personifies. Some read eximet.

For personification in procudit,

cf. Aeschyl. Coeph. 647; Soph. Ajax, 1034.

19. ira: cf. 1. 16.

20. inimicat: new coinage of Horace, as apprecati, 28.

21. qui . . . bibunt: cf. on 2. 20. 20; Crinagoras, Anth. Pal. 16. 61, 5, οἶδεν ̓Αράξης | καὶ Ῥῆνος, δούλοις ἔθνεσι πινόμενοι.

22-24. Cf. C. S. 51-56.

22. edicta . . . Iulia: the ordinances of Augustus; not to be taken technically, though it suggests the legis Iuliae. — Getae: cf. 3. 24. 11.

23. Seres: cf. 1. 12. 56. - Persae: cf. 1. 2. 22. — infidi: cf. perfide Albion, Graecia mendax, Punica fides, Parthis mendacior (Epp. 2. 1. 112), perfidus Hannibal (4. 4. 49), and similar international amenities.

24. The Scythians.

25. nosque emphatic. - profestis: cf. Sat. 2. 2. 116, profesta luce; working days plus holidays are all days.

26. Cf. on 4. 5. 31–32. — munera Liberi: cf. 1. 18. 7. — jocosi : cf. 3. 21. 15.

29-32. It was the policy of Augustus to foster the sentiment of historic patriotism. Cf. Suet. Aug. 31, and supra on 3. 1-6.

29. virtute functos: a variation on vita functus, laboribus functus (2. 18. 38). Cf. aevo functus (2. 9. 13). - more patrum: cf. Cic. Tusc. 1. 3, est in Originibus (Cato's Origins) solitos esse in epulis canere convivas ad tibicinem de clarorum hominum virtutibus.

30. Lydis: perhaps 'soft Lydian airs' suited the wine (cf. Plato, Rep. 398 E), perhaps the epithet is used merely for poetic specification. — remixto: a rare word. Cf. A. P. 151, veris falsa remiscet.

31. almae: cf. 4. 5. 18; Lucretius, 1. 2, alma Venus.

32. progeniem: sc. Augustus. Cf. 4. 5. 1, and C. S. 50.

1713.4.

CARMEN SAECULARE.

The student will find in Harper's Classical Dictionary, s.v. Ludi 21, a practically sufficient account of the origins of the Secular games, their revival and transformation by Augustus, B.C. 17, in somewhat tardy celebration of the establishment of the empire and the ceremonies of the festival as described by the historian Zosimus and the Sibylline oracle. These ceremonies are more accurately known from the official inscription discovered in Rome, September, 1890. It has been edited by Mommsen, Monumenti Antichi . della Reale Accademia dei Lincei, 1891; Ephemeris Epigraphica, 1891, pp. 222–274. It is interestingly discussed by Lanciani, Atlantic Monthly, February, 1892; Mommsen, die Nation, December, 1891; Gaston Boissier, Revue des Deux Mondes, March 1, 1892; Professor Slaughter, Transactions of the American Philological Association, 1895.

Carmen composuit Q. Hor[at] ius Flaccus are the words that chiefly concern us. Horace was thus virtually recognized as the laureate of the new empire, a position won by such odes as 1. 2; 1. 12; 3. 1-6; and sustained by 4. 4, 5, 14, and 15. Something of his pride in this official recognition is reflected in 4. 6. 25–44, and 4. 3. The poem itself is an extremely polished formal official production marked by the dignity and by something of the stark rigidity of the tables of the old law. The vague mystic humanitarian inspirations which Vergil's fourth eclogue (circa B. c. 40) draws from the thought of the world's great age beginning anew are wholly wanting. From Vergil, however, is derived the one central poetic idea (37 sqq.) standing out amid the prescribed formulas of the ritual- the idea of the imperial destiny of Rome embodied in the recently published Aeneid. To be just we must remember the 447

ceremonial character of the poem, composed, not to be studied in the closet, but to be chanted before a vast concourse in the open air. Horace's unfailing tact recognized that the austere simplicity of Roman ritualistic language was more consonant with the dignity of the occasion, than any elaborate prettiness of phrase, or imitation of the splendid lyric diction of the Greeks that it was in his power to achieve.

The sapphics are finished with the utmost care. Notable is the frequent lilt of the feminine caesura, ll. 1, 14, 15, 18, 19, 35, 39, etc.

The poem was sung on the third and last day of the festival before the temple of Apollo on the Palatine. Sacrificioque perfecto pueri [X]XVII quibus denuntiatum erat patrimi et matrimi [whose fathers and mothers were still living] et puellae totidem carmen cecinerunt; eodemque modo in Capitolio. The natural meaning of the last words is that the rendering of the ode was repeated on the Capitol. There has been some idle debate as to whether the repetition was prearranged or an encore. Mommsen chooses to suppose that the ode was sung as the procession moved from the Palatine to the Capitol and back; and exercises his ingenuity in determining the precise point at which each group of stanzas was chanted. The distribution of the strophes between the youths, the maidens, and the ensemble has been endlessly debated.

1. Phoebe: Actian and Palatine Apollo, the patron deity of the emperor and the empire, is fittingly invoked first. Cf. 1. 31. 1. n.; 1. 21; 3. 4. 60 sqq. — silvarum potens: cf. 1. 21. 5. n.; 1.3. 1. n. 2. caeli decus: as sun and moon, cf. 9, 36; Verg. Aen. 9. 405, Astrorum decus et nemorum Latonia custos; Sen. Hippol. 408.

2-3. colendi . . . culti: a worshipful fullness of expression. Cf. Ov. Met. 8. 350, si te coluique coloque; ibid. 726; Odes 4. 2. 38, donavere. dabunt; Epp. 1. 1. 1., prima dicte mihi summaque dicende Camena.

...

5. quo with dicere (8). —Sibyllini: cf. Harper's Class. Dict. s.v. Sibyllae. The old collections which Tarquin was said to have bought of the Sibyl were burned with the Capitol, B.C. 83. Augustus as Pontifex, B.C. 12, deposited a revised collection in the temple of Apollo Palatinus. The extant collections are late forgeries. The

thirty-seven Greek hexameter verses prescribing the order of the ceremonies preserved in Zosimus were compiled or invented by the scholars who organized the festival for Augustus. They fix the saeculum as 110 years (see 1. 21), and an attempt was made to show that this period had been observed four times. Claudius, however, adopting 100 years, repeated the celebration in A.D. 47, and 41 years later Domitian again summoned the people to the spectacle, ' which no living man had seen or would ever see again.'

6. lectas..

4. 6. 31.

:

castos: both epithets felt with each noun. Cf.

sep

7. dis the guardian deities generally, coîs ToλIOúxois. tem: Verg. Georg. 2. 535; Martial, 4. 64. 11, septem dominos videre montes; Macaulay, Regillus, 38, Hail to the hill-tops seven.' placuere: were and still are dear. Cf. 3. 4. 24, 4. 12. 12; Propert.

4. 10. 64, Haec di condiderunt, haec di quoque moenia servant.

9-10. Alme: cf. 4. 7. 7. ἠέλιος κικλήσκεται, the Orac. 16. 44. n. Ajax, 674.

Also Mayor on Cic. Nat. Deor. 2. 19. 49; Jebb on Soph.

10. alius et idem: similarly Catullus, 62. 34-35, of Venus, identical as morning star and evening star.

12. visere: sc. in thy course; but cf. 1. 2. 8. n. —maius: cf. Verg. Aen. 7. 602, maxima rerum | Roma; Goethe, Elegien XV., 'Hohe Sonne du weilst und du beschauest dein Rom. | Grösseres sahest du nichts und wirst nichts grösseres sehen, | Wie es dein Priester Horaz in der Entzückung versprach.'

13-14. rite: fulfilling thine office. - aperire . . . lenis : cf. 1. 24. 17. n.; lenis is included in the prayer (cf. fertilis 29, and 3. 2. 2) and is felt again with the imperative tuere.

14. Ilithyia: the birth goddess identified with Juno Lucina (15); cf. Lex. and Class. Dict. s. v. According to the inscription, consecrated cakes were offered, Deis Ilythyis, on the second night. Cf. Οrac. 9, Ειλειθυίας ἀρέσασθαι | παιδοτόκους.

15-16. sive... seu: the scrupulous care of the ancient religion to propitiate the god by the apt epithet is reflected in this usage of the poets. Cf. Aesch. Ag. 160; Catull. 34. 21, sis quocumque tibi placet | sancta nomine; Milt. P. L. 3. 7, or hear'st thou rather,' etc.; Sat. 2. 6. 20, Seu Iane libentius audis.

16. Genitalis: only here as name; perhaps imitation of reveτυλλίς.

17-20. Pure prose. - producas: rear, as кOUρOтρÓDOS. Cf. 2. 13. 3. subolem: 4. 3. 14; 3. 13. 8.- patrum . . decreta: the lex Iulia de maritandis ordinibus, B.c. 18, encouraged marriage and imposed pains and penalties on celibacy. Horace, a bachelor of fifty, celebrates it with a somewhat artificial ardor. Cf. Merivale, 4. 39, Chap. 33; Suet. Aug. 34; Livy, Epit. 59; Dio. 54. 16. Cf. 3. 6.

18. super: cf. Lex. s.v. II. B. 2. b.

20. lege marita: so Propert. 5. 11. 33, facibus maritis, the torch of marriage.

21-24. That so this festival may not fail (certus) to be kept by joyous throngs at each returning saeculum of 110 years' is the meaning.

22. orbis: cycle. — referatque: cf. 1. 30. 6. n. 24. frequentes: with ludos.

by position the main idea.

6

Certus and frequentes emphasize

25. veraces: cf. 2. 16. 39. n.; Catull. 64. 306; Arnold, Mycerinus, Fell this dread voice from lips that cannot lie, | Stern sentence of the Powers of Destiny.' — cecinisse: an extreme case of complementary inf. with adjectives. - Parcae: 2. 17. 16. n.; 2. 3. 15. n. The sacrifices of the first night were to them. Cf. the Orac. 9, iepà . . . Moípais ǎpvas te kal aîyas. The Moerae were originally birth-goddesses. Cf. Pind. Nem. 7. 1; Arnold's 'He does well too who keeps the clue the mild | Birth-goddess and the austere Fates first gave.'

26. quod semel dictumst = fatum (cf. 3. 3. 57-58. n.), in this case the 'manifest destiny of Rome.' Cf. Verg. Aen. 1. 257, manent immota tuorum fata tibi, etc. — semel: cf. 4. 3. 1; 1. 24. 16. n.

26-27. rerum terminus: cf. Verg. Aen. 4. 614, hic terminus haeret. The phrase suggests the god Terminus whose refusal to yield to Jupiter was taken as an omen of the stability of Roman power. Livy, 1. 55; Ov. Fast. 2. 667.

27. servet sudden, somewhat illogical transition to prayer that the fate be accomplished. Servat is also read. —peractis : 4. 14. 39.