The works of Horace : with English notes, critical and ... - Cristo Raul

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EXPLANATORY NOTES. BOOK I., ODE II. 261
Ode II. Octavianus assumed his new title of Augustus on the 17th of
January (xvi. Cal. Febr.), A.U.C. 727. On the following: night Rome
was visited by a severe tempest, and an inundation of the Tiber. Tho
present ode was written in allusion to that event. The poet, regarding
the visitation as a mark of divine displeasure, proceeds to inquire on what
deity they are to call for succor. Who is to free the Romans from the
pollution occasioned by their civil strife? Is it Apollo, god of prophecy?
Or Venus, parent of Rome ? Or Mai's, founder of the Roman line ? Or
Mercury, messenger of the skies 7—It is the last, the avenger of CaBaar,tbe
deity who shrouds his godhead beneath the person of Augustus. He alone,
if heaven spare him to the earth, can restore to us the favor of Jove, and na-
tional prosperity.—Many of the old commentators refer the subject of this
ode to the prodigies that occurred on the death of Julius CsESar, and, some
modern scholars have adopted the same idea; but this is decidedly inferior.
1-4. 1. Terris. A Graecism for in terras.— Nivis. It was not the snow
itself that formed the prodigy, but the heavy fall of it, and the violence of
the accompanying storm. Snow may be an unusual visitant at the present
day in central Italy, but it does not appear to have been so in the time of
Horace. Consult the remarks of Artiold on this subject. Hist, of Rome,
vol. i., p. 499, seqq.—Dircs grandinis. Every thing sent by the wrath of
the gods {dei ira) was termed dirum.—2. Pater. "The Father of gods
andmen." Jupiter. Har-^piivdpcJVTE^euvTe.—Ruhente dextera. "With
his red right hand." Red with the reflected glare of the thunderbolt : an
idea very probably borrowed from some ancieut painting.— 3. Sacras areas.
" The sacred summits (of the temples}." The lightning struck the Capitol
containing the temples of Jupiter, Minerva, and Juno. It is unusual to
find jaculari with the accusative of the thing that is struck. Compare,
however, Od., iii., 12, 11, " Jaculari cervos."—4. Urhem. " The city," i. e.,
Rome. Compare Q,uintiUan (8, 2), " Urhem Roma-m. accipimus."
5-10. 5. Gentes. Understand imewfes. "He has terrified the nations,
fearing lest," &c. Analogous to the Greek idiom, kt^ofSrjaE fiij.—6. S(Eculiim
PyrrhcB. Alluding to the deluge of Deucalion in Thessaly, when,
according to the legend, Deucalion and his spouse Pyrrha were the only
mortals that were saved. Nova Tnonstra. "Strange prodigies," e. c,
wonders before unseen.—7. Proteus. A sea-deity, son of Oceanus aud
Tethys, gifted with prophecy and the power of assuming any form at
pleasure. His fabled employment was to keep " the flocks" of Neptune,
i.e., the phocee, or seals.—8. Visere. A Graecism for ctZ visendum.—10. Palumbis.
The common reading is columbis, but the true one is palumbis.
The " palumhsB," or " wood-pigeons," construct their nests on the branches
and in the hollows of trees ;
the columba, or " doves," are kept in dove-
cots. It is idle to say, in opposition to this, that columbts is the generic
name.
13-16. 13. Flavum Tiberim. "The yellow Tiber." A recent traveller
remarks, with regard to this epithet of the Tiber ; " Yellow is an exceedingly
undescriptive translation of that tawny color,' that mixture of
red, brown, gray, and yellow, which should answer tojlavus here ; but I
may not deviate from the established phrase, nor do I know a better."
\Rome in the Nineteenth Ceniury, vol. i., p. 84.)
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Retortis. "Being htitrl