Minor Latin poets; with introductions and English translations

GRATTIUSdoses of bitumen, mixed with fragrant wine, andportions of Briittian" pitch and ointment from theunregarded dregs of oHve-oil. Therewith tlieybathe the aihng dogs : then the anger of the maladyis curbed and its severity relaxed. Let not this treatment,for all your anxiety, distract you (from furtherprecautions) : the dogs must avoid both rains and thechills ofthe north-west wind : rather, when sultry heatshang over the bare valleys, take them (to heights)away from the wind to meet the rays of the brightsun, so that they may sweat out all the infection andmoreover that the healing which has been effectedmay steal into their hidden veins.'^ Besides theHealing-God, kindly disposed to om- sldll, fails notto regard favourably and to aid him who dips^his whelps in the tide of the foaming beach.O Experience, foreseeing in affairs, how muchmaterial benefit hast thou lavished on the massof men, if they make it their care to overcomesloth and by vigorous action to get a grip of fairideals IThere is in Sicily a grotto enormous in its rockymass—with hollow windings which return uponthemselves ; high ramparts of black woodland encloseit around and streams bursting from volcanic jaws» Iwrrun'iov is Vibo Valentla on the \ia. Popilia in thetenitory of the Bruttii. Curcio thmks that Hippo in Xumidiais meant.* Vadis is also explained as (1) pores (Enk), (2) intestines(Radermacher). Vollmer imagines a contrast betweenlatent ibus vadis, meaning ex aquis recondUis, and the open seaof the next sentence.'The Latin of ilium mcrgentem in the sense of ilium quimergit is questionable; but c/. ille . . . defecturus, 291.V^ollmer proposes tentatively illic or ullum.VOL. I.O193