Minor Latin poets; with introductions and English translations

from halters :GRAITIUSthe horse will show his vigour careeringin a hundred race-courses and will work off histemper in the contest. Nor does his keep costmuch : whatsoever of its own the ban-en earth orthe small rivulet doth yield, is enough to supporthim. So too maintenance is easy for horses of theBisaltae near the Strymon " : oh, that they couldcareer along the highlands of Aetna, the sportwhich Sicilians make their own ! What then,though their necks are ugly or though they have athin spine cur\ing along their back? Thanks tosuch steeds Acragas was praised in song by theGreeks,'' thanks to such, the vanquished creaturesof the ^^'ild quitted craggy Nebrodes.*^ Oh. howstalwart^^^ll he be in hunting whose herds shallyield colts that can be trained I Who could darepit against them the horses of Epirus, which aredistinguished by Greece with honour scarce deserved ?The chestnut-brown horses of Macedonian Ceraunus''have scanty worth as hunters : but the herds ofCyrrha,' sacred to thee, O Apollo, have won highhonour, whether the need be to yoke light vehiclesor pull our (image-laden) cars in procession tohorses could be trained to win glory in the games of Greece(cantatus Graiis Acragas, 527).* Pindar, Olymp. iii. 2, K\€iva.f 'AKpayavra (= Agrigentumin Sicily, now Girgenti). Olympian Odes ii. and iii. celebratevictories won by Theron of Acragas in chariot -racing ; Pyth.vi. and Lsthm. ii. similar victories by Xenocrates of Acragas,* A Sicilian mountain. Fragosum indicates the serviceabiUtyof Sicilian horses as hunters on rocky ground.**The fact that Pella was in Macedonia and the Ceraunianrange in Epirus does not justify the epithet Pellaci; but, asEnk says, " poeta parum curat geographiam."' Cyrrha or Cirrha, a seaport in Phocis, near Parnassus onwhich was the Delphic oracle of Apollo.203