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

548 EXPLANATORY NOTES. BOOK I., EPISTLE I.
changing from one species of vice to another, are here not unaptly compared
to the Lemean hydra {^-qpiov iroTiVKitpaXov).—76. Conducere publica.
"In farming the public revenues." Understand zJCciig-aZicc. Hence
the farmers of the revenue, who were principally of equestrian ranlt, were
Btyled Puhlicani. The office was much more honorable at Rome thanin
the provinces, where the inferior agents practiced eveiy kind of extortion,
— ^78. Excipiantque senes, quos in vwaria mittant. " And catch old men^
whom they may send to their ponds." Old men are here compared to fisb,
as in Sat. il., 5, 44 : " Plures annabunt tJmnni, et cetaHa crescent." Excipere
is the proper term to be used here. Compare the Grreek kKdixeaOau
Both are here used to denote the securing of any prey or game.— Vwaria.
A general term to express places where living animals are kept for fature
use. "We have rendered it by the word "ponds," as the reference
here appears to be to the same idea which has already been expressed in
Sat. ii., 5, 44.—79. Fenore. The legal rate of interest at this time was 12
per cent. A much larger amount, however, was usuriously exacted of
young heirs on their coming of age, for sums lent them m their minority
on secret terms.
79-85. 79. Verum esto, aliis alios rebus stitdiisg^ie feneri, Sec. " But
grant that different men are engaged in different employments and pursuits
: can the same persons continue for a single hour praising the same
things V It were of little consequence that mankind differed from each
other if they could agree with themselves. We might believe they had
found the way to happiness if they would always continue in it. Bat
how can they direct us with certainty, who are not determined themselves
?—82. Nullus in orbe sinus Baiis prahicet amasnis. " No bay in
the world surpasses in beauty the delightful Baiaa." With orfig supply
terrarum.—83. Locus et ma/re sentit amorem, &c. " The Inke and the sea
experience the eagerness of the impatient master," i. e., buildings imme>
diately rise along the margin of the Lucrine lake and the shores of the
sea. Consult note on Ode ii., 15, 3.—84. Cui si vitiosa libido fecerit auspidum,
&c. "To whom, if sickly caprice shall give the omen, he will
cry, to-morrow, workmen, you wiU convey yoxir tools to Teanum," i. e.,
if the sickly fancy once come across his brain, receiving it as an auspicious
omen, he will immediately abandon his plans at Baise, and will leave
the vicinity of the sea for the interior of the country. The force and spirit
of the passage consist in Ehe opposition between Baias, situate on the
coast, Mid Teanum, an inland town.— 85. Teanum. There were two
towns of this name in Italy, one in Apulia, on the right bank of the River
Frento (now Fortore)t and called, for distinction' sake, Apputum ; and the
other in Campania, about fifteen miles northwest of Capua. This last is
the one here alluded to. It was famed for the beauty of the surrounding
country, and became one of the favorite places of resort for the Roman nobility
and men of wealth, who erecte4 splendid villas in its neighborhood
Boqie cold acidulous springs are noticed in its vicinity by the ancient writ
ers ; they are now called Acqua delle Caldarelle. The Teanum of which
we are here speaking received the epithet of Sidicinum from its being
situate among the Sidicini, and as contradistinguished from the first ona
mentioned.
86-91. 86. Lectus genialis in aula est. " The nuptial couch stands in