from the Epistle to Florus, that Horace at this time had to resist the urgency of friends begging him to write, one in this style and another in that, and that he had no desire to gratify them and to sacrifice his own ease to a pursuit in which it is plain he never took any great delight. He was likely to bring to it less energy as his life was drawing prematurely to a close, through infirmities either contracted or aggravated during his irrational campaigning with Brutus, his inaptitude for which he appears afterwards to have been perfectly aware of. He continued to apply himself to the study of moral philosophy till his death, which took place, according to Eusebius, on the 27th of November, B. C. 8, in the fifty-seventh year of his age, and within a few days of its completion. Maecenas died the same year, also towards the close of it; a coincidence that has led some to the notion, that Horace hastened his own death that he might not have the pain of surviving his patron. According to Suetonius, his death (which he places after his fifty-ninth year) was so sudden, that he had not time to execute his will, which is opposed to the notion of suicide. The two friends were buried near one another "in extremis Esquiliis," in the farthest part of the Esquiliæ, that is, probably, without the city walls, on the ground drained and laid out in gardens by Maecenas. (See S. i. 8, Introduction.)

MAECENAS atavis edite regibus

1 sp

O et praesidium et dulce decus meum,
Sunt quos curriculo pulverem Olympicum
Collegisse juvat metaque fervidis
Evitata rotis palmaque nobilis,
Terrarum dominos evehit ad Deos;
Hunc si mobilium turba Quiritium
Certat tergeminis tollere honoribus;
Illum si proprio condidit horreo
Quidquid de Libycis verritur areis.
Gaudentem patrios findere sarculo
Agros Attalicis conditionibus

Nunquam dimoveas, ut trabe Cypria
Myrtoum pavidus nauta secet mare.
Luctantem Icariis fluctibus Africum
Mercator metuens otium et oppidi
Laudat rura sui; mox reficit rates
Quassas indocilis pauperiem pati.
Est qui nec veteris pocula Massici
Nec partem solido demere de die
Spernit, nunc viridi membra sub arbuto

Stratus, nunc ad aquae lene caput sacrae.

Multos castra juvant et lituo tubae
Permixtus sonitus bellaque matribus
Detestata. Manet sub Jove frigido
Venator tenerae conjugis immemor,
Seu visa est catulis cerva fidelibus,
Seu rupit teretes Marsus aper plagas.
Me doctarum hederae praemia frontium
Dis miscent superis; me gelidum nemus
Nympharumque leves cum Satyris chori
Secernunt populo, si neque tibias
Euterpe cohibet nec Polyhymnia
Lesboum refugit tendere barbiton.
Quod si me lyricis vatibus inseris,
Sublimi feriam sidera vertice.

Labitur ripa Jove non probante uxorius amnis.

Audiet cives acuisse ferrum

Quo graves Persae melius perirent;
Audiet pugnas vitio parentum
Rara juventus.

Quem vocet divum populus ruentis
Imperi rebus? prece qua fatigent
Virgines sanctae minus audientem
Carmina Vestam?

Cui dabit partes scelus expiandi
Juppiter? Tandem venias precamur
Nube candentes humeros amictus,
Augur Apollo;

Sive tu mavis, Erycina ridens,
Quam Jocus circum volat et Cupido;
Sive neglectum genus et nepotes
Respicis auctor,

Heu nimis longo satiate ludo,

Quem juvat clamor galeaeque leves

Acer et Mauri peditis cruentum
Voltus in hostem;

Sive mutata juvenem figura
Ales in terris imitaris, almae
Filius Maiae, patiens vocari
Caesaris ultor:

Serus in caelum redeas diuque
Laetus intersis populo Quirini;
Neve te nostris vitiis iniquum

Ocior aura

Tollat: hic magnos potius triumphos,
Hic ames dici pater atque princeps,
Neu sinas Medos equitare inultos
Te duce, Caesar.

CARMEN III.

SIC te diva potens Cypri,
Sic fratres Helenae lucida sidera,
Ventorumque regat pater,
Obstrictis aliis praeter Iapyga!
Navis, quae tibi creditum
Debes Virgilium finibus Atticis
Reddas incolumem precor,
Et serves animae dimidium meae.

Illi robur et aes triplex

Circa pectus erat qui fragilem truci
Commisit pelago ratem

Primus, nec timuit praecipitem Africum
Decertantem Aquilonibus

Nec tristes Hyadas, nec rabiem Noti
Quo non arbiter Hadriae

Major tollere seu ponere volt freta.
Quem Mortis timuit gradum

Qui siccis oculis monstra natantia,
Qui vidit mare turgidum et
Infames scopulos Acroceraunia? Vax.
Nequicquam deus abscidit

Prudens Oceano dissociabili

Terras si tamen impiae

Non tangenda rates transiliunt vada.
Audax omnia perpeti

Gens humana ruit per vetitum nefas.
Audax Iapeti genus

Ignem fraude mala gentibus intulit.
Post ignem aetheria domo

Subductum macies et nova febrium
Terris incubuit cohors,

Semotique prius tarda necessitas

Leti corripuit gradum.