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

400 EXPLANATORY NOTES. EPODE V.
themeelves to the highest stations ? The allasion appears to be to the
armament fitted 'out by Octavianus (Augustas) against Sextus Pompeius,
A.U.C. 718, whose principal strength consisted of.pirates and fugitive
slaves.—20. Tribuno militum. In each legion there were six military
tribunes, each of whom in battle seems to have had charge of ten centuries,
which, when full, would amount to a thousand men ; hence the corresponding
Greek appellation is x^^'-^PX^^'
Epode V. The bard ridicules Canidia, who, herself advanced in years,
was seeking by incantations and charms to regain the affectionsof the old
and foolish Varus. A strange scene of magic rites is introduced, and the
piece opens with the piteous exclamations of a boy of noble birth, whom
Canidia and her associate hags are preparing to kUl by a slow and dread<
ful process, and from whose marrow and dried liver a philter or bve-
potion is to be prepared, all-powerful for recalling the inconstant Varus.
It will be readily perceived that the greater part of this is mere fictioD,
and that the real object of the poet is to inflict well-merited chastisement
on those females of the day, in whose licentious habits age had been able
to produce no alteration, and who, when their beauly had departed, had
recourse to strange and saperstitious expedients for securing admirers.
1-24. 1. At, O deoruvif &c. The scene opens, as we have already remarked,
with the supplications of a boy, who is supposed to be surrounded
by the hags, and who reads their purpose in their loolks. He conjures
them to have compassion on him by the tenderness of mothers for their
children, by his birth, andby the justice of the gods.—4. Truces. "Fierce-
ly turned."—5. Partubus veris. Alluding to the frequent stealing of in-
fants on the part of these hags.—7. Per hoc inane, &c. " By this vain ornament
of purple." Young men of family wore a gown bordered with
purple, called (the toga preetexta, until the age of seventeen, when they
put on the toga virilis. The epithet inane expresses the disregard of
Canidia for this emblem of rank.—9. Aut uti petita, &.c. " Or like a savage
beast ofprey wounded by the dart."-^ll. Ut hac trementey Sec. "When
the boy, after having uttered these complaints with trembling lips, stood
among them, with his ornaments sti'ipped off, a tender body," &c. Under
the term insignia, the poet includes both the toga pratcxta and the bulla.
This latter was a golden ball or boss, which hung from the neck on the
breast, as some think in the shape of a heart, but, according to others,
round, with the figure of a heart engraved on it. The sons of freedmen
and of poorer citizens used only a leathern boss.—1^. CamdiOi,^ brevilms
implieataf Sec "Then Canidia, having entwined her locks and dishevel-
led head with small vipers," &c. The costume most commonly assigned
to the furies is here im^itated.—17. Jubet sepulcris, &o. Freparaticnis are
no^ made for the unhalloiyed rites ; and first, the wood to be used for the
fire muBt be that of the wild fig-tree, torn up from a burying-place. Tlie
wood supposed to be employedon suph occasions was always that of soma
inauspicious or illomened tree, and in this class the wild fig:tvee was par-
ttiejilarly ranked|both on account of its steriUty, and its springing up spontaneously
among tombs.—18. Cupressus.funebres. "Funereal cypresses."
Consult note on Ode ii., 14, 23.—19. Et uncia turpis ova ranee sanguine,
k.0. The o^der of construction is as follows : Et ova nocturnae strigif^