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

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EXPLANATORY NOTES. BOOK I., EPISTLE XVII. 593
own design, of showing that the fear even of death is not capable of shaking
the coarage of a good man, or of obliging him to abandon the caase of
virtue.—79. Moriar. " I will die." An allusion to the Stoic docti'ine of
the lawfulness of suicide. Mors ultima linea rerum est, A figurative al<
Insion to chariot races. Linea was a white or chalked rope drawn across
the circus, and serving to mark both the beginning and the end of the race.
It answered, therefore, to the starting and winning post of modem days.
Epistle XVH. Horace, in this epistle, gives his yonng friend some in-
Etructiond for his conduct at court, that he may not only support his own
character there, hut proceed with happiness in that dangerous and slippery
road. He shows that an active life, the life of a man who attempts
to gain and preserve the favors of the great by honorable means, is far more
reputable than an idle life without emulation and ambition. He then assures
him that nothing can more probably ruin him at court than a mean
and sordid design of amassing money by asking favors.
1-5. 1. Qaarnmis. Joined with the indicative here to denote certainty,
as in verse 22, and Epist. i., 14, 6. Scaeoa. As this and the next
epistle are written upop the same subject, the copyists would seem to
have joined them together. Baxter and Gesner incline to the opinion
that they were both written to the same person. We do not find, however,
as Gesner himself acknowledges, that the house of Lollius overtook
the cognomen of Saeva, which appears in the Junian and Cassian fami-
lies only. It is probable that the individual here meant was the son of
that Soaeva whose valor is so highly spoken of by CiEsar {B. C, iii., 53).
Per te.
Equivalent to tua ipsius prudentia.—Et sds, quo tandem pacto
deceat majoribus uti. " And knowest well how to conduct thyself toward
thy superiors," i. e., and art no way at a loss as to the manner of living
with the great.—3. Disce, docendus adkue quas censet amiculus. " Yet
learn what are the sentiments of thy old friend upon the subject, who himself
still requires to be taught." Ut si cacus iter monstrare velit. " As
if a blind guide should wish to show thee the way." The poet here, in
allusion to the docendus adhac, which has gone before, styles himselfcscus,
a blind guide.—5. Quod cures proprium fecisse. " Which thou mayest
deem it worth thy while to make thine own." Proprium fecisse is here
equivalent to in usum, tuum convertisse.
6-11. 6. Primam somnus in horam. " Sleep until the first hour," i, i.,
until seven o'clock.—8. Caupona. " The noise of the tavern." Ferentinum.
A city ofLatium, on the ViaLavicanat in the territory of the Hemici,
forty-eight miles firom Home. The situation was mountainous and lonely.
lo!, Nee vixit male qui natus moriensquefefdlit. "Nor has he lived iH,
who, at bis birth and death, has escaped the observation of the world," i.
C nor has he made an ill choice of existence who has passed all his days
in the bosom of obscurity. Compare the saying of Epicurus, Mdc I3iliaa(.
—11. 'Si prodesse tuis pauloque henignius, &o. " If, however, thou shalt
feel disposed to be of service to thy friends, and to treat thyself with a lit-
tle more indulgence than ordinary, thou wilt go a poor man to the rich,"
t. e., if thou shalt want to be useful to thy friends, and indulge thy self more
freely in the pleasures of life, then make thy court to the great. Siccus,
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