ΤΟ TITUS VALGIUS.* BOOK THE Second, ode the ninth. Nor ceaseless falls the heavy shower On the vex'd Caspian's billowy sea; This Ode is addressed to his friend, an illustrious Roman, who had lost a beloved son. The poetic literature of Titus Valgius is ascertained by the honourable mention made of him by Horace, in his Tenth Satire, Book the First. Valgius, like Sir Brooke Boothby, in these days had poured forth a train of elegiac sorrows over the blight of his filial hopes. Horace does not severely reprove these woes, he only wishes they may not be eternal, and that he will, at least, suspend them and share the public joy; for this Ode was composed while the splendid victories, which Augustus had obtained in the East, were recent. 1. 4. Vex'd Caspian-The Caspian is a stormy and harbourless sea-Yet the poet observes that not even the Caspian is always tempestuous-insinuating, that inevitable as his grief must be for such a loss, it yet ought not to be incessant. Nor yet the ice, in silent horror, stands Thro' all the passing months on pale Armenia's lands. Fierce storms do not for ever bend The mountain's vast and labouring oak, Nor from the ash its foliage rend, With ruthless whirl, and widowing stroke; But, VALGIUS, thou, with grief's eternal lays Mournest thy vanish'd joys in MYSTES' shorten'd days. When Vesper trembles in the west, Or flies before the orient sun, Rise the lone sorrows of thy breast. Nor thus did aged Nestor shun Consoling strains, nor always sought the tomb, Where sunk his filial hopes, in life and glory's bloom. 1. 2. Armenia's lands-The coldness of Armenia is well known, surrounded as it is by the high mountains of Niphates, Pariades, Antiaurus, and Ararat, which are always covered with snow. 1. 10. Vesper trembles-alike the evening and morning star -appearing first and remaining last in the horizon, it ushers in both the evening and the dawn. In the first instance it is called Vesper, or Hesperus, in the last Lucifer, or Phospher. 1. 15. Filial hopes-Antilochus, the son of Nestor, observing his father likely to fall in battle, by the sword of his adversary, threw himself between the combatants, and thus sacrificed his own life to preserve that of his parent, Not thus, the lovely Troilus slain, Cease, then, thy fond complaints!-Augustus' fame, The new Cesarian wreaths, let thy lov'd voice proclaim! So shall the listening world be told That in scant space their steeds the Scythians rein, 1. 9. Medus-By the rivers Medus, and Niphates, are meant the Parthians, or Scythians, for they are the same people, and the Armenians. The river Tigris, rising in the cold mountain Niphates, Horace gives its name to the stream, as he does that of Medus to the Euphrates, which Plato asserts to have been formerly so called. Uniting those rivers in his verse, the poet means to denote the Roman conquest over two enemies widely distant from each other. 1. 12. Scythians rein-The Scythians, or Parthians, were a warlike people, famous for their equestrian prowess, for the speed of their horses, and for the unerring aim of their arrows, shot when flying on full speed. Augustus obliged their king, Phraates, not only to restore the Roman standards and prisoners, taken many years before, but to withdraw his troops from Armenia. ΤΟ LICINIUS MURENA.* BOOK THE SECOND, ODE THE TENTH. Nor always, dear Licinius, is it wise * Licinius Murena was a Patrician of high rank, one of the brothers of Proculeius, whose fraternal generosity is celebrated in the Ode to Sallust, the ninth of these Paraphrases. The property of Licinius had been confiscated for having borne arms against the second Triumvirate. Upon this confiscation Proculeius divided two-thirds of that large fortune, with which the Emperor had rewarded his valour and fidelity in the royal cause, between Licinius, and his adopted brother, Terentius, whose fortunes had suffered equal wreck on account of the party he had taken. Horace wrote this Ode soon after the affectionate bounty of Proculeius had restored his friend to affluence. It breathes a warning spirit towards that túrbulent, and ambitious temper, which Horace perceived in this To no excess discerning spirits lean, They feel the blessings of the golden mean; They will not grovel in the squalid cell, Nor seek in princely domes, with envied pomp to dwell. They pine, that lifts so high her stately boughs, Writhes in the storms, and bends beneath their might, young nobleman. The poet, however, has used great address and delicacy, making the reflections not particular but general; and he guards against exciting the soreness people feel from reprehension for their prevailing fault, by censuring with equal freedom the opposite extreme. That kind caution insinuated in this Ode, proved eventually vain, as did also the generosity of the Emperor, who soon after permitted Licinius to be chosen Augur;-probably at the intercession of his favourite Mæcenas, who had married Terentia, a daughter of that house, and whom Horace calls Licinia in the Ode which is next paraphrased. Upon the election of Licinius to this post of honour, trust, and dignity, we perceive the spirits of Horace greatly elevated; probably as much from the pleasure he knew Mæcenas would take in the promotion of his brother-in law, as from the attachment himself bore to Licinius. A pe. culiar air of hilarity shines out in the Ode addressed to Telephus, written the evening on which this Licinius, then newly chosen Augur, gave his first supper to his friends. The reader will find it somewhat lavishly paraphrased in the course of this selection. By the above Ode the poet seems to have feared the seditious disposition of Licinius :-but when he afterwards strung his lyre to notes of triumph for the honours of his friend, he little imagined that friend would finally suffer death for ungratefully conspiring against the monarch, whe had so liberally overlooked his former enmity. |
