Minor Latin poets; with introductions and English translations

TWO KLK(;iRS OX MAECENASlast fi)r ever in virtue of a holy drug, I could wishthou hadst found favour with Aurora as husband.Worthy wert thou to recline on her saffron bed, and,as the morning-dew was just moistening the purplecouch, worthy wert thou to yoke the two steeds to herrosy car, worthy to give the reins for guidance by thebright-hued hand, worthy to stroke the mane of thehorse as it looked back (on its nightly course), now thatAurora had turned the reins at the advance of day.In such a way did the bands of his youthfulcomrades feel the loss of Hesperos, whom \^enusattached to herself and released in the midst of hisfiery course ^ : thou canst see him now as Lucifergleaming in the dark 'neath the stilly night andcharioting his steeds on an opposite course.^ Heit is that presents to thee the Corycian saffron-flower,he presents the aromatic cinnamon, he too thebalsams sent from palm-growing hills.Now hast thou, Maecenas, the guerdon of sincerity,now that thou art given to the shadeswe have forgotten that thou didst die an old man.''His people mourned the King of Pylos, Nestor,hoary after three generations of life ; and yet theysaid he had not fully reached old age. Thou wouldstthe " Morning-star." Actually it is the planet Venus. Theallusion is to the fact that, after a cycle of brilliancy, theplanet's apparent height above the horizon at sunset graduallydiminishes and it sinks into invisibility.* Lucifer, particularly associated with the East, appropriatelyoffers, in honour of Maecenas, fragrant Oriental plants,crocus from Corycus in Cilicia (Pli-n. X.H. XXI. G. 17), casiafrom Arabia Felix {ih. XII. IS, 41), and balsam from Judaea(Joseph. Ant. Jud. XIV. 4 (7)).' i.e. we do not realise that you were old when you died,because in life you ahvays seemed young, and in our thoughtsyou still retain the charm of perpetual youth.^33