inferior a poem, so if the panegyric is correctly assigned to 31, when Messalla was consul (Syme, 1986: 200 and 203), the ode may belong to the triumviral period, when the Georgics were being written. The metre is unusual at v. 7 ‘robiginem aut dulces alumni’, where the third line of an Alcaic begins with an elided quadrisyllable; yet cf. 3. 5. 7 and 3. 29. 59. Metre: Alcaic. 1. Caelo supinas si tuleris manus: when praying, the ancients regularly stood with hands uplifted; cf. D. Aubriot-Se´vin, Prie`re et conceptions religieuses en gre`ce ancienne, 1992: 127 ff., Pulleyn 188 ff. The palms were upturned (supinas), usually ‘angled outward at about forty-five degrees’ (Pulleyn 189); he cites Boe¨das’s statue of ‘The Boy at Prayer’ (for an illustration see Enciclopedia dell’arte antica 2, 1959: 123); cf. [Aesch.] Prom. 1005 ªıÆØŒØ ØÆØ æH, Virg. Aen. 3. 176 f. ‘tendoque supinas / ad caelum cum voce manus’, 4. 205 with Pease, Liv. 26. 9. 7, Plut. comp. Philop. et Flam. 2. The upturned hands could indicate submission, as it was used by suppliants in other contexts; cf. Liv. 3. 50. 5 ‘supinas . . . tendens manus’, Petr. 114. 4, Sittl 148 f., 174 n. 2; but the posture could also indicate an expectation of bounty; cf. Ar. eccl. 781 ff. ‹Æ ªaæ P ŁÆ Ø ÆØ IªÆŁ, = (Œ KŒÆ c
Eæ Æ = P u Ø Iºº ‹ø Ø ºłÆØ, Suet. Vit. 7. 3 ‘advenientem . . . exercitus . . . libens et supinis manibus excepit, velut dono deum oblatum’. For the dative caelo cf. Virg. Aen. 2. 688 ‘caelo palmas cum voce tetendit’, 5. 457 ‘it clamor caelo’. According to Lo¨fstedt (1942), 180 f., the construction is made easier because caelo implies deis; he compares Pind. I. 6. 41 › IÆÆØ PæÆfiH EæÆ I ı with Hom. Il. 3. 318
264
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
ŁEØ b EæÆ I . tuleris stands for sustuleris; cf. Virg. Aen. 2. 153 ‘sustulit . . . ad sidera palmas’. The usage may be an archaism, stereotyped in a religious context; cf. TRF incert. 70 ‘tetulit senilis Poeas ad caelum manus’, where the reduplicated form of the perfect is certainly archaic. 2. nascente Luna, rustica Phidyle: cf. Cato, agr. 143 cited above (offerings to the Lares on the Kalends among other dates), Tib. 1. 3. 34 ‘reddereque antiquo menstrua tura Lari’, more cynically Prop. 4. 3. 53 f. ‘raris adsueta kalendis / vix aperit clausos una puella Lares’. Phidyle makes her offering at the new moon, which originally marked the Kalends (Liv. 1. 19. 6, Macrob. Sat. 1. 15. 20, Wissowa 186 f.); it was still an illiterate peasant’s best way of observing the calendar (cf. Virg. georg. 1. 276 ff. with Mynors). There is nothing in Horace’s words to confine the offering to the first of May, when sacrifices were made for the crops (thus Cairns, op. cit. 538). nascente Luna is not simply a poeticism; cf. Cic. acad. 2, fr. 2 ‘(lunae) nascentis et insenescentis’, Hor. serm. 2. 4. 30 ‘lubrica nascentes implent conchylia lunae’. Phidyle is a Greek name that means ‘sparing’; it is attested in an Attic inscription, LGPN 2. 444, where the diminutive 6ıººÆ is also cited (cf. also 3A. 445); so Bentley’s Phidyli can be forgotten. Here rustica does not mean just ‘living in the country’, but suggests simplicity and innocence, without any disparagement. 3–4. si ture placaris et horna / fruge Lares avidaque porca: tus was an aromatic resin imported largely from S. Arabia (RE Suppl. 15. 700 ff., N. Groom, Frankincense and Myrrh, 1981, OCD 752 f.); its granules were burnt in religious ceremonies to evoke reverent emotions (M. Detienne, Les Jardins d’Adonis, 2nd edn. 1989) and to exclude less agreeable smells (cf. 3. 18. 7 f.). It was widely enough distributed to be regarded as a simple offering (so Prop. 2. 10. 24 metaphorically of his poetry ‘pauperibus sacris vilia tura damus’), and was given to the Lares at all periods; cf. Plaut. aul. 23 f. (spoken by the Lar) ‘ea mihi cottidie / aut ture aut vino aut aliqui semper supplicat’, Tib. 1. 3. 34, Ov. fast. 2. 631, Juv. 9. 137, Prud. perist. 10. 261 ‘fuliginosi ture placantur Lares’. In early Latin the final syllable of words like placaris is short in the future-perfect though long in the perfect subjunctive (Neue–Wagener, 3. 428 ff.). In Horace’s odes two other instances in the future-perfect are unambiguously long (4. 7. 20, 21) and one short (4. 10. 6); in his hexameters two are unambiguously long (serm. 2. 2. 74, 2. 5. 101) and nine short (Bo 86). horna ‘of this year’ is applied to rustic things, perhaps reflecting rustic speech (so epod. 2. 47 of wine, serm. 2. 6. 88 of straw, Prop. 4. 3. 61 of lambs); here the adjective is emphasized, as the grain must be of the most recent harvest (Serv. on Aen. 2. 133, citing our passage). Pork was
2 3 . CA ELO S V P I NA S S I T V LER I S M A N V S
265
the basic meat in Italy, as appears already from Plautus ( J. Andre´, L’Alimentation et la cuisine a` Rome, 1961: 139 ff., E. Gowers, The Loaded Table, 1993: 69 ff.). Pigs were the most common sacrificial victims, at least in private cult (Wissowa 411 f., Bo¨mer on Ov. fast. 1. 349), and are offered to the Lares at serm. 2. 3. 164 f., Plaut. rud. 1208, Tib. 1. 10. 26 ‘hostiaque e plena rustica porcus hara’; for an illustration from Pompeii of a man carrying the pig over his shoulders cf. ANRW 2. 16. 2. 1583. The victim is a sow perhaps because it was supposed to be more efficacious (Serv. on Aen. 8. 641 ‘quia in omnibus sacris feminini generis plus valent victimae’); it is not clear whether Phidyle’s sex is relevant here. Pigs are conventionally greedy (ps.-Acro ‘avida edaci’) and so by implication fat; the humorous touch would not occur in actual sacral language, but as Horace’s phrase is repeated by Ovid at fast. 1. 349 there is no need to think it corrupt. 5–6. nec pestilentem sentiet Africum / fecunda vitis: in the same way Cato’s farmer prays that Mars will ward off ‘morbos . . . calamitates intemperiasque’ from his animals and crops as well as from his shepherds and household (agr. 141. 2). The hot dry Sirocco from the Sahara (called Atabulus at serm. 1. 5. 78) was noxious both to vegetation and to living creatures (2. 14. 15 f. ‘nocentem / corporibus metuemus Austrum’ with N–H, RE 17. 1118, and see further on grave tempus below). For sentire of unpleasant experiences cf. N–H on 2. 7. 9; for its application to inanimate objects cf. ars 65 f. ‘palus . . . sentit aratrum’ with Brink. 6–7. nec sterilem seges / robiginem: robigo is mildew (Virg. georg. 1. 151), known in English sometimes as ‘rust’, and recognizable in its early stages by its reddish spores. At the Robigalia on 25 April sacrifices were sometimes made to Robigo or Robigus (Ov. fast. 4. 907 with Bo¨mer, Wissowa 196, Latte 67), to the derision of the Christian fathers. sterilem by a common type of transference is applied to the agent of sterility (Lucan 4. 108 ‘sterili frigore’, OLD 2c); the word balances pestilentem (5) and grave (8), as well as making a contrast with fecunda (6). 7–8. aut dulces alumni / pomifero grave tempus anno: the alumni (cf. 3. 18. 4) are the unweaned lambs and kids. dulces is readily applied to children, as at Lucr. 3. 895, and here suggests the engaging behaviour of young animals, perhaps from Phidyle’s point of view; cf. Virg. georg. 3. 178 ‘sed tota in dulcis consument ubera natos’ (though that is presented as the cow’s attitude). tempus refers to climatic conditions (Lucr. 5. 231 ‘nec varias quaerunt vestis pro tempore caeli’, OLD 11b). grave combines the ideas of ‘oppressive’ and ‘dangerous’; cf. serm. 2. 6. 18 f. ‘plumbeus Auster / autumnusque gravis, Libitinae quaestus acerbae’, Cic. fam. 5. 16. 4 ‘hoc gravissimo et pestilentissimo anno’, Sen. ben.
266
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
6. 38. 3 ‘medicis gravis annus in quaestu est’. pomifero anno means ‘pomifera parte anni’ (Porph.); for this use of annus with an adjective cf. epod. 2. 29 ‘annus hibernus’, Virg. Aen. 6. 311 ‘frigidus annus’ (for some similar locutions see Gow on Theoc. 7. 85, where he takes uæØ to mean the spring). Autumn was a bad time for malaria, which comes from a parasite injected into the bloodstream by the female mosquito; in Italy mosquitoes hibernate, and attacks are confined to late summer and early autumn. The cause of malaria (‘bad air’) was not known until the 1890s, and in antiquity it was associated with the oppressive wind (which was simply an accidental concomitant). But it was recognized that swampy districts were especially dangerous; Silius (8. 379) speaks of ‘pestifera Pomptini uligine campi’, and earlier Varro had advised against building a villa in such a place; he actually refers to ‘animalia quaedam minuta, quae . . . per aera intus in corpus per os et nares perveniunt’ (rust. 1. 12. 2). For other references to unhealthy autumn see N–H on 2. 14. 15, Courtney on Juv. 4. 56. 9–10. nam quae nivali pascitur Algido / devota: nam is to be taken with ‘te nihil attinet’ (13); the intervening stanza, though co-ordinate in syntax with the fourth, is subordinate in sense; a countrywoman would be more interested in the rearing of the animal than in the official sacrifice in the city. Mons Algidus (RE 1. 1476) is a high ridge to the east of the Mons Albanus (Monte Cavo), about 15 miles south-east of Rome; nivali plays on the name (cf. 1. 21. 6 gelido, and Stat. silv. 4. 4. 16 where horrens ¼ ‘shivering’); for etymological puns on proper names see O’Hara (1996), Paschalis (1997). The cool saltus provided excellent summer pasture (Varr. rust. 2. 5. 11 ‘aestu abigantur in montes frondosos’), though obviously not when there was snow on the ground as in epist. 1. 7. 10 ‘quodsi bruma nives Albanis illinet agris’. Particular areas were designated for the perfect cattle needed at public sacrifices (for the Clitumnus cf. Virg. georg. 2. 146 ff., Juv. 12. 13 ff.; for the ager Faliscus cf. Ov. fast. 1. 84 with Bo¨mer); such an area at Alba was said to have been reserved from the regal period (Dion. Hal. ant. Rom. 3. 29. 6). pascitur suggests that while the animal is peacefully grazing it is doomed (devota carries some emphasis); cf. epist. 1. 3. 36 ‘pascitur in vestrum reditum votiva iuvenca’ and 11 n. below. 10. quercus inter et ilices: quercus is the common oak, illustrated in Abbe (1965), 82; Liv. 3. 25. 7–8 depicts such a tree on Algidus. The ilex is the evergreen holm-oak (Abbe p. 86); J. Sargeaunt describes a line of them at Albano (The Trees, Shrubs, and Plants of Virgil, 1920: 62). The leaves of the holm-oak are dark (cf. 4. 4. 57 f. ‘duris ut ilex tunsa bipennibus / nigrae feraci frondis in Algido’); so there is a colourcontrast with nivali. For the sandwiched position of inter, found also
2 3 . CA ELO S V P I NA S S I T V LER I S M A N V S
267
in prose, cf. epist. 1. 4. 12 ‘timores inter et iras’, K–S 1. 587, TLL 7. 1. 2147. 28 ff.; the stylistic function here and in most other cases is not to represent the idea of ‘coming between’ (an overworked modern notion), but simply to separate two parallel nouns by a word of less importance. 11–12. aut crescit Albanis in herbis / victima: closely parallel to ‘nivali pascitur Algido / devota’; as Albanis suggests ‘white’, there seems again to be a colour-contrast with the green grass. crescit is used of fattening for sacrifice; cf. the witty metaphor at 2. 8. 17 ‘adde quod pubes tibi crescit omnis’ with N–H; for a similar use of iuvenescit cf. 4. 2. 55. victima (a larger animal than hostia) belongs to the relative clause; cf. 2. 3. 24, where even without devota the word has the sense of ‘destined victim’ (see N–H’s note). 12–13. pontificum securis / cervice tinguet: by its prominent position pontificum makes a contrast with te (13); varying sacrifices reflect a difference of status (N–H on 2. 17. 32, Headlam on Herodas 4. 16). A future like tinguet is sometimes called ‘concessive’, but the prediction is more confident than with etsi; cf. 1. 7. 1 ‘laudabunt alii’ with N–H. cervice is a gruesome brachylogy for cervicis sanguine; cf. Prop. 4. 1. 111 f. ‘idem Agamemnoniae ferrum cervice puellae / tinxit’. The actual blow would be delivered, not by the pontifex, but by the attendant (popa); for the procedure cf. Latte 388. For sacrificing cattle an axe was sometimes used rather than a knife; cf. Virg. Aen. 2. 223 f. ‘fugit cum saucius aram / taurus et incertam excussit cervice securim’, Ov. met. 12. 248 f., fast. 3. 805, trist. 4. 2. 5 f. (there is an illustration in R. M. Ogilvie, The Romans and their Gods, 1974, facing p. 41). The singular securim (adopted by Bentley, Kiessling, and Heinze) has a little manuscript support, and would be more precise after victima (contrast Prud. apoth. 461 f. ‘pontificum festis ferienda securibus illic / agmina vaccarum steterant’); but the animal represents a class, and plural pontificum suits plural securis (unless indeed several priests are thought of as acting together). It is true that the homoeoteleuton with herbis (11) is unusual in the third and fourth lines of an Alcaic stanza unless the words agree (as at 3. 3. 59 f. avitae . . . Troiae) or correspond (as at 3. 3. 55 f. ignes . . . rores); yet there are exceptions, as in 2. 1. 39 f. antro . . . plectro. Bentley’s objection to successive lines ending in -s (ilices, herbis, securis) is hypercritical; cf. 1. 2. 13 ff., 1. 12. 10 ff., 1. 15. 14 ff. 13–14. te nihil attinet / temptare multa caede bidentium: for the unpoetical nihil attinet (‘it is not for you’) cf. 1. 19. 12 ‘quae nihil attinent’ with N–H (citing Axelson 101). temptare means ‘to attempt to influence’; cf. ars 404 f. ‘gratia regum / Pieriis temptata modis’, Virg. Aen. 4. 113 ‘tu coniunx, tibi fas animum temptare precando’ (with Pease), OLD s. v.
268
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
6. Peerlkamp thought the word unsuitable for religious supplications, but it seems no more objectionable than 1. 35. 5 ‘ambit sollicita prece’ (of prayers to Fortuna). More defensibly, he disliked taking deos (15) as the object of temptare as well as coronantem; to put it another way, the clause naturally ends with a pause after bidentium, and this would be easier if the infinitive were intransitive. He proposed certare (not too far from tentare), citing 4. 1. 31 ‘nec certare iuvat mero’, Lucr. 2. 11 ‘certare ingenio’, Virg. ecl. 2. 57 ‘si muneribus certes’ (where the idea of competition is more explicit). This suggestion has disappeared from view but is favoured by RN; there was no question of offering sheep to the Lares. bidens ‘two-toothed’ is a word for a sacrificial sheep. In its second year (the right time for sacrifice) a sheep has two second-phase teeth that are prominent compared to the six surviving primary teeth; see the lucid account by Henry on Aen. 4. 57, cited and supplemented by Pease. caedere is used in sacral contexts for ‘to sacrifice’, but the noun at this date may have had a hint of excessive slaughter, especially when accentuated by multa. Instead of saying ‘the pontiffs can sacrifice cattle and sheep’, H by a characteristic distribution puts the sheep into a later clause (for parallels see 3. 1. 45–6 n.). 15–16. parvos coronantem marino / rore deos fragilique myrto: the images of the Lares (for dei in this sense cf. 2. 18. 26 f. with N–H) are literally small (Ov. fast. 5. 130); the adjective suggests less directly that Phidyle has a humble home (cf. Juv. 9. 137 f. ‘o parvi nostrique Lares quos ture minuto / aut farre et tenui soleo exornare corona’ with Courtney); and its emphatic position underlines the contrast with the public grandeur of what goes before. coronantem is not negatived by nihil attinet, and implies ‘provided that you wreathe . . . ’; for offerings of garlands to the Lares cf. Plaut. aul. 23 ff., 385 f. ‘nunc tusculum emi hoc et coronas floreas: / haec imponentur in foco nostro Lari’, Cato, agr. 143. 2, Juv. 12. 87 with Mayor, D. G. Orr, ANRW 16. 2. 1583 (nails at Pompeii to hold garlands). marino rore (rosemary, Rosmarinus officinalis), ‘gets its name from its liking for sea coasts and spray’ (Sargeaunt, op. cit. (10 n.), 110); see also RE 1A. 1128 f., Mynors on Virg. georg. 2. 213, Bo¨mer on Ov. fast. 4. 741, Abbe 176 with illustration; according to [Apul.] herb. 79, ‘antequam tus sciretur hac herba deos homines placabant’ (for such plants see N–H on 1. 19. 14 verbenas). Myrtle (Sargeaunt 82 f., Abbe 146 with woodcut) is common on the coasts of S. Italy; its liking for the shore may account for its dedication to Venus, who was worshipped at Paphos on the coast of Cyprus; hence Virgil’s Paphiae . . . myrtus (georg. 2. 64). It is combined with rosemary as another aromatic shrub (so Ov. ars 3. 690), and it is offered to the Lares at Tib. 1. 10. 28. fragili represents the Greek ŁæÆı (used of another shrub by Theophrastus,
2 3 . CA ELO S V P I NA S S I T V LER I S M A N V S
269
hist. plant. 5. 3. 6); a sprig is ‘easily broken off ’, and this accords with the simplicity of Phidyle’s offering. 17. immunis aram si tetigit manus: immunis bears its normal sense of ‘not making a contribution’ (here ‘not bringing an offering’); cf. 4. 12. 22 f. ‘non ego te meis / immunem meditor tingere poculis’, epist. 1. 14. 33, TLL 7. 1. 505. 47 ff. If someone is unable to contribute even a garland (immunis is stressed by hyperbaton), then a symbolic offering of grain and salt is acceptable (see also below on 19); some commentators object that grain and salt are also a contribution, but these have no intrinsic value. Porph. glosses ‘understand scelerum’ (cf. Vell. Pat. 2. 7. 2 ‘immunisque delictorum paternorum’) and Barigazzi, op. cit., explains ‘immunis caedis’ (cf. Ov. her. 14. 8), but to produce such a meaning an explicit genitive is required; in any case H is contrasting the lavishness of the offerings, not the morality of the donors. For touching the altar in sacrifices and other rituals cf. Plaut. rud. 1333 ‘tange aram hanc Veneris’, Macrob. sat. 3. 2. 7, Pease on Virg. Aen. 4. 219 (with copious illustrations). 18. non sumptuosa blandior hostia: this is the beginning of the apodosis, not the end of the protasis: H is saying that a nominal offering is as acceptable as a blood-sacrifice, not that no offering at all need be made. The construction is made clearer if in translation we postpone v. 18: ‘if a hand touches an altar without a contribution, it appeases the offended Penates with reverent emmer and sputtering salt; it is not made more appealing by a costly victim’. Cf. Ov. her. 5. 35 f. ‘sumptisque decentior armis / venit in arbitrium nuda Minerva tuum’, i.e. at the Judgment of Paris the naked Minerva would have been more seemly if she had been wearing armour; see also Lucan 5. 166 with Housman. 19–20. mollivit aversos Penatis: because no offering has been brought (immunis), the gods are unpropitious; but they can be mollified by a token gift ( J. P. Postgate, CQ 4, 1910: 109 ff., Sullivan, op. cit. 111); aversos on this interpretation has a particular point, but it is used more generally at epod. 10. 18, Prop. 4. 1. 73, Ov. trist. 1. 3. 45 ‘multaque in aversos effudit verba Penatis’. mollibit is more widely attested than mollivit (the common confusion in late Latin of v and b), but the archaic future of the fourth conjugation is paralleled in Augustan poetry only at Prop. 3. 21. 32 lenibunt; the imperfect mollibat at Ov. met. 6. 21 gives little support, as molliebat is impossible in hexameters. mollivit is an instance of the ‘gnomic perfect’, where something can be treated as a general rule because it has happened often in the past (3. 2. 30 n.); there are decisive parallels to the present passage at paneg. Mess. 14 f. ‘parvaque caelestes
270
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
placavit mica’, Stat. silv. 1. 4. 130 f. ‘sed saepe deis hos inter honores / caespes et exiguo placuerunt farra salino’. 20. farre pio et saliente mica: far is emmer (RE 3A. 1600 ff., L. A. Moritz, Grain-Mills and Flour in Classical Antiquity, 1958: xxii ff.), the standard grain of the early Romans (Ov. fast. 2. 519 f., Plin. nat. hist. 18. 7), but because it had to be roasted and pounded in order to remove the husks, it was superseded by wheat, which only needed threshing before grinding. For pio cf. Virg. Aen. 5. 745 ‘farre pio’, [Tib.] 3. 4. 10 (quoted below), OLD 2c (of ritual offerings). Even a small offering can fulfil religious obligations; cf. the passages cited in the introduction above. mola salsa was a mixture of grain and salt (Frazer, fast. vol. 4, 175 f., Pease on Virg. Aen. 4. 517, Bo¨mer on Ov. fast. 1. 128, K. Freudenburg, TAPA 125, 1995: 214 and nn. 24 and 25; cf. Greek Pº ÆØ) that was sprinkled on the victim (hence immolare) or as here on the altar. mica is a grain of salt, but there is no implication that the ingredients are thrown separately. saliente describes the sputtering of the salt in the flame (cf. [Tib.] 3. 4. 10 ‘farre pio placant et saliente sale’, Ov. fast. 4. 409 f. ‘farre deae micaeque licet salientis honorem / detis’); the pun on sale is probably implicit in our passage (cf. Isid. orig. 16. 2. 3 ‘sal quidam dictum putant quod in igne exsiliat’). The sputtering was a sign that the gift was acceptable (cf. Virg. ecl. 8. 105 f. ‘aspice, corripuit tremulis altaria flammis / sponte sua . . . cinis ipse’); for divination by a so-called IºØ ÆØ , see A. Bouche´-Leclercq, Histoire de la divination dans l’antiquite´ 1, 1879: 178 ff., W. R. Halliday, Greek Divination, 1913: 184 ff.
2 4 . I N TAC T I S O P V LEN T I O R [Fraenkel 240 ff.; Lovejoy–Boas (1935, repr. 1997), especially 315 ff.; Pasquali 428 ff.; Zs. Ritoo´k, Acta Classica (Debrecen) 29, 1993: 163 ff.; Treggiari, 1991: 291 ff.; G. Williams, JRS 52, 1962: 29 ff.]
1–8. Though you build extravagant villas, you will not escape the fear and actuality of death. 9–24. The Scythians and Getae live better; though their homes are only caravans, their women are brought up to be chaste. 25–44. Whoever intends to stop civil strife must pass laws to curb permissiveness; but laws are vain when entrepreneurs do anything to make money. 45–50. If we truly repent of the civil wars we must offer our wealth to the gods or else dump it in the sea. 51–62. Self-indulgence must be rubbed out, and the wellborn boy must be toughened by manly pursuits; as things are he idles and gambles, while his father commits fraud only to leave him money. 63–4. Wealth grows remorselessly, yet something is always lacking.
2 4 . I N TAC T I S O P V LEN T I O R
271
This poem has much in common with the so-called Roman Odes (3. 1–6). It handles national issues at considerable length, but without any intrusion of the first person: there are none of the autobiographical touches we find in 3. 1 and 3. 4, or the vatic proclamations that introduce 3. 1 and 3. 6. There is no addressee, though the Princeps (25 ff.) and his programme of regeneration are the central theme. In particular the ode contains an attack on avarice and extravagance, here represented by luxury building (as in 3. 1); it upholds the importance of virtus (as in 3. 5), especially in the case of young men (as in 3. 2); it calls for a curb on violations of marriage, which are seen as part of the national malaise (as in 3. 6). But in addition to these common elements, this poem has distinctive features in terms of both subject-matter and tone. In the first part of the poem (1–24) Horace contrasts the ostentatious extravagance of Rome with the superior morality of the Scythians and Getae. The Scythians had a particular fascination for Greek and Roman ethnographers: there was an extensive and unsentimental excursus by Herodotus (4. 1–81), some interesting observations by Hippocrates (de aere aquis locis 17–22), a less objective treatment by Ephorus as cited by Strabo 7. 3. 9 (¼ FGrH 70 F42, C. van Paassen, The Classical Tradition of Geography, 1957: 256 ff.), a lost account by Aristotle in his —æd ø ÆæÆæØŒH, and in Horace’s own time or soon after, discussions by Sallust (hist. 3. 61–80 M., R. Syme, Sallust, 1964: 195), Pompeius Trogus (ap. Justin 2. 1–2), and Strabo (7. 3. 6–9); see also DNP 11. 644 ff. In addition there was much fictitious Greek lore (Rohde, 215 ff.), extending from the fantastic Arimaspea attributed to Aristeas (Bolton, 1962) to the moralizing commonplaces of Dio Chrysostom (especially orat. 36) and Lucian (Bompaire 228 ff.); no doubt some of this comes from the Cynics (Lovejoy–Boas, op. cit. 117 ff.), as is shown for instance by the imaginary letters of Anacharsis (Hercher, Epistolographi Graeci, 1873: 102 ff., Lovejoy–Boas 329 f.). As a people living at the margins of the familiar world the Scythians were sometimes idealized (cf. Kroll 303 f., 320 ff., Lovejoy–Boas 315 ff.), much as prehistoric societies could be misrepresented by fables about the Golden Age (cf. Gatz 189 ff.). The Romans were particularly ready to praise the hardihood of northern barbarians (cf. Tacitus’ Germania), as opposed to the luxury and softness of the East (cf. vv. 1–2); Rousseau may have envied the noble savage for his ‘natural’ existence, free from the tyranny of convention, but Horace professes to admire the Scythians for their selfdiscipline and social cohesion. In our own day attempts to understand undeveloped societies on their own terms are sometimes combined with denunciations of Western civilization; in antiquity some Cynics no doubt talked this way, but Horace’s hyperboles should be seen as part of the rhetorical context rather than a full reflection of his personal views or of Augustan ideology.
272
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
Ancient ethnographical writing often ignored distinctions of time and place, and by Horace’s day the Scythians were often confused with the Getae and the Sarmatians; but as a poet he could select the commonplaces that best suited his purpose. Northern peoples had long been regarded as paragons of justice; cf. Hom. Il. 13. 5 f. IªÆıH , +ºªH = ªºÆŒªø, #ø ØŒÆØø IŁæø with F. Buffie`re, Les Mythes d’Home`re et la pense´e grecque, 1956: 362 ff., Bolton, op. cit. on the Hyperboreans. The Scythians were similarly admired for their fair dealing (Aesch. TrGF 198, Ephorus, loc. cit., ps.-Scymnus, orb. descript. 852 f. and 859, Pomp. Trog. ap. Just. 2. 2, Curt. 7. 8. 29, Dio Chrysost. 69. 6); the same attitude is found in our poem (16 aequali, 18 innocens); in other contexts the Scythians are associated with a savagery appropriate to their climate (3. 10. 1 n., Herod. 4. 62–5, Ephorus, loc. cit.), or alternatively physical degeneracy (Hippocrates, loc. cit.) or even decadent luxury (Clearchus of Soli ap. Athen. 524c, Strabo 7. 3. 7). Horace, with many other writers, represents them as living in caravans (below, 10 n.), but he also sees them as practising agriculture; Herodotus had already spoken of some as ‘the farming Scythians’ (9 n.), and modern excavations of their settlements have revealed a rich variety of artefacts (E. H. Minns, Scythians and Greeks, 1913, T. Talbot Rice, The Scythians, 1957, M. I. Artimonov, Treasures from Scythian Tombs, 1969, DNP 11. 644 ff., more generally R. Rolle, The World of the Scythians, 1989). Horace also describes them as holding their land in common (12–13 n.); here by the process of ‘transference’ common in ethnography he may be introducing an element associated with the Germans, as he does in connection with annual migration and the rotation of duties (see the notes on 12–16). According to some writers the Scythians also shared their women and children (ps.-Scymnus loc. cit. 857, Pomp. Trog. loc. cit., Strabo 7. 3. 7 a ªıÆEŒÆ —ºÆøØŒH Æ ŒØa ŒÆd ŒÆ, cf. 7. 3. 4 on the Getae, and later Tert. adv. Marc. 1. 1. 3 ‘promiscua libido’). This tradition, however, was not universal (Lucian, Scyth. 4). In the central section of the poem (25–44) Horace seems to come closer than usual to a concrete political manifesto. He deplores the vices of the times, in which he includes both avarice (largely male, 1–8, 36–50, 59–64) and sexual immorality (largely female; the licentia of 29 is contrasted with the alleged castitas of Scythian women in 20–4, just as the villas of 1 ff. are contrasted with the Scythian plaustra); and he connects both aspects of Rome’s degeneration with the scelus of civil war (26 and 50, cf. A. Wallace-Hadrill, Past and Present 95, 1982: 22 ff.). What is more, he calls for penal legislation (28 ff., 33 f.), which in view of the preceding stanzas must be directed against sexual immorality. The whole passage (25–36), with its assertion that great men are appreciated only when dead (30 ff.), seems to reflect the failure of the Princeps’s
2 4 . I N TAC T I S O P V LEN T I O R
273
original attempt at marriage legislation. For this important and controversial issue see the introduction to 3. 6. The final section of the poem (45–64) resumes the attack on materialism. It begins with a call to the Romans to surrender their treasures to the gods on the Capitol or else to cast them into the sea: such an address to the citizen body recalls the imitation of early Greek poetry in the Epodes (45 n.). The content of the exhortation is equally unrealistic, being drawn from Greek popular moralizing, sometimes imprecisely called diatribe; see especially 45 n. and 47 n. for similar stories about Pythagoras and Crates the Cynic. Such writing had some influence on Hellenistic iambographers like Phoenix (ed. G. A. Gerhard, 1909) and Cercidas (Pasquali 210 ff.), and Horace frequently adapts it to the criticism of his own society, not only in the Satires but sometimes also in the Odes (see N–H vol. 2, index s. v. diatribe, Kroll 243 and WS 37, 1915: 223 ff.). On the other hand, when he turns to the training of the young, his comments about horse-riding and playing with hoops are so specifically Roman that they seem to reflect conservative opinion, perhaps even some observations of the Princeps himself. One thinks of the frequent performances of the Lusus Troiae which were staged at his command (Suet. Aug. 43. 2), the exercitatio campestris, and the various privileges that were granted to the well-born youth (see the introduction to 3. 2 and Z. Yavetz in Millar–Segal, 1984: 16 ff. with his references). The ode has not been greatly admired in modern times, though it inspired Du Bellay’s ‘Conte des Avaritieux’ (ed. Charmand III, 108–19). It lacks the imaginative range of the best Roman Odes (where the symbols of Greek myth and early Roman history are brought to bear powerfully on present issues), and the Asclepiad metre with its frequent end-stopped couplets cannot rival the sweep of Alcaics. It is best seen as a versified diatribe in the manner of the Greek iambographers and Horace’s own 2. 15 and 2. 18. The clipped and bleak querimoniae suggest affinities with Sallust, whose influence is also apparent in the Epodes (see G. Scho¨rner, Sallust und Horaz u¨ber den Sittenverfall und die sittliche Erneuerung Roms, Diss. Erlangen, 1934: 74 ff.); and the somewhat prosaic vocabulary suits down-to-earth preaching: cf. 3 caementis, 10 plaustra, 16 vicarius, 18 privignus, 19 dotata, 28 subscribi, 30 quatenus, 57 trocho, 60 consortem, 61 pecuniam, 64 curtae. These features are combined here and there with a certain banality (as in 51–8) which recalls the weaker stanzas of the Carmen Saeculare (in particular 17–20 and 45–8). In his public poems Horace is at his best when he treats political matters more indirectly; cf. N–H vol. 1, p. xix, Lyne (1995), 49 ff., 201. Metre: alternating Glyconics and Asclepiads.
274
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
1–2. Intactis opulentior / thesauris Arabum: H’s compression is notable; conventional Latin prose would have used another concessive clause (licet sis opulentior). Brevity is also helped by the compendious comparison, where symmetry would have required ‘richer than the Arabs who enjoy untouched treasure-chambers’ (cf. 2. 6. 14 f. ‘ubi non Hymetto / mella decedunt’ with N–H’s note). The accumulation of four words suggesting wealth increases the impression of opulence; for a similar effect cf. 1. 17. 14 ff. thesauris evokes the proverbial riches of Arabia Felix (in the south-west corner) soon to be made topical by Aelius Gallus’ expedition about 26 bc; cf. 1. 29. 1 f. ‘Icci, beatis nunc Arabum invides / gazis . . . ?’ with N–H, 2. 12. 24, S. Jameson, JRS 58, 1968: 71 ff., G. Bowersock, Roman Arabia, 1983: 46 ff. The strong-rooms are inviolate, not just because they were locked and sealed (as in the tale of Aladdin), but because Arabia had hitherto been immune from invasion; cf. 1. 29. 3 f. ‘non ante devictis Sabaeae / regibus’ (with N–H), Prop. 2. 10. 15 f. ‘India quin, Auguste, tuo dat colla triumpho / et domus intactae te tremit Arabiae’. et divitis Indiae: the wealth of India was also proverbial, cf. epist. 1. 6. 6, Prop. 3. 4. 1 ‘arma deus Caesar dites meditatur ad Indos’, Otto 174. Herodotus already says æıe ¼º ÆP ŁØ K (3. 106. 2); as he wistfully points out, the finest products seem to come from the most distant countries. The definition of India was imprecise, and could sometimes include the Persian and Arabian Gulfs; cf. A. Dihle, PCPS 10, 1964: 15 ff., Murgatroyd on Tib. 2. 2. 15 f. For western trade with India see E. H. Warmington, The Commerce between the Roman Empire and India, 1974; M. G. Raschke, ANRW II. 9. 2. 604 ff.; V. Begley and R. de Puma (edd.), Rome and India, 1992; OCD 754. 3. caementis licet occupes: for the building of villas over the sea see 3. 1. 33 n. For caementa (broken stone) see 3. 1. 35 n.; other prosaic words in this austere poem are mentioned in the introduction above. occupare is usual in legal contexts for ‘staking a claim’; it is hubristic to do this in the sea. 4. Tyrrhenum omne tuis et mare Punicum: we have accepted the thinly attested Punicum as an old equivalent of mare Libycum; cf. Flor. 1. 18. 17 ‘nec defuerant qui ipso Punici maris nomine ac terrore deficerent’. Horace is hyperbolically suggesting that the rich man’s palace might extend across the Mediterranean (note omne); for similar fantasies cf. 2. 2. 10 ff. ‘si Libyam remotis / Gadibus iungas et uterque Poenus / serviat uni’ with N–H. The MSS for the most part read Apulicum or Ponticum, while ps.-Acro’s comment (‘omnibus patens’) and the vetus Blandinianus support the variant publicum. Though the u of Apulia may be either long or
2 4 . I N TAC T I S O P V LEN T I O R
275
short, the first vowel is never short (Housman, Classical Papers, 1. 99 f.); for at 3. 4. 10 limen Apuliae makes no sense (see note ad loc.). It is true that the Apulian sea (to the east of Italy) is often combined with the Tyrrhenian to the west (see RE 14. 2. 1673 ff. for mare superum and mare inferum), but it was not a place for luxury building. This consideration also rules out Ponticum, as the Black Sea was far too remote. publicum might seem to allude to the common belief and legal doctrine that the sea is common to all; cf. Soph. TrGF 4. 673. ºŒØ #ØæÆ, Plaut. rud. 975 ‘mare quidem commune certost omnibus’ with Marx, Ov. met. 6. 349 ‘usus communis aquarum est’ with Bo¨mer, dig. 43. 8. 3 ‘maris communem usum omnibus hominibus ut aeris, iactasque in id pilas eius esse qui iecerit’ (in our passage the legal implication would suit occupet). But then balance is only achieved by reading terrenum (Lachmann) for Tyrrhenum; for the same confusion cf. Lucan 6. 401. Porph. ad loc. comments ‘aedificiis novis non terram tantum verum etiam mare occupantem’, but this is a possible comment even if H made no mention of the land. Heinze explains terrenum as soil suitable for agriculture (Liv. 23. 19. 14 ‘quidquid herbidi terreni extra murum est’, Colum. 3. 11. 8), but this seems too restrictive to balance the comprehensive mare. Ritoo´k, op. cit. cites Lucan 10. 204 ‘luna suis vicibus Tethyn terrenaque miscet’, but the pl. of the adj. (¼ terrestria) is easier in poetry at least than terrenum as a noun. If Punicum is accepted, the four place names (two eastern, two western) provide a typically Horatian pattern (so 1. 31. 4 ff., 3. 1. 42 ff.); and one may agree with Gow that it is absurd to alter the transmitted and characteristically specific Tyrrhenum in order to support the variant publicum. Palmer proposed ‘caementis licet occupes / Tyrrhenum omne tuis et mare sublicis’ (CR 5, 1891: 140 f.); and this is read by Shackleton Bailey. Here et is intended to join caementis and sublicis (wooden piles); but in that case the conjunction would be followed immediately by sublicis rather than by mare (as explained in A. Y. Campbell’s 2nd edn. 116). 5 –7. si figit adamantinos / summis verticibus dira Necessitas / clavos: ‘if indeed dread Necessity fixes adamantine bolts on the rooftops’. The picture has veered from the literal to the metaphorical: death is the culmination of all our strivings (cf. 2. 18. 29 ff., also in terms of a domus). So in Greek ŁæتŒ or ‘coping-stone’ is used for the final stage or climax (Aesch. Ag. 1283 ŒØØ ¼Æ ŁæتŒø ºØ , Eur. Her. 1280 HÆ ŁæتŒHÆØ ŒÆŒE ). Necessitas is the Gk. #ªŒ (Roscher 3. 1. 70 ff.), the inescapable Doom of Death; cf. 1. 35. 17 ff. ‘te semper anteit saeva Necessitas / clavos trabalis et cuneos manu / gestans aena’ (aenos Campbell) with N–H ad loc., 3. 1. 14 n. For the association of Necessity with words for fixing ( figo, destino) and binding (ø, necto) see Onians 322 f., 363. For clavi
276
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
(sometimes half a yard long) as emblems of fixity see N–H on 1. 35. 18; the word derives emphasis from its position at the end of the clause and the beginning of the line. In Etruscan funerary art Charun is apparently equipped with a hammer (Latte 156), and Arthrpa (¼ Atropos) appears on the famous mirror from Perugia with a hammer and a nail, the latter pointing at the head of Adonis (LIMC 3. 1. 1 f.). It may be relevant that nails were fixed annually in Nortia’s temple at Volsinii, as also in Jupiter’s Capitoline temple; Liv. 7. 3. 7–8 regards these ceremonies as a tally of the years, but they may rather have fixed the fates for the coming year, or declared the immutability of what had already happened (RE 17. 1. 1049). Adamant was a legendary metal of exceptional hardness (1. 6. 13), mentioned first in Hesiod (West on Hes. theog. 161, [Aesch.] Prom. 6 etc., RE 5. 322 ff.); it was associated with Necessity (orac. ap. Herod. 7. 141. 3, Pind. P. 4. 71 f. b Œı ŒæÆæE IÆ = B –ºØ ; Plat. rep. 10. 616c) and with death (Gow on Theoc. 2. 33 f., Prop. 4. 11. 4 ‘non exorato stant adamante viae’). This sentence poses three distinct problems. (a) If si is genuine, it must mean, as often, si quidem, ‘if indeed’, not indicating scepticism but introducing an agreed truth (as in 3. 1. 41). But even so it is less assertive than translations like ‘whereas’ and ‘seeing that’. Here it seemed too ambiguous to Bentley, who commented ‘quid si non figat clavos Necessitas, nonne morietur nihilo minus?’; he therefore proposed sic, putting the clause in a parenthesis: ‘(such is the decree of Fate) you will not escape death’. For sic in similar contexts cf. e.g. 2. 17. 15 f. ‘sic potenti / Iustitiae placitumque Parcis’, epod. 9. 3 ‘tecum sub alta (sic Iovi gratum) domo’, serm. 2. 6. 22 (‘sic dis placitum’), Virg. Aen. 3. 375 ‘sic fata deum rex / sortitur’, 4. 614 ‘sic fata Iovis poscunt, hic terminus haeret’. So we see considerable attraction in the decisiveness of sic rather than the circumspection of si. Against this one must weigh the fact that such parentheses usually refer back, and that here a certain degree of complication is introduced. (b) The prosody of ‘si figit adamantinos’ is unusual though not certainly wrong. At 1. 3. 36 ‘perrupit Acheronta Herculeus labor’ a long vowel in the perfect -it can be paralleled in comedy and by inscriptions in -eit (N–H ad loc.); elsewhere H lengthens the final vowel of verbs in the present tense ending in -et (particularly before a main caesura); this can again be justified as an archaic usage (3. 5. 17 n.). But present figı´t cannot be similarly defended; the instances cited by Lindsay (on Plaut. capt. p. 13) and Skutsch (on Enn. ann. p. 58) are of the fourth conjugation or otherwise different. Also different are passages where short syllables are lengthened before the principal caesura of a hexameter (serm. 1. 4. 82 ‘defendit alio’, 2. 3. 260 ‘agit ubi’). In our passage Axt, cited by Orelli, proposed ‘si summis adamantinos / figit verticibus’, a conjecture worth recording in an apparatus criticus; summis would
2 4 . I N TAC T I S O P V LEN T I O R
277
gain emphasis from the hyperbaton and provide a contrast with the rubble of the foundations. (c) summis verticibus would have to refer to rooftops, as in Mart. 8. 36. 11 f. ‘haec, Auguste, tamen quae vertice sidera pulsat / par domus est caelo’. In the present context it is less easy to understand villarum, but as caementis refers to the foundations, that may make the point clearer. Because of the difficulty RN has considered imbricibus, i. e. the topmost roof-tiles (PCPS suppl. 15, 1989: 91). For the fixing of tegulae by bolts cf. the lex Puteolana, CIL 1. 2. 698 (¼ ROL 4, p. 276) ‘tegulas primores omnes . . . ferro figito’, G. Brodribb, Roman Brick and Tile, Gloucester 1987: 10 ff.; this was not the norm with imbrices (Prof. Trevor Hodge informs us), though for some evidence see Brodribb 26. But if imbricibus is read, there is no point in transposing figit, as the prosody remains difficult. summis verticibus is explained by some as literally the plutocrat’s own head (cf. Theog. 1012 of old age ŒÆºB –ÆØ IŒæ , Rhianus, Coll. Alex. 1. 18 (Powell), ¼Œæfi K ŒÆºfi Ø); Ð but the plural verticibus and the absence of tuis make this hard to accept, and caput (8) is confusingly anticipated. Whatever view one takes, the villas must be in some way associated with the life of the builder; just as the nails driven into the rooftops show that the houses are finished, so the nails of Necessity will inevitably finish the house of the rich man’s life. Bentley took summis verticibus as meaning that the nails were driven up to their heads; but then the construction is impossibly awkward, and we are not told where the nails are fixed. 7–8. non animum metu, / non mortis laqueis expedies caput: animum balances caput, and mortis should be supplied with metu. By Epicurean doctrine avarice and ostentation do nothing to assuage the fear of death, but manifest a vain attempt to run away from it (3. 1. 17 ff., Lucr. 3. 63 f. ‘haec vulnera vitae / non minimam partem mortis formidine aluntur’). A laqueus was a noose used to catch birds or animals (epod. 2. 35, Virg. georg. 1. 139); for H’s metaphor cf. Apul. met. 10. 24. 2 ‘crudelissimis laqueis mortis insidiari’; for comparable metaphors see Aesch. Ag. 1115, Stat. silv. 5. 1. 155 ff. As expedire originally meant ‘to disentangle one’s foot’, there may be a verbal point in the juxtaposition with caput (for the contrast cf. Otto 74); so perhaps 1. 4. 9 ‘caput impedire myrto’. The lines entail the assumption that, unlike the builder in 2. 18. 18 f. who is sepulcri immemor, this man is well aware of the finality of death. 9. campestres melius Scythae: it is a paradox that even a proverbially savage people (Strabo 7. 3. 9, Mela 2. 1. 11–15) has a better way of life than over-civilized Romans; for unrealistic admiration of northern tribes see the introduction. The steppes of Russia are mentioned also
278
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
at 2. 20. 16 ‘Hyperboreosque campos’, 3. 8. 23 f. ‘Scythae . . . meditantur . . . cedere campis’, cf. Herod. 4. 47. 1 l ªaæ ªB KFÆ Øa Æo Ø ŒÆd hıæ KØ. Herodotus contrasts the Scythian nomads (the Greek word simply means ‘pastoral’) with the ªøæª or tillers of the soil (4. 18. 1). The prosaic campestres does not itself represent but rather a geographical term like ØØØ (cf. Liv. 39. 53. 13); here the emphatic word suggests wide open spaces (cf. Otto 315 for Scytharum solitudines) that mark a contrast with the overcrowding and cluttered buildings of the civilized world. 10. quorum plaustra vagas rite trahunt domos: plaustra, the word for ordinary farm-carts, describes the nomads’ unglamorous caravans. The best account of these vehicles is in Hippocrates, de aere aquis locis 18: ƃ b ±Æ Æ NØ Æƒ b Kº ØÆØ æŒıŒºØ ƃ b ŒıŒºØ . . . Nd b ŒÆd ÆÆØ uæ NŒÆÆ, a b غA a b æغA . . . a b ± Æ (ºŒıØ ªÆ a b a b æÆ H . . . K Æfi Ø b s fi Ø Ð ± fi Ø Æƒ ªıÆEŒ ØÆØFÆØ, ÆPd K ¥ ø O FÆØ ƒ ¼æ ; see further Hes. fr. 151 M–W ˆºÆŒªø K ªÆEÆ IÆ NŒ K
ø, Pind. fr. 105. 4 ff. Ø ªaæ K &ŒŁÆØ IºAÆØ æÆH, = n IÆ æ r Œ P ÆÆØ, = IŒºc Æ (the disgrace of not possessing a caravan), [Aesch.] Prom. 709 f. &ŒŁÆ I fi Æ Q ºŒa ªÆ = æØØ Æı K PŒŒºØ Z Ø , Herod. 4. 46. 3 NŒÆ Ø fi Kd ıªø, Sall. hist. 3. 76 ‘Scythae nomades . . . quibus plaustra sedes sunt’, Strab. 7. 3. 17 H b ˝ø ƃ ŒÆd غøÆd ªÆØ Kd ÆE ± ÆØ K Æx ØÆØHÆØ, Tac. Germ. 46. 2 (of the Sarmatians) ‘in plaustro equoque viventibus’. vagas with domos is a paradox, as a house should be stabilita; there is a contrast with the firm foundations of the plutocrat’s villa (3). rite suits ethnography (like ritus), and makes another oxymoron with vagas; for the nomads a refusal to settle is a principle of life. In view of the parallels one would have expected vehunt rather than trahunt. We might even consider ‘quorum rite vagas plaustra vehunt domos’; that would give more point to the combination of rite and vagas, and the final -tra of plaustra could have helped to produce trahunt. 11. vivunt et rigidi Getae: the Getae were a people of the lower Danube (cf. 4. 15. 22), who were later confused with the Goths (see H. Wolfram, History of the Goths, 1988: 19). rigidi refers to the severity of their discipline (epist. 1. 1. 17 ‘virtutis verae custos rigidusque satelles’, 2. 1. 25 ‘rigidis . . . Sabinis’) and the grimness of their demeanour (Ov. trist. 5. 1. 46 ‘barbariam rigidos effugiamque Getas’). Porph. comments ‘propter frigida regionum earum’ (cf. Sen. dial. 4. 15. 5), and there is certainly a hint of the cold climate (cf. 4. 5. 25 ‘gelidum Scythen’, Virg. georg. 3. 354 ff.), but when the adjective is applied to people, this nuance
2 4 . I N TAC T I S O P V LEN T I O R
279
cannot be primary. vivunt should be taken in the first instance with Getae (cf. 38 n.), but also with Scythae. 12–13. immetata quibus iugera liberas / fruges et Cererem ferunt: Orelli refers this clause only to the Getae, to balance the clause about the Scythians in line 10. But the Scythians cannot be ignored; because of their life-style, they held their land in common. The same sort of system was used by the Suebi (Caes. bG 4. 1. 7) and by the Germans in general (6. 22. 2). Such collectivism recalled the Golden Age; cf. Virg. georg. 1. 126 f. ‘ne signare quidem aut partiri limite campum / fas erat’, Tib. 1. 3. 43 f. with Murgatroyd, Ov. met. 1. 135 with Bo¨mer, orac. Sib. 2. 319 ff., Gatz 229 (absentia rerum privatarum). H’s account of Getic landtenure may not be in accordance with the evidence (B. Gerov, Eirene 14, 1976: 31 ff.). immetata (lit. ‘unmeasured’) occurs only here. Like mensor in Ov. met. 1. 135 f. (‘communemque prius, ceu lumina solis et auras, / cautus humum longo signavit limite mensor’) it suggests the Roman agrimensores, and so makes an oxymoron with iugera, a word notably inappropriate to the open country of the nomads. (For a similar point cf. 2. 15. 14 ff. ‘nulla decempedis / metata privatis . . . / porticus’.) fruges et Cererem, which Kiessling wanted to distinguish, is a hendiadys for ‘crops of grain’, the general being followed by the particular. liberas means that nobody claimed private rights. 14. nec cultura placet longior annua: for Scythian agriculture see 9 n. For such annual migrations cf. Caes. bG 4. 1. 7 (about the Suebi) ‘neque longius anno remanere uno in loco colendi causa licet’, 6. 22. 2 ‘anno post alio transire cogunt’, Tac. Germ. 26. 2 (about the Germans) ‘arva per annos mutant, et superest ager’. 15–16. defunctumque laboribus / aequali recreat sorte vicarius: Caes. bG 4. 1. 4 describes how, when some of the Suebi went to war, ‘reliqui qui domi manserunt se atque illos alunt: hi rursus in vicem anno post in armis sunt, illi domi remanent’. Caesar may have influenced Horace, as he combines the same three points: the holding of land in common, the annual migration, and the simultaneous rotation of duties. But in Caesar work on the land alternates with military service, whereas in H the weary labourer seems to get a period off. recreat implies ‘a new lease of life’, whereas ‘relieves’ in English has lost most of its original force. aequali sorte means ‘by an impartial allotment of duty’ (cf. Sil. 9. 92 f. ‘dum sorte vicissim / alternat portae excubias’). The emphatic aequali underlines the fairness of the lot; Roman land-tenure could be notorious for its injustice. A vicarius (RE 8A. 2. 2015 ff.) was a proxy in many spheres of Roman life
280
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
(cf. serm. 2. 7. 79 f. ‘sive vicarius est qui servo paret’); a vicar in the Church was originally a deputy. Here, as there is no subordination, vicarius is best translated by ‘successor’; cf Cic. Verr. 4. 81 ‘succedam ego vicarius tuo muneri’. 17–18. illic matre carentibus / privignis mulier temperat innocens: the stepmother, unlike her Roman counterpart, does no injury to her motherless stepchildren (innocens has the strong sense of innoxia): contrast Eur. Alc. 305 ff. ŒÆd c تfi E æıØa ŒØ , = lØ ŒÆŒø s KF ªıc Ł fiø = E EØ ŒIE ÆØd EæÆ æƺE. The stepmother was proverbially unkind, cf. epod. 5. 9 ‘quid ut noverca me intueris?’, Hes. op. 825 ¼ºº æıØc ºØ æ, ¼ºº æ with West, Juv. 6. 627 with Courtney, Otto 245 f., S. Dixon, The Roman Mother, 1988: 155 ff. The stereotype was not invariable; cf. Prop. 4. 11. 87 f. (the dead Cornelia speaks) ‘coniugium pueri laudate et ferte paternum: / capta dabit vestris moribus illa manus’. See further Treggiari, index s.v. ‘stepmothers’, P. A. Watson, Stepmothers: Myth, Misogyny and Reality, Mnem. suppl. 143, 1995. 19–20. nec dotata regit virum / coniunx: a Roman bride of any standing brought a dowry to her husband, but if the marriage broke down she could usually claim it back, cf. Crook 104 ff., Treggiari 323 ff. So a woman in this position (dotata is emphatic) might dominate her husband in a way that to men at least seemed unnatural; for regit, ‘tyrannizes over’, cf. regnare at Juv. 6. 149. For the stock situation see Eur. Phaethon 158 f. KºŁæ J Fº KØ F º ı , = æÆ e HÆ B æB ø (with Diggle’s note), Arist. eth. Nic. 1161a1 f. K b ¼æ ıØ Æƒ ªıÆEŒ KŒºæØ sÆØ, Plaut. asin. 87 ‘argentum accepi, dote imperium vendidi’, aul. 534 f. ‘nam quae indotata est, ea in potestate est viri: / dotatae mactant et malo et damno viros’, Men. 766 f., Titin. CRF 70, Juv. 6. 136 ff. (with Courtney’s note), F. Wilhelm, RhM 70, 1915: 177. The absence of a dowry may be part of the ethnographic tradition; cf. Tac. Germ. 18. 1 ‘dotem non uxor marito sed uxori maritus offert’. By some accounts some northern tribes gave women a privileged position; cf. Herod. 4. 26. 3 of the Issedones NŒæÆ b ›ø ƃ ªıÆEŒ EØ IæØ, Bolton 79 (with a quotation from Afghanistan), E. Hall, Inventing the Barbarian, 1989: 202 ff. (noting fictions about Amazons). 20. nec nitido fidit adultero: cf. Tacitus’ tribute to the Germans ‘paucissima in tam numerosa gente adulteria’ (Germ. 19. 1). Here nitido describes a smart but ungentlemanly sleekness (epist. 1. 7. 83 of the auctioneer Vulteius Mena, Juv. 3. 157 of an auctioneer’s son), and has a hint of hair-oil (1. 4. 9 with N–H, 3. 19. 25); barbarians, on the other hand, were shaggy and unkempt (horridi). Shackleton Bailey objected to
2 4 . I N TAC T I S O P V LEN T I O R
281
fidit: ‘do we think of Lesbia and her like as trusting their lovers?’ (Philol. 184, 1990: 225). He therefore proposed and printed laedit, a word used of disloyalty to a partner (TLL 2. 868. 64 ff.). Yet it does not seem unreasonable to translate ‘nor does she place her trust in some sleek adulterer (rather than in her husband)’. 21–2. dos est magna parentium / virtus: ‘their big dowry is their parents’ worth’ (picking up dotata in v. 19). For the inheritance of moral qualities cf. 3. 10. 11–12 n. For the commonplace cf. Hippothoon 6, TGF p. 828 Æo ªaæ æd NŒÆ fiø Ø , Soph. TrGF 4. 201d, Plaut. Amph. 839 ff. ‘non ego illam mi dotem duco esse quae dos dicitur, / sed pudicitiam et pudorem et sedatum cupidinem’, Antip. Thess. anth. Pal. 9. 96. 5 f. (¼ Gow–Page, Garland of Philip, 195 f.) j ¥ Œfi N ÆØ, # ÆØ. XŁÆ æe = æa ºÆ, Ø æEŒÆ ÆØ, Plut. apophthegmata Lac. 242b —ÆæŁ Ø æa KæøŁEÆ Æ øØ fiH ªÆFØ æEŒÆ, , c æØ , øæ . For ‘my face is my fortune’ cf. Afran. CRF 156 ‘formosa virgo est: dotis dimidium vocant . . . ’, Otto 121; for a cynical application add Ov. ars 2. 155 ‘dos est uxoria lites’. parens was by origin a present participle with genitive plural in -ium, but when it was treated as a noun the form in -um was normally used. H has both forms (as ps.-Acro notes), -um at 1. 2. 23, 2. 20. 6, 3. 6. 46; -ium only here. As with other genitive plurals, the longer form does not suit hexameters, but is sometimes convenient in lyrics; see further Bo 224 f. 22–3. et metuens alterius viri / certo foedere castitas: certo foedere, a common collocation, is ablative of quality with castitas. For the very Roman idea of the foedus of marriage see Catull. 64.373 (the first attested use, but not necessarily an innovation), Virg. Aen. 4. 339, R. Reitzenstein, SHAW 1912, 12. Abh., 9 ff. (on the word’s extension to less formal relationships), TLL 6. 1. 1004 f., Lyne (1980), 34 ff. metuens suggests timidity rather than terror (cf. 3. 11. I0 ‘metuitque tangi’); for the gen. cf. 3. 19. 16 ‘rixarum metuens’ (shunning brawls). ‘alterius viri’ means ‘another man’ (the gen. of alius is very rare), as at Prop. 1. 16. 33 ‘nunc iacet alterius felici nixa lacerto’; distinguish alter of a specific ‘other man’ (Prop. 2. 23. 3). 24. et peccare nefas—aut pretium est mori: peccare, ‘to err’, originally meant ‘to stumble’ (a sense played on by H in epist. 1. 13. 4); it is used euphemistically of sexual lapses (1. 33. 9, 3. 7. 19). Here its relative mildness, reflecting Roman mores, makes a pointed contrast with nefas, ‘an abomination’. et joins ‘their dowry is morality’ with this obverse formulation of the same point; it should be preceded by a semicolon after castitas, for there is a climax here.
282
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
aut is elliptical and implies ‘or else’; cf 3. 12. 2 n. pretium is used, as often, for a penalty (Ov. met. 10. 572 ‘mors pretium tardis’, Paul, Romans 6: 23 a ªaæ OłØÆ B ±ÆæÆ ŁÆ , Sen. HO 1336 ‘mors erit pretium omnium’). For est mori some editors accept the thinly attested emori, which can have various nuances (‘to fade away’, ‘to die once and for all’, etc.); but in describing the objective penalty the simple verb is much better. For barbarian punishments of women’s adultery see Tac. Germ. 19. 2. 25–6. o quisquis volet impias / caedis et rabiem tollere civicam: anybody who is going to eradicate civil strife must curb ‘permissiveness’. H connects the civil wars with sexual licence (3. 6. 17 ff.) or materialism (below, 47 ff.) or the decline of religion (3. 6. 1 ff.), but he naturally says nothing about great men’s lust for power. Here with quisquis he is obviously thinking of the Princeps, but he makes his point discreetly, in general terms. In the same way the future volet avoids the suggestion that the issue is a current one (see the introduction). impias points to the sinfulness of civil as opposed to foreign wars; cf. 1. 2. 29 f. ‘cui dabit partis scelus expiandi / Iuppiter?’, 2. 1. 30 ‘impia proelia’. rabiem is a strong word that suggests animal savagery (epist. 2. 2. 75, ‘hac rabiosa fugit canis’, ars 393 ‘lenire tigres rabidosque leones’); so epod. 7. 11 ff. (of the civil wars) ‘neque hic lupis mos nec fuit leonibus . . . ’. civicam is emphatic, chiastically balancing impias; here it suggests civil war (cf. 2. 1. 1 ‘motum . . . civicum’) as more commonly civilis does (cf. 4. 15. 17 f. ‘Furor/ civilis’). civicus has an archaic ring (Porph. on 2. 1. 1 says ‘antiqua figura’ and compares hosticus). Bentley read ‘o quis quis volet’, with a question-mark after civicam; he is supported by the preponderance of one side of the tradition (though in a matter of word-division MS testimony has no weight), and apparently by Diomedes, GL 1. 329. 36 ff. He argued that H cannot say ‘everybody who’, as if many people were in a position to reform the state; but here quisquis means ‘anybody who’. He also maintained that o suits the excitement of a question, shown also by the repeated quis (cf. epod. 7. 1. ‘quo quo scelesti ruitis?’), but it can equally well lead up to the wish audeat (28). For this use of o (¼ o si or utinam) cf. 1. 35. 38 f., 3. 10. 13 ff. ‘o . . . supplicibus tuis / parcas’ (with intervening clauses as here), serm. 2. 6. 8, Virg. ecl. 2. 28 ‘o tantum libeat’, Tib. 1. 1. 51 ‘o quantum est auri pereat’, Fraenkel 242 n., TLL 9. 2. 6. 71 ff. Bentley’s punctuation makes it hard to see a connection between line 26 and what follows; it also impairs the argument, for H is not saying ‘who will put an end to civil strife?’, a question irrelevant to the poem (contrast 1. 2. 29 f. cited above); indeed the repeated quis might suggest that the saviour is hard to identify.
2 4 . I N TAC T I S O P V LEN T I O R
283
27–8. si quaeret pater urbium / subscribi statuis: urbium should be taken only with pater, not with statuis (Kiessling) nor even with both nouns (Heinze). H is grandly describing the municipia of Italy (4. 4. 42), which were more usually called oppida; the great cities of the East (as at 1. 35. 10) would not be concerned with a programme of moral regeneration. For the use of pater cf. 1. 2. 50 with N–H; Augustus was unofficially pater patriae (Dio 55. 10. 10) long before he was voted the title in 2 bc. For such honours outside Rome cf. Cic. 1. 1. 31 ‘parentem Asiae’ (of Q. Cicero), CIL 11. 720 (Bononia) ‘divus Aug. parens dedit’, 3. 13264 (Iadera in Illyricum) ‘imp. Caes. divi f. Augustus parens coloniae’, inscr. numm. Cohen I p. 176 n. 9 (Gades) ‘municipii parens M. Agrippa’. Porph. comments on our passage ‘ut . . . in titulo earum pater urbium ascribatur’; but in fact each inscription would name only the city concerned (pater urbis). Under the Republic statues were a recognized form of honour in Italy as well as in Rome, and from Caesar’s dictatorship they were used, as in Hellenistic kingdoms, to assert the authority of the ruler and the goodwill of those who erected them. They were more conspicuous than coinage, and more accessible to most people than literature. Already at the beginning of 43 Octavian was voted an equestrian statue, and the practice spread through Italy (as our passage indicates) and the whole empire. See further G. Lahusen, Untersuchungen zur Ehrenstatue in Rom, 1983, W. Eck in Millar–Segal (1984), 142 ff., Zanker (1987), 46 ff. ¼ (1988), 37 ff., and for the typology of Augustus’ portraits U. Hausmann, ANRW II. 12. 2 (1981), 513 ff. subscribere is the proper term for putting an inscription on the base of a statue (Cic. Cluent. 101 etc.); its prosaic tone suits the political context (so too the use of statuis rather than the more grandiloquent signis). On the other hand, the predicative use of pater is an artificial Horatian brachylogy; cf. 1. 6. 1 f. ‘scriberis Vario fortis et hostium / victor’ with N–H. A. Y. Campbell (edn. 2) argued that quaeret (the reading of the MSS and Porph.) suggests too blatant ambition; he noted also the repetition at 32 quaerimus (in a different sense). He therefore suggested gaudet, comparing 1. 2. 50 ‘hic ames dici pater’; but the corruption is unlikely, and the present indicative is out of keeping with volet and audeat. If any change is needed (which is doubtful), RN has considered curet (a subjunctive here would not be impossible); cf. Virg. georg. 1. 503 f. ‘iam pridem nobis caeli te regia, Caesar, / invidet atque hominum queritur curare triumphos’. For the Princeps’s modesty, or caution, in this respect cf. res gestae 24. 2 (he removes 80 statues of himself ). 28–9. indomitam audeat / refrenare licentiam: the need for moral reform had previously been canvassed in Caesar’s dictatorship (Cic.
284
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
Marc. 23 ‘comprimendae libidines, propaganda suboles, omnia quae dilapsa iam diffluxerunt severis legibus vincienda sunt’). audeat underlines the risks involved. refrenare, ‘to curb’, is used by Lucretius and Ovid, but is more prosaic than the simple frenare; indomitam suits the metaphor, as it suggests the taming of wild animals (cf. v. 26 rabiem). The lex Julia de maritandis ordinibus was not passed until 18 bc and the lex de adulteriis coercendis about the same time; at carm. saec. 17 ff. H. prays for the success of this legislation, and later implausibly claims it has succeeded (4. 5. 21, 4. 15. 9 f.). Such assertions were a commonplace of panegyric (Men. Rhet. 376.4 ff.). 30. carus postgenitis: clarus is the reading of the MSS and is supported by ps.-Acro’s comment ‘posteris admirandus’. carus is a variant without authority, commended by Lambinus but generally rejected. Nevertheless, it provides a contrast with odimus (31) and is strikingly supported by epist. 2. 1. 14 ‘exstinctus amabitur idem’, from the parallel passage on the envy directed at Augustus (see below on 31 f.); for carus of political popularity cf. Cic. off. 3. 80 ‘nemo umquam multitudini fuit carior’, TLL 3. 504. 36 ff. It is paradoxical that the Princeps should be loved largely by those who could not know him, but necessary legislation sometimes incurs unpopularity at the time; on the other hand, after Actium even enemies would concede that he was now clarus. postgenitis is found only here; it seems to be a Horatian coinage for a word like Kت Ø . quatenus—heu nefas—: quatenus ‘insofar as’ in the sense of ‘since’ is again a prosaic word; it is used three times in the sermones and four times by Lucretius, but not by Virgil or in Silver Age epic (apart from Sil. 17. 373). nefas (cf. 24) suggests an unspeakable outrage; the word was connected by the Romans with fari (Maltby 407). For the indignant parenthesis cf. 4. 6. 17 ‘heu nefas, heu’, epod. 16. 14 ‘nefas videre’, Catull. 68. 89, Virg. Aen. 7. 73, 8. 688 ‘sequiturque—nefas—Aegyptia coniunx’, 10. 673; cf. clauses beginning with pro (3. 5. 7) and indignum (epist. 1. 6. 22, McKeown on Ov. am. 1. 6. 1); see further Horsfall on Virg. Aen. 7. 64. Such parentheses are best marked by dashes rather than brackets, which tend to obscure the heavy emphasis. 31–2. virtutem incolumem odimus, / sublatam ex oculis quaerimus invidi: it was a commonplace that one resented the successful in their lifetime and only appreciated them when they were dead. See 2. 20. 4 with N–H, epist. 2. 1. 12 ‘comperit invidiam supremo fine domari’ with Brink, Pind. pae. 2. 55 X Ł Y ÆØ = H ºÆØ æŁÆ ø, Mimnermus (?), TGF p. 829 Ød ªaæ Iæd Kb PŒºE = HØ ŁBÆØ, ŒÆŁÆ Æ ÆNÆØ, Arist. rhet. 1388a (غØEÆØ) . . . æe f Kı j ŁHÆ P , ps.-Sall. epist. 2. 13. 7 ‘nam vivos
2 4 . I N TAC T I S O P V LEN T I O R
285
interdum fortuna, saepe invidia fatigat; ubi anima naturae cessit, demptis optrectatoribus, ipsa se virtus magis magisque extollit’, Ov. am. 1. 15. 39 ‘pascitur in vivis Livor, post fata quiescit (with McKeown), Vell. 2. 92. 5 ‘praesentia invidia, praeterita veneratione prosequimur’, R. Ha¨ussler, Tacitus und das historische Bewusstsein, 1965: 233. Plutarch, on the other hand, thought that we do not envy truly great men like Alexander (de invidia 538a). For a typical quip cf. Mart. 5. 10. 12: ‘si post fata venit gloria, non propero’. odimus implies a public rejection (‘we spurn’) as much as an internal emotion (3. 1. 1 n.). incolumem, ‘as yet unharmed’, means in effect viventium, but brings out more sharply the malice of human nature. quaerimus implies a vain longing (OLD s.v. 2a), like requirimus or desideramus. invidi (the reading of Porph. as well as the MSS) has to be taken with both clauses and translated in some such way as ‘jealous creatures that we are’. The second sentence poses something of a problem in view of the widespread commonplace (illustrated above) that the dead are no longer envied. One approach (favoured by RN) is to look for a convincing emendation. Crusius and O. de Rooy proposed invidis; but the stock phrase ex oculis ‘out of sight’ (OLD s.v. 4) does not lead us to expect an adjective. Cornelissen (Mnem. 16, 1888: 310) proposed irriti (which could be spelt inriti); for the application to people (¼ ‘disappointed’, ‘to no purpose’) cf. Tib. 2. 3. 22 ‘venit et a templis irrita turba’, OLD s.v. 4, TLL 7. 2. 434.7 ff. This loses a specific reference to invidia; yet the lack of such a reference might encourage corruption. 33. quid tristes querimoniae . . . ?: the querimoniae are laments de saeculo; cf. Sall. Cat. 52. 7 ‘saepe de luxuria atque avaritia nostrorum civium questus sum’, Sen. the Elder, Loeb edn. (Winterbottom), vol. 2, p. 635, index under ‘commonplaces’, ‘on the age’, and ‘on the good old days’. Dactylic verse uses querelae. The verb does not emerge until proficiunt in v. 36 (so Porph.), but the second quid makes the drift clear; Palmer’s quo is unnecessary and rhetorically inferior. 34. si non supplicio culpa reciditur: culpa is ‘wrong-doing’, here as often of a sexual nature (OLD 3b). reciditur is a metaphor, not from surgery as in Ov. met. 1. 190 f., but from pruning; cf. serm. 1. 3. 122 f. ‘et magnis parva mineris / falce recisurum simili te’, Sen. dial. 4. 18. 2 ‘difficulter reciduntur vitia quae nobiscum creverunt’. In the same way luxuria is used both of rank vegetation and profligate self-indulgence. 35–6. quid leges sine moribus / vanae proficiunt?: vanae goes closely with sine moribus: ‘what use are laws, vain as they are without morals?’
286
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
At the same time it marks a contrast with proficiunt (a word suited to moralizing). The superiority of mores over leges was particularly illustrated from undeveloped societies; cf. Sall. Cat. 9. 1 ‘igitur domi militiaeque boni mores colebantur; concordia maxuma, minuma avaritia erat; ius bonumque apud eos non legibus magis quam natura valebat’, Ov. met. 1. 90 ff., Pomp. Trog. fr. 35 ¼ Justin 2. 2 (on the Scythians) ‘iustitia gentis ingeniis culta non legibus’, Tac. Germ. 19. 5 ‘plus . . . ibi boni mores valent quam alibi bonae leges’, Woodman–Martin on ann. 3. 26. 1 ‘vetustissimi mortalium, nulla adhuc mala libidine, sine probro scelere eoque sine poena aut coercitionibus agebant’. For a different and defensible viewpoint cf. Sen. epist. 94. 37 ‘leges quoque proficiunt ad bonos mores’. Augustus claimed in the end to have taken charge of both mores and leges; cf. 4. 5. 22 ‘mos et lex maculosum edomuit nefas’, epist. 2. 1. 2 f. ‘moribus ornes, / legibus emendes’ (with Brink), res gestae 6.1 ‘curator legum et morum’. Tennyson no doubt had mores and leges in mind when he wrote ‘Ring in the nobler modes of life, / With sweeter manners, purer laws’ (In Memoriam cvi, 15 f.). 36–8: si neque fervidis / pars inclusa caloribus / mundi: for pars as a region of the earth cf. 3. 3. 38–9 n.; for the collocation with mundi cf. paneg. Mess. 150 ‘teque <manet> interiecto mundi pars altera sole’, Lucan 4. 106 f. ‘sic mundi pars ima iacet quam zona nivalis / perpetuaeque premunt hiemes’. H. is referring to the doctrine of the zones, which was known to the pre-Socratics and Aristotle before Eratosthenes (Powell, Coll. Alex. fr. 16): the temperate part of the earth comes between regions that are uninhabitable from heat or cold; cf. Lucr. 5. 204 f. ‘inde duas porro prope partis fervidus ardor / assiduusque geli casus mortalibus aufert’, Virg. georg. 1. 233 ff. (of the corresponding zones of the sky) ‘quinque tenent caelum zonae: quarum una corusco / semper sole rubens et torrida semper ab igni’, Ov. met. 1. 49 ff., Plin. nat. hist. 2. 172 ‘media terrarum . . . exusta flammis et cremata comminus vapore torretur’, Thomson (1948), index, Pease on Cic. nat. deor. 1. 24, and especially K. Abel, RE Suppl. 14. 989 ff. inclusa seems at first to suggest that the zone in question is surrounded by two barriers of heat. Housman in the astronomical appendix of his Lucan, pp. 330 ff., pointed to the idea that the middle strip of the torrid zone was in fact habitable; cf. Strabo 2. 3. 2-3, citing Eratosthenes and Polybius (34. 1. 1), and probably using Posidonius (fr. 49 with Kidd, cf. fr. 210); see also Thomson, op. cit. 163, 209 f., and RE Suppl. 14. 1049 f., 1063 f. Housman gave the same interpretation to Lucan 5. 23 ff. ‘nam vel Hyperboreae plaustrum glaciale sub Vrsae / vel plaga qua torrens claususque vaporibus axis / nec patitur noctes nec iniquos crescere soles’; there he compared our passage. He took the same view at
2 4 . I N TAC T I S O P V LEN T I O R
287
Lucan 9. 538 f. ‘at tibi, quaecumque es Libyco gens igne dirempta, / in Noton umbra cadit, quae nobis exit in Arcton’; he admitted that at first sight these lines suggest the temperate zone to the south of the tropic of Capricorn, but he argued from the following lines that Lucan was referring to a temperate band round the equator. Nevertheless, the theory is a surprising complication in our passage, where we expect a simple contrast between the frozen Arctic and the torrid equatorial zone; cf. 1. 22. 17 ff. ‘pone me pigris ubi nulla campis / arbor aestiva recreatur aura, / quod latus mundi nebulae malusque / Iuppiter urget; / pone sub curru nimium propinqui / solis in terra domibus negata . . . ’, Virg. Aen. 7. 225 ff. ‘et si quem tellus extrema refuso / submovet Oceano, et si quem extenta plagarum / quattuor in medio dirimit plaga solis iniqui’. In NR’s opinion a region ‘enclosed in heat’ need not have a temperate centre (any more than an area enclosed in mist or darkness need have a bright centre); in Lucan 5. 24 (quoted above) he takes the ‘clausus vaporibus axis’ to be the same as the ‘plaga torrens’. If that seems too difficult, RN tentatively suggests exclusa caloribus (‘shut off by the heat’); for the instrumental ablative cf. Caesar, bG 5. 23. 5 ‘ne anni tempore a navigatione excluderentur’, Virg. georg. 4. 147 ‘spatiis exclusus iniquis’, perhaps also Lucan 5. 24 ‘claususque vaporibus axis’, where some interpret ‘a region barred by the heat’. Copyists sometimes change prefixes; and if exclusa caloribus was wrongly interpreted as ‘shut off from heat’, that could have caused the corruption. The merchant of v. 40 defies Nature’s boundaries, and this point is made more explicitly by exclusa than by inclusa; cf. 1. 3. 21 ff. and Sen. Med. 335 ff. 38. nec Boreae finitimum latus: for latus of an outlying region of the earth cf. 1. 22. 19 ‘quod latus mundi’ (cited in the previous note), Pers. 6. 76 ‘omne latus mundi’, TLL 7. 2. 1028. 50 ff., OLD 7a. In our passage mundi is perhaps to be understood from the end of the previous clause; hence its unusually emphatic position, when we might have expected a pause after caloribus. But as pars needs no genitive (3. 3. 38 cited above) perhaps mundi should be taken primarily with latus (with a comma after caloribus); for the word-order cf. 11 n. 39. durataeque solo nives: if this is right it must mean ‘snows hardened on the ground’ (see OLD 1b for this meaning of duro); but without in or an adjective solo is oddly attached (even though it appears in a sandwiched position). Bentley proposed gelu, but this is remote; it cannot be defended by ps.-Acro’s note ‘gelu, nimietate frigoris solidatae’, for there gelu is part of the explanation, not part of the lemma. A lesser change would be S. Wyngaarden’s polo, ‘hardened by the arctic sky’; cf. Strab. 2. 3. 1 a b æe fiH ºfiø (IŒ KØ) Øa łF . RN has tentatively
288
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
considered durataeque solum nives: ‘the fact that hardened snow makes up the ground does not drive away the merchant’; for the mannered expression see below on 42. 40. mercatorem abigunt: poets and moralists regarded the trader as reckless because of his avarice; see N–H on 1. 1. 16 and 1. 3 (p. 43), West on Hes. op. 686 ff., Murgatroyd on Tib. 1. 3. 39–40, Fedeli on Prop. 1. 17. 13 f., T. Heydenreich, Tadel und Lob der Seefahrt, 1970 (including modern imitations). 40–1. horrida callidi / vincunt aequora navitae: not ordinary seamen but merchant ship-owners; for the form navitae see 3. 4. 30 n. callidi describes the cleverness that comes from experience (cf. Soph. Ant. 348 æØæÆc Iæ in the celebration of human ingenuity); here the word has a pejorative tone, hinting that these men are too clever by half. horrida implies both ‘rough’ and ‘frightening’, as at epod. 10. 3; it makes an oxymoron with aequora, which properly describes a flat surface (cf. 1. 5. 5 f. ‘aspera / . . . aequora’). For the use of vincunt cf. Tac. Agr. 25. 1 ‘(cum) hinc terra et hostis, hinc victus Oceanus militari iactantia compararentur’; it corresponds to nec . . . abigunt better than Cornelissen’s unnecessary findunt. 42. magnum Pauperies opprobrium iubet: the clause is still introduced by si (36). Kiessling and others put a question-mark at the end of 41, but then the transition is too abrupt; and the relevance of moribus (35) is clearer if it is picked up in the same sentence by virtutis (44). For the sandwiched apposition cf. 1. 20. 5 with N–H, 4. 8. 31 ‘clarum Tyndaridae sidus’, epist. 1. 18. 104 ‘gelidus Digentia rivus’, and especially J. B. Solodow, HSCP 90, 1986: 129 ff. He points out that the outside element is normally more important, with the inside element added in apposition (Virg. ecl. 1. 57 ‘raucae tua cura palumbes’). But this tendency does not apply when the inside element is a single word. Pauperies describes straitened circumstances rather than destitution (for the distinction cf. Ar. plut. 552 ff.), and is not a disgrace; cf. 3. 2. 1 ‘angustam amice pauperiem pati’, serm. 2. 3. 91 ff. ‘credidit ingens / pauperiem vitium . . . ’, Sall. Cat. 12. 1 ‘pauperies probro haberi’, Sen. epist. 115. 11, Mayor on Juv. 3. 152. Like Æ, the word is easily personified in popular moralizing; cf. 3. 29. 55 f. with note. In our passage magnum opprobrium is an integral part of the subject: the avaricious are impelled not so much by poverty (thus Theog. 649 ff., Lucian, cited in note on 43) as by the disgrace of poverty (Heinze). This point is obscured in translation if Poverty is made the subject; on the other hand, if we say ‘the reproach of poverty’, that destroys the personification; for a similar dilemma cf. 2. 4. 10 ‘ademptus Hector’ with N–H’s note.
2 4 . I N TAC T I S O P V LEN T I O R
289
43. quidvis et facere et pati: the seaman combines arrogant recklessness with an unnatural tolerance of suffering; cf. 1. 3. 25 ‘audax omnia perpeti’ (in a similar context). To stop at nothing is a mark of wickedness (cf. the Greek ÆFæª ), but by ancient standards to submit to every indignity is just as deplorable; cf. Arist. eth. Nic. 2. 1108a and 4. 1126a. For the collocation of facere and pati (like ØE and Ø cf. Cic. Pis. 11 ‘qui nihil sibi umquam nec facere nec pati turpe duxit’ (with a sexual innuendo), Vell. 2. 100. 3 with Woodman, TLL 6. 1. 124. 74 ff.; for a more favourable use cf. Liv. 2. 12. 9 ‘et facere et pati Romanum est’. For similar expressions about poverty in Greek cf. Lucian, apol. 10 c Æ Æ ØE ŒÆd Ø IÆŁıÆ ‰ KŒªØ Ø ÆP, less closely Timocles, PCG 7, p. 776, fr. 30 ººf ªaæ KŁ Æ ØÆØ = I Ø ÆH æªÆ Ææa Ø ØE, cf. fr. 37. 44. Virtutisque viam deserere arduae: the steep path to #æ goes back to Hes. op. 287 ff. (see West), especially 289 ff. B IæB ƒæHÆ Łd ææØŁ ŁŒÆ = IŁÆØ ÆŒæe b ŒÆd ZæŁØ r K ÆPc = ŒÆd æ f e æH Kc N ¼Œæ ¥ ŒÆØ, = ÞØ c ØÆ ºØ, ƺ æ KFÆ (though Hesiod is thinking of the path to glory rather than moral excellence), Simonides, PMG 579, Pearson on Soph. fr. 397. The image was given an ethical application in popular philosophy, as was the kindred parable of Hercules at the crossroads; cf. Xen. mem. 2. 1. 21–34 ¼ Prodicus B2, Pers. 3. 56 f., 5. 34 f., Lact. inst. 6. 3, Otto 36, J. Alpers, Hercules in Bivio, Diss. Go¨ttingen 1912, E. Panofsky, ‘Hercules am Scheidewege’, Studien der Bibliothek Warburg 18, 1930 (with Renaissance and modern illustrations), O. Becker, ‘Das Bild des Weges’, Hermes Einzelschriften 4, 1937: 57 ff., Bompaire 258 ff. deserere is Bentley’s conjecture for deserit of the MSS (also in Porph.’s lemma); for the elision cf. 1. 3. 12 ‘praecipitem Africum’. H is talking not about what Poverty does but about what the reproach of poverty makes people do, cf. iubet in v. 42. For the abandonment of Virtue cf. serm. 2. 3. 13 ‘invidiam placare paras virtute relicta?’, epist. 1. 16. 67 ‘locum virtutis deseruit’, Lact. inst. 7. 1 ‘et virtutis viam deserunt cuius acerbitate offenduntur’ (apparently influenced by our passage). arduae includes the ideas of both ‘lofty’ and ‘difficult’, as at 1. 3. 37 f. where ‘nil mortalibus ardui est’ is followed immediately by ‘caelum ipsum petimus’; for the combination with virtus cf. Stat. silv. 5. 2. 98 f. ‘ardua virtus / affectata tibi’, Theb. 10. 845 f. ‘hac me iubet ardua virtus / ire’, Lucan 4. 576 (in a somewhat different sense). Lambinus conjectured arduam, which is closer to Hesiod; for the ardua via to Virtus cf. also [Sall.] epist. 2. 7. 9, Corn. Sev. fr. 2 (Courtney, FLP p. 321), Sil. 2. 578, 15. 102. Lambinus did not print his conjecture because of the absence of manuscript support, but RN views it with some favour. The merchant
290
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
abandons the arduous path to Virtue (which bears the emphasis) in order to pursue a no less arduous course of his own (43 ‘quidvis et facere et pati’); in epist. 1. 1. 45 ff. H denies that morality is more difficult than the merchant’s hyperactivity, and similarly here the epithet ‘arduous’ should perhaps not be applied to Virtue exclusively. 45. vel nos in Capitolium . . . : with an emphatic and repeated nos Horace exhorts his fellow-citizens in the manner of early Greek poetry; cf. 3. 14. 1–2 n. First he urges them to dedicate their valuables inside Jupiter’s Capitoline temple (hence in rather than ad). There was a legend that Pythagoras persuaded the women of Croton to dedicate their finery to Hera ( Just. 20. 4. 11, Iamblichus, vit. Pyth. 11); in 217 bc, after Hannibal’s victory at the Trebia, Roman matrons donated money to Juno on the Aventine (Liv. 22. 1. 18); in 210 all classes made generous contributions of gold and silver for the war effort (26. 36), a practical purpose not envisaged in Horace’s poem. It is relevant that Octavian had acquired treasures from Cleopatra (Dio 51. 22. 3) which he dedicated on the Capitol, presumably at or soon after his triumph in 29 bc; cf. res gestae 21. 2 ‘dona ex manibiis in Capitolio . . . consecravi’, Suet. Aug. 30. 2 ‘utqui in cellam Capitolini Iovis sedecim milia pondo auri gemmasque ac margaritas quingenties sestertium una donatione contulerit’. Horace keeps us in suspense about what he has in mind: the valuables appear only in v. 48 and the verb not till mittamus (50), where it means ‘let fall’. Commentators suggest that we should recognize a zeugma and infer something like feramus here. But the difficulty is lessened if we first understand mittamus in the different sense of ‘send’ or even ‘bring’; for the latter usage (¼ the Greek Ø) Lucian Mu¨ller cites Virg. ecl. 9. 6 ‘hos illi . . . mittimus haedos’, Aen. 6. 380 ‘tumulo sollemnia mittent’ (as here of a sacred offering). ‘Consign’ in English would keep the ambiguity. 46. quo clamor vocat et turba faventium: clamor is here applause (OLD 1 c), like acclamatio. faventium goes with clamor as well as with turba (cf. Liv. 1. 25. 9 ‘clamore . . . faventium’); for such demonstrations of approval cf. Liv. 1. 12. 10, Virg. Aen. 5. 148 f. ‘tum plausu fremituque virum studiisque faventum / consonat omne nemus’, TLL 6. 1. 377. 22 ff. Horace is describing a completely imaginary procession of citizens offering up their valuables; it would be tactless to suggest that they should tag on at the end of Octavian’s triumph. 47. vel nos in mare proximum . . . : by an even more extravagant fantasy Horace then urges the Romans to dump their treasures in the sea. proximum implies ‘most readily available’; there is to be no shillyshallying. The proposal belongs to popular philosophy; cf. Lucian,
2 4 . I N TAC T I S O P V LEN T I O R
291
Timon 56 N ªæ Ø ŁØ, ºØÆ b ‹º K c ŁºÆÆ KƺE ÆPe (e ºF), Pb IƪŒÆE Iæd IªÆŁfiH ZÆ, vitarum auctio 9, Philostratus, vit. Apoll. 1. 13, where Crates the Cynic is alleged actually to have done this; cf. Jerome, adv. Iov. 2. 9. 338 ‘Crates ille Thebanus, proiecto in mare non parvo auri pondere, ‘‘abite’’ inquit ‘‘pessum, malae cupiditates; ego vos mergam ne ipse mergar a vobis’’ ’. In the Duomo at Siena there is an intarsio by Pinturicchio of about 1505 which portrays Sapientia (or rather Virtus?) between Socrates and Crates, who is throwing jewels over a cliff (Po¨schl 381 ff. with illustration); an inscription above reads ‘huc properate, viri, salebrosum scandere montem’ (cf. v. 44 above on the path to Virtus). H may also have been influenced by parables about jettisoning treasure to save a ship (3. 29. 61 n.). 48. gemmas et lapides aurum et inutile: gemmae and lapides are not consistently distinguished, but where the two words are combined the latter refers to pearls; cf. Tib. 1. 8. 39, Manil. 4. 398 f., where Housman compares Cic. Verr. 4. 1 ‘ullam gemmam aut margaritam’ among other passages; add Suet. Aug. 30. 2 cited above on 45, TLL 7. 2. 951. 56 ff. This explanation is supported by Ov. med. fac. 20 ff. ‘conspicuum gemmis vultis habere manum: / induitis collo lapides Oriente petitos / et quantos onus est aure tulisse duos’, Mart. 11. 49 (50). 4 ‘gemma vel a digito vel cadit aure lapis’. Though men might wear ostentatious rings, jewellery was naturally associated with women (for details see J. P. V. D. Balsdon, Roman Women, 1962: 262 ff., with bibliography on 336); for typical denunciations cf. Sen. ben. 7. 9. 4, Plin. nat. hist. 9. 104–5. inutile is not a euphemism for perniciosum, as some suggest, but ‘useless’ in a moralist’s sense (supervacuum); cf. Lucian, Timon 56 (cited on 47) , anth. Lat. 649. 2 ‘caecus inutilium quo ruit ardor opum?’ 49. summi materiem mali: the parallels suggest that the ‘supreme evil’ here is avarice, not luxury or the decline of morals; cf. Cato p. 82, fr. 1 Jordan (¼ Gell. 11. 2. 2) ‘avaritiam omnia vitia habere putabant’, Paul, 1 Timothy 6: 10 ÞÆ ªaæ ø H ŒÆŒH KØ ØºÆæªıæÆ, Diog. Laert. 6. 50 (on Diogenes) c غÆæªıæÆ r æ ºØ ø H ŒÆŒH, Otto 51. H must have been influenced particularly by Sall. Cat. 10. 3 ‘primo pecuniae, deinde imperi cupido crevit; ea quasi materies omnium malorum fuere’. But in Sallust avarice is the raw material from which other evils originate; in our passage gold is the substance that fuels avarice itself (cf. TLL 8. 463. 30 ff.). Justin combines both ideas when he says ‘auri argentique usum velut omnium scelerum materiam sustulit’ (3. 2. 12).
292
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
50. mittamus, scelerum si bene paenitet: mittamus combines the ideas of ‘drop’ (OLD 8) and ‘get rid of ’.The conditional clause is to be taken with mittamus, not with 51 ff.; for the very strange and extreme recommendations need the further elaboration provided by the si-clause, whereas the general assertion which follows does not; moreover, it is more usual to round off the sentence at the end of the line. H is referring to the crime of repeated civil wars (for scelerum cf. 1. 2. 29 with N–H, 1. 35. 33); for these he gives an unconvincing economic interpretation (so Lucan 1. 158 ff.). 51–2. eradenda cupidinis / pravi sunt elementa: cupidinis (masculine in H as in early Latin) is generally taken here as ‘avarice’ (so in 2. 16. 15, 3. 16. 39); this coheres alike with the previous lines and the end of the poem. Mitscherlich, however, interpreted it as the self-indulgence traditionally associated with young men; this suits the remedy prescribed in 54 f. ‘asperioribus . . . studiis’. In fact both views are true: cupidinis in the general sense of ‘desire’ suits the transition from one phase of the argument to the next; other instances of words with a ‘cardinal’ function are serm. 1. 10. 39 (theatris), 2. 1. 82 (mala carmina), epist. 2. 2. 57 (quid faciam vis?). For the importance of early training cf. epist. 1. 2. 64–70, Pers. 5. 36 ff., [Plut.] de lib. educ. 4, Juv. 14. 123 f. ‘sunt quaedam vitiorum elementa, his protinus illos iuvenes / (pater) imbuit et cogit minimas ediscere sordes’ (much of the satire is relevant). As elementa often has the specific sense of ‘letters of the alphabet’ (Greek Ø EÆ), it suits eradenda, which suggests erasures on a wax tablet; cf. also Sen. epist. 104. 20 ‘omnem ex animo erade nequitiam’. 52–4. et tenerae nimis / mentes asperioribus / firmandae studiis: firmandae is Bentley’s conjecture for formandae of the MSS. He recognized that the latter is the vox propria for moulding the characters of the young; cf. epist. 2. 1. 128 ‘mox etiam pectus praeceptis format amicis’ with Brink, TLL 6. 1. 1104. 6 ff.; if tenerae implies ‘young and malleable’ (cf. Pers. 5. 36 ff. ‘teneros tu suscipis annos . . . / artificemque tuo [animus] ducit sub pollice vultum’), formandae is particularly appropriate (Bentley cites Sen. epist. 34. 1 ‘qui ingenia educaverunt et quae tenera formaverunt, adulta subito vident’, Stat. Ach. 1. 478 ‘teneros formaverit annos’). But then he subtly observes that nimis is a fatal objection: how can minds be reproached for being too young and malleable? Therefore tenerae must mean rather ‘soft and effeminate’; such characters need to be toughened and stiffened by asperioribus studiis, i.e. firmandae sunt ; cf. 3. 5. 46, Quint. 10. 1. 131 on Seneca ‘iam robustis et severiore genere satis firmatis legendus’, TLL 6. 1. 810. 76 ff. This argument appears to be unanswerable.
2 4 . I N TAC T I S O P V LEN T I O R
293
54–5. nescit equo rudi / haerere ingenuus puer: for haerere, ‘to hold one’s seat’, cf. Cic. Deiot. 28 ‘itaque Deiotarum cum plures in equum sustulissent, quod haerere in eo senex posset, admirari solebamus’, Ov. met. 4. 27 (on Silenus) ‘pando non fortiter haeret asello’, Sidon. carm. 2. 264 ‘equo ceu fixus adhaeret’; this was not easy in a world without stirrups. Riding was important in Augustan youth-movements (cf. N– H on 1. 8, p. 108), and every young officer had to know how to ride a horse, though the cavalry were mainly supplied by the socii. The drill was believed to be beneficial in itself, and anybody with duties in difficult country would need a horse. rudi is Cornelissen’s conjecture for rudis of the MSS and Porph.’s lemma (Mnem. 16, 1888: 311); it describes untrained animals, e.g. oxen (Varr. rust. 1. 20. 1, Ov. fast. 1. 83 ‘rudes operum’) and elephants (bell. Afr. 27. 2). Cornelissen argued that any boy of good family must have been able to keep his seat on a horse, provided it had been broken in; on the other hand, riding an untamed animal was evidence of energy, and is significantly combined with hunting at serm. 2. 2. 9 f. ‘leporem sectatus equove / lassus ab indomito’ (see further, 56–7 n.). The conjecture also provides a satisfactory balance between equo rudi and ingenuus puer, whereas the asyndetic combination of rudis and ingenuus is unusual in Latin poetry (for limited exceptions see Virg. Aen. 5. 24 with Heyne–Wagner, 10. 391 with Harrison, H–Sz 160 f.). In favour of rudis it might be contended that it balances doctior (56), which comes at the same place in the line, but the natural connection of doctior is with the foregoing nescit. Hiatus between lines is usually rare in an Asclepiad system (N–H vol. 1, p. xl), but it occurs in this poem at 11 f., 24 f., and 61 f. 56. venarique timet: ancient hunting was done for the most part on foot (cf. Ov. met. 8. 331 ff. and N–H on 1. 1. 25, 1. 37. 18), and the danger arose not from the riding but from the quarry, particularly wild boars (see Pease on Virg. Aen. 4. 158 f.); as a result the sport was regarded as evidence of masculinity and as a training for war ( J. Henderson, PCPS 47, 2001: 19; cf. serm. 2. 2. 10 f., epist. 1. 18. 49 f. ‘Romanis sollemne viris opus, utile famae / vitaeque et membris’). In giving moral precepts to the well-born young Lollius, H uses as examples the training of horses and hounds (epist. 1. 2. 64 ff.). For Roman hunting see J. Aymard, Les Chasses romaines, 1951, Anderson 1985. 56–7. ludere doctior / seu Graeco iubeas trocho: the trochus was a metal hoop which was bowled along (hence the Greek æ
from æ ø); cf. Prop. 3. 14. 6 ‘versi clavis adunca trochi’, Ov. ars 3. 383 with Brandt, Mart. 11. 21. 2 ‘arguto qui sonat aere trochus’ with Kay. H presents it
294
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
here as paradoxical that mere play should be regarded as an art, but he admits elsewhere that the hoop needed skill: ars 379 f. ‘ludere qui nescit campestribus abstinet armis, / indoctusque pilae discive trochive quiescit’. For the Greek character of such sports cf. serm. 2. 2. 10 ff. ‘vel si Romana fatigat / militia [i.e.hunting, and riding an unbroken horse] assuetum graecari, seu pila velox / molliter austerum studio fallente laborem, / seu te discus agit, pete cedentem aera disco’; the Greek word trochus could itself convey contempt (cf. other Greek examples at Juv. 3. 67 f.) and H naturally uses the everyday Graeco rather than the poetical Graio. Yet in other contexts H and his friends take part in ballgames (serm. 1. 5. 48 ff., 1. 6. 126), and Strabo talks of the Campus Martius being full of people playing with balls and hoops (5. 3. 8). For the hoop see further H. A. Harris, Sport in Greece and Rome, 1972: 133 ff. with plates 52 and 54, RAC 10. 855. 58. seu malis vetita legibus alea: for this use of malle in presenting an alternative cf. 1. 4. 12, 3. 4. 3. Because dicing often involved ruinous gambling (cf. epist. 1. 18. 21 ‘quem praeceps alea nudat’), it was already prohibited in the time of Plautus (mil. 164 f.); the Digest mentions three laws and a senatus consultum (11. 5. 2–3), but the rules were relaxed at the Saturnalia (Mart. 5. 84 etc.). We hear of penalties of four times the wager (ps.-Asc. on Cic. Caecil. 24, p. 194 Stangl) and even of exile (Cic. Phil. 2. 56), but they had little effect; even emperors played, including Augustus himself, and Claudius wrote a treatise on the subject (Suet. Aug. 71. 1, Calig. 41–2, Claud. 33. 2, Dom. 21). For the procedures of dicing cf. J. P. V. D. Balsdon, Life and Leisure in Ancient Rome, 1969: 155 ff., RE 13. 1933 ff., RAC 10. 849 f.; for denunciations and penalties cf. Mayor on Juv. 11. 176, Owen on Ov. trist. 2. 472, RE 1. 1358 f. 59–60. cum periura patris fides / consortem <et> socium fallat et hospitem: it is not surprising that the son breaks the law in his selfindulgence seeing that the father shows no scruple in his acquisitiveness. Early editors (including Lambinus) joined the cum clause to what follows (62 ff.), not to what precedes; but then the connection at 59 is very abrupt. In the remarks on the son we should not lose sight of the father, whose materialism is the main object of H’s criticism. Every word underlines the father’s villainy: his promises are perjured (periura fides being an oxymoron), and he is guilty of deceiving people to whom he owes a special duty. For cheating a business partner cf. epist. 2. 1. 122 f. ‘non fraudem socio . . . incogitat ullam’ with Brink’s note, Cic. Sex. Rosc. 116, Rosc. Com. 16 ‘aeque enim perfidiosum et nefarium est fidem frangere . . . et socium fallere qui se in negotio coniunxit’. The MSS read consortem socium, which implies that the partner shared the capital, but the attribute adds little; in view of Porph’s comment
2 4 . I N TAC T I S O P V LEN T I O R
295
(cum omnes scelere grassentur in hospitem in socium in consortem) Bentley plausibly inserted et, taking consortem to mean ‘co-heir’. For treachery to one’s guest-friend (perhaps the climax of the man’s bad faith) cf. 2. 13. 8 with N–H; to maintain a proper balance, hospitem seems preferable to hospites, even though the latter has rather greater manuscript support and the former produces a hiatus before indignoque in 61 (see above on 54). 61–2. indignoque pecuniam / heredi properet: the acquisitive man derives no enjoyment from his money, which will pass to his heir; cf. 2. 3. 19 f. ‘exstructis in altum / divitiis potietur heres’; this heir must be the spendthrift of the preceding lines, not a remote connection as might often be the case (N–H on 2. 14. 25). pecunia is an appropriately prosaic word (Axelson 108); cf. 3. 16. 17, 4. 9. 38. For the greedy man in a hurry cf. Juv. 14. 178 ‘properantis avari’, G. A. Gerhard, Phoinix von Kolophon (1909), 99 f.; for the transitive use of properare cf. N–H on 2. 7. 24 (deproperare), epod. 12. 22, Virg. georg. 4. 171. 62–3. scilicet improbae / crescunt divitiae: the emphatic improbae is predicative (‘wealth accumulates shamelessly’) and suggests an inability to draw the line (Mynors on Virg. georg. 1. 146); it does not refer merely to the ill-gotten gains of 59 f. As divitiae is not accompanied by a genitive, H is presumably stating a generalization; for this feature at the end of a poem cf. 1. 24. 19 f., 4. 12. 28, Esser 62 ff. That suits scilicet which means ‘in truth’ and is not here a concessive particle (OLD 2e) balancing tamen. 63–4. tamen / curtae nescioquid semper abest rei: curtus means ‘having something broken off ’, and hence ‘defective’, cf. mancus. For the commonplace that greed is never satisfied cf. 2. 2. 13 ‘crescit indulgens sibi dirus hydrops’ with N–H, 3. 16. 42 f., epist. 1. 2. 56 ‘semper avarus eget’, Otto 51; the observation comes not just from Horace, the objective commentator, but also represents the mentality of the greedy man himself, who is never content; cf. serm. 1. 1. 62 ‘nil satis est’ and the prayers of the fool in serm. 2. 6. 8 ff. curtae must be taken as an instance of prolepsis (for which see H–Sz 413 f.), i.e. ‘something is always missing from our possessions, so that they are defective’. In the belief that this was over-complicated, Cornelissen proposed partae, ‘the wealth already acquired’ (Mnem. 16, 1888: 311 f.); this gives fair, if rather bland, sense, but the change is not easy to explain. Campbell (edn. 2) proposed structae; the word suits the piling up of wealth (serm. 1. 1. 34 f. ‘addit acervo / quem struit’, 1. 1. 44, carm. 2. 3. 19, Pers. 2. 44). So the conjecture should be taken seriously: we look for a contrast with nescioquid semper abest, not an anticipation (Syndikus 2. 207 n.).
2 5 . QVO ME , BACCH E , R A P I S ? [Commager 344 ff.; P. J. Connor, AJP 92, 1971: 266 ff.; Davis 111 ff.; Fraenkel 257ff; Po¨schl 164 ff. (¼ H. Oppermann, Wege zu Horaz, 1972: 258 ff.); Troxler-Keller 47 ff.]
1–6. Where are you rushing me, Bacchus, possessed by your divinity? In what cave shall I rehearse my song on Augustus’ consecration among the stars? 7–14. I shall utter something striking and original. As the wakeful Maenad gasps at the mountains she has traversed, so I leave the beaten track and marvel at the uninhabited landscape. 14–20. O god that has power over the potent Bacchae, I shall say nothing mundane. It is delightful as well as dangerous to follow you. Maenadism left a lasting impression on the ancient imagination, but its exact nature is a subject for debate. In his commentary on Euripides’ Bacchae and the third chapter of The Greeks and the Irrational (1951) E. R. Dodds took Dionysiac ecstasy seriously as a manifestation of paranormal psychology; he rightly dissociated it from the later picture of ‘Jolly Bacchus’ and literal intoxication. More recently Albert Henrichs has pointed to the confusion of myth, with its fantasies about snakes and raw flesh, and ritual as it was actually practised (see especially HSCP 82, 1978: 121 ff.); largely relying on Hellenistic inscriptions, he postulates an organized celebration on the mountains that was physically exhausting rather than psychologically disturbing. J. N. Bremmer adopts an intermediate position (ZPE 55, 1984: 267 ff.); while acknowledging the exaggerations in Euripides, he recognizes that repetitive music and cold night air could produce strange states of mind. R. Osborne insists that late inscriptions should not outweigh the extensive evidence for Maenadism in literature and art (Aeschylus as well as Euripides, and a very large number of vases from 530 onwards); parallels in other cultures cannot be brushed aside, and a genuine quest for communion with the divine ought to be recognized (in Greek Tragedy and the Historian, ed. C. Pelling, 1997: 187 ff.). C. Segal among others has emphasized Dionysus as the ‘outsider’ and the Maenads’ impulse to escape from the literal and metaphorical bounds of the city (Dionysiac Poetics and Euripides’ Bacchae, 2nd edn. 1997: 350 ff.). See further A. Henrichs, OCD, 479 ff. (with a valuable bibliography), Horsfall on Virg. Aen. 7. 373 ff. Plato with some irony associated the poet’s fine frenzy with Maenadism (see Ion, passim, apol. 22a–c, Men. 99c–e, Phaedr. 245, Russell on Longinus 13. 2); this should be distinguished from the inspiration provided by the Muses since the earliest Greek poetry
2 5 . QVO M E , BACC H E , R A P I S ?
297
(Hes. theog. 31 f., P. Murray, JHS 101, 1981: 87 ff.). Bacchus was the patron of dithyramb and drama, and his status as a poetical god was enhanced in the Hellenistic and Roman periods (N–H on 2. 19, 316 f.). The Roman dramatists continued to write Bacchic plays (e.g. the Lycurgus of Naevius, the Pentheus of Pacuvius, and the Bacchae of Accius), and passages in Plautus mock their conventions (cf. 1 n.). There was an outburst of the cult in 186 bc which was controlled by the surviving ‘Senatusconsultum de Bacchanalibus’ (ILLRP 511), and described by Livy with some sensationalism (39. 8–18, J. A. North, PCPS 25, 1979: 85 ff., P. G. Walsh, G&R 43, 1996: 188 ff.). But by the Augustan period Maenadism in Italy seems no more than a literary topic that appealed to poets’ taste for the exotic and bizarre (as did the continuing rites of Cybele); cf. especially Catull. 64. 251, Virg. Aen. 4. 300 ff. (where Pease supplies many later parallels), 7. 373 ff. (Amata). Maenads continued to figure in art (A. Bruhl, Liber Pater, 1953: 145 ff.), and when Messalina put on a Bacchic performance (Tac. ann. 11. 31. 2–3) that, needless to say, had no religious significance. Horace in his hexameter poems treats Bacchic possession with satirical humour. His own poetry, according to Damasippus, is one of the symptoms of his insanity (serm. 2. 3. 321.). Ever since Liber (i.e. Bacchus) enrolled poets in his thiasos, the Muses have smelt of drink (epist. 1. 19. 3 ff.). Ever since Democritus pronounced poets mad, they have sought solitude and avoided the baths (ars 296 ff.), and sane people shun them in case they recite them to death (455 ff.). Horace recognizes the place of ingenium (natural ability) as well as ars (craftsmanship) in poetry (408 ff.), but in that passage he does not consider the notion that a poet may be ‘carried away’. The ethos of the Odes is very different: for Bacchus’ various roles see T. Oksala, Religion und Mythologie bei Horaz, 1973: 43 ff., H. Krasser, ‘Horazische Denkfiguren: Theophilie und Theophanie als Medium der poetischen Selbstdarstellung des Odendichters’, Hypomnemata 106, 1995: 131 ff. He appears often enough as the god of wine (for his wilder aspects in this capacity cf. 2. 7. 26 f. ‘non ego sanius / bacchabor Edonis’, 3. 19. 14 ff.); in particular 1. 18 shares some of the rapidity and excitement of our poem, though it associates the god with mysteries (12 ff.) rather than Maenads. Elsewhere he appears as a god of poetry (note the nymphs and satyrs in the programmatic overture at 1. 1. 31); Bacchic enthusiasm is a more violent force than the inspiration attributed to Apollo and the Muses (1 n.), and the symbolic terrain of our poem is more rugged than the ideal landscape where Horace hears Calliope (3. 4. 5 ff.). The closest analogy is in 2. 19 (‘Bacchum in remotis carmina rupibus / vidi docentem’), which describes the poet’s confused emotions when possessed by the god (cf. below, 18 n.); but there the Maenads are mentioned only in a line (‘pervicacis . . . Thyiadas’ in v. 9). They occupy
298
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
a more central position in our poem, where their ecstasy is a metaphor for the poet’s frenzy. For this condition cf. Theseus’ famous lines in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, beginning ‘The lunatic, the lover and the poet / Are of imagination all compact . . . / The poet’s eye in a fine frenzy rolling, / Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven’ (v . i. 7 ff.), and Coleridge’s picture of the strange visionary ‘And all should cry Beware! Beware! / His flashing eyes, his floating hair! / Weave a circle round him thrice, / And close your eyes with holy dread, / For he on honey-dew hath fed, / And drunk the milk of Paradise’ (Kubla Khan 49 ff.). After his ecstatic outburst Horace makes a surprising announcement: in his Bacchic cave he will rehearse the apotheosis of Augustus (6 n.), and the result will be something remarkable, fresh, and never said before (7 f.). What work does he have in mind? By the usual account (e.g. Fraenkel 259) he is referring to the ‘Roman Odes’ and proclaiming their originality (cf. 3. 1. 2 f. ‘carmina non prius audita’); but that does not account for the poem’s late position in the book. The most likely explanation is that the future tenses in 3. 25. 7 and 18 represent what Horace is actually doing; in the same way at 1. 12. 21 ‘neque te silebo’ he is already praising Liber (cf. 4. 9. 30 ff. in honour of Lollius), and in 1. 21. 2, when his choir sing ‘dicite Cynthium’, they are already telling of Apollo. When Pindar announces what he will sing, he is referring to the immediate occasion, not to some future poem (E. Bundy, ‘Studia Pindarica I’, University of California Publications in Classical Philology 18, 1962: 21 f.). In the same way Horace’s intention is fulfilled in the ode itself. The claim to originality can be seen in the same way. Horace does not here mean the combination of Roman political themes and Greek poetic forms, for he had written other such poems from the time of the Epodes. He is thinking rather of the spirit that informs the ode and the manner in which it is expressed: here as nowhere else he has conveyed the strange feeling of Dionysiac possession and the excitement associated with the dithyramb (for which see B. Zimmermann, OCD 487). The exuberance and rapidity of that kind of poem is exemplified in Pratinas, PMG 708 (below, 14 n.) and Pindar fr. 75. Horace cannot produce this effect by an accumulation of short syllables (as Catullus does in no. 63), but by persistent enjambment he reinforces the choriambs to suggest a movement that is out of control (Po¨schl 171); cf. the imitation of Pindar’s ‘torrential’ lyrics in 4. 2. 5 ff., where the verse sweeps now across caesuras, now over line-endings, and even over strophic divisions. When Horace, ‘velox mente nova’, imitates the revelling Maenads and follows the god in ecstasy, he creates a poem of unusual rapidity. That is not to deny that the ode, like some others at the end of the book, has a retrospective element. It looks back to the theme
2 5 . QVO M E , BACC H E , R A P I S ?
299
of Augustus’ greatness that had found its most memorable expression in 3. 2–6. Yet 3. 25 is unlike 3. 4, where the inspired poet and the divinely guided Princeps are equally prominent. Here, although the celebration of Augustus is the avowed purpose of the ode, that is not its most striking feature; indeed a Maenad’s ecstasy makes an odd analogy for political commitment, however fervid. What one takes away, rather, is some sense of the mysterious phenomenon of poetic possession. Metre: alternating Glyconics and Asclepiads, as in 3. 24, though the use of enjambment produces a notably different effect. 1–2. Quo me, Bacche, rapis tui / plenum?: H professes to be swept along like a Maenad possessed by Bacchus; the religious and literary background are indicated in the introduction. For the use of rapere in Bacchic contexts cf. Ov. fast. 4. 457 f., Sen. Ag. 722, Lucan 1. 676, Stat. Theb. 5. 93, Herrick ‘Whither dost thou whorry me, / Bacchus, being full of thee?’ In such contexts the Maenad does not know where she is going (cf. Plaut. Men. 835 ‘Bromie, quo me in silvam venatum vocas?’, clearly parodying the topic as it occurred in Greek and Roman tragedy); the question does not expect an answer any more than when Cassandra cries ‘where have you brought me?’ and the Chorus uncomprehendingly explains ‘to the house of the Atridae’ (Aesch. Ag. 1087 f.). For plenum dei of divine possession (¼ Ł ) cf. 2. 19. 6 ‘plenoque Bacchi pectore’ with N–H; note especially Virg. Aen. 6. 77–80 with Norden, Sen. suas. 3. 5–7, Luke 1: 67 ˘Æ ÆæÆ . . . KºŁ —Æ ,`ªı ŒÆd æı, E. R. Dodds, The Greeks and the Irrational, 1951: 64 ff., F. Pfister, RAC 4. 944 ff. As the Maenads in Euripides’ Bacchae, contrary to Pentheus’ allegation in vv. 221 f., are not drunk (see 686 f.), so Horace is not referring to intoxication; distinguish the humorous 3. 19. 14 ff. where the attonitus vates calls for wine. Porph. comments ‘videtur allegoricos significare non sufficere spiritum suum laudibus Augusti [4–5], nisi Liberi munere (nam et ipse musicus deus est) adiuvetur’. For Bacchic frenzy as a metaphor for the poetic impulse see the introduction. H’s rapis recalls also the impetus of the orator, for which see M. Winterbottom in D. Innes et al., Ethics and Rhetoric, 1995: 313 ff.; for poetic instances cf. Ov. fast. 1. 23 with Bo¨mer, Pont. 4. 2. 25 f. ‘impetus ille sacer qui vatum pectora nutrit’; see also the note on velox (3). 2. quae nemora aut quos agor in specus: one significant MS and two citations read et instead of aut, but in such cases Latin sometimes uses the disjunctive even when no real alternatives are offered (K–S 2. 102, H–Sz 499 f.). For agor of Bacchic possession cf. Virg. Aen. 7. 384 (of Amata) ‘per medias urbes agitur’ (the passive is significant). in must be
300
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
taken with nemora as well as with specus, a construction which occurs not uncommonly in high poetry (e.g. Virg. Aen. 6. 692 f. ‘quas ego te terras et quanta per aequora vectum / accipio’), but is not confined to that level; cf. epist. 2. 1. 25 ‘vel Gabiis vel cum rigidis aequata Sabinis’, Catull. 33. 5 f. ‘cur non exsilium malasque in oras / itis?’; see Leo, Analecta Plautina 1, 1891: 42 f. ¼ Kleine Schriften 1. 117 f., K–S 2. 561 f., H–Sz 835. For a similar word-order in Greek poetry cf. K–G 1. 550, Wilamowitz on Eur. Her. 237, G. Kiefner, Die Versparung (1964), 27 ff. Woods could convey to the Romans some of the mysterious feelings associated with animism; cf. Ov. fast. 3. 295 f. ‘lucus . . . quo posses viso dicere ‘‘numen inest’’ ’, met. 3. 28 f. with Bo¨mer, Sen. epist. 41. 3 ‘illa proceritas silvae et secretum loci et admiratio umbrae in aperto tam densae atque continuae fidem tibi numinis faciet’. They are sometimes regarded as appropriate for poetic composition; cf. 1. 1. 30 with N–H, 4. 3. 10 ff., epist. 2. 2. 77 ‘scriptorum chorus omnis amat nemus et fugit urbem’ with Brink, Juv. 7. 56 f., Tac. dial. 9. 6 with Peterson and Gudeman. But in our passage the scenery is not localized, suggesting rather an ideal landscape; cf. the rather gentler picture in 1. 26. 6 ff., 3. 4. 6, Prop. 3. 1. 1 f. ‘Callimachi manes et Coi sacra Philetae, / in vestrum quaeso me sinite ire nemus’ (with Boucher 216 f.), Troxler-Keller 40 ff., 92 ff., Kambylis 178 f. Caves were also awe-inspiring places; cf. Sen. loc. cit. ‘si quis specus saxis penitus exesis montem suspenderit, non manu factus sed naturalibus causis in tantam laxitatem excavatus, animum tuum quadam religionis suspicione percutiet’. They were particularly associated with the cult of Dionysus (Dodds on Eur. Bacch. 120); sometimes these were artificial (Athen. 4. 148b, M. P. Nilsson, The Dionysiac Mysteries of the Hellenistic and Roman Age, 1957: 61 ff.), but obviously not in the wild terrain described here. Like the woods, they are part of the poet’s imaginary world, cf. 2. 1. 39 with N–H, 3. 4. 40, Prop. 3. 1. 5 f. (quoted below on vv. 3–5); Horace did not write in real caves any more than Homer or Euripides (for the fictions about them see Paus. 7. 5. 12, Eur. vita 62–5). 3. velox mente nova: the three words should be taken closely together (‘sped on by a strange state of mind’). velox after agor suggests literal fleetness of foot (as at 1. 17. 1 of Faunus), a regular attribute of Maenads (Eur. Bacch. 169 ŒHº ¼ªØ Æ ı ŒØæÆØ Œ Æ, 748), which is why they were called Thyiades; metaphorically the adjective refers to the impetus of composition and the dithyrambic rapidity of the ode itself. mente nova suits divine possession (cf. Sen. Ag. 720 ff. ‘quid me furoris incitum stimulis novi / . . . rapitis?’, Lucan 5. 167 f. ‘mentemque priorem / expulit’); in other religious contexts novus is applied to
2 5 . QVO M E , BACC H E , R A P I S ?
301
spiritual regeneration (Paul, Romans 12: 2 ÆæFŁ fi Ð IÆŒÆØØ F e H, Paul. Nol. carm. 10. 142 f. ‘mens nova mi, fateor, mens non mea, non mea quondam / sed mea nunc auctore Deo’). Here the metaphor indicates a new poetic impulse; cf. the quasi-Bacchic passage of Lucretius (1. 922 ff.) paraphrased below (12 n.). 3–5. quibus / antris egregii Caesaris audiar / aeternum meditans decus . . . : the three questions, increasing in length (as well as particularity), exemplify a common rhetorical principle (3. 4. 67–8 n.), and here suggest that H’s dithyramb is gaining momentum. antris means ‘caverns’, not ‘rocky glens’ (as at Prop. 1. 1. 11, 4. 4. 3, Manil. 5. 311); see n. 2 above on specus, especially 3. 4. 40 and Prop. 3. 1. 5 f. ‘dicite, quo pariter carmen tenuastis in antro, / quove pede ingressi?’ The case is a local ablative, not a dative of the agent (as some have taken it); to be heard only ‘by hollow caverns’ would imply a degree of isolation that is not appropriate here. audiar is a confident future indicative, like dicam (7), not a tentative present subjunctive (‘am I to be heard?’). H is referring here only to the ode itself, not to some future composition; see the introduction. egregii Caesaris (i.e. Augustus) gains emphasis from its position before aeternum . . . decus (where aeternum itself is stressed). decus implies that the glory of Augustus will add lustre to the skies; cf. 2. 19. 13 f. of Ariadne ‘additum / stellis honorem’ with N–H, carm. saec. 2 ‘lucidum caeli decus’ of Phoebus and Diana, Virg. Aen. 8. 301 ‘decus addite divis’ of Hercules. meditari implies not just ‘to think of doing something’ but actually to work it out; the word is used of practising a tune (Virg. ecl. 1. 2 ‘silvestrem tenui meditaris harundine Musam’) or composing a poem, as in serm. 1. 9. 2 ‘nescio quid meditans nugarum’, Suet. Aug. 85. 2 ‘exstat alter epigrammatum (liber) quae fere tempore balinei meditabatur’. Here meditans is followed by inserere (6), which governs decus, so the meaning will be ‘practising placing etc.’; cf. Ter. ad. 896 ‘meditor esse adfabilis’, Sen. epist. 121. 8 ‘infans qui stare meditatur’. This is preferable to taking inserere with audiar, as ps.-Acro does. 6. stellis inserere et consilio Iovis?: the divinity of the stars was affirmed in Platonic and later philosophy (Pease on Cic. nat. deor. 1. 30), and even Cicero found a place there for the illustrious dead (rep. 6. 16); at a more popular level a belief in catasterism had spread to Rome from the East (see the summary in F. Cumont, After-Life in Roman Paganism, repr. 1959: ch. 3). After Julius Caesar’s assassination the appearance of a comet was hailed as evidence of his apotheosis (Virg. ecl. 9. 46 ff., Suet. Jul. 88, Weinstock 370 ff.); in the same way Virgil predicted a celestial destiny for Octavian ( georg. 1. 32 ff. ‘anne novum tardis sidus te mensibus
302
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
addas . . . ’), in which he was imitated in later panegyrics on emperors (Ov. met. 15. 846 ‘animam caelestibus intulit astris’, Manil. 1. 385 f., Lucan 1. 45 ff. with Getty’s parallels). The fantasy owes much to Hellenistic literary convention (2. 19. 13 f. with N–H on Ariadne, Call. aet. fr. 110 on Berenice, imitated in Catull. 66), but the underlying idea was soon to be embodied in genuine cult: Augustus’ apotheosis, as distinct from the worship of his genius, has to await his death (3. 3. 11–12 n.), but the event itself is already ordained, as aeternum decus implies. inserere suggests not just inclusion (cf. 1. 1. 35 ‘quod si me lyricis vatibus inseres’ with N–H, Tac. dial. 10. 3), but the physical insertion of a new arrival in the starry circle (cf. 2. 5. 21 ‘quem si puellarum insereres choro’); Virg. loc. cit. had talked of the constellations making room for Octavian, and so also Lucan loc. cit. of Nero. H suggests elsewhere that poetry can confer immortality (4. 8. 29 ‘caelo Musa beat’), but though that claim is no doubt implied here (Po¨schl 167), one thinks primarily of the figure by which a poet is said to do himself what he descibes as being done; cf. ecl. 6. 62 f. ‘tum Phaethontiadas musco circumdat amaro / corticis’ (where Silenus does not perform the metamorphosis but simply narrates it), Lieberg (1982), 46 ff. consilio describes the informal group of advisers that played such a part in Roman public and private life (see J. A. Crook, Consilium Principis, 1955: 4 ff.). The variant concilio (also well attested) represents the Homeric ‘council of the gods’, which was often described in later epic or satirical writing; cf. 3. 3. 17 n. H must have remembered Virg. georg. 1. 24 f. ‘tuque adeo quem mox quae sint habitura deorum / concilia incertum est’, but in our passage Iovis (rather than deorum) suits consilio better (in spite of Rutil. Namat. 1. 18 ‘concilium summi . . . dei’); it coheres with Augustan ideology that Jupiter should take wise advice from his amici rather than permit an oligarchic debate. 7–8. dicam insigne recens adhuc / indictum ore alio: H is describing his own poem (as is shown particularly by recens), not the theme of apotheosis. For neuter singular adjectives treated as nouns cf. K–S 1. 228, H–Sz 153 f.; one would have expected the addition of aliquid in prose. insigne means ‘something that stands out’; cf. 1. 12. 39 ‘insigni referam Camena’ with N–H. recens means that Horace’s poem is something new and unfamiliar (cf. PMG 851 (b) 1 ff. , ´Œ , 1FÆ IªºÆ. = . . . ŒÆØa IÆæŁı, h Ø ÆE æ = Œ æÆ T fi ÆEØ . . . ), but it may also hint at the poet’s mystical experience; cf. 2. 19. 5 ‘euhoe recenti mens trepidat metu’. indictum ore alio makes a stronger assertion of originality, that need not be limited to Roman poetry (contrast epist. 1. 19. 32 f. ‘hunc (Alcaeum) ego non alio dictum prius ore Latinus / volgavi fidicen’). For claims to originality see 1. 26. 10 with N–H, 3. 1. 2–3 n., 3. 30. 13–14 n., 4. 9. 3 f.
2 5 . QVO M E , BACC H E , R A P I S ?
303
8–9. non secus in iugis / exsomnis stupet Euhias: Euhias is a feminine noun constructed from the bacchic cry ‘Euhoe!’ exsomnis means ‘sleepless’ (‘vigilans per furorem’ ps.-Acro); cf. Virg. Aen. 6. 556 ‘vestibulum exsomnis servat’ (v. l. insomnis), Sil. 9. 4 f. ‘consul traducere noctem / exsomnis’, TLL 5. 2. 1880. 56 ff. Maenads notoriously roamed all night without sleep; cf. 2. 19. 9 ‘pervicacis . . . Thyiadas’ with N–H, Eur. Ion 1077 K Ø ¼ı of Bacchus, Nonn. 12. 397 ¼ªæı æ, 24. 348 IŒØØ æ . Bentley objected to exsomnis that at night the Maenad would not see the view described below, while the next morning she is regularly portrayed as asleep; cf. Eur. Bacch. 683, Prop. 1. 3. 5 ‘assiduis Edonis fessa choreis’ with Fedeli, Ov. am. 1. 14. 21 f. ‘ut Threcia Bacche / cum temere in viridi gramine lassa iacet’, culex 113, Th. Birt, RhM 50, 1895: 60 ff. It is no use arguing that exsomnis means ı ‘awakened from sleep’ (a usage not attested elsewhere, though note CGL 2. 66. 27 exsomniat K ıØ); for such an interpretation is incompatible with the Maenad’s sleepless wanderings. In spite of the passages cited above, the only way out is to say that at dawn the Maenad is still awake. Bentley also maintained that iugis is feeble without an epithet (yet cf. Virg. georg. 3. 292 ‘iuvat ire iugis . . . ’, Aen. 3. 125 ‘bacchatamque iugis Naxon’). He therefore proposed Edonis (ablative), referring to the Thracian tribe of Lycurgus; he cited 2. 7. 26 f. ‘non ego sanius / bacchabor Edonis’, Ov. trist. 4. 1. 42 ‘dum stupet Edonis exululata iugis’ (but there the right reading is ‘Idaeis . . . modis’), Lucan 1. 674 f. ‘nam qualis vertice Pindi / Edonis Ogygio decurrit plena Lyaeo’, Sil. 4. 776 f. ‘Edonis ut Pangaea super trieteride mota / it iuga’. Yet exsomnis coheres so well with the common representation of the Maenads’ nocturnal revel that it is unlikely to have arisen from palaeographical accident. 10–11. Hebrum prospiciens et nive candidam / Thracen: the Hebrus (Maritza, Evros) is the great river of eastern Thrace (for the geography of the country see S. Casson, Macedonia, Thrace, and Illyria, 1926: 3 ff.); for its wintry associations cf. epist. 1. 3. 3 ‘Hebrusque nivali compede vinctus’ (similarly Flaccus, anth. Pal. 7. 542, 1 f. 0 ¯ æı ØæØ . . . ŒæıEØ Ł ), 1. 16. 13, Theoc. 7. 112, Virg. ecl. 10. 65. It appears in the story of Orpheus, who was torn to pieces by Maenads; cf. Virg. georg. 4. 524, Ov. met. 11. 50 and 55, Milton, Lycidas 62 f. ‘His gory visage down the stream was sent, / Down the swift Hebrus to the Lesbian shore’. For prospiciens cf. Catull. 64. 61 (on Ariadne) ‘saxea ut effigies bacchantis prospicit’, Ov. her. 10. 49 (again Ariadne) ‘aut mare prospiciens in saxo frigida sedi / quamque lapis sedes tam lapis ipsa fui’ (for such representations of Ariadne cf. LIMC 3. 1. 1058–60, 3. 2. 731–2); it looks as if H knew a similar depiction of a Bacchanal surveying the scene (but cf. P. Hardie in Rudd, 1993: 122). In these imagined vistas we
304
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
must not look for geographical precision, though in fact H knew southern Thrace from the Philippi campaign. Lucan gives an antiCaesarian twist to our passage when his Bacchanal exclaims ‘quo feror, o Paean? qua me super aethera raptam / constituis terra? video Pangaea nivosis / cana iugis latosque Haemi sub rupe Philippos’ (1. 678 ff.). Thrace had particular associations with Dionysus (M. P. Nilsson, Geschichte der griechischen Religion 1, 3rd edn., 1967: 564 ff.), notably in the legend of Lycurgus king of the Edoni (2. 19. 16 with N–H); but it is now thought unlikely that the cult entered Greece from that quarter (A. Henrichs, OCD 479 f., citing the appearance of the god’s name in Linear B tablets from Pylos and Crete). The area was conventionally covered with snow (Hom. Il. 14. 227 ¨æfi ŒH ZæÆ Ø Æ, Eur. Hec. 81, Andr. 215), which was an eerie feature in Bacchic landscapes, cf. Dodds on Eur. Bacch. 661 f. The wild terrain makes a particular appeal to the Romantic imagination (note the imitation by Novalis cited by Fraenkel and Po¨schl); but the ancients’ wonder at such scenes included a large element of dread (RE 16. 2. 1817, 1831 f., 1853, 1859 f.). 11–12. et pede barbaro / lustratam Rhodopen: et was read by Gesner’s edition of 1772 for ac of the MSS. The sequence ‘A et B ac (or atque) C’ is unusual, except where B and C are closely linked (Hand 2. 526) or atque is metrically convenient, but this point alone would not justify emendation; if, however, ac is read below in v. 12 (see note), it becomes unnecessarily confusing here. Rhodope was the great range of Thrace, rising to 7,000 ft.; for its association with wildness and cold cf. Theoc. 7. 77, Virg. ecl. 8. 44, georg. 4. 461. By a false etymology the name may have suggested roses, and so offered a colour contrast with nive candidam (10). lustrare primarily meant ‘to purify’ (probably connected with luo rather than lavo), and so was applied to religious processions (W. Warde Fowler, The Religious Experience of the Roman People, 1911: 209 ff., Austin on Virg. Aen. 4. 6, Fordyce on Aen. 7. 391); hence it came to mean ‘traverse’. H is referring, not to the inhabitants of Thrace in general (as some editors suppose), but to the Maenad and her fellow-worshippers; this is shown by the ritual associations of lustro and the Maenads’ reputation for traversing mountains (cf. Virg. georg. 2. 487 f. ‘virginibus bacchata Lacaenis / Taygeta’). barbaro is not just a transferred epithet but emphasizes the outlandish nature of the dance; the Maenads were pictured in literature and on vases as bare-footed, to underline their escape from the proprieties of the city (Eur. Bacch. 664 ff. with Dodds, Nonn. 14. 367 ¼ºº Ææa æıÆ ŒÆ hæÆ ªıa ºø, 14. 382 Iƺ, 46. 147 Iغ ). 12. ac mihi devio: ac was accepted by Bentley with negligible MS support; the MSS in general read ut ; Porph.’s lemma has quam. By the
2 5 . QVO M E , BACC H E , R A P I S ?
305
norms of Latin syntax non secus should be followed by ac or quam (ars 148 f. ‘in medias res / non secus ac notas auditorem rapit’, K–S 2. 18 ff.). Editors defend ut by citing 1. 16. 7 f. ‘non Liber aeque, non acuta / sic geminant Corybantes aera / tristes ut irae’ (but there ut picks up sic, not aeque), Prop. 1. 15. 7 f. ‘nec minus . . . ut’ (but there minus points backwards, and Enk glosses nec minus with atque etiam); positive sentences involving pariter ut and perinde ut give no support to non secus ut. Housman 1. 133 f. defends ut by comparing Ov. met. 15. 179 f. ‘assiduo labuntur tempora motu / non secus ut flumen’ (but though a good MS has ut, the bulk of the tradition has ac); he cites Virg. georg. 2. 277 ‘nec setius . . . ut’ where setius in fact points backwards (see Mynors); at carm. 2. 3. 1 f., where the MSS have ‘aequam memento rebus in arduis / servare mentem, non secus in bonis’, he reads ut bonis rather than the obvious ac bonis which is found in two of the deteriores (see N–H). In the present passage ut should probably be regarded as an interpolation by somebody unfamiliar with this use of ac. If ac is restored here, the ac in v. 11 becomes not just inelegant but confusing; so et should probably be read there (see note). The Maenad is presented as literally in a remote place, having abandoned the city for the mountains, but Horace has ‘left the beaten track’ only in imagination, and in doing so he claims originality for his poem; Porph. comments correctly ‘diximus autem haec allegoricos dici, quia per ea intellegi vult se inusitatum Romanis carmen tractare’. If we consider the four themes: Bacchic possession, poetic originality, mountain landscape, and remoteness (devio), we may be put in mind of the following passages (the words quoted in the original show a direct resemblance to the ode): Virgil (georg. 3. 287 ff.) is about to deal with sheep and goats; it is a large task to add glory (addere honorem) to such a lowly subject, but a sweet desire whirls him (raptat) over the lonely steeps (deserta per ardua) of Parnassus; he is eager to tread on mountain ridges (iugis) where no predecessor’s wheel-track winds (nulla priorum devertitur orbita); he will speak in a resonant and elevated style (magno ore sonandum). Lucretius (1. 922 ff.) is coping with an obscure subject, but the hope of renown has struck his heart with a sharp wand (thyrso), inspiring him with a love of the Muses; so he wanders through the pathless haunts of the Pierides which no one has trodden before (avia Pieridum peragro . . . loca nullius ante / trita solo). Callimachus (aetia fr. l) shuns long works about kings and heroes, advocating small neatly made poems (cf. h. 2. 108 ff.). Apollo bids him avoid the highway (see Wimmel, 1960: 106 ff.). It is clear that the points of contact become fewer the further back one goes. The debt to Virgil seems plain enough; the echo of Lucretius is fainter; and although we
306
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
may still want to see a remnant of the Callimachean passage in the ode, it is wiser (in view of 17 f. ‘nil parvum aut humili modo . . . loquar’) to regard it as a transformation rather than an imitation. 13–14. rupis et vacuum nemus / mirari libet: rupis is Muretus’ conjecture for the ripas of the MSS; just as nemora and specus were combined in v. 2, so rupis and nemus are joined here (cf. also Virg. ecl. 10. 58 ‘per rupis . . . lucosque sonantis’). For crags in the wild Bacchic landscape cf. 2. 19. 1 f. ‘Bacchum in remotis carmina rupibus / vidi docentem’, Eur. Bacch. 1094 IªH, 1051 ¼ªŒ IŒæ, Theoc. 26. 10 (Pentheus spies on the Bacchanals from a rock), Sil. 2. 73 f. (a pastiche of our passage) ‘quales Threiciae Rhodopen Pangaeaque lustrant / saxosis nemora alta iugis’, Nonn. 14. 382 f. ł ŁØ æ = æ ƺfiø æHØ . . . Kæ (and so often on vases). In Virgil’s ‘deserta per ardua’ (quoted above, 12 n.) deserta corresponds to Horace’s vacuum, which can be applied to rupis as well as nemus. Editors generally accept ripas, which balances Hebrum (10); indeed the word is often used where we should expect ‘rivers’ (L. Ha˚kanson, Statius’ Silvae, 1969: 68). ripae are part of a locus amoenus at 3. 1. 23, 3. 29. 24, but they normally suggest the gentle and peaceful aspects of nature (flowers, trees, birds); the word is combined with nemus at 4. 2. 31 f. ‘circa nemus uvidique / Tiburis ripas’, but that is not the kind of landscape visualized here. Bentley proposed rivos, which again suits peaceful contexts (3. 16. 29, 3. 29. 22, epist. 1. 10. 7, 1. 18. 104, Lucr. 2. 30); they are often combined with groves and caves (Bo¨mer on Ov. fast. 2. 315), but in a symbolic landscape the word might too easily suggest the small streams of the unpretentious poet. In a literal sense H’s imagined grove might be called ‘empty’ because it is lonely and remote (cf. Aetna 22 ‘desertam vacuo Minoida litore’); at the same time H’s metaphorical grove is ‘unoccupied’ because his poetry is original; cf. epist. 1. 19. 21 f. ‘libera per vacuum posui vestigia princeps, / non aliena meo pressi pede’ (the legal tinge of vacuum can also be detected in our passage). mirari (balancing stupet in v. 9) suits awe at the more impressive aspects of nature; cf. epist. 1. 6. 1 ff. (where admirari is associated with wonder at the heavens), Virg. georg. 4. 363 (Aristaeus under the river). libet means not just ‘I am willing’ but ‘I am delighted’; cf. epod. 2. 23 ‘libet iacere modo sub antiqua ilice’. 14. o Naiadum potens: the nymphs regularly belong to Bacchus’ thiasos (1. 1. 31, 2. 19. 3, Anacreon, PMG 357. 1 ff.), and are often represented as Naiads; cf. Pratinas, PMG 708. 3 f. Ke Ke › ´æ Ø , Kb E ŒºÆE, Kb E ÆƪE = I ZæÆ a ˝Æœø. potens (like o) suits religious language (cf. ŒæÆø etc.), with a genitive to mark the god’s sphere of influence; cf. 1. 3. 1 ‘sic te diva potens Cypri’
2 5 . QVO M E , BACC H E , R A P I S ?
307
with N–H. Here H is not making a petition but acknowledging the source of his inspiration, cf. 1. 26. 9 f. ‘nil sine te mei / possunt honores’, Pulleyn 39 ff. 15–16. Baccharumque valentium / proceras manibus vertere fraxinos: the Bacchanals, when possessed by the god, had unnatural strength, as shown also by their tireless dances over the mountains. valentium takes further the idea of power suggested by potens; it is because of this divine power that H writes nil mortale (18). vertere means ‘overturn’ (OLD s.v. 5), like evertere (Virg. georg. 1. 256 ‘silvis evertere pinum’); for the Bacchanals’ ability to bend and uproot trees cf. Eur. Bacch. 1064 ff. and 1109 ff. (hence Cornelissen’s vellere, for which cf. Virg. Aen. 3. 27 f. ‘ruptis radicibus arbos / vellitur’, OLD s. v. 2a). procerus is a grandiose, perhaps somewhat archaic, word for ‘lofty’ (or ‘long’), particularly used of trees; cf. epod. 15. 5, Enn. ann. 178 ‘proceras pinus pervortunt’ (this, like Virg. georg. 1. 256, tells in favour of vertere here), Catull. 64. 289, Cic. leg. 1. 15, Virg. ecl. 6. 63. 17–18. nil parvum aut humili modo, / nil mortale loquar: H is referring to his own style, and hence by implication to his subject-matter. parvum means ‘trivial’, the opposite of magnum as found in ars 280 (of Aeschylus) ‘et docuit magnumque loqui nitique cothurno’; for ªŁ in literary criticism (involving value as well as size) see D. A. Russell and M. Winterbottom, Ancient Literary Criticism, 1972: index under ‘Grandeur’. humili refers to banality and vulgarity, like ÆØ (see Russell and Winterbottom, index under ‘Low words’). mortale means primarily ‘quod mortali conveniat’ (ps.-Acro), as at Virg. Aen. 6. 50 ‘nec mortale sonans’ (of the inspired Sibyl); there is also an unmistakable suggestion that H’s poetry will not die; cf. 3. 30. 6 n., 4. 9. 1, Pind. I. 4. 58 F ªaæ IŁÆ øA (æØ. loquar balances audiar (4) and dicam (7) and need refer to nothing outside the present poem. It may seem to come late in the poem for a statement of this kind, but cf. Pind. I. 4. 90b. 18. dulce periculum est: Bacchic ecstasy is both thrilling and dangerous, not because of snowfields and precipices (Fraenkel), but because meeting a god and submitting one’s mind to him is a terrifying experience; cf. 2. 19. 5 ‘euhoe, recenti mens trepidat metu’ with N–H, Lucr. 3. 28 f. ‘his ibi me rebus quaedam divina voluptas / percipit atque horror’ (see Bailey on this quasi-religious sensation). The oxymoron particularly suits the double nature of Dionysus, who was both genial and pitiless (N–H on 2. 19. 27, C. Segal, Dionysiac Poetics and Euripides’ Bacchae, 2nd edn., 1997: 350 f.), cf. 2. 19. 6 f. ‘turbidum / laetatur’ with N–H, Eur. Bacch. 66 f = ŒÆ PŒÆ, Antip. Thess. anth. Pal. 9. 186. 3 f. (of Aristophanes) M ‹ ˜Ø ı Ø º , x Æ b
308
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
FŁØ = M FØ, æH ºŁ Ø Ææø, anth. Plan. 290. 3 æe (of a pantomimus playing Bacchus). In the same way the ambitious poet experiences dangers as well as delights; cf. 4. 2. 1 ff. (the imitator of Pindar risks the fate of Icarus), epist. 2. 1. 210 f. (of the dramatic poet) ‘ille per extentum funem mihi posse videtur / ire poeta’, ars 10 (on poetic audacia) with Brink, Stat. silv. 4. 5. 25 (repeating dulce periculum), Kroll 42 n. 43. 19. o Lenaee, sequi deum: ¸BÆØ was a word for Bacchanals (see Gow’s preface to Theoc. 26), and the Lenaea was Dionysus’ winter festival at Athens (A. Pickard-Cambridge, The Dramatic Festivals of Athens, edn. 2, revised by J. P. A. Gould and D. M. Lewis, 1968: 25 ff.). The cult-title ¸ÆE is rare in extant Greek (Alcaeus of Messene, anth. Pal. 9. 519. 1, Orph. hym. 50. 5, 52. 2, Bo¨mer on Ov. met. 4. 14), but is common in Augustan poetry. As it was thought, probably wrongly, to be derived from º a wine vat (Diod. 4. 5. 1 etc.), it suits contexts that deal with the vine and drinking (Alcaeus of Messene, loc. cit., Virg. georg. 2. 4 ff. ‘huc, pater o Lenaee: tuis hic omnia plena / muneribus, tibi pampineo gravidus autumno / floret ager’). In the same way it coheres in H with pampino (20). Bentley objected that the sentence would amount to no more than ‘dulce est, o Bacche, sequi Bacchum’; he therefore suggested, but did not print, ‘te, Lenaee, sequi ducem’. But the transmitted reading is less tautological than he suggests. deum implies the superhuman power of Bacchus: ‘it is a dulce periculum,’ says the poet, ‘to follow your divinity’. 20. cingentem viridi tempora pampino: after some hesitation we have concluded that cingentem refers not to the god but the poet (thus Heinze); it is on him that our attention should be fixed, particularly at the end of the ode (cf. 3. 30. 15 f.). For the accusative and infinitive cf. Plaut. mil. 68 ‘nimiast miseria nimi’ pulchrum esse hominem’, K–S 1. 695, H–Sz 358 f. As he joins the thiasus Horace wreathes himself as a sign of his new commitment; normally the vine-shoots were worn by the god rather than his votaries, but cf. Ov. met. 6. 592 ‘vite caput tegitur’ (of Procne). As the colometry of the passage suggests a break at the end of v. 19, the dissociation of cingentem from deum seems acceptable. Some commentators think that cingentem must be taken with deum. It cannot be a standing epithet (‘the god who wreathes his temples’); that is possible at 1. 32. 9 f. ‘Veneremque et illi / semper haerentem puerum’, but if it were the construction in our passage, the perfect cinctum would be required (cf. 4. 8. 33 of Liber ‘ornatus viridi tempora pampino’). The meaning would have to be ‘while he wreathes his temples’; cf. Sen. Med. 70 ‘praecingens roseo tempora vinculo’, where Hymen is preparing for
2 6 . V I X I P V ELLI S
309
a particular wedding. But here it would be odd for the god to do the wreathing during the revel-rout. Syndikus (2. 214 n.) now thinks that the god is wreathing the poet’s brow (Porph. had already suggested that he is wreathing Horace as well as himself ); this view was firmly rejected by Bentley, for then mea or mihi would have to be expressed; cf. 3. 30. 15 f. ‘et mihi Delphica / lauro cinge volens, Melpomene, comam’. It may also be doubted whether the revel-rout is the right occasion for the formal coronation of the poet.
26. VIXI PVELLIS [C. P. Jones, HSCP 75, 1971: 81 ff.; Pasquali 498 ff.; T. C. W. Stinton, Phoenix 31, 1977: 164 ff.; Williams 206 ff.]
1–8. I was until lately successful in the warfare of love, but now I am dedicating my lyre and weapons; hang them on the wall that protects Venus’ left side. 9–12. Goddess of Cyprus and Memphis, let the disdainful Chloe feel a stroke of your whip. In this short ode Horace combines and refabricates themes from several types of epigram, adapting them all to his own purported situation. By opening with ‘vixi puellis nuper idoneus’ he is parodying the language of sepulchral epitaphs; see CLE 106. 1 ‘vixi beatus dis amicis literis’, 381. 1 ‘vixi viro cara custosque fidelis’, 1869. 15 ‘Felix vocatus, felix vixit cum suis’. The following militavi would suit a soldier’s gravestone; cf. ILS 2030 ‘vixit ann. XVIII, militavit ann. II’ (cited with other instances by R. Merkelbach, ZPE 17, 1975: 140). When Horace goes on to speak of his lyre (3 f.), he is alluding to the lover’s serenade (paraclausithyron), a stock motif of amatory epigram as of other genres (see 3. 7. 29 f. and the introduction to 3. 10). Horace also draws on dedicatory epigram, a common type in life and literature; see anth. Pal. book 6, W. H. D. Rouse Greek Votive Offerings, 1902, H. Ku¨hn, Topica epigrammatum dedicatoriorum Graecorum, Diss. Vratislavia 1906, H. Roth, Untersuchungen u¨ber die lateinischen Weihgedichte auf Stein, Diss. Giessen 1935. A victorious soldier might dedicate his own weapons as well as his enemy’s (anth. Pal. 6. 127–32 etc., Rouse 111 ff., Roth 38 ff., cf. epist. 1. 1. 4 f. of a gladiator); Horace exploits this motif through the traditional topic of the militia amoris (2 n.). Again, dedications on a craftsman’s retirement, attested sometimes from real life (Rouse 366), were a favourite topic in the Anthology (Gutzwiller 92), where minor implements are catalogued with pedantic realism; thus an ageing courtesan might dedicate her unwanted mirror to Aphrodite
310
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
(Plato, anth. Pal. 6. 1. 3, cf. 6. 210, 211). Here Horace applies a similar motif to himself with a blend of humour and wistfulness that seems entirely his own: he pretends that he used to break into his girl-friends’ apartments like the aggressive rakes of comedy (7–8 n.), but now he is feeling his age and is hanging up his crowbars. Such a renuntiatio amoris was another familiar topic of Greek epigrammatists and their Latin successors (anth. Pal. 5. 179, Tib. 1. 9. 83 f., Ov. am. 3. 11. 32 ‘non ego sum stultus ut ante fui’; see further the catalogue in Cairns 79 ff.); but instead of voicing bitter reproaches Horace shows a wry amusement at his own situation. For his philosophical attitude to changed circumstances cf. Philodemus, anth. Pal. 5. 112. 5 f. (no. 5 in D. Sider’s edition) ŒÆd ÆØ ‹ ŒÆØæ , KØ Æ: ŒÆ ŒÆd F = PŒØ, ºøœæ æ ±ł ŁÆ (imitated at epist. 1. 14. 32 ff.). It is worth noting that in his renunciation of love Propertius dedicates himself to Good Sense (3. 24. 19 f.): ‘Mens Bona, si qua dea es, tua me in sacraria dono; / exciderant surdo tot mea vota Iovi’. RN thinks that in the same way Horace may be making his dedication not to Venus, as is generally assumed, but on the neighbouring wall of the shrine of Good Sense (see below, 5 n.). Horace’s humour is shown again in the grandiloquent prayer to Venus in the last stanza. We expect that his address will lead to a request for future peace; in fact by a witty surprise he asks for the haughty Chloe to be struck with the goddess’s whip. Venus’s whip is intended both to punish Chloe for her past disdain and (like Cupid’s arrows) to make her fall in love; for love’s blend of pain and pleasure cf. Mart. 6. 21. 9 f. (on the marriage of Stella after some delinquencies): ‘dixit (Venus) et arcano percussit pectora loro. / plaga iuvat: sed tu iam, dea, caede duos’; that is to say, the stroke is not just a punishment but a stimulus, which is why the goddess is invited to strike the bride as well. According to the usual interpretation Horace hopes that Chloe will after all be smitten with love for himself (see especially Stinton, loc. cit.). He thus acknowledges that his renuntiatio amoris is a sham; for such mockery of his own backsliding cf. 2. 4. 22 ff. ‘fuge suspicari / cuius octavum trepidavit aetas / claudere lustrum’ (where the suspicion is meant to be well founded), and especially 4. 1. 33 f. (after he has diverted Venus to a more suitable target) ‘sed cur, heu Ligurine, cur / manat rara meas lacrima per genas?’ For a final volte-face in other contexts add 2. 1. 37 ff., 3. 3. 69 ff. There is, however, a different interpretation, to which we now incline: Horace is begging Venus to give Chloe a taste of her own medicine by making her love, not himself (for that is not specified) but some superciliously indifferent man (thus Jones, loc. cit.). For the thought cf. Theoc. 7. 118 (to the Erotes) ‘Strike with your arrows the lovely Philinus, for he has no pity for my friend’ (i.e. make Philinus
2 6 . V I X I P V ELLI S
311
the victim of an unrequited passion for somebody else, as explained by Gow), Ov. met. 3. 405 (addressed to Nemesis by a lover who has been spurned by Narcissus) ‘sic amet ipse licet, sic non potiatur amato’. The view that this is a prayer for revenge is supported by arrogantem in the emphatic last position and by the severe punishment implied by sublimi flagello (11–12 n.); for if Chloe fell in love with the poet, he would surely respond and there would be no punishment at all. Stinton objects (166 f.) that prayers for revenge should, as in Ovid’s passage, be addressed to Nemesis or Dike, whereas Venus should be asked for love. But in a real sense Venus is being asked to give love (unrequited love to Chloe). That, and not a miserable old age (as in 1. 25) constitutes the revenge. Here another complication must be considered. When he dedicates his barbitos towards the end of the collection, Horace is renouncing not only love but also love poetry (cf. Porph. ad loc. ‘hac T fi fi Ð videtur iam renuntiare carminibus’, Heinze 361). In doing so he repeats themes that appeared in the first book: e.g. the dedication on Venus’ temple wall (1. 5. 13 ff.), the slaves carrying offerings to Venus (1. 19. 13 ff. quoted below on v. 6), the unresponsive Chloe (1. 23), the assault on the hetaera’s house (1. 25. 1 f.), the grandiose prayer to the Queen of Cyprus (1. 30. 1). If the traditional view of our ode is correct, that ought to involve a volte-face in the area of love-poetry as well as in love. One would have to argue that such a return takes place in the final stanza: in still hoping for Chloe’s love he turns out to have written another love-poem. On the other hand, with Jones’s interpretation the renunciation is not revoked within the poem, but we do not have to wait until 4. 1 to see this happen. For, whatever the chronology of their composition, with the odes in their present order we shortly come to 3. 28, which in part at least can be regarded as a love-poem (thus Syndikus 2. 219). Metre: Alcaic (in itself a sign that Horace has created something more complicated than the epigrams on which he draws). 1. Vixi puellis nuper idoneus: ‘I lived of late fit for the girls’; for the parody of epitaphs see the introduction above. The predicative adjective describes a life-style; cf. Sen. epist. 88. 37 ‘(quaeritur) libidinosior Anacreon an ebriosior vixerit’, OLD s.v. 9; distinguish the places where vivere means no more than esse (Catull. 10. 33 f. ‘sed tu insulsa male ac molesta vivis’, OLD s.v. 2). Horace is not saying ‘I have truly lived’ (as at 3. 29. 43), nor yet ‘I have completed my life’ (as at Virg. Aen. 4. 653), for such usages are incompatible with an adjective; and if one puts a comma after vixi (thus Campbell, followed by Shackleton Bailey), the isolation of the verb spoils the contrast with 3 ‘nunc . . . habebit’. vixi is an aorist,
312
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
not a true perfect (which would require adhuc rather than nuper); cf. W. Peek, Griechische Vers-Inschriften 1113a (appendix), 6 f. I ø (or - ) KøÆ a ºø Œb ıªH. For puellis C. Franke proposed duellis, which found favour with Housman (reported by L. P. Wilkinson, JRS 60, 1970: 256). They understood by it not, of course, real wars but the militia amoris (2 n.), in which case H’s erotic meaning would first emerge at barbiton (4) and Veneris (5). But duellis is too archaic to combine well with idoneus, and the variation of form at bello (3) seems impossibly awkward. idoneus is a prosaic word (Axelson 105 f.), often used in military contexts (2. 19. 26, serm. 2. 2. 111, Prop. 1. 6. 29 ‘non ego sum laudi, non natus idoneus armis’); it is therefore appropriate to the militia amoris and should be translated as ‘fit’ (with a suggestion of sexual vigour). The rare personal dative, not attested before our passage (cf. Quint. inst. 2. 3. 1 ‘etiam cum idoneos rhetori pueros putaverunt’, TLL 7. 1. 231. 23 ff.), suggests that puellis had a surprise effect. Contrasts between ‘then’ and ‘now’ are common in many types of epigram (3. 11. 5–6 n.). In particular, sepulchral epitaphs contrast death with recent activity (see Lattimore 172 ff.); nuper, ‘only the other day’, suits the unexpectedly deceased. 2. et militavi non sine gloria: the theme of love as a campaign, occasionally found in earlier Greek poetry, became a commonplace of comedy, epigram, and novel. The militaristic Romans developed the parallel with gusto; cf. Lucil. 1323M. ‘vicimus, o socii, et magnam pugnavimus pugnam’ (‘pugnam pro stupro’ Donatus), Tib. 1. 10. 53 with Murgatroyd, Prop. 2. 7 with M. R. Gale, JRS 87, 1997: 77 ff.; see especially Ovid’s extended double-entendre at am. 1. 9, beginning ‘militat omnis amans’ (‘every lover is on active service’) and continuing with references to hardships, wounds, sleeplessness, stratagems, nightattacks, close combat, triumph, and spoils; see further McKeown ad loc., A. Spies, Militat omnis amans, Diss. Tu¨bingen 1930, P. Murgatroyd, Latomus 34, 1975: 59 ff., Lyne (1980), 71 ff. H gives new life to the metaphor by enumerating the actual implements of his siege-warfare (7). For gloria of sexual success cf. Ov. am 2. 12. 11 f. with McKeown; for non sine cf. 3. 7. 7–8 n. 3–4. nunc arma defunctumque bello / barbiton hic paries habebit: for habere of a dedication cf. Virg. Aen. 10. 423 ‘haec arma exuviasque viri tua quercus habebit’. arma at first seems metaphorical, then turns out to refer to literal implements; it is convenient for H’s joke that the word arma can comprise other than military equipment (OLD s.v. 10). defuncta bello must be understood with arma; for the word-order cf. 1. 5. 5 f. ‘fidem mutatosque deos’.
2 6 . V I X I P V ELLI S
313
The Greek barbitos is a poetical word for ‘lyre’ (N–H on 1. 32. 4); so here it is the instrument not just of the serenading lover but of the Graecizing love-poet. defunctum suits the military metaphor as it suggests a discharged soldier; as it can also mean ‘dead’, it may allow a contrast with vixi (1). As the lyre was conventionally imbellis (1. 6. 10 with N–H), there is point in the collocation with bello. 5–6. laevum marinae qui Veneris latus / custodit: laevum is given emphasis by the long hyperbaton, but it has not been explained why H is so particular about the placing of his offerings; in real life dedications were made all over a shrine and its precincts (D–S 2. 378 f.), and literary epigrams do not specify a position with any exactitude (anth. Pal. 6. 52. 1, 6. 114. 2, 6. 124. 2, Ku¨hn, op. cit. in introduction, 22). Headlam compared our passage at Herodas 4. 19 f. KŒ ØB e ÆŒÆ, ˚ŒŒº, B = B , Y ªØ , but there the tablet is placed on the goddess’s right because Asclepius is on her left (4. 4 f.). As was indicated in the introduction, RN would like to suggest that the wall belongs to the aedes of Mens, which (as every Roman would have known) stood on the Capitol next to Venus Erycina; the two shrines were vowed (217 bc) and dedicated (215 bc) at the same time (R. Schilling, La Religion romaine de Ve´nus, 1954: 250 ff.), and were separated only by a gutter (Liv. 23. 31. 9 ‘utraque in Capitolio est canali una discreta’, Steinby 3. 240 f.). latus custodit suggests the action of a faithful adherent who protects his superior’s left, or unguarded, side (serm. 2. 5. 18 ‘utne tegam spurco Damae latus?’); the shrine of Venus was the more important of the two and was the responsibility of the consul Fabius (Liv. loc. cit.). Philodemus in his similar renunciation of love (anth. Pal. 5. 112. 6) hoped for ‘a better mind’; Propertius actually dedicated himself in the sacraria of Mens Bona (3. 24. 19); and Ovid (am. 1. 2. 31) implies that Amor cannot expect to hold a triumph until Mens Bona has been manacled. NR thinks that laevum is sufficiently justified by the conceit that the wall, like a shield, protects Venus’ exposed flank, thus continuing the military imagery; as Heinze and Plessis point out, there are other cases where H uses a precise word largely for the sake of immediacy, e.g. 1. 11. 6, 16. 4, 33. 7. Here Horace’s concluding prayer to Venus (9 ff.) would seem strange if the dedication had been made to Mens Bona, which is not mentioned. But see further 9–10 n. marina suits Venus as a goddess of the sea, born from the foam; for the familiar association cf. N–H on 1. 5. 16, Hes. theog. 195 ff., LIMC 2. 1. 114 ff., 2. 2. 117 ff., CMA 1. 144 ff. (for the period since the Renaissance). marina is not attested as an epithet of the Capitoline Erycina, but the goddess of the Sicilian Eryx on the north-west coast may have been worshipped as Aphrodite Pelagia (cf. A. Schulten, Klio 23, 1929:
314
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
424, K. Galinsky, Aeneas, Sicily, and Rome, 1969: 74 ff.). Some authorities believe that the Aphrodite Anadyomene of the Ludovisi throne (where she is portrayed rising from the sea) belonged to the Venus Erycina of the Colline Gate, near which the sculpture was found (Schilling, op. cit. 256 ff., Galinsky, op. cit. 243 ff.). H’s dedication on the sacred wall balances the one at the end of the Pyrrha ode (1. 5. 13 ff. ‘me tabula sacer / votiva paries indicat uvida / suspendisse potenti / vestimenta maris deo’), where we both take the divinity as Venus, but RN now retains deo (1995: 426 f.); that poem was fifth from the beginning of the three-book collection, this is fifth from the end. 6–7. hic, hic ponite lurida / funalia: Horace has attendants to fetch and carry, and presents economically a scene reminiscent of comedy (cf. Plaut. Curc. 1 ff., Ter. eun. 774). One recalls his very different description of a sacrifice to Venus at 1. 19. 13 f.: ‘hic vivum mihi caespitem, hic / verbenas, pueri, ponite, turaque’. For the geminatio of adverbs of place cf. Wills 110 f.; H sounds an urgent note now that he has found the right spot for his offerings. For ponere of dedications (ØŁÆØ) cf. OLD s.v. 8c. funalia were torches made of rope coated with wax (Val. Max. 3. 6. 4 ‘funalem cereum’, Blu¨mner, Techn. 2. 224 ff.). As the Romans had no street lamps, such lights were associated with late-night roisterers, but H was thinking of more than that (as vectes shows): torches could be used for burning down a woman’s door, or perhaps destroying the lintel in which the pivot was set (Headlam on Herodas 2. 65); cf. Theoc. 2. 127 f. N ¼ººfi Æ TŁE ŒÆd ± ŁæÆ Y ºfiH, = ø ŒÆ ºŒØ ŒÆd ºÆ qŁ K Æ (with Gow’s note); add Ar. Lys. 249, Men. dysc. 60, Plaut. Pers. 569, Turpil. CRF 200, Ov. am. 1. 6. 57 f. with McKeown. lurida, ‘yellowing’, is RN’s conjecture for lucida of the MSS; this makes the torches parallel to the implements and the lyre which are now no longer useful (3 f.). lucida is regarded as a conventional epithet that continues to be used when no longer applicable (cf. 1. 35. 20 ‘liquidumque plumbum’, Hom. Od. 6. 74 KŁ~ Æ ÆØ of clothes for the wash, Kroll 277), but it is particularly inappropriate in this passage with its contrast between past and present. lurida (a negligible alteration) suits the wax of old torches that are now discoloured with age and smoke; cf. 4. 13. 10 f. ‘luridi / dentes’, epod. 17. 22 ‘pelle . . . lurida’, Stat. silv. 4. 9. 25 ‘vel mantelia luridaeve mappae’, Fulg. myth. 1 praef. p. 6. 9 ‘fumo lurida parietibus aratra pendebant’, Andre´ (1949), 137 f. The relatively rare lurida was exposed to corruption (TLL 7. 2. 1861. 80 ff.); the same was true a fortiori of luror and lurere; cf. epod. 17. 33 ‘virens in Aetna flamma’ (lurens Onians), and Ov. met. 1. 239 (of a homicide turned into a wolf ) ‘idem oculi lucent, eadem feritatis imago est’
2 6 . V I X I P V ELLI S
315
(where Housman, Classical Papers 1. 162, proposes lurent and provides parallels for the corruption). 7–8. et vectes yet arcusy / oppositis foribus minacis: vectes were crowbars for splitting open the folding doors ( fores); cf. Ter. eun. 774 ‘in medium huc agmen cum vecti, Donax’, Lucil. 839M cited below, Fest. 519L ¼ 378M ‘vecticularia vita dicitur eorum qui vectibus parietes alienos perfodiunt furandi gratia’. For such assaults on houses in the comissatio cf. 1. 25. 2, Headlam on Herodas 2. 34 f., K. F. Smith on Tib. 1. 1. 73, McKeown on Ov. am. 1. 6. 57 ff., Bompaire 325, Copley 40 ff., 57 f., 148 n. 26. et arcus seems to be corrupt; bows and arrows are quite unconvincing, even if they are supposed to be aimed at the doorkeeper. G. P. Bidder ( J. Phil. 35, 1920: 113 ff.) suggested that the word means ‘bowdrills’ (Blu¨mner, Techn. 2. 224 and 226); he cited the Italian archetto and the French archet, though there is no parallel in Latin. Iæ , the Greek equivalent, occurs in dedicatory epigrams describing carpenters’ tools (Leonidas, anth. Pal. 6. 205. 5 with Gow–Page, HE 1996, Philippus, ibid. 6. 103. 1 f.); but such an implement is unattested in the present kind of context, and seems altogether too mechanical for the ardent lover. Some have thought that arcus refers symbolically to Cupid’s bow; but such an object would be out of place with funalia and vectes, the plural would be awkward, and Cupid could not be mentioned in such a condensed and casual way. Bentley’s conjecture securesque, which he did not print, may well be right (cf. Theoc. 2. 128 ºŒØ ŒÆd ºÆ , Plaut. Bacch. 1119 ‘nisi mavoltis fores et postes comminui securibus’, Lucil. 839M. ‘vecte atque ancipiti ferro effringam cardines’, Athen. 585a); the elision of the hypermetric syllable is paralleled (2. 3. 27, 3. 29. 35), but if a copyist was puzzled enough to omit it, rewriting would inevitably follow. Housman objected that after vectes another implement was unnecessary (Classical Papers 1. 3 f.), but an accumulation of accusatives is common in Greek dedicatory epigrams and is found in the corresponding sacrifice to Venus at 1. 19. 13 ff. (quoted above on 6); his own tentative sacrate is much more otiose. Another approach would be to give vectes an epithet; Giangrande proposed aduncos (Eranos 64, 1966: 82 ff.), and RN has considered retusos to balance his lurida as well as defunctum (3); cf. 1. 35. 39 f. ‘retusum . . . ferrum’. vectes can have two asyndetic epithets if they are in separate clauses (cf. 3. 1. 7 f. ‘clari Giganteo triumpho, / cuncta supercilio moventis’). 9. o quae beatam, diva, tenes Cyprum: dedicatory inscriptions frequently end with prayers (see anth. Pal. 6 passim). Marks of the sacral
316
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
style are o, the relative clause (N–H vol. 1, p. 127), diva (3. 22. 4 n.), which should be enclosed in commas as a vocative, tenes (¼ Ø , cf. 3. 4. 62), the alternative cult-centres (N–H vol. 1, p. 343). For Cyprum, which suggests the familiar ˚æØ , cf. 1. 3. 1 and 1. 30. 1 with N–H; beatam alludes to ‘Macaria’, an old name for the island (Plin. nat. hist. 5. 129). The inflated periphrasis builds up suspense before the surprise ending; for similar grandiloquence in a mock-supplication to Venus cf. Catull. 36. 11 ff. ‘nunc o caeruleo creata ponto, / quae sanctum Idalium Vriosque apertos, / quaeque Ancona Cnidumque harundinosam / colis . . . ’. In view of our argument with regard to Mens, it is worth remarking that, while Catullus addresses his prayer to Venus, his dedicatory offering is actually made to Vulcan; both deities, however, are explicitly present. 9–10. et / Memphin carentem Sithonia nive: for the temple of Aphrodite at Memphis (near the modern Cairo) cf. Herod. 2. 112. 2 (but that may refer to the Phoenician Astarte), more relevantly Strab. 17. 1. 31. The heat of Memphis makes a symbolical contrast with the Thracian snow; cf. Byron, Don Juan c. 63 ‘What men call gallantry, and gods adultery, / Is much more common where the climate’s sultry’. R. Reitzenstein suggested a reference to Isis (NJA 21, 1908: 93 f. ¼ Aufsa¨tze zu Horaz, 1963: 13 f.), but she had no special connection with Cyprus; though the two goddesses were sometimes identified, the cults at Memphis were distinct (RE 15. 682), and there is no need to invoke such syncretism here. Egypt conspicuously lacks snow (Herod. 2. 22. 3, Sen. nat. 4. 2. 18, RE 1. 987). H’s inflated phrase imitates expressions in Greek poetry where the most irrelevant qualities are sometimes negated; cf. in particular Bacchyl. fr. 30. 1. a I Æ 1Ø (for the use of carentem to represent an alpha privative cf. N–H on 2. 8. 11 f.). Sithonia is the middle of the three peninsulas of Chalcidice; Sithonian snow, presumably a Hellenistic epithet (cf. Virg. ecl. 10. 66, Ov. am. 3. 7. 8), represents Chloe’s frigidity; cf. Philodemus, anth. Pal. 10. 21. 4 (of his loveless state) e Ø Ø łı c ˚ºØ Ø . Some editors compare 3. 9. 9 ‘me nunc Thressa Chloe regit’; but women in H’s odes do not always have constant characteristics, and it is not certain that the earlier passage is meant to be remembered here. 11–12. regina, sublimi flagello / tange Chloen semel arrogantem: regina applied to Venus is an appropriate poeticism (1. 30. 1, Prop. 4. 5. 65) but not a regular cult-title (Bo¨mer on Ov. fast. 6. 37). The second vocative after diva is a mark of the hymnal style; cf. 2. 19. 8 with N–H, Philodemus, anth. Pal. 11. 41. 7 f. ŒæøÆ ªæłÆ, 1FÆØ, = Æ æ , Ø , Æ . A flagellum was a severe instrument (serm. 1. 3. 119 ‘horribili . . . flagello’), and sublimi underlines the seriousness of
2 7 . I M P I O S PA R R A E R E C I N EN T I S O M EN
317
the threat; after that, tange semel suggests by way of litotes that a single stroke will be enough (tange does not necessarily imply a light blow as at Stat. silv. 5. 4. 18 ‘extremo me tange cacumine virgae’). The name Chloe hints at greenness and immaturity (1. 23. 1 with N–H), and arrogantem sounds like a jaundiced complaint against a young girl who had rejected an older man’s advances. For the interpretation of v. 12 see the discussion in the introduction.
2 7 . I M P I O S PA R R A E R E C I N EN T I S OMEN [T. Berres, Hermes 102, 1974: 58 ff.; A. Bradshaw, Hermes 106, 1978: 165 ff.; K. Bu¨chner, Gnomon 14, 1938: 636 ff.; Cairns 189 ff.; J. S. Clay, CJ 88, 1992–3: 167 ff.; Fraenkel 192 ff.; W.-H. Friedrich, NGG 1959: 5, 81 ff.; S. J. Harrison, Hermes 116, 1988: 427 ff. and Fond. Hardt, Entretiens 39, 1993: 148 ff.; R. S. Kilpatrick, Grazer Beitra¨ge 3, 1975: 191 ff.; C. W. Macleod, CQ 24, 1974: 88 ff. ¼ Collected Essays, 1983: 165 ff.; K. Quinn, Latin Explorations, 1963: 253 ff.]
1–16. Let evil omens attend the journeys of the impious: I shall seek favourable auguries for my friend. May you be happy, Galatea, wherever you prefer, and may there be no ill omens to keep you from going. 17–24. But a storm is rising, and I know the dangers of the Adriatic. I should wish such anxiety only on my enemies’ families. 25–32. Europa did not think of these dangers when she trusted the treacherous bull. Soon, instead of picking flowers, she saw nothing except stars and waves. 33–44. On reaching Crete, she exclaimed ‘Alas for the father I have deserted in my madness! Am I really awake, or is it all a bad dream? 45–56. I should like to break the horns of the monster I loved. For my shameful behaviour may I wander naked among lions, and provide a meal for tigers. 57–66. ‘‘Wretched Europa,’’ I imagine my father saying, ‘‘Why don’t you hang yourself—unless you prefer the indignities of slavery?’’ ’ 66–76. Venus appeared and said ‘Cease your angry complaints. Behave like Jove’s consort. Learn to accept a great destiny: your name will be borne by a continent.’ The first third of the ode (1–24) is a propempticon, or sending-off poem, addressed to a woman who is given the name ‘Galatea’ (14 n.). The stock themes are found in Greek poetry of all periods, usually as incidental elements in larger compositions: cf. Hom. Od. 5. 204 f. (13 n.), Sapph. 94. 7 f. L–P (14 n.), Call. fr. 400, Theoc. 7. 52 ff., Lightfoot on Parthenius p. 40 n. 108. Perhaps Parthenius was the first to write a selfcontained verse propempticon (see Lightfoot on frr. 26 and 36); for his Roman successors cf. Cinna, FLP 1–4 with Courtney, Prop. 1. 8 with
318
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
Quinn, op. cit. 242 ff., Hor. epod. 10 (a parody), carm. 1. 3 with N–H, Ov. am. 2. 11 with McKeown, Stat. silv. 3. 2, Paulinus of Nola, carm. 17. These developments must have been influenced by the prose propempticon, a standard form in epideictic oratory and later in rhetorical exercises, that was often marked by sentimentality and flowery language (cf. Men. Rhet. 2. 395–9 with Russell). See further Cairns 50 ff., 115 ff., 190 ff., A. Kerkhecker on Call. iamb. 6, pp. 171 ff., DNP 10. 414 f. Horace’s version shows some of the conventional features. It was usual to hope for favourable conditions for the journey (1. 3. 1 ff., Theog. 691 f., Prop. 1. 8. 17 ff., Ov. am. 2. 11. 34); here Horace promises to conjure up desirable omens (7b–12). Like Prop. 1. 8, the poem is addressed to a woman, so a sentimental interest should be understood; but as no return is in prospect the natural assumption is that she is leaving the poet for another man. When Horace hopes that Galatea will be happy and remember him, his acquiescence in her departure reflects a pattern that goes back to Sappho (13–14 nn.). At the same time he hints at a reluctance to see her go, implied by ‘ubicumque mavis’ in v. 13; such regret also belongs to the conventional pattern, even if here the reproaches ( ºØÆ ) are less explicit than normal (Cairns 190). But instead of praying for calm seas and mild Zephyrs, and looking forward to Galatea’s safe return, Horace shows his continuing disquiet by drawing attention to the storm that is supposed to be raging (17–24); these menacing lines lead into the ordeal of Europa as described in the longer section of the ode (25–76). According to the myth Europa was carried from Phoenicia to Crete by Zeus in the form of a bull (cf. Apollod. bibl. 3. 1. 1 with Frazer, Pease on Cic. nat. deor. 1. 78, DNP 4. 293 f.). The story suits Crete very well (cf. the bulls of Minoan art as well as the Minotaur), but it apparently had a Phoenician origin; cf. Lucian, de Syria dea 4 (coins of Sidon show Europa riding the bull) and Ach. Tat. 1. 1 (a realistic painting at Sidon). It was told by Hesiod (frr. 140–1 M–W), Stesichorus (PMG 195), Bacchylides (fr. 10), and Aeschylus (TrGF 3. 99 Radt, Loeb edn. vol. 2. 415 f., 601 f.). In Herodotus (1. 2) Europa was carried off by Greeks— an event leading to the rivalry of Europe and Asia that culminated in the Persian Wars (RE 6. 1298 ff.); this rationalization was repeated in Lycophron, Alex. 1296 ff., where the vessel was shaped like a bull. In the second century bc Moschus wrote a narrative ‘epyllion’ on the subject (ed. W. Bu¨hler, 1960, and M. Campbell, 1991), which must have been known to Horace; for later accounts see Ovid, met. 2. 836ff., fast. 5. 603 ff., Lucian, dial. mar. 15. As suited a picturesque story, there were numerous artistic representations in antiquity; see LIMC 4. 1. 76 ff. (over 200 items) and the illustrations in 4. 2. 32 ff.; W. Bu¨hler, RAC 6, 1986: 964 ff.; Steinby 4. 121 f. and Richardson 313 (the porticus Europae in the
2 7 . I M P I O S PA R R A E R E C I N EN T I S O M EN
319
Campus Martius as described by Martial 2. 14. 3 etc.); for more modern examples see CMA 1. 421–9. The epyllion of Moschus, mentioned above, will serve as a referencepoint for the ode. Europa dreams that Asia and another figure are struggling to possess her (1–27). She goes to gather flowers (28–36). Her golden basket is described, with its significant representation of Zeus and Io (37–62). The narrative resumes with the girls picking flowers (63–71). Zeus changes into a bull (72–88). He courts Europa and carries her off (89–114). The sea is calm and sunny (115–30). Europa speaks to the bull, aware that he is a god (131–51). Zeus gives a comforting reply (152–61). In Crete he resumes his shape, and intercourse takes place, with the assurance of royal sons (162–6). Here then is a straightforward narrative in a predominantly happy mood, where the main stages of the action are given more or less equal attention. In the ode, however, there is no dream; the naming of the continent is switched to the end; the flower-picking is drastically reduced (29–30, 43–4). The ecphrasis on the basket, characteristic of an epyllion, is omitted; the same is true of the god’s metamorphosis and courtship. The voyage, over a rough sea, takes place at night, without an escort of marine deities; it is described in five lines and is over before the poem reaches half way. The emphasis falls heavily on the heroine’s distress and remorse, which continue over eight stanzas and include her father’s imagined condemnation. At the end it is Venus and not the god himself who reveals the identity of the bull. Here we must confront a controversial issue. According to some commentators, Jupiter does not have intercourse with Europa until he has resumed his proper form; cf. Mosch. 2. 163 f., Ov. fast. 5. 615 ff., Lucian, dial. mar. 15. 4 (where the bull disappears and Zeus leads his blushing bride to the Dictaean cave), Nonn. 1. 344 ff.; on this hypothesis the consummation must lie outside the poem, for in v. 73 Europa still does not know who the bull is. This scenario is favoured by Orelli, L. Mu¨ller, vol. 1, p. 246, Berres, op. cit. 63 ff. According to others, the bull mates with Europa on reaching Crete (33 f.), though in Horace’s compressed narrative this crucial event is omitted; perhaps in pursuing the analogy with Galatea the poet is skating over the grossly absurd details. We prefer this second view, as it provides a more plausible explanation for Europa’s extreme remorse. For some consequences of the two theories see the notes on 33 f., 37 f., 50, 58 ff., 66 ff., 71 f. On the question of the poem’s overall coherence, Fraenkel (loc. cit.) and others have regarded the address to Galatea as simply a loosely attached prelude to the myth of Europa; he showed a similar misunderstanding of 3. 11 (Hypermestra). In fact, as many have seen, the ode is cleverly integrated, the second part serving as a warning to Galatea. The dangers of the sea that we meet at the end of the first part (17–24) are
320
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
repeated at the beginning of the second (26–8, 31–2); the treachery of the bull (25) hints that Galatea’s new lover may also prove unreliable; when Europa’s love turns to hate (45–8) that is a clear warning to Galatea; when Europa gives way to wild self-reproaches, they seem meant to waken some feelings of guilt in Galatea. Nevertheless, Horace manages to express the hope that the girl will be happy (13–14), and the story of Europa ends with the assurance that a continent will be named after her. So in spite of everything Galatea’s adventure may turn out to have some compensations; yet the extravagance of the conclusion suggests that here too the poet does not expect to be taken too seriously. The tone of the poem is highly original. The opening lines on impious travellers and evil omens (1–7a) are far removed from the friendly spirit of the usual propempticon (see 1 n.); the pedantic details of favourable and unfavourable omens (1–12) sound like a parody of augural lore; and to compare Galatea’s departure with Europa’s ride on the bull is an amusing flight of fancy. Speeches by abandoned heroines were a traditional motif, especially in tragedy and epic (e.g. Eur. Med. 160 ff., 214 ff., Ap. Rhod. 4. 355 ff., Catull. 64. 132 ff., Virg. Aen. 4. 534 ff.), but Europa’s hysterical outburst is (at least on the first theory mentioned above) grotesquely hyperbolic: when she threatens to break the bull’s horns (47 f.), or hopes to provide juicy prey for tigers (53–6), or contemplates hanging herself by her girdle from a tree (58–60), the melodrama is calculated to entertain rather than move the reader. In 1. 3 Horace wrote an introductory propempticon in a spirit of warm affection: here the tone is teasing and at places even cynical. In 3. 11, where he professes to have hopes of winning Lyde, Horace used Hypermestra as a splendid example of loyalty: here Galatea is supposed to be leaving him, so the exemplary figure is a rather silly Europa. The dryness of the style suits the situation, deliberately avoiding the sentiment of the conventional propempticon and the glamour normally attached to the legend. In this respect Horace is more like Callimachus than Moschus or Propertius. Metre: Sapphic. 1–2. Impios parrae recinentis omen / ducat: this is an instance of the ‘priamel’ (praeambulum), where the matter in hand is preceded by a ‘foil’ by way of contrast or analogy; cf. 1. 1. 3 ff. with N–H pp. 2 f., 1. 7. 1 ff. ‘laudabunt alii . . . ’, Sappho 16 L–P, A. Henrichs, HSCP 83, 1979: 207 ff., W. H. Race, The Classical Priamel from Homer to Boethius (Mnem. suppl. 74, 1982). At first sight this seems to reverse the usual benediction of the propempticon (Cairns 56 f., 130 f.); cf. epod. 10 on Mevius, especially v. 1 ‘mala soluta navis exit alite’. In 7 ff. H excludes
2 7 . I M P I O S PA R R A E R E C I N EN T I S O M EN
321
Galatea from this category and shows that he has come to terms with her rejection, but this is not yet clear. Faithless women are sometimes called impiae (2. 8. 19, Pichon s.v.); Propertius in his propempticon addresses Cynthia as periura (1. 8. 17), though he too is ready to forgive. The parra was an ill-omened night-bird whose identity is uncertain. Many think it was a type of owl (Capponi, 1979: 381 f.), sometimes citing the Venetian dialect word ‘parruzza’; cf. Paul. Nol. carm. 11. 36 ‘si confers fulicas cycnis et aedona parrae’ (or picae), where a contrast between owl and nightingale is paralleled at Theoc. 1. 136 and Calp. Sic. 6. 8. J. Andre´ (1967), 118 calls it a night-jar or caprimulgus; its cry is mentioned at PLM. 5. 61. 9 f. ‘parrus enim quamquam per noctem tinnitet omnem / sed sua vox nulli iure placere potest’, where the onomatopoeic tinnitet suits a night-jar better than an owl; H’s recinentis suggests a sinister repetition, as characteristic of a night-jar as of an owl. When the glossaries identify it with an ÆNªŁÆº or titmouse (CGL 7. 50) there is presumably a confusion with the ÆNªŁºÆ or caprimulgus (Thompson 24, 59, Capponi 126 ff.). Others, less convincingly, have identified it with the lapwing (Keller 2. 178), the wheatear or oenanthe (compare Plin. nat. hist. 10. 87 with 18. 292), and the jay ( J. W. Poultney, Studies Presented to D. M. Robinson, 2, 1953: 469 ff.); but these are not primarily nocturnal birds. ducat (‘escort’, ‘speed on their way’) would be used more naturally with a favourable omen; so it sounds sardonic here. For unfavourable omens cf. for instance Aesch. Ag. 104 ff., Cic. div. 1. 29 and 2. 84 with Pease, Tib. 1. 3. 17, Ov. met. 10. 452 f., Posidippus, epig. 21, 28, 29 (ed. Austin and Bastianini), RAC 5. 423 ff. 2. et praegnans canis: for this and the following portents cf. Paul. Fest. 244M ¼ 287L ‘pedestria auspicia nominabant quae dabantur a vulpe lupo serpente equo ceterisque animalibus quadrupedibus’; similarly a cat crossing the road is a bad sign (Ar. eccl. 792, Theophr. char. 16. 2), and a crocodile crawling from right to left prevents a journey (Heliod. 6. 1). For ill-omened bitches cf. Plaut. Cas. 973 ‘caninam scaevam spero meliorem fore’, Virg. georg. 1. 470 ‘obscaenaeque canes importunaeque volucres’. praegnans refers to the time when birth was imminent, for to encounter a beast or bird at this stage was inauspicious; cf. Plin. nat. hist. 10. 30 ‘(cornix) inauspicatissima fetus tempore’. Pollution was associated with birth, though less emphasized than in the Jewish–Christian tradition; see Parker 48 ff. 2–3. aut ab agro / rava decurrens lupa Lanuvino: Lanuvium stands on a hill 20 miles south-east of Rome, a little to the west of the Appian Way; it was therefore to the right of anybody heading south to Brindisi in order to sail for Greece (cf. 19 f.). For wolves in Italy cf. N–H on 1. 22. 9,
322
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
Bo¨mer on Ov. fast. 4. 766, T. Ashby, Some Italian Scenes and Festivals (1929), 112 n. 1; of their sinister character Pliny (nat. hist. 8. 80) says: ‘in Italia quoque creditur luporum visus esse noxius vocemque homini quem priores contemplantur adimere ad praesens’ (thus Virg. ecl. 9. 53 f.). ravus is a blend of niger and fulvus (ps.-Acro); cf. Encycl. Brit., edn. 11, 28. 772 ‘The ordinary colour of the wolf is yellowish or fulvous grey’. The adjective is commonly applied to eyes (Andre´, 1949: 70), but here the eyes seem too small a detail; the word must surely refer to the animal’s skin, as in epod. 16. 33 ‘ravos . . . leones’. 4. fetaque vulpes: for foxes in Greece and Italy (where they were less significant than wolves) cf. Keller 1. 88 ff., RE 7. 189 ff. If feta means ‘pregnant’ (OLD 2a), the adjective repeats the sense of praegnans (ps.-Acr. glosses it with gravida), and several commentators, including Bentley, have found this objectionable. If it means ‘having recently given birth’ (OLD 1), we have to picture the vixen as lying with her cubs within sight of the road; i.e. we have to dissociate her from decurrens, though she and the wolf seem closely linked by -que. On either view the arrangement of the omens is less patterned than one expects in Horace: feta, instead of balancing rava, corresponds to praegnans in v. 2. RN would have looked for a colour-adjective such as fulva. 5. rumpat et serpens iter institutum: for portents involving snakes cf. Theophr. char. 16. 4, Ter. Phorm. 707 ‘anguis in impluvium decidit de tegulis’, Pease on Cic. div. 1. 36, 72, 79. Bentley favoured the variant rumpit, arguing that it was in the interests of the impii to break off their journey before they came to any harm. But the point is simply that their hope of a successful journey should be completely frustrated: rumpat goes further than ducat. The present indicative rumpit would produce a banal truism applicable to all journeys and not simply to those of the impii; that would spoil the contrast with what follows. 6–7. si per obliquum similis sagittae / terruit mannos: per obliquum suits an unexpressed verb of motion; the snake is pictured as darting across the road (cf. Virg. Aen. 5. 273 f. ‘serpens / aerea quem obliquum rota transiit’). The simile of the arrow suggests speed (Eur. TGF fr. 1063. 13 ŁA b NF ŒÆd æF, Virg. Aen. 5. 242, 10. 248, 12. 856); conversely Apollo’s arrow is described as a snake (Aesch. Eum. 181 f. e Iæªc ZØ, = æıºı ŁØªª K æ). The shape of the head may assist the comparison. manni (probably an Illyrian word) were fast ponies used for drawing carriages; cf. epod. 4. 14 ‘Appiam mannis terit’ (where Porph. regards them as a sign of luxury), epist. 1. 7. 77, Lucr. 3. 1063, Ov. am. 2. 16. 49 with McKeown, Prop. 4. 8. 15 ff. (of a trip to Lanuvium), E. Wo¨lfflin, ALL 7, 1890: 318 ff.
2 7 . I M P I O S PA R R A E R E C I N EN T I S O M EN
323
7–8. ego cui timebo / providus auspex: an auspex (¼ avi-spex) took omens from the observation of birds; the word is used in connection with auspicia privata, especially at a wedding, whereas augur is the right word at official ceremonies. The poet plays this role at epist. 1. 20. 9 ‘quodsi non odio peccantis desipit augur’, Call. iamb. 5. 31 Kªg ´ŒØ Ø ŒÆd &ıººÆ with Kerkhecker p. 140. providus here means not just ‘prophetic’ (which would be tautologous with auspex) but also indicates concern for the future (cf. 3. 5. 13 ‘mens provida Reguli’). cui ¼ ei cui (for the absence of the antecedent cf. 3. 16. 43 n.); ei is dative with providus, as it can be with providere (OLD 4b), and not just with the remote suscitabo (11); cui is dative with timebo (cf. Ov. am. 2. 11. 9 ‘quam tibi, me miserum, Zephyros Eurosque timebo’ with McKeown, OLD 1b). Heinze thinks the future refers to a principle that H will always follow (cf. 3. 2. 26), but the following stanza must describe a particular occasion; the tense presumably indicates that Galatea’s journey has not yet started (cf. the passage of Ovid cited above, also from a propempticon). 9–10. antequam stantis repetat paludes / imbrium divina avis imminentum: when birds of sea or marsh splash in the water, it is a sign of storm; see Aratus, phaen. 942 ff., Cic. div. 1. 14, Varro Atacinus, FLP 14. 1 f. ‘tum liceat pelagi volucres tardaeque paludis / cernere inexpletas studio certare lavandi’ (with tardae paludis cf. H’s stantis, i.e. stagnantis, paludes), Virg. georg. 1. 384 ff. ‘dulcibus in stagnis’, Lucan 5. 555 f. The subjunctive repetat indicates that H is trying to forestall the bird’s return to the marshes (K–S 2. 368, Wackernagel 1. 246 f.), where it may signal bad weather. divina means ‘prophetic’; cf. serm. 1. 9. 30 ‘divina anus’ (with Cruquius and Bentley), Cic. div. 1. 120 ‘in avibus divina mens’ with Pease, contradicted by Virg. georg. 1. 415 f. in Lucretian vein: ‘haud equidem credo quia sit divinitus illis / ingenium aut rerum fato prudentia maior’. For the genitive cf. ars 218 ‘divina futuri’, Milton, PL 9. 845 f. ‘Yet oft his heart, divine of something ill, / Misgave him’. 11–12. oscinem corvum prece suscitabo / solis ab ortu: the corvus (which refers back to avis) or Œ æÆ was properly a raven (Thompson 168 f., Andre´ 61 ff., Capponi 196 ff., RE 1A. 1. 19 f.), while the cornix or Œæ (below, 16) was a crow (Thompson 168 ff., Capponi 190 f.); both birds were associated with augury and weather-signs. oscen is an augural word (from obs- and cano), referring to a bird that gives omens by its cry rather than its flight; Fest. 197M ¼ 214L, citing Appius Claudius, describes both the corvus and the cornix as oscines, and the repeated c’s in H’s v. 11 suggest the raven’s croak; but our passage implies that their flight mattered as well. See further Cic. fam. 6. 6. 7 ‘non igitur ex alitis involatu nec e cantu sinistro oscinis, ut in nostra disciplina
324
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
est, tibi auguror’, div. 1. 120 with Pease, Prud. Symm. 2. 571 ‘cornice vel oscine parra’. In taking omens a Roman faced south (whereas a Greek faced north), and flight from the left was generally favourable (Enn. ann. 87 ‘laeva volavit avis’ with Skutsch); but in Cicero’s Marius an eagle flying from the west was thought to be a good omen (div. 1. 106). We are also told that a corvus (unlike a cornix) was favourable when it appeared on the right (Plaut. asin. 260 ‘picus et cornix a laeva, corvus parra a dextra consuadent’, aul. 624, Cic. div. 1. 12 with Pease, 1. 85); this is inconsistent with our passage but is supported by Jerome (PL 26. 219 f.) ‘cum a sinistro oscinem corvum audiam crocitantem’ (a disparaging reference to St Ambrose). The Pomptine Marshes, which H’s corvus is to be prevented from reaching, lay to the west, i.e. to the right, of someone going south on the Appian Way. But here there seems to be a conflation of augury (where direction was all-important) and weather-signs (where it was not). H of course is not taking augural lore seriously (cf. his treatment of astrology at 2. 17. 17 ff.). For the nonsensical pedantry of the system see especially the lengthy inscription in the Umbrian dialect from Gubbio (ed. J. W. Poultney, The Bronze Tablets of Iguvium, 1959). As a specimen it is enough to cite ‘ef aserio parfa dersua curaco dersua peico mersto peica mersta . . . ’ (VIa, pp. 228 ff.); Poultney translates ‘there observe a parra in the west, a crow in the west, a woodpecker in the east, a magpie in the east’. 13. sis licet felix ubicumque mavis: if we take the words as they come, this would naturally mean ‘as far as I am concerned, you can be happy wherever you prefer’, implying indifference; but this is incompatible with ‘et memor . . . vivas’ (14), which must be an independent wish, not dependent on licet. Some translate ‘may you be happy’ comparing Ov. met. 3. 405 ‘sic amet ipse licet, sic non patiatur amato’ (as if licet denoted a wish); but that passage means ‘it could be that he himself will fall in love’; cf. Shackleton Bailey (1982), 97. In our passage Shackleton Bailey follows T. E. Page, who took licet as parenthetic. RN thinks it jerky to take the second word in the sentence as a parenthesis, and he has therefore considered ilicet, ‘without more ado’ (PCPS suppl. 15, 1989: 92). This archaic word was originally a formula of dismissal (¼ ire licet); Charisius (261B) says it means extemplo as early as Afran. 215R; and though it is not found elsewhere in Horace it is used five times by Virgil in this sense (Austin on Aen. 2. 424, S. Timpanaro, Contributi di Filologia, 1978: 17 ff.). It is combined with a subjunctive at Sil. 9. 28 f. ‘tradant immo mihi revocatos ilicet enses, / tradant arma iube’. The meaning ‘without more ado’ would suit the context of the propempticon; cf. Hom. Od. 5. 205 (Calypso to Odysseus) ÆPŒÆ F
2 7 . I M P I O S PA R R A E R E C I N EN T I S O M EN
325
KŁºØ NÆØ; This conjecture would allow us to supply vivere (from 14) with mavis, which seems more natural than to supply esse felix, as one tends to do if sis is retained; for the combination of vivere with felix and memor cf. Virg. Aen. 3. 493 ‘vivite felices’, [Tib.] 3. 5. 31 ‘vivite felices, memores et vivite nostri’. This idea also leads well to the next sentence, where it is taken up by ‘nec vetet ire etc.’ 14. et memor nostri, Galatea, vivas: ‘remember me’ is a natural commonplace at partings; cf. Sappho 94. 7 f. L–P ÆæØ æ Œ¼Ł = ÆØ , Tib. 1. 3. 2 (to Messalla), Ov. am. 2. 11. 37 ‘vade memor nostri’, [Tib.] 3. 5. 31 (quoted in 13 n.), Juv. 3. 318 ‘ergo vale nostri memor’, Men. Rhet. 398. 27 f. (prescription for prose propemptica) I ØØ ÆPe BŁÆØ B ºÆØ ıŁÆ , B PÆ , B ØºÆ , Paul. Nol. carm. 17. 9 ‘i memor nostri’. For similar formulae in letters cf. Lucian, dial. meretr. 10. 3, Chariton 8. 4. 6, Sid. Apoll. epist. 6. 11. 12, H.Koskenniemi, Studien zur Idee und Phraseologie des griechischen Briefes, 1956: 123 ff., 146 ff. (including papyri). Galatea is a hetaera’s name at Athen. 1. 6 (the mistress of Dionysius seduced by Philoxenus), Paul. Sil. anth. Pal. 5. 244. 1, 256. 1; see also LGPN 3B. 90. H is probably thinking of the nymph of Theoc. 6 and especially 11 (cf. also Philoxenus, PMG 815–21, Virg. ecl. 9. 39, Ov. met. 13. 738–817, Philostr. imag. 2. 18, LIMC 8. 1, suppl. 1016 ff., 8. 2. 673 f.); she was wooed unsuccessfully by Polyphemus, who like H is finally reconciled to failure, and she took a perverse pleasure in the sea (note also Nonnus 1. 58 on Europa, ‘you would think she was Thetis or Galatea’). The name is used differently in other propemptica, where as a Nereid Galatea is asked to assist the voyager; see Prop. 1. 8. 17 f. ‘sed quocumque modo de me, periura, mereris, / sit Galatea tuae non aliena viae’, Ov. am. 2. 11. 34 with McKeown. 15–16. teque nec laevus vetet ire picus / nec vaga cornix: the emphatic te implies ‘whatever bad omens others may experience’. A picus is a woodpecker (Andre´ 127 f., Capponi 414 ff., T. S. Mackay, AJP 96, 1975: 272 ff.); for its importance in augury cf. Thompson 249 f. In Plautus a picus or cornix (crow) on the left was a good sign (11–12 n.); on the other hand, cf. Virg. ecl. 9. 15 ‘nisi ante sinistra cava monuisset ab ilice cornix’. vaga means that the crow is flying randomly and so failing to provide an omen (cf. Sen. nat. 2. 32. 4 ‘fortuita et sine ratione vaga divinationem non recipiunt’); it is not here a conventional epithet applicable to all birds (as at 4. 4. 2, Ov. met. 1. 308) as that would not balance laevus. 17–18. sed vides quanto trepidet tumultu / pronus Orion?: a question rather than a statement suits the liveliness of the context (cf. 3. 20. 1 n.). The imagined scene apparently moves on to the Adriatic. The
326
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
constellation Orion (Le Boeuffle 129 ff.) ‘sets’ in the technical sense in November, i.e. its morning setting comes closest before sunrise (3. 1. 27–8 n.). For pronus ‘moving down to its setting’ cf. 1. 28. 21 ‘devexi . . . Orionis’, Theoc. 7. 53 f. þÆ K æØ ¯ æØ ªæa ØŒfi = ŒÆÆ, Tæø ‹ K TŒÆfiH Æ Y Ø (also from a propempticon) with Gow. For the association of Orion’s setting with storms see epod. 10. 10, 15. 7, Hes. op. 619 ff. with West, Virg. Aen. 4. 52 with Pease. trepidet (‘is in commotion’) refers to the storms that Orion is supposed to cause, and not just to accompany (3. 1. 31–2 n.). 18–19. ego quid sit ater / Hadriae novi sinus: the Adriatic, seen as a Œ º or gulf of the Ionian Sea (epod. 10. 19 ‘Ionius . . . sinus’), is notoriously stormy (3. 3. 5, 3. 9. 23 n.). H claims to know what it is like from bitter experience (ego is emphatic) because he has sailed to Greece; for the position of novi cf. Soph. OT 1251 þø b KŒ H PŒ r I ººıÆØ, Call. aet. fr. 6 with Pfeiffer, Theoc. 16. 16 f., 29. 3 with Gow. For ater of the darkened sea cf. serm. 2. 2. 16 f. ‘atrum / hiemat mare’, OLD 2b; it is not just a conventional epithet as in Homer’s ºÆØ fiø (Il. 24. 79), and it is more sinister than niger (23 below, N–H on 1. 5. 7). quid sit must mean ‘what it is like’ (cf. Virg. ecl. 8. 43 ‘nunc scio quid sit amor’); in isolation this would cause no doubt, but RN thinks that sit may be too weak to balance the following peccet (PCPS suppl. 15, 1989: 92). He has considered quo sit ‘to what purpose the sea is black’ (i.e. it is brewing a storm). 19–20. et quid albus / peccet Iapyx: Iapyx was the wind that blew westnorth-west from Iapygia (the ‘heel’ of Italy) to Greece; cf. 1. 3. 4, Virg. Aen. 8. 710, Gell. 2. 22. 21, RE 8A. 2. 2299 ff. It is called ‘white’ because it cleared the clouds away, like the Greek Argestes (cf. 1. 7. 15 f. ‘albus ut obscuro deterget nubila caelo / saepe Notus’ with N–H); the word is placed so as to produce a colour contrast with ater immediately above. For the misbehaviour of the winds cf. Virg. Aen. 1. 136, where Aeolus says ‘post mihi non simili poena commissa luetis’, Tac. ann. 14. 3. 3 ‘quem adeo iniquum ut sceleri adsignet quod venti et fluctus deliquerint?’ As peccare properly describes a stumble, RN (loc. cit.) has suggested a play on the horses of Iapygia; cf. Virg. Aen. 3. 537 f. (the white horses of Castrum Minervae), 7. 691 ‘at Messapus equum domitor, Neptunia proles’ with Horsfall (Messapia was roughly the same as Iapygia though in the Aeneid Messapus is oddly connected with south Etruria), 11. 678 ‘et equo venator Iapyge fertur’, Sil. 4. 555 f. ‘Iapyge . . . / . . . equo’. 21–2. hostium uxores puerique caecos / sentiant motus orientis Austri: for the diversion of trouble to others (aversio) cf. 1. 21. 13 ff. ‘hic bellum lacrimosum, hic miseram famem / . . . in / Persas atque Britannos / vestra
2 7 . I M P I O S PA R R A E R E C I N EN T I S O M EN
327
motus aget prece’ with N–H’s parallels. Enemies are conventionally mentioned in such contexts; cf. Nic. ther. 186 K ŁæH ı æÆ ŒEÆ ŒÆæÆØ KºØ, Virg. georg. 3. 513, Ov. ars 3. 247 f. ‘hostibus eveniat tam foedi causa pudoris / inque nurus Parthas dedecus illud eat’; but here H has in mind private enemies (OLD 3), cf. Prop. 3. 8. 20 ‘hostibus eveniat lenta puella meis’, Ov. am. 3. 11. 16, her. 16. 219; Williams compares our own saying ‘I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy’. For variations on the theme cf. Hollis on Call. Hecale, fr. 47. 10–11. H is describing the first indications of the gathering storm (thus ps.-Acro); cf. Hom. Il. 14. 16 ff., Arat. phaen. 909 ff., Virg. georg. 1. 356 ff. caecos motus refers to ‘waves without foam or spray, groundswell’ (OLD 7b); cf. Sisenna, hist. 24 ‘caecos . . . fluctus in se provolvere leniter occepit (mare)’. sentiant makes something of an oxymoron with caecos motus, though not with the phenomena that follow. For the dangerous south winds in the Adriatic cf. 1. 3. 15, 3. 3. 4 f. Though orientis is used here of a rising storm, the other sense of ‘eastern’ suggests to RN a typical Horatian word-play with Austri. 22–4. et / aequoris nigri fremitum et trementis / verbere ripas: the gathering of the storm is marked by the movement from caecos to orientis to fremitum to trementis verbere; note the repetition of r, which the Romans rolled (3. 4. 17–18 n.). For fremitum, a premonitory rumble rather than a roar, cf. Virg. Aen. 1. 56 ‘circum claustra fremunt’, where the winds are like growling animals. trementis verbere means that the shore shudders, cf. Sen. Phaedr. 1013 ‘saxa cum fluctu tremunt’; but it also includes the notion of fear. verbere in such contexts normally refers to the wind (cf. Meleager, anth. Pal. 5. 180. 5 f. Iø Ø Ø ŁºÆÆ = æÆ f fi A, Lucr. 5. 957 ‘verbere ventorum’, Musaeus 297 f., Nonn. 13. 390, OLD 4); but the verb is also used of waves (Curt. 4. 3. 6). ripae refers to the sea-shore as at 2. 18. 22, and may imply quite a steep coastline; cf. Mela 3. 89 ‘vasta omnia vastis praecisa montibus ripae potius sunt quam litora’. It is objected that voyagers are more aware of their own troubles than of the shaking of the sea-shore: hence gementes (Bentley, cf. 2. 20. 14), rupes (Cunningham, cf. Soph. Ant. 592), costas (Shackleton Bailey, of the ship’s ribs, cf. epod. 10. 3). RN suggests that the ‘wives and children’ are watching from dry land, like H; the hostes themselves and not their children would be the right people to be exposed to danger (cf. 1 ff.). NR takes the usual view that the wives and children are thought of as experiencing the perils of the sea, like Galatea (and Europa in the following myth); sentiant motus suits voyagers, and to those caught by a storm in a sailing ship the reverberation of waves on a coast would be terrifying. But the shuddering would more truly be felt by people standing on the shore.
328
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
25–6. sic et Europe niveum doloso / credidit tauro latus: for sic introducing a mythological analogy cf. epist. 1. 18. 41, Fraenkel on Ag. 718; for et cf. Soph. Ant. 944 ºÆ ŒÆd ˜ÆÆ PæØ H = Iºº ÆØ Æ . niveum is a picturesque touch, though the description of girl on bull is much less elaborate in H than in some other writers; cf. Mosch. 2. 125 ff., Ov. fast. 5. 605 ff., met. 2. 874 f., Ach. Tat. 1. 1. 10 ff., Nonn. 1. 65 ff. Depictions of wind-swept and half-naked heroines are a feature of Hellenistic and later poets (Catull. 64. 63 ff., Griffin 103 ff.) and owe much to works of art (see LIMC cited in the introduction). credidit is set against doloso; the bull invited Europa to sit on his back (Mosch. 2. 100, 108), and in literature and art she sits sideways (Ach. Tat. loc. cit. P æØ, Iººa ŒÆa ºıæ), grasping one of his horns. credidit latus may also echo a stock phrase about ‘trusting one’s flank to somebody’; cf. Plin. pan. 23. 2 ‘quod primo statim die latus crederes omnibus’, Sen. nat. 4a praef. 3. 3 ‘ne adulatoribus latus praebeas’. 26–7. et scatentem / beluis pontum: the expression is based on Hom. Od. 3. 158 ªÆŒÆ , though that refers to the size of the monsters rather than their abundance (see Gow on Theoc. 17. 98); cf. also 1. 3. 18 (‘monstra natantia’), 4. 14. 47, Virg. Aen. 6. 729, Albinovanus Pedo 5 ff. (FLP p. 315 with Courtney). scatere is an archaic word (avoided by Cicero and in general by the Augustan poets) that means ‘to gush’ of liquids (Enn. [?] scaen. 155V ‘fontes scatere’ quoted at Cic. Tusc. 1. 69, Lucr. 5. 952) and ‘to teem’ of animals; cf. Lucr. 5. 39 f. ‘ita ad satiatem terra ferarum / nunc etiam scatit’, Plin. nat. hist. 31. 18 ‘lacum scatentem albis serpentibus’. In Moschus the creatures of the deep provide a joyful escort (2. 116 ff. with Bu¨hler); here they are frightening. 27–8. mediasque fraudes / palluit audax: fraudes here means ‘dangers’ (OLD 1), but as it often has the sense of ‘treachery’ (OLD 5), it recalls doloso (25) in the same position. medias means ‘intervening’, ‘in her path’; cf. Varius, FLP 4. 5 ‘non amnes illam medii, non ardua tardant’, Virg. Aen. 9. 142 ‘medii fiducia valli’, TLL 8. 583. 34 ff., Xen. Cyr. 5. 2. 26 K fiø Kd F ı ÆØ; (what is to hinder the union of forces?) palluit is best analysed as the perfect of pallescere, ‘to grow pale’ (cf. epist. 1. 3. 10 ‘Pindarici fontis qui non expalluit haustus’) rather than of pallere (Pers. 5. 184 ‘recutitaque sabbata palles’); inceptive verbs are sometimes transitive (H–Sz 298), whereas the construction in Persius is more unusual. palluit audax is a typical Horatian oxymoron, describing Europa’s understandable pallor combined with her exceptional boldness in facing the sea. audax cannot describe the recklessness of the whole enterprise, as she had not intended to be abducted.
2 7 . I M P I O S PA R R A E R E C I N EN T I S O M EN
329
29–30. nuper in pratis studiosa florum et / debitae Nymphis opifex coronae: the picking of flowers was part of the tradition from Hesiod (fr. 140 M–W) through Bacchylides (fr. 10 Snell) to Moschus (2. 63 ff.). The uncut meadow is a symbol of virginity (Eur. Hipp. 73 f. d ºŒe Æ K IŒæı = ºØH . . . ŒÆ æø), like the enclosed garden (Catull. 62. 39–45), and the picking foreshadows defloration; cf. h. Dem. 5 ff. with Richardson, Moschus, loc. cit. with Bu¨hler, Ov. met. 5. 392 ff., Claud. rapt. Pros. 2. 128 ff., Lyne (1989), 151 ff., Milton, PL 4. 268 ff. ‘Not that fair field / Of Enna, where Proserpine gathering flowers / Herself a fairer flower by gloomy Dis / Was gathered’. debitae means ‘vowed’ (1. 36. 2 ); garlands for the Nymphs are mentioned by Men. dysc. 51 and Longus 1. 9. 2. The Nymphs are already present in Hesiod (loc. cit.), but their place is taken by ordinary companions in Moschus. opifex ‘artificer’ is a dry way of describing Europa’s activity, as if she were a professional maker of garlands (coronarius). 31–2. nocte sublustri nihil astra praeter / vidit et undas: sublustri means ‘slightly lit’, hence ‘glimmering’, just as ‘me subpudet’ means ‘I am slightly ashamed’; for the combination with nocte (perhaps from early poetry) cf. Liv. 5. 47. 2 (when the Gauls try to ascend the Capitol), Virg. Aen. 9. 373 ‘sublustri noctis in umbra’ (with Serv. and the schol. Ver.). There is a contrast with the flowery meadows, which by implication were sunlit (1. 26. 7 ‘apricos necte flores’, epist. 1. 14. 30 ‘aprico . . . prato’); compare the suppressed adjectives at 3. 13. 6 f. For the gloomy seascape cf. Hom. Od. 14. 301 f., Mosch. 2. 132 f. Æ h IŒ Ø ±ºææŁ h Zæ IØ, = Iºº Icæ b oæŁ æŁ b Iæø (with Bu¨hler on 131–4), Lucr. 4. 434 ‘ubi nil aliud nisi aquam caelumque tuentur’, Virg. Aen. 3. 193, Ov. trist. 1. 2. 23. For the anastrophe of disyllabic praeter see H–Sz 216. 33–4. quae simul centum tetigit potentem / oppidis Creten: in the traditional story, as represented by Moschus 2. 162 ff., the god carried Europa to Crete, where he was united with her. simul tetigit appears to leave no time for this; for an explanation see the introduction. centum . . . oppidis alludes to the Homeric epithet ŒÆ ºØ (cf. Virg. Aen. 3. 106). The word ‘syncretism’ was associated with the federation of these cities (Wackernagel 1. 301), and potentem probably refers to the resulting power; for the power of Europa’s son Minos see Thuc. 1. 4 with Hornblower. The Greek form Creten suits H’s lyrics (cf. Europe in vv. 25 and 57, 3. 3. 47); contrast epod. 9. 29 ‘centum nobilem Cretam urbibus’. 34–6. ‘pater o relictum / filiae nomen pietasque’ dixit / ‘victa furore!’: Europa’s father was called Phoenix in Homer (Il. 14. 321) and Moschus
330
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
(2. 7 with Bu¨hler), but Agenor in Herodotus (4. 147. 4) and much of the later tradition. pater is an exclamatory nominative (K–S 1. 274); it is tied by the alliteration and by -que to pietas, which could not be a vocative (cf. Virg. Aen. 6. 878, ‘heu pietas, heu prisca fides!’). relictum filiae nomen is in apposition to pater, and is balanced by victa furore; there should be no comma after pater as the words form a single unit (cf. Virg. ecl. 3. 3 ‘infelix o semper oves pecus’, though there the word-order is more artificial). filiae is dative of agent: by leaving her home (49) Europa has relinquished the right to speak of a father. Some editors take it as a genitive, regarding pater as a vocative, but then pater becomes impossibly isolated and its correspondence to pietas is destroyed. For nomen applied to a family relationship cf. Ov. her. 10. 69 f. ‘pater et tellus . . . / prodita sunt facto, nomina cara, meo’, met. 8. 508 ‘nunc animum pietas maternaque nomina frangunt’. 37. unde quo veni?: in Greek two questions are sometimes combined in one clause (cf. Hom. Od. 1. 170 Ł N IæH; K–G 2. 521 f.); in Latin cf. Cic. Verr. 3. 191 ‘quo ex loco in quem locum?’, H–Sz 459 f. ‘Where am I?’ is a cry of the disoriented; cf. Aesch. Ag. 1086 ff., Virg. Aen. 4. 595 ‘quid loquor? aut ubi sum?’, 10. 670 ‘quo feror? unde abii?’ H has given the conventional idiom an additional sense; for as the sequence shows (i.e. 34–6 and 37b–40), Europa is also thinking of the change in her moral situation. 37–8. levis una mors est / virginum culpae: for the commonplace (established by the plural virginum) cf. Eur. Heraclidae 959, Dem.19. 110 with MacDowell, Prop. 4. 4. 17 ‘et satis una malae potuit mors esse puellae . . . ?’ with Fedeli. culpa is often used of women’s sexual misconduct (3. 6. 17, Pease on Virg. Aen. 4. 19, OLD 3b). Those who think that Europa was still a virgin argue that in her overwrought state she is exaggerating a thoughtless indiscretion: in Moschus she fondled and kissed the bull (2. 95 f.) and finally sat on his back (108), and in the ode she admits to having fallen in love with him (multum amati in 47). They can compare this to the kissing imputed to less innocent herdsmen ([Theoc.] 27. 7 ŒÆº Ø ÆºÆ ØºØ, PŒ ¼ıªÆ ŒæÆ), so it could not be regarded as an innocent game; on the other hand, H might not wish to suggest to Galatea that Europa had actually mated with a bull. Those who think otherwise argue that virginum culpae, like turpe commissum (39), is too serious an expression to indicate anything less than the loss of virginity; such feelings of guilt, however unjustified, are frequently experienced by victims of rape. As for Galatea, the myth (even without an explicit mention of the mating) serves as a sardonic warning to a girl who is ill-advised enough to go overseas with a dubious lover.
2 7 . I M P I O S PA R R A E R E C I N EN T I S O M EN
331
38–9. vigilansne ploro / turpe commissum: the emphasis lies on vigilansne, which introduces a chiasmus: is she awake and guilty or innocent and dreaming? plorare (whence the French pleurer) is avoided by Virgil and later epic, and for the most part in classical prose; but it is found in elegy and 12 times in Horace, including 5 instances in the Odes (Axelson 28 f., cf. 3. 10. 4 n.). 39–42. an vitiis carentem / ludit imago / vana quae porta fugiens eburna / somnium ducit?: false dreams issue from the gate of ivory, true dreams from the gate of horn; cf. Hom. Od. 19. 564 f. H [ºø] Q Œ ºŁøØ Øa æØF KºÆ , = ¥ Þ KºÆæÆØ, IŒæÆÆ æ , Plat. Charm. 173a, Virg. Aen. 6. 895 f. (presumably later than our passage) ‘altera candenti perfecta nitens elephanto, / sed falsa ad caelum mittunt insomnia manes’ (Austin gives further parallels). Heinze explains that the imago is the objective simulacrum that emerges from the underworld and the somnium the subjective dream that it produces; in that case vana should probably be taken with the following relative clause (so Bennett in the Loeb edition); it would then make a frame with eburna, reflecting Homer’s play on KºÆ ‘ivory’ and KºÆæÆØ ‘deceive’. But note should be taken of Sanadon’s conjecture quam; this requires taking vana with the previous line (for the uncommon pause after the first word of the stanza cf. 4. 11. 5); imago vana would then correspond to Homer’s ‘unfulfilled words’ and somnium ducit to his (ZØæØ) IŒæÆÆ æ . For vana of illusory images cf. ars 7 ‘velut aegri somnia, vanae / fingentur species’, Sen. dial. 2. 11. 1. 42–4. meliusne fluctus / ire per longos fuit an recentes / carpere flores?: Europa abandons the idea that her experience is just a bad dream, and with ‘self-taunting irony’ (Shorey) puts another pair of alternatives. longos refers not to the length of the waves but to their remoteness from her home, ‘faraway waves’ (OLD 6); elsewhere the word describes a long, or wide, stretch of sea (OLD 4a, 3. 3. 37 f. ‘longus . . . pontus’, Moschus 2. 133 Iæø) and that could be the sense here, but in RN’s view that would suit pontus better than fluctus. Alliteration sets fluctus against flores; RN senses an antithesis between the far-off waves and the fresh flowers, even if one adjective refers to space and the other to time (for contrasts between the distant and the ready-to-hand cf. N–H on 2. 16. 25). 45–6. si quis infamem mihi nunc iuvencum / dedat iratae: infamem is a strong word (cf. 2. 14. 18 f. ‘Danai genus / infame’); infamia was a legal concept that could entail serious sanctions (Crook 83 ff.). There may be an implication here that the bull was guilty of rape (Williams). For the threat (‘if I could only get my hands on him’) cf. Ter. ad. 311 ff. ‘nil est
332
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
quod malim quam illam totam familiam dari mi obviam, / . . . vah quibus illum (Syrum) lacerarem modis’. 46–8. lacerare ferro et / frangere enitar modo multum amati / cornua monstri: Campbell proposed lacerare frontem because it was not obvious where Europa would obtain a sword or dagger, and RN was once interested in this idea; but we are not invited to ask such questions of a hysterical girl. The transmitted reading is supported when Venus says ‘laceranda reddet / cornua taurus’ (71 f.). lacerare can be used of shattering hard objects like ships and bridges (OLD 2); Hercules broke the horns of Achelous with his bare hands (Ov. met. 9. 85 f.) but Theseus used his club on the horns of the Cretan bull (Hollis on Call. Hecale, fr. 69. 1). 49. impudens liqui patrios penates: ‘shameless’ is too strong a word for Europa’s actual behaviour, just as ‘abandoning home’ is a very unfair way to speak of her abduction; this language is part of her exaggerated selfexcoriation. penates can be applied to foreign homes (Virg. Aen. 1. 527, 4. 21 etc.), but the Roman touch has particular resonance in an address to Galatea. For the collocation with patrios cf. serm. 2. 5. 4, Tib. 1. 3. 33. Here the adjective means ‘paternal’ (cf. 34, 57) rather than the more general ‘ancestral’; cf. Eur. Med. 166 t æ, Mosch. 2. 146 f. HÆ = Ææe IæºØFÆ, Catull. 64. 180. 50. impudens Orcum moror: the anaphora links Europa’s offence to her proposed expiation by suicide. If she is still a virgin, she regards her indiscretion at Sidon as serious enough to deserve death. If she has already been raped (a thing she is reluctant to mention explicitly) she regards this as the consequence of her original shamelessness. Orcus is another very Roman touch (N–H on 2. 18. 30), more appropriate to Galatea than Europa. Death is ‘kept waiting’ in various contexts: cf. Eur. Alc. 255, Ov. her. 10. 82, Stat. Theb. 7. 364, OLD 1b. 50–2. o deorum / si quis haec audis, utinam inter errem / nuda leones: for the invocation cf. epod. 5. 1 f. ‘At o deorum quidquid in caelo regit / terras et humanum genus’; si quis reflects the blanket clause common in prayers (2. 1. 25 with N–H, 3. 21. 5 n.). For errare of the distraught cf. Virg. ecl. 6. 52 (Pasiphae), Prop. 1. 1. 11 (Milanion), Ov. am. 3. 6. 50 (Ilia). For the position of nuda between inter and leones cf. 3. 3. 37, 3. 15. 5, K–S 1. 588; here it may reflect Europa’s position amid the lions. Elsewhere deserted heroines fear lions (Catull. 64. 152 f., Ov. her. 10. 85), and at Octavia 636 ff. Agrippina wishes she had been torn by beasts; for a closer parallel cf. Nonn. 48. 736 f. (perhaps from a
2 7 . I M P I O S PA R R A E R E C I N EN T I S O M EN
333
Hellenistic prototype) where the distraught Aura visits a lioness’s den in the hope of meeting her death. One thinks of Helen’s agonies of guilt in All’s Well That Ends Well i i i . ii. 116 ff.: ‘Better ’twere / I met the ravin lion where he roar’d / With sharp constraint of hunger’. nuda emphasizes Europa’s vulnerability, but there is also a hint of sexual titillation (cf. Griffin 106). This element, which is more characteristic of Ovid, should be associated with fictional fantasies rather than the arena; malefactors could indeed be thrown to the beasts even in the Republican and Augustan periods (Cic. Pis. 89, Strab. 6. 2. 6, Mommsen, Ro¨misches Strafrecht, 1899: 925 ff.), but we do not seem to hear of women being punished in this way till the Christian martyrdoms (see H. Musurillo, Acts of the Christian Martyrs, 1972: 106 ff. for that curious psychological document, the Passio Sanctarum Perpetuae et Felicitatis). 53–4. antequam turpis macies decentis / occupet malas: elsewhere such things are said by way of a compliment when somebody dies young (Soph. Ant. 819 h ŁØØ ºÆªEÆ Ø [ŒÆÆØ], Stat. silv. 2. 1. 154, Chariton 1. 5. 7.). For occupet cf. [Tib.] 4. 4. 5 ‘effice ne macies pallentes occupet artus’. 54–5. teneraeque sucus / defluat praedae: tenerae describes the softness of youth; cf. 1. 1. 26 ‘tenerae coniugis immemor’, 4. 1. 26. For sucus of people cf. Ter. eun. 318 (of a girl of 16 ) ‘color verus, corpus solidum et suci plenum’, Ov. met. 3. 397 f., Apul. apol. 4, OLD 3b, Paul. Sil. anth. Pal. 5. 258. 1 —æ ŒæØ KØ, 6ºØÆ, c Þıd j Oe l = , Suckling, ‘A Ballad upon a Wedding’, stanza 6, ‘No grape . . . could be / So . . . soft as she, / Nor half so full of juice’. Human ‘sap’ was thought to rise and fall as in a tree; cf. epod. 13. 4 ‘dumque virent genua’, Aesch. Ag. 76 f. ‹ Ææe ıºe æø = Ke I fi Æø Æ with Fraenkel, Plin. nat. hist. 2. 189, Onians 177 f., 192, 223 f., E. Irwin 35 ff. 55–6. speciosa quaero / pascere tigris: speciosa is emphatic ‘while still good-looking’. The succession of s’s and c’s gives a harsh effect as in v. 11. tigris balances leones at the same place in the previous stanza. Tigers were known to Romans at this date only from literature (3. 3. 13–15 n.). 57–8. ‘vilis Europe,’ pater urget absens, / ‘quid mori cessas? . . . : urget absens produces something of an oxymoron, since urges primarily suggests physical pressure; the situation resembles Virg. Aen. 4. 83 ‘illum absens absentem auditque videtque’. For the question (which echoes the statement in v. 50) cf. Catull. 52. 1 ‘quid moraris emori?’, Ov. her. 9. 146 ‘impia quid dubitas, Deianira mori?’ cessas implies not just delay but neglect of duty.
334
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
58–60. potes hac ab orno / pendulum zona bene te secuta / laedere collum: the lively hac continues the idea that the parent can see her from afar; for the word’s deictic function cf. 2. 11. 13 ‘cur non sub alta vel platano vel hac / pinu iacentes . . . ?’ with N–H. The manna-ash was often barren (Virg. georg. 2. 111 ‘steriles orni’) and so could be characterized as an infelix arbor, suitable for executions; cf. Liv. 1. 26. 6 ‘infelici arbori reste suspendito’ with Ogilvie, N–H on 2. 13. 11. Hanging was an informe letum (Virg. Aen. 12. 603) and the usual form of suicide in Greek poetry for self-reproaching women, e.g. Jocasta and Phaedra (cf. N. Loraux, Fac¸ons tragiques de tuer une femme, 1985: 38 ff.). The girdle was a symbol of virginity (Hom. Od. 11. 245, h. Hom. 5. 164, Catull. 2. 14); cf. especially Mosch. 2. 73, 164 (of Zeus) ºF ƒ æ with Bu¨hler. For its employment as a noose cf. Aesch. suppl. 457, Aristodicus, anth. Pal. 7. 473. 3 f., Parthenius, fr. 33. 5 Lightfoot, where Byblis hangs herself from an oak. bene te secuta means ‘that you fortunately have brought with you’. sequi can mean ‘accompany’ as well as ‘follow’; for this use, even of things, cf. Catull. 68. 36 ‘capsula me sequitur’, Varr. rust. 1. 55. 4 (of olive oil) ‘dominum et in balneas et gymnasium sequitur’, Fronto p. 62. 6 van den Hout. On one view this implies that Europa is still a virgin, even if she does not deserve to be; but the point seems rather to be that, since it no longer has any symbolic function, the girdle may as well be used for suicide. laedere is a grim euphemism such as sometimes occurs in mentions of death; cf. Soph. Ant. 54 ºŒÆEØ IæÆØØ ºøAÆØ . e-/lidere is found in some insignificant MSS (for the division of a word cf. 1. 2. 19, 1. 25. 11, 2. 16. 7); it is paralleled at Prud. peristeph. 10. 1108 ‘elidit illic fune collum martyris’, and is here the vox propria. Shackleton Bailey prints it and NR is inclined to accept it, even though this impairs the characteristic rhyme of zona and secuta, at least to some extent; we do not know the exact sound produced by the synaloephe of a and e; cf. Allen 81. 61–2. sive te rupes et acuta leto / saxa delectant: the three standard methods of suicide were the sword, the noose, and the precipice (with poison sometimes substituted for the sword); cf. schol. f on Pind. O. 1. 97 , Iª
, Œæ , paroem. Gr. 1. 164, 2. 662, epod. 17. 70 ff., Sen. Phaedr. 258 ff., Plin. nat. hist. 2. 156, E. Fraenkel, Philologus 87, 1932: 470 ff. ¼ Kleine Beitra¨ge, 1964: 1. 465 ff. For the jump cf. for instance [Aesch.] Prom. 748, Ar. ran. 129 ff., Theoc. 3. 25, Virg. ecl. 8. 59 f., and especially Sappho’s legendary leap from the Leucadian rock (Turpilius, CRF pp. 113 ff., Ov. her. 15. 171 ff. with Palmer, fast. 5. 630 with Bo¨mer, Strab. 10. 2. 9). See further Y. Grise´, Le Suicide dans la Rome antique, 1982: 117, A. J. L. van Hooff, From Autothanasia to Suicide, 1990: 73 ff. Commentators in general think that acuta leto saxa means ‘rocks sharp for death’; acutus as an adjective is elsewhere applied to rocks
2 7 . I M P I O S PA R R A E R E C I N EN T I S O M EN
335
(Virg. Aen. 1. 45, Sen. Ag. 571), but here it would make the construction easier if it retained some of its force as a participle (for the dative cf. epist. 1. 3. 23 ‘seu linguam causis acuis’, Colum. 10. 105 ‘quaeque viros acuunt armantque puellis’). RN has some doubts, but it would be at least as awkward to take leto as an ablative with acuta. Mitscherlich considered the possibility that leto is to be combined with delectant; this would be easier if we could give the verb its archaic sense of ‘to entice’: cf. Enn. trag. 303 J ‘set me Apollo ipse delectat ductat Delphicus’ (Non. 97. 29 ‘delectare inlicere adtrahere’), Quadrigarius 46P ‘Fabius de nocte coepit hostibus castra simulare obpugnare, eum hostem delectare’, TLL 5. 1. 422. 43 ff. delectare is generally avoided at the grander levels of Roman poetry (Axelson 106), but not in the Odes. In the present case it carries a sneer. 62–3. age te procellae / crede veloci: Europa goes further than the selfreproachful Helen, who wishes that at birth she had been blown to distant seas (Hom. Il. 6. 345 ff.). For the ironic use of se credere cf. Virg. Aen. 6. 15 (of Daedalus) ‘ausus se credere caelo’, Sen. Med. 301 ff.; committere is used similarly at Juv. 12. 57. Philoctetes hoped for a similar fate at Acc. TRF 562 f. ‘heu! qui salsis fluctibus mandet / me ex sublimo vertice saxi?’ (¼ ROL 2. 564 f.). 63–6. nisi erile mavis / carpere pensum / regius sanguis dominaeque tradi / barbarae paelex: for the fate of captive women as domestic slaves cf. Hom. Il. 6. 456 ŒÆ Œ K ` ! æªØ KFÆ æe ¼ºº ƒe ÆØ , Eur. Hec. 359 ff., etc. pensum was the amount of wool (already scoured, washed, and dyed) weighed out for a woman to spin (Virg. georg. 4. 348 f., Prop. 3. 15. 15). Before spinning could begin it was first teased into a fluff, a process described by carpere or vellere; cf. Virg. georg. 1. 390 ‘carpentes pensa’, 4. 334 f., Blu¨mner 1 (1912), 109. erilis is frequent in comedy in expressions like erilis filius, but later the use of the adjective instead of the genitive is a mark of a grander style (Virg. Aen. 7. 490, 8. 462, Lo¨fstedt 1, 1942: 116 ff.). The degradation was greater because Europa was a king’s daughter (cf. Creusa’s words at Aen. 2. 785 ff.); regius is set against erile above and dominae below (all three words are in an emphatic position). Such a servant might become a concubine of her master and a hated rival (paelex) of her mistress (cf. Aesch. Ag. 1441 of Cassandra); for parallel situations with Roman ancillae cf. Courtney on Juv. 2. 57. Though Europa was from Phoenicia, her family was Greek; she can think of barbarians because she does not know she is in Crete. 66–8. aderat querenti / perfidum ridens Venus et remisso / filius arcu: aderat expresses the suddenness of the epiphany. The conventional
336
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
smiles of Venus (Hom. Od. 8. 362, Sapph. 1. 14) were often accompanied by deceit (cf. Hes. theog. 205), and were at times hard to interpret (Theoc. 1. 95 f. with Gow); here she has amused herself at Europa’s expense and is only now about to reveal the happy ending in store for her. For the Greek adverbial accusative cf. 1. 22. 23 ‘dulce ridentem’, 2. 12. 14 with N–H, Apul. met. 6. 13. 2 ‘subridens amarum’ with Kenney, F. Muecke, Encicl. oraz. 2. 764. remisso . . . arcu: the slackened bow implies that Cupid has now shot his bolt; cf. 3. 8. 23 f. ‘iam Scythae laxo meditantur arcu / cedere campis’. Ps.-Acro comments ‘merito remisso arcu Cupido, tamquam qui Europae iam debellasset pudorem’ (presumably on arrival at Crete); if Europa is still a virgin one has to imagine that Cupid fires again as she finishes her complaint, but that can hardly be extracted from the text. In NR’s view the phrase suggests that Jupiter’s passion has also run its course (cf. Moschus 75 f.); but RN thinks we should focus entirely on Europa. 69–70. mox ubi lusit satis ‘abstineto’ / dixit ‘irarum calidaeque rixae: with cum, the transmitted reading in 71, abstineto is a true future imperative by which the order becomes operative at a later stage; cf. 3. 14. 23 f. ‘si per invisum mora ianitorem / fiet, abito’ with note, epod. 13. 17 ‘illic omne malum vino cantuque levato’. The form is often combined with subordinate clauses referring to the future, and in RN’s view its presence is a significant reason for retaining cum in v. 71. For the Graecizing genitive (as with I ŁÆØ) cf. 4. 9. 37 f. ‘abstinens / . . . pecuniae’, 2. 9. 17 f. ‘desine mollium / tandem querellarum’. The plural irarum refers to fits of rage (cf. 1. 16. 9). 71–2. cum tibi invisus laceranda reddet / cornua taurus: ps.-Acro comments ‘ironicos dictum’, following Porph.’s explanation ‘nec laceres eum . . . cum se tibi rursus obtulerit’. On this interpretation Europa is to stop whingeing when Jupiter reappears in human form and the pair are united; Venus expresses this by echoing Europa’s words in 46 f. Bentley saw a metaphorical hint of passionate love-making here and RN thinks this is a possibility; cf. Claud. 14.5 ff on the marriage of Honorius ‘ne cessa, iuvenis, comminus adgredi, / inpacata licet saeviat unguibus’. RN thinks there may be a conflation of the two versions: (a) rape by the bull, (b) the return of the god in his true form. On the other hand, in all the amours of Zeus/Jupiter sex takes place at the earliest opportunity and is not repeated; so NR does not believe that the god is expected to return, especially in view of remisso arcu (67 f.); as there is some awkwardness in taking the cum clause as the complete opposite of the truth after we have been told that Venus is no longer teasing (69), he favours Fabricius’ non, though this involves taking abstineto (69) as the equivalent of an ordinary imperative (K–S 1. 198e, H–Sz 340 f.).
2 7 . I M P I O S PA R R A E R E C I N EN T I S O M EN
337
73. uxor invicti Iovis esse nescis: of the two interpretations given by Porph. we prefer ‘you do not know how to play the part of Jupiter’s wife’. For this use of nescire cf. Val. Max. 2. 6. 6 ‘abi igitur et esto servus quoniam liber esse nescisti’, Aesch. suppl. 917 b r ÆØ æH PŒ KÆÆØ. This compresses two ideas: ‘You are now the wife of Jupiter’ and ‘You must behave as such’. The injunction is then elaborated by bene ferre . . . disce (74 f.). In Jupiter’s case, of course, uxor is a euphemism. The alternative is ‘you do not realize that you are the wife of Jove’ (¼ ‘uxorem te esse nescis’); in that case bene ferre and disce are not mere variations of nescis esse, but mark a new consequential injunction. H would then be using a Greek construction; cf. epist. 1. 7. 22, Catull. 4. 2 ‘ait fuisse navium celerrimus’ with Fordyce, K–S 1. 702, H–Sz 363 f. However, as Postgate points out (CR 30, 1919: 190 f.), there are no Latin precedents for this construction with scire or nescire; in Greek such verbs require a participle rather than an infinitive (K–G 2. 51); hence Statius, Theb. 7. 792 ‘scit peritura ratis’. It is not a satisfactory answer to say that in Latin the verb ‘to be’ has no present participle; for how was the reader to know that here H had departed from the norm? For invictus as an epithet of Jupiter cf. Ov. fast. 6. 650 ‘invicto sunt data templa Iovi’, though it is not clear that there was a separate cult of ‘Jupiter Invictus’ (L. Richardson 227). 74–5. mitte singultus, bene ferre magnam / disce fortunam: this passage has some of the character of an annunciation, which often begins with words of reassurance; cf. schol. on Od. 11. 322 (Aphrodite to Ariadne) ŁÆææE ÆPfi Ð ÆæÆØE ˜Øı ªaæ ŁÆØ ªıÆEŒÆ ŒÆd PŒºB ªŁÆØ, h. Hom. 5. 193 ff. (Aphrodite to Anchises), Theoc. 24. 73 ff. (Teiresias to Alcmena), Mosch. 2. 154 f. (Zeus to Europa) ‘ŁæØ ÆæŁØŒ c ØŁØ Ø r Æ: = ÆP Ø ˘ NØ’ (with Bu¨hler), Dion. Hal. ant. Rom. 1. 77. 2 (Mars to Ilia), Ov. ars 1. 556 (Bacchus to Ariadne), Luke 1: 30–1 (Gabriel to Mary) ‘1c F, 1ÆæØ yæ ªaæ æØ Ææa fiH ¨fiH’. bene ferre means ‘to sustain with proper dignity’, cf. McKeown on Ov. am. 1. 2. 10, TLL 2. 2119. 36 ff. 75–6. tua sectus orbis / nomina ducet’: sectus orbis is a division of the world, even though sectus is a participle, not a noun; perhaps the implication is ‘half the world’, just as at Stat. Theb. 8. 64 sectum . . . annum means ‘half the year’. H is representing a use of the Greek ø (Isoc. 4. 179 B ªB ± Æ , ŒÆd B b #Æ B ¯Pæ ŒÆºı , Aristides 2, p. 60D e BÆ Œæ). Sometimes the ancients spoke of two continents (Varro, lL 5. 31, Plin. nat. hist. 3. 5), sometimes of three (Sall. Jug. 17. 3); cf. Hardie (1986), 311 ff. Those who add Africa include Pind. P. 9. 8, Cic. nat. deor. 2. 165 (see Pease), Ov. fast. 5. 618 (on Europa) ‘parsque tuum terrae tertia nomen
338
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
habet’. ‘Europe’ as the name of the continent was known to Hecataeus (cf. Herod. 4. 36. 2) and Aeschylus (Pers. 799, cf. 176 ff.), but its origin is uncertain (Herod. 4. 45, RE 6. 1298 ff.). nomina is a ‘poetic’ plural; cf. 4. 2. 3 ‘daturus nomina ponto’, Ov. trist. 1. 1. 90, Manil. 4. 609, H–Sz 16 ff. The word-order emphasizes tua. For ducet cf. serm. 2. 1. 66 ‘duxit ab oppressa Carthagine nomen’.
2 8 . F ES T O QV I D P O T I V S D I E ? [Th. Birt, Horaz’ Lieder, 1926: 27 ff.; A. Bradshaw ap. Woodman and Feeney (2002), 7 ff.; J. Griffin, JRS 87, 1997: 58 ff.; Po¨schl 180 ff.; E. A. Schmidt, Zeit und Form, 2002: 223 ff.; D. West ap. Costa (1973), 43 f.; Williams 120 f.]
1–4. It is Neptune’s day, so bring out the Caecuban, Lyde. 5–8. There is no time to lose. 9–12. We two shall sing in turn of Neptune and the Nereids, you of Latona and Diana. 13–16. The final song will celebrate Venus and Night. Following Hellenistic precedents (e.g. Theoc. 15), the poem is set at a festival, presumably the Neptunalia on 23 July (Wissowa 225, RE 16. 2521 ff.). Though here he is accompanied by Hellenizing Nereids (10 n.), the Roman Neptune was not originally a god of the sea; he was associated rather with springing waters, hence his day belonged to the hottest and driest time of the year. This was a suitable season for drinking (cf. Alcaeus 347. 1 ff.), and as the day was a holiday in the Roman calendar, the celebrations could begin soon after midday (5 n.). Festus mentions ‘leafy huts’ in connection with the Neptunalia (377M¼519L ‘umbrae vocabantur Neptunalibus casae frondeae pro tabernaculis’); we may compare the festival of Anna Perenna when the populace took to the Campus Martius and spent the day drinking and love-making under similar screens (Ov. fast. 3. 527 ff.). But though the Neptunalia provides the background for our poem, Horace’s celebration is typically private and discreet. Neptune received more solemn honours in Augustan Rome, because he had assisted Octavian in his naval war against Antony; cf. Virg. Aen. 8. 699, Binder 243 ff., J. Pollini ap. Raaflaub–Toher (1990), 346 ff. In 25 bc Agrippa completed the Porticus Neptuni (Dio 53. 27. 1, Zanker 143), where a famous fresco depicted the voyage of the Argonauts (cf. below 10 n. on the Nereids); the Basilica Neptuni may or may not have been a separate structure (cf. Steinby 1. 182 f., 3. 341). This would have provided a suitable occasion for the ode, but Horace says nothing about it (contrast 1. 31, where the dedication of Apollo’s temple provides the event to which Horace makes his private response). It has been thought
2 8 . F E S T O QV I D P O T I V S D I E ?
339
significant that according to the Athenian calendar Poseidon’s day was 8 December, Horace’s birthday (Bradshaw, loc. cit. 7–10), but it is unlikely that the coincidence of dates would be generally known, and festo die points to a Roman festival. Horace’s escape from drowning seems a more cogent reason for his address to the god (cf. 3. 4. 28 n.), though again nothing is said about it (contrast 3. 8, where he celebrates the Matronalia as the anniversary of his escape from a falling tree). We turn now to the poem’s mise-en-sce`ne, which is not to imply that it is an exact description of a particular occasion. The psaltria Lyde seems to have been invited to Horace’s town-house, much as the Lyde of 2. 11. 21 f. (there also a psaltria) is invited to Quinctius’ suburban horti (‘quis devium scortum eliciet domo?’ with N–H); for musical girls of the type cf. also 3. 9. 10, 4. 11. 34 f., RE 8. 2. 1341, Marquardt–Mau 151, Griffin (1985), 26 ff. Some commentators picture the poet as dropping in at Lyde’s own apartment; but in that case he could hardly have insisted on a vintage Caecuban which he knows is well stowed away (2 f.). More strangely, some regard Lyde as a hard-working housekeeper at the Sabine villa (strenua in v. 3), disregarding the girl’s exotic name (see below, 3 n.) and her elegant accomplishments. Birt (loc. cit.) thinks of her as the hostess of a tavern (which might suit the wine-store in v. 6); but Lyde has none of the robust vulgarity conventionally associated with such women (cf. the copa Surisca of the Appendix Vergiliana), and a tavern would be an odd place for the consummation implied at the end. The ode is carefully articulated, and each stanza is self-contained. The first two deal with the wine; in the other two Horace gives directions about the songs (as in 1. 21). First he himself will sing about Neptune (as befits the occasion), Lyde about the Nereids (9 n.). Then Lyde will sing with musical accompaniment about Diana and her mother Latona (11–12); these are appropriate subjects for a woman, and balance Neptune and the Nereids (the huntress Diana is set in opposition to the sea). The theme, however, seems surprisingly chaste for a psaltria, and the implication may be that the sexual conclusion of the entertainment is not to be rushed (for the reticence of the poem see Griffin loc. cit.); RN is also interested in Po¨schl’s idea (op. cit. 190 ff.) that the song to the virgin Diana suggests Lyde’s initial hesitation, just as the following song implies that she has given way. That song, in honour of Venus and Night, shows that the ode’s intention is not religious but erotic; the impersonal dicetur allows us to suppose that both parties are now participating. Metre: alternate Glyconics and Asclepiads. 1–2. Festo quid potius die / Neptuni faciam?: the ode begins abruptly in the middle of a developing situation (as in 1. 27). festo and Neptuni are
340
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
both stressed: ‘What better can I do on a feast-day, and that the feastday of Neptune?’ (Darnley Naylor). 2–3. prome reconditum, / Lyde, strenua Caecubum: having aroused the reader’s curiosity, H at once provides the appropriate answer: cf. N–H on 2. 3. 6 f. ‘per dies / festos’, Tib. 2. 1. 29 f. ‘non festa luce madere / est rubor, errantes et male ferre pedes’, Liv. 40. 14. 1 ‘non est res qua erubescam, pater, si die festo inter aequales largiore vino sum usus’. Caecuban was one of the best Italian wines; cf. 1. 37. 5, 2. 14. 25 ff., epod. 9. 1 and 36, Plin. nat. hist. 14. 61, Athen. 1. 27a. reconditum suggests that it was only brought out on special occasions (cf. 2. 3. 8 ‘interiore nota Falerni’). The participle is typically balanced by the contrasting prome, a natural word for bringing out wine (1. 36. 11, 3. 21. 8). D. West (loc. cit. 43) sees military metaphors in these lines (see also 6 n. and 7 n. below): prome reconditum could suggest the drawing of a sheathed sword (the prefix meaning ‘out of the way’ as in re-motum rather than ‘again’), and the wine would then be a weapon in the assault on the ramparts of wisdom (4). Lyde, like Lydia (1. 8. 1), is a Greek name, suitable for a meretrix. strenua (‘energetically’) is predicative with prome; the adjective is generally avoided by the poets (Axelson 106), except for Horace’s hexameters (4 times) and Ovid (7 times); it suits military behaviour, but is here used amusingly in a hedonistic context. The suggestion that there is no time to lose is common in sympotic verse; cf. 3. 29. 5 ‘eripe te morae’, 4. 12. 25 ‘verum pone moras’. 4. munitaeque adhibe vim sapientiae: for the fortress of wisdom cf. 2. 6. 21 with N–H, especially Lucr. 2. 7 f. ‘munita tenere / edita doctrina sapientum templa serena’. Porph. comments ‘Graeci aiunt vim sapientiae adhiberi per vinum’; his precise authority is unknown, but cf. Eubulus, PCG 5, fr. 133 e r H fiH æE KØŒE, Plin. nat. hist. 23. 41 ‘in proverbium cessit sapientiam vino obumbrari’, Otto 372. For the thought that conventional good sense may be folly in a symposium cf. 3. 19. 18 n. H’s exhortation applies to Lyde as well as to himself; there is humour in ascribing sapientia to a girl of this type, and some commentators, including RN, think there may be a suggestion that her defences need to be broken down. 5–6. inclinare meridiem / sentis: strictly speaking, it is the sun that is sinking, having passed its zenith (cf. Liv. 9. 32. 6 ‘sol meridie se inclinavit’); elsewhere the day is the subject (Cic. de orat. 3. 17 ‘inclinato iam in postmeridianum tempus die’, Tac. ann. 12. 39. 2), which justifies here the use of meridies (medius þ dies). On working days the sympo-
2 8 . F E S T O QV I D P O T I V S D I E ?
341
sium did not normally begin till evening or near enough (N–H on 2. 7. 6); so there is humour in saying inclinare meridiem rather than solem. 6. et veluti stet volucris dies: et has sometimes an adversative implication (‘and yet’), cf. TLL 5. 2. 893. 4 ff.; this nuance may be less natural with the variant ac, though atque sometimes has such a sense. For ‘the winged day’ cf. 4. 13. 14 ff. ‘quae semel / notis condita fastis / inclusit volucris dies’, Thymocles, anth. Pal. 12. 32. 3 uæ P › Ø K ÆNŁæØ ÆæŁØ ZæØ (so Marvell speaks of ‘Time’s winged chariot’). The poet is vividly aware of the shortness of life and love (cf. Po¨schl 183 f.); cf. 1. 11. 7 f. ‘dum loquimur, fugerit invida / aetas’, epod. 13. 3 f. ‘rapiamus, amici, / occasionem de die’, Catull. 5. 5. stet makes a characteristic contrast with the juxtaposed volucris, and also balances inclinare; for that contrast cf. Cic. de orat. 2. 187 ‘stantem inclinare’ (eloquence can topple the man who is standing his ground). West sees a further military metaphor; cf. 2. 7. 6 f. ‘cum quo morantem saepe diem mero / fregi’ (which he does not quote). Admittedly the image has changed from storming a citadel to attacking a battleline, and volucris in particular does not fit; but RN accepts West’s defence that H is playing with a series of military terms rather than aiming at a sustained image. 7. parcis deripere horreo: many editors take this as a statement, but a question goes better with the urgency of the context. parcere with the infinitive means ‘to refrain’; cf. 3. 8. 26 ‘parce . . . nimium cavere’, Milton, Sonnet to Mr Lawrence, 13 f. ‘He who of those delights can judge, and spare / To interpose them oft, is not unwise’; normally such restraint would be commendable, but not on this occasion; cf. 3. 19. 21 f. ‘parcentis ego dexteras / odi. sparge rosas.’ deripere continues the image of impatient violence; Caecuban was usually treated with more circumspection. West sees the amphora as an ally (which does not suit deripere), RN rather as a weapon (cf. Virg. Aen. 10. 475 ‘vagina deripit ensem’). A horreum is usually a barn for grain, but the word is sometimes used of a wine-store; cf. Sen. epist. 114. 26 ‘aspice veteraria nostra et plena multorum saeculorum vindemiis horrea’, TLL 6. 3. 2987. 23 ff. The word suggests a large store-room rather than an apotheca in the roof (3. 8. 11 n.); de- is said to imply the latter (cf. 3. 21. 7 descende, Colum. 1. 6. 20), but need mean no more than ‘from’. Birt thought that the horreum was a warehouse in the city where wine could be obtained (cf. 4. 12. 17 f. ‘cadum / qui nunc Sulpiciis accubat horreis’); but deripere does not suit that idea. 8. cessantem Bibuli consulis amphoram?: M. Calpurnius Bibulus was consul with Julius Caesar in 59 bc; so the wine is over thirty years old
342
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
and particularly fine. Bibulus was a notoriously ineffective consul (anon. ap. Suet. Jul. 20. 2 ‘nam Bibulo fieri consule nil memini’), but a reference to his obstruction of Caesar would now be remote; H may just be playing on the man’s name. cessantem would suit any slacker (epist. 2. 2. 14), including a soldier who is hanging back; cf. 1. 35. 15 f. ‘cessantis ad arma / concitet’, Plaut. Stich. 705 ‘sed interim, stratege noster, cur hic cessat cantharus?’ It makes a contrast with strenua (3); cf. epist. 1. 2. 70 ‘quod si cessas aut strenuus anteis’. 9–10. nos cantabimus invicem / Neptunum et viridis Nereidum comas: nos means ‘we two’, as in vicem implies; the pronoun is emphatic (cf. 11 n. on tu). H will sing of Neptune, Lyde of the Nereids; for the distribution of themes between the sexes note especially 1. 21. 1 f. ‘Dianam tenerae dicite virgines, / intonsum pueri dicite Cynthium’. Some editors think that nos refers to Horace alone (cf. 1. 6. 5 and 17); this is supposed to make a clearer contrast with ‘tu recines’ in v. 11, which again has two objects. In that case invicem would be attached to the first of two parallel clauses (cf. Ov. her. 17. 180 ‘inque vicem tua me, te mea forma capit’); but it would be impossibly confusing to combine this word-order with the singular use of nos (‘I, on the one hand,’). Wickham interprets ‘We two shall sing in turn, I of Neptune and the Nereids, you of Latona and Diana’, but such a change of direction is hard to justify. The variant in vices is first securely attested in Ovid (in the form ‘inque vices’); invicem is paralleled at 1. 25. 9, serm. 1. 3. 141 (‘inque vicem’). The Nereids were often associated with the Greek Poseidon (cf. J. M. Barringer, Divine Escorts, 1995: passim). In the Roman world they belong to literature (Catull. 64. 15 ff.) and art rather than cult; they were included in the group by Scopas in Domitius’ temple of Neptune (Plin. nat. hist. 36. 26 ‘Nereides supra delphinos et cete aut hippocampos sedentes’), and they surely found a place in the frescoes of Agrippa’s Porticus Argonautarum. viridis is occasionally applied to the sea (Ov. ars 2. 92, 3. 130, ciris 461) and hence to the Nereids (Ov. her. 5. 57) and other sea deities (Ov. trist. 1. 2. 59); cf. Gow on Theoc. 7. 59, H. Blu¨mner, Die Farbenbezeichnungen bei den ro¨mischen Dichtern, 1892: 215). For its use here of the Nereids’ hair cf. Ov. met. 2. 12 ‘viridis siccare capillos’ (with Bo¨mer’s note). H may have in mind the colour not just of the sea but of seaweed (cf. Sid. Apoll. carm. 2. 333 f. ‘harundinis altae / concolor in viridi fluitabat silva capillo’). 11. tu curva recines lyra: Lachmann’s tum is supposed to get round the awkwardness of contrasting nos and tu; but after the emphatic nos an emphatic tu is positively desirable. recines must refer to a combination of playing on the lyre and singing the themes described in v. 12; the
2 8 . F E S T O QV I D P O T I V S D I E ?
343
instrumental ablative can be defended by 3. 4. 1 ‘dic age tibia’ (see note ad loc.). On the other hand, it is strange that Lyde should ‘answer’ an amoebaean song in which she herself has been participating. Heinze saw the difficulty when he interpreted ‘voce canes, lyra recines’ (i.e. Lyde’s instrument answers her voice); but H’s words do not seem explicit enough to bear this interpretation. RN has considered reading curvae . . . lyrae; i.e. Lyde’s voice answers her instrument (a different sort of alternation from that in v. 9). For the conventional curva of the lyre (originally a hollow tortoise-shell) see N–H on 1. 10. 6. 12. Latonam et celeris spicula Cynthiae: Diana is called ‘Cynthia’ from Cynthos, a small hill on Delos; this is the first attested use of the epithet (Bo¨mer on Ov. met. 2. 465), which is modelled on ‘Cynthius’, a title of Apollo given currency in Hellenistic poetry (Call. h. 4. 10 etc.) and popularized by Virgil (ecl. 6. 3). ‘Cynthia’ was not a girl’s name in Latin, but was chosen by Propertius to indicate his mistress’s devotion to the arts of Apollo; in this he was following Gallus, who had called his mistress ‘Lycoris’ because of ‘Lycoreus’, another title of Apollo. Diana is associated, as often, with her mother Latona (N–H on 1. 21. 1 n.); their statues stood on either side of Apollo in his Palatine temple (N–H on 1. 31. 1, Zanker 240 f. with fig. 186). Her huntress’s arrows (1. 12. 22, Hom. Od. 6. 102 ` ! æØ . . . N ÆØæÆ) make a formal contrast here with the curved lyre (11). For such accoutrements in a hymn cf. 1. 21. 11, Eur. Hec. 464 f. #æØ ŁA = æıÆ ¼ıŒÆ Æ Pºªø, Call. h. 2. 19 (Apollo’s lyre and bow). Diana’s epithet celeris is also attested at Ov. met. 4. 304, ciris 297; as ancient hunting was usually done on foot (N–H on 1. 37. 18), she was conventionally dressed in a short chiton for speed (LIMC 2. 1. 640 ff., 2. 2. 461 ff., Simon pls. 70 and 71). 13–14. summo carmine quae Cnidon / fulgentisque tenet Cycladas: the verb is left unspecified until the impersonal dicetur (16). summo means ‘last’, as at epist. 1. 1. 1 ‘summa dicende Camena’. Cnidos in Caria, on the tip of a peninsula south of Cos, had three shrines of Aphrodite, represented the goddess on its coinage, and was the home of the famous statue by Praxiteles (LIMC 2. 1. 49 ff., 2. 2. 36 ff.); cf. 1. 30. 1 ‘regina Cnidi Paphique’ with N–H. For the goddess’s association with the Cyclades and especially Paros cf. RE 1. 2749 f., 18. 4. 1846 f.; fulgentis, like nitentis in 1. 14. 19, describes the effect of the sun shining on Parian marble, as it appeared to the poet’s imagination. 14–15. et Paphon / iunctis visit oloribus: after Cnidon the Greek form Paphon is preferable to the even better attested Paphum; in spite of Bentley the rhyme is unobjectionable (cf. 3. 25. 11 f. etc.). Paphos in
344
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
south-west Cyprus was where Aphrodite landed from the sea, after first going to Cythera (Hes. theog. 192 f., h. Hom. 6. 3 ff.); the omission of her name and the list of her cult-sites are ritual features, here used in a light-hearted way (cf. Catull. 36. 11 ff.). Ancient deities were not omnipresent, and visere is regularly used for their visitations; cf. 1. 4. 8 with N–H, Posidippus, anth. Pal. 12. 131. 1 ff. 8 ` ˚æ, – ˚ŁæÆ, ŒÆd L 1º KØ E = . . . ºŁØ ¥ ºÆ ˚ƺºØfiø. olor is the proper Latin word for a swan, though most poets found the Greek cycnus more poetical and more tractable metrically in the oblique cases. For Venus’ team of swans cf. 4. 1. 10 ‘purpureis ales oloribus’, Prop. 3. 3. 39, Ov. met. 10. 708 with Bo¨mer, Thompson 184 f.; evidence from Greek and Etruscan art is provided by LIMC 2. 1. 96 ff., 2. 2. 89 ff. 16. dicetur merita Nox quoque nenia: dicere is often used of singing (OLD 7b); one assumes that H participates in the amorous conclusion. Nox was often personified by the poets, but there was no official cult (as opposed to magic); cf. epod. 5. 51 with Mankin, Virg. Aen. 6. 249 f., 7. 138, Ov. fast. 1. 455 with Bo¨mer ad loc., RE 17. 1229, 1663 ff. The reference to Night balances meridiem (5), and suits the closure of the poem (cf. Virg. ecl. 1, 3, 7, 9, 10, Curtius 90 f., Barbara H. Smith, Poetic Closure, 1968: 176). For similar erotic endings cf. Prop. 2. 28. 62 ‘votivas noctes et mihi solve decem’, 3. 10. 31 f. ‘annua solvamus thalamo sollemnia nostro / natalisque tui sic peragamus iter’. Po¨schl 185 following ps.-Acro sees a reference to the night of death, but this is incompatible with the mention of Venus and quite contrary to the spirit of the poem. nenia suggests primarily a repetitious chant (pace J. L. Heller, TAPA 74, 1943: 215 ff.); it can refer to a dirge (N–H on 2. 1. 38 and 2. 20. 21), an incantation (epod. 17. 29 ‘caputque Marsa dissilire nenia’), a jingle of children at play (epist. 1. 1. 63), a fabulist’s ditties (Phaedr. 3 pr. 10, 4. 2. 3). In our passage it seems to mean a lullaby; cf. Arnobius nat. 7. 32 ‘lenes audiendae sunt neniae’. It is objected that Horace is not thinking of sleep, but one can argue that after the love-making (represented by the invocation of Venus in 13 ff.) Night is honoured by a lullaby in gratitude for her services; cf. Tib. 2. 1. 87 ff. (after an invitation to Amor) ‘ludite: iam Nox iungit equos . . . / postque venit tacitus furvis circumdatus alis / Somnus’, Virg. Aen. 8. 405 f. Heinze thought that in our passage nenia meant the coda of a song (thus Paul. Fest. 163M ¼ 155L, and Diomedes, GL 1. 485. 6 ff.); but this does not explain the other usages of the word. The misunderstanding probably arose from such passages as Plaut. Pseud. 1278 ‘id fuit nenia ludo’—a humorous expression which means simply ‘that was the death-dirge of the show’.
2 9 . T Y R R H ENA R E G V M P RO G EN I ES [ J.-M. Andre´, Me´ce`ne, 1967; G. Davis 172 ff.; Fraenkel 223 ff.; Lyne (1995), 111 ff., 132 ff.; Pasquali 329 ff., 635 ff.; Po¨schl 198 ff.; N. Rudd in Horace 2000, 1993: 64 ff.; E. Zinn ap. Oppermann, 1972: 225 ff.]
1–16. I have everything ready, Maecenas, for your enjoyment; tear yourself away from the business that detains you, and do not simply gaze from afar at the countryside. Leave your towering mansion and the bustle of Rome: a simple meal in a modest home relieves worry. 17–28. Now is the hottest time of year and all the countryside is at rest; but you keep worrying about Rome’s constitution and the intentions of far-off peoples. 29–48. The future is unknowable, so calmly set at rest the matter of the moment; everything else sweeps past as unpredictably as the Tiber. Treat each day as the last; even if tomorrow brings misfortune, nothing can annul past blessings. 49–64. If Fortune flies away, I renounce what she has given and woo Poverty. If a storm rages, unlike the rich merchant who bargains with the gods in the hope of saving his possessions, I shall make land in my lifeboat with the help of the Dioscuri. This is the penultimate poem of Odes I–III before the personal declaration or sphragis (3. 30), and as such it has a particular significance. Like 1. 1 it is addressed to Maecenas, thus framing the collection (see 1 n. for a parallel reference to his Etruscan ancestry); but Horace now writes with greater confidence and authority. There is a similar arrangement in the first book of Epistles, where the first and nineteenth poems are addressed to Maecenas, and the twentieth poem is again a sphragis; in the first book of Odes the penultimate poem is the important ode on Cleopatra, and it is followed only by a personal tail-piece. Our ode is likely to have been written not long before the collection was issued in 23 bc; the reference to Maecenas’ anxiety for the city suggests a time before Augustus’ return from Spain in 24 (26 n.). In 1. 1 Horace had already acknowledged Maecenas’ support and protection, and looked forward eagerly to gaining his approval for a new poetic venture; here he turns once more to address him, using this as an occasion for the most memorable statement of his thoughts about friendship and life. The ode has some of the characteristics of an invitation-poem, though it develops into something much deeper and more complex; for the type see N–H on 1. 20, Courtney on Juv. 11, I. M. Le M. Du Quesnay, PLLS 3, 1981: 90 ff. with n. 345. Horace offers his guest mellow wine (2 n.), summer roses (3 n.), and exotic perfume (4 n.); this coheres with what is known about Maecenas’ luxurious tastes, particularly from Seneca’s unsympathetic account (epist. 114, Andre´, op. cit. 19 ff.).
346
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
A teasing contrast is drawn between his towering mansion on the Esquiline (10 n.) and simple dwellings where there are no elaborate meals or purple furnishings (14–15 n.); Horace is thinking of his own Sabine villa (as is confirmed by the pastoral references in 21 ff.), and is making the comparison between grandeur and modesty that was conventional in such poems. The reference to hot weather is appropriate in sympotic verse (20 n.), and the astronomical detail may have struck a chord with Maecenas (17–18 n.). The exhortation to stop thinking about remote matters (26 ff.) suits the type (3. 8. 17 ff., 3. 19. 1 ff.); but again it is especially relevant both to Maecenas’ political responsibilities and to his personality (for his persistent worrying see 16 n.). What distinguishes the ode from most invitation-poems is its sustained ethical dimension. Horace derived his wisdom from various sources (Rudd, op. cit.); thus in our poem potens sui (41) has a Stoic ring, and some of the illustrations draw on popular moralizing associated with Cynics and others (see 54 n. on the cloak of Virtue, 55 n. on the wooing of a personified Poverty, 62 n. on the metaphor of big and little ships). But the tone is predominantly Epicurean (Pasquali 639 f.), even if some of the ideas were shared by other schools (see 41–2 n. and 45–6 n. for the Stoic Seneca). Here we may mention the desirability of occasional relaxation (5 n., 13 n.), the inner peace (IÆæÆ Æ) afforded by simplicity (14 n.), the pointlessness of worrying about what may never happen (27–8 n.), the impossibility of foretelling the future (29–30 n.), the absurdity of prayer in storms at sea (58–9 n.). Above all, the moral exhortation (paraenesis) at the centre of the poem expounds the attitude to time that lies at the heart of Epicurean ethics: the way to achieve happiness and inner peace is to concentrate on the present (32–3 n.), regarding life as complete as each day ends (41–2 n.); no matter what the future may bring, nothing can take away the good things that have happened in the past (45–8 nn.). Some have supposed that Maecenas was himself an Epicurean (Andre´, op. cit. 15 ff., rejected by Lyne, op. cit. 114 ff.). It is no objection to this view that he was very rich, or that he took part in politics; Epicurus sanctioned such participation in times of crisis (Cic. rep. 1. 10, Sen. dial. 8. 3. 2), and several Roman Epicureans were public figures, like Piso (cos. 58), Memmius the patron of Lucretius, and Cassius the tyrannicide (A. Momigliano, JRS 31, 1941: 157 ff.). But it is hard to believe that the extravagant and neurotic voluptuary described by later writers (3–5 n., Sen. epist. 114) was in any significant sense an adherent of the school; at the most he may have justified his own hedonism by misappropriating a few aphorisms (that would be enough to suit the principle that Horace’s advice is likely to be acceptable to the recipient). Though Horace is grateful to his friend for the Sabine estate and all that it implies in the way of personal freedom, he knows him well enough to
2 9 . T Y R R H ENA R E G V M P RO G EN I ES
347
draw a contrast between the happiness that his own simplicity has brought him and the anxieties that Maecenas’ luxurious life-style has failed to alleviate (14–15 n.). When he proclaims his self-sufficiency at the end of the poem (53–64) some see this as a subtle assertion of independence from his benefactor (54 n., Lyne, op. cit. 115); but such an innuendo would hardly be appropriate to an ode of friendly support in which Horace invites Maecenas to join him at the Sabine villa. At the end H is claiming for himself the privilege of every wise man (cf. epist. 1. 16. 79); in the last resort even Maecenas was free to say ø PŒ ÆØ The context of epist. 1. 7, written a few years later, is quite different. The movement of the ode crosses schematic divisions. Thus the generalization in 13–16, with its contrast of wealth and simplicity, is related to the same contrast in 53–61. A violent element (heat) in 17–20 is balanced by a violent element (water) in 36–41; the peaceful scene with its trees and animals in 21–4 is contrasted with the terrible scene in 36–41 where the once calm river sweeps away trees and animals. The central advice in 32 extends into the next stanza (‘quod adest memento / componere aequus’); the flying hour in 48, which betokens rapid change, foreshadows winged Fortune in 53–4; and indulgent but capricious Fortune (53–4) is succeeded by the reliability of Poverty (54–7); the poet’s indifference to wealth (54–6) leads smoothly into the image of his self-sufficiency (62–4). A series of antitheses runs through the poem: business/leisure, wealth/poverty, heat/coolness, violence/peace, anxiety/ calm, danger/safety. Several words are used to describe nature which are also appropriate to human beings: furit and vesani of stars (18 f.), taciturna of a bank, vagis of breezes (24), pace of a river (35), clamore of mountains and vicinae of woods (39), fera and irritat of a flood, quietos of streams (40 f.), avaro of the sea (61), tumultus of the Aegean (63). Throughout we find the Greek past alive in the Roman present, an inimitable blend of grandeur and intimacy, solemnity and humour; a sad awareness of transience and insecurity combined with a tough-minded intention to survive. Only 3. 4 can match this ode for the breadth and majesty of its scope. Metre: Alcaic. 1. Tyrrhena regum progenies: Maecenas claimed descent on his mother’s side from the Cilnii, who had once been the ruling house in Arretium (Arezzo), his home town in eastern Etruria; cf. 1. 1. 1 ‘Maecenas atavis edite regibus’ (where ‘kings’ may be an overstatement), serm. 1. 6. 1 ff., Prop. 3. 9. 1 ‘Maecenas, eques Etrusco de sanguine regum’, Liv. 10. 3. 1 ‘Cilnium genus praepotens’, Sil. 7. 29, Syme (1939), 129 n. 4, Lyne, op. cit. 132 f. Such claims might mean much to some (cf. Pers. 3.28 ‘stemmate quod Tusco ramum millesime ducis’, Flower 212, 348 f.), but
348
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
counted for little in the official hierarchies of Rome; here with a typical blend of flattery and teasing H magnifies the ancestry of his friend. His phrase is even more grandiloquent than the first line of Book 1 which it balances: the Greek Tyrrhena is used for the normal Latin Etrusca; progenies (‘scion’) is rather stately when applied to an individual (4. 15. 32, Catullus 34. 6, Val. Max. 4. 3. 4 ‘Anci regis clara progenies’); the transferred epithet is another mark of the high style (cf. Virg. Aen. 8. 526 ‘Tyrrhenusque tubae clangor’, Prop. loc. cit., H–Sz 160). 1–2. tibi / non ante verso lene merum cado: the emphatic tibi, beginning a new clause, means ‘all for you’ (cf. 2. 7. 20 ‘cadis tibi destinatis’). Maecenas listed the qualities of wine in his Symposium (see introduction to 3. 21) and was doubtless a connoisseur (1. 20. 9 f., Plin. nat. hist. 14.67). A cadus (Œ ) was a large storage vessel (Blu¨mner, 1911: 151, Hilgers 125 ff.); the everyday word was common in comedy and inscriptions and occurs ten times in the Odes, but it is also attested in Virgil (Aen. 1. 195, 6. 228). Wine was drawn by tilting the jar; cf. serm. 2. 8. 39, Plaut. Stich. 721 ‘quamvis desubito vel cadus vorti potest’, Enn. ann. 532 ‘vortunt crateras aenos’. The insertion of the subject between the two parts of the ablative absolute is not a Ciceronian construction but is common in Livy (H–Sz 402, Nisbet in Adams–Mayer 150 f.). It has been suggested that the wine as yet unused is a metaphor for the philosophical content of H’s verse epistles (P. L. Bowditch, Horace and the Gift Economy of Patronage, 2001: 178 ff.). Such interpretations, now fashionable, are occasionally convincing (at 1.26 the garland is the poem), but here the rose-blossoms and hair-oil suit Maecenas’ style in life and poetry rather than Horace’s; see further Nisbet (1995), 416 ff. 3. cum flore, Maecenas, rosarum: rose-blossoms were worn in garlands (2. 3. 14, 3. 15. 15, Simon. PMG 506.2), and their petals were sometimes scattered at the symposium (3. 19. 22); roses were spring flowers in Italy (N–H on 1. 38. 4), and though they would last longer in the Sabine hills, in the summer their presence implies luxury. Here the roses are first and foremost roses; they do not ‘stand for’ anything else; but as so often they carry sweet associations of transient beauty and pleasure; cf. 2. 3. 13 ff. and M. Ferber, A Dictionary of Literary Symbols, 1999: 172–7. The separation of Maecenas from a previous attribute is again a mark of high style; cf. 3. 21. 1 ff. in a pseudo-hymn, Fraenkel 222. The insertion of the vocative between flore and rosarum may serve to recall his extravagant tastes; cf. ‘dulci, Tyndari, fistula’ with Fraenkel 206, A. La Penna, Mnemosynum, Studi in onore di A. Ghiselli, 1989: 335 ff. 3–5. et / pressa tuis balanus capillis / iamdudum apud me est: balanus was the fruit of an Egyptian palm from which a perfumed oil was
2 9 . T Y R R H ENA R E G V M P RO G EN I ES
349
crushed; cf. Plin. nat. hist. 12.100–2, Scrib. Larg. 129, 131. For hair-oil at symposia cf. 1. 4. 9 with N–H, 2. 7. 7 f.; Cicero regarded it as effeminate (Pis. 25 ‘madentes cincinnorum fimbriae’). When Augustus teased Maecenas for his myrobrechis cincinnos (Suet. Aug. 86. 2), he was probably alluding to more than just his literary style; for his luxurious habits see Mayor on Juv. 1. 66, RE 14. 1. 214, and for his alleged work de cultu suo see Sen. epist. 114. 4, Schanz–Hosius 2. 20 f. iamdudum adds urgency to the appeal; cf. epist. 1. 5. 7 ‘iamdudum splendet focus et tibi munda supellex’. 5. eripe te morae: for se eripere cf. Sen. epist. 19. 1 ‘subduc te istis occupationibus, si minus eripe’, Sil. 2. 564. morae means ‘business that causes delay’; cf. 4. 12. 25 (also an invitation), ‘pone moras’, OLD 8. The dative is regular with verbs of ‘taking away’ (3. 8. 11–12 n.), and is extended from persons to things by the poets, Livy, and later prosewriters. There seems to be a hint of the Epicurean doctrine that life is frittered away by the postponement of enjoyment; cf. sent. Vat. 14 › b ººfiH ÆæÆ ººıÆØ, Sen. dial. 10. 9. 1, Po¨schl, op. cit. 207 n. 6–7. nec semper udum Tibur et Aefulae / declive contempleris arvum: the present subjunctive in a prohibition is common in early Latin but otherwise rare (Handford 47, H–Sz 336); yet in Horace cf. 1. 33. 1 ‘Albi, ne doleas’, which is sometimes mistakenly regarded as a purpose clause, 2. 11. 4 f. ‘nec trepides in usum / poscentis aevi pauca’, serm. 2. 3. 88 ‘ne sis patruus mihi’; the construction suits a continuing state of affairs (note semper) rather than a single occasion (for which ne with the perfect subjunctive would be appropriate). Syndikus points out (2. 236 n. 13) that along with eripe a prohibition is wanted to balance the two imperatives in 9 and 11 (desere, omitte); in particular ne contempleris (a word derived from augury) suits serious contemplation and so balances omitte mirari (11). The MSS divide between nec and ne; but as the latter might be thought to introduce a purpose clause we have preferred nec, even though this involves losing a parallel with the asyndeton at vv. 10–11. From the eastern side of the Esquiline, where Maecenas had his mansion, one could look across to Tibur, Praeneste, and Tusculum; cf. Strabo 5. 3. 11–12. For the attraction of vistas cf. epist. 1. 10. 23 ‘laudaturque domus longos quae prospicit agros’, 1. 11. 26, Sen. epist. 89. 21, Stat. silv. 2. 2. 72 ff., Mart. 4. 64. 9 ff., RE 16. 2. 1858 f. For Tibur see 3. 4. 23 n.; udum alludes not just to the spectacular waterfalls but also to the well-irrigated orchards (cf. 1. 7. 13 f. ‘uda / mobilibus pomaria rivis’, 4. 2. 30 f., 4. 3. 10, Ov. fast. 4. 71). Since the text does not assign any special prominence to Tibur (if there were any difference, Tusculum would carry the most emphasis), there is no justification for assuming that the invitation comes from there. It is not known when Horace acquired the
350
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
house mentioned by Suetonius (vita); on the other hand, parvo sub lare (14) is in line with H’s other references to his Sabine property (e.g. 2. 16. 37, 2. 18. 14, serm. 2. 6. 1 ff.), and vv. 21–4 indicate a rural setting. Maecenas may have had properties at the three places mentioned, but that has nothing to do with Horace’s invitation. Aefulae is the reading of H’s MSS and is supported by CIL 14. 3530 ‘sub monte Aeflano’ (see further E. Hu¨bner, Hermes 1, 1866: 426); old editions read Aesulae, which appears in MSS of Velleius and Pliny. The height of the place is confirmed by Liv. 26.9.9 (on the approach of Hannibal) ‘praesidia etiam in monte Albano atque arce Aefulana ponuntur’. It seems to have been situated south of Tibur and east of Hadrian’s villa; to the bibliography provided by Briscoe on Liv. 32. 29. 2 add Encicl. oraz. 1. 491 f. 7–8. et / Telegoni iuga parricidae: Tusculum, about 15 miles south-east of Rome, was situated above Frascati at a height rising to 2,200 ft.; many notables had mansions there, including Lucullus, Cicero, and Gabinius (RE 7A. 2. 1487 f.). The place claimed as its founder Telegonus, son of Ulysses and Circe; cf. epod. 1. 30 ‘Circaea . . . moenia’ (also addresssed to Maecenas, so possibly he too had property there), Liv. 1. 49. 9 with Ogilvie, Prop. 2. 32. 4, Dion. Hal. ant. Rom. 4. 45. 1, CIL 14. 2649 (the base of a statue of Telegonus in the theatre); for similar legends see 3. 17. 6 n. According to the story as told in the Niptra of Sophocles and Pacuvius, Telegonus unwittingly killed his father; cf. Opp. hal. 2. 497 ff., Frazer on Apollod. epit. 7. 36, J. L. Lightfoot, Parthenius of Nicaea 386, RE 5A1. 314 ff. Eustathius similarly characterizes Telegonus as › Łæıº Ææ (Od. p. 1660. 5); in our passage there may be a hint of mischievous disrespect to counter the standard eulogies of Tusculum. 9. fastidiosam desere copiam: for the paradox that abundance brings distaste cf. Plaut. trin. 671, Liv. 3. 1. 7 ‘fecit statim ut fit fastidium copia’, Plin. nat. hist. 12. 81. fastidiosus is transferred from the person who feels disgust to the thing that causes it; cf. 2. 7. 21 ‘oblivioso . . . Massico’, Sen. contr. 9. 2. 4 ‘fastidiosos ob ebrietatem cibos’. Such hypallage is very common in Greek and Latin poetry; see Bell 315 ff. (especially 324 ff. for the transfer from persons to things), H–Sz 160. 9–10. et / molem propinquam nubibus arduis: Maecenas’ skyscraper is also mentioned in Porph.’s note on v. 6 ‘turrim Maecenas dicitur in hortis suis extruxisse’, epod. 9. 3 ‘sub alta . . . domo’ (already in 31 bc), Suet. Ner. 38. 2 ‘hoc incendium e turre Maecenatiana prospectans’; cf. Y. Perrin, Latomus 55, 1996: 399 ff., RE 14. 215 f., Steinby 3. 71. Elsewhere H is more critical of regiae moles (2. 15. 1 f.); even here he is no doubt
2 9 . T Y R R H ENA R E G V M P RO G EN I ES
351
making a smiling contrast with his own modest villa (3. 1. 45 f.), but it goes too far to see an allusion, however humorous, to the perils of greatness (thus Lyne, 1995: 112 citing 2. 10. 10 f. ‘celsae graviore casu / decidunt turres’). For the hyperbole of propinquam nubibus cf. Virg. Aen. 4. 89, 8. 99 f. ‘tecta vident quae nunc Romana potentia caelo / aequavit’, Fraenkel 225 n. 3, Sen. Ag. 92 with Tarrant, Hardie 271 ff., Shakespeare, The Tempest i v . i. 152 ‘The cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces’. With arduis the clouds are perhaps visualized as heights that even Maecenas cannot quite reach. 11–12. omitte mirari beatae / fumum et opes strepitumque Romae: for omitte (‘cease’) cf. epist. 1.18.79 ‘quem sua culpa premet, deceptus omitte tueri’, Plaut. Pers. 431 ‘iam omitte iratus esse’, OLD 5b. The first syllable of the third line in an Alcaic stanza is short 11 times in Horace (to the list in Bo 37 add 2. 15. 15). mirari means ‘to look with awe upon’ (cf. 3. 25. 14), an inappropriate attitude to material objects; cf. epist. 1. 6. 1 ‘nil admirari’ (b ŁÆıØ). beatae gains force from the hyperbaton; Rome was obviously ‘rich’ and in the popular view (not wholly shared by the poet) ‘blessed’; for such ambiguities cf. N–H on 2. 2. 18. The city was smoky even in summer because of the need to cook (cf. Juv. 8. 8 with Courtney, Rutil. Namat. 1. 193 f.). H interposes opes, which most people thought desirable, between fumum and strepitum, which were clearly objectionable; for the strategy cf. Johnson, The Vanity of Human Wishes 160 ‘Toil, envy, want, the patron, and the jail’. Tennyson avoids any ambiguity about wealth when he writes ‘Far from noise and smoke of town’ (To the Rev. F. D. Maurice 14); for his imitation of the ode see Rudd, Hermathena 150, 1991: 5 ff. 13. plerumque gratae divitibus vices: understand sunt, not explicuere (16): H proceeds from a general aphorism to its particular application (Heinze). plerumque suits such a maxim; the word is avoided by most Roman poets (except significantly Lucretius), but is found also at 1. 34. 7, 3. 21. 14, Virg. georg. 1. 300 (Axelson 106). vices can refer not just to the process of change but also its result. The word is neutral and derives its colour from the context; cf. 1. 4. 1 ‘grata vice veris et Favoni’, culex 211 ‘acerbas cogor adire vices’. The converse of H’s point is found in Epicurus, epist. 3. 131: luxuries should be approached KŒ ØƺØø (‘after intervals’). 14–15. mundaeque parvo sub lare pauperum / cenae: mundus describes a simple elegance; cf. 1. 5. 5 ‘simplex munditiis’ with N–H. For mundae cenae cf. Milton, To Mr Lawrence 9 ‘neat repast’. Here the idea of simplicity predominates, as the word reinforces parvo and pauperum as
352
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
against aulaeis et ostro (15); for the same emphasis cf. serm. 2. 2. 65 ‘mundus erit qua non offendat sordibus’ (simple without being mean). The adjective is avoided in the higher styles of poetry (Axelson 106 f.); so is cena (ibid.), which is also found at 2. 14. 28. pauperum as usual describes a lack of riches rather than destitution (3. 2. 1 n.); for such modesty in an invitation poem cf. 1. 20. 1 f., 4. 12. 24, epist. 1. 5. 1 f., Philodemus, anth. Pal. 11. 44. 1 f. (see further Hollis on Call. Hecale, pp. 349 f.). Here as in 3. 16. 39 ff., without envy or reproach, H explicitly contrasts his life-style with that of Maecenas; an implicit contrast emerges in 2. 18 and in RN’s view at 3. 1. 33–48. 15. sine aulaeis et ostro: aulaea usually refers to curtains hung vertically, whether in the theatre, on the walls of a room, or on rails going round the dining-couches (Curt. 8. 5. 21 ‘cum post aulaea quae lectis obduxerat staret’, 9. 7. 15 ‘lectis circumdederat aulaea purpura auroque fulgentia’); but at the cena Nasidieni they were canopies above the table (serm. 2. 8. 54 ff. with Porph., Blu¨mner, 1911: 145). aulaeis et ostro is probably a hendiadys for ‘purple hangings’ (cf. Virg. georg. 2. 192 ‘pateris libamus et auro’). ostrum was the dye (of various shades from purple through crimson to scarlet) produced from shell-fish, notably in Tyre and Sidon (3. 1. 42 n.). It is relevant that Maecenas the dandy seems to have had a liking for the colour (cf. Juv. 12. 38 f. ‘vestem / purpuream teneris quoque Maecenatibus aptam’); such luxury suited the Etruscan stereotype (N– H on 2. 18. 8). 16. sollicitam explicuere frontem: cf. serm. 2. 2. 125 ‘explicuit vino contractae seria frontis’; explicuere is a gnomic perfect (3. 23. 19 n.). The lines lead up to the cares of state (25–8); Maecenas was an inveterate worrier (cf. 2. 17. 1 ff. with N–H, vol. 2, pp. 273 f., Andre´, op. cit. 32 ff.). It was a central Epicurean doctrine that anxiety is not banished by riches, and that happiness may be found in simplicity; see 2. 16. 9 ff. with N–H, 3. 1. 17 ff. with the introduction to that poem, and Lucr. 2.1–61. 17–18. iam clarus occultum Andromedae pater / ostendit ignem: Cepheus, king of the Ethiopians, was the father of Andromeda and husband of Cassiepia; he offered his daughter up to a sea-monster from which she was rescued by Perseus (cf. Frazer on Apollodorus 2. 4. 3, Bo¨mer on Ov. met. 4. 663 ff., LIMC 1. 774 ff., 2. 622 ff., RE 11. 1. 223 f.). For Cepheus’ constellation cf. Roscher 6. 884 ff., Cic. nat. deor. 2. 111 with Pease, Le Boeuffle 125 ff. Its ‘evening rising’ was placed by Columella on 9 July (11. 2. 51); but such calculations must have been based on Alexandrian astronomy, for in the latitude of Rome it never completely set (Housman on Manil. 5. 449, D. R. Dicks, Hermes 91, 1963: 63 n. 4). It may be conjectured from the astrological references in 2. 17 that
2 9 . T Y R R H ENA R E G V M P RO G EN I ES
353
Maecenas had some interest in astronomy, but there as here H makes grandiose references without caring for precision. Po¨schl (op. cit. 212 n. 18) rightly rejects the view that pater refers to Jupiter and ignem to the constellation of Andromeda (thus W. Riedel, Philologus 95, 1943: 308 f.). ignem describes the fiery material of Cepheus, which was thought to produce the summer heat; occultum refers to its previous supposed disappearance, and makes a contrast with clarus and ostendit; for the latter cf. Catull. 62. 7 ‘nimirum Oetaeos ostendit Noctifer ignes’, Virg. georg. 4. 232, which confirms that the subject of ostendit in our passage is the constellation itself rather than Jupiter. 18. iam Procyon furit: Procyon was the brightest star in Canis Minor (Pease on Cic. nat. deor. 2. 116, Roscher 6.1002 ff., RE 23. 1. 613 ff.); the Greek name, which means ‘the one that comes before the Dog’, is translated by Cicero as Antecanis (Arat. 222). Its ‘morning rising’ is given by Columella as 15 July (11. 2. 52), by Pliny as 4 July for Egypt, 17 July for Assyria (nat. hist. 18. 268–9). furit, like vesani, suits a rabid animal. 19. et stella vesani Leonis: not the constellation of Leo as a whole, but its brightest star, the so-called stella regia (Plin. nat. hist. 18. 235, Housman 3. 907, Le Boeuffle 164); Columella dates its rising to 29 July (11. 2. 53 ‘Leonis in pectore clara stella exoritur’). The sun enters Leo on 20 July (Colum. 11. 2. 52) heralding the hottest season of the year; so the constellation is often given epithets like furibundus and rabidus (for a list see RE 12. 1981 f.). The ancients thought of constellations as gigantic figures in the night sky; cf. the charts in Goold’s Loeb edition of Manilius and, for general information, RE 3A2. 2412–39. The inseparable prefix ve- can either negate or intensify (Gell. 16. 5. 5, H–Sz 257); cf. vecors, vegrandis. 20. sole dies referente siccos: the prominently placed siccos includes human thirst, a point that suits H’s invitation; cf. 4.12.13 ‘adduxere sitim tempora, Vergili’ (there of the spring), Hes. op. 588 f. (of the Dog-Days), Alc. 347. 1 f. ªª ºÆ Yfiø, e ªaæ ¼æ æغºÆØ, = . . . Æ b łÆØ Pa ŒÆÆ (the star is Sirius), Theog. 1039 f. ¼æ ¼ŁæøØ ŒÆd ØØ, YØ r = c ı ¼æı ŒÆd Œıe Iæ ı. 21–2. iam pastor umbras cum grege languido / rivumque fessus quaerit: for the anaphora of iam in identifying seasons or times of day cf. 1. 4. 5 with N–H, Sen. apocol. 2. 1, Juv. 4. 56 f. (mock-heroic); here the word adds to the urgency of iamdudum (above, 5). Descriptions of summer heat naturally mention water, shade, and repose: see for instance epod. 2. 23 ff., Theoc.1. 15 ff. with Gow, Virg. ecl. 2. 8, georg.
354
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
3. 327 ff., culex 104 ff., anth. Plan. 227. 5 ff. At the same time the heat of the day can be thought of as nature’s parallel to emotional strain, while the shade corresponds to Epicurus’ IÆæÆ Æ; cf. OLD umbra 5, P. Smith, Phoenix 19, 1965: 298 ff., T. Rosenmayer, The Green Cabinet, 1969: ch. 4. 22–4. et horridi / dumeta Silvani caretque / ripa vagis taciturna ventis: dumeta is the subject of carent understood, not the object of quaerit; for the word-order cf. 3.4. 11 n. In the first part of the stanza (framed by pastor . . . quaerit) umbras and rivum are joined by -que; in the second part dumeta and ripa are joined by another -que; dumeta answers to umbras, and ripa to rivum. The prickly scrub would not have provided a comfortable resting-place for the pastor, but it was enough for his animals; cf. culex 154 ff. ‘at circa passim fessae cubuere capellae / excelsis subter dumis, quos leniter adflans / aura susurrantis poscit confundere venti’. dumeta denotes the thick scrub (macchia, maquis) that is such a feature of the south European landscape (Horden–Purcell 182 ff.). Silvanus was an old Italian deity of the countryside, more benign than Pan, with whom he was sometimes associated (Wissowa 213 ff., P. F. Dorcey, The Cult of Silvanus, 1992, Simon 200, LIMC 7. 1. 763 ff.). horridi alludes to both his appearance (Martial 10. 92. 6) and his habitat (Virg. Aen. 8. 348 ‘silvestribus horrida dumis’). taciturnus, properly applied to people, is transferred to the river-bank (cf. 1. 31. 8 ‘taciturnus amnis’ with N–H); there is not even the usual wandering breeze to rustle the vegetation (contrast culex 156 above). 25–6. tu civitatem quis deceat status / curas: tu emphasizes that Maecenas is out of step with the natural order; curas balances times and here implies anxiety as well as attention (cf. 3. 8. 17 ‘mitte civilis super Vrbe curas’). It looks as if Maecenas was taking an important part in the deliberations that led to the settlement of 23 bc, by which Augustus based his rule on imperium proconsulare and tribunicia potestas (Lacey 110 ff., 154 ff., J. A. Crook, CAH 10 edn. 2. 86 ff., 117 ff.); as the following clause implies that Augustus had not yet returned from Spain (24 bc), the same must be true of this. It may be relevant that in the context of 29 bc Dio assigns a long speech to Maecenas advocating monarchical government (52. 14–40); the details are largely anachronistic (F. Millar, A Study of Cassius Dio, 1964: 102 ff.), but there may be a substratum of truth (Andre´, op. cit. 78 f.). Our passage at any rate implies that Maecenas had views on constitutional questions. 26. et Vrbi sollicitus times: Maecenas had previously been left in charge of Rome and Italy after Actium (Dio 51. 3. 5); he must also
2 9 . T Y R R H ENA R E G V M P RO G EN I ES
355
have had exceptional influence during Augustus’ absence in the West (27–24 BC), though Porph. is presumably wrong when he says he was prefect of the city. sollicitus picks up sollicitam (16); for the vigilance of Maecenas cf. the introduction to 3. 8. The dative should be taken certainly with times, perhaps also with sollicitus, but not with the plots of the Chinese mentioned below. 27–8. quid Seres et regnata Cyro / Bactra parent Tanaisque discors: as Seres is a Greek plural, the second e is short. The threat from the Chinese was a hyperbolical fantasy, as was talk of conquering them (1. 12. 56 with N–H); for knowledge of China see Thomson 32 f., RE 2A. 1678 ff., OCD 1392 f. Bactra (neut. pl.) denotes both the country of Bactria (roughly northern Afghanistan) and its capital (Prop. 4. 3. 63, where it is part of the Parthian empire; cf. 3. 1. 16 ff.). To make it seem more remote and irrelevant H describes it as ‘ruled by Cyrus’ (for the grandiloquent phrase cf. 2. 6. 11 ff. with N–H). The sixth-century Cyrus the Great was the subject of much hagiography, notably in Xenophon’s Cyropaedia (N–H on 2. 2. 17); according to that work he conquered Bactria (1. 1. 4), but most that was known about the country came as a result of Alexander’s expedition; see further W. W. Tarn, The Greeks in Bactria and India, 1951, DNP 2. 414 ff., OCD 231. The Tanais or Don (3. 10. 1) here stands for the Scythians; cf. 2. 9. 21 ‘Medumque flumen gentibus additum’ with N–H, Virg. georg. 1. 509 ‘hinc movet Euphrates, illinc Germania bellum’. H is claiming that their remoteness makes any threat illusory (2. 11. 1 ff. ‘quid . . . Scythes / . . . cogitet Hadria / divisus obiecto remittas / quaerere’); at this time they were in fact making overtures to Augustus at Tarraco (3. 8. 23 f. with the introduction to that poem). discors refers to internal dissensions, which as in the case of the Parthians (3. 8. 19 f.) made their supposed threat even less serious; cf. 1. 26. 3 ff. ‘quis sub Arcto / rex gelidus metuatur orae’ (where gelidae orae is probably dative and refers to the Scythians themselves). Porph. (as one among other theories) took discors to mean that the Tanais separated Europe from Asia, and so was too remote to worry about; that is clearly impossible, and even Bentley’s dissors (‘of divided lot’, i. e. belonging to both continents) lacks a convincing parallel. 29–30. prudens futuri temporis exitum / caliginosa nocte premit deus: it was an old maxim that no one could predict the future (Theog. 1075 f. æªÆ IæŒı ÆºÆ KØ ºıc = ªHÆØ, Pind. P. 3. 21 f. etc.); many writers, pagan and Christian, add that it would be undesirable to do so (Cic. div. 2. 22 with Pease, 2. 105 ‘magnus Dicaearchi liber est nescire ea melius quam scire’, Shorey on the present passage, N–H on 1. 11. 3). prudens suggests the wise foresight of divine Providence
356
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
(cf. 1. 3. 21 ff. ‘nequiquam deus abscidit / prudens Oceano dissociabili / terras’); the formulation here is Stoic rather than Epicurean, though the Stoics actually believed in prophecy and the Epicureans did not. For the murk that conceals the future cf. Theog. 1077 Zæ ªaæ ÆÆØ, Pind. O. 12. 9, Juv. 6. 556 ‘at genus humanum damnat caligo futuri’, Milton, PL 7. 122 f. ‘Things not revealed, which the invisible king, / Only omniscient, hath suppressed in night’ (a clear imitation of our passage). deus is more philosophical than the personal Iuppiter (cf. 1. 3. 21, 1. 34. 13); premit means ‘conceals’ (OLD 17). 31–2. ridetque si mortalis ultra / fas trepidat: for the scornful amusement of the gods at human folly cf. 2. 8. 13 with N–H, Ov. ars 1. 87; for similar derision on the part of a human cf. epist. 2. 1. 194 ‘rideret Democritus’, Juv. 10. 51. mortalis is contrasted with deus and underlines human presumption; cf. 1. 11. 1 f. ‘tu ne quaesieris, scire nefas, quem mihi quem tibi / finem di dederint’. trepidat describes a fussy agitation; cf. 2. 11. 4 f. (quoted on 6–7). 32–3. quod adest memento / componere aequus: quod adest makes a contrast with futuri temporis exitum; cf. Cic. fin. 1. 55 ‘nam corpore nihil nisi praesens et quod adest sentire possumus’, off. 1. 11. memento is regularly used in didactic contexts both serious (1. 7. 17, 2. 3. 1) and parodic (serm. 2. 4. 12, 2. 5. 52). aequus, ‘calm in mind’ (2. 3. 1, OLD 7), is contrasted with trepidat (32). To correspond with aequus, componere seems to mean ‘to set at rest’ as well as ‘to set in order’. 33–4. cetera fluminis / ritu feruntur: cetera describes everything outside the immediate present; cf. epod. 13. 7 ‘cetera mitte loqui’, carm. 1. 9. 9, Eur. Alc. 788 f. e ŒÆŁ æÆ = ºªı , a ¼ººÆ B . For the age-old image of time as a stream see 2. 14. 2 with N–H, Heraclitus (as summarized by Diog. Laert. 9. 1. 8) ÞE a ‹ºÆ ÆF Œ (cf. Plat. Crat. 402a), Marc. Aur. 4. 43 Æ Ø KŒ H ªØø ŒÆd ÞFÆ ÆØ › ÆN, ‘Time like an ever rolling stream / bears all its sons away’ (the metrical version of Psalm. 90: 5 ‘Thou carriest them away as with a flood’); here the emphasis is not only on the inevitability of change but also on its unpredictability. feruntur, suggesting a lack of control, suits the image of a river; cf. Sen. epist. 23. 8 ‘ceteri eorum more quae fluminibus innatant non eunt sed feruntur’, OLD 5b. 34–6. nunc medio alveo / cum pace delabentis Etruscum / in mare: medio alveo means ‘in the middle of its channel’; cf. 3. 7. 28 ‘Tusco denatat alveo’, Virg. Aen. 7. 303 ‘Thybridis alveo’. medio aequore is read by one side of the MS tradition (perhaps influenced by aequus above); it
2 9 . T Y R R H ENA R E G V M P RO G EN I ES
357
would mean ‘in the middle of the plain’, which does not provide a proper contrast to ‘in flood’. For cum pace (‘placidly’) cf. Cicero Tusc. 5. 83 ‘nos quidem illud cum pace agemus’. The sea to the west of Italy was normally called mare Tyrrhenum or Tuscum; in this context Etruscum is more recherche´ (cf. Liv. 4. 52. 5). The epithet reminds us that the ‘Tuscan Tiber’ rose near Arezzo, Maecenas’ home town (1. 20. 5 f. ‘paterni / fluminis’, Plin. nat. hist. 3. 53 ‘finibus Arretinorum profluit’). Like other Italian rivers the Tiber was relatively low in summer (Liv. 2. 5. 3 ‘Tiberim tenui fluentem aqua ut mediis caloribus solet’), but was subject to violent flash-floods when the snows in the mountains melted ( J. Le Gall, Le Tibre, 1953: 29 ff., N–H on 1. 2. 13). The hypermetric line with its elision seems to represent a gliding motion, for H is not yet talking of flooding; contrast 4. 2. 22 and 23 which represent the Pindaric river in spate (5 ff.). 36–8. nunc lapides adesos / stirpisque raptas et pecus et domos / volventis una: descriptions of rivers in flood were a traditional setpiece; see e. g. Hom. Il. 5. 87 ff., 11. 492 ff., Lucr. 1. 281 ff., Virg. georg. 1. 324 ff., Ov. met. 1. 285 ff., Plin. epist. 8. 17 (on the Tiber). For the boulders cf. Hom. Il. 13. 137 f., Lucr. 1. 289, Virg. Aen. 10. 362. adesos ought to mean that boulders which have already been eroded are now swept downstream, but that impairs the balance with raptas; Heinze implausibly interprets lapides as the rocky river-banks (cf. Sen. Phoen. 72 ‘partesque lapsi montis exesas rotat’, Sil. 3. 470 ‘adesi fragmina montis’); RN has considered abesos, though abedo is attested only in grammarians (Diom. GL 1. 362. 21, Charis. 345. 16 Barwick). For the tree-trunks cf. Hom. Il. 11. 494, Ar. equ. 528, Lucr. 1. 284. For the cattle and houses cf. Ov. met. 1. 286 f. ‘pecudesque virosque / tectaque’, Stat. Theb. 1. 366 f., Plin. epist. 8. 17. 4 ‘boves aratra rectores . . . arborum truncos aut villarum trabes’. una means ‘all together’ (not ‘along with it’) and suggests total confusion; cf. Plaut. most. 277 ‘cum una multa iura confudit cocus’. The polysyndeton allows us to visualize each horror in turn, and leads to a climax with domos; cf. Pope’s fine imitation of Horace, epist. 2. 2 (To Colonel —— 262 f.) ‘Inexorable Death shall level all, / And trees, and stones, and farms, and farmer fall’. 38–9. non sine montium / clamore vicinaeque silvae: at several points in the next four lines the natural world is described in human terms (the ‘pathetic fallacy’). For clamor applied to natural objects cf. OLD 5 (so Hes. op. 511 AÆ fi A æØ oº). The roar of the torrent is a regular feature of such descriptions; cf. Hom. Il. 4. 455, Lucr. 1. 288, Virg. georg. 1. 327, Aen. 2. 307 f. ‘stupet inscius alto / accipiens sonitum saxi de vertice pastor’, Sil. 3. 471, 4. 521.
358
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
40–1. cum fera diluvies quietos / irritat amnis: clause follows clause to imitate the impetuous flood (cf. 4. 2. 5 ff., where Pindar’s style is compared to a torrent); the scene of chaos is given more prominence than that of quiet order, just as the convulsions of human life make the greatest impact. For the archaic diluvies (instead of the more normal diluvium) cf. 4. 14. 28, Lucr. 5. 255, 6. 292; the form is metrically convenient as it can be combined with an adjective ending in a short a. fera suggests a wild creature ‘untamed and intractable’ (Eliot, The Dry Salvages 2); cf. N–H on 2. 14. 4. The adjective makes a contrast with quietos, as does irritat; the river is like a sleeping animal that is dangerous when stirred (cf. 3. 20. 1 f., paroem. Gr. 1. 277). amnis tends to be a grandiose word; cf. TLL 1. 1943. 5 ff., Encicl. virg. 1. 140 f. Here the plural means ‘waters’; cf. Virg. Aen. 7. 464 f. ‘aquai / . . . amnis’ (of water in a cauldron), Val. Fl. 4. 345 ‘qua rigidos eructat Bosporus amnis’, TLL. 1. 1942. 86 ff. H seems to be influenced by Hom. Il. 21. 312 (Scamander to Simois) Æ Oæ Łı Kƺı (cited by Fraenkel). Some commentators think H is including the Tiber’s tributaries, which are mentioned in Pliny’s vivid description (epist. 8. 17. 2), but whereas Pliny is including the whole area affected, including the Anio, H concentrates on the Tiber itself in contrasting moods. 41–3. ille potens sui / laetusque deget, cui licet in diem / dixisse ‘vixi’: self-mastery (KªŒæØÆ) often refers to the control of one’s appetites, but here it describes rather the conquest of hope and fear; cf. Sen. epist. 12. 9 ‘ille beatissimus est et securus sui possessor qui crastinum sine sollicitudine expectat’, dial. 10. 10. 2–4. There, in spite of some Stoic colouring, Seneca seems to depend on Epicurus (cf. epist. 12. 11); it was a central doctrine of Epicureanism that one should take each day as it comes without worrying about the future; see fr. 490 Usener (¼78B) › B ÆhæØ lŒØÆ lØÆ æ ØØ æe c ÆhæØ, Hor. carm. 1. 11. 8 f. with N–H, 2. 16. 25 f. ‘laetus in praesens animus quod ultra est / oderit curare’, epist. 1. 4. 12 f. ‘omnem crede diem tibi diluxisse supremum: / grata superveniet quae non sperabitur hora’. in diem ¼ ‘from day to day’ (cf. serm. 2. 6. 47 f. ‘subiectior in diem et horam / invidiae noster’), though the plural is more usual (Liv. 26. 12. 9 ‘patriae occasum in dies exspectabant’, K–S 1. 566). The phrase should be taken with dixisse, not with vixi in the sense of ‘I have lived for the day’ (cf. Cic. de orat. 2. 169 ‘barbarorum est in diem vivere’); that would impair the seriousness of what follows. At the end of each day we should be able to regard our life as complete; cf. Sen. epist. 12. 8–9 ‘sic ordinandus est dies omnis, tamquam cogat agmen et consummet atque expleat vitam . . . quisquis dixit ‘‘vixi’’ cotidie ad lucrum surgit’ (cf. Hor. carm. 1. 9. 13 ff.), epist. 101. 7–8 ‘cotidie cum vita paria faciamus . . . qui cotidie vitae suae summam manum inposuit, non indiget tempore’. We
2 9 . T Y R R H ENA R E G V M P RO G EN I ES
359
have taken vixi on its own as the terse and sufficient pronouncement of the wise man; this is supported by Seneca’s story of Pacuvius (epist. 12. 8 f.) who had a funeral feast every day and was carried out to chants of øÆØ but of course Pacuvius’ conception of the good life was very different from Seneca’s. 43–5. cras vel atra / nube polum Pater occupato / vel sole puro: clouds, as often, symbolize trouble (cf. 1. 7. 15), just as sunshine symbolizes good times (Catull. 8. 3 ‘fulsere quondam candidi tibi soles’). puro means ‘unclouded’ as at 2. 5. 19 f. ‘pura luna’, 1. 34. 7 ‘per purum’ (of the sky). Pater (i. e. Jupiter) suits the metaphor of the weather (3. 10. 8 n., Theoc. 4. 43 T ˘f ¼ººŒÆ b ºØ ÆYŁæØ , ¼ººŒÆ oØ); the idea is traditional and poetic, and does not imply any religious commitment on H’s part (Po¨schl, op. cit. 226 f.). occupato is a third-person imperative; Shackleton Bailey takes it as second-person, with Pater as vocative, but that does not suit efficiet below. The alliteration of b and p gives the solemn effect of early Roman poetry, and may hint at thunder (though that does not suit puro); cf. Ar. nub. 391 ŒØfi Ð æfi A ÆÆÆ . The emphasis lies on cloud rather than sunshine, but Heinze goes too far when he talks of a zeugma with illustrato suppressed. 45–6. non tamen irritum / quodcumque retro est efficiet: irritum has a legal tinge, ‘null and void’ (OLD 1). For the thought cf. Epicur. sent. Vat. 55 PŒ Ø ¼æÆŒ ØBÆØ e ªª . This idea was quite acceptable to the Stoic Seneca, see ben. 3. 4. 1 (citing Epicur. fr. 435 Usener) ‘cum certior sit nulla voluptas quam quae iam eripi non potest’, cf. dial. 10. 7. 9 ‘de cetero fors fortuna, ut volet, ordinet; vita iam in tuto est. huic adici potest, detrahi nihil’. For efficere with a predicative adjective in the sense of ‘render’ cf. Plaut. trin. 669 (of Amor) ‘mores hominum moros et morosos efficit’. 46–7. neque / diffinget infectumque reddet: diffingere means ‘to reshape’, hence ‘to alter’; elsewhere the verb is attested only at 1. 35. 38 ff. ‘o utinam nova / incude diffingas retusum / . . . ferrum’ and serm. 1. 10. 37 ‘diffingit [v. l. diffindit] Rheni luteum caput’, perhaps mocking a phrase of Bibaculus; cf. Nisbet (1995), 395. ‘infectumque reddet’ goes further than both diffinget and irritum efficiet, for it means ‘cause it not to have been made’; for this piece of traditional wisdom cf. Theog. 583 f., Simon. PMG 603, Pind. O. 2. 17, Agathon TrGF 1. fr. 5 ı ªaæ ÆPF ŒÆd Łe æŒÆØ, = IªÆ ØE – i fi æƪÆ, Epicur. sent. Vat. 55 (quoted on 45–6 above), Plin. nat. hist. 2. 27, Otto 129 f., H. Fuchs, Fest. Tschudi, 1954: 48 ff., Milton, PL 9. 926 f. ‘But past who can recall, or done undo? / Not God omnipotent, nor fate’.
360
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
48. quod fugiens semel hora vexit: commentators disagree about the sense of vexit, which in itself simply means ‘has carried’. Some (followed by RN) interpret ‘has brought’ (cf. Varro, Men. 333 ‘nescis quid vesper serus vehat’, Lucr. 3. 1083 ‘posteraque in dubio est fortunam quam vehat aetas’, Virg. georg. 1. 461); see 2. 16. 31 f. ‘et mihi forsan tibi quod negarit / porriget hora’, and for the Epicurean sentiment anth. Lat. 474. 7 f. R ‘pervixi, neque enim fortuna malignior umquam / eripiet nobis quod prior hora dedit’. There would be a paradox in the combination of fugiens and vexit; cf. 3. 6. 43 f. ‘amicum / tempus agens abeunte curru’, Bell 391. Others (including NR) think that in view of ‘quodcumque retro est’ (46) and especially fugiens, which more naturally refers to ‘movement away from’, vexit means ‘has carried away’; cf. Sen. dial. 1. 5. 8 ‘irrevocabilis humana pariter ac divina cursus vehit’. On the second view semel means ‘once an experience is over it cannot be altered’; RN thinks this does less than justice to the Epicurean doctrine that once a blessing has been received it cannot be annulled. 49–50. Fortuna saevo laeta negotio et / ludum insolentem ludere pertinax: Fortune is characterized by two paradoxes: she delights in her business (which is not serious but cruel), and perseveres in her game (which is not pleasant but arrogant). For her cruelty cf. serm. 2. 2. 126, 2. 8. 61, Catull. 64. 169, Sall. Cat. 10. 1, Apul. met. 5. 5. 2 with Kenney, Claud. in Eutrop. 1. 24 f. ‘quaenam ista iocandi / saevitia?’ For her sport cf. 2. 1. 3 with N–H, Plaut. merc. 225, Sen. dial. 9. 11. 5 ‘ludos sibi facit’, epig. 24. 65 with Prato, Lucian, Nigr. 20, Juv. 3. 40, 6. 608; as she personifies the accidents that govern life, she is frequently described in this way; the idea is less common and more shocking when ascribed to the gods, e. g. by Shakespeare, King Lear 4. 1. 37 f. ‘As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods; / They kill us for their sport’, Hardy, Tess of the D’Urbervilles, ch. 59 ‘the President of the Immortals . . . had ended his sport with Tess’. ludum ludere is a so-called figura etymologica (K–S 1. 275, Wills 243 ff.), common in Greek (K–G 2. 582 f.) and early Latin (cf. Porph. ‘veteribus usitatum elocutionis genus’); though vigorously emphatic it is unexpected in the economical style of the Odes, and at one time RN considered ducere (‘protract’), but in a passage that owes something to Horace, Boethius (cons. phil. 2. 2. 9) has Fortuna say ‘hunc continuum ludum ludimus’. RN now thinks that lusum . . . ludere would be better than ludum . . . ludere (cf. Petr. 13.1 ‘o lusum fortunae mirabilem’). 51–2. transmutat incertos honores, / nunc mihi nunc alii benigna: for the fickleness of Fortune see for instance Soph. Ant. 1158 f., Men. dysc. 803 f. with Sandbach, Cebes, tab. 31. 5, Cic. nat. deor. 2. 43 with Pease, Sen. suas. 1. 9 ‘dixit deinde locum de varietate Fortunae’, Sen. epig. 24. 64
2 9 . T Y R R H ENA R E G V M P RO G EN I ES
361
with Prato, Plin. nat. hist. 2. 22 ‘volubilis, a plerisque vero et caeca existimata, vaga inconstans incerta varia indignorumque fautrix’, Otto 142 (the wheel of Fortune). H makes the same point in three different ways: by the verb, by an adjective with the object, and by an adjective with the subject. With mihi he moves from the general to the particular, and so continues to the end of the poem; for personal closures cf. 2. 16. 37 ff., 3. 1. 45 ff., 3. 3. 69 ff., Esser 9 ff. 53. laudo manentem: Fortuna could not be expected to stay for long (Boethius, loc. cit. 2. 1. 13 ‘nec manendi fida’, 17), but people naturally hoped she would; this idea seems to be expressed by the legend on a coin from the reign of Commodus f o r t u n a e m a n e n t i , ‘to enduring Fortune’ (LIMC 8. 1. 132, no. 113, 8. 2. 101). According to a flattering speech of Plutarch’s (fort. Rom. 318a) she came to Rome with the intention of staying (‰ FÆ), but this was because she had joined forces with Virtue (316e). 53–4. si celeris quatit / pennas, resigno quae dedit: Fortuna takes off with a beating of wings; for winged Fortune cf. anon. PMG 1019. 5, Val. Max. 7. 1. 1 ‘volubilis’, Plut. loc. cit. (she took off her wings on arriving at Rome ), Lucian, Timon 20, Fronto, pp. 150 f. van den Hout ‘omnes ibi Fortunas Antiatis Praenestinas Respicientis balnearum etiam Fortunas cum pennis . . . reperias’, LIMC 8. 1. 137, nos. 191 (a wall-painting from Pompeii), 194–6 (gems of 1st cent. ad), 8. 2. 109. resigno means rescribo (Fest. 281M ¼ 352L), i. e. ‘repay a debt’ (serm. 2. 3. 76, Ter. Phorm. 922); cf. epist. 1. 7. 34 ‘hac ego si compellor imagine, cuncta resigno’ (a rather disingenuous protestation to Maecenas). For the thought cf. Sen. dial. 7. 21. 2, 9. 11. 2–3 ‘quandoque autem reddere iubebitur, non queretur cum Fortuna, sed dicet ‘‘gratias ago pro eo quod possedi habuique . . . sed quia ita imperas, do cedo gratus libensque’’ ’, Epictet. 2. 16. 28. 54–5. et mea / virtute me involvo: as opposed to the external possessions that he renounces H’s virtus is his own (hence the emphatic mea); cf. Acc. TRF 619 f. ‘nam si a me regnum Fortuna atque opes / eripere quivit, at virtutem non quiit’. Although basically serious, H uses a selfdepreciating image drawn from popular philosophy: a rough cloak or æø was the badge of the Stoic-Cynic preacher (Diog. Laert. 6. 13, 6. 22, Kindstrand on Bion pp. 161 ff.) and his one protection against the elements. For various moral illustrations from clothing see Aristippus 30–4 Mannebach (cf. Hor. epist. 1. 17. 23 ff.), Plat. rep. 457c, Varro, Men. 571 ‘non quaerenda est homini qui habet virtutem paenula in imbri’, Favorinus, de exsilio 20B, Athen. 7. 281 (about a convert to Epicureanism) n ¼ØŒæı If e B IæB ØHÆ IŁØa ØÆ.
362
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
55–6. probamque / Pauperiem sine dote quaero: for quaero cf. epist. 1. 2. 44 f. ‘quaeritur argentum puerisque beata creandis / uxor’ (where the cynical beata means ‘rich’). A personified Greek Penia figured in the Plutus of Aristophanes and most relevantly in popular philosophy; cf. Bion F17. 15 ff. Kindstrand, Petr. 84. 4 ‘Bonae Mentis soror est Paupertas’, Otto 268 f., RE 19. 1. 495 ff. 57–8. non est meum si mugiat Africis / malus procellis: non est meum means ‘it is not a characteristic of mine’, analogous to genitives like miserarum est (3. 12. 1); cf. Plat. Alc. 1. 106b e K , Plaut. asin. 190, Ter. heaut. 549 ‘non est mentiri meum’, Cic. Pis. 75, K–S 1. 454, OLD 6. For mugiat of inanimate things cf. epod. 10. 19 f. ‘Ionius udo cum remugiens sinus / Noto carinam ruperit’, Hes. op. 508 ıŒ b ªÆEÆ ŒÆd oº with West, Plin. nat. hist. 18. 360 ‘montium sonitus nemorumque mugitus’. The wind is specified to add vividness; for the stormy south-wester cf. 1. 14. 5 f. ‘et malus celeri saucius Africo / antemnaeque gemant’, Virg. Aen. 1. 85 f. ‘creberque procellis / Africus’ with Austin. 58–9. ad miseras preces / decurrere et votis pacisci: decurrere means ‘to have recourse to’, ‘take refuge in’ (cf. serm. 2. 1. 32, OLD 9); it suits the seaman who runs for port in a storm (bell. Afr. 3. 5 ‘portum . . . quo naves decurrerent’, OLD 4). Epicureans thought it irrational to pray when in peril on the sea, for the gods were indifferent and the storms had scientific causes; cf. Lucr. 5. 1229 ff. ‘(induperator) non divum pacem votis adit ac prece quaesit / ventorum pavidus paces animasque secundas / nequiquam . . . ?’, N–H on 2. 16. 1. For miseras (‘abject’) cf. epod. 10. 17 f. ‘et illa non virilis eiulatio / preces et aversum ad Iovem’. Seamen in storms promised offerings to the gods if they and their cargoes were saved; cf. 1. 5. 13 ff. with N–H, Pease on Cic. nat. deor. 3. 89. pacisci is a legal and commercial verb that suggests a discreditable bargain; cf. Plat. Euthyphr. 14e KæØŒc . . . , Sen. nat. quaest. 4. 7 ‘negant posse fieri ut cum grandine aliquis paciscatur et tempestates munusculis redimat’, Pers. 2. 29 f. ‘aut quidnam est qua tu mercede deorum / emeris auriculas? pulmone et lactibus unctis?’ 60–1. ne Cypriae Tyriaeque merces / addant avaro divitias mari: Cyprus produced copper (cyprum) and timber (N–H on 1. 1. 13, RE 12. 70 ff.); Tyre exported purple textiles (serm. 2. 4. 84, epod. 12. 21) as well as spices and perfumes from further east (RE 7A. 2. 1902 f.). In a crisis it was customary to jettison part or all of the cargo (Greek KŒº); cf. Dem. 35. 11, Acts 27: 38 KŒØ e ºE, KŒÆºº Ø e E N c ŁºÆÆ, Juv. 12. 33 f. ‘decidere iactu / coepit cum ventis’ with Courtney, Ach. Tat. 3. 2. 9, dig. 14. 2 de lege Rhodia de iactu, J. Rouge´, Recherches sur l’organisation du commerce maritime en Me´diterrane´e sous
2 9 . T Y R R H ENA R E G V M P RO G EN I ES
363
l’empire romain, 1966: 397 ff. Moral analogies were pointed out already in Aeschylus: see sept. 769 ff. æ æıÆ KŒºa æØ = IæH IºA = Zº ¼ªÆ Æ ıŁ , Ag. 1008 ff. with Fraenkel. As Davis (op. cit. 180) points out, H does not identify himself with the acquisitive mercator. addant underlines that shipwrecks were common. Elsewhere H describes the sea as greedy (1. 28. 18 ‘exitio est avidum mare nautis’); here avaro (‘miserly’) goes further, suggesting that it never gives up its hoards. 62. tunc me biremis praesidio scaphae: a scapha was a lifeboat normally towed behind a ship but sometimes kept on deck; cf. Plaut. rud. 74 f., 162 ff., 173 ff., summed up at 366 ff. ‘de navi timidae ambae in scapham insiluimus, quia videmus / ad saxa navim ferrier; properans exsolvi restim, / dum illi timent; nos cum scapha tempestas dextrovorsum / differt ab illis . . . / vix hodie ad litus pertulit nos ventus exanimatas’, Petr. 102. 1 ‘ ‘‘quin potius’’ inquam ego ‘‘ad temeritatem confugimus et per funem lapsi descendimus in scapham, praecisoque vinculo reliqua fortunae committimus?’’ ’, 102. 4–5, 114. 7, Acts 27: 30 ƺÆø c Œ N c ŁºÆÆ, Ach. Tat. 3. 3. 4. For further evidence see Zinn, op. cit. 234 f., L. Casson, Ships and Seamanship in the Ancient World, 1995: index s. ‘ship’s boat’. The MSS divide between tunc and tum; the former avoids the assonance with tutum and tumultus (though modern instincts about euphony are not infallible). biremis here means ‘with two oars’ (so Lucan 8. 562, 10. 56); it usually means ‘with two banks of oars’ (Œæ ). praesidium is found four times in the Odes, but is generally avoided in the higher genres of poetry except for Seneca (Axelson 98, N–H on 1. 1. 2); there is a paradox in applying the word to a small and fragile craft. For the instrumental ablative cf. Lucr. 5. 873 f. ‘quare pateremur eorum / praesidio nostro pasci genus esseque tutum’, Caes. bG 6. 14. 4; in our passage it need not be combined with tutum, which seems more effective if it begins the next clause (the assonance provides a meaningful contrast with tumultus). For parables about big and small boats in popular philosophy cf. epist. 1. 1. 92 f. with Heinze, epist. 2. 2. 199 f., Plut. tranq. animi 466b; note also Antip. Thess. anth. Pal. 9. 107 (where the small vessel trusts in the gods), Stat. silv. 1. 4. 120 f. (where both ships suffer equally). We are told by Seneca (dial. 9. 14. 3) that when Zeno heard of a shipwreck in which all his possessions had been lost he said ‘iubet me Fortuna expeditius philosophari’. Similarly, according to Vitruvius 6. 1 the shipwrecked Aristippus said ‘eiusmodi possessiones et viatica liberis oportere parari, quae etiam e naufragio una possent enatare’ (cf. Mannebach nos. 9A, 99B, 9D, 9E).
364
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
63–4. tutum per Aegaeos tumultus / aura feret geminusque Pollux: the Aegean was notorious for its squalls (2. 16. 1 f. ‘in patenti / prensus Aegaeo’), and its name may have suggested ÆNª ‘a storm-wind’. tumultus suits the upheavals of life as well as those of the sea. aura is contrasted with procellis (58); the Dioscuri could miraculously still the waves (1. 12. 29 f. ‘defluit saxis agitatus umor, / concidunt venti’, Catull. 68. 63 ff.). Bentley read ferat, which has negligible MS support, because of the hypothetical mugiat (58); but as tunc is the equivalent of ‘if that does happen’, a confident future is more effective. Ps.-Acro rightly comments ‘Pollux cum Castore intellegendus est’; for the Dioscuri as joint protectors of seamen see 1. 3. 2 ‘lucida sidera’, N–H on 1. 12. 27. H’s brachylogy may be a coinage of his own (imitated at Ov. ars 1. 746 ‘geminus . . . Castor’), but it reflects the established usage by which the Dioscuri could be called ‘Castores’ or less commonly ‘Polluces’; see Plin. nat. hist. 10. 121 ‘supra Castorum aedem’, Tac. hist. 2. 24. 2 ‘locus Castorum vocatur’, paneg. Lat. 2 (12). 39. 4 ‘Castoras geminos’, Serv. georg. 3. 89 ‘ambo libenter et Polluces et Castores vocantur’, TLL onomast. 2. 244. 55 ff. For similar expressions cf. Stat. silv. 4. 6. 15 f. with Coleman, Juv. 11. 105 (of Romulus and Remus) with Courtney. In Homer the dual `YÆ occasionally refers to Ajax and his brother Teucer (Il. 4. 285, 13. 197, etc.); cf. Wackernagel, Kl. Schrift., 1955: 1. 144 f. citing Sanskrit parallels, Bell 64 f., D. L. Page, History and the Homeric Iliad, 1959: 235 ff., 272 f. See further Lo¨fstedt 1 edn. 2, 67 ff., H–Sz 19, Bell 1 ff.
3 0 . EX E G I M O N V M EN T V M [M. von Albrecht, Antike und Abendland 18, 1973: 64 ff.; I. Borzsa´k, Acta Ant. Hung. 12, 1964: 137 ff.; E. Doblhofer, Horaz in der Forschung nach 1957 (1992), 111 ff.; Fraenkel 302 ff.; A. Hardie, Stud. Clas. 21, 1983: 49 ff.; D. Korzeniewski, Gymnasium 79, 1972: 380 ff., and 81, 1974: 201 ff.; Lowrie 71 ff.; Po¨schl 246 ff. (¼ GIF 20, 1967: 261 ff.); S. R. Slings in Ultima Aetas (ed. C. Kroon and D. den Hengst), 2000: 5 ff.; Suerbaum, 1968; T. Woodman in Quality and Pleasure in Latin Poetry (ed. T. Woodman and D. West), 1974: 115 ff.]
1–5. I have finished a monument more everlasting than bronze and more conspicuous than the pyramids, beyond the reach of time and the elements. 6–9. A large part of me will survive, and my fame will grow as long as the pontifex and vestal ascend the Capitol. 10–14. I shall be proclaimed in Apulia as the first to have brought Aeolian verse-forms to Italian poetry. 14–16. Take a justifiable pride, Melpomene, and crown me with Apollo’s bays. At the end of a book ancient poets sometimes said something about themselves and their expectation of future fame; for the so-called
3 0 . EX E G I M O N V M EN T V M
365
sphragis or ‘seal’ cf. W. Kranz, RhM 104, 1961: 3 ff., 97 ff., N–H on 2. 20, McKeown on Ov. am. 1. 15. Here Horace does not name himself (contrast 4. 6. 44), and mentions his Apulian birthplace only obliquely; for his characteristic boast of lowly origin cf. the note on v. 12 below. In particular the ode balances 1. 1, the programmatic poem of the collection; they are both written in an unvaried sequence of Asclepiads, a metre found elsewhere in the Odes only at 4. 8 (the central poem of the book, making a similar claim to fame). But Horace’s tone is more assertive now that his task is completed: in the opening piece the poet’s occupation is one among many, here he concentrates entirely on himself; there he speaks cautiously in a future tense (1. 1. 29 ‘quod si me lyricis vatibus inseres’), here confidently in a perfect tense (‘exegi monumentum’); there he hopes for the Muses’ support in two modest conditional clauses (1. 1. 32 ff. ‘si neque tibias / Euterpe cohibet nec Polyhymnia / Lesboum refugit tendere barbiton’), here he asks Melpomene to take pride in the achievement; there he is crowned with Bacchus’ ivy (1. 1. 29), here more originally with the bay of Apollo (15–16 n., cf. Suerbaum, op. cit. 310 f.). Pindar had compared his songs to glittering buildings: O. 6. 1 ff. $æıÆ Æ P- = Ø E æŁæfiø ŁÆºı = ŒÆ ‰ ‹ ŁÆe ªÆæ = , fr. 194 (C. M. Bowra, Pindar, 1964: 20 ff., 323); he is a particular source for this ode (3 ff.) when he claims that neither rain nor wind will sweep away his treasure-house (P. 6. 10 ff. e h ØæØ Zæ , KÆŒe KºŁ = . . . h ¼ K ı = ±ºe ¼ ØØ Æ æfiø æØ = ı ). Aristophanes uses metaphors from masonry to describe the verses of Aeschylus (ran. 1004, cf. Taillardat 438 f.); a scrap of Callimachus (aetia fr. 118) seems to describe two temples in terms suggestive of poetry (R. F. Thomas, 1999: 76 ¼ CQ 33, 1983: 97 ff.). Such imagery suited the Roman admiration for solidly constructed buildings and poems; thus at georg. 3. 13 ff. Virgil describes his future epic as a marble temple. But whereas Pindar had used his architectural image to glorify the laudandus, the Roman poets emphasize their own achievement; cf. Suerbaum, op. cit. 151 ff. (Ennius), 165 ff. (Horace), 172 ff. (Virgil), 194 ff. (Propertius), A. Kerkhecker on Call. iamb., pp. 11 ff. The poem also contains imitations of Simonides (for his influence on Horace see Oates, cited on 3. 2, and the articles by Barchiesi and Harrison in The New Simonides, ed. D. Boedeker and D. Sider, 2001: 255 ff., 261 ff.). See especially the dirge on the dead at Thermopylae (PMG 531. 4 f., D. Steiner, CQ 49, 1999: 383 ff.), where he says that a tribute such as his own, unlike material offerings, will be dimmed neither by decay nor by time: KØ b ØF h Pæg = hŁ › ÆÆøæ IÆıæØ æ (see further 2 n.). Elsewhere he speaks of ‘sharp-toothed time’ (eleg. W. edn. 2, 2. 88. 1) $æ O f O Æ ,
366
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
which may have influenced Horace’s imber edax (3 n.). A further connection is suggested by an epitaph attributed to Cleobulus (Korzeniewski, op. cit. (1974), 202 f., Slings, op. cit. 7 ff.); this describes how a bronze statue on the tomb of Midas will last ‘as long as water flows and trees are green’ (anth. Pal. 7. 153 i oøæ fi , ŒÆd æÆ ŒæÆ Łºfi ), a boast which Simonides censures (PMG 581. 5). Horace’s comparison with the pyramids (2) has no recorded parallel in Greek poetry. An analogy has been sought in an Egyptian papyrus of about 1200 bc; see H. Fuchs, #øæ Edgar Salin, 1962: 149 ff., Borzsa´k, op. cit. 138 ff., M. L. West, HSCP 73, 1969: 132 f. This says in praise of ancient scribes that ‘they did not make themselves pyramids of bronze with iron plaques . . . their teachings are their pyramids; . . . their monuments are covered with earth . . . but their names are mentioned because of their books’. If this line of thought had any influence on Horace’s ode, it could only have been done through a Hellenistic intermediary; Egyptian influences on Alexandrian poetry cannot be entirely ruled out (cf. M. L. West, loc. cit.), but they can never be tracked down with any precision. It has been suggested that a link with Horace is provided by an epigram of Posidippus for the tomb of Doricha at Naucratis (no. 17 Gow–Page, HE 1, p. 171 ¼ 122 Austin– Bastianini, I. Trencse´nyi–Waldapfel, Acta Ant. Hung. 12, 1964: 149 ff.). This shares certain commonplaces with Horace’s poem (see notes on 6–7 and 8–9); but though Doricha was wrongly connected with a pyramid (cf. Herod. 2. 134, Page, Sappho and Alcaeus, 48 ff.), nothing is said of that in the epigram. The theory of Egyptian influence here is therefore too speculative (E. Maro´ti in Festschrift Altheim 1, 1969: 452 ff.). In spite of Greek influences, Horace’s ode is very Roman. The reference to the pyramids is highly topical after the annexation of Egypt in 30 bc. The remark about ‘escaping Libitina’ (6–7 n.) not only gives local colour but has a sardonic tone that would not suit Pindar. The picture of the pontiff and vestal on the Capitol evokes a solemn ceremony at the heart of Rome’s religious life (8–9 n.). When Horace turns to his other patria in Apulia (10 ff.) he shows a feeling for his rural background that has already appeared in the Roman Odes (3. 4. 9 ff., 3. 6. 37 ff.). But when he asks for a garland it is that of a victor at the Pythian games, not that of a triumphator (15–16 n.). The poem has a monumental solidity that matches its subject and is again truly Roman. It consists of seven proud declarations, not seriously modified by a tribute to the Muse (14–16), and each of these sections can be broken into two balancing subdivisions; thus 1 ‘exegi . . . perennius’ is answered by 2 ‘regali . . . altius’, 3 ‘quod non imber . . . ’ by 3–4 ‘non Aquilo . . . diruere’, and so on. There is a pervasive series of contrasts: death against growth, transience against permanence, temporal against literary power; the interaction of these opposites gives unity to the poem
3 0 . EX E G I M O N V M EN T V M
367
and generates much of its energy. The imagery moves between culture and nature: monuments and their decay (1–5), the violence of the elements (3 f. and 10), the rituals of the Roman state (8 f.), the evergreen vitality of the poet’s creation (8 crescam, 16 lauro, with perhaps a hint at 1 perennius). Lucretius had described the power of poetry in terms of florescence as well as masonry: ‘quo tot facta virum totiens cecidere neque umquam / aeternis famae monimentis insita florent’ (5. 328 f.). Horace gives something of the same impression here. The ode has had a fruitful Fortleben. Propertius uses the image of the pyramids to make a contrast with his power to immortalize (3. 2. 19, see below, 2 n.); for specific echoes see below on altius (2), quaesitam meritis (15). Ovid draws on our poem at the end of am. 1 to predict the fame of his book (1. 15. 7 f. ‘mihi fama perennis / quaeritur’); see especially the notes below on multaque pars mei (6) and dum (8). Above all, at the end of met. 15 he skilfully refabricates Horatian motifs (15. 871 ff.): ‘iamque opus exegi quod nec Iovis ira nec ignis / nec poterit ferrum nec edax abolere vetustas . . . / parte tamen meliore mei super alta perennis / astra ferar, nomenque erit indelebile nostrum, / quaque patet domitis Romana potentia terris / ore legar populi’. The topics were taken up by Du Bellay and Ronsard (‘Plus dur que fer j’ai fini mon ouvrage’), Spenser (Epilogue to the Shepeardes Calender), Herrick (Pillar of Fame), Milton (On Shakespeare), Klopstock and Pushkin (von Albrecht, op. cit.). The following parallels in Shakespeare’s sonnets are worth noting: ‘Not marble nor the gilded monuments / Of princes shall outlive this powerful rhyme’ (55. 1 f.), ‘And thou in this shalt find thy monument, / When tyrants’ crests and tombs of brass are spent’ (107. 13 f.), ‘No! Time, thou shalt not boast that I do change: / Thy pyramids built up with newer might / To me are nothing novel, nothing strange . . . / For thy records and what we see doth lie, / Made more or less by thy continuous haste’ (123. 1–3, 11 f.); see further J. B. Leishman, Themes and Variations in Shakespeare’s Sonnets, 1961: 27 ff. and his index under ‘Horace’; C. Burrow, The Oxford Shakespeare: Complete Sonnets and Poems, 2002 (index under ‘Horace’). For Horace’s more general influence see E. Stemplinger Das Fortleben des Horazischen Lyrik seit der Renaissance, 1906, Orazio nella Letteratura Mondiale, 1936, H. Krasser and E. A. Schmidt (edd.), Zeitgenosse Horaz, 1996. Metre: Asclepiad. 1. Exegi monumentum: exegi means not just ‘I have completed’ but ‘I have perfected’ (‘finii perfeci’ ps.-Acro); cf. Ov. rem. 811, fast. 1. 723, met. 15. 871 f. (cited above). The former usage is found with actions (Virg. Aen. 6. 637 ‘his demum exactis’) or periods of time (OLD s.v. 5); for a similar declaration on a real monument cf. CLE 89. 3
368
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
‘monumentum absolvi’. But when exigere is applied to artefacts it suggests ‘finished’ in the sense of ‘perfected’, as is most familiar from the participle exactus; cf. epist. 2. 1. 71 f. (of early Roman poetry) ‘sed emendata videri / pulchraque et exactis minimum distantia miror’, Prop. 3. 1. 8 ‘exactus tenui pumice versus erat’, 3. 21. 30, Ov. met. 1. 406 with Bo¨mer. For the much rarer use with other forms of the verb cf. Cic. Verr. 2. 1. 133 ‘ad perpendiculum columnas exigere’, Brink on epist. 2, appendix 5 (who suggests it is a stonemason’s word); though in our passage there is no clarifying phrase (as in Cicero, loc. cit.), the implication suits monumentum; cf. R. F. Thomas loc. cit (see introduction), n. 36. monumentum is commonly used of works of literature that preserve an author’s memory; cf. Lucil. 1084M, Catull. 95. 9, Cic. off. 1. 156 ‘hoc idem etiam post mortem monumentis litterarum persequuntur’, Dion. Hal. ant. Rom. 1. 1. 2 EÆ . . . ŒÆƺØE, L c ıÆÆØŁÆØ E ÆØ ÆPH e F æ ı. Horace has given new life to the word by describing his poetry as a sepulchral monument (as is shown by the comparison with the pyramids in v. 2 and the reference to death in v. 6); cf. Prop. 3. 2. 18, Ov. trist. 3. 3. 77 f., Suerbaum, op. cit. 327 f., H. Ha¨usle, ‘Das Denkmal als Garant des Nachruhms’, Zetemata 75, 1980: 37 n., Lowrie 294 f. For the grandiosity of such edifices see S. Hornblower, Mausolus, 1982: 224 ff., Korzeniewski, op. cit. 1972 (citing with illustrations the tomb of Caecilia Metella on the Appian Way and of Munatius Plancus at Gaeta). aere perennius: aere is at first naturally understood as the metal, which is associated by the poet with hardness and durability (3. 16. 1 n.); for similar comparisons cf. Ov. am. 3. 8. 3 ‘pretiosius auro’, trist. 1. 5. 53 ‘firmius aere’. But the mention of the pyramids (2) makes us focus specifically on bronze statues (called aera at epist. 1. 6. 17, 2. 1. 240, for the singular aes see Mart. 9. 43. 2, Val. Max. 2. 10, ext. 1. 25), which Horace contrasts elsewhere with the artefacts of poets; cf. 4. 2. 19 f. ‘centum potiore signis / munere donat’, 4. 8. 2 ff., following Pind. N. 5. 1. Poems and speeches are compared elsewhere with monuments of marble or bronze; cf. Pind. N. 4. 81 ºÆ Ł —Ææı ºŁı ºıŒæÆ, Isoc. antid. 7 E . . . ºf ŒººØ H ƺŒH IÆŁø, Liban. orat. 12. 10. The distinction between ‘bronze’ and ‘a bronze’ is much clearer in English than in Latin; ps.-Acro interprets ‘durabilius metallo’ and ‘durabilius statuis’ without suggesting that these are alternatives. perenne can mean both ‘lasting through the years’ (as here) and ‘lasting all year’ (used particularly of evergreen foliage and water that never runs dry). The former sense is applied to poetry by Catullus at 1. 10 ‘plus uno maneat perenne saeclo’ (going further than Call. fr. 7. 14 ¥ Æ Ø ıºf øØ ), and both by Lucretius at 1. 118 (of Ennius) ‘detulit ex Helicone perenni fronde coronam’. Even in our passage there might be a latent sense of ‘ever-renewed’ (cf. Cleobulus and Simonides
3 0 . EX E G I M O N V M EN T V M
369
cited in the introduction); this is then made explicit in the metaphor at v. 8. perenne does not properly admit a comparative, and the form here is unparalleled. 2. regalique situ pyramidum altius: the noun situs is regularly used of the situation of a building (OLD s.v. 2); but the site of the pyramids was not high, and H could hardly have thought otherwise. Heinze interprets as ‘resting-place’ or ‘grave’ (an unattested meaning), yet sinere can have the sense ‘to leave lying’ (Ernout–Meillet s. v.), the participle situs often means ‘buried’ (as in ‘hic situs est’), and the fourth declension noun positus is used for burial-places in Val. Fl. 6. 109 f.; similarly ŁŒ from ŁØ is often used of a tomb (see further below). Others understand the word to mean ‘edifice’ (Korzeniewski, op. cit. 1972: 383 f.); though this also is an unattested use of the noun, the participle situs can mean ‘set up’, as if it came from sisto; cf. Tac. ann. 1. 74. 3 ‘statuam Marcelli altius quam Caesarum sitam’, 2. 7. 2 ‘veterem aram Druso sitam disiecerant’ (with Goodyear’s parallels). This meaning too would follow well from monumentum (for the grandiose periphrasis cf. Prop. 3. 2. 19 ‘pyramidum sumptus ad sidera ducti’), and it might seem to suit altius better than the former theory; cf. Stat. silv. 2. 7. 71 f. (to Lucan) ‘Pharo cruenta / Pompeio dabis altius sepulcrum’, Greg. Naz. PG 35. 720 Æo Ø Ææ H º H , ˙æÆŒºø ºH łºæÆ. Yet if situ means ‘resting-place’ the idea of height may be sufficiently conveyed by pyramidum. Others, especially Po¨schl, op. cit., give situs its common meaning of ‘decay’. Martial seems to have recalled our passage at 8. 3. 5 ‘et cum rupta situ Messalae saxa iacebunt’, but if so he has altered it; for here ‘regal decay’ would strike a satirical note at odds with the gravity of the context, and it would be rhetorically inept to compare the height of H’s monument to something that was crumbling; in any case Diodorus, who had visited Egypt not long before, emphasized that the pyramids were in an excellent state of repair: ØÆıØ æØ F F ƒ ºŁØ c K Iæ B ŁØ ŒÆd c ‹º ŒÆÆŒıc ¼ ØÆıº (1. 63. 5). Nevertheless, RN thinks it relevant to cite Simonides, PMG 531 (quoted in the introduction) where Pæ , the corruption of the grave, is contrasted with the enduring qualities of poetry. situs in its sense of ‘decay’ seems to be derived from sinere ‘to leave lying’ (Ernout– Meillet, cited above); so if situ here can mean ‘grave’, it may at a secondary level have associations with ‘decay’. The pyramids were known to everybody as a wonder of the world (Herod. 2. 134, Diod. 1. 63–4, Strab. 17. 1. 33–4, RE 23. 2. 2271 f.). It is unnecessary to see a reference to Cleopatra’s mausoleum or Gallus’ boastful inscriptions (thus E. Maro´ti, Fest. Altheim 1, 1969: 452 ff., B. J. Gibson, CQ 47, 1997: 312 ff.). For their unparalleled height (up to 500 ft.)
370
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
cf. Prop. 3. 2. 19 (quoted above), anth. Lat. 417. 3 (¼ Sen. epig. 26. 3 Prato) ‘Pyramidesque ausas vicinum attingere caelum’ (on a theme similar to H’s), Tac. ann. 2. 61. 1 ‘instar montium eductae pyramides certamine et opibus regum’. The Romans’ awe at their scale was combined with disapproval of their uselessness; cf. Plin. nat. hist. 36. 75 ‘regum pecuniae otiosa ac stulta ostentatio’, Frontinus, aqu. 1. 16 ‘tot aquarum tam multis necessariis molibus pyramidas videlicet otiosas compares’. 3–4. quod non imber edax, non Aquilo impotens / possit diruere: H is recalling Pindar’s storm at P. 6. 10 (see introduction), which suits Delphi, but edax is more appropriate to long-term erosion. For the idea that ‘constant dripping wears away a stone’ cf. Lucr. 4. 1286 f. ‘nonne vides etiam guttas in saxa cadentis / umoris longo in spatio pertundere saxa?’ with R. D. Brown, Tib. 1. 4. 18 with K. F. Smith, Otto 156 f. Words for nibbling were sometimes applied to erosion by rivers; cf. 1. 31. 8 ‘mordet aqua taciturnus amnis’ with N–H (citing Call. ep. 44. 4 æªø among other passages), 3. 29. 36 ‘lapides adesos’. The more forceful edax was used of parasites by Plautus (Pers. 421) and by H in epist. 2. 1. 173, but was given metaphorical applications by others; cf. Virg. Aen. 2. 758 ‘ignis edax’ with Lyne, 1989: 51 ff., Prato on Sen. epig. 1. 1. The parallel with Simonides, eleg. W. edn. 2, 2. 88. 1 has been noted in the introduction; both authors are combined at Ov. met. 15. 234 ff. ‘tempus edax rerum, tuque invidiosa vetustas, / omnia destruitis, vitiataque dentibus aevi / paulatim lenta consumitis omnia morte’. For the impermanence of monuments see further D. Fowler, Roman Constructions, 2000: 193 ff. impotens, like IŒæÆ , means ‘without self-control’, cf. 1. 37. 10 f. (of Cleopatra) ‘quidlibet impotens / sperare’; it is applied to natural forces at Catull. 4. 18 ‘tot per impotentia freta’, Mart. 1. 49. 19 ‘bruma impotens’ (so impotentia at epod. 16. 62). Elsewhere the word means ‘powerless’ (cf. 2. 1. 26); here the two senses combine to suggest an impotent fury (cf. ‘non . . . possit diruere’). The personification of Aquilo (cf. 1. 3. 12 ff.) recalls the unruliness of winds in epic (Virg. Aen. 1. 81 ff.); see also Stat. silv. 1. 1. 91 ff. (a clear reminiscence of our passage) ‘non hoc imbriferas hiemes opus [Domitian’s statue] aut Iovis ignem / tergeminum, Aeolii non agmina carceris horret / annorumve moras [a reversal of H’s fuga temporum]; stabit dum terra polusque, / dum Romana dies’. 4–5. aut innumerabilis / annorum series et fuga temporum: the kings of Egypt, like Shelley’s Ozymandias, no doubt boasted that their monuments were indestructible; cf. OGIS 383. 37 ff. (the inscription of Antiochus of Commagene in the ‘Asiatic’ style) Kd b ƒæŁı
3 0 . EX E G I M O N V M EN T V M
371
F ŒæEÆ I æŁ æ ı ºÆØ PæÆø ¼ª ØÆ Łæ ø ŒÆÆÆŁÆØ æŁ. Literary men were more sceptical; cf. above 3n., Enn. ann. 406 with Skutsch, Lucr. 5. 306 ff., Cic. Marc. 11 ‘nihil est enim opere et manu factum quod non conficiat et consumat vetustas’, Phil. 9. 4, Ov. fast. 5. 131 f., met. 15. 871 f. annorum series reminds us of the Romans’ ability to organize chronology (D. Feeney ap. Rudd 1993: 58), but even they found the date of the pyramids incalculable. The transferred epithet innumerabilis avoids a cumbrous genitive. Time, though infinite, is also fugitive (2. 14. 1 with N–H); it is a paradox that it can destroy by running away. 6–7. non omnis moriar multaque pars mei / vitabit Libitinam: the Romans were cautious when they expressed a belief in survival after death; cf. Prop. 4. 7. 1 ‘sunt aliquid manes, letum non omnia finit’, Sen. Tro. 382 f. ‘an toti morimur nullaque pars manet / nostri?’, Stat. silv. 3. 3. 195 ‘non totus rapiere tamen’. Horace gives this platitude a different meaning: that he will live on in his poems, which are part of what he is. For the commonplace that a great poet’s writings survive cf. 1. 32. 3 with N–H, 4. 9. 1 ff., Plat. symp. 209d, Call. ep. 2. 5 ƃ b Æd ıØ I (where ‘Nightingales’ was probably the title of Heraclitus’ poetry-book), Posidippus 17. 5 (Gow–Page, HE 3146 f.) &ÆfiHÆØ b ıØ º Ø ŒÆd ıØ = T fi B ƃ ºıŒÆd Łªª ÆØ º , A. O. Hulton, Latomus 31, 1972: 499 ff. Sometimes it is the poet himself or herself who is said to survive; cf. Antip. Sid. anth. Pal. 7. 713. 3 f. (on Erinna) تæØ PŒ Xæ, Pb ºÆ = ıŒe e ŒØæfi Ð ŒøºÆØ æıªØ, Tullius Laurea, ibid. 7. 17. 7 (where Sappho speaks) ªÆØ ‰ #.ø Œ Œıª. For claims by poets themselves cf. the paraphrase at Sappho fr. 193 ‰ P IŁÆ ÆØ ºŁ, Enn. var. 18V ‘volito vivos per ora virum’; Catull. 1. 10. Horace’s multa (for the more usual magna) is imitated by Ovid am. 1. 15. 42 ‘parsque mei multa superstes erit’ (McKeown gives other parallels to the idea; cf. also met. 15. 875, cited in introduction above). Libitina was the goddess of funerals (Wissowa 245, Blu¨mner, 1911: 489 f., RE 13. 1. 113); she kept a register of deaths (Dion. Hal. ant. Rom. 4. 15. 5, Suet. Nero 39. 1) for which she received a tax (serm. 2. 6. 19 ‘Libitinae quaestus acerbae’, Phaedrus 4. 21. 26, ILS 6726 from Bergamo ‘lucar Libitinae’); her grove at Rome, presumably on the Esquiline (Steinby 3. 189 f.), was the headquarters of the undertakers, who kept their equipment there (ps.-Acro on serm. 2. 6. 19, Ascon. Mil. 29KS). In the arena the gate through which the corpses were dragged was called the ‘Porta Libitinensis’. H’s reference is wry and down-to-earth; cf. epist. 2. 1. 49 ‘miraturque nihil nisi quod Libitina sacravit’ with Brink, Juv. 12. 122 ‘si Libitinam evaserit aeger’.
372
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
7–8. usque ego postera / crescam laude recens: this climactic sentence expands on its predecessor and therefore should be preceded by a colon. usque is combined with crescam, a verb which implies progression; it cannot be taken even partly with an adjective like recens. For a similar sentiment cf. Ap. Rhod. 4. 1773 ff. (the end of the poem), expressed in less personal terms, as befits an epic: Æ¥ IØÆd = N K ªºıŒææÆØ r IØ = IŁæØ . crescam would normally suggest growing fame in life (Virg. ecl. 7. 25 ‘crescentem ornate poetam’, Nepos, Cato 2. 4 ‘quoad vixit virtutum laude crevit’); here it is extended to posthumous reputation (cf. 1. 12. 45 f. ‘crescit occulto velut arbor aevo / fama Marcelli’, Enn. ann. 365 ‘ergo postque magisque viri nunc gloria claret’, Sil. 6. 63, laudatio Turiae 2. 60 ‘crescere tui memoriam’). postera laude is to be taken with both crescam and recens; the ablatives mean ‘by reason of ’, cf. 4. 4. 45 f. ‘post hoc secundis usque laboribus / Romana pubes crevit’; Prop. 3. 1. 33 f. ‘Homerus / posteritate suum crescere sensit opus’ echoes our passage in a condensed form. recens paradoxically suggests that even in later ages Horace will remain fresh; cf. epist 2. 1. 53 f. ‘Naevius in manibus non est et mentibus haeret / paene recens?’ (there ironically). H’s image suggests the freshness of vegetation, as if his reputation were watered by praise; cf. 1. 12. 45 (cited above), Pind. N. 8. 40 ff. IØ Iæ, ºøæÆE KæÆØ = ‰ ‹ æ <- ->, Virg. ecl. 10. 73 f., Po¨schl, op. cit. 249 n. It was suggested in 1 n. above that it might be legitimate here to take up the vegetative connotations of perennius which were only latent in the opening line. 8–9. dum Capitolium / scandet cum tacita virgine pontifex: just as 2. 20 describes the extent in space of H’s fame, so this poem describes the extent in time; and just as the pyramids are contrasted with H’s work, so the Capitol is seen as a parallel to it. For the hyperbole cf. epod. 15. 7 ff. ‘dum pecori lupus et nautis infestus Orion . . . ’ (following Call. fr. 202. 69 f.), Theog. 1. 252 Zæ i ªB ŒÆd MºØ , Cleobulus (introduction above), Tib. 1. 4. 65 with K. F. Smith, Virg. Aen. 1. 607 ff. with Austin, Shakespeare, sonnet 18 ‘So long as men can breathe and eyes can see / So long lives this, and this gives life to thee’; the formula is the positive counterpart of an adynaton (1. 33. 7 with N–H). Such dum clauses often give an illustration that suits the matter in hand; cf. Critias 8. 6 ff. Diehl (Anacreon will live as long as the rituals of the symposium), Posidippus, epig. 17. 7 (Gow–Page, HE 3148 f.) hÆ e ÆŒÆæØ , n ˝ÆŒæÆØ z ıº Ø = i Yfi ˝ºı ÆF K ±ºe ºª, Ov. am. 1. 15. 9 ‘vivet Maeonides Tenedos dum stabit et Ide’, and especially 25 f. ‘Aeneiaque arma legentur / Roma triumphati dum caput orbis erit’ (see McKeown on both passages). In the same way H is here proclaiming himself the poet of Roman institutions; in the opening stanza of the book he had called himself ‘Musarum sacerdos’ (3. 1. 3), so here there
3 0 . EX E G I M O N V M EN T V M
373
might be the hint of an analogy between himself and the pontifex (scandet balances crescam). The Capitol was the symbol of Roman imperium; cf. Binder 124 ff. The city’s survival was thought to depend on its preservation (3. 3. 42 ‘stet Capitolium’, Amm. Marc. 2. 26. 12); for a similar attitude to the Colosseum in later times cf. Bede, PL 94. 543B ‘quamdiu stat Colisaeus, stat et Roma; quando cadet Colisaeus, cadet et Roma; quando cadet Roma, cadet et mundus’, Gibbon vol. 7, ch. 71, p. 330 (Bury), Byron, Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage 4. 145 ‘While stands the Coliseum, Rome shall stand’. For the immortality of the res publica, assumed in the rites of Vesta (3. 5. 11 n.), cf. already Cic. Att. 9. 10. 3, Marc. 22; Rome first appears as ‘The Eternal City’ at Tib. 2. 5. 23 f. ‘Romulus aeternae nondum formaverat urbis / moenia’ (see K. F. Smith), Ov. fast. 3. 72 (see Bo¨mer). For the theme in Augustan ideology cf. Liv. 4. 4. 4. with Ogilvie, Virg. Aen. 1. 278 with Austin; for Tiberius cf. Vell. 2. 103. 4 with Woodman; see further Melinno, Supp. Hell. 541. 13 ff., C. Koch, Religio, 1960: 142 ff. A more sober view is seen in Polybius 38. 22 on Scipio’s forebodings about Rome, Cic. rep. 6. 21 ff. on Scipio’s perception of Rome’s insignificance, Cic. fam. 4. 5. 4 giving Sulpicius’ sombre reflections on the transience of power, Hor. ars 63–9 ‘debemur morti nos nostraque . . . mortalia facta peribunt’; see further P. Hardie in A. Powell (ed.), Roman Poetry and Propaganda in the Age of Augustus, 1992: 59 ff. More generally, the end of the world, whether by decay or conflagration, was a familiar element in Epicurean and Stoic thought. The Pontifex Maximus had a particular responsibility for the Vestals (Beard–North–Price 1. 57 f.), but here H is less specific; at this point the office was still held by Lepidus, who was living in retirement at Circeii (Suet. Aug. 16. 4), and it was not assumed by Augustus till 12 BC (G. W. Bowersock in Raaflaub–Toher 380 ff.). For rites similar to the one described cf. Varro, lL. 5. 47 (on the Via Sacra) ‘qua sacra quotquot mensibus feruntur in Arcem’, Joh. Lydus, de mens. 4. 49 ¼ 36 (on a sacrifice to Jupiter on the Ides of March) ªıı F Iæ Øæø ŒÆd H ŒÆ æø B 1æ (i. e. the chief vestal), Wissowa 517 (who, however, associates this ceremony with the Flamen dialis). The Vestal is silent because it is a solemn occasion (cf. ‘favete linguis’ in 3. 1. 2); a similar situation is reflected at Virg. Aen. 7. 71 f. ‘castis adolet dum altaria taedis / et iuxta genitorem astat Lavinia virgo’. H pictures the steep climb from the Forum up the Clivus Capitolinus (T. P. Wiseman ap. Steinby 1. 280 f.); victorious generals ‘climbed the Capitol’ (Liv. 42. 49. 6) by the same route, but that does not mean that we are invited to see H himself as a triumphator (see n. on vv. 15–16 below). H’s lines bear some resemblance to Virg. Aen. 9. 447 ff. (on Nisus and Euryalus) ‘si quid mea carmina possunt, / nulla dies umquam memori vos eximet aevo, / dum domus Aeneae Capitoli immobile saxum /
374
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
accolet imperiumque pater Romanus habebit’ (the two passages are recalled at Mart. 9. 1. 5 ff.). The similarity is best explained by postulating a common source in Ennius’ proem to book 16 of the Annals; cf. Suerbaum, op. cit. 159 and Skutsch’s commentary, pp. 568 f. 10. dicar qua violens obstrepit Aufidus: ‘some day someone will say’ was a poetic formula going back to Homer (Il. 6. 459 etc., Ov. ars 3. 341); for the proud dicar cf. Prop. 4. 11. 36 ‘in lapide hoc uni nupta fuisse legar’, Ov. met. 15. 877 f. cited in the introduction (capping Horace’s boast), trist. 3. 7. 50 ff. Here H himself looks for fame in his native Apulia; for such local patriotism Fraenkel 304 f. cites Cic. Planc. 19–22, leg. 2. 3–6, Prop. 4. 1. 63 ff. ‘ut nostris tumefacta superbiat Vmbria libris . . . ’, Ov. am. 3. 15. 8 ff. ‘Paelignae dicar gloria gentis ego . . . ’, Mart. 1. 61. 12; for a less optimistic assessment cf. Matthew 13: 57 PŒ Ø æ ¼Ø N c K fi Ð ÆæØ ÆPF. Many commentators take the qua clause not with dicar but with deduxisse (14); for the word-order cf. Virg. ecl. 9. 7 ff. But H had left Apulia before he became a poet. Regions were often characterized by their rivers (3. 29. 27–8 n.), and the Aufidus (Ofanto) was the chief river of Apulia (Encicl. oraz. 1. 398). H’s birthplace at Venusia was only ten miles away, and he mentions the river’s boisterousness elsewhere (4. 9. 2 ‘longe sonantem natus ad Aufidum’, 4. 14. 25 ff., serm. 1. 1. 58); nearer the Adriatic it is less impressive, particularly in the summer (climatic changes and human intervention may also have reduced its volume). The turbulence of the river marks a contrast with the quiet procession on the Capitol (9 tacita) and with the general dryness of the area. RN thinks that the prefix of obstrepit may suggest that H’s praises can be heard above the noise of the elements, which damage only material monuments (3 ff.); cf. Woodman, op. cit. 123 f. 11–12. et qua pauper aquae Daunus agrestium / regnavit populorum: Daunus was the legendary king of Daunia, the northern part of Apulia (N–H on 1. 22. 14, Strab. 6. 3. 8–9, Bo¨mer on Ov. fast. 4. 76); hence 4. 6. 27 ‘Dauniae defende decus Camenae’ (grandiloquent and defiant, just like our passage). It is a paradox that a king (proverbially regarded as rich) should lack something as cheap as water (serm. 1. 5. 88 ‘vilissima rerum’); for the genitive, which as with egens indicates ‘lack’, see K–S 1. 441 f. For drought in the area cf. epod. 3. 16 ‘siticulosae Apuliae’, serm. 1. 5. 91 (even at Canusium near the Aufidus until Herodes Atticus built an aqueduct), Ov. met. 14. 510, K. D. White 73 f. The primitive Apulian tribes are called agrestes because the first towns were not yet established in Daunus’ time (they were attributed to his son-in-law Diomedes; see serm. 1. 5. 92 with Lejay’s references); at the same time, H wishes to
3 0 . EX E G I M O N V M EN T V M
375
emphasize the rusticity of his origins. regnavit with a genitive is a Graecism (cf. N–H on 2. 9. 17, Serv. Aen. 11. 126). 12. ex humili potens: here humili is masculine (cf. Cic. part. or. 57 ‘ex beato miser’, Soph. OT 454 ıºe KŒ æŒ , K–S 1. 18, 505); at Prop. 2. 10. 11 ‘ex humili’ the adjective is neuter (see Enk). A reference to H’s origins suits a concluding poem; cf. 2. 20. 5 f. ‘pauperum / sanguis parentum’, epist. 1. 20. 20 ‘me libertino natum patre et in tenui re’, where he adds (22) ‘ut quantum generi demas virtutibus addas’. potens describes the poet’s power to influence people’s thinking (cf. 4. 8. 26 f. ‘lingua potentium / vatum’); RN stresses the analogy with King Daunus, who was powerful in a political sense. Bentley applied potens to Daunus himself, but though this suits him well enough, ex humili does not; elsewhere he is described as ‘Illyricae gentis claro viro’ (Fest. 69M ¼ 60L), one of the many sons of the notable Lycaon (Ant. Lib. met. 31). 13–14. princeps Aeolium carmen ad Italos / deduxisse modos: the Aeolians settled in Lesbos near the end of the second millennium bringing with them the dialect later used by Sappho and Alcaeus. Here H is referring to their metres and (in very general terms) their manner and matter; cf. 4. 3. 12 ‘fingent Aeolio carmine nobilem’. H feels at liberty to ignore the Sapphics of Catullus 11 and 51 because those were the only two examples and he is thinking primarily of Alcaeus (cf. 2. 13. 26 f., epist. 2. 2. 99). Italos modos means, not ‘Italian metres’ (for the metres were taken from Greece), but ‘Italian melodies’, so described because they are played on the Roman lyre, i. e. they are in Latin. H says Italos rather than Latinos to stress his own place of origin; cf. Catull. 1. 5 on Nepos, Prop. 3. 1. 4. Roman poets sometimes claim to be the first to have imitated Greek models; cf. epist. 1. 19. 23 f. ‘Parios ego primus iambos / ostendi Latio’, 32 f. ‘hunc (Alcaeum) ego, non alio dictum prius ore, Latinus / vulgavi fidicen’, Lucr. 1. 117 ff. ‘Ennius ut cecinit noster qui primus amoeno / detulit ex Helicone perenni fronde coronam / per gentis Italas hominum quae clara clueret’ (perhaps echoing Ennius himself ), Prop. 3. 1. 3 f. with Fedeli, Wimmel, 1960: s.v. ‘primus-Motiv’, Kambylis 155 ff. In our passage princeps suggests leadership as well as priority (cf. epist. 1. 19. 21 ‘libera per vacuum posui vestigia princeps’, followed by ‘qui sibi fidit / dux reget examen’); as with potens above, RN thinks it may suggest an analogy with Daunus, a political leader; see further on 15–16 below. deduxisse literally means ‘to have brought X to Y’; cf. ars 244, Virg. Aen. 2. 800, Ov. fast. 3. 151 (of Numa) ‘primus oliviferis Romam deductus ab arvis’, Calp. 4. 161. That is the primary sense here: H has brought Aeolian verse to Latin poetry; the terms of the metaphor are varied in
376
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
epist. 1. 3. 12 f. ‘fidibusne Latinis / Thebanos aptare modos studet auspice Musa?’, and reversed in carm. 1. 32. 3 f. ‘dic Latinum, barbite, carmen’, where the carmen is Latin and the lyre Greek. In the present passage scholars have suggested a number of extra nuances. One is that of founding a colony (OLD s.v. 9, E. Maro´ti, Acta Ant. Hung. 13, 1965: 101 ff.); though not accepting all the connotations of this idea, RN sees a continuation of the analogy with Daunus (see on potens and princeps above). Others see a reference to a triumphant Roman general (Borzsa´k, op. cit. 145 f., Woodman, op. cit. 124, A. Hardie, op. cit. 52); cf. 1. 37. 31 ‘privata deduci triumpho’, Liv. 28. 32. 7 ‘quos secum in patriam ad meritum triumphum deducere velit’, and especially Virg. georg. 3. 10 f. ‘primus ego in patriam mecum . . . / Aonio rediens deducam vertice Musas’, where the imagery is supported by 9 and 17 ‘victor’ and 12 ‘primus Idumaeas referam tibi, Mantua, palmas’ (see Mynors). We accept that in a general sense H was influenced by his friend’s deducam; nevertheless Virgil’s repeated victor is abandoned, the object of deduxisse is no longer the Muses but Aeolian verse-forms; and those forms are brought not to Horace’s patria, still less to the Capitol, but to ‘Italian melodies’ (i. e. Latin poetry). In the closing lines H emphasizes that his garland is very different from that of the triumphator (see 15–16 n.). Finally, it is held that deducere evokes a metaphor from spinning (Ross 134 f.); the verb is used literally of ‘drawing down threads’ (Catull. 64. 312, OLD 4a) and metaphorically of ‘spinning verses’ (serm. 2. 1. 4, epist. 2. 1. 225 ‘tenui deducta poemata filo’, OLD 4b); see further W. Eisenhut, Gedenkschrift fu¨r G. Rohde, 1961: 91 ff. (reprinted in his Properz, 1975: 247 ff.), Po¨schl 258 f. This interpretation does not cohere well with ‘ad Italos modos’; it is true that ad can be used of a musical accompaniment (epist. 1. 2. 31 ‘ad strepitum citharae’), but in this geographical context the reader would expect deducere ad to indicate some sort of destination. This argument tells a fortiori against connecting deduxisse with the 1FÆ ºÆº of Callimachus. Moreover, a reference to Callimachean poetics goes against the tenor of the ode, which begins with a metaphor from monumental masonry and ends with an acknowledgement of the classical lyric poets. 14–15. sume superbiam / quaesitam meritis: H is modifying the presumption of his previous claims by attributing his success to the Muse; cf. 1. 26. 9 f. ‘nil sine te mei / possunt honores’, 4. 3. 21 ff. ‘totum muneris hoc tui est, / quod monstror digito praetereuntium / Romanae fidicen lyrae; / quod spiro et placeo, si placeo, tuum est’, Pind. pae. 7b. 15 ff., Call. fr. 228. 1. But the terms in which he does so are not entirely clear. Most editors are probably right in taking the whole expression to mean ‘assume a well-earned pride’; cf. Caes. bG 1. 33. 5 ‘Ariovistus tantos sibi
3 0 . EX E G I M O N V M EN T V M
377
spiritus . . . sumpserat’, Prop. 2. 25. 21 ‘qui pleno fastus assumis amore’, Ov. am. 2. 17. 9 with McKeown (and contrast 3. 10. 9 ‘pone superbiam’). As no possessive adjective is expressed with meritis, one is naturally inclined to understand tuis from the imperative sume; for gods’ ‘deserts’ cf. Plaut. capt. 922 ‘Iovi disque ago gratias merito magnas’, ILS 3834 ‘Aescolapio donom dat lubens merito’ (the abbreviation L. M. is common in inscriptions), TLL 8. 823. 53 ff. For superbia as justifiable pride (rather than the more usual arrogance) cf. Prop. 4. 1. 63 ‘ut nostris tumefacta superbiat Vmbria libris’. Some argue that superbiam refers to H’s own pride, and meritis to his deserts; this follows well from the preceding account, and receives some support from Prop. 3. 2. 25 ‘ingenio quaesitum nomen’ (a passage that draws on the ode, but without any divine address). sume then means ‘take over’; thus Porph. interprets ‘adroga, inquit, tibi gloriam ubertate ingenii quaesitam’. sume suits a dedication to a god (cf. CLE 868. 5 ‘sume libens simulacra’), and cinge (16) the reciprocal boon requested on such occasions. There is some inconsistency, however, in handing over his pride to the Muse while at the same time claiming the credit for himself. D. Korzeniewski understood superbiam as ‘a thing to take pride in’ (like the English ‘pride and joy’), i. e. the book of poems (loc. cit., 1974: 204 ff.); cf. the concrete sense of words like gloria, honor, and gaudium. He saw a particular analogy in ¼ªÆºÆ, a word sometimes applied to an offering (it was explained as ‘a thing in which one delights’ as well as ‘a thing that glorifies’). Although this explanation would suit sume and the reciprocal cinge, it can hardly be reconciled with quaesitam meritis; the sense assigned to superbiam is very strange, and even as a calque it does not represent ¼ªÆºÆ satisfactorily. 15–16. et mihi Delphica / lauro cinge volens, Melpomene, comam: H does not as a rule differentiate the functions of the Muses (at 3. 4. 1–2 n.), but he may have associated Melpomene with lyric (cf. 4. 3. 1, N–H on 1. 24. 1). volens (often combined with propitius) is found in prayers for a god’s goodwill, particularly in granting a request that could be refused (‘of thy grace’); cf. Cato, agr. 141. 2 ‘Mars pater, te precor quaesoque uti sies volens propitius’, Liv. 1. 16. 3 with Ogilvie, 24. 38. 8 ‘ut nobis volentes propitii adsitis’, Appel 122 f. Łºø is similarly used in Greek; cf. Aesch. Ag. 664 with Fraenkel, cho. 19 ªF b Æ Łºø K, Pind. I. 6. 42 f., Pulleyn 144 f. Laurus is the ‘sweet-bay, L. nobilis . . . not the cherry-laurel of English shrubberies’ (Mynors on Virg. georg. 2. 18); cf. Abbe 94 f. with illustration; for general information see M. B. Ogle, AJP 31, 1910: 287 ff. The plant was particularly associated with prophecy and the Delphic cult of Apollo (Lucr. 6. 154 ‘Phoebi Delphica laurus’, F. Williams on
378
H O R AC E : O D ES I I I
Call. h. 2. 1); the Muses on Helicon gave Hesiod a branch of bay (theog. 30), and a garland of bay was awarded to victors at the Pythian games, including poets (Call. fr. 194. 33, Paus. 10. 7. 22–4); H requests it here because it suits the inspired vates (Kambylis 18 ff.), cf. 4. 2. 9 (of Pindar) ‘laurea donandus Apollinari’. In Roman life the laurea corona was also associated with the triumph, which provided a variety of images for Augustan poets (K. Galinsky, WS 82, 1969: 75 ff.): the Muse of Propertius holds a triumph (3. 1. 9 ff.), Ovid is a prisoner in Cupid’s triumph (am. 1. 2. 19 with McKeown). But Delphica (emphatic in this position) shows that Horace is asking for the bays of a poet rather than those of a general; a general dedicated his bays to Jupiter (RE 7A. 1. 510), but Horace is to receive his from the Muse. See also the important parallel at 4. 3. 6 ff. (on the poet blessed by Melpomene): ‘neque res bellica Deliis / ornatum foliis ducem / . . . ostendet Capitolio’, followed by a contrast with the foliage of Tibur, which will make him famous as a poet. In this symbolic context we should not picture the poet’s hair as it was in real life (3. 14. 25 n., 3. 19. 25 n.) but rather as the idealized locks of the poetic victor; similarly the last ode of Pindar’s Olympians (14. 24) ends Kø . . . ÆÆ (Oliensis, 1998: 104 n. 3). For crowning as a closural motif see also Pind. P. 9. 124 f., I. 7. 49 ff., Athen. 15. 674 f citing Aristotle e b Ø ºæø ØÆ ÆØ (see I. Rutherford in Classical Closure, ed. D. H. Roberts et al., 1997: 49 ff.).
I N D EX N O M I N V M (Brackets denote indirect references) Achaemenium costum, 20 Acheron, 43 Acherontia, 61–2 Achivi, 45 Acrisius, 202 Aeacus, 231 Aefula, 349 Aegaei tumultus, 364 Aelius, see Lamia Aeolium carmen, 375 Aethiops (¼ Aegyptius), 104 Aetne, 77 Afer (African), 48 Africa, 208 Africus (ventus), 265, 362 (Agenor), 329, 333 Albanae herbae, 267 Alcaeus, 164 Algidus, 266 (Aloidae), 72 Alyattes, 210 (Amphiaraus), 204 Amphion, 152 Andromeda, 352 Antiochus, 120 Antony, 38, 44, 79, 80, 103 Apollo, 74, 75; see also Cynthius; Phoebus Apulus, 86, 207 Aquilo, 143, 370 Arabes, 274 Aratus, 112 Arcturus, 14 Argivi, 52 Assyrium litus, 66 Asterie, 115 Aufidus, 374 Augustus, xxi–ii, 22–3, 36, 41, 80, 83, 98–9, 180, 298; see also Caesar Auster, 40, 326 Bacchae, 307 Bacchus, 42, 209, 296, 299, (306); see also Lenaeus; Liber
Bactra, 355 Baiae, 64 Bandusia, 172–3, 176 Bantini saltus, 62 Bellerophontes, 118, 170 Berecyntia tibia, 237 Bibulus, 341 Boreas, 287 Britannus, 67, 83 Caecubum, 340 Caesar (Augustus), 68, 183, 187, 301; see also Augustus Calabrae apes, 209 Calais, 137 Callimachus, 7, 305, 376 Calliope, 57 Camenae, 63 Campus Martius, 10, 121 Canicula, 177 Cantaber, 124, 130 Capitolium, 47, 290, 372–3 Capra, 117 Carthago, 80–2, 93 Castalia, 75 (Castor) 364 Cato (censor), 251 Cato (pr. 52), 36, (?) 251 Catullus, 134, 255 (Cepheus), 352 Cerberus, 156–8 Ceres, 33, 279 Chius cadus, 231 Chloe, 117, 136, 139 Chloris, 194 Cleopatra, 44, 104 Cnidos, 343 Codrus, 230 Concanus, 67 Corvinus, 250; see also Messalla Cotiso, 129; see also Dacus Crassus, 80, 84 Crete, 329
380
I N D EX N O M I N V M
Cupido, (168), (335) Cyclades, 343 Cycnus, (?) 170 Cynthia (Diana), 343 Cynthius, 343; see also Apollo; Phoebus Cypriae merces, 362 Cyrus, 355 Cytherea (Venus), 168 Dacus, 104; see also Cotiso (Damocles), 12 Danae, 201, 203 Danaides puellae, 149–51, 159 (Danaus), 162–3 Daunus, 374 Delius Apollo, 75 Delphica laurus, 377 (Diana), 77, 254–60 Diespiter ( Jupiter), 34 Enceladus, 23 Enipeus, 120 Ennius, 36, 374 Etruscum mare, 356 Euhias (Baccha), 303 Europe (mulier), 318–19, 328, 333 Europe (pars orbis), 48, 337–8 Eurus, 216
Hannibal, 110 Hebrus (flumen), 303 Hebrus (iuvenis), 169 Hectoreae opes, 45 (Helen), 44, 45 Hercules, 41, 182 Hesiod, 53, 57, 70, 77, 289 Hesperia, 103 Hippolyte, 119 Hispana (navis), 31; (ora), 130, 183 (Hypermestra), 160–4 Iapyx, 326 Ibycus, 192 Icarus (insula), 120 Ida (mons), 245 Ilia, (46), 136 Ilios, 44, 47; see also Troy Ilium, 231 Inachus, 230 India, 274 Ionici motus, 106 Italia, 93 Italici modi, 375 Iuno, 36, 43, 52, 74 Iuppiter, 9, 40, 71, 82, 87, 144, 202, 301, 337 Ixion, 158 Keats, 59
Falerna vitis, 20 Faunus, 219–20, 221 Favonii, 115 Fontinalia, 173 Forentum, 62 Formiae, 209, 215 Fortuna, 360, 361 Gaetula leaena, 241 Galatea, 325 Gallica pascua, 209 (Ganymede), 245 Geloni, 67 Getae, 278 Giganteus triumphus, 9 Gigantomachia, 9, 55–6, 72 Glycera, 238 Graecus trochus, 293 Gratia(e), 236, 253 Gyges centimanus, 76 Gyges (mercator), 116 Hadria, 40, 139, 326 Haedus (sidus), 15
Lacaena adultera (Helen), 45 Lacedaemonium Tarentum, 96 Laestrygones, 209, 215 Lamia, Aelius, 212–13 Lamiae, 214 Lamus, 213 Lanuvium, 230, 321 Laomedon, 45 Lar(es), 261–2, 264 Latona, 343 Lenaeus (Bacchus), 308 Leo, 353 Liber (Bacchus), 126, 253 Libitina, 371 (Licinius), see Murena (Livia), 183 Luceria, 197 Lucretius, 3–4, 18, 305 Lyaeus (Bacchus), 252 Lyce, 143 Lycia, 75 Lycus, 237, 238 Lyde, 154, 159, 340
I N D EX N O M I N V M Lydia, 136, 139 (Lynceus), 161 Macedo vir (Philip), 204–5 Maecenas, xxii, 5–6, 123–4, 128, 199–201, 206, 247, 345–8 Magnessa Hippolyte, 119 Manlius, 247 (Marcellus), 185 Maricae litora, 215 Mars, 43, 46, 89, 92 Marsum duellum, 188 Marsus, 86 Martiae Kalendae, 125 Martium gramen, 121 Massicum vinum, 248 Mauri angues, 147 Matronalia, 125 Medus, 48, 130 Medus rex, 86 Melpomene, 377 (Menas), 205 (Mens?), 313 Mercurius, 152 Messalla, 246–7; see also Corvinus Milton, 31, 49, 189, 323, 329, 341, 351, 356 Mimas (Gigas), 72 Minerva, 45, 169 Moschus, 319 Murena, 227, 234 Musa(e), 8, 52, 57, 236 Mygdonii campi, 210 Naiades, 306 Neaera, 189 Nearchus, 242 Necessitas, 11, 275 Neobule, 169 Neptunalia, 174, 338 Neptune, 338, 339, 342 Nereides, 342 Nilus, 49 Nireus, 244 Nothus, 196 Notus, 116 Nox, 344 Numidae, 163 (Octavia), 184 Olympus, 72 Orcus, 77, 160, 332 Oricus, 116
381
Orion, 76, 325 Ornytus, 137 (Orpheus), 155–8 Ovid, 163–4, 347 Owen, Wilfred, 27 Pacorus, 103 Paeligna frigora, 233 Palinurus, 65 Pallas, 73 Paphos, 343 Paris, (44), (45), 47 Parthi, 24, 80, 103; see also Medus; Persae Patareus Apollo, 75 Pater (Iuppiter), 359 Pelion, 72 Penates, 183, 269, 332 Penelope, 145 Persae, 83, 135 Phidyle, 264 (Philip), 204 Philippi, 65 Phoebus (Apollo), 52, 58, 254 Pholoe, 194, 195 Phrygius lapis, 19 Pierius, 69, 146 Pindar, 54–5, 58, 70, 365 Pirithous, 79 Plancus, 191 Poena, 34 Poeni, 92 Pollux, 41, 364 Porphyrion, 73 Praeneste, 64 Priamus, 45, 47 Procyon, 353 Proetus, 118 Pullia (?), 60 Punicus, 88, 109, 274; see also Poeni Pyrrhus (Epiri rex), 110 Pyrrhus (iuvenis), 241 Quirinus, 36, 43 Quirites, 51 Regulus, 80–1, 87, 96 Rhode, 238 Rhodope, 304 Rhoetus, 73 Roma, 47, 48, 351 Romana Ilia, 136 Romane, 101 (Romulus), 36, 46; see also Quirinus
382 Sabelli ligones, 110 Sabina vallis, 20 Sabinos (agros), 63 Sappho, 165 Scythes(ae), 132, 271–2, 277 -icus amnis, 67 Seres, 355 Shakespeare, 122, 133, 333, 367 Siculus, 12, 65 Sidon, 19 Silvanus, 354 Simonides, 23, 365–6 Socraticus, 250 Spartacus, 188 (Sthenoboea), 118 Tanais, 68, 143, 355 Tarentum, 96 Tartarus, 119 Telegonus, 350 Telephus, 238 Tennyson, 351 Thrace, 303 Thurinus, 137 Thyias (Baccha), 195
I N D EX N O M I N V M Thyna merx, 117 Tiberinus, 169 (Tiberis), 169, 356–7 Tibur, 64, 349 Titanes, 70 Tityos, 78, 158 Troicus, 46 Troy, 36–8, 51; see also Ilios Tullus, 127 (Tusculum), 350 Tuscus alveus, 121 Typhoeus, 76 Tyriae merces, 362 Tyrrhenus, 145, 274, 347 Venafrani agri, 96 Venus, 145, 163, 202, 223, 253, 313, 335, 343–4 ¼ amor, 138, 177 Vesper, 238 Vesta, 86 Virgil, 4–5, 36, 158, 305, 373–4 Virgo (Diana), 257 Vulcanus, 74 Vultur, 59
IN DEX V ER B O RV M ab, 93, 206, 214 abesus (?), 357 acutus, 58, 334–5 additus (custos), 78 aestuare, 158 altus (Caesar), 68 alumni ( pecoris), 222, 265 amator, 79, 221 amice pati, 24 amnes (‘waters’), 358 anciliorum, 86 anima (amatae), 137 annus, 266 arbiter, 243–4 arcanus, 33, 252 arcere, 6–7 arcus (?), 315 arduus, 63, 289, 351 argutus, 189 arte (¼ virtute), 41 asper, 26, 143 ater, 62, 187, 326 atqui, 94 attonitus, 236 augur, 204, 217 aulaea, 352 aut, 167–8, 281 avidus (Volcanus), 74 balanus, 348–9 barbitos, 312 beatus, 47, 135, 209, 316, 351 bidens (ovis), 268 bono die, 249 caducus, 71 caecus, 327 caementa, 17, 274 capitis minor, 93 caprea (¼ ibex?), 196 carere, 233–4, 316 carus, 284 catus, 170 cessare, 237, 333, 342 cista (?), 188
civicus, 282 civilis, 129 clades, 105 classe, 163 claustra, 162 clavi, 275–6 cogere, 50, 138 commodus, 235 componere, 356 condiscere, 24 consilium, 69–70, 75–6, 94, 302 consors, 294 coram, 108 cornix, 217, 323–4, 325 cornua, 177, 252–3, 332, 336 corvus, 323–4 credidimus, 82 crescere, 267, 372 creterra, 223 curtus, 208 (?), 295 debacchari, 51 decet, decorum, 26–7, 195 deducere, 375–6 delectare, 335 delicta, 100 deripere, 89, 341 descendere, 10–11, 56–7, 250 deserere, 35 dicere, 57, 154 difficilis, 122, 146 diffingere, 359 dirus, 110, 241 (?) diva, 259, 316 divinus, 323 dominus, 17, 207 duellum, 92, 188 dulce (mori), 27 dulcis, 126, 167, 176 dumeta, 75, 354 edax, 370 efficere irritum, 359 eheu, 26 eius (?), 157
384 elementa, 292 ensis, 12 erilis, 335 exigere, 187, 367–8 exsomnis, 303 exsultim, 155 faece tenus, 198 fallit beatior, 209 far, 270 fastus (¼fasti), 215 favete linguis, 7 fax, 137 fertur, 93, 244 feta, 322 fidei, 116 firmare, 292 foedus, 281 foret, 61 fremitus, 327 frequens, 17 funeratus, 127 fustes, 111 geminus Pollux, 364 gerere, 102, 248 gestire, 50, 207 glaciare, 144 grandis, 243 haerere equo, 293 hora, 177–8 hornus, 264 horridus, 250–1, 288, 354 hosticus, 25 iactis molibus, 16 idoneus (puellis), 312 iecur, 78 ilex, 178, 266 ilicet (?), 324–5 imbrex (?), 277 immanis, 156 immetatus, 279 immunis, 269 importunus, 210 impotens, 370 improbus, 140, 295 inaudax, 242 incedere, 221 inclinare, 340, 341 incolumis, 87, 285 inconstantior (?) Hadria, 140
I N D EX V ER B O RV M in diem, 358 innare, 216 innocens, 280 institor, 109 instituere, 127 insultare, 47 intaminatus, 29 invicem, 342 invito vultu, 159 iocosus, iocus, 52, 252 ire (of rope), 145 irritus, 285, 359 iura dare, 48 iusti . . . dei, 184 iustitia, 38–9 labis (?) expertes, 186 lacerare, 162, 332, 336 laedere collum, 334 laetus, 249, 260 lapides (‘pearls’), 291 laqueus (mortis), 277 latus, 148, 287, 313, 328 laurus, 63, 377–8 lavere (¼eluere), 167 lenis (incedas), 221–2 lentus (amor), 238–9 limen, 60, 148 limitis (?) Assyrii, 67 liquidus, 64 liquor, 48 ludere, 59, 155, 196–7, 224, 360 ludum dare, 167 luridus, 77, 314–15 lustrare, 304 lusum (?) ludere, 360 madere, 250 male nominatis (?) . . . verbis, 186 manare (þ abl.), 158 manni, 322 materies mali, 291 maturare necem, 118 maturus, 106 (?), 193 meditari, 107, 131, 260, 301 medius, 48, 328 melior sagittis, 105 melius (adv. iudicantis), 210 memor nostri, 325 merita (of Muse), 376–7 metuere, 187, 281 miscentur (?) pocula, 235 mitto, 290, 292
I N D EX V ER B O RV M monumentum, 368 mores (and leges), 286 movere historias, 119–20 movere sacra, 249 mundae cenae, 351–2 murreus, 189 mutuus, 137 narrare, 119, 231 natum (of wine), 247 neglegere (deos), 34, 103, 250 nenia, 344 nequitia, 78, 193 nescire (þ inf.), 337 nitidus, 238, 280 nitor, 169 nobilis, 178, 197, 213–14 nodus, 189, 254 nomen, 86–7, 248–9, 330, 337 non secus ac, 304–5 non sine, 63, 176, 312, 357 nuptiae, 155
praebere domum, 233 praesens, 83 princeps, 216, 375 pro(h), 84 procerus, 307 prodire, 184 profanus, 6–7 promere, 243, 250, 340 protervus, 155, 190 publicum (?) mare, 275 puella, 185, 258 purpureus, 42, 198 purus, 144–5, 238, 359 quamvis (þ ind.), 121, 147
o (¼ 0 si), 146, 282 odi, 6, 237, 285 olor, 344 operatus, 184 opibus (¼auxilio), 45–6 ora (ultima), 130–1, 183 ordinare sulcis, 10 oscen, 323–4 -osus, 59, 109, 217, 350
ravus, 322 recens, 302, 331, 372 recreare, 69, 244, 279 redemptor, 16 redonare, 46 regnare, 355, 375 relinquere, 78 renidere, 104 resignare, 361 retusus (?), 315 ripae, 306 (?), 327 rite, ritu, 20, 182, 278, 356 rixa, 190, 236, 248 robigo, 265 ros marinus, 268 rudis, 26, 293
paelex, 147, 335 parcere (þ inf ), 132, 341 parra, 321 pars (mundi), 47, 51, 286 pater (urbis), 283 pauperies, 23, 210, 288, 362 peccare, 119, 281, 326 pedes rapiunt, 163 pergula (?), 60 phaselos, 34 picus, 325 pius, 59, 248, 270 plebs (voc.), 183 plenus (dei), 299 plorare, 144, 331 poples, 28 post, 117, 253 postes, 20 postgeniti, 284 potens, 306, 358, 375
saeculum, 84 (?), 105 saliente mica, 270 saucius, 146–7 scalpere, 164 scapha, 363 scatere, 328 sectus orbis, 337 sentire (malam rem), 16, 92, 265 sequi, 334 sermones, 126, 250 situs, 369 sospes, 128, 185 strenuus, 340 structae (?) . . . rei, 295 sublustris, 329 suboles, 177 sucus (puellae), 333 super (=de), 129 superbia, 145, 377 supercilium, 9–10
385
386
I N D EX V ER B O RV M
supinus, 64, 263 supplice vitta, 185 surge, 161 suspirare, 26, 118
ungui, de tenero, 107 unicus, 183–4 utriusque linguae, 126 uxor, 52, 192, 337
tempe, 14 temperare, 71, 76, 232, 280 temptare, 31, 66, 76–7, 118, 267–8 (?) tibia, 57–8, 122, 237 torvus, 93–4 trepidus, -are, 25, 326, 356 triformis (diva), 259–60 trochus, 293–4 tuleris (¼sustuleris), 264 tumultus, 187 turma, 70, 71 tuta merces, 31–2
vacuus, 306 vagax (?), 188 vagus, 41, 178, 278, 325 vetulus, 198 vetustus, 214 vicarius, 279–80 viola, 146 virtus, 22, 28, 30, 251, 289 visere, 50, 67, 344 vixi, 309, 311, 358 vultus, 39, 94, 159 zona, 334
umescere (?) pocula, 236
I N D EX RERV M ablative absolute, 43, 84, 108, 152, 348 ab urbe condita construction, 93, 147, 234 accusative of respect 148; retained, 126, 137 adjective for genitire, 77, 203, 335 adventus, 180 adynaton, 155, 225 aetiology, 123 agent-nouns, 73, 79, 242 alphitomantis, 270 amoebaeum carmen, 133, 342 animals desecrate grave, 47 anniversaries, 123, 127, 224, 260 annunciation, 337 apotheosis, 30, 41–3, 46 apposition encloses subject, 288 aretalogy, 155–6, 251–3 ascension by chariot, 43 assonance, 46, 161 asyndeton, 92 (?), 139, 223, 243 athletes, 166, 169–70 augury, 217, 323–4, 325 aversio of trouble, 326–7 benefactors, 200 board-games, 130 breaking-off formula, 31, 52 bronze, 52, 138, 201, 368 bulletins, military, 129–30 calque se´mantique, 186 caravans, Scythian, 278 catabasis, 156 catasterism, 301–2 caves, poetic, 69, 300 cena aditialis, 227–8 childbirth, 258 children in ceremonial, 8, 185–6 chronographers, 230–1 civil wars, 101, 104, 187, 282 closure, 20–1, 52–3, 96, 239, 344, 378 colour-contrast, 126, 177, 266, 304, 326 compendious comparison, 19, 113, 274 concilium deorum, 43, 302 constitutional reform, 354 continents, 337–8 cookery criticised, 13
country life idealised, 13–14, 100, 220, 261 dancing, 106 (bad), 194 (innocent), 226 (of peasant) degeneration, 100, 112–13 diatribe, 273, 289, 361–2 dicing, 294 discontent, 14, 15 Dog-days, 16, 177, 353 dowry, 280–1, 362 dreams, false, 331 dye (in metaphor), 90–1 elections in Principate, 10–11, 29 envy of the living, 284–5 Epicureanism, 3–4, 132, 346, 358–60 epigram, Greek, 175, 246, 255–6, 309–10 equites, 18, 24–5 ethnography, 271–2 eucharisticon, 5, 200 exploration, 50–1 flower-picking, symbolic, 329 founders, legendary, 216, 350, 374 genealogies, 212–13 genius, 218 gigantomachy, 9, 55, 70–8 goats, 173–4, 177, 223 go-between, 117 hendiadys, 58, 126, 279, 352 hetaerae, musical, 137, 147 (?), 189, 339 holidays, 218, 224, 339–40 homosexuality, xxiii, 239–40 horsemanship, 121, 170, 293 hunting, 91, 171, 256, 293 hymnal style, 152–9, 175, 220, 246–50, 254–5, 257–60, 315–16 hyperbole, 16, 19, 52, 107, 138, 207, 211, 274 imperative, future in -to, 190, 336 (?) incense, 125, 224, 264 insomnia, 13, 117 interaction in imagery, 162 invitation-poem, 127–9, 213, 250, 345–6
388
I N D EX R ERV M
kerygma, 9 kings, Eastern, 9, 86, 135, 253 lamps, 108, 128, 254 landscape, imaginary, 59, 69, 300, 306 latifundia, 10, 207, 210–11 lifeboats, 363 lightning, 40, 203 lions, 26, 162, 241, 332–3 locus amoenus, 178–9, 353–4 lot, 12 lovers: who would die for partner, 137, 140; pale, 146; neglect duties, 165, 168; compared to soldiers, 312; have rivals, 135, 137; give up the struggle, 148, 190, 310 maenadism, 296–8, 303–4 magnets, erotic, 119 merchants, 14, 109, 115–16, 288–9, 362 mining, 49 monastic corruptions, 225 moral legislation, 98–9, 283–4 mysteries, 7, 33 mythical exempla, 87, 118–19, 149–50, 152–3, 182, 201, 318–19 nominative ‘in apposition to sentence,’ 243; exclamatory, 330 omens, 320–2 onomatopoeia, 179 oracles, 101 oxymoron, 59, 161, 242, 278, 307–8, 328 paraclausithyron, 121–2, 141–2, 309 paraenesis, 113, 131–2, 151, 261, 340, 346 parataxis, 90 parenthesis, 84, 152, 160, 214 perfect, gnomic, 34, 269–70, 352 perfect infinitive, 226–7 perfume, 20, 189, 244, 348–9 personification, 17, 18, 288, 362 phyllobolia, 225 pigs, 218, 256, 260, 264–5 place-names, sentimental, 173 plural for singular, 95 (reditus), 122 (vias), 338 (nomina) poet: infancy of 53–4, 61–2; inspired, 59, 299–307; original, 8, 298, 302, 375; as priest of Muses, 7; crowned, 308, 378; survival of, 371
polar expressions, 12, 66, 222 pollution, 34, 321 prayer, posture in, 263 priamel, 10, 320–1 prolepsis, 206, 295 (?) propempticon, 163–4, 317–18, 324–5 proper names, significant, 116, 137–8, 169 (?) prosody, irregular, 88, 207, 276–7 purple, 19, 110, 352 pyramids, 366, 369 ransom, 81, 90 rivers: represent country, 68, 143, 355, 374; provide personal names, 120, 169; compared to time, 356; in flood, 357 Roman empire worldwide, 48, 187 roses, 197, 237, 348 sacrifice, 174, 176, 223, 256–7, 260, 263–7 secrets, 32–3, 252 sexism, xxiii, 191–2, 221 shopping-lists, 187, 228 silence, religious, 7, 185–6, 372 singular verb with multiple subjects, 41, 202 smoke of Rome, 102, 351 sphragis, 364–5 springs, 64–5, 172 stars: beautiful, 115, 139, 194, 238; rising and setting, 15, 117, 177, 326, 353; influence of, 16 stepmothers, 280 Stoicism, 28, 30, 36, 358 storm, signs of, 323, 326–7 subjunctive, 94, 111, 349 sufficiency, 14, 211 suicide, 334–5 supplicatio, 180–1 swimming, 121, 169 symposium: preparations for, 125–7, 229, 348; orderly, 129; seriousness avoided, 131–2, 228; toasts, 128, 234–6; prolonged, 128, 254 teichoscopia, 25 temples to be repaired, 97, 101–2 thermipolium, 232 three, 52, 234–6, 259 tigers, 42–3, 155–6, 333 tortoise-shell lyre, 153–4 torture, 94, 251–2 transferred epithet, 28, 111, 209, 253, 348, 350 transhumance, 224
I N D EX R ERV M trees in peristyle, 144; for dedications, 255–6; arbor infelix, 334 trireme, private, 18 uncles, censorious, 168 ‘unpoetical words’, 16–17, 87–8, 95–6 vertical responsion, 76, 147, 183, 258, 326 villa maritima, 16–17, 274 vistas, 349 wealth rejected, 3–4, 21, 49, 207; jettisoned, 290–1, 362–3 wet-nurses, 60 widow’s mite, 262
389
windlass, 145 wine: dated, 128, 247–8, 341; historical associations, 188, 231–2, 249; imbibes smoke, 127; ‘languid’, 209, 250; mixed with hot water, 232, 235; its praises, 247, 251–3 wolves, 143, 225, 321–2 women: work wool, 168, 197, 335; responsible for fire 111; denied wine, 167; differentiated from men, 134; reversal of roles, 195, 238; vetula derided, 191–2, 193, 198 woods, awe of, 300 zones, 50–1, 286–7