Minor Latin poets; with introductions and English translations

IGRATTIUSTHE CHASE•"Under thine auspices, Diana, do I chant the driftsof the gods " —the skill that has made the huntersglad.Erstwhile their sole hope lay in their weapons ^ : menuntrained stirred the woods with prowess unaided byskill : mistakes beset life everywhere. Afterwards,by another and a more fitting way,*^ with betterschooling they took thee, Reason, to aid their enterprises.From Reason came all their help in life : thetrue order of things shone forth : men learned out ofarts to produce kindi'ed arts : from Reason came theundoing of mad violence. But 'twas a divinity whogave the first favouring impulse to the arts, puttingaround them their deep-set props : then did everyman work out the portions of his choice, and industry" Like Xenophon or the pseudo-Xenophon, Cyn. ad init.10 fj.'kv frprifua deiy k T.A.. , Grattius claims a diviiie origin forhunting.* Good sense is got without taking armis from armi," members," as Vollmer does with Barth, Burman and others.A. E. Housman, CI. Rev. U (1900), 465-66, and P. J. Enk, inhis edn. 1918, take armis from arma." Xuda virtute :rf. 153 nudo marte contrasted with exarte.^ i.e. by training they attained to a more convenient andsuitable method (via) than the old haphazard hunting. Forsense of propior cf. Cic. ad Alt. XIV. xix., }ios alium port tunpropiorem huic aetati videbamus.15'