Horace, with Engl. notes by J.E. Yonge

EPIST. XV.

1. Vala. It is conjectured that he may be the same with Vala Numonius, lieutenant of Varus, who, in the great defeat of A. D. 9, ‘rode off with his squadrons in the vain hope of escaping by thus abandoning his comrades' (Creasy's Battles, p. 194). The date of this Epistle is set at B. c. 23, when Musa's reputation was at its acmè; Vala, if the above conjecture is well founded, must have been very young then, and, as is implied in v. 46, wealthy.

11. Cumas. Juv. iii. 5: Janua Baiarum est.'

12. læva stomachosus habena. Compare this construction with E. II. ii. 72. (See also Wagner on Virg. Æn. iv. 517.)

27. Fortiter. [0.] compares Pers. vi. 21.

31. Cp. Arist. Equ. 248: pápayya kal Xápvßdiv åpπayîs.

39. Cp. Arist. Vesp. 1268.

39. miror si. So above, E. 1. xii. 12; and again, E. 1. xvii. 26; A. P. 424.

EPIST. XVI.

1. Quincti. This may be the Q. Hirpinus of C. II. xi., but there is no means of identifying him.

5. ni dissocientur. There is a range of hills just broken by a valley' (see note on C. II. xvii. 28, App.).

11. frondere, a poetic amplification for esse. "You would declare that Tarentum with all its verdure had been brought to my door' (= Ita frondet meum prædium ut dicas Tarentum huc adductum esse). Cp. App. on S. 11. ii. 32; 11. iii. 53. The same construction may again be seen in v. 13, where Thracam ambiat Thracam ambiens, sit. The Hebrus, in its passage through Thrace, is not colder or clearer.

13. ambiat. Cp. ambitus, A. P. 17.

23. unctis. Sc. 'jure et adipe,' Ov. A. A. iii. 755. [O.]

32. ac tuæque ac tu.

35. tristisque recedo. Lucr. iii. 997. [O.]

37. Contendat. Ov. Met. ii. 858.

48. corvos. Cp. the Gr. phrase, és kópakas.

50. Cautus enim. This abrupt way of introducing a proverb and ving it to explain itself occurs before, in S. 1. iii. 37.

54. miscebis sacra profanis. Cp. C. 1. xviii. 10. This phrase, for plunging into crime without restriction, may be compared with the Gr. πανοῦργος, πανουργία. So in Virg. Geor. i. 505: 'fas versum atque nefas.' The Greek equivalents for the two adjectives may be seen in Thuc. ii. 52: ἐς ὀλιγωρίαν ἐτράποντο καὶ ἱερῶν καὶ ὀσίων.

60. Cp. Eur. El. 809: τἀναντί ̓ ἤυχετ ̓ οὐ γεγωνίσκων λόγους. Mart. i. 40.

Laverna. The tutelar goddess of thieves, hence called Laverniones. The most probable derivation proposed is that from λadev, or latere; compare Donaldson (in Varron. and Cratylus) on Latinus and Lavinus, liber and exeú0epos as identical forms.

70. pascat... aretque. Eur. El. 252: σkapeús Tis † Boupopßós. 75. bona. See Cic. Paradox. i. 8. [0.]

79. Cp. Cic. Tusc. 1. viii. 15. [0.] metaphor, Soph. Trach. 1170:

And so, but without the race

ἔφασκε μόχθων τῶν ἐφεστώτων ἐμοὶ
λύσιν τελεῖσθαι, κἀδόκουν πράξειν καλῶς.
τὸ δ ̓ ἦν ἄρ ̓ οὐδὲν ἄλλο πλὴν θανεῖν ἐμέ,
τοῖς γὰρ θανοῦσι μόχθος οὐ προσγίγνεται.

EPIST. XVII.

6-11. Cp. Cic. Off. i. 21: 'et facilior et tutior... vita est otiosorum; fructuosior autem hominum generi et ad claritatem amplitudinemque aptior eorum qui se ad rempublicam et ad res magnas gerendas accommodaverunt.' 7. Cp. Ov. Nux, 87:

Non hominum strepitus audit non illa rotarum,

Non a vicinâ pulverulenta viâ est.

10. Cp. Lucian, Necyom. 21.

[0.]

12. siccus ad unctum. A proverbial phrase, perhaps. But cp. Eur. El. 239 (and Paley's note).

22. nullius. Is this masc. or neuter? The masculine makes the better antithesis to Dante minor. So [O.], who quotes Diog. Laert. vi. 55. [Obbar] quotes Cic. Læl. ix. 30: ut nullo egeat.'

25. Cp. Milton's phrase in Comus, 707: Budge doctors of the Stoic fur.'

42. experiens, sc. 'qui' omnia experitur.'

Cic. pro Clu. viii. 23: 'A. Aurius vir fortis et experiens.' C. Verr. 111. xxi. 53; Ov. Met. xiv. 159.

49. quadra. A square of a cake or loaf; hence, a share.' Virg. En. vii. 114; Juv. v. 2. [O.] quotes Mart. ix. xci. 17; Seneca, Benef. iv. 29.

55. refert, Cp. Tac. Ann. i. 26: Easdem artes Drusum retulisse.' [Obbar.]

meretricis acumina. Cp. Plaut. Trucul. 1. i. 32, sqq.; Ib. Mostell. 1. iii. 128; Ov. A. A. i. 431, sqq.; Mart. xi. 50. [Obbar.]

masc.,

catellam. Some take this as a diminutive of catulus (cp. the S. II. iii. 259), 'a pet dog;' quoting Mart. i. 110; iii. 82; xiv. 189; Prop. iv. iii. 55; Juv. vi. 654; and see more instances in Obbar. 59. planus. Utitur eodem v. Cic. pro Clu. xxvi. 72.' [0.]

EPIST. XVIII.

9. This is the definition given by Aristotle, Eth. ii. 5: ěσтw ăpa ǹ ἀρετὴ ἕξις προαιρετικὴ ἐν μεσότητι οὖσα . . . μεσότης δὲ δύο κακιῶν τῆς μὲν καθ ̓ ὑπερβολήν, τῆς δὲ κατ ̓ ἔλλειψιν. (Virtue is a deliberate habit lying in a mean... a mean between two faults, one of excess, one of pefect.) [0.]

utrinque reductum. A phrase adopted from Lucret. v. 839. [O.] 13. dictata... Reddere. Cic. N. D. 1. xxvi. 72: 'ista a vobis quasi dictata redduntur quæ Epicurus oscitans alucinatus est.' [0.]

31. Eutrapelus. See Trench's Synonyms, in voc. evtpateλía.

35. pascet. The meaning of the metaphor is that usury gives growth and increase to the principal; [O.] compares Arist. Pol. 1. iii. 23: 8 TÓKOS avτd (Sc. Tò vóμioμα) τoleî πλéov. So Aristoph. Nubes, 1286. Compare Shakesp. Merchant of Ven. Act I. Sc. III.:

Is your gold and silver ewes and rams ?—

I cannot tell: I make it breed as fast.

Vivum is used by Cicero (Pro Flacc. 37) as a term for 'capital.' 53. clamore. Cp. clamore secundo, Virg. Æn. v. 491.

57. si quid abest. Cp. Ov. A. A. i. 177:

Ecce parat Cæsar domito, quod defuit, orbi

Addere.

adjudicat, i. e. 'makes over to, reduces under, the power of Rome.' The verb is more properly a synonym of assigno, E. II. i. 8, and used of determining disputed territories. [0.] quotes Cic. Off. 1. x. 33.

58. Ac, ne. These two particles are closely and properly joined together. See E. 1. i. 13; 1. xix. 26; 11. i. 208. [Obbar.]

64. Alterutrum. Hom. Il. v. 303: étépoiσi dè kûdos ědwкav.

72. Non... ulceret. In this construction (cp. non sileas, in S. II. v. 91) non appears to differ from ne in direct prohibitive force. It is, in Obbar's words, Lenior adhortatio, et veluti optantis non jubentis.' So in Virg. Æn. xii. 78, Non Teucros agat;' it expresses more of statement than dictation='he need not lead.' Cp. Geor. i. 456. [0.] compares A. P. 460; but why? there is neither imperative nor optative sense there. Nor is C. 1. xiii. 14 more of a parallel instance if speres answer, as it may, to si audias.

84. Cp. Virg. Æn. ii. 311: 'proximus ardet Ucalegon. The phrase became proverbial (as may be seen in Juv. iii. 199). Obbar quotes Ov. R. Am. 625: Proximus a tectis ignis defenditur ægre.'

87. Tu, dum, etc. Soph. Philoct. 504, sq.

91. media de nocte. Hand. Tursell. xi. p. 205: 'significat per media noctis tempus.' [0.] Is this accurate? is not Bentley more correct when he says, Nimirum media de nocte fit, non quod eo usque producitur sed quod tum primum incipitur?' Cp. de luce, Gr. ŵeev, 'from,' i. e. ‘at daybreak.' The phrase de nocte occurs, S. II. iii. 238; E. 1. ii. 32, 1. vii. 88.

93. tepores is the reading of the majority of must be explained per litoten. See Obbar's note. right in regarding it as a gloss upon vapores.

MSS., and if genuine
But Orelli is probably

100. See Eur. Hipp. 79 : ὅστις διδακτὸν μηδὲν ἀλλ ̓ ἐν τῇ φύσει τὸ owopoveîv etλnxev (and Monk's note). Ib. Suppl. 913: evavdpía διδακτόν, κ. τ. λ. Thucyd. i. 121 affirms ὅ ἔχομεν φύσει ἀγαθὸν ἐκείνοις οὐκ ἂν γένοιτο διδάχῃ. But with the Greeks this question involved social and political considerations; for an account of which, as foreign to the mention of the subject here, see Donaldson's instructive note on Soph. Antigone, 714.

102. honos an lucellum, i. e. ' rank or riches.'

103. Juv. x. 363:

Semita certe

Tranquillæ per virtutem patet unica vitæ. [0.]

104. reficit. Juv. iii. 319.

107. mihi vivam. Eur. Ion, 658: ča d' éμavтų Šv. [Obbar.]

EPIST. XIX.

3. aquæ potoribus. Cp. the jest in Dem. F. L. li. p. 355: ovdèv θαυμαστὸν μὴ ταὐτὰ ἐμοὶ καὶ Δημοσθένει δοκεῖν, οὗτος μὲν γὰρ ὕδωρ ἐγὼ δὲ οἶνον πίνω.

6. E. g. Iliad, §. 261, and the epithets, μeλíppova, μevoelkéα. [0.] 11. putere diurno.

πνέων.

Cp. Lucian, D. Conc. 4: àкрáтov ěwbev ȧto

13. Cicero mentions Servilius as Catonis æmulator (Ad Att. ii. 1). M. Favonius was nicknamed (see Biogr. Dict.) the ape of Cato.

14. [Obbar] quotes Cic. Off. 1. xxxix. 9: Luculli virtutem quis? at quam multi villarum magnificentiam imitati sunt.' And Tacit. Ann. XVI. Xxii. 2.

16. Dum studet, after Rupit. So E. 1. xii. 13; and again, E. II. i. 7; A. P. 465.

21. per vacuum. Call. Ep. viii. 1: кaðаρǹν ¿dóν. [Obbar.] Cp. Ib. Fragm. 293.

Aridâ modo pumice expolitum.

Ib. xxii. 6; and Mart. 1. cxvii. 14. [O.] The parchments on the outer side were polished by the booksellers for the sake of ornament, and of smoothness to the touch.

5. descendere. Sc. in Forum loco humili situm;' cp. Cic. de Pet. Cons. i. 2. [0.] See E. II. i. 269, deferar in vicum,' where the same street (Tuscus vicus) is intended, as in v. 1 here, by the reference to the

11. Contrectatus. Cp. Mart. vIII. iii. 4: teritur noster ubique liber.' 'Verbo per dilogiam utitur, cf. Tac. Ann. xiv. 35.' [0.]

17. Cp. Juv. vii. 225:

totidem olfecisse lucernas

Quot stabant pueri, cum totus decolor esset

Flaccus, et hæreret nigro fuligo Maroni. [O.]

24. præcanum, i. e. 'ante tempus canum.' Sch.

26. te percontabitur ævum. Madvig (Gr. 228, 1) remarks on this peculiar construction of the double accusative after percontor.

EPISTOLARUM LIBER II.

EPIST. I.

This Epistle and the next are included in the Imitations of Horace by Pope.

7. The growth of civilisation is here attributed to human benefactors, subsequently deified; to bards, inspired interpreters of the gods, in A. P. 391-400; to the introduction of language, in Sat. 1. iii. 103; as by Cicero to Eloquence and to Philosophy (see the references and quotations there made).

8. Componunt.... condunt. These verbs are joined together in E. 1. i. 12. This passage may serve to distinguish them; the first means chiefly to combine, adjust, reconcile,' the second, to found and build up.'

11. portenta. Lucret. v. 37. [0.]

13. Cp. Eur. Fr. Beller. 5: εἰς τἀπίσημα δ ̓ ὁ φθόνος πηδᾶν φιλεῖ. 15. Præsenti, etc. Ov. Trist iv. 10: Tu mihi, quod rarum est vivo, sublime dedisti Nomen.'

32. So venit ad summum, Cic. Tusc. Qu. 3 (speaking of eloquence). Cp. the Greek phrase, éπì τò πλéov iκeo, Theocr. i. 20.

33. unctis. Hurd interprets this to mean assiduous, industrious; in its common sense it may simply answer to luctamur.

35. quotus. See App. on E. 1. v. 30.

61. habet hos numeratque.

Livius Andronicus first exhibited
Nævius flourished.

Ennius was brought to Rome