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

EXPLANATORY NOTES.—BOOK I., EPISTLE VH. 565
their country. The advice proved fruitless.—65. Mimnermm. A poet of
Colophon, in Ionia, who flourished about 590 B.C. He composed elegiac
Btraina, and is regarded as the first that applied the alternating hexame-
ter and pentameter measures to such subjects.—67. Istis. Referring to
the maxims which the poet has here laid down respecting the felicity
that virtue alone can bestow.
Epistle YII. Horace, upon retiring into the country, had given his
promise to Maecenas that he would return in five days ; hut, after continuing
there the whole month of August, he writes this epistle to excuse his
absence. He tells him that the care of his health had obliged him to remain
in the country during the dog-days, and that, when winter comes on,
the same care would render it necessary for him to go to Tarentum, but
that he intended to be with him early in the spring. As Horace, however,
was under the strongest ties to Meecenas, and did not wish to be
thought unmindful of what he owed him, he takes pains to show that the
present refusal did not proceed from want of gratitude, but from that sense
of liberty which all mankind ought to have, and which no favor, however
great, could countervail. He acknowledges his patron's liberality, and the
agreeable manner he had of evincing it. He acknowledges, too, that he
had been a dose attendant upon him in his younger years, but assures
him, at the same time, that if he was less assiduous now, it did not proceed
from want of affection and friendship, but from those infirmities of
age, which, as they were sensibly growing upon him, rendered it inconsistent
with the care which his health demanded of him.
1-9. 1. Q,uinque. A definite for an indefinite number.—^2. Sextilem
totum mendax desideror. "False to my word, I am expected by thee
during the whole month of August.". The Komans, at first, began their
year at March, whence the sixth month was called Sextilis, even after
January and February were added by Numa to the calendar of Bomulus.
It afterward toolt from Augustus the name mensis Augustus, as the month
before it was called mensis Julius, from Julius Cpsar. Atqui. "And
yet."— 3. Recteque videre valentem. "And to pee me enjoying sound
health."—5. Veniam. " The indulgence." The poet alludes to the liberty
of remaining in his villa, apart from his patron's presence. Dumficas
prima, &c. An elegant and brief description of the season of autumn,
when the fig first reaches its maturity, and the heat of the sun proves injurious
to the human frame. The do^-days, and, in general, all the autum-
nal season, were sickly at Home. At this time the poet chose to retire
to his Sabine farm, and breathe the pure mountain atmosphere.—6. Designatorem
decorat lictoribus atris. "Adorn the undertaker with all hia
gloomy train." By the designator is here meant the individual whose
business it was to regulate the order of funerals, and assign to every person
his rank and place. He was one of the principal officers of the goddess
Libitina, and resembled, in his general duties, the modem undertaker.
When called to take charge of a funeral soleinnity, the designator
usually came attended by a troop of inferior officers, called by Seneca libi-
Hnarii, such as the polUnctores, vespUlones, ugtores, sandapilarii, &c.
These attendants were all arrayed in black, an^ besides their other duties,
served to keep off the crowd like the lictors of the magistrates, witn
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