Non modo militiae turbine factus eques. Quam sua libertas ad honesta coëgerat arma, Post mea mansurum fata superstes opus! the justifiableness of his pride of ancestry. -7. Mantua Virgilio gaudet, Mantua is proud of its Virgil.-9. Quam sua libertas-manus. The Peligni took up arms against the Romans in the Social War, and fought for their liberty, or, more correctly, for the rights of Roman citizenship. Ovid is proud of this also.-11. Sulmonis aquosi. There are many rivers and fountains in the neighbourhood of Sulmo. So Amor. ii. 1, 1; Pelignis natus aquosis.-15. Amathusia, of Amathus, a town in Cyprus, noted for the worship of Venus.-16. Aurea signa, vexilla. Vellite, retrahite.-17. Corniger-Lyaeus. Bacchus was often represented as a bull; the bull also was usually sacrificed to him. Increpuit, sc. me, has addressed me. Graviore thyrso, with a more dignified thyrsus; that is, in a higher style. The poet here intimates his intention of turning his efforts to tragedy.-20. Post mea fata, post mortem meam. ARTIS AMATORIAE LIB. I. THE RAPE OF THE SABINE WOMEN. PRIMUS Sollicitos fecisti, Romule, ludos, Cum juvit viduos rapta Sabina viros. Tunc neque marmoreo pendebant vela theatro, 101. Primus sollicitos-ludos. Games and theatres form the subject of what goes before: Romulus made them anxious, that is, brought danger into them.-102. Viduos, not, as usually, widowers, but single, unmarried men.-103. Tunc-theatro. At that time lux ury did not yet reign in the theatre; the theatres were not yet made of marble, and it was even forbidden to have other than temporary ARTIS AMATORIAE LIB. I. Nec fuerant liquido pulpita rubra croco : 185 105 110 115 Sic illae timuere viros sine lege ruentes, 120 Nam timor unus erat, facies non una timoris: Pars laniat crines, pars sine mente sedet; Altera maesta silet, frustra vocat altera matrem ; Haec queritur, stupet haec; haec manet, illa fugit. Ducuntur raptae, genialis praeda, puellae, 125 Et potuit multas ipse decere timor. Si qua repugnarat nimium comitemque negarat, Atque ita 'Quid teneros lacrimis corrumpis ocellos? 130 ones; Pompey was the first who built one of stone (B.c. 55.) Neither were they yet provided with covers to protect the spectators against the heat of the sun.-104. Liquido croco, with liquid, that is, dissolved saffron. - 108. Hirsutas comas, intonsas, not yet skilfully dressed.-111. Tibicine tusco. Ovid here transfers to the primitive times what was not introduced till a later period. The ludi scenici were brought from Etruria to Rome B.c. 364, and of course the tibicen at the same time.-112. Ludius, histrio. Aequatam ter refers to the trimeter of the drama.-113. Plausus tunc arte carebat. In later times a certain rule was observed even in applauding. — 114. Signa petenda. If the reading is correct, we must translate: the signs which they had to follow. For petenda Heinsius proposes to read repente.-125. Genialis praeda, a nuptial booty, for the reference is to the Genius of the house. 16* ARTIS AMATORIAE LIB. III. THE POWER OF POETRY AND MUSIC. SAXA ferasque lyra movit Rhodopeïus Orpheus, Quamvis mutus erat, voci favisse putatur Nota sit et Sappho,-quid enim lascivius illa?— 325 330 321. Rhodopeius Orpheus, so called from Rhodope, a mountain in Thrace.-323. Vindex justissime matris, Amphion, who revenged the cruel treatment of his mother Antiope by Dirce.-324. Muros novos, the walls of Thebes, which rose of themselves at the music of Amphion.-326. Arioniae lyrae. The poet Arion having been thrown into the sea, was borne in safety to the shore by a dolphin, which was attracted by his music.-327. Naulia, a stringed instrument, of which we have no precise knowledge. Genialia, quae genium delectant, cheering, delightful.-329. Callimachi. See Amor. i. 15, 13. Co poëtae, Philetas, born in Cos, an island at the southwest of Asia Minor. He was one of the earliest poets of the Alexandrian school, and his love-elegies, which have not come down to us, were highly esteemed.-330. Vinosi Teïa Musa senis. Anacreon was born at Teos in Asia Minor in the sixth century before Christ. He takes his place among the first lyric poets of Greek literature: love and wine were the chief themes of his song. We have still a collection of small poems which bears his name, but of these only a very small part can have proceeded from him.-331. Sappho, the celebrated lyric poetess of Mytilene in the island of Lesbos, lived in the sixth century before Christ. We have only a few fragments of her poems. Lascivius, more sprightly, gay, not in bad sense.-332. Cuive, vel ille a quo. Vafri arte Getae. Geta, a slave's name, which frequently occurs in the New Comedy. In the plays of this period, avaricious or self-willed fathers are often deceived by their slaves, who take part with the sons. For Menander-the poet here referred to see Amor. i. 15, 18.-333. Properti. Propertius, a Roman elegiac poet, a contemporary of Ovid. His poems are still extant. -334. Galli- Tibulle. See Amor. i. 15, 28, and 29; and iii. 9. ARTIS AMATORIAE LIB. III. Dictaque Varroni fulvis insignia villis Vellera, germanae, Phrixe, querenda tuae; O ita, Phoebe, velis; ita vos, pia numina vatum, 187 335 340 345 335. Varroni. See Amor. i. 15, 21.-337. Et profugum Aenean, the Aeneid of Virgil.-342. Quis partes instruit ille duas, the poem before us, Ars Amatoria, in which he instructs both men and women in the art of love.-345. Epistola, the Heroides, letters of heroines to their absent husbands. 346. Ignotum opus. The Heroides is a species of composition unknown to Greek literature; and in Roman literature, as we see from this passage, first attempted by Ovid. - 348. Insignis cornu Bacche. See Amor. iii. 15, 17. FASTORUM LIB. I. THE MANNERS OF ANCIENT ROME. OVID is giving information about the worship of Janus, and represents the god as himself appearing in a vision, and making answer to the questions put to him. The discourse had been about new-year's gifts (strenae), and the poet had asked why a piece of money (stips) was always given. To this the god replies. RISIT et, o quam te fallunt tua saecula,' dixit, Tempore crevit amor, qui nunc est summus, habendi: 195 Pluris opes nunc sunt, quam prisci temporis annis, Dum casa Martigenam capiebat parva Quirinum, 193. Saturno regnante, a Roman expression for the Golden Age.-199. Casa-Quirinum. The casa Romuli was to be seen even in Et dabat exiguum fluminis ulva torum. 200 Jupiter angusta vix totus stabat in aede, Înque Jovis dextra fictile fulmen erat: Frondibus ornabant, quae nunc Capitolia gemmis: Nec pudor in stipula placidam cepisse quietem 205 Jura dabat populis posito modo praetor aratro, 210 215 later times. Ovid says of it, Fast. iii. 184: Adspice de canna straminibusque domum, from which he appears to have seen it himself.-201. Angusta in aede, the temple of Jupiter Feretrius on the Capitol, which was about fifteen feet in length.-202. Fictile, made of clay, as the statues themselves were in the earliest times.—203. Gemmis. Augustus had adorned the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus with an immense quantity of gold and precious stones (16,000 pounds of gold, and pearls and precious stones to the value of 50,000,000 sesterces).204. Senator and (v. 207) praetor. The examples of Cincinnatus, Curius Dentatus, Atilius Serranus, Fabricius, and others, are well known. - 208. Levis argenti lamina. Fabricius, when censor, expelled Cornelius Rufinus from the senate because he possessed ten pounds of silver. -214. Vices, variatio. 215. Quibus, masculine; a corresponding iis (for ab iis) must be supplied in the following line. |