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

EXPLANATORY NOTES. BOOK III., ODE XVII. 357
rsgardeilby the ancients as baring been tbe abode and capital of the Lestrygones.
Compare note on Ode i., 80, 11.—35. Gallicis pascuis. The
pastures of Cisalpine Ganl are meant.—37. Importuna tamen, &o. " Yet
the pinching of contracted means is far away." Consult note on Ode >.,
12, 43.—39. Contracto melitis, Ice. " I shall extend more wisely my humble
income by contracting my desires, than if I were to join the realm of
Alyattes to tiie Mygdonian plains," i. c, than if Lydia and Phiygia were
mine. Alyattes was King of Lydia and father of Croesus, who was so
famed for hjs riches. As regards the epithet "Mygdonian" applied to
Fhrygia, consult note on Ode ii., 13, 22.—43. Beiie est. Understand ei.
" Happy is the man on whom the deity has bestowed with a sparing hand
what is sufficient for his wants."
Ode XVII. The bard, warned by the crow of to-morrow's storm, ex-
horts his friend L. .Slins Lamia to devote the day, when it shall arrive, to
joyons banquets.
The individual to whom this ode is addressed bad signalized himself in
the war with the Cantabri as one of the lieutenants of Augustus. His
family claimed descent from Lamus, sou of Neptune, and the most ancient
monarch of the Lsestrygones, a people alluded to in the preceding
ode (v. 34).
1-16. 1. Vetusto nohilis, &,a. " Nobly descended from ancient Lamns."
— 2. Priores hine Lamias denominatos. " That thy earlier ancestors of
the Lamianline were named from him." We have included all from line
2 to 6 within brackets, as savoring strongly of interpolation, from its awkward
position. It ia thrown entirely outl)y Sanadon.—3. Et nepotum,
&c. " And since the whole race of their descendants, mentioned in recording
annals, derive their origin from him as the founder of their house."
The Fasti were public registers or chronicles, nnder the care of the Pontifex
Maximus and his college, in which were marked, from year to year,
what days were fasti and what Ttefasii. In the Fasti were also recorded
the names of the magistrates, particularly of the consuls, as. accoant of
the triumphs that were celebrated, &.C. Hence the splendor of the Lamian
line in being often mentioned in the annals of Rome.—6. Formiarum.
Consult note on Ode iii., 16, 34.—7. Et innantevit &;c. " And the
Liris, where it flows into the sea through the territory of Mintumae." The
poet wishes to convey the idea that Lamus ruled, not only over Formiee,
but also over the Mlnturnian territory. In expressing this, aUusion is
made to the nymph Marica, who had a grove and temple near Mintumie,
and the words Marica litora are used as a designation for the region
around the city itself. Mintumas was a place of great antiquity, on the
hanks of the Liris, and only three or four miles from its mouth. The
country around abounded with mai-shes. The nymph Marica was fabled
>)y some to have been the mother of Latinus, and by others thought to
liave been Circe.—9. Late tyranmis. "A monarch of extensive sway."
Tyrannus is used here in the earlier sense of the Greek rOpavvoc-—12.
Agu