Perseus · Tufts
All Greek and Roman Materials
Collections: Classics · Papyri · Renaissance · London · California · Upper Midwest · Chesapeake · Boyle · Tufts History
Configure display · Help · Tools · Copyright · FAQ · Publications · Collaborations · Support Perseus
Classics:
Classics collection contents
About the Classics collection
Greek Hist. Overview
Art & Arch. Catalogs

Other Tools & Lexica
Plot:
  • sites on this page
  • sites in this book
  • sites in this document
    Display text chunked by:
    book
    poem (default)
    Contents:
  • Book 1
  • Book 2
  • Book 3
  • Book 4
    		•

    Q. Horatius Flaccus, Odes (ed. John Conington)

    Editions and translations: Latin (ed. Paul Shorey, Gordon Lang) | English (ed. John Conington)
    Your current position in the text is marked in red. Click anywhere on the line to jump to another position.
    book=1:poem=1 book=1:poem=2 book=1:poem=2 book=1:poem=3 book=1:poem=3 book=1:poem=5 book=1:poem=6 book=1:poem=7 book=1:poem=8 book=1:poem=9 book=1:poem=11 book=1:poem=12 book=1:poem=12 book=1:poem=13 book=1:poem=14 book=1:poem=15 book=1:poem=16 book=1:poem=17 book=1:poem=18 book=1:poem=20 book=1:poem=21 book=1:poem=23 book=1:poem=24 book=1:poem=27 book=1:poem=28 book=1:poem=28 book=1:poem=31 book=1:poem=32 book=1:poem=33 book=1:poem=35 book=1:poem=35 book=1:poem=36 book=1:poem=37 book=2:poem=1 book=2:poem=1 book=2:poem=2 book=2:poem=3 book=2:poem=4 book=2:poem=6 book=2:poem=7 book=2:poem=8 book=2:poem=9 book=2:poem=11 book=2:poem=12 book=2:poem=13 book=2:poem=13 book=2:poem=14 book=2:poem=15 book=2:poem=16 book=2:poem=17 book=2:poem=17 book=2:poem=18 book=2:poem=19 book=2:poem=20 book=3:poem=1 book=3:poem=1 book=3:poem=2 book=3:poem=3 book=3:poem=3 book=3:poem=3 book=3:poem=4 book=3:poem=4 book=3:poem=4 book=3:poem=5 book=3:poem=5 book=3:poem=6 book=3:poem=6 book=3:poem=7 book=3:poem=8 book=3:poem=9 book=3:poem=10 book=3:poem=11 book=3:poem=11 book=3:poem=12 book=3:poem=14 book=3:poem=15 book=3:poem=16 book=3:poem=16 book=3:poem=18 book=3:poem=19 book=3:poem=21 book=3:poem=23 book=3:poem=24 book=3:poem=24 book=3:poem=24 book=3:poem=26 book=3:poem=27 book=3:poem=27 book=3:poem=27 book=3:poem=29 book=3:poem=29 book=3:poem=29 book=4:poem=1 book=4:poem=1 book=4:poem=2 book=4:poem=2 book=4:poem=3 book=4:poem=4 book=4:poem=4 book=4:poem=4 book=4:poem=5 book=4:poem=5 book=4:poem=6 book=4:poem=7 book=4:poem=8 book=4:poem=8 book=4:poem=9 book=4:poem=9 book=4:poem=11 book=4:poem=12 book=4:poem=13 book=4:poem=14 book=4:poem=14 book=4:poem=15

    Table of ContentsGo to Previous Next

    E'en as the lightning's minister,
    Whom Jove o'er all the feather'd breed
    Made sovereign, having proved him sure
    Erewhile on auburn Ganymede;
    Stirr'd by warm youth and inborn power,
    He quits the nest with timorous wing,
    For winter's storms have ceased to lower,
    And zephyrs of returuing spring
    Tempt him to launch on unknown skies
    Next on the fold he stoops downright;
    Last on resisting serpents flies,
    Athirst for foray and for flight:
    As tender kidling on the grass
    Espies, uplooking from her food,
    A lion's whelp, and knows, alas!
    Those new-set teeth shall drink her blood:
    So look'd the Raetian mountaineers
    On Drusus:--whence in every field
    They learn'd through immemorial years
    The Amazonian axe to wield,
    I ask not now: not all of truth
    We seekers find: enough to know
    The wisdom of the princely youth
    Has taught our erst victorious foe
    What prowess dwells in boyish hearts
    Rear'd in the shrine of a pure home,
    What strength Augustus' love imparts
    To Nero's seed, the hope of Rome.
    Good sons and brave good sires approve:
    Strong bullocks, fiery colts, attest
    Their fathers' worth, nor weakling dove
    Is hatch'd in savage eagle's nest.
    But care draws forth the power within,
    And cultured minds are strong for good:
    Let manners fail, the plague of sin
    Taints e'en the course of gentle blood.
    How great thy debt to Nero's race,
    O Rome, let red Metaurus say,
    Slain Hasdrubal, and victory's grace
    First granted on that glorious day
    Which chased the clouds, and show'd the sun,
    When Hannibal o'er Italy
    Ran, as swift flames o'er pine-woods run,
    Or Eurus o'er Sicilia's sea.
    Henceforth, by fortune aiding toil,
    Rome's prowess grew: her fanes, laid waste
    By Punic sacrilege and spoil,
    Beheld at length their gods replaced.
    Then the false Libyan own'd his doom:--
    “Weak deer, the wolves' predestined prey,
    Blindly we rush on foes, from whom
    'Twere triumph won to steal away.
    That race which, strong from Ilion's fires,
    Its gods, on Tuscan waters tost,
    Its sons, its venerable sires,
    Bore to Ausonia's citied coast;
    That race, like oak by axes shorn
    On Algidus with dark leaves rife,
    Laughs carnage, havoc, all to scorn,
    And draws new spirit from the knife.
    Not the lopp'd Hydra task'd so sore
    Alcides, chafing at the foil:
    No pest so fell was born of yore
    From Colchian or from Theban soil.
    Plunged in the deep, it mounts to sight
    More splendid: grappled, it will quell
    Unbroken powers, and fight a fight
    Whose story widow'd wives shall tell.
    No heralds shall my deeds proclaim
    To Carthage now: lost, lost is all:
    A nation's hope, a nation's name,
    They died with dying Hasdrubal.”
    What will not Claudian hands achieve?
    Jove's favour is their guiding star,
    And watchful potencies unweave
    For them the tangled paths of war.


    There are a total of 6 comments on and cross references to this page.

    Further comments from Paul Shorey, Commentary on Horace, Odes, Epodes, and Carmen Saeculare:
    book 4 (general note)
    book 4, poem 4 (general note)

    Cross references from C. Suetonius Tranquillus, The Lives of the Caesars (ed. Alexander Thomson):
    tib., note [Remarks on Tiberius]: Doctrina sed vim promovet insitam, Rectique cultus pectora roborant: Utcumque defecere mores, Dedecorant bene nata culpae

    Cross references from Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities (1898):
    hesperia [Hesperia]
    lares [Lares]
    tiberius [Tiberius]

    Preferred URL for linking to this page: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Hor.+Carm.+4.4

    The National Endowment for the Humanities provided support for entering this text.

    This text is based on the following book(s):
    Horace. The Odes and Carmen Saeculare of Horace. John Conington. trans. London. George Bell and Sons. 1882.
    OCLC: 32370960


    Previous Next