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

388 EXPLANATORY NOTES. BOOK IV., ODE XIV.
—
wine with spikenard." Horace, as we have ahready sticed m the intro.
dactory remarks, invites the individual whom he here addresses to an
entertainment, where each gneat is to contribute his quota. Our poet
agrees to furnish the wine, if Virgil will supply perfumes, and hence tells
him he shall have wine for his spikenard.— ^17. Parous onyx. " A small
alabaster box." According to Pliny (H. N., xxxvi., IB), perfume boxes
were made of the onyx alabaster. Eliciet cadmm. " Will draw forth a
cask," i. e., will cause me to furnish a cask of wine for the entertainineat.
The opposition between parvui onyx and cadMa is worthy of notice.—
18. Q,ui nunc Sulpieiis, Ice. "Which now lies stored away in the Sol-
pician repositories." Consult note on Ode iii., 20, 7. According to Porphyrion
in his scholia on this passage, the poet alludes to a certain Sulpicius
Galba, a well-known merchant of the day.— ^19. Donare largus. A
Graecism for largus donavdU or ad donandum.—Amara airarum. "Bit-
ter cares." An imitation of the Greek idiom {tH mKpi Tov /ispi/ivuv), in
place of the common Latin form amaras euros.—21. Cum tua merce.
" With thy club," i. e., with thy share toward the entertainment ; or, in
other words, with the perfumes. The part furnished by each guest toward
a feast is here regarded as a kind of merchandise, which partners
in trade thijiw into a common stock, that they may divide the profits.
32. Non ego te vids im^UJiem, Sec. " I do not intend to moisten thee, at
free cost, with the contents of my cups, as the rich man docs in some well-
atored abode."—26, Nigrorumque jnemor ignium. "And, mindful of the
gloomy fires of the funeral pile," i. e., of the shortness of existence.
87. Misce stultitiam consiliis brevem, &c. " Blend a little folly with thy
worldly plans : it is delightful to give loose on a proper occasion." Desipere
{iroperly signifies 'Ho play the fool," and hence we obtain other kindred
meanings, such as " to indulge in festive enjoyment," " to unbend,"
"give loose," dec.
Ode XIV. We have already stated, in the introductory remarks to the
fbnrth ode of the present book, that Horace had been directed by Augas*
tns to celebrate in song the victories of Drusns and Tiberius. The piece
to which we have alluded is devoted, in consequence, to the praises of
the former, the present One to those of the latter, of the two princes. In
both productions, however, the art of the poet is shown in ascribing the
success of the two brothers to the wisdom and fostering counsels of Augus-
tus himself.
1-15. 1. Qute curaPatruvit Sec. " What care on the part (jf tbe fa-
thers, or what on the part of the B.oman people at large, can, by offerings
rich with honors, perpetuate to the latest ages, O Angnstna, the remembrance
of thj» virtues, in public inscriptions and recording annals!"—
2. Muneribus. Alluding to the various public monuments, decrees,' &c.,
proceeding from a grateful people.—4. Titulos. The reference is to pubtic
inscriptions of every kind, as well on the pedestals of statues, as on
arches, triumphal monuments, coins, &C.' Memoresgue fastos. Consult