All things change.

Vix equidem credo, sed et insultare jacenti
Te mihi, nec verbis1 parcere fama refert.
Quid facis, ah demens? cur, si fortuna recedat,
Naufragio lacrimas eripis ipse tuo?

10

Haec Dea non stabili quam sit levis orbe fatetur; 5
Quem summum dubio sub pede semper habet.
Quolibet est folio, quavis incertior aura:
Par illi levitas, improbe, sola tua est.
Omnia sunt hominum tenui pendentia filo;
Et subito casu, quæ valuere, ruunt.
Divitis audita est cui non opulentia Croesi ? 2
Nempe tamen vitam captus ab hoste tulit.
Ille Syracosia modo formidatus in urbe,
Vix humili duram reppulit arte famem.
Quid fuerat Magno majus? tamen ille rogavit
Submissa fugiens voce clientis opem.
Ille Jugurthino clarus Cimbroque triumpho,
Quo victrix toties Consule Roma fuit,

66

...

1 Et nec verbis. That is, “fama refert te et insultare, et non parcere verbis." Below, eripis," etc., means "Why in case of reverse of fortune in your own case, do you prepare others, following your example, to withhold the expression of sympathy?" Fortune was depicted as resting her foot on a wheel, to show her instability; so that "dubio sub pede" means "under her unstable foot."

2 Croesi. King of Lydia, conquered by Cyrus the Persian king, B.C. 548. Dionysius the younger, when expelled from the throne of Syracuse, about B.C. 357, fled to Corinth, and

15

opened a school, that he might still, as Cicero remarks, enjoy the sweets of tyranny. Pompeius Magnus, after his defeat at Pharsalia, fled to Egypt, and begged for shelter in the court of Ptolemy, whom he had in happier days protected. When Marius was driven from Rome by Sulla, he endeavoured to conceal himself in the marshes of Minturnae, but was detected and thrown into prison. Cf. Juv. Sat. x. 276:

"Exsilium et carcer Minturnarumque
paludes

Et mendicatus victa Carthagine panis
Hinc causas habuere."

In coeno latuit Marius, cannaque palustri;
Pertulit et tanto multa pudenda viro.
Ludit in humanis divina potentia rebus;
Et certam praesens vix habet ora fidem.
Litus ad Euxinum, si quis mihi diceret, ibis,
Et metues, arcu ne feriare Getae;

I, bibe, dixissem, purgantes pectora succos;1
Quidquid et in tota nascitur Anticyra.

Sum tamen haec passus: nec si mortalia possem,
Et summi 2 poteram tela cavere Dei.

Tu quoque fac timeas; et, quae tibi laeta videntur, Dum loqueris, fieri tristia posse puta.

20

25

30

The inclemency of the region of Pontus.

Aequor, Iasonio pulsatum remige primum, Quaeque nec hoste fero, nec nive terra cares, Ecquod erit tempus, quo vos, ego Naso, relinquam, In minus hostilem jussus abire locum ?

1 Succos. Hellebore, supposed to cure craziness. Cf. Juv. xiii. 97: "Si non eget Anticyra," "if he be sound-headed." (There was an Anticyra in Phocis, on a bay of the Corinthian Gulf, and another on the Maliac Gulf, near the mouth of the Spercheus.) Cf., also, Hor. Ars Poet. 300: "Tribus Anticyris caput insanabile;" and Sat. ii. 3, 82:

"Danda est ellebori multo pars maxima avaris;

Nescio an Anticyram ratio illis destinat omnem."

mortal shafts, I could not escape those of a god too." "Dei" is Augustus.

3 Iasonio. By Jason and the Argonants, when they sailed to Colchis in quest of the golden fleece. Below, "Ecquod erit tempus" is "Will there be any time?" Cf. Verg. Aen. iii. 341: "Ecqua tamen puero est amissae cura parentis,

Ecquid in antiquam virtutem animos-
que viriles

Et pater Aeneas et avunculus excitat
Hector?"

Ovid was banished to Tomos on

Et summi. "If I could escape the Euxine.

An mihi barbaria vivendum semper in ista?
Inque Tomitana condar oportet humo?
Pace tua,1 si pax ulla est tibi, Pontica tellus,
Finitimus rapido quam terit hostis equo;
Pace tua dixisse velim ; tu pessima duro

Pars es in exilio, tu mala nostra gravas.
Tu neque ver sentis cinctum florente corona;
Tu neque messorum corpora
nuda vides;

Nec tibi pampineas autumnus porrigit uvas;

Cuncta sed immodicum tempora frigus habent. Tu glacie freta vincta tenes; et in aequore piscis 15 Inclusus tecta saepe natavit aqua:

20

Nec tibi sunt fontes, laticis nisi paene marini;
Qui potus, dubium, sistat alatne sitim:
Rara, neque haec felix,2 in apertis eminet arvis
Arbor; et in terra est altera forma maris.
Non avis obloquitur: silvis nisi si qua remotis
Aequoreas rauco gutture potat aquas.
Tristia per vacuos horrent absinthia campos,
Conveniensque suo messis amara loco.
Adde metus, et quod murus pulsatur ab hoste;
Tinctaque mortifera tabe sagitta madet;
Quod procul haec regio est, et ab omni devia cursu:
Nec pede quo quisquam, nec rate tutus eat.
Non igitur mirum, finem quaerentibus horum
Altera si nobis usque rogatur humus.

1 Pace tua. "With your permission," and then "pax" is used a second time in its usual sense of "peace.' "Pace tua hoc facio" means "I do this without incurring your hostility, by your leave, with your permission." Below, in "qui potus," etc., the construction is "qui

25

30

Propriety of style.

Ingenium magni detrectat Livor Homeri:
Quisquis es, ex illo, Zoile,1 nomen habes,
Et tua sacrilegae laniârunt carmina linguae,
Pertulit huc victos quo duce Troia Deos.
Summa petit livor: perflant altissima venti:
Summa petunt 2 dextra fulmina missa Jovis.
At tu quicunque es, quem nostra licentia laedit;
Si sapis, ad numeros exige quidque suos.
Fortia Maeonio gaudent pede bella referri,
Deliciis illic quis locus esse potest?

5

10

Grande sonant Tragici; Tragicos decet ira cothur

nos;

Usibus e mediis 8 soccus habendus erit;
Liber in adversos hostes stringatur Iambus:
Seu celer, extremum seu trahit ille pedem.
Blanda pharetratos Elegeïa cantat Amores:
Et levis arbitrio ludat amica suo.
Callimachi numeris non est dicendus Achilles :
Cydippe non est oris, Homere, tui ;

15

comic life, as "cothurnus was
the high-heeled buskin of tragic
characters) draws its subjects
and characters from every-day
life, from what our own ex-
perience (usus) teaches us.
Below," seu trahit," etc., alludes
to a form of iambic verse,
where the last foot was,
spondee, a variety
"scazontic," or "halting."

a

called

4 Callimachi, a poet of Cyrene (B.C. 240). There are only some epigrams, a few hymns to the gods, and an elegy extant of his works. Cydippe is the heroine of one of Ovid's Heroides (xx.).

Quis ferat Andromaches peragentem Thaïda partes?
Peccat, in Andromache Thaïda si quis agat.
Si mea materiae respondet Musa jocosae,

Vicimus, et falsi criminis acta rea est.

20

Rumpere, Livor edax; jam magnum nomen habemus,

Majus erit tantum, quo pede coepit, eat.

Sed nimium properas: vivam modo; plura dolebis,25 Et capient animi carmina multa mei.

Nam juvat, et studium famae mihi crescit honore :
Principio clivi vester anhelat equus.

Tantum se nobis Elegi debere fatentur,
Quantum Vergilio nobile debet Epos.

Reclaiming land.

Rege Numa, fructu non respondente labori,
Irrita decepti vota colentis erant.

Nam modo siccus erat gelidis aquilonibus annus ;
Nunc ager assidua luxuriabat aqua:

30

Saepe Ceres primis1 dominum fallebat in herbis; 5
Et levis obsesso stabat avena solo;

Et pecus ante diem partus edebat acerbos;2
Agnaque nascendo saepe necabat ovem.

Acontius fell in love with her, and threw her an apple on which he wrote a promise that the reader would marry him. Cydippe read the lines, and accordingly, keeping the promise thus involuntarily made, married him. Andromache was the wife of Hector, and Thais a dissolute character in comedy.

1 Primis, etc. The crop was seen to be a failure even before

"Herba" is

it came into ear.
often used for the green blade of
corn. Below, "obsesso solo" is
"the ground choked, blocked up
with the rank growth of weeds."

2 Acerbos. Acerbus is, properly, "unripe," and hence "premature," used especially of the untimely death of children or of the young of animals. Cf. Verg. Aen. xi. 28: "Funere mersit acerbo;" and Juv. xi. 44: "Non