Acknowledgement for this happy Mediation. The Calends of March were therefore called Matronalia, et matronales Feriæ. While the Wives offered their Sacrifices to Juno, the Husbands did the fame to Janus; and this was the Ground of the Ode. But, for the right understanding of it, it must be supposed, that Macenas, having been to vifit Horace the fame Day, and finding him bufy in preparing a Sacrifice, expreffed fome Surprife to fee an unmarried Man fo employed. Horace from thence takes Occafion to addrefs this Ode to him, and invite him to the Sacrifice, as they used to treat their best Friends. DACIER. S Pofit fque carbo in This thows, that the Turf ferved for an Altar; or, perhaps, the Altar was only covered with it. Vivo ceSpite, living Turf; i. e. green Turf. 6 Et album Libero caprum.] Horace here fays, that on the Day in which he had like to have been killed, he vowed a white Goat to Bacchus : And yet, in the 17th Ode of the fecond Book, he promifed a Lamb to Faunus on the fame Occafion. It is eafy to folve this Difficulty. It has been obferved, in the Notes on the 17th Ode, that there was a great Refemblance between Faunus and Bacchus, the tutelary Gods of the Poets, or, rather, that Faunus and Bacchus were only different Names of one and the fame God, to whom different Victims were offered, according to the Name by which he was addreffed. When he was called Faunus, a Lamb was offered to him; when Bacchus, a Goat. For the most part, thofe Animals, which the Gods abhorred, were facrificed to them. For Example, Bacchus hated the Goat, because it crops the Vines: For which Reason it was offered to him as a Victim. It was neceffary it should be white, because white Victims were offered to the Celestial, and black to the Infernal Gods. DACIER. 7 Prope funeratus.] See the 13th and 17th Odes of the fecond Book. The 13th Ode was written first; then this; and the 17th after these two. 8 Confule Tullo.] Lucius Volcatius Tullus was Conful with Auguftus, in the Year of Rome 720. But, without Doubt, Doubt, Horace does not here fpeak of that Confulship: For that Wine would have been made but nine Years; and, confequently, would not have been very old. Mr. Le Fevre has very well obferved, that Horace here means the L. Volcatius Tullus, who was Conful with Marcus Lepidus a Year before the Birth of Horace, in the Year of Rome 687. Horace might with Reafon boast of this. Wine as very old, fince it had been made forty-three Years. DACIER. Sanadon (in Oppofition to the foregoing Note of Dacier) underlands this of the fecond Confulship of the latter Tullus, which happened in the Year of Rome 721. Wines (fays he) above twenty Years old were thought very bad by the Romans, as Pliny relates: Befides, when they had been ripened in the Smoke, they could not be kept long, according to Columella. 8 Vigiles lucernas.] The Romans never made Entertainments but at Night. They had no Candles, nor Wax Tapers, but only Lamps. Thus Virgil: -Dependent lychni laquearibus aureis DRYDEN. Dacier has tranflated vigiles lucernas, à la clartê de ces flambeaux, by the Luftre of thofe Tapers. He fays, the Word "Lamp cannot be borne in an Ode in the French Language, and least of all at an Entertainment. Milton, in his Defcription of the Pandemonium of Satan, has not barely imitated, but very much improved upon the fore-cited Lines of Virgil, in a Manner perfectly antique : The Roof was fretted Gold: From whose high Arch, Of tarry Lamps and blazing Creffets, fed 10 Perfer in lucem.] It was ufual with the Romans, on thefe folemn Occafions, to pass the whole Night in caroufing. Thus Propertius, Book iv. Elegy 6. Sic noctem patera, fic ducam carmine, donec II Procul II- Procul omnis efto Clamor et ira.] Sanadon has well obferved, that effo is here ufed for erit. The Poet intimates to Mecenas, that this little Revel fhould pass without that Noife, and thofe Bacchanalian Transports, for which his Patron had no Relish. Horace has elsewhere ufed abftineto for abftinebis. Dacier has mistaken the Senfe of this Paffage. He fancies, that Horace advises Macenas not to put himself into a Paffion, nor to chaftife nor rebuke any one for neglecting his Orders, while he was regaling himself at his House.' The Reflection he makes on Dr. Bentley's Interpretation of a Paffage in this Ode, may here be justly retorted: N'eft pas là un beau fens ? D. 12 Macenas was then Governor of Rome, whofe Bufinefs it was to fupprefs Tumults, to regulate Markets, to give Orders about the Public Spectacles, and, in a Word, to have an Eye on every thing that paffed in the City, and in the Suburbs. 13 Occidit Daci Cotifenis agmen.] Horace here calls Cotifon a Dacian, and Suetonius calls him King of the Getes. Each of thefe Names comprised thofe two People. Cotifon had taken Part with Antony against Augustus. 14 Medus infeflus fibi luctuofis Difidet armis.] Horace here fpeaks of the Civil Wars of the Medes, or Parthians, who had driven out their King Phraätes: And though Phraätes was at that Time replaced on the Throne, yet thofe Disorders were not yet appealed. Strabo exprefsly fays, that when Phraätes furrendered to Augufus the Roman Standards and Prisoners, he put into his Bands his four Sons, with his two Daughters-in-law, and four Grand-children, because he was afraid of Seditions, and diftrufted the Fidelity of his Subjects. 15 Vetus hoftis] For the Romans had waged War in Spain above two hundred Years before they fubdued the Cantabrians. Strabo obferves hereupon very judiciously, that the Spaniards had protracted the War fo long, by not oppofing the Romans all at once, but fome Provinces after others, and in fmall Bodies, like Troops of Highwaymen: Whereas the Gauls, who were of a more impetuous Genius, were much fooner conquered, though attacked later: For as they encountered the Romans with great great Armies, they also loft the greatest Part of their Forces in a fingle Battle. DACIER. The fame Difference in the Genius of the French and Spaniards, which Strabo remarks, is ftill obfervable in those two Nations, viz. the former quick and impetuous, the latter flow and phlegmatic. The different Tempers of different Nations feem, therefore, to be in a great measure owing to the Difference of the Climates, where they are born and educated, as has been well obferved by the Author of an ingenious Poem, entitled, The Nature of Man. D. 16 The Scythians here mentioned are the fame People whom he calls Geloni, Gelons, in the 9th Ode of the fecond Book. 17 Laxo arcu.] It was the Cuftom of the Parthians, Scythians, and all the Northern Nations, to hold their Bows unftrung, when they offered Proposals of Peace, to fignify they were ready to retire; as we are informed by Appian and Plutarch. O DE IX. A Dialogue between HORACE and LYDIA. W HORACE. HILST I was fond, and You were kind On your foft Bofom, fought to rest, LYDIA. Whilft you ador'd no other Face, HORACE. Me, Chloë now poffeffes whole; LYDIA. For Me young lovely Calais burns, HORACE. What if the God, whofe Bands we broke, LYDIA. Though Phofphor be lefs fair than He; 4 Thou wilder than the raging Sea; Lighter than Down; yet gladly I With Thee would live, with Thee would die. NOTES. |