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

EXPLANATORY NOTES. EPODE VI. 403
sfactors were left exposed, and here, also, the poor and slaves were in-
terred. Suhseqaently, however, the character of the place was entirely
changed by the splendid residence and gardens of Meecenas. Consult
note on Oife iii., 29, 10— 79. 'Negue hoc parenies, &o. The boy's last
thoughts, observes Francis, are tenderly employed in reflecting ngon the
grief of his parents ; yet he seems to comfort them, and at the same time
to confirm the trath of his prediction, by that consolation which they shall
receive in the death of these sorceresses.
Epod£ VI. Addressed to a cowardly and mercenary slanderer. It is
commonly thonght that this piece was written against Cassins Sevems,
and, in many editions, it appears with an inscription to this effect. Snch
a supposition, however, is peirfectly gratuitous. It is probable that the
title in question originated with some scholiast, who, having read in Tacitus
{Ann^ i., 72, and iv., 31) of the licentions spirit and defamatory pen of
Cassins Sevems, erroneously imagined him to he the one whom the poet
here attacks.
1-14. 1. Quid immerentes, &c. "Thou cur, why, being cowardly
against wolves, dost thou snarl at inoffensive strangers 1" By the term
hospites are here meant those who are entirely unknown to the individual,
but whom he, notwithstanding, makes the subjects of his envenomed
attacks.—3. Jnanei. As proceeding Irom a cowardly and spiritless cur.
—i. Remonurum. " Who am ready to bite in return."—5. Molossus, aut
fiilvus Lacon, " A Molossian, or a tawny Laconian dog." The Molos-
Bian and Laconian dogs were of a robust make, and valuable as well in
hunting wild beasts as in defending the flocks from nocturnal thieves and
from the attacks of wolves. Travellers still describe the dogs in this quarter
as remarkable for size and extremely fierce. The Molossi occupied
the northeastern part of Epiras.—6. Arnica vis. " A friendly aid."—^7.
Agam quacunque practdetfera. "I will pursue whatever savage beast
shall go before me."—10. Prqjectum odararis cibwRi. ** Smell at the food
thrown to thee." A figurative mode of expressing that the individual
whom he attacks was easily bribed to silence.—12. Parata tollo cm-nua.
The poet alludes to his iambics, with which he stands prepared to assail
all evil-doers, as the bull is ready with its horns against every one who
provokes it to the attack.—13. Qualis LycambtB, &.c. " Like him who was
rejected as a son-in-law by the faithless Lycambes, or'Iike the fierce enemy
cif Bupalus." 'Lycamha is the dative, by a' Greecism, for the ablative,
and, by another Gracism, Bitpala, the dative, is put for BupaHj~-
Lycambtc. The allusion is to Archilochns. Lycambes had promised him
bis daughter Neobule in marriage, bat afterward changed his mind and
gave her to another. Archilochas, in revenge, wrote a poem against him,
in iambic verse, so cruelly satirical that both father and daughter hung
themselves in despair. Such, at least, is the common account. It would
seem, however, from some authorities, that Neobnle killed herself, not
on account of the verses of Archilochns, but through despair at the loss
of her father. (Compare Schoell, Hist. Lit. Grtec, vol. i., p. 199.)—14.
Bwpcdo. The allusion is to the poet Hipponax, and the brothers Bupalas
and Anthermus.