mi CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY FROM FEB 2 195!^ "'^"- JAW— TTST?!^ Cornell University Library PA 6411.V55 Studies, literary and historical, in the 3 1924 026 492 458 B Cornell University B Library The original of tliis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924026492458 STUDIES LITERARY AND HISTORICAL IN IHE ODES OF HOEACE, 6^ STUDIES LITEEAKY AND HISTOEICAL IN THE ODES OP HOEACE A. W. VEERALL, M.A. FELLOW OF TKINITY COLLEOK, OAMBKIDGE. ILontioii : MACMILLAN AND CO. 1884 [Tlie Right 0/ Tramlation and Reproduction is reserved.] -^ H) F 9 T 4/^28-^ HN UNIVERSITY LIBRARY/ CAMBEIDGE: PRINTED BIT C. J. CLAY, M.A. AND SON, AT THE CNIVEBSITY PEESS. lP(Z^ L. TO THE EEVEEEND E. C. WICKHAM, M.A. MASTER OF WELLINGTON COLLEGE, AND LATE FELLOW OF NEW COLLEGE, OXFORD. My dear Mr Wickham, It is with great pleasure that I avail myself of your permission to address this little book to you. It is in itself satisfactory to connect my work in this way with my old school and to commend myself to the recollection of my friends at Wellington. But it is especially fortunate for me that in doing this I can also remember myself to you and present my respects to a well-known expositor of Horace. Essays like these, on points perhaps not before worked out in a subject extremely familiar, appear under one certain disadvantage. It is impossible to exhibit the ninety-nine cases of agreement with predecessors, which answer to each one of disagreement : and consequently what is actually said labours under a suspicious appearance of dissent. It is something therefore that, in submitting my suggestions to you, I can so easily disclaim the pretence to be the beginning of wisdom. Some might think — but you will not, nor will our best critics in England — that my views are condemned beforehand, when I postulate that the Odes of Horace, as we have them, are substantially the work of the author, all of them geDuine, all arranged and divided according to the poet's intention. That there are errors, some not unimportant, no one would deny, and upon some of these, where occasion offered, I have slipped in a word. But with the correction of the text these essays have little to do. Their real purpose I need not here anticipate. Witl^ much respect I subscribe myself, My dear Mr Wickham, Yours very sincerely, A, W. VERRALL. Trinity ColLBOe, Cambeidge, Nov. 20, 1884. PEEFACE. These Essays represent in a more formal shape so much as seemed worth publishing of a course of lectures delivered in Trinity College, Cambridge. The prepa- ration for this course led me to give several months to the study of the Odes : when I had finished I was tempted to push further, and finally resolved upon the present book. In fitting it for the Press, as upon other occasions, I have received much help from my colleague and friend Mr F. J. H. Jenkinson. Perhaps I need scarcely add that I only am re- sponsible for the substance. A. W. V. CONTENTS. PAGE Essay I. melpomene 1 Essay II. murena 11 Note A. (Murena) 83 Note B. (Maecenas) 87 Essay III. the historical poems and the Arrangement of the THREE books 90 Essay IV. lamia 121 Essay V. qvam tiberis lavit 134 NoteC. (Ode I. 20) 146 Essay VI. venus and myrtale 150 Essay VII. eutirpb 173 Index 195 MELPOMENE. Why did Horace place his lyric poetry under the patronage of the tragic muse? Why, when his minute labour had at length completed the three books, whose immortality he so surely anticipates, why, of all the Nine, did'le invite Mel- pomene to ' take a pride by service won ' and to place upon his brow the wreath which crowned the poet victorious at the Pythian games ? sume superbiam quaesitam meritis, et mihi DelpHoa lauro ciuge volens, Melpomene, comam. It is true that in a merely formal aspect the functions of the tragic muse are not alien to the work of an artist in lyric metre. Melpomene, as Horace says', had received the gift of the lyre, had been no more than a lyrist once, and to the end made no small use of the lyric art. But the lyrics of tragedy, after all, are tragic lyrics, and must serve her main purpose, to awake fear and pity, to set forth the sadness of human life and destiny. Now the Odes of Horace, to judge them by our common impression, might be described perhaps somewhat as follows: — they are a collection of short exquisitely finished pieces in verse, for the most part disconnected in subject ; the topics are gene- rally light, the chief being love and wine ; not unfrequently, however, the favourite theme is developed into moralizing upon the brevity of these and other pleasures, with the Epicu- rean conclusion that we should enjoy the moment and at the 1 I. 24. 3. V. H. 1 2 ESSAY.!. same time be on our guard against excess ; here aad there are poems, chiefly occasional, upon patriotic and political themes, in which the poet, as an adherent of Augustus, laments the waste of the civil wars and the decline of Roman virtue, proclaims the need of repose and celebrates the exploits and the projects of the emperor ; here and there, especially in the public poems, are passages of a lofty eloquence, but in general the style, like the sentiment, preserves the level of moderation, and is remarkable rather for the grace, terseness and point, which have made the poet an unfailing source of quotation, than for the strength or the subtlety of the feelings expressed. This estimate, which strikes, I think, a fair balance between the numerous critics of the poet and his numberless admirers, might be supported by references ad libitum, if it were not rather a waste of time to prove that we do not generally regard Horace, even in his Odes, as a tragic poet. In fact, the controversies of criticism leave the present question untouched. Whether we grant or not that Horace was really, or for lyrical purposes, a pessimist, whether we regard his love poetry as the best possible picture of the emotion on the sensual side, or as a very skilful exercise upon themes recommended by the practice of the Greek lyrists but otherwise rather unsuitable to the Roman imitator (good names might be cited for both views), whether we think he succeeded best under the inspiration of national feelings, or think, on the other hand, that in essaying public topics he went rather beyond his limit, and, in spite of many purple patches, proves himself on the whole more artificial than artistic (respectable patronage is again divided) — the question still remains, where is the tragedy ? Horace passes, and with reason, for " a thoroughly modest man,'' just and correct in his appreciation both of others and of himself. Could he find no more decorous name than that of Melpomene to subscribe to a miscellany, as it would appear to be, of madrigals, moralities, and national hymns — perfect, let us say, of their kind, but in kind surely anything rather than tragic ? Pathos and sublimity, and before all, pathos, are the gifts of Melpomene, and if Horace is occasionally sublime, it is a MELPOMENE, 3 commonplace of Horatian criticism that he is not usually pathetic. If a lover of the Odes were asked to name a poem, not a phrase, a line, or a stanza, but a whole poem, of which the main effect and purpose is pathetic, he would probably fix on the lament for Quintilius (l. 24) — indeed, missing this, could hardly give any answer that would not be open to dispute. But this example, so far from offering a solution of the problem here proposed, brings out the dif&culty in the most forcible manner; for it is precisely in the lament for Quintilius, and there only, that we find the poet invoking the name which he has chosen for the ascription of his whole work — Quia desiderio sit pndor aut modus tarn oarL capitis? praecipe lugubres oantus, MiClpomene. Teach me, Melpomene, songs of mourning. Horace then, it seems, like the author of In Memoriam, thought of Melpomene as owning but a little art To lull with song an aching heart And render hiiman love his dues'. He meant by her name, what every one must mean by it, who has meaning enough to use one word rather than another, and therefore, we must suppose, ascribed his work to her, because she rather than any of her sisters had inspired it. And when", by way of explaining the singular fact that the muse of tragedy should be asked for a dirge, the scholiast on ApoUonius is called upon to testify that Melpomene was said to be the inventor of the song in general — Xeyerai evprjKevai mS'^v — and the scholiast in turn calls the poet Rhianus, to assure us that " it makes no difiference whether one Muse is invoked, or all the Muses, for, as he says. All hear if thou pronounce the name of one {iraa'ai, S' ela-aiovai, /ii,a.<; ore Topvofia Xe^et?) " ; we must surely reply, first that the scholiast's difficulty is a difficulty only for a scholiast ; but further, that if Rhianus really thought to call one Muse or to call another an indifferent matter, then for ' In Memoriam xxxvii. ^ See Orelli on i. 24. 1—2 4 ESSAY I. him it probably was so, since on tbose terms none was likely to come; and further still— for Rhianus seems to have been a real poet and no mean one — that the words cited from him do not imply the scholiast's absurd canon, but, on the contrary, do imply the canon of common sense and common taste, that in the absence of such explanation as Rhianus gives a special invocation would have a special meaning. Vergil, writing his immense epic, and needing the help of every power he can invoke, may of course conceive himself as attended by all the choir, and may for variety appeal to them sometimes without mention of any name (Pandite nunc Helicona, deae), sometinies with the addition of a name (Vos, Calliope, precor, adspirate canenti), and sometimes by the name of one only (Nunc age, qui reges, Erato,... quis Latio fuerit status, expediam^); and Rhianus, for anything that appears to the contrary, may have had equally good reason for expressing himself as he did. At all events Horace did not misname his Muses or prick for them, like sheriffs, in a list. When he desires to symbolize his difficulties in contending with metrical forms invented for a language sweeter and more copious than his own, he writes that his happier inspirations are found si neque tibias Euterpe cohibet nee Polyhymnia Lesboum refugit tendere barbiton, sufficiently designating the Greek givers of musical sound and varied rhythm, even if we were not told that Euterpe invented the pipe or that Polyhymnia had a special acquaintance with fiv0oi\ When he meditates a strain longer than his wont, he seeks the unwearied goddess of epos — Desceude caelo et die age tibia regina longum, Calliope, melos'. When he hesitates whom to choose for celebration from the ' ' Even so, tbe selection of the name hand of Lavinia. The invocation of is not quite indifferent. In ^n. 7. 37, Erato foreshows the theme. Vergil is about to narrate the ^nmae a i. 1. exordia pugnae, the beginning of the s iii_ ^_ 2_ war in Italy, i.e. the rivalry for the MELPOMENE, 5 historic roll of Roman glories, it is to the historic Clio that he turns — Quern virum aut heroa \yxa vel acri tibia sumis oelebrare, Clio '7 He could no more call Calliope Clio or Clio Melpomene than he could describe the song of Simonides as Maeonian or the song of Homer as Gean\ The more closely we examine the epilogue (ill, 30) as a whole, the more we shall feel the force of the concluding invocation. For it is distinctly a surprise, a transition, an epigram. The success which the poet claims, though durable, seems, up to the last phrase, to be carefully limited. Origina- lity in transforming Greek metres" to Boman equivalents, and the power to fix words in the memory— -these are merits which Horace sees in his work, and these no one would deny to him. So far the epilogue answers exactly to the prologue ; there he was seeking the help of Euterpe and of Polyhymnia, and here he seems to say that he has found it. Then let Polyhymnia or Euterpe crown him. Or if Horace was hurried and could not conveniently bring either of them in — why not Mnemosyne, mother of all the Muses, patroness of memory, and most suitable to a monum,entum aere perenniusl Or Musa simply*, which the modem school-boy could immediately stretch to the space by the help of a quite permissible ' precor"\ But the poet thought the oflSce belonged to Melpomene, the lady of sorrows. Nor was this a sudden freak of fancy. He thought the same when he concluded the book itself, as distinct from the epilogue, with the theme of Fortune playing her proud game, whose toys are the wealth and the ambitions of men^ For this Ivdus Fortwnae, this perilous hazard in which men rise and fall, played as it had been on the vastest scale before the eyes of Horace and his contemporaries, is the very subject which, in the opinion of the poet, required the Muse of stern tragedy to aid — > I. 12. 1. * As in II. 1. 37, n. 12. 13, in. 3. 70. ' I. 6. 2, 11. 1. 38. " in. 29. 25— the end, and specially ' III. 30. IB. V. 49. 6 ESSAY I. Motum ex Metello consule civicnm belUque oausas et vitia et modos ludumque Fortunae gravesque prinoipum amieitias et arma nondum expiatis unota erooribus, periculosae plenum opus aleae, tractas et incedis per ignes suppositos cineri doloso. paullum severae musa tragoediae desit theatris'. So writes Horace to Pollio upon his projected history of the civil wars. But the analogy so suggested does not help us very far. It is true that two poems in the first boot^ celebrate the power of Fortune and may be referred, with the highest probability, to one of the chief events of contemporary history' ; ■and further, that out of the eighty-eight poems in the collec- tion, about a dozen have a more or less historical character, and are even so arranged as to make a sort of historical fi-ame- work to the rest*. But it is obviously impossible to say that the vicissitudes of public , affairs occupy a main share in the book, impossible that the tragedy which, it seems, helped to inspire Horace, can be the same broad tragedy of Koman politics which summoned Melpomene to the study of Asinius Pollio. Whatever Horace meant by his invocation, at all events he did not repent of it. Many years after, when Augustus, moved by the general admiration and his own knowledge of durable art, induced the poet against his inclination^ to resume lyric work and to devote an additional ' book ' to the military glories of the imperial family, it is to Melpomene that he returns thanks for his established fame, declaring fit for no ambition more vulgar than renown in iEolian song the man ^ I have followed Bitter in referring compared with ludiis .above, is to me periculosae aleae to the subject of decisive. The question, however, is PoUio's work and not to the risk which not here necessarily material, he himself might run in writing it. 2 xxxrv. xxxv. Cf. Tac. Sist. i. 2, opus adgredior opi- ^ See Essay iii. mum caslhm. The majority are in fa- * See Essay iii. vour of the other interpretation, but " coegit is the expression of Sue- the metaphor aleae (oast of the dice), tonius. MELPOMENE. 7 queiu tu, Melpomene, semel nascentem plaeido lumine videris'. I cannot but see evidence in these passages that Horace thought the dominant note of his three books to be the note of pathos, and that the Roman public, or at least the aristocratic and cultivated coteries to which the Augustan literature was in the first instance addressed, agreed in this estimate, and were affected according to the poet's intention. It is equally clear on the other hand that the prevalent modem view has been different, and it becomes interesting and promises to be of some importance to a right understanding of the Odes, to discover if possible the cause of the difference. It is certainly not that modem readers have not observed the element of melancholy in them. It would be difficult to miss ; and many critics call attention to it, one speaking of the "profound sadness" of certain poems, another of their "despairing pessimism" and the like. Those who so speak generally add that the melancholy is merely the background of the picture, since it leads up, like the pictures of pleasure, to the Epicurean moral that we must enjoy while we may. But this, though formally true, must not lead us to hasty conclusions as to the comparative prominence of the light and dark colour. To say that the sadness of Horace expresses itself in the form "How brief are our pleasures!" is only to say that it is the sadness of an Epicurean, and the sadness of an Epicurean is no merrier than other sadness ; it is perhaps more gloomy than any. And certainly, if quantity were the measure, we should not easily believe that the bitterness of the Odes is but put in as a spice to the sweet. The lighter poems, whether as being really better work, or perhaps because they have been better understood, have a preeminence in the recollection, and the admirer of Horace, if asked to justify, will probably turn to UUa sijuris^ or Donee grains eram^ or Quidfles, Asterie*. But 1 IV. 3. 1. The whole poem is full of with i. 1. 35, and see the commen- allusions to the original prologue and taries. epilogue. Cf. iv. 3. 3—9 with i. 1. " ii. 8. 3—8, IV. 3. 11, 12 with i. 1. 30, in. " m. 9. 30. 13, IV. 3. 9 with iii. 30. 8, iv. 3. 15 » lii. 7. 8 ESSAY I. the balance is all the other way, and it may be worth while briefly to mark the true proportions. Upon the First Book, m despite of a desperate commencement (li. Hi. iv.) and the reverberating emphasis of pallida Mors aequo pulsat pede pauperum tabernaa regumque turres, gaiety on the whole prevails. ix. is quiet, xi. ambiguous, XIII. savage, Xiv. and xv. foreboding. In xxiv. we have the most piteous, in xxxiv. and xxxv. perhaps the gravest of the poet's tones. Others are neutral. But half the book at least is in the light ; xii. and xxxvil. are odes of genuine triumph, XVII. and XXII. pictures of complete, if fanciful, happiness, xxvi. and XXVII. XXX. and xxxvi. wholly and unaffectedly merry. Among the twenty poems of the Second Book are placed the inimitable vers de soci4U addressed to 'Xanthias of Phocis' and to ' Barine ', both, for the present purpose, neutral. The feast of Horace and the companion of his old campaigns (vil.) represents a joy which may not have ceased to appear joyous when the collection was published; with what feelings Maecenas is likely to have contemplated the picture of his conjugal happiness in XII. we shall presently see. But for these four poems the book might be called a dirge. It bears strong marks of having been written under the influence of ill- health. Three times the poet is found contemplating the prospect of his own death'; the last of these anticipations is appropriately followed by a rapt vision (xix.) in which the poet sees the friendly god of poetic inspiration surrounded by the ensigns of his power over this upper world and over the unseen horrors of death; and in the next and concluding poem he fancies himself already enteringinto a new form of life and speaking words of consolation to the friends who surround an imaginary pyre'. ' II. 6, II. 17, II. 18. 38 compared for which admirable book I take this with ihid. 10. n. 16. 29 — 32 is also first opportunity of expressing my suggestive, taken in connexion with thanks. the subject of the whole poem, and » On n. 20 see Pliiss Horaz-Studien, compared with iii. 1. 41 foil. On ii. 6 p. 179. His general explanation seems see H. T. Pluss' Horaz-Studien, p. 140, to me most attractive. MELPOMENE. 9 Over III. IX. XI. xni. xiv. xvi. lies, darker or less dark, the same shadow, lending an expression of menace and prophecy to the interposed warnings against passion, luxury, avarice, and pride (ll. V. X. XV.). And as if to set all this in the strongest relief, the introductory poem, after rising gradually to the tone of tragedy itself — qui gurges aut quae flnmina lugubris ignara belli? quod mare Danniae uon decoloiaTBie caedes? quae caret ora cruore nostro? — drops suddenly to the ineffectual rebuke sed ne relictis, Musa procax, iocis Ceae retractes munera neniae mecum Dionaeo sub antro quaere modos leviore plectro. The wayward Muse may be admonished to mind her jests and to confine herself to the grotto of Love, but it is to the tomb and to the 'office of the Simonidean dirge' that she obstinately returns. The Third Book is as a whole neither dark nor bright ; to analyse it in detail would be to anticipate much that is to be said in the next essay. The moral of the whole is summed up in the somewhat grim quiet of the concluding address to Maece- nas — quod adest memento compouere aecus; caetera flumiuis ritu feruntur. But we can now put more definitely the question — Why, since there is no lack of sadness in Horace, do we not find him tragic, though his contemporaries did? On consideration, it will appear, I think, that the reason is this. His lamentations and his musings, as we read them, are always conceived to be general and without particular application. Pathos belongs to persons, and specially to the affections of men towards men. The lament for Quintilius is pathetic because there is human love in it, not merely because it is sad. In such lines as aequa tellus panperi recluditur regumque pueris, 10 ESSAY I. ei figit adamantinos summis vertioibus dira Neoessitas clavos, uon auimum metu, non mortis laqueis expedies caput, the sadness is certainly not less, but as we do not suppose either of these thoughts to have had more meaning to Horace or to Maecenas than to any one now, there is no pathos. It is a question therefore to be asked, whether we are right in this im- pression. MUEENA. The years 24 and 23 before Christ mark the culmination of the fortune of Augustus and a crisis in the history of the Koman state. When the emperor, after holding his eleventh (and ninth successive) consulship for a small part of the year 23, resigned it with the usual forms, and appointed in his place a man con- spicuous for piously cultivating the memory of the regicides Brutus and Cassius, a speculator upon the political future might well have supposed, that the great revolution was success- fully accomplished and that, if anxiety was not over, the labour of restoration and reconstruction througbiout the wasted terri- tory of the republic might henceforward be carried on in peace. Mere lapse of time had done much. Since the assumption of power by the first Caesar nearly a quarter of a century had passed. To the best part of the living generation the idea of a personal chief ruler had been familiar and even attractive from their earliest recollection. Few men still in the full vigour of life could remember much of the consulship of Cicero (forty years distant) and the last days of a truly independent senate. Varro, the illustrious antiquary and the last 'Ciceronian', was gone, after a long old age of literary work in the service of the new government. The survivors of Pharsalia, or such of them as had escaped the ordinary and extraordinary casualties of the triumvirate, were grey-headed men; and even the youngest survivors of Philippi, whom ambition or youthful enthusiasm for a name had drawn to the losing side, might be supposed to share the feelings so adroitly suggested by their comrade Horace, 12 ESSAY II. and like him, as they witnessed the joyful reception of the emperor on his return from Spain in the year 24, and endeavoured in the security of a general peace to recall the republican ardours of the year 42, might say to themselves, between a smile anda shrug, that in more senses than one they were no longer the men they had been "in the consulship of Plancus'". The final struggle with Antonius was indeed recent, but in this, as in the war with Sextus Pompeius, Rome and Italy had been almost universally on the Caesarean side'', and even clients and intimate friends of Antonius had to excuse themselves for not taking active part against him. Those who finally adhered to him were not merely beaten but discredited and effaced. The popularity of the emperor, tested by his severe illness and recovery during the Spanish campaign, received the amplest testimony in votes of congratulation and general rejoicing. For many years past, since Maecenas, before the return of Augus- tus from the conquest of' Cleopatra, had detected and crushed the conspiracy of the younger Lepidus, no attempt, as far as we know, had been made upon the emperor's life, and Augustus was provided with the best shield against assassins' in the person of the young Marcellus, heir to the blood of the Julii and to the veneration of the people towards the martyr of the, democracy, the dictator Julius Caesar, and promising to sustain worthily his hereditary part. When we consider what was the prospect at this time and what was the actual sequel, it is not surprising but highly significant to find that the Autobiography of Augustus concluded here, being continued 'as far as the Cantabrian war, and no farther^ '. At the close of that war, warned by the sickness which had confined him to his bed at Tarraco for the greater part of the campaign, he had notified, as it were, his retirement to the functions of peace by the found- ation and title of Augusta Emerita (Merida/. He might well 1 III. 14. 2 Suet. Aug. 17. * Suet. Aug. 85. ' The premature adoption of the " Ab a fact, he never again took infant sons of Agrippa (b.o. 17) is part in actual war, though he was at expressly referred by Dion Cassius to the scene of war both in the East and the desire of discouraging conspiiaoy. in Germany. Dion 54. 18. MUKENA. 13 hope that under the government of himself or of his most probable successor the celebration of the birthdays of Brutus and Cassias in the houses of great noblemen holding office by his appointment would soon become as harmless a ceremony as the wearing of the ' royal oak ' by the subjects of King George the Third. The point of most danger was the possibility of collision between Marcellus and Agrippa, but against this either time or the disinterested fidelity of Agrippa' himself might be expected to guard'. Under these auspices was drawn the settlement between the republican past and the imperial present, from which the new time may in one sense be said to begin. The one feeling from which opposition was to be feared was the restlessness of the aristocratic families deprived of the natural prey of their ambition, the republican offices and especially the consulship. To the public at large these offices were perfectly indifferent ; indeed for many reasons, political and superstitious, they would have felt more comfortable if Augustus would have made himself perpetual sole consul or dictator at once^ Not so the repre- sentatives of the old senatorial families. To them it seemed the natural object of life to become one of the two coequal magistrates of the commonwealth, and a Rome in which only one man could be consul in each year, and that with a 'colleague' who was also generalissimo of the army from year to year with- out intermission, was not at all a Rome to their mind. To satisfy this sentiment as far as possible, Augustus resigned the consul-- ship for the year 23 as already mentioned, and in his thirty-six subsequent years, except on two occasions of special religious interest to the imperial family, never accepted the office again'. The traditional offices of the city were to be open as before to the traditional competitors without rivalry or interference from the monarch, who on his part took security for the exercise of those ■■ It was at this time that Agrippa actually to name a sueoessor is easily was sent or retired to the East. The understood. Public expectation was anxiety of Augustus after his reooveiy fixed upon Marcellus. Dion 53. 30, from his second illness ia 23 to prove ' Dion 54. 1. that he had not taken upon himself " Dion 53. 32. Suet. Aug. 26. 14 ESSAY II. offices in harmony with the requirements of the empire, and not, as in the close of the republic, for private aggrandisement and public confusion, by the general veto conferred under the name of the 'tribunician power', and the abnormal power of consult- ing the senate granted without respect to the special privileges' of office". Presuming loyalty, there was no reason why this com- promise should not work ; the functions conceded to the aristo- cracy, real and not merely titular, afforded a sufficient field for all but purely mischievous ambition ; and for a few months the ' felicissimus status ', as it is called by the imperialist Vel- leius', showed a fair promise. This was in the spring. In the autumn Marcellus died, and the balance on which the public peace depended was destroyed. Caesar was now without an heir, infant or major. Tiberius, the elder of his stepsons, was already entering upon public life, and had long ago taken on occasions of ceremony the second place after Marcellus", but though the legal forms might convert a Claudius into a Julius, they could not transfer the veneration of the populace to a representative of the most unpopular of Roman families, and there is no sign that Tiberius* was at this time regarded as a possible successor, — iadeed, the contrary is implied, by the prompt marriage of the emperor's daughter to Agrippa and the hasty adoption of their infant children — a striking proof how strong and how important was the JuUan sentiment in the popular mind. By the death of Marcellus the prospect of. the small but wealthy and unscrupulous clique, who desired the full restoration of the republican forms, was entirely changed. Now, if the emperor could be removed, the chances were strongly in their favour, and for the next twenty years, assassination- plots followed each other in rapid succession. The brief period which separated the first of these from the death of the heir was occupied in fruitless attempts at conciliation °. ^n spite of 1 Dion 53. 32. The historian repre- * See the emphaeis laid upon the sents the transaction, more suo, as an Claudian descent of Tiberius in Suet, interchange of compliments. Tib. 1 — 3. ' 11. 91. = Dion 54. 1—3. » Suet. rib. 6. MUEENA, 15 the popular clamour, and almost at personal risk, Augustus re- fused to assume either the dictatorship or the oflSce of perpetual censor, and procured the appointment as censors, in pursuance of the new policy, of two men conspicuous for sufferings in- flicted by the enemies of the aristocracy. He did not however satisfy, as may be supposed, either the populace, whose dislike to a magistracy of nobles found an evil omen in trivial accidents, or the nobility, who saw that the competence of their magistrates did not exclude the activity of the monarch \ His behaviour, studiously civil, even to the acceptance of public affronts, was taken by the more rash spirits as a proof of conscious weakness", and the affectation of friendship was terminated within the year 22 by the detection of a formidable plot. Of this event, the history of Dion Oassius, our only continu- ons account of the period, tells us much indeed in proportion to the scale of the work, but by no means as much as we have good reason for wishing to know ; and the incidental notices of other writers do not repair the deficiency. The exact date is not given, but the general order of the narrative seems to imply that it was in the earlier part of the year°. The principal in the plot was a Fannius Caepio, of an aristocratic family, and apparently a senator*. From the silence of Velleius, who sketches the political antecedents of Egnatius, the leader of the next conspiracy in the year 19, it may be inferred that neither Fannius, nor his un- named accomplices, had borne any important part in public ' Dion 54. 2. vote), tuv Sk SKKav nvh KaTepbvq(Tav ^ Dion 54. 3. avrov ^ayvi,os fikv yap KaLirLuv k.t.\, 3 The dedication of the temple of As o! ev^povovpres were part of the Jupiter Tanans, which from the ciroum- senate, the rivh would seem to be stances would probably faU in the another part. Veil. ii. 91 cognomen summer season, followed the suppres- [Augusto] Planoi sententia consensus sion of the conspiracy. Dion ibid. 4. vmiversi senatus populique Bomani * That the leaders of the plot were (i.e. a senatorial vote) indidit. erant senators is suggested by the language tamen qui hunc felicissimum statum both of Dion and Velleius. Dion i.e. odissent: quippe L. Murena et Fannius iIttJ tuv eJ ^povoimav [o A.iyovaToi\ Caepio diversis moribus eto....neque iviivetTO, SxTTe Kol rb ttjd PovKtjv aBpol- multo post Bufus Egnatius, per omnia ^av offaKis dv kSeK-qay \apciv (this of gladiatori quam senatori propior, etc. course must have been a senatorial 16_ ESSAY II. affairs; the vague statement that he had " the worst character" may perhaps show that he had not the best, and that the con- spirators in general resembled Catiline rather than Catulus. For enemies of this kind the emperor and his friends might have looked. But a surprise was in store for them. L. Licinius Murena (otherwise L. Licinius Varro Murena') was perhaps the last man whom the imperialists would have been disposed to suspect. His brother'' Proculeius, to whom he was under great obligations, was among the emperor's most valued friends ; his " sister " was married to Maecenas, who with- out any regular office, was a sort of minister, with especial charge of the city, and highest, Agrippa being absent, in the emperor's confidence'. His manners were frank to the extreme of rude- ness*. He was now very wealthy, and having had experience utriusgue fortwnae, both in public and private affairs, was unlike- ly to imperil his prosperity. He was not out of favour, but on the contrary had been certainly distinguished and, it has even been thought", employed by Augustus upon the faith of his connexions and in spite of a disadvantageous career. Velleius, on this side an unimpeachable witness, allows that on the eve of the conspi- racy ' poterat videri bonus '. He seems by his name to have been the representative and was probably the son of L. Licinius Murena, consul in 62, who was afterwards defended by Cicero'. Of his age we have no evidence, but our first notice of him shows that whether from youth or prudence he preserved a tolerable fortune through the ruin of the optimates from Pharsar lia to Philippi and was a person of some standing before the rup- ture between Octavian and Antonius'. In the description given by Horace of the journey to Brundisium, on which he accompanied ' On his names see Note A. « Drumann, Geschichte Boms, Licini " Or cousin, frater being ambigu- Murenac, and Smith, Diet. Biog. ous. See Sohol. on Hor. Od. ii. 2. 4. 'I here make the usual assumption, o On the position of Maecenas see that the 'Murena' of Od. iii. 19, Sat.i. Note B. 5. 38 and the 'Licinius' of Od. ii. 10 * Dion 54. 3. are identical with each other and with » On the question whether he was the conspirator. The sequel will, I the commander of the expedition a- hope, place this beyond doubt. gainst the Salassi in B.C. 25, see Note A. MURENA. 17 Maecenas, the only person not a member of the embassy who is mentioned as giving the negotiators private entertainment is Murena, who though absent himself placed his house at Formiae at their disposal — in Mamurrarum lassi deinde urbe manemus Murena praebente domum, Capitone oulinam'. The connexion with Fonteius Capito suggested by this pas- sage is significant (for Capito was Antoni, non ut magis alter, amicus), and prepares us to find, that in the final contest of parties decided at Actium Murena was among the losers. The ancient commentaries on Horace describe him as ' spoliatus bonis in bello civili^' Whatever latitude should be given to this expression, the better testimony of Horace himself shows that the loss of property, consideration, or both reduced him to a condition which could be called 'adversity' and be supposed to require encouragement and consolation — Non, si male nunc, et olim sic erit'. This prophecy was fulfilled with a rapidity and complete- ness not often vouchsafed to poetic inspiration, for Murena, ruin- ed in the year 30 was, before the year 22, not only living, as we shall see, in extravagant and dangerous splendour, but actually a member of the college of augurs and of such importance as to be ' advocatus ' in a political cause on behalf of a magistrate accused of misconduct in his province*. The significance of this last fact according, to Koman ideas of ' advocacy ' may be estimated from an expression of Suetonius, who describes a cer- tain Q. Calpenus, who descended to the ignominy of fighting as a gladiator, as ' senator quondam actorque causarum '." Now these facts must suggest the question — how did Murena become so suddenly rich ? The authorities who tell us of his losses add that Proculeius treated him very liberally ^ But it would be absurd to suppose that either Proculeius or 1 Sat. 1. 5. 38. The most probable ^ Od. n. 10. 17. date is b.o. 38. * Hor. Od. iii. 19. Dion 54. 3. 2 On Od. II. 2. 5. The scholia— » lul. 39. and those on this passage in particular ^ Schol. on Hor. Od. ii. 2.6. The T— are not precisely accurate See the text of Horace is vague, edd. of Horace ad loc. V. H. 2 18 ESSAY II. Maecenas, thougli they might protect their kinsman against the full consequences of his political mistake, would provide him with the means of supporting the position indicated by the de- scriptions of Horace and Dion (there is indeed no reason to think that Proculeius could have done so, if he would). The augurate alone, to say nothing of details to be presently noticed, is a proof of very great wealth. The sacred colleges under the Empire were of no political significance ; the augurate, for example, was con- ferred by Augustus upon Claudius, afterwards emperor, as a suit- able decoration for a princely person supposed unequal to seri- ous employments. But these quasi-religious appointments, be- sides their historic dignity, had a certain indirect importance, since upon the liberality of the colleges depended, in great part, the proper performance of the feasts exhibitions and other functions, without which the government would have been neither popular nor respectable. The revolution, with its new fasti, increased the occasions of expenditure ; for instance, the foundation-year itself was celebrated by a quinquennial festi- val, for which the sacred colleges became responsible'. Feasts proverbially sumptuous", fees so heavy as to embarrass a prince', riches too tempting for imperial cupidity* are the conditions which accompany the sacred offices. And had it been possible for a man of moderate means to be an augur, Augustus could not afford to promote him. This point is of such importance to the history and literature of the time as to be worth a short digres- sion. When the Augustan writers inveigh against private luxury, and urge the duty of spending on public objects'*, this is no mere sentiment or moral commonplace. If the richer classes in Rome and Italy had all rejected this duty, the enterprise of Augustus and Agrippa would have been impossible. The machinery by which the provinces were afterwards made profit- able was mostly still to create, and the provinces themselves were exhausted. The chief expedients of imperial taxation in 1 Dion 53. 1. 4 gnet. Tih. 49. = Hor. Od. II. 14. 28. » e.g. Hor. Od. n. 15. 13—20, iii. 25. " Suet. Claud. 9. 45 50 etc. MURENA. 19 Italy were still to be devised. The financial difficulty is put in the front, as conclusive against the attempt to change the form of government, in the argument between Agrippa and Maecenas, by which Dion, imitating Thucydides, sets forth the problem as it stood after the overthrow of Antonius. 'In a republic', says Agrippa, 'you can get money, the competition for public rewards induces men to spend and subscribe for public objects'.' And this, though it was not the theory in Dion's own time, represents correctly enough the theory of the Roman republic and ancient republics in general. The wealthy contended for office by a sort of honest bribery, and corruption compensated for jobbery. Now the civil wars left an enormous load upon the state. Everything was in ruins. Rome itself, to remind the reader of one sufficient illustration, was in such a state that the Tiber, choked with rubbish, "made the city navigable", in the expres- sive phrase of Dion, with a sort of regularity. The roads, the harbours, the public buildings all required instant attention. And apart from public works, the government, with the army and the Roman populace upon its hands, had hard work to pay its way. Already in the contest with Antonius, Octavian had been rescued from a mutiny by the subscriptions of the loyal and wealthy Italians of the two upper orders, and in spite of the Egyptian booty the system of subscription, as well as the execution of particular works by rich persons, went on after the peace''. Augustus wished for a regular taxation and at last, when floods and famine had enforced the necessity, wrested the consent of the senate, but this was many years later'. How grave was the situation in the interval a single fact will show. One of the worst vexations of the civil wars was the invasion of private lands by successive generals seeking settlements for their veteran troops. To put the matter on a proper footing was a first necessity for the government of peace. Now it was nearly twenty years from the battle of Actium before it could be undertaken*. The inadequacy of the revenue to the needs 1 Dion 52. 6. " Dion 55. 24, ih. 31, 56, 28 foil. « Hor. Od. in. 25. 45. Dion 53. 2, ■■ B.C. 13. Dion 54. 25. ib. 22 etc., 54. 26 etc. 2—2 20 ESSAY II. of the time is one cardinal fact of Augustus' reign. The 'resources of the empire', in the sense in which Trajan or even Tiherius might have used the expression, -were adequate enough, but in the reign of Augustus the empire had yet to be created. Thus the severe economy of the emperor himself was no matter of personal taste or moral preference'. The repeated purgation of the senate and the equites, by the expulsion of the poor and the 'bad', had an object more immediately practical than the restitution of a dignified appearance to society. Good means and 'good' dispositions were required in those on whose purses the government expected to draw. Under such circumstances, how a man ' ruined in the civil war' could within a few years after, with whatever advantages of connexion, be in a position either to obtain or retain such a place as the augurate under the government of the victors, is a question not to be passed over. In the case of Licinius Murena, however, special circumstances suggest an answer. At some time or other he acquired the name of Varrol Between the years 30 and 22 he acquired a large fortune. When we remem- ber that in this interval' died, without natural heir, a Varro who was one of the richest men of his time, we have some reasons for putting these facts together, and conjecturing that Murena's money came from none other than the Varro, the scholar and antiquary M. Terentius. Long before he had sought a successor in the Licinian gens*; between the Varrones and the Murenae there was certainly a connexion, though we do not know the exact relations^; and when at length he also'cessit coemptis saltibus', no person known to have been then living is more likely than Licinius Murena to have received the main share of ' See the language attributed to probably near. Varro died at 'nearly Maecenas in Dion 52. 29, ninety', and this cannot have been very ' See Note A. much later than 28. s The year is commonly given as 28 * He seems to have adopted the (Smithi)jcf.£to(/.).Thisseemstobenot brother of the great LucuUus, but quite certain, owing to confusion in the must have long survived him. See text of Jeiome [ad. Eusei. Chron.) on Drumann's Geschichte Bom, Pauly which the date depends. The above state- Rcal-Enc, Smith Diet. Biog. ment is safe, and the usual assumption ' See Note A. MURENA. 21 his parks and farms, his marbles, aviaries, rosaries, and scrolls. This succession, as I hope to show, will explain so much that it may reasonably be held certain. For the present, I note only that it explains completely the change in Murena's position — - by the moral effect no less than by the material. Varro, charged with the public libraries, was both a loyal and a useful subject ; for testamentary evidence to character the em- peror had a peculiar respect ; in the heir of Varro the adherent of Antonius might disappear, illustrating, with an inverted ajpplication, the language of Shakespeare — Aumerle that was ; But that is lost for being Eichard's friend, And, madam, you must call him Eutland now. However Murena obtained his wealth, he did not fulfil the re- mainder of the poet's prophecy — contrahes vento nimium secundo turgida vela. He made enemies on all sides, he took an opportu- nity, shortly before the conspiracy of Fannius, to insult Augustus himself in court, and when one of the accomplices, by name Cas- tricius, betrayed the design to the emperor, Murena, "truly or by malice ", was included in the charge. Before, however, the accused were arrested, the secret of the government was in turn betrayed. For this second discovery, which might well have cost the em- peror's life, there was an explanation only too obvious. In spite of the near connexion of Maecenas with one of the accused, he was, as usual, the depositary of the emperor's secret on this occasion. The proof thus applied to his loyalty and fortitude was indeed severe, for he was passionately attached to his wife ; on the other hand his fortunes were bound up with those of Augustus, and he had some years before distinguished himself for his silent energy in a great crisis, to which we shall presently refer. At any rate, he was treated as safe. But the vigour of Maecenas was occasional not habitual, and his vigilance at peri- lous moments was not more notorious than his willing return to all the refinements of indulgence at the earliest opportunity*. Seven years of comparative security spent in a more than femi- ^ See the passages of Velleius and Smith Diet. Biog. , article Maecenas. Seneca afterwards referred to, and 22 ESSAY 11. nine luxury, had not prepared him for the sudden bracing of his nerves required by this unexpected trial. Such at least seems to have been the account given not only by others but by him- self in his repentant leisure. He told his wife that her brother was at the mercy of the government*. The conspirators, in- cluding Murena, fled; they were indicted in absence by the young Tiberius, and being condemned, though not by a unanimous vote, were shortly afterwards put to death. The informer, it seems, was also tried but spared upon the personal solicitation of Augustus; it is noticed by Suetonius that this was the sole occasion on which he interfered with the course of justice''. The ' sensation ' made by this event in Koman society, is, as Dion describes it, astounding, but under the circumstances not incredible. It was the first time that the Koman nobility wit- nessed such a court-tragedy, the beginning of ' the bloody peace ' as the malcontents called it, when the time came for estimating the emperor's career*. That none of the accused were entirely innocent may be taken as confessed^ but a trial in absence is never satisfactory, and besides, in a case of treason so very near the throne, it is likely enough that the government could not or would not produce all their evidence. The imperialists, more enthusiastic than wise, insisted on voting thanksgivings as for a public triumph, and the dissatisfied party never forgave Augustus for permitting them. The height to which public feeling ran is shown by an amazing incident. The chief con- spirator, Caepio, had been accompanied in his flight by two slaves, one of whom betrayed him to the pursuers, while the other endeavoured to defend him. The conspirator's father not only gave the faithful slave his freedom, but actually crucified the traitor, after parading him through the forum with a placard > Suet. Aug. 66. was by ballot ; immediately after this, " ih. 56. Tib. 8. it was ordained that when an accused ' Tao. Ann. I. paoem...sedcruentam; person did not stand his trial, there ...caesos Eomae Varrones, Bgnatios, should be no ballot, hut a unanimous luloB. condemnation should be presumed. <■ The voting in the senatorial courts Dion I.e. MURENA. 23 declaring his offence. The emperor took no notice. But if the emotions of society in general were deep, ineffaceable was the impression upon Maecenas. The blow to his private affections, though not light for an uxorious husband, was the least part of the calamity. The friendship and confidence of Augustus, the substance of his power (he seems to have had no office), was lost for the time, and for political purposes never perhaps, and certainly not until long afterwards recovered. No outward change in his position took place, for it was not the interest of either side to publish the quarrel ; nor did his decline in favour attract general notice, until in the year 16 the creation of the praefecture of the city raised the enquiry why Maecenas, if any one, was not appointed'. At that time another cause was found in the relations existing, or supposed to exist, between the emperor and the minister's wife. But the minister connected his disgrace with the ruin of his brother-in-law and reproached not only Murena but himself with having abused prosperity. Suppose, writes Seneca at the conclusion of an epistle recom- mending moderation, suppose you allow your fortunes to grow yet higher ; every advance will be an addition to your fear. I have a mind to quote you here what Maecenas said, speaking truih upon the rack, 'ipsa enim altitudo attonat summa'. — If you ask for the reference, it is in the book entitled ' Prometheus ' ; by ' attonat ' he means ' attonita habet i. e. exposes to the thunder ' ; now would you accept any power whatsoever at the price of such an intoxicated style ? Maecenas was a man of genius and would have been a fine specimen of Roman eloquence, had not prosperity impaired his vigour — I should say, his ' virility ' — This is how you will end, unless you at once 'pull in your sails', unless you ' hug the shore ', as he wished he had done, when it was too late'. ' See Note B. (Si quaeris in quo libro dixerit, in eo 2 Sen. jEj). 19. Quidsifortunaeetiam qai Prometheus insaiihitxxi, Hocvoluit nunc permiseris crescere? quantum ad dicere ' attonita habet summa'. est ergo Buccessumaocesserit,accedetadmetum. tanti ulla potentia, ut sit tibi tarn Volo tibi hoe loco referre dictum ebrius serino? ingeniosus vir ille fuit, Maecenatis, vera in ipso eculeo elocuti magnum exemplum Eomanae eloquen- 'ipsa enim altitudo attonat summa'. tiae daturus, nisi ilium enervasset 24 ESSAY II. It cannot be by accident that these selections from Maecenas' 'Prometheus' reproduce not merely the metaphors but the words of the warning given by Horace to Murena— Eectiua vivea, Licini, neque altum semper urgendo, neque dum procellaa cautus horresois nimium premendo litus iniquum saepiuB veutis agitatur iugens pinus et celsae graviore easu decidimt tvirres feriuntque summos fulgura mantes rebus angustis animosus atque fortis appare, sapienter idem contrahes vento nimium seoundo turgida vela. Horace, as we shall presently see, intended a contrast between Murena and Maecenas. The self-accusing minister saw but too much resemblance, and repented that he had not practised or even exaggerated the caution recommended by the poet. Indeed jealous fortune could not possibly have found a heavier bolt. Even if the charge of indiscretion had not been true, if it could have been refuted — obviously a very difficult thing — there remained an imputation which he could not avoid. The most brilliant service which he had rendered, and the most important to his reputation', was the suppression of the younger Lepidus, who plotted to murder Augustus on his return from Alexandria. Maecenas then in charge of the city on Augustus' behalf, "concealing his knowledge of the rash felicitas, immo castrasset). Hie te Seneoa and Nero placed by Tacitus exitns manet, nisi iam 'contraAesi;e!:a', before Seneca's fall. {Ann. xit. 53. nisi (quod ille sero voluit) ' terram leges '. foU. ) The illustration of the enfeeble- Maecenas, on his own confession as ment of character from the affectation this passage shows, is Seneca's stand- of Maecenas' style is itself not a little ing example of the dangers of too affected, but it is pursued with great much good fortune and the enervating elaboration in Sen. Ep. 114. All effects of luxury. (See also JSpp. 92, these epistles contain frequent cita- 101, 114, 120.) He is introduced tions and touches from Horace, with much effect into the hollow ' Velleius mentions him in this colloquy on excess of riches between connexion only, ii. 88. MURENA. 23 design, watched him with perfect calmness, and then, by astonishing speed, crushed him without the slightest disturbance or agitation, and cut short a horrible enterprise which would have revived the civil war\" It was the very irony of fate that the next assassin should be of Maecenas' own family, and that the discovery should have been left to another. The comparison between the years 724 and 732 was but too sug- gestive, and that the minister's enemies did not miss it may be gathered from the description of him by Velleius, which as a .piece of adroit sarcasm is worth transcribing. The praise just quoted is thus introduced — " erat tunc urbis custodiis praepositus C. Maecenas, equestri sed splendido genere natus, vir, ubi res vigiliam exigeret, sane exsomnis, providens atque agendi sciens, simul vero aliquid ex negotio remitti posset, otio ac mollitiis paene ultra feminam fluens, non minus Agrippa Caesari carus, sed minus honoratus ; quippe vixit angusti clavi, paene contentus, nee minora consequi potuit sed non tam concupivif." The unkind allusions to the sufferings of Maecenas from want of sleep', to the noble descent and moderate desires, upon which his poetical beneficiaries are always insisting*, indicate that the antithesis of vigilance and effeminacy is not without a sting, and the contrast above indicated shows the point of it. It may be observed that Velleius, the friend and companion of Tiberius who indicted the conspirators, had exceptional means of knowing the impression made by these events at the time upon the imperial circle. We now come to the question. What is the relation between these events and the Odes of Horace ? Were the Three Books, in their present form, published before or after them ? When were the odes written, which name Murena, ii. 10 and ill. 19, ' Veil. I.e. paene (pene MSS. as usual), but this 2 ib. For angusti clavi (so the MSS., is clearly right, see ed. Halm., Teubner series) some ^ Plin. H. N. 7. 52. read angusto clavo, joining it with * Propertius iv. 8. Maecenas, eques contentus. If any alteration is neces- Etrusoo de sanguine regum, Intra sary, I would suggest angusticlavius fortunam qui cupis esse tuam, and (of. laticlavius), but the genitive (of Horace passim, quality) seems admissible. Others alter 26 ESSAY II. and when published'? Often as these questions have been raised, the arguments on them scarcely show, I think, a sense of their importance. Literary chronology has seldom so vital an interest. It signifies little, for instance, whether the Odes came out before or after the year 20." The success of Augustus and Tiberius in cajoling or terrifying the Parthians had no particular effect on Horace, or Maecenas, or their private and political friends, and, except in some allusions to the East and to the glories of Caesar, a collection of poems dedicated by Horace to Maecenas would be much the same whether issued in 19 or 21. But if Horace was a lyrical poet at all, if the Odes were meant to reach the feelings of the patron, the persons addressed, or the general reader, the question ' before or after the year 22 ?' goes to the essence of his work. To say nothing of his feelings as a man, or of the profound change, which, as so intimate a friend must have known, the tragedy of that year had made in the position of the minister — the political attitude taken by the poet is such that, writing or publishing after the conspiracy, he could not ignore it. Horace was, as he constantly reminds us, one of the converts to imperialism and the party of Augustus, a section of society probably very large, and certainly by wealth and posi- tion very important. He had fought for the republic, and grows enthusiastic over the pleasure of meeting his old companions in arms. In the brief biography of him which has come down to us, one of the chief facts is that so far from courting the emperor, he showed in the face of persistent advances a coldness, which Augustus was inclined to resent even in so pronounced a politi- cal supporter. This behaviour is of course perfectly intelligible. The conviction of the judgment does not bind the feelings, and Horace would have been less than a man if he could have for- gotten whose victory it was which reduced him, and doubtless many a friend who had not his power of recovery, to the state of misery and disappointment described in his own vivid phrase as » A summary of the arguments all the editors, especially on i. 3, ii. 9, generally used will be found in Wick- n. 10, and in. 19. ham's edition of the Odes, Introduction 2 See on 11. 19. 20. to Books I.— III. See also the notes of MURENA. 27 ' the grovelling of a bird whose wings are lopped ' (decisis humi- lem pennis). It has often been observed' that, with all the im- perialism of the poet, it is not to the active servants of the emperor that his Muse addresses herself. There are no odes to Antistius, or Garisius, or Vinicius, or Aelius Gallus'', or any of the men v/hom history shows us to have been trusted with military employment at the time when the Odes were in writing. Agrippa himself, a sort of second emperor, receives nothing but rather transparent excuses. Sestius, the devotee of regicides, Corvinus, under whom the partizans of Brutus rallied after Philippi, Pollio, the declared enemy of monarchical principles, Plancus, one of the worst and last deserters of Antonius, Dellius, the deserter of every one — it is to these and their like that Horace speaks. Now the narrative above given from Dion Cassius shows what effect was produced by the event of 22 upon the relation of the government to these great persons and their numerous compeers of less distinction. A premature reconcilement was followed by an aggravated return of hatred, suspicion, and fear. That some whom the government could not or would not detect were more or less guilty of the conspiracy is probable ; and certain that all the party, in whose supposed interest it was undertaken and who resented the manner in which it was put down, must have felt that the mark of it was upon them. Conscious innocence even was a small consolation, for many did not believe in the guilt of Murena. The society which furnished the most eminent readers of Horace was thus completely changed by this first assassination' plot against the established empire, and in short, everything was changed which much concerns the interpretation of Horace, if he is to be taken seriously, — the dedicator and the receiver of the dedication, the friendly circle and the outer public. I will now state briefly the evidence for the date of the Three Books as it stands at present upon the authorities known to me. At first sight it seems a simple matter. Indications of date would naturally be looked for in parts of the work having a gene- ral relation to the whole, such as the commencement and the i- e.g. by Dean Merivale. ' Dion 23, 25, 26, 29. 28 ESSAY II. concrusio'n'. The preface to the Odes, though in a stricter seiis^ comprised ia the first poem, in a larger sense extends to the first three, which are devoted, with obvious intention, to the patron, to the monarch, who could not be further postponed, and to the primate of literature. The third, on Vergil, seems to be precisely dated ; Vergil has started for Athens and not yet arrived, which gives, if we refer to the only voyage of Vergil known to us, a date early in B.C. 19." It is unnecessary to dwell at present upon the proofs by which this fair prima facie evidence is supported ; I will mention only one, not for its special force, but because I do not happen to have seen any notice of it. Among the first words of the book is the reference, not very complimentary when read with its context, to the competition for the magistracies of the republic, the triple grade of aedile, praetor, and consul, terrarum dominos evehit ad deos, huno si mobiliam turba Quiritium certat tergeminis toUere honoribus.' Comparing this with the plain depreciation in virtus... neo sumit aut ponit secures arbitrio popularis aurae, the tone becomes yet more noticeable. Now we know the preface is commonly the last part of a book to receive its final form. If the Odes were finished in 20 — 19, this reference to the rivalries of popular election has point ; at any time between 30 and 22 it would have been, for an imperialist, extremely maladroit. During that period there were no real elections to the consulate at all ; the emperor was returned every year, and the other candidates whom he " recommended " seem to have ' Compare the note of date at the Horace wrote and arranged as we have end of the first book of the Epistles. them Od. iii. 4 and Od. iii. 5 at any " Of course this evidence is not time before the year 22, he was an conclusive ; it may be explained away inspired prophet, as it has been, by supposing an earlier s n^e dispute as to the punctuation voyage. I hope to show that so far as of this passage is not here material, it points to a date after 22 it only I do not mean to imply any judgment reinforces what may be superabun- upon it. dantly proved from elsewhere. If MURENA. 29 obtained their places as a matter of course. At all events the consular elections obtain no notice from our historian. The populace, as already observed, was more than contented, and cared nothing for aristocratic ambitions, and the e/i^poz/e?, ' the sensible party', — so Dion significantly calls the acquiescent section of the upper classes — desired nothing less, as they soon afterwards proved, than a return to the gladiatorial canvasses of the late republic. For what purpose could an e/j,(j)pcov, an imperialist, like Horace, put thus prominently forward what f- seemed to be so happily tending to oblivion ? But in 22 — from what cause is not very clear but partly it would appear from the refusal of Augustus to accept office — the character of the elections suddenly changed. (The mere absence of the emperor is an insufficient explanation, as this occurred also in 27 — 24.) However, for the next few years the city was threatened with a resurrection of Catiline and Milo. The struggle for the place which Augustus declined was so violent that until late in the year 21 there was but one consul'. Two years after, the process was repeated, this time with bloodshed ^ Meanwhile the danger of these contests to the emperor was illustrated by the career of the senator Egnatius. By spending his money freely on popu- lar objects he had previously become aedile and praetor, and ' had the audacity' to be a candidate for the consulship for 19 when Augustus refused it. He was disappointed by the firm- ness of Sentius, sole consul in the interim, and justified the fears of the imperialists by forming a plot to assassinate the emperor on his return'. Writing amid all this, Horace might well choose 1 Dion 54. 6. and praetorship, which he obtained '■' id. 54. 10. contrary to law in successive years. ' Veil. 2. 91, neque multo post (i.e. Dion (53. 24) places the aeJileship in after the conspiracy of Murena) Egna- 26; but if this is right the language of tius collecto in aedilitate favore populi Velleius is not at all natural; taken in tantum quidem, ut ei praeturam by itself it would certainly suggest continuarent, mox etiam consulatum that the aedileship and praetorship petereausua. — 92,florentemfavorepub- were in 21 and 20 respectively — dates lico sperantemque ut praeturam aedi- much more probable on general grounds litati ita consulatum praeturae se than those of Dion. As to his caudi- iuncturum. Thereis some uncertainty dature for the consulship and con- as to the date of Egnatius' aedileship spiracy there is no question. 30 ESSAY II. as one type of ambition with which to contrast his own harmi less pursuits huno, Bi mobiUum turba Qniritum certat tergeminis tollere honoribus; indeed the emphasis twice laid by Velleius on the alarming rapidity with which Egnatius mounted from grade to grade, shows that the reference could scarcely miss the advantage of a personal application. But against this, and much more which will be said in favour of the date furnished by the ode on Vergil, it is urged that we have conclusive evidence of publication before B.C. 22 in the odes on Murena. That these were written before the conspiracy is assumed, so far as I know, universally, and is indeed certain, if they have been correctly explained. According to the current views of in. 19, there is nothing to distinguish the party there represented from any other assembly of friends. They are dining and drinking as other joyous parties drink and dine. Murena happens to be one of the company, and for some reason, perhaps his promotion to the augurate, his health is proposed. That this was not composed after his execution, needs no proof But some go further than this — with good reason surely — and argue that it cannot have heen published afterwards^ Yet upon no reasonable hypothesis, not to speak of evidence, can the pub- lication of III. 19 be separated from that of the whole collection. Of some poems, such as I. 37, it might be conjectured, if there were any reason, that being of public interest they were too widely known to be suppressed when the collection was formed. In this case nothing of the kind is probable. Moreover the figure of Murena is not essential to the picture ; a few slight changes would, if the poem is what it is supposed to be, have ' It is worth notice that Velleius in between Sentius and the veteres cm- praising Sentius for the suppression of sules. The significance of this will be Egnatius uses language strongly re- seen hereafter, calling Hor. Od. in. 24. 31 (natural- t Mr. Wickham (see his Introduction iter audita visis laudamvs libentim et to Bks i.— iii.) is a representative of praesentia invidia praeterita venera- this view. tioneproseqvimur,) and draws a parallel MUllENA. 31 preserved everything material. The alhisions, considering to whom the poems are dedicated, can be called nothing else than brutal. To me the argument that iii. 19 as generally explained cannot have been published, or republished as part of the collection, after B.C. 22, and the argument from i. 3 and other evidence that the whole collection, as we have it, cannot have been published before B.C. 19 seem both unanswerable, and the conclusion to which the two arguments point is that III. 19 is not correctly explained. For the difficulty lies not in the fact of the allusion to Murena, but in the tone of it. That Horace, writing or publishing after the conspiracy, would pass the history of Murena in silence can in no way be presumed. As a poet, indeed, he could ill afford to do so. A theme more suggestive for poetry of a tragic cast, especially as the ancients conceived of tragedy, it would be difficult to imagine. The whole story from prologue to catastrophe — the hard lessons of experience learnt and forgotten, the humiliation, the sudden rise and ill-sustained prosperity, the insolent tongue which made enemies when it was the time to propitiate envy, the doubtful guilt and certain ruin, the wide-spread sympathy not unmixed with horror — all that our authorities give us unites in a subject such as Aeschylus chose, a veritable Tpa/ytphta of real life, acted not in the theatre of Dionysus but in the midst of the society of Eome. Nor would the relation between the poet and Maecenas forbid the subject, if only it were touched in a proper spirit. What was the private opinion of Maecenas on Murena's crime and the emperor's justice, it would be vain to conjecture. But on no view could he desire silence. On the worst construction — and Maecenas must have known the worst more intimately than the judges themselves — or on the best, the minister's friends could not do him greater service than to mark the contrast between his loyal modesty and the treason or madness at least of his brother-in-law. In such problems of conduct, one example is worth much speculation ; and though fortunately it is not easy to illustrate from our own history the conditions of a 32 ESSAY ir. dangerous court, we may find a parallel near enough for the purpose. The court of the Tudors was more dangerous than that of Augustus, and the position of Maecenas after the conspiracy of Murena has some resemblance to that of the Duke of Norfolk, also eminent in the service of the government, who had the misfortune to be nearly connected with both the convicted wives of Henry VIII. Would a man of letters attached to the Duke have thought the fate of Anne Boleyn and Catlierine Howard a theme prohibited? Certainly not; seeing that the Duke himself, in an address to the King and on other public occasions, openly testified his shame and disgust. In truth, if there are topics too delicate for speech, there are also topics too delicate for silence, and for the 'graves principum amicitiae' other affections must pay. And certainly Horace, whatever he said of Murena by name, uses language pointing to him with a directness, which makes the want of the name a truly nominal omission. ■ Let us turn a few pages from Murena's banquet and look at III. 24 — quisqms volet impfas caedes et rabiem tollere civicam, si quaeret Pateb TJKBinM subsciibi statais, indomitam audeat refrenare licentiam, clarus postgenitis : guatenua — heu nefas ! — virtutem incolumem odimus, Bublatam ex pculis quaerimus invidi. quid tristes querimoniae, si non supplioio culpa reciditur? etc. Even if we had not positive evidence for placing the final arrangement of these poems in the year 19, the bearing of this passage could scarcely be mistaken. We have already seen how the absence of Augustus from the summer of 22 to the summer of 19 was distinguished from the years preceding by the ' rabies' civica', the 'caedes', and the 'indomita licentia' against which the poet exclaims. When the emperor at the entreaty of the 'moderates' had turned back to end the tumult, the air was full of conspiracies, real or supposed. The many trials • and executions which followed were witnessed in Rome with the MURENA., 33 same mixed feelings which attended that of Murena, though the extraordinary examples mentioned by the historian upon the first occasion do not recur, and it may be supposed that the tragedy lost force by repetition*. When Horace bids the emperor — for the address of the apostrophe is obvious — not to shrink from the hatred provoked by just punishment but look to posterity, he could scarcely put more plainly the advice to send the imitators of Caepio (and Murena ?) where he had sent their predecessors'. Equally clear is the expostulation with the half-hearted imperialists who wanted order without severity — 'What profits sour complaining, if punishment cut not the root of crime ? ' — and the significance of the title Pater Urbium. The generality of cities does not conceal the City, the Patria^, and the reward of courageous severity is to be the designation bestowed by 'enslaved' Rome upon Julius, by the 'free' senate upon Cicero, — a telling rebuke to those nobles who murmured against Augustus for following the example of the suppressor of the Catilinarians rather than that of their advocate, and forgot, in compassion for a L. Murena executed after trial in their own time, that their fathers had voted, at the instance of the L. Murena before him, for executing persons dangerous to the public peace without any trial at all ! We have now to see whether it is possible to find an interpretation for the poems on Murena more consistent than the current one with the date and general spirit of the book. For certain reasons it will be best to risk the temporary inconvenience of taking our first point almost at the end of the story*. Quantum distet ab Inacho Codrus pro patria non timidus mori narras et genua Aeaci et pugnata eacro bella Bub liio ; quo Chium pretio oadum mercemur, quis aquam temperet ignibus, ^ Dion. 54. 15. scelus erumperet, circa Murenae Cae- 2 The natural association of these pionisque coniurationis tern pus.' events comes out well in VeUeius 2. 93, ' See Wiokham and others ad loc. 'antetrienniumfere.quamEgnatianum * m. 19. V.H. 3 34 ESSAY II. quo praebente domum et quota Faelignis oaream frigoribus, taces. da lunae propere novae, da noetia mediae, da, puer, auguris Murenae. Tribus aut noTem miscentur oyathis pocula commodis ; qui Musaa amat inpares, ternos ter cyathos attonitus petet Tatea; tres prohibet supra rixarum metuens tangere Gratia nudia iunota sororibua — Insanire iuvat : our Berecyntiae ceaaant flamiua tibiae? our pendet tacita fistula cum lyra? parcentes ego dezteraa odi ; sparge rosaa ; audiat invidus dementem atrepitum Lycus, et vicina seni non liabilia Lyco. apissa te nitidum coma, puro te aimilem, Telephe, veapero tempestiva petit Bbode ; me lentus Glycerae torret amor meae. It has been truly said that this banquet scene is dis- tinguished among the odes by its gaiety. For 'gaiety' say 'wild extravagance' and the distinction wiU be truer still. Sparge rosas, says the speaker. Has it ever occurred to the reader to ask himself what it would cost to obey this order ? The season is extremely cold, so cold that it is a comfort to escape into the house*. Of the place we will say nothing at present. Let it be Rome. Where were these 'roses' to come from? With all the diffused luxury and art of our own times it would take money to provide any great quantity of flowers in such weather at Rome or elsewhere. In the time of Horace, flowers, except such as came naturally, were the privilege of the few. Like a hyacinth in the rich man's parterre is the bride in Catullus ^ His zeal rivalled the wealth of princes, says Vergil, of the old veteran who, upon a poor bit of ground, made ' I do not insist on the suggestion ^ talis in vario solet of some that nova luna (v.g.) is the divitis domini hortulo mvfirivla, the first day of the year, stare flos hyaointhinus though it is very liljely right. Lix (lxi) 84. MURENA. 35 poppies, roses and lilies grow among his vegetables'. To have a garden was indeed within moderate aspiration", and the garden provided not only the vegetables, but the chaplets, which were also part of a fairly appointed feast. When roses could be had, so much the better for the festivity, but these were for ordinary people a summer luxury. Horace, though he calls himself ' a poor man ' in comparison with the great lords who dined and corresponded with him°, was in easy circumstances. Writing to Maecenas in the very height of summer* to invite him from Rome to the country, he reminds him that the roses have long been ready for his wreath'. But in the middle of April, even for so great an occasion as Maecenas' birthday, ' more sacred almost than his own', he can offer only ivy and ' apium'. How could it be otherwise ? Artificial horticulture was in its beginning. As late as the next reign the forcing of vegetables under cover was a noticeable feature in the imperial gardens. The taste for such luxuries was indeed growing fast, watched, like other forms of unproductive expenditure, with jealousy and some indignation by a government which had hard work to meet public needs. Vergil in the few lines which he gives to the art, is careful to note that the ground in which his indus- trious peasant grew flowers was a waste bit with which nothing more profitable could be done. In the same spirit Horace, as the roses grow scarce, tells his servant that myrtle will do very well, and sneers at the passion for ' Persicos apparatus^' But the taste grew in spite of sneers and rebukes''; and it is quite possible that already cultivated flowers could be got during most of the year, as they may be now— by paying for them. In the preparation made for celebrating Numida's return, — the coarsest scene, by the way, in the Odes, and the only one except that which we are discussing which can be described as an orgy — it is directed that along with the incense and the victim 'lilies and roses shall not be wanting,'* which as there 1 fegum fflquabat opea animis. ' ib. 3. Georg. IV. 132. " Verg. Georg. iv. 116 foil. Hor, Od. » Hor. Sat. ii. 6. 2. i. 38. ' Od. n. 18. 10. ' Od. III. 15. 5. 4 Od. III. 29. 16. ' Od. 1. 36. 15. 3— -2 36 ESSAY n. is no ntfte of season, may lie taken to imply that such adornments were generally procurable. But long after this, when peace and the progress of wealth had made flowers and other desirable things more common than they were in Horace's time, the rose remained the symbol and accompaniment of luxury. In Juvenal (xi. 122) roses are still counted among the pleasures of the rich, and it is the reproach of the satirist that the rose itself has ceased to satisfy. Even in Martial modesty flies at the coming of 'wine and roses'. Among the outrageous entertain- ments which Nero demanded from his ' friends ' is mentioned a cena rosaria, said to have cost upwards of £30,000'. Upon any reasonable estimate then of habits and resources in the Augustan age, roses in a season of 'Paelignian cold' must have been as noticeable as a rare orchid now. To provide chaplets of them would have been magnificence. To throw them about is — what the speaker in Horace implies that it is, deliberate madness, the act of one whom insardre iuvat, re- velling in the mere pride of waste". Then the music — why will the guests have the ' Berecyntian ' music ? The instruments of Cybele were not commonly thought good for the wits. 'Silence the wild cymbal' is the prayer of sense', 'and the Berecyntian horns, which bring after them blind Self-love, and Boastfulness with empty head too high, and Confidence, trans- parent more than glass, that lets the hoarded secret fly.' The only motive alleged for the ' frantic din', except the resolve to play the fool, is the desire to give provocation, innocent possibly, but not very safe. And the musical provision, like the floral, is remarkable not in quality only, but in scale. The Komans played and sang after dining, but to have a band was no commoner then 1 That the roses of thia feast, what- woosPyrrha 'multa inrosa', scarcely a over elsemayhave been done withthem, type of reason; and that is at a time were in part for wreaths, is shown of year when a 'grotto' is 'pleasant', by the parallel between the rosaria The special arrangements for scattering and the mitellita. Suet. Ner. 27. flowers at the banquet are mentioned ' It may be noticed that to scatter among the luxuries of Nero's Golden flowers at private feasts was no ordinary House, Suet. Ner. 31. custom at all. No one does so, I ' i. 18. 13. believe, in Horace except the lover who MURENA. 37 than it is now. The companions of Murena have better music, or at least more, than- seemed enough for a state banquet in honour of the greatest victories'. Even the friends of Numida, are content with 'strings'" ; elsewhere Horace, with all his lyrics tell of feasting, notices no music more complicated than a song to the single harp. The concert in iv. 1. 21, — which is precisely the same as that of Murena, even to the ' Berecyntia tibia ^' — is not for a dinner but for the ritual of a temple. Certainly Murena has a gay party. It is a pity, however, that their mirth is not more harmless. To bring out fully the effect of the concluding sentences would be to anticipate*, but this may be said here, that the wanton disturbance and hint of mischief conveyed in the lines, audiat invidus dementem strepitum Lyons et viciua seni uon habilis Lyco, is quite out of harmony with the tone of the Three Books and must be intended to displease. It will be noticed that the speaker propounds two alternative canons for drinking, recommended, he says, respectively by the number of the Muses or of the Graces'. The rule of the Graces is best for peaceable men, but the decision (insanire iuvat) is evidently for the deeper potation. Now though Horace once, upon a festal occasion such as could scarcely recur in a life-time, announces his intention fairly to lose his wits", sobriety is his common text^ And that there may be no mistake about his meaning here, this nocturnal orgy, which contains no reference to Horace nor any hint that he is of the party, has near it the companion picture of a festive night at the poet's own house. 1 Epod. IX. 5. water (iu a total of twelve cyathi) or ^ 1. 36. 1. • measures of the size of the cups, 2 lyraeque et Bereoyntiae 'bumpers of nine' and 'bumpers of delectabere tibiae three. ' I take the last view, for a mixtis carminibus non sine fistula. defence of which see Mr. Page's note * See Venus and Myrtale. on the passage. 5 It is not necessary to discuss " n. 7. 26. whether the nine and the three cyathi '' i. 17. 22, i. 18. 6, i. 20. 1, i. 27. are varying proportions of wine Jo 3. etc. 38 ESSAY II. Even in the pleasure of a visit from Messala, it is not forgotten that there is danger in the wine, and the Graces, rejected in III. 19, are carefully mentioned in ill. 21 among the patrons of the expected feast — te Liber, et (si laeta aderit) Venus segnesque nodum solvere Gratiae vivaeque produoent luoemae, dum rediens fugat astra Phoebus*. It is now time to inquire under what circumstances this most noticeable entertainment takes place, and what is the supposed scene of the poem. The current explanation is as follows. The scene is Rome, the expression ' Paelignian cold ' being merely proverbial or poetic for intense cold. Some one somewhere is talking archaeology, when the speaker bids him dismiss such topics and consider the arrangements for a joint banquet in the evening, for which one shall furnish the house and the warm water (for the bath, or for mixing with the wine, or both), while wine, and presumably the other necessaries, shall be bought at the joint expense or by the banqueters sever- ally''. Then, ' (pavTaa-iai ope ', he suddenly shifts to the mid- night hour and the actual banqueting, and imagines himself proposing a toast to 'Murena the augur', from which it is conjectured that the improvised festival may be intended to celebrate his admission to the college. Now I will say nothing as to the artistic effect of the sup- posed change of scene, or the probability of it in a poem of this length and character. There is no other such in Horace'; why it has been so generally agreed to assume it here is plain enough — if the party is already at table, the question what they pay for their wine is not much more to the purpose of drinking and ' m. 21. 3, 23. It is worth while to the situation at all. Do the party compare the two poems. mean to impose themselves upon some ' Macleane almost alone, I think, cue entertainer ? among recent commentators rejects the s ii. 7. and ii. 11. are cited, but the notion of an Ipavos, but, as he follows analogy, if any, is very imperfect. In- the usual view that the banquet is deed it is not clear that there is any prospective, I cannot understand upon change of scene there at aU. what other supposition he explains MURENA, 39 hilarity than the question how far the date of Inachus is from the date of Codrus. Nor shall it be objected, though it is true, that the feast by contribution (trvfi/SoXij) was a Greek custom rather than a Roman*. This apart, it still appears that the above explanation cannot be right. For what is meant by saying that after the second stanza the scene changes ? On this point there is much obscurity in the language of the commentators, and well may be. From some we might gather that there is a real interval of time, in which the arrangements are completed, the party assembles, half the banquet elapses and midnight arrives. If so, the poem is no poem at all, but two fragments, and would be rather more intelligible if so printed. But probably the meaning of all is that clearly expressed by Orelli, that the speaker projects him- self in imagination only into the midst of the banquet. If so, since the choice of a house to meet in is still an open question, how can the speaker possibly forecast the character of the neigh- bours? What reason is there in the assumption that an old gentleman and a lady too young for him will be within hearing ? Then see the style, — the dramatic points da lunae novae, sparge rosas, te petit Rhode etc. Is it possible that all this is mere anticipation of what is going to be said some hours later ? Then again, if the poem does not begin at table, to give the rebukes addressed to Telephus any point, it has to be assumed that he is 'master of the feast '^ or something of the kind, a fact which, if required, ought to be given and not left to obscure inference. The more we examine the case the more it will appear that the two first stanzas, as commonly explained, are worse than useless. The poem falls into pieces without junction, and we must endorse, in a sense not intended by the critic, the judgment that Horace has here been specially successful in ' concealing his art '.' ' In Greek plays translated into terrupted may or may not be identical Latin the 'symbola' appears with the with Telephus. other Greek features ; hut so far as I ^ There is one technical objection to can discover Eoman literature proper the current view scarcely worth men- exhibits neither the word nor the thing, tion after such as are stated above, ^ Orelli and others. I say ' to Tele- though to my own mind almost con- phus', but the antiquary who is in- elusive per se. A sentence such as gao 40 ESSAY II. Upon the difficulty of supposing that the scene throughout is the banquet itself, it is needless to say more at present, than that this view seems to have been almost universally rejected. The objection, fatal certainly at first sight, lies, as already said, in the words, quo Chium pretio cadum mercemur ; hut for these words the interpretation now popular would perhaps never have been thought of. It is this which suggests the notion of the 'symhola', and gives what plausibility it has to the assumption of a change of scene. But now — to consider the poem without prejudice — there are one or two reasons for thinking that, instead of a breach between the second stanza and the third, we ought to find a close connexion. ' You discuss remote dates,' says the speaker, ' and tell stories of ancient heroes ; of a time and person which more concern me you say nothing, and that is the hour at which and the man by whose hospitality I escape the bitter cold. Come, a bumper to midnight and another to Murena !' So far there is connexion enough. Certain topics are marked as relevant to the occasion and a toast is given to each. The host is described doubly as provider of the house and the fire, because shelter and warmth are the comforts in season'. If there were nothing to guide us but the correspondence of quota hora to noctis mediae, it would be a noticeable hint. But for the correspon- dence between Murena and quo praebente domum there is independent evidence. The words praebente domum, not a common phrase, are repeated from an earlier work, and are there joined with the name of Murena". If the name and pretio mercemur faces is, taken by is an actual and not a deliberative itself, ambiguous between the two present tense, mercemur, temperet, and meanings you do not say at what price caream are the same. we buy and you do not say at what ' Whether the warm water was for price we are to buy. But the choice is bathing or drinking or both signifies no longer indiSerent, when the sen- little, but I believe the tradition of tence stands in sharp antithesis to the scholiasts (followed by Kitter) is another of the same form, quantum right ; it is the banquet only which is distet, narras. Surely the natural im- in view, and the water therefore is for pression must be that the correspon- the table. dence of form answers to a correspon- ^ Sat. i. 5. 38. Murena praebente dence of meaning, and that, as distet domum. MURENA, 41 phrase are not connected here, it was an odd trick of recollection that brought them together. And this analogy may help us further. The house which Murena ' provides ' in the Satires is a country-house, and the expression is more suitable to the country, where in default of such provision lodging comfortable for winter was scarcely to be had, than to Eome. It is said that in Paelignis frigorihus the epithet must be qualifying merely. How should it be ? We are offered the illustration ' Siberian cold', a good instance of a local epithet used to mark a quality, and aptly showing why Paelignis should not be so inter- preted here. Local names have prima facie a local meaning, and if they are to have any other, the literal sense should be excluded by the circumstances. For the names of very remote places the remoteness itself provides the condition, and as an Englishman might write 'Siberian cold' so Horace writes Sithonia nive, and might have written Getica frigora, or perhaps Alpina frigora, without risking any ambiguous suggestion that the scene of his poem was laid in Scythia or on the Helvetian border. But the country of Sulmo and Corfinium was no savage desert. Even 'Paeligna', or to come nearer still, ' Praenestina', would have done well enough, if the scene were otherwise fixed at Rome. But Paelignis frigorihus is the sole note of place in the poem. Why should it not be literal ? The heir of the great Varro not only may but must have had property in the region of Paelignian cold, for close to the Paelignian hills lay Reate, the seat of Varro's family, the place where he was bom and from which he is denominated Reatinus. Reate was not a Paelignian town, but a Roman visiting it in a severe winter might well call the cold 'Paelignian', as an Englishman visiting Thun in such wesither would consider the climate 'Alpine', though Thun is not in the Alps.^ So far, then, all fits the supposition that this is no symbola, but a festive supper in a house of Murena's at or near Reate in the Sabine uplands. But again we are brought up against the old barrier of quo Ghium pretio cadum mercemur? — which is ^ The valley of Eeate was itself Diet, of Geography, Axt. ''Rea,te\ celebrated for its coolness. See Smith's 42 ESSAY II. indeed darker than ever, for the guests of an augur certaiiily did not purchase their wine. Not literally, doubtless, and for cash, but 'to purchase your wine' had more meanings than one in Roman language. It was permissible and graceful for an invited guest, unless the host were very rich, to bring as a gift some contribution to the elegancies of the feast, for example, a delicate unguent or perfume. CatuUus jests on the custom, by writing an invitation, in which he offers perfume if the guest will bring the rest of the entertainment*. Horace refers to it in IV. 12, where he invites a mercantile money-making friend, and pointedly reminds him that a poor man's wine is not to be had for nothing, so he must bring his box of ointment — Bed pressum Calibua duoere Liberum si gestis, iuvenmn nobilium cliens, nardo vina merebere. uardi parvus onyx eliciet cadwm qui nunc Sulpioiis aooubat horreis, gpes donare novas largus amaraque curarum eluere efficax. ad quae si properas gaudia, cum tua velox merce veni : non ego te meis immunem meditor tingere poculis, ■ plena dives ut in dome 2. , The language of this passage is curiously exact in its resem- blance to quo Ghium pretio cadwm mercenmr, and shows, I think, that if Murena's visitors earned their entertainment by bringing some valuable return, this would satisfy the words as well as if they had paid him in cash'. Perfumes indeed would not have been a present worth so much notice for a man whose servants were scattering roses in winter. But a title, a decora- tion, or an appointment (the augurate itself, for example) might be worth the wine even of a great nobleman ; and any such ' Cat. xiiL nothing, being paid in diro^o/njra, the " Possibly in i. 31. 10, dives et presents of the host, aureis meroator exsiceet ouluUis viua ^ jj ^^s a feast day, moreover, Syra reparata meree, the last words the Kalends, perhaps the nova hma wines bartered against Syrian wares, (vov/irivla) specially so called, the first i.e. exchanged for perfumes, refer to of the year and the day for giving this social 'commerce,' rather than the strenoe (Urennes), additional reasons literal. The guests commonly lost why they should not be imrmines. MURENA. 43 gifts of imperial favour Murena's visitors might very well bring him, in the shape of an announcement, from Rome. The puzzle is that, according to the speaker, they seem to have -brought the nova luna itself. The correspondence already noticed between the toasts of the third stanza and the questions of the second requires us to find a relation between quo Chium pretio cadvmi meroemur and da lunae propere novae. The gift, the host, and the hour are the three topics of question; the hour and the host being accounted for in the two last toasts, we are left with the luna nova for the pretium; and indeed from the promi- nence given to these points, they ought to be the chief in the situation. Here, to my mind, is the difficulty that must be faced. One view, which has occurred to me as conceivable, is given below*, with my reasons for not thinking it satisfactory. The solution which I am going to offer is bolder, but I venture to think that it is complete. The luna nova here mentioned ought to be something which could be brought as a gift. Is this really impossible ? Not at all. The principal care of Augustus, during the earlier part of his sole rule, was the constitution of society upon the new monarchical base, and in particular the purging and limitation of ' the orders ', the senate and the ' equites ', both of ' We might solve, or rather avoid, dignity, whatever it was, commenced the difficulty by combining da lunae with the new month. But, in my novae and da noctis mediae as a opinion, this is not all that the joint answer to the question quota passage requires. The comparison ftora, the hour indicated being the between what the visitors bring to commencement of the first day of the Murena and a feast-gift, such as the month (or year). The gift which is box of ointment in iv. 12, would broughtoraimouncedwemight suppose scarcely suggest itself naturally, unless to be the atiguratvs (indicated by the some material object were in view, title auguris) dating from the Kalends having more visible relation to the (nova luna, vovnnivla), an appropriate banquet than a mere announcement day of commencement. The party by word, letter, diploma, or whatever having sat up tiU midnight, the speak- the form might be. Now the augura- er suddenly remembers the time and tus had a material emblem, the wand calls for a health to the host in his or lituui, like the "White Staff" of new dignity. And this, so far as it the Lord Chamberlain in former days, explains the emphasis laid upon the But this is not meant, or it would be day and time, is probably true ; the mentioned. 44 ESSAY JI. which, especially the senate, had suffered severely in twenty years of civil war from impoverishment, unworthy promotions, and other causes of degradation'. The transition of the senate from the governing aristocracy of a republic to the peerage of a monarchy was a process of much purgation. One thorough revision was among the first acts of the new government after the overthrow of Antonius and Cleopatra. Another followed upon the return of the emperor from the settlement of the East, which occupied the year 20-19. In 22 was tried without much success the experi- ment of appointing censors after the old republican kind. Minor occasions of admission or exclusion are repeatedly mentioned by historians ; and among the inventions of the emperor, Suetonius names two boards charged with the revision of the lists from time to time as occasion should arise^ With these changes in the composition and status of the orders was proceeding a more general change, characteristic of a monarchical revolution, the increasing importance of personal decorations, shown by the fact that after the foundation of . the empire, insignia, military and civil, soon became separable from functions, so that the ' ornaments ' of the consulate, prsetorship, triumph, and so forth, became, like the corresponding realities, objects of sovereign grant, not less sought and more readily bestowed'. Of civil insignia few were more splendid than the senatorial, the marks of peer- age in the new society; and under the empire, whatever may have been the case previously, the peculiar badge of the senate was the so-called luna, the crescent of ivory upon the shoe*. What was the political origin of this decoration and when it was first recognized by law is an obscure point. Like all Koman institu- tions, the imperial no less than the republican, it was provided ' Suet. Aug. 35, 38. It is useless to terum recognosoendi turmaa equitnm aoonmulate passages on a subject quotiensoumque opus esset. Suet, which in Dion Cassius runs through Aug. 37. the whole history of this reign. It ' Among examples of such separa- has been already noticed that it had a tions may be noted that of the sena- finaneial as well as social importance. torial insti/TOa by Augustus, introduced The authorities for the rest of the to diminish the invidiousness of re- paragraph will be found in the ordi- vision. Suet. Aug. 35. naiy books of reference. • Compare the 'star' of a modern ' triumviratum legendi senatus et al- order. MURENA. 45 with a fabulous derivation, being traced e. g. from the Arcadians, presumably through the companions of Evander, who came even before Aeneas to Eome'. As a symbol of long descent (from the proverbial antiquity of the moon or otherwise) it may really have been known from early times, though there is no proof of the fact. Shoes of a particular form and colour were among the marks of senatorial rank under the republic. Cicero alludes to them, and Horace in the Satires ; Cato discusses their origin. In imperial times the luna also is frequently mentioned as a sena- torial emblem^, but not apparently earlier, and we shall presently see that the only political explanation of it known to Plutarch is purely imperial. Probably, like other details of official costume, it was an ancient but uncertain custom to which the social punctilio of the reforming monarchy gave new fixity and signi- ficance. The event then which I conceive to be celebrated in this poem is the reception or re-assumption by Murena of this decoration. The event itself is no matter of conjecture. A man who ' lost his property in the civil war ' did not, we may safely assume, obtain a place in the first reformed senate of the year 29, the very object of the reform being to get rid of povertyand disaffection. On the other hand, it has been shown that Murena was a senator and pushing his way to prominence in the year 22, We may perhaps gather from the poem that his admission coincided with the conferring of the augurate. Murena is represented at the height of his suddenly recovered prosperity — and in what company ? Drunkenness, prodigality, wantonness, and mischief, the ' insane ' luxury, unwholesome for body and mind, against which the readers of the Odes are so often warned, are the features of Murena's banquet. Bapienter idem contrahes vento nimium secundo turgida vela, is the advice given to Murena when his prosperity is still in the ^ Plutarch, presently cited. See Mayor on Juvenal vn. 192, upon ' e.g. Stat. Silv. v. 2. 27 — 28 sic te, whose references, the fullest collection clare puer, genitum sibi curia sensit I can find, I here depend. primaque patricia clausit vestigia luna. 46 ESSAY II. future, and here is the result. Here is the temper in whicl men listen to evil suggestions, when they blurt the thoughl which should lie safe, when the head reels to the maddening Phrygian pipe, cum fas atque nefas exiguo fine libidium diBoernunt avidi'. Here is the behaviour which makes a man odious and lays up jedlousy and enmity against the day of need. And there is a special circumstance not to be passed over. The discourse so rudely interrupted may not be agreeable to the company, but there had been those who would have found it more interesting than women or wine. The question of the distance in date between Inachus and Codrus was, according to the science of the time, of no small importance. The date of Inachus was the initial era of Greek history". The date of Codrus, last Athenian king, was the initial era of republican Athens. A few years before this banquet, a scholar from Eome entertained at Keate by the greatest historian and antiquary of the day, who fixed the 'Varronian era' of the 'regifuge' from which we stiU measure the years of republican Eome, might have talked even till midnight on the dates of Inachus and Codrus without fear of being interrupted by toasts and scandal. So also the toper's appeal to the number of the Nine recalls the law laid down by the great scholar in the interest of good conversation, ' that the guests should be not more than the Muses nor fewer than the Graces.' In suggesting this con- trast Horace is following a great example. This was not the first time that Varro's apartments had been strangely occupied. Years before, during the first civil war, his villa at Cassinum had been seized for a time by Antonius. No reader of Cicero will forget the passage in which the revels of the marauder are compared with the grave and dignified hospitalities of the owner — " Studiorum enim suorum M. Varro voluit esse illud, non ' I. 18. 10. See the whole passage. 'Apyelov irpoaeKTion. Ocellus Lucanus, ® rots "Kiyovin ttjv ttjs ''E\'Kt)vtK7Js cited by Orelli ad loc, l(TToplas apxn^ ^'To 'Ivaxov etvat rod MUEENA. 47 libidinum deversorium; quae in ilia villa anteadicebantur? quae cogitabantur ? quae Uteris mandabantur ? iura populi Romani, monumenta maiorum, omnis sapientiae ratio omnisque doctrinae. At vero, te inquilino (non enim domino) personabant omnia vocibus ebriorum ; natabantpavimentavino; madebantparietes; "ingenui pueri cum meritricibus, scorta inter matres familias versabantur\ Horace has of course drawn his picture in brighter colours ; his Murena is a thoughtless fool, not a thief and a villain ; still the contrast is the same in spirit. So much on the meaning of the poem taken by itself. But it is not an independent unit, and cannot be fully appreciated except in connexion with the series through which the story is told. This commences of course with II. 10, the greater part of which has been already quoted. It purports to be addressed to Murena in the time of his disgrace and poverty {v. 16, we shall see in another essay that this fits with the place of the poem in the collection) and to give hopes of better fortune hereafter. The form of the promise is highly significant — informes hiemes redueit lupiter, idem EubmoTet;... quondam cithara tacentem suscitat musam neque semper arcum tendit ApoUo. Even before Actium the connexion was notorious between the future Augustus and Apollo. Jupiter and Apollo were his deities, but above all Apollo. His more superstitious admirers believed him to be the god's own son"; his detractors made epigrams on his pretensions to the ApoUine character, which he was even said to have acted at a certain famous dinner en masque'. After the victory won beneath the temple and in sight as it were of the patron*, it naturally became an article of ^ Something answering mutatii mtt- when ' the rotten orange was squeezed ' tandis to the last words is probably to a Londoner under William HI. indicated in the close of Horace's poem, ' Suet. Aug. 94. Dion. 45. 1. His but not knowing the persons we cannot mother is given as the authority! appreciate it. When Horace published, ' Suet. .4 m?. 70. the whole scene and company was * Verg. Aen. 8. 704. Actius haeo probably as well known as the supper cernens arcum intendebat Apollo, 48 ESSAY II. faith that it was Apollo who ' laid aside the lyre and assumed the bow ' to subdue the enemies of Caesar and Kome — adstitit August! puppim super, et nova flamma luxit in obliquum ter sinuata faoem. jwn ille attulerat crines in colla solutos, aut testudineae carmen inerme lyrae ; sed quali adspexit Pelopeum Agamemnoua voltn, egessitque avidis Dorioa castra rbgis.... dixerat et pharetrae pondus eonsumit in anus ;.., bella satis eeoini: oitharam iam posoit Apollo victor et ad placidos extiit arma choros'. Consequently, to remind one who had lost that the bow may again be relaxed and the lyre touched is to open the prospect of reconciliation with the victor. For the rest, Horace argues equally against undue depression and (with a view to the possible future) undue elation — on this much more than enough, if the poem were really what it pretends to be. It is scarcely kind to urge on one whose state is ' at present ill,' that ' he who loves the golden mean... provokes not jealous eyes with a palace." However, when Murena next appears, the improbable palace has become a reality. The poems we have been noticing (ii. 10, and III. 19) are the only two which introduce Murena by name. But in il. 18 we come upon a very curious fact, the explanation of which is closely connected with our subject. The poem is as follows : — Non ebur neque aureum mea renidet in domo lacunar, non trabes Hymettiae premunt columnas ultima reoisas Africa, neque Attali ignotus heres regiam oeoupavi, neo Laconicas mihi trahunt honestae purpuras clientae. at fides et ingeni benigna venast, pauperemque dives me petit: nihil supra deos lacesso nee potentem amicum largiora flagito, 1 Propert. v. 6. 29. foil. Wtetber the analogy between Horace and Pro this image of the lyre and bow was a pertius has a more direct cause it ii commonplace of the time or whether unnecessary to enquire. MURENA. 49 satis beatus uuicis Sabinia. Trnditur dies die, novaeque pergunt interire lunae : tu secanda marmora looas sub ipsum funus et sepulcri inmemor struis domos, marisque Baiis obstrepentis urgues submovere litora, parum loouples oontinente ripa. quid quod usque proximos revellis agri terminos et ultra limites olientium salis avarus? pellitur paternos in siuu ferens deos et uxor et vir sordidosque natoa. nulla oertior tamen rapacis Orci fine destinata aula diyitem manet eram. quid ultra tendis? aequa tellus pauperi recluditur regumque pueris, nee satelles Orci callidum Promethea revexit auro captus. hio superbum Tantalum atque Tantali genus ooberoet, hio levare funetum pauperem laboribus vooatus atque non vocatus audit. This poem, differing ia this respect from ir. 10 and ill. 19, is one of those which contains references to facts in the life of Horace, showing that the poet, in his historic character, is the speaker (see the allusion to Maecenas' gift of the Sabine farm in v. 14). If we compare other such odes in the Three Books we shall find that they have another, and very natural, characteristic in common ; they are addressed, if to any one, to historical persons'. Now this also purports to be addressed to ' This is one of the most curious of 13 (to Planous), i. 33 (to Tibullus), the many dLSerences between the ori- ii. 6 (to Septimius), n. 7 (to Pom- giual collection and the "fourth book". peius), ii. 16 (to Pompeius Grosphus), The odes of the collection, which con- iii. 21 (toMessala Corvinus, practically, tain (1) autobiographical references and though in form to the wine-bottle), also (2) an address, are I. 1, 1. 20, II. 12, All these persons, except Septimius II. 17, II. 20, ni. 8, III. 16, lii. 29 (all and Pompeius (ii. 6 and 7), are known addressed to Maecenas), i. 3 (in effect to be real from external evidence, and to Vergil), I. 6 (to Agrippa), 1.7, seew. these two by the poems themselves. V. H. 4 50 ESSAY II. somebody {v. 17), but this somebody, by an exception unique in poems of this type, receives no name, real or fictitious. Equally remarkable is the earnest tone of expostulation in which the poet speaks. Nowhere else do we find extravagance and luxury assailed in this personal form. Where Horace ia most severe — in ii. 15, for example, or ill. 6, or ill. 24 — he is most general, avoiding both reference to himself and all forms of direct address to individuals. Where these are used, as in i. 18, II. 2, II. 16, the sermon is pitched in a lower key, and so arranged as to prevent any direct application of the moral. Personal remonstrances, if we except the half-playful poem to Iccius upon his projected 'invasion' of the East (l. 29), are reserved for an imaginary ' Asterie ' (ill. 7) or the wife of an imaginary 'Ibycus' (III. 15), and the poet is careful not to prompt suspicion by identifying the preacher with himself. Observing thus the natural dictates of good taste, he cannot have been un- aware that here on the contrary he had so expressed himself as to force the question, ' To whom does Horace address these warm and familiar rebukes ? ' Nor has he omitted the answer. What he says of himself in the first fourteen lines is obviously to be understood by contraries of the unknown : the antithesis is the scope of the poem, enforced by the emphatic mea, mihi, me, tu. Horace has no golden roof and marble columns ; ' Tu ' builds incessantly, invading the sea and, what is worse, expelling the poor to enla,rge the ' palace ', which after all he must quit for the tomb. Horace has not entered suddenly upon a princely residence by the bequest of a stranger. ' Tu ' then has ; and Some of the pergonal odes have, of to be discaesed hereafter. See the same course, no address at all, as i. 31 and Essay. 32, rr. 13. None of those addressed to ' In the Epades of course all these persons certainly or possibly fictitious conditions are reversed, personality have any 'personal' touches (i. 17 not being the essence of the style. It is excepted; see the Essay Venus and worth notice that the 'Hipponactean' MtjrtaU). The way in which IV. 11 com- metre of ii. 18, unique in Horace, by bines a date in the life of Horace and its very name and history Maecenas with an invitation to 'Phyl- a personal meaning. In ancient lite- lis', is peculiar to the supplement and ratnre the form is far more important connected with a very interesting subject than with us. MURENA. 51 this in itself is evidence that ' Tu ' is no mere ' dives aliquis ', but ascertainable. Originals answering such a description must in any society be so few that to rebuke them as a class would be to court an offensive misapplication. Now whoever else there may have been in Rome who might be fixed on as 'ignotus heres Attali', there was one whom enquiry could scarcely miss, and that was the successor of M. Varro. The ' Attains ' of the parallel is, as every one knows, the Pergamene Attains Philometor, who bequeathed his kingdom to the distant Republic. Any king of that book-buying dynasty, from whose capital ' parchment ' is called to this day, might have furnished a fit type for the great librarian and land-owner, whose distinctions were immense wealth and yet more prodigious scholarship. But between Philometor and Varro there is a much closer analogy. The writings of Varro were for the most part such as ' the general reader' is content to admire from the outside. Philo- logy and antiquities, though they had relatively more students than now, were specialties even in Rome, and the style of Varro is no lighter than his themes. Agriculture and gardening were topics for everybody, and after the completion of the Oeorgics (circ. B.C. 28) might be said for the moment to take literary precedence of all others. Varro's ' standard work ' on these arts, which preceded Vergil's poem by a few years', and furnished in part the material for it, is fairly readable. At the time when Varro died, both books were fresh in interest, and all who knew more of him than that he was very rich and very learned must have known him as the author of the treatise De Re Rustica. In the first chapter of it the author gives a list of previous writers on the same subject, and almost at the head of this, in consideration perhaps of date and rank as much as merit, stands the very Attains Philometor of Horace's allusion'. Under these circumstances, if this severe address to the ' heres Attali ' had not been intended for the successor to Varro's wandering ' Written when the author was poteris, cum quid consulere voles; eighty, i.e. about B.C. 36. Hieron Siculus et Attalus Philometor ' Hi sunt quos tu habere in consilio etc. Varr. De B. R. i. 1. 4—2 52 ESSAY II. wealth, that successor might, I think, most justly haye resente( the equivocation'. It is therefore not surprising that this ode connects itsel both with II. 10 and ill. 19. As to the first, the whole is bu an expansion under altered circumstances of the lines fron II. 10 above translated, auream quisquis mediocritatem diliglt, . . . caret invidenda Bobrius aula'. The 'invidia' in the picture of the poor dependants turnec out of home for the patron's needless pleasure is patent to ; modern reader, perhaps never more than at this present time' but a still more effective touch to a contemporary would be th( description of the palace itself in the first few lines. The us( of gold in the decoration of private houses was of quite receni introduction, and gave great oifence to the Puritan sobrietj which was still in the Eoman character. But a very short timi before, the application of gilding to the roof of the nationa sanctuary itself had seemed in doubtful taste*. Lucretius, in a passage which Horace has remembered several times, inveighi against the desire for such ornaments ^ and Seneca in turr satirizes it in language which recalls more than one expressioi 1 Many of the notes on Odes ii. 18. varie de Catulo existimavit, qnoc 5 and i. 1. 12 say that the use of tegulas aereas Capitolio inaurassel the names 'Attains ', 'Attalious', is pro- primus.' This and the reference t( verbial for wealth. The point is not Seneca I take from Smith Diet, AiU important, but it is perhaps worthwhile on Dqmus, that to Lucr. from Orell to remark that the texts are no proof of on Hor. Od. ii. 18. 1. this. Itseemsjustaslilielythati. 1.12 » Lucr. ii. Uioll.Glih. 29-33 wit! is explained by some story unknown. Hor. Od. ii. 3. 13 and n. 11. 13, Lucr After Horace, a proverbial use is found, ib. 20 — ^21, 34 — 35, with Hor. Od. m. 1 naturally enough, 41 — 48, Lucr. it. 37—39 with Hor. Od 2 Of. II. 18. 31. I think these are ii. 16. 9 foil. The emphasis laid b; the only two places where the Odes Lucretius on the fact that flowers are i have aula in this sense. natural luxury of certain seasons (32- 3 July, 1884. Note also the epithet 33) throws light upon Murena's winte in honcstae clientae. roses. Lideed the whole passage is tb * Plin.H. ^. 33. 18, 'laquearia, quae very moral of the Three Books an( nunc et in privatis domibus auro should be read in this connexion. teguntur...nam sua aetas (b.o. 60) MURENA. 53 ■of Horace*. A still better commentary is furnished by an epigram of Martial. The career of Murena through extrava- gance and outrage to a tragic end was repeated, on a scale suitable to the march of the times and the difference between a sovereign and a subject, by the emperor Nero. The 'golden house', which was among the chief causes of his ruin", is the subject of the second epigram ' de Spectaculis'^. Martial is pointing to the various buildings which afterwards stood on the enormous site — hio ubi sidereua propior videt astra colossus, et cresount media pegmata celsa via, inmdiosa feri radiabant "utria regis, unac[ue iam tota stabat iu urbe domus. hio ubi conspioui venerabilis amphitheatri erigitur moles, stagna Neronis erant. hie ubi miramur, veloeia munera, thermas abstulerat miseris tecta sv/perbus ager. Claudia diffusas ubi portious explioat umbras ultima pars aulas deficientis erant. The touches here collected from Horace, and especially from II. 10 and II. 18, are highly significant as showing how the older poet was understood by the later. The central figure which gives interest to Martial's epigram is notorious to the world; the poems of Horace are strung upon a thread of semi-public history long since broken, whose fragments cost patience to unite. More important even than ii. 10 to il. 18 is ii. 18 itself to in. 19. (The story of Murena is by no means neglected in the interval, but we will postpone the side-allusions at present)— da lunae propere novae, da nootis mediae, da, puer, auguris Murenae, cries the boon-companion feasting in the senator's luxurious ' Sen. Ep. 90, 'Philosophia haec chiefly to such applications of the cum tanto habitantium perioulo im- precious metals, as the word lamina minentia tecta suspendit? Parum (/oil for plating) shows, enim erat/ortmtM tegil culmusUheios ^ Snet. Nero, 31. texit etc' (Cf. Hor. Od. ii. 15. 17, neo ^ cited by Orelli on Od. n. 10. 5—8, fortuitum B^evnere caespitem\eges sine- see also in. 1. 45. The reminiscences bant.) Hor. Od. ii. 2 refers also from ii. 18. 23 — 36 are equally plain. 54 ESSAY II. house. Compare this with the prophetic menace of the cou sellor'-^ truditur dies die, novaeque pergunt interire lunae : tu seoauda marmora locas sub ipsum funus et sepulori immemor struis domos. Where is the wisdom of the augur^, who in the pride of 1 new bauble, and among the flowers upon his floor, forgets th non semper idem floribns est honor vemis neque uno luna rubens nitet voltu"; that the 'nimium brevis rosa' is but the emblem of mai mortality', and that 'new moons go forward to their waning' 1 The notion of a moral significance in the badge of nobili' is probably with Horace a mere poetic imagination, but became in a more prosaic age the serious opinion of antiquarit "Why", asks Plutarch in his 'Enquiries respecting Rome', "wl do those who pretend to the distinction of nobility wear tl little moons upon their shoes ? Is it, as Castor tells us, a tok« that they dwell, as the saying is, upon the moon, and hereaft when they are dead their souls shall have the moon beneai their feet ? Or was it a privilege of the oldest (Romans), wl were Evander's Arcadians and called from his time •TrpoaeK'rivo Or is this, like many other things, a reminder to the proud ai exalted that man is liable to decline as well as to rise, c example from the moon, which Umeen before comes first into the new, Still facing fairer to the round and full. And presently when noilest of aspect Dwindles again away and comes to nought} Or was it a lesson of obedience, not to be rebellious in cowndl; h as the moon consents to regard her superior and be second him^ ' It will hardly be necessary to an exact imitation of Athenian tragel remind the reader thatthe' unconscious ' a. 11. 9. irony ' of this anguris, and the use of ' ii. 3. 14. the ' mantic ' art foT such a purpose is MUEENA. 55 ever with eye upon the tonne beam, as Parmenides says, so to he content with the second place, eon- suiting their 'princeps' and enjoying the power and honour from him derived^ ? " If Plutarch had written this passage expressly as a commen- tary on the connexion between the words of Horace, it could not have been more exactly to the point; indeed the verbal correspondences are almost beyond accident, and though we cannot trace the stages of the process, it is likely enough that Plutarch's ethic actually is Horace's poetry, condensed in the colder air of speculation. We have seen that Horace claims for his Odes a wreath from the Muse of tragedy', and now the claim is perhaps intelligible. To my mind at least the 'irony' of that brilliant midnight might not have misbeseemed Sophocles him- self. The pause in the wUd music is a last chance, the ' silent lyre' an unheeded warning'. / hate the hand that spares; scatter the roses, cries the tipsy reveller, — his name we do not know, but some among the first readers of Horace doubtless knew it well enough. How would the noble host have received this sentiment on another day, when the 'red right-hand' of the avenger* would not spare for any imploring; and nothing ^ Plut. Qucest, Horn. 76, Ai& H tcls ht) Svffxcpali'eiv, aX\' laVirep 17 ffeXrftj iv Tois iiroS^iMai (reXijWSas ol Siatpipeiv Tpoaix^iv i8i\ei rip npelTTovi Kal Sevre- SoKovvres evyevetq, (popovaiv ; whrepov, pevetv, del wairTaXvovffa irpbs aiiydi t*)S 'KdtTTCjp tpijffi, avfi^oXdjf iffri tovto ^eX/oio, Karh rbv Tlapfji£vid7jv, ovTio rip/ r?s \eyofi.iyrii olKrjtrews iirl rijs o-eXij^'ijs, devT^pav rd^iv dyaTrav, xpw/j^ravs t^? Kal Sn iieri, rriv reXevTrir avSis al yjivxaX ■^y^imvi Kal rijs dtr iKelmv dwa/ieas Kal TTjv aeKipi-riv iirh viSas i^ovaai ; rj rots Tip.T}S diroXaionTas. TaXawriTois tovto iir^pxev i^alp^Tov ; The reading ^ovKevopAvtiti/ has been oJroi 5' yjaav 'ApKaSes tSiv oVd EvdvSpov suspected, but is right as a neuter rpmrekqvuy \eyop.ivav. ^, KaSarep SX\a genitive absolute, lit. 'when things are ToWd Koi TOVTO Tois iiraipopAvovs Kal /li- debated'; the reference is of course 70 tppovowTas viroiLiVTiffKei t^s iw ipupo- to the /SouXi) or ycpov(rla (senatus). Tepov Tuv dvBpwvivwv ixera^oX^i, irapa- For evyeveirTdTn in the citation from Seiyp.a Toiovp^vovs ttjv ireX^i'iji' tragedy some read eu^aceffToTT) ; the lis ii dS^Xov vpuTov Ipxerai via, original may have run so but evyev- TtpoTUTraKaWvvovaaKalirX-iipoviiAvii, crToj-ri suits Plutarch's purpose. Xwrax rep olffis evyeveffTon) ip&rri ' "^- ^^- ^^' ^^^ Essay i. iroXiK Siappel Karl iJ.r,dh ejoxe™!- ' Contrast 11. 10. 18. . fl , r M o , / 4 I. 2. 2 ; of. i. 3. 38—40. 1) rewapxla! r)v liaStina, pov\evop,ivav 56 ESSAY II. was before him but the dishonoured grave, on which only bi connivance might the customary roses be strewn'? The peculiar form of ii. 18, an address nameless and yei apparently personal, has thus an obvious reason. That poen fills in the story the place of the friendly but solemn warning which only infatuation will disregard. A real speaker is necessarj to the effect, nor could the poet venture to assign such a part to another. Yet to bring himself and the unfortunate man intc the same picture was a delicate matter, and he solves the diffi- culty by avoiding the name and substituting an enigma which those who would might solve and the indifferent pass by. In such commonplace as ll. 18, the identity of the speaker signifies nothing; here therefore (and of course in III. 19) 'Horace' is absent and Murena can be named without reserve. On the climax of the tragedy the catastrophe follows quick. It has already been noticed that in ill. 24 we have what may be called an address of the 'moderates' to the throne upon the events of the years 22 — 19, calling upon the emperor not to shrink from the severities which public order required ^ The poem sums up the political moral of the Three Books, tracing license to its cause in luxury, bidding the rich devote their gold to the' public service or — throw it away, and calling for a sterner training of the young to give the future a better chance. The language is for the most part general, and contains no personal invocation more explicit than the oblique reference to Augustus 1 Lavishuess in flowers was with the It is worth notice that Vergil's "swain Bomana, as it has lately become with Daphnis" (Julius Caesar?) is made to us, a tribute to the dead (Verg. Aen. "enjoin" the simpler observance in his Ti. 813 — 6, purpureas spargam flares, own case, his will being signified by etc.), and in the summer tombs were the disappearance of flowers after his decorated at a special ' feast of roses ' death, (rasales escae). When flowers could pr„ molU viola, pro purpureo narcisso not be procured, leaves were used, as carduus et aptaia surgit paliurus acutis ; Horace reminds us in the verse im- spargite humum foliis, inducite fontibus mediately preceding in. 19, spargit umbras, ^ , ,, . . pastorea ; mandat fieri sibi talia Daphnifl. agrestes tibi sxlva frandes; the wmtry ^^ t„,„„m„ f^^^^ ^to. forest strews its leaves as if in honour (^* ^- ''•' of the dead year, the Italian Faunus ' iii. 24, 25 foil. here absorbing the symbolism of Pan. MUEENA. 57 already cited. But Latin, which sometimes expresses by the second person the indefinite 'one', is well adapted for covert allusion in seeming generality, and by a single touch of this kiad Horace has combined his wider moral with his particular illustration. Intactis opulentior thesauris Arabum et divitis Indiae oaementis licet oocupes terrenum omne tuia et mare publioum^, Bi figit adamantinos summia vertioibus dira Neoessitas clavos, non animum metu non mortis laqueis expedies caput. So the poem begins; here the quasi-personal form is dis- missed. In these two stanzas is the last appearance of the extravagant builder, rebuked generally in many parts of the Odes, and individually in ii. 18. When we have observed that the laqueus was the instrument of execution, we shall be near to guessing what memory has guided the metaphor. In the three poems devoted to Murena and in the final allusion just noticed the story itself is concluded. But if we would fully understand the relation between this story and the Odes, we must look more widely. For example — in various parts of the poems on public history and politics the myths relating to the defeat and punishment of rebels against the gods, — the Grants, Prometheus, Tantalus &c. — are used to typify the contemporary struggle of order against anarchy, Jupiter typifying the emperor and the cause of Rome, his enemies the contrary forces over which they prevailed. Thus the sins of the civil wars in general are likened to those which drew down the ancient flood (i. 2), and in the triumphal ode (l. 12) which seems to connect itself with the defeat of Sextus Pompeius and the revindication of the sea, the gods of the 'Gigantomachia' are selected to receive the thanks of the state". After what we have seen, it would be rather a surprise to miss in the Odes some parallel between these types of hostility to the policy and ^ So Laohmann (followed by Munro). reading here. It would be out of place to discuss the " i. 12. 13^22. See Essay iii. 58 ESSAY II. person of Augustus and the accomplices of Caepio, the more so when we find a like parallel explicitly drawn by Ovid. "When Jupiter in the Metamorphoses, weary of the Giants and their imitators, announces to the assistant gods his detection of the conspiracy of Lyoaon and his intention to inflict a terrible punishment, the council was moved, says Ovid, like the world applauding the discovery of a plot against the life of the emperor : oonfremuere omnes; etadiisqtie ardentibus ausum talia deposcunt. sic, cum manna impia eaevit sanguine Caesaieo Bomanum exstinguere nomen, attonltum tanto subitae terroie luinae humanum genus est, totusque perhorruit orbis. nee tibi grata minus pietas, Augusts, tuorum, quam fuit ilia loyi^. Now in one of the odes (ill. 4) the battle of the Titans fills a large space. The poem is notorious for a difficult transition of thought, but the explanation lies in the events of the years 25 — 22. From the beginning to v. 37 the subject is the gratitude of Horace to the Muses for protecting his life in the past and. his confidence in their guardianship for the future ; Tester, Gamenae, vester in arduoB toUor Sabiuos, sen mihi frigidum Praeneste, seu Tibur supiuum seu liquidae placuere Baiae, etc. From V. 42 to the end the subject is the overthrow of the Titans and other offenders against the gods. The transition is managed thus — vos Caesarem altum, militia simul fessas cohortes abdidit oppidis finire quaereutem labores Pierio recreatis antro. Tos lene consilium et datis et dato gaudetis almae. — Soimus ut impios Titanas immanemque turmam fulmine sustulerit caduco qui terram inertem qui mare temperat, etc. Let US recall briefly the history. In 25 Augustus was danger- 1 Ov. Met. 1. 199. MUEENA. 59 ously ill at Tarraco; during his illness his lieutenants finished (for this time) the Cantabrian war and subdued the Salassi of the Graian Alps ; both conquests were followed by the foun- dation of colonies for the veterans, Augusta Praetorianorum (Aosta) and Augusta Emerita (Merida), the name of the Spanish foundation indicating, as said above, the feeling of the emperor that his military career was at an end. Under the care of his physician Antonius Musa he recovered and returned to Kome in 24. Early in 23 he had a yet more severe illness and made preparations for death. Musa however was again successful and received enormous rewards from the public gratitude. In the autumn of the same year Marcellus, in spite of Musa, died at Baiae, and the conspiracy of Caepio and Murena followed within a few months'. It would be impossible to put a 'learned' allusion to these events, in the style which the Eoman poets borrowed from Alexandria, and which plays so large a part in works like Vergil's Eclogues, more neatly than Horace has done it. The Muses were the patrons of the healing art", as of all the arts, and especially favourable it might be supposed to their namesake — if indeed his remarkable name was not rather due to his skill. In a single stanza Horace combines with it the foundation of the two cities, with their names, Augusta Prae- torianorum {cohc/rtes) and Augusta Emerita (Gaesarem altum finire quaerentem labores), and finally the 'Pierian cave', with its memories of the TEessalian Chiron, teacher of Aesculapius, and the mythical beginnings of medicine*. The Muses saved the life of Horace and the life of Augustus, " Ye give the (physician's) soothing counsel, and rejoice in the gift. ('Sed erant qui felicissimum statum odissent.' Woe to those who re- joiced not!) We know how Jove's thunderbolt destroyed the un- duteous Titans," — and so we pass to the conspirators*. (For all ^ See Dion Caasius for these years. ' Pind. IPyth. iii. 1. Nem. in. 53, Velleius (n. 93) places the death of Xelpwv rpdipe XiSlvip ivSov riyei 'AjtkKti- Marcellus ' about the time of the con- iriov rbv tpapfiaKUv iSLSa^e vifiov, etc. spiracy of Caepio ', so that the interval * Franke and those who follow him cannot have been great. Dion shows in dating the Odes before 23 regard the only that the conspiracy was early in 22. reference to conspiracy here as mere ' Carm. Saec. 62. vague anticipation (or connect it with 60 ESSAY II. this the way was prepared, in the thoughts of the writer at all events, by the stanza first cited; for his journeys between 'soft Baiae ' and ' cold Praeneste " were in fact regulated by the prescriptions of Musa, who was celebrated for a cold treatment, sent his patients to cold resorts, and of Baiae in particular had a very natural fear'). In the Titanomachia itself there are details worth note. the very unsuitable history of Cornelius Gallus). What ia written above will show, I hope, that the allusions are not vague ; a prophecy (in a sense) they are, but a prophecy written, as might be supposed, and as the next Ode proves, after the event. 1 Hor. Bpist. 1. 15. 2. The silence of Horace on the failure of ' the Muses ' in the fatal autumn of 23 is here easily understood. I take this opportunity of touching on the absence from the Odes of any reference to the death of Marcellus. From this, and the occurrence of the name in i. 12. 46 it has been argued that the Odes were completed before 23. Of course, if this Essay has any meaning, this is no more possible than that Samson Agonistes, for example, was published before the Restoration or the Sivina Commedia before the exile of Dante. Assuming the later date, is there anything surprising in the treatment of Marcellus? As for the supposed difficulty of i. 12. 46, I con- fess that I can see nothing in it. It is an allusion of the vaguest kind. Among names and families great in Boman history occurs that of Marcellus : the di- rect reference is not to the young heir, but to his great ancestors, especially the victor of Syracuse. Of. Prop. iv. 18. 33 and seePluss, Hor. Stud. p. 106. No doubt the juxtaposition of the names Marcellus and luUus has significance, but the ostensible date of the poem is long before the death. See Essay in. In a poem on the prospects of Rome, as- suming to date from that time, some notice of the heir was almost necessary- the lighter the touch the better, and Horace's touch is the lightest possible. Why the subject is not taken up again, why there is in Book in. no 'dirge', such as Mr Wiokham thinks might be expected frpm the author of i. 24, is a more interesting question, but, like most literary questions of this negative kind, it admits no oertaia answer. Perhaps the simplest and truest would be that Horace did not think he could do better than Vergil and Propertius, and did not care to do worse. And another consideration— Vergil was, cer- tainly after 29, the personal friend and intimate of the imperial family; Proper- tins had at least no PhUippi iu his past ; Horace, it must be again observed, ra- ther avoided the friendshipof Augustus, even when (after the Odes and first book of Epistles) it was almost forced upon him ; and lived in connexion with a party whose devotion to the emperor (so far as it existed) was purely politi- cal. Before 19 Marcellus' place had been supplied, in the political sense, by the birth of Augustus' grandson. Under all these circumstances, a 'golden silence' is far from inexplic- able. And on the other hand, we might surely ask with at least equal force, how, if the Odes were published at a time when Marcellus was 'the Cynosure' of every eye — ^how it is that the allusion of i. 12. 46 is all that Horace gives him ? MUKENA. 61 Bed quid Typhosus et validus Mimas, aut quid minaoi Pcvrphyrion statu, quid Ehoetus evolsisque trunois Enceladus iaculator audax contra sonantem Palladis aegida possent ruentes? hino avidus stetit Voloanus, hinc matrona Juno et nunquam umeris positurus arcum qui rore pure Castaliae lavit orines solutes, qui Lyciae tenet dumeta natalemque silvam DeKus et Patareus Apollo. It need not be supposed that every name in this list has a historical analogue. Personal touches there probably are, thougt as we know not even the names of any of the accused, excepi Caepio and Murena, we cannot recognize them\ But the victors the imperial family, we do know, and there is an unmistakeabk poLQt in the prominence given to Apollo. By the year 22 age and dignity had converted ApoUo-Octavianus into Jupiter- Augustus hut Tiberius, the actual prosecutor of the conspirators, made in some respects even a better Apollo than his step-father. A prince who wore his hair long and was something of a poet' could scarcely escape the comparison, which was a topic of jesi in the family itself. 'Vale, iucundissime Tiberi,' writes Augustus to him, ' et feliciter rem gere, ifj,ol koI rot? Mova-ai'i ijBicrTi err partly wv'.^ Critics have objected to the description 'nunquam umeris positurus arcum ', that it does not suit the moment o: battle. If we compare it with the promise to Murena in ii. 10 19, which like the rest of the poem is not only a promise but i warning, we shall see that it is adapted not to the parable, but tc the interpretation. Speaking as if before 22, Horace remindi the disaffected that though Apollo is not always bending hh bow, yet from his shoulders he will never lay it. Let non( 1 Perhaps some confusion arising ° Suet. Tib. 68, 70. from this parallel helped to produce ' *• 21- The text is very slightl; the strange reading of the MSS. in corrupted, the best MS. giving MOyiCA. Suet. Aug. 67, Licinmm Bnceladum. AlCTe TpATHfCON (seeed.Both.,Teub The passage refers, however, to the ner series, Praef. p. xli). The allusioi emperor's freedmen, and has been is obviously to Apollo as Mowu corrected to Licirmm et Celadum. riynTap or Wova-ayiTris. 62 ESSAY II. presume rashly upon his peaceful mien'. If we add that at the time when the Odes were being completed, this vindicator of his father's majesty actually was in the neighbourhood of his Delian and Lycian homes^ we must admit- that here also is an allegory which it would have taxed the Alexandrines to surpass'. The other figures, having no special relation to the conspiracy, are less conspicuous ; it is enough that the celestial group selected, in its relations to the monarch, — daughter, wife and two sons — answers precisely to the imperial, as it stood in the year 22 and then only, Augustus, Julia, Livia, Tiberius and Drusus. Before 22 some representative must have been found for Marcellus ; after 22 Julia must have brought in Agrippa, and to compare her to Pallas would have been absurd. To fix the reference still more clearly the next Ode commences with Caelo tonantem oredidimus lovem regnare ; praesens divus habebitur Augustus adieotis Britannia imperio gravibusque Persia. Of the two future tasks here indicated, the subjugation of the West and East, it is the last which occupies the poem; the subject being the shame of Crassus' defeat and the degrada- tion of his army. Let us now go back to history. Upon or shortly after the suppression of Caepio, the emperor dedi- cated the temple of Jupiter Tonans, a votive offering for a narrow escape from a thunderstorm in Spain*. Dion, always 1 Compare the description of Bacchus that they are pointed at M. Antonius, in the allusions to the Gigantomachia which is possible ; but from Caepio II. 19. 21 — 28, and for the historical back to Antonius is a long spring. It situation Dion 54. 3. is perhaps more likely that there is 2 He was on his way back from his some allusion to supposed projects on expedition or demonstration against the part of the conspirators with re- the Parthians, and came via Rhodes. spect to Julia, who became disposable Dion 54. 8, 9. Suet. Tib. 11. by the death of Marcellus. Those ^ Some light may perhaps be thrown who have suspected interpolation will by the above upon the question re- of course have an obvious explanation, specting the conclusion of the poem for the later conspiracies {of lulns An- vv. 69—80. The last stanza and the tonius, etc.) were certainly connected last but one introduce rather abruptly with the 'amores' of Julia, examples of the dangers of lust. It * Dion 54. 4. Suet. Aug. 29. has been suggested (see Page ad loc.) MUBENA. 63 careful of religion, faithfully records that at the dedication there was actually thunder. Upon such an occasion of thanksgiving the quite recent escape could scarcely- be forgotten; in Horace at all events the parallel between the Thunderer and his servant on earth, immediately following the allegory of the Titans slain 'by the bolt ever ready to fall', suggests the connexion in a manner not to be mistaken. After this rite followed almost immediately the departure of Augustus for the visitation of the East, the object and termination of which was the recovery of the lost standards of Carrhae*. The complaints of many critics against the abruptness of the transition from faith in the Thunderer to the ignominy of the 'miles Crassi', might have been modified had they observed that the thoughts of the poet are following in outline the events of the past. The poems addressed to Murena contain no allusion to the defeat of the Titans. In the admonition of li. 18 he is bidden remember the fate not of Rhoetus, but of Tantalus and Prometheus, punished both of them for insolence against Jove and grouped together in the poet's vision of Hell". Both, as compared with the Titans, are enigmatic characters. Tantalus had been the entertainer of the gods, but was brought to destruc- tion through ill digesting his prosperity, to use the metaphor of Pindar'. As to Prometheus, it is to be remembered, that though Titan-bom, he did not espouse the Titan cause ; on the contrary, some of the legends attributed to him a chief part in the victory of Jove*. All this we should probably understand better if we could recover the curious book of Maecenas "qui dicitur Prometheus ", an invaluable commentary, to judge from the quotation in Seneca, both on the Odes and on the story of Murena. The remembrance of it brings us aptly to our next * Dion S4. 6. at the banquet celebrated in ni. 19. " II. 13. 37. * Aesch. Prom. Fine. 197 foil. In that ' Find. 01. 1. 54 foil. Cf. Od. i. 28. 7, play of course Prometheus is the hero, coiwiva deonrni; Ov. Met. i. 165, Ly- and many parts of the story do not a- caoniae oonvi via mensae; i6. 198, strux- gree with the common mythical view of eiit insidias notus feritate Lycaon. his character. But he is always regard- It is possible that the emperor either ed as au exception among the Titans was present or was to have been present in having originally sided with Zeus.. 64 ESSAY II. question — the relation between the Odes, the conspiracy, an Maecenas, to -whom the collection is dedicated. Upon the probi bilities of the situation something was said above ; it is now 1 be seen whether the poems themselves correspond. The pictui of Murena seems to answer precisely the minister's presumabl wishes. Horace paints him as proud, extravagant, wilfu culpably careless in offending public opinion and private feeling and above all deaf to friendly advice. The description answei to history and was probably true in fact ; it is at all events 1 the advantage of Maecenas, and under the circumstances vei far from injurious to the dead. That the judges had convicte him of treason was undeniable; the contention of his frienc was, as Dion shows, that the evidence would not have bee thought sufScient, but for the prejudice and enmity caused h the previous behaviour of the accused. To emphasize, therefon the unpopular traits in his character, is to diminish the weigl of the criminal charge. And the tragic turn given to the stor by the poet, the elation of sudden prosperity followed by terrible fall, appeals forcibly to the element of compassion in th mixed feelings which the historian represents. On the otbe hand Horace is eloquent in expressing his horror of the cor spiracy and satisfaction at the punishment of the impioui Whether Murena was one of the impious, he of course does no and dared not pronounce. He ventures only parallels, whic while they admit, what was notorious, that the emperor ha received great personal provocation, at the same time sugges that, with regard to the actual treason, the sentence of the judge might have misdirected his wrath. For the rest, in contrast t the inordinate pride and offensive display, which on the milde interpretation had cost Murena his life, the moderation c Maecenas is set in the strongest light. The climax of Murena dangerous elevation is represented, as we have seen, by hi senatorial 'peerage'; on the other hand Horace insists on th fact that Maecenas remained an eq^ues, declining the distinctio which, it is assumed, he could have commanded'. This coir ' It is clear from Telleius II. 88 that tirioal remarks. See p. 25. this 'moderation' did not escape sa- MURENA. 65 mendation Jias been often noticed, but not so, perhaps, the extraordinary energy of feeling with which it is expressed — cresceutem sequitur cura pecuniam maioTumque fames, iure perhorrui late oonspiouum toUere verticem, Maecenas, equitum decus. ' I have been right to shrink ' is not the language of commonplace. A few lines earlier we read eoncidit auguris Argivi domus ob lucrum demersa eidtio'. The professed comparison is between the humility of Horace and the greatness of Maecenas, but the contrast between Maecenas and one for whom the equester ordo was not high enough is also implied, and the person, if there were any doubt, sufficiently designated. Of the seven poems addressed to the patron, four represent him as not disdaining in his greatness to share the sober feasts and simple pleasures of Horace* — a topic of consolation as well as of praise. The most important of all, not only by its length but by its position at the close of the book, is iii. 29, in form a suggestion to Maecenas to take the season of summer for a visit to the Sabine farm. Taken in connexion with the data of history, it shows plainly what was the real position of Maecenas at the time when the collection took shape. We have seen what was the effect on his position of the conspiracy of 22. Ostensible change there was none; occupying no legal office, he had no dismissal to undergo, and remained in outward view as before, the representative in the capital of Augustus' personal interest, till the creation of the praefectus urUs in the year 16. On the other hand, the inner relations between him and the emperor were gravely disturbed, and his position as counsellor damaged so that it was never entirely restored. The poem reflects both conditions. In III. 8 (another invitation to Maecenas, the allusions of which ' ni. 16. 11 foil. For perhorrescere experience, cf. 11. 15. 15, where it describes the fear " i. 20, in. 8 (note w. 15, 16), hi. 16. of known danger which arises from in. 29. V. TT R 66 ESSAY II. connect it with a date at all events before 22') he is thus addressed — mitte civiles super urbe cnras ; occidit Daci Cotisonis agmen, Medus infestus sibi luctuoBis dissidet armis eto.^ In this concluding poem Horace is careful to use precisely similar language — tu civitatem quis deceat status curas et urbi soUicitus times quid Seres et regnata Gyro Baotra parent Tanaisque discors. But if we look to the whole drift, it is plain enough that this minister is not ' incolumis '. The terrible uncertainty of human happiness, swept away suddenly as by a flood, the virtue of remembering that past happiness cannot be undone, and, if Fortune shifts her favours, taking the loss calmly in the consciousness of innocence — these are the topics upon which Horace insists, and however edifying such a sermon might be to a statesman in the height of his power, it is not then that he commonly hears it'. Of course, the advice and consolation is put in the form of commonplace, and refers nominally only to the poet's own principles, but, apart from the insipidity of such generalities if they had no interest to the person addressed, 1 See next Essay. ;ng. The first person selected for the " It is disputed whether clviles here oifioe (Messala Corvinus), resigned it means internal, domestic, as opposed almost immediately on the express to foreign, and so ia a repetition of ground that it was an ' incivilis poten- super urbe, or simply statesman-like (see tia '. By describing Maecenas' positiou, notes adloc). But I do not think either which was, or rather had been, a sort gives the true or at least the whole ot'praefecturaurbis'mihoutthens.me, point of civiles. In the language of as 'ciuiZes superurbe ourae', Horace at the republic, civilis meant 'consistent once softens the expression to republi- with the proper relation of citizens' can ears, and hints the peculiar use- and corresponded most nearly to our fulness of such a person to the goTem- word 'constitutional'. Now the ap- ment. pointment of an imperial officer legally " Contrast the different aspect given charged with the government of the to the same philosophy in the conolu- city, in fact a j»-a«/€ctus «rJis, was in- siou of iii. 8, 'dona praesentis cape tensely repugnant to republican feel- laetus horae, linque severa.' MUllENA. 67 some of the language used has no point, if it is to be tied strictly to the apparent meaning : Fortuna saevo laeta iiegotio et ludum insolentem ludere pertinax transmutat incertos honores nunc milii nunc alii benigna^ To a Eoman honores suggests the political favours of Fortune. What was shifting office to Horace, whose highest civil employment had been a clerkship in the treasury, from which he was only too delighted to be set free ? The rest is too long for examination, but it seems to me impossible to read it without feeling that the minister thus addressed must have suffered misfortune, and is probably in fear of more. Nor is the cause forgotten : ' Come into the Sabine hills ', says Horace, 'and so escape the sameness of view from your mansion at Kome, ne semper udum Tibur et Aesulae declive contempleris arvum et Telegoni iuga paiTicidae. ' (The emphasis given to this last word is not arbitrary, it is demanded by the unusual rhythm and order'). Why Tusculum should be described by this legendary allusion, and why the contemplation of it in this light should be particularly irksome to Maecenas, we shall perhaps understand if we remember that parricidium was the Roman name for ' treasonable murder ' and that the heir of M. Varro may be presumed to have succeeded to his villa at Tusculum. Whatever might be Maecenas' opinion as to the strength of the evidence against his brother- in-law, this association of ideas would not increase the charm of his prospect. But there was one part of the story which concerned Maecenas even more nearly than the guilt or innocence of Murena, and that was his own betrayal of the emperor's secret. Augustus certainly believed that the detection of the conspiracy was disclosed by Maecenas to Terentia^ Circumstances favour the charge, and I cannot find in the Odes any hint of a denial, ' cf. II. 13. 12, in. 6. 8. = Suet. Aug. 66. 68 ESSAY II. which would probably have been useless, and possibly unsafe. Assuming the fact, the minister's best and only exculpation lay in the extravagant fondness which he is known to have felt for his wife', and which must have made the possession of this fatal secret a trial such as might overtax stronger nerves than his. This excuse Horace has not forgotten to emphasize — num tu quae tenuit dives Aohaemenes aut pinguis Phrygiae Mygdonias opes permutare velis crine Lieymniffl plenas aut Aiabum domoa " ? When the poem which celebrates the love of Maecenas for Terentia was originally written, is, like other such enquiries, beyond our knowledge'. That in the shape it now has, and as part of the collection, it has been modelled to suit the whole, we may see from the significant allusion to the defeat of the Giants — Telluris iuvenes, unde perioulum fulgens eontremuit domus Batumi veteris — put prominently, yet as if by chance, among the topics of song which Maecenas would not find to his taste. Indeed it is an obvious doubt whether under ordinary circumstances, to publish this picture of conjugal caresses would have been either friendly or becoming. So far as Maecenas is concerned, there is nothing to disturb the apologetic effect of it in relation to the events of the year 22, and there is a hint which the political friends of the minister could not be expected to suppress — me dnlces dominae Musa Licymniae cantua, me yoluit dicere lucidum fulgentes oculos et bene mutuis Jidum pectus amorilms. If Maecenas to relieve his own burden somewhat prema- ^ See Smith Diet. Biog. 'Maeceuaa'. entia see Note B. and the Essay Vemt His vain rebellions and repeated sub- and Myrtale. That it should ever have missions led to the remark that though been doubted proves wehave still some- he had but one wife he married a thou- thing to learn about the feelings of sand times. Horace and the nature of the Odei. ' II. 12. 21. As to the identity of ' The ostensible date of it is lie- Licymnia with Maecenas' Lioinia-Ter- tween 30 and 25. See next Essay. MURENA. 6D turely confided the secret to his wife, was he responsible for the further disclosure ? Might he not at least have supposed that in her faith a trust upon which his honour depended would safely rest? In general, the odes to Maecenas are, as might be expected, silent on the subject. There is, however, one passage, in a poem of the widest generality, which cannot, after 22, have been either written or published without cbn- sideration of its possible bearing on the topic. The reader will not be surprised to find that it is notoriously one of the most obscure in the whole book. The second poem in Book ll[. commences with the education of youth in public virtue. ' Let them be hardened', says the poet, 'into good soldiers' (1 — 12). The sequel is a series of transitions, to the sweetness of the patriot's death in arms, thence to manly worth in general, and its independence of popular favour (illustrated not from war but from politics 19 — 20), and lastly, with great abruptness, to faithful silence, which betrays no secret, — the connexion being apparently no other than that patriotism, independence, and fidelity are all the fruits of sound training — est et fideli tuta silentio merces ; vetabo qui Cereris sacrum yolgaiit arcanae-, sub isdem sit trabibus, fragilemve meoum solvat phaselon : saepe Diespiter neglectus incesto addidit integrum ; raro antecedentem scelestum deseruit pede poena, elaudo. Obviously this is an unusual way of writing, and much has been said by way of explaining it. I am inclined to think that the obscurity is intentional. Against the possibility of inter- preting the last two stanzas as a denunciation of Maecenas, Horace might fairly think that the whole book was a sufficient guard. Moreover the betrayal of the ' Cereris sacrum ', to the Romans a natural symbol of the confarreatio, points much rather at the offence of the wife than the offence of the husband (agreeing in this with ii. 12) ; in any case the complaint that " Jupiter often confounds the innocent with the guilty " could not possibly do anything but good, while the generality and 70 ESSAY II. loose construction of the poem have the resuit, most desirable in a case of such extreme delicacy, of saving the writer from responsiliility for any meaning in particular. Considering that our knowledge of the conspiracy of Caepio and of Murena's story is but the barest outline, and how im- portant is the relation between this story and the Odes, which antecedent probability and external evidence combine to prove, we plainly cannot expect to understand that relation com- pletely. For the first readers of Horace, and specially for the .circle of Maecenas, every detail in the plot, the circumstances, and the -persons was a burning memory, and it is likely enough that many a passage where we see nothing but commonplace brought tears to the eyes of Terentia or Proculeius. But in losing what after all was not intended for us, we need not lose the enhance- ment of effect, which accrues to a large part of the book from so much of the history as remains to us. If the lyrics of Horace, with all their grace and vigour, have been found— a notorious complaiiit; — somewhat trite, artificial, and cold, it is, I believe, in part because, where we think of mankind, Horace was thinking of a man. When Horace speaks to Sestius, or Plancus, or Dellius, or the public at large, of the proper use of wealth, the dangers of ambition, and the certainty of death, he addresses a society ' quaking ' yet from such a ' roll of thunder in the blue sky ' as calls careless men to the thought of their own frailty and of the terrible caprices of Fortune', wondering yet where the next bolt might fall. When Sestius is bidden enjoy the pleasant season of spring, while the missiles (which Jupiter will hurl in summer) are still in the forging, for vitae summa brevia spem vos vetat inchoare longam, we are no more impressed by the name of Sestius than if it were Titius or Seius''. It was otherwise with men by whom Sestius was associated with the cult of regicides, and who but a few years ago had seen the promotion of a Sestius to the consulship followed by the conspiracy and punishment of ' the Titans . When the proposition, that death often assails men from the 1 I. .34. = 1. 4. MUEENA. 71 quarter which they least expect, is illustrated by the example of the soldier who fears the Parthian arrow, and the Parthian who fears the chains and dungeon of Rome — miles sagittas et celerem fugam Parthi, catenas Parthus et Italum robur': sed improvisa leti vis rapuit rapietque gentes — we might perhaps think that the commonplace is scarcely improved by the exaggerated comparison. Not so, when the disregarded peril of the prison had recently brought proud and gallant nobles into the hand of the executioner, and none kneW' what guilty Caepio or not so guilty Murena might be the next occupant of that gloomy cell. It is particularly in the Second and Third Books that this effect is felt. In the Second there is but a small proportion of poems, which, even with our scanty knowledge, do not show soma touch on the political and personal feelings which are the main topics of the work. The topics — and in part the cause ; for we are not without warrant from Horace himself for doubting whether but for the story of Murena much of the Odes might ever have been written. Of that which directly refers to him this is of course true, but I do not speak of this only. The Three Books contain almost all the 'poetry', in the stricter sense, which Horace composed of his own accord. The Fourth Book was an imposed task. In the Epodes grace and elevation of feeling are for the most part excluded by the theory of the style^ The rest, the larger part of his work — ^be it better or worse — he himself not untruly describes as prose in metre. Yet he was highly am- bitious of literary fame, and evidently regarded ' poetry ' as the best foundation for it^ His ear for rhythm, his knowledge of literature, his patient industry are proved by the lyrics them- selves and his own testimony. In spite of this, a very small volume contains the whole 'poetic' product of some thirty ^ The ' TuUiauum ' where state- are to be excepted, prisoners were confined and executed. ' in. 30. He often defends his other See the conuuentaries, in. 15. 17. work against bad criticism, but never ^ A very few such, as vii. and xvi. speaks of it in this tone. 72 ESSAY II. years, and, if he had had his will, it would have been still smaller. The fact appears to be that, in general, Horace could ' not write ' poetry ', nor is it difficult to guess why. Poetry whether grave or gay, is not to be written without emotion, The ' philosophic ' habit of mind delineated in the Satires and Epistles is the least poetic of all. What art and industry and a complete command of the best materials could do in the way ol lyric poetry without earnestness, we may see in such poems as I. 10 or I. 21. But there are time» when even the nil admirari nature is moved beyond its wont, and the lax string of the humorist may be strained to a more musical tensity. An appalling event, such as from a mind habitually gloomy might almost take the power of expression, to a lighter nature may bring the steadiness and gravity required for serious work, As Horace himself says, it is the thunder-peal of Jove, the spectacle of a sudden and terrible catastrophe, which rouses the follower of insaniens sapientia to a sense of the might oi Fortune and the weakness of man, — the subject, as again he himself tells us, of the severe Muse'. Now we have seen that Horace regarded his lyric poetry in general as a gift of this Muse, and from the point of view here indicated, I think the ascription is comprehensible, even in the widest sense. Of a considerable portion of it it may be said, that in actual theme it is an ' Ode of Fortune ', a descant in various moods upon the perishing pleasures, the certain, and often sudden, death of man — touched with something of tragedy by the awful story, so neai to Horace and to his readers, of which the outline is so power- fully dashed in. What the fall of Antonius is to the hymn tc the queen of Antium, that the fall of Murena is to the entire t work. When this element is subtracted there remains indeec much exquisite writing, some which a cool criticism mighi perhaps rightly call best of the whole, such as the address t( Barine", or the expostulation with Asterie '. How much evei of the poetic power displayed in such poems as these, comparec ' 1. 34. and 35. On the relation gedy see ii. 1, and Essay i. and historical bearing of these poems, '' ii. 8. see Essay III. On 'Fortune' and Tra- ' in. 7. MUEENA. 73 with such a piece as the first Ode to Mercurius*, is due to the unusual tension of mind produced by such events as those of the years 31 and 22, we cannot say. Horace gives to Melpomene the credit of them all. Englishmen, at least, need find no difficulty in understanding him ; for the case may be illustrated by a very pertinent example from our own literature. Between Horace and Gray the differences are many and obvious, but they agree in one striking point. Both wrote much that is not poetry (Horace publishing, Gray keeping his prose private); both wrote also poetry exquisite in finish but, though both were long at full leisure for writing, very small in amount. And we have Gray's own word that ' if he did not write much it was because he could not.' This incapacity is of course to be understood as an incapacity of spirit. Gray could have written as many verses as Mason ; Horace could probably have composed ' Alcaics ' enough to fill a Corpus. But the English poet certainly, the Eoman presumably, could not write poetry except at rare intervals. "And it may here be remarked", says the biographer of Gray, " as a very singular fact that the death of a valued friend seems to have been the stimulus of greatest efficacy in rousing Gray to the composition of poetry, and did in fact excite him to the completion of his most im- portant poems."'' Exegi monumentum aere perennius... ...Sume guperbiam quaesitam meritis et mihi Delphica lauro cinge volens, Melpomene, comam. Seeing the large influence, direct and indirect, which tli6 story of Murena appears to have had upon the original Three Books, it is interesting to enquire whether the subject is touched J I. 10. 2 Gray. E. W. Gosse. p. 66. 74 ESSAY II. in the additional Book -written and published many years after- wards at the instance of Augustus. Before examining this point, we may notice that in one respect the relation between this Book as a whole and the preceding receives light from this side. The service required from Horace was to celebrate the conquest of the tribes of the Eastern Alps in the year 15 by the emperor's step-sons Tiberius and Drusus\ As it is implied by Suetonius that both this and the composition of the Carmen Saemlare- (B.C. 17) were not willingly undertaken, there is reason for asking why Horace did not confine himself to the commissions. If the original work had been a mere collection of detached pieces, it would have been simple to insert in it one or two poems such as IV. 4, iv. 14, and even the Carmen itself. But the collection being what it is, such a course was impossible. Not only are the Three Books dedicated in the main to feelings private and political, with which paeans on the military glories of Tiberius would have been little in harmony, but their chronological structure and proportions would have been altogether disturbed by isolated references to the year 15. All three moreover, and particularly the Second and Third, in so far as they do not deal with pure fiction", are tinged with the colour, if I may use the expression, of the agitated time which separated the conspiracy of Mureua from the conspiracy of Egnatius. To introduce later history with proper effect would have required a remodelling of the whole. On the other hand, the conditions of Horace's task and the manner in which he has executed it plainly suggest the probability of some allusion to the earlier theme. The fame of the Three Books and the emperor's good opinion of their durable quality caused the request which produced the Fourth'. Under these circumstances, the author of the ode on the Titano- 1 Suet. Vit. JSor. Tindelioam vie- ' It is important also to remember toriam Tiberi Drusique priviguorum that much which we think fictitious suorran componendam iniunxit, eum- and without connexion is very probably que coegit propter hoc tribus carminum not so. See next Essay, libris ex longo intervallo quartum ad- ' Suet. I.e. dere. MURENA. 75 macJda'^ when pressed to invoke his Melpomene in the interest of Tiherius, was not likely to forget his 'Delias et Patareus Apollo', nor him either, who fell by the scattering shafts of that ambitious young god, nor to omit anything which could or should be done for the self-respect of the Muse and for the unfortunate subject of her tragedy. Melpomene is by no means forgotten, her dignity being saved by one of the most spirited and elegant poems in the fifteen^, and two more are occupied wholly or chiefly with self-praise', a proportion only to be excused by the circumstances, and not fully balanced by the elaborate humility of the parallel between the poet and Pindar*. Maecenas is not forgotten^ nor that symbol of the moon, which in the first collection has so deep a significance. There is one poem in the supplement, certainly not the worst, which has often been noticed for its peculiar resemblance to the style and tone of the original Books. It may even be conjectured to exist chiefly for the sake of this resemblance, and specially for the sake of the exquisite verses, damna tamen celeres reparaut caeleBtia lunae, nos, ubi deoidimiis quo pater Aeneas quo dives TuUus et Ancus, pulvis et umbra sumus^. Four odes execute the emperor's command, two on the victory of his sons, two pendants in direct compliment to himself. The last of them repairs a significant omission in the earlier work, and is the one lyric in which the poet brings his real self and the real Caesar into personal communion as it were. The relation is slight and semi-official, still it is there, and the peaceful sentiment shows that old scars are healed or healing. As for the rest of the book, there is as little of it as would " afford a plausible pretext for the publication " of the official portion* — or rather, this accounts sufficiently for all the re- maining poems' except one. I should be sorry to exaggerate a ' III. 4. 6 IV. 7. 13. '' IV. 3. 7 IV. 4, IV. 5, IV. 14, IV. 15. ' IV. 8, IV. 9. * Mr Page, Introd. to Book iv. ' IV. 2. '■> IV. 1. IV. 10. IV. 12. IV. 1.3. ' IV. 11. 76 ESSAY II. fanciful impression, but I do find much that still needs expla- nation in the purpose and meaning of iv. 6. Mr Wickham truly says that the Fourth Book shows signs of careful arrangement — whether the Three Books show less, is another matter. Now in this arrangement, what is the function of iv. 6 ? It purports to be written during the preparation for the Carmen Saeculare; I shall endeavour presently to show that this it almost certainly was not, that it cannot have been brought to its present form so early as the year 1 7, nor in fact any earlier than the other ' public ' odes of the book. Indeed, the very position of it is suspicious. If it is merely what it pretends to be, why, in a work showing careful arrangement, do we find it disjoined from its sequel, and thrust into the midst of poems on the conquest of the Vindelici in 15 and the return of Augustus from Gaul in 1.3 ?' The construction and the selection of topics are equally strange. The hymn for the Ludi Saeculares is written, as every one knows, for a double chorus of boys and maidens, and is addressed with exact equality to Phoebus and Diana. Now let us criticize IV. 6 as a prelude to such a hymn. The poem has eleven stanzas. The essential part — the ' operative ' part, as a draughtsman would say — is contained in the last five. The poet prays Phoebus, the teacher of the Greek Thalia (Muse of festival poetry) to ' protect the honour of a Daunian Camena ', his own Italian Muse, that is, for Phoebus is the giver of his spirit and his art; then turning to his boys and girls, the wards of the huntress Diana, he bids them, like a Greek ^o/joStSocr/caXo?, to mark his beating of the time and to practise the Carmen Saeculare, concluding prettily with a sort of paternal encouragement to one of the girls. All this, if not very interesting, is to the point ; and if it were the whole, that is all that could be said of it. As it is, this com- plete poem is preceded by a longer poem, addressed to Phoebus only, neither Diana, nor the chorus, nor the poet, nor the festival being mentioned, with the result that we are nearing the end 1 If it were not for iv. 6, the ar- in that of the Three. (See next Essay), rangement of the Fourth Book would In fact the poem is ostentatiously out show the same chronological principle of place. MURENA. 77 (1 — 30), before we have a hint of the situation. Pindar himself could not be more independent of logical trammels. Further, the bearing of the preliminaries on the conclusion is this — Phoebus preserved the remnant of Troy, which under Aeneas founded Kome, without which there would have been no Ludi Saeculares. And how and why did he preserve the future Romans ? (I would ask the reader, if possible, to forget the poem and imagine a natural answer to the question.) As founder of Troy, it might be supposed, as augur and leader of wandering nations, he brought the destined remnant safe out of the destruction. Such is the answer, at all events, furnished by the Carmen itself.' But no — ^the real salvation of Aeneas, it seems, was the death of Achilles. For, (observe the connexion) in the Iliad Aga- memnon expresses the wish that not a Trojan may escape : therefore, if Achilles had lived to storm Troy, none would have escaped (?) ; therefore — more than one third of a short poem on the Carmen Saeculare is occupied with the character and in- tentions of Achilles ! Surely it is inconceivable that such a train of thought should arise naturally out of the subject, or that any writer, not to say Horace, could work it into form without perceiving the want not only of proportion but of sequence. (Contrast, for example, the management of the theme in in. 3, or in. 11.)" We sometimes read explanations of lyric poetry, which seem to assume the principle that any topic, if it can be reached in the course or discourse of the fancy, may be enlarged at pleasure without respect to its relevance; German is even provided with a term for the art, to wit, "poetische VerweUung". It may be doubted whether the wildest dithyrambist really composed in this fashion ; to attribute it, when we can do no better, to the sane and diligent Horace, seems but a bad way of saying that we do not understand him. Even granting the licence, it is abused beyond reason in the poem we are considering, and we ought to admit, either that the poem is mis-shapen, or that it has been shaped in the main by some motive not professed, and that the Carmen Saeculare must ' C.S. 37— U, 61—69. ^ On iii. 3 see Pliiss, Homz-Studien p. 211. 78 ESSAY II. be a mere excuse. To put it otherwise, the topic of Achilles is ' dragged in '. Why is it dragged in ? To seek an answer, let us have the ' poetische Verweilung ' before us. Dive, quern proles Niobea magnae vindicem linguae Tityosque raptor sensit et Troiae prope victor altae Phthius Achilles, ceteris maior, tibi miles iupar, filius quamvis Thetidis marinae Dardanas turres quateret tremenda cuspide pugnaz : ille mordaoi velut icta ferro pinus aut inpulsa cupressus Euro, prooidit late posuitque coUum in pulvere Teuoro: ille nou inclusus equo Minervae sacra meutito male feriatos Troas et laetam Priami choreis falleret aulam ; sed palam eaptis gravis, heu nefas, heu, nescios fari pueros Aohivis ureret flammis, etiam latentem matris in alvo, ni tuis flexus Venerisque gratae vooibus divom pater adnuisset rebus Aeneae potiore ductos alite muros : doctor Argivae fidicen Thaliae, Phoebe, qui Xantho lavis amne crines, Danniae defende decus Camenae, levis Agyieu. spiritum Phoebus mihi, Phoebus artem carminis uomenque dedit poetae : etc. Now there is one phrase here, which occurring in a set of poems written by commission to celebrate the conquest of the Rhaeti and Vindelici, could not fail to attract special notice. Achilles would not have taken Troy by a treacherous surprise ; but after the sack he would have put to death every Trojan male, yea, even the babe yet hidden in its mother's womb. Commentators point out that this is borrowed from the wish of Agamemnon, MURENA. 79 /i-^ris vir^K^vyot. alirvv SXedpov Xetpcts 6^ T^fieT^pas' /xnjS' ovtlvh yaffripi fiTjTyip Kovpov iovra ^^poL, /a^5' os ^uyoi.^. But when the victory of Tiberius and Drusus was recent, no Roman could read the words without thinking of cruelties much nearer than the Trojan war. The expedition against the Rhaeti was provoked; according to the Romans, by a practice of peculiar (and happily impossible) barbarity. Not content with the normal savagery of raids upon their Italian neighbours and ill-treatment of travellers, they put to death all males they could capture, including the unborn, whose sex they discovered by magic, ov)( on ro (j)aiv6fj,evov dWd xal to iv rat'; jaa-Tpdaiv en Twv ywaiKKV ov, fiavTeiai<; rtdlv dvevplaKovre'i'. The phrase of Dion Cassiiis is even more like Horace than the phrase of Homer, for Dion, who is no doubt following the Roman his- torians, has an equivalent for latentem, which Homer has not. This side-glance at the iniquities, which Tiberius and his brother had put down, is so far instructive, as it confirms the suspicion arising from the position of the poem, that the writing of it had little to do with the festival of the year 17. It was written, or at least three-fourths of it was written, for the book in which it is found, and on the same occasion, several years after the Ludi Saeculares ; and the Divus of whom Horace is thinking at the commencement, is not, as he afterwards would make appear, the co-patron of the festival, but the imperial Apollo or his representative, the princely avenger of Rome upon the Alpine barbarians. But we are as far as ever or farther from an explanation of the whole. The logical and mythological skill of Horace had strangely fallen oflf since the Ode to the Muses (iii. 4), if to make this point he could devise nothing neater than a de- scription of Achilles. Most of the first stanza, all the second third and fourth must still be called ' Verweilung ', Anglice irrelevant. "What, above all, is the point of the contrast between treachery and open hostility, which, from the emphasis it 1 II. VII. 57. The connexion with jcxii. 63. Orelli ad loc. Achilles is perhaps suggested by IL " Dion. 54, 22. 80 ESSAY ir. receives, would appear to be all-important' ? The captures of the Rhaeti were open enough. It is plain that the glance at contemporary history is only a glance ; the main purpose is still to seek. As the fourth poem of the Third Book was lately under our consideration, it will probably not have escaped the reader, that the opening of that now before us is one of the points of Book IV., which touches the earlier collection at an assignable place. Apollo is invoked as the punisher of the lustful Tityus. These figures are associated in the Three Books also, once only', and there, as we saw, in an allegory, in which Apollo stands for Tiberius and his enemies for the conspirators or supposed conspirators indicted by him in the year 22. We have just seen that here also, in the invocation of Apollo, Tiberius was not far from the poet's thoughts. Will the reminiscence thus indicated give any help in the difficTilties of the sequel? Supposing that in the victims of Apollo's vengeance we are again to find the associates of Caepio, another reference to the collection will at once fix the identity of Achilles. There is only one historical person in the Odes' who is parallelled with Achilles, and that is by way of compliment. 'You talk of ancient patriots and warriors' says the guest of Murenain in. 19, ' and say nothing of our host '. Qnantum dietet ab Inacho Codrus; pro patria non timidus mori, narras, et genus Aeaci et pugnata sacro liella sub Ilio : quo praebeute domum Faelignis caream frigoribus taces. Aeacus had several descendants, and more than one fought beneath sacred Ilium ; but one Aeacides throws the rest into the shade, and the giver of the toast to Murena would have been surprised to be told that his comparison did not sufficiently 1 Note the stress on ille (v. 12) by the ' ' Xanthias' is compared to Achilles similar commencement {Anaphora) of (ii. 4. 4) but if 'Xanthias' had an V. 9, and the prominent antithesis of original, the poem with its miscel- ille non...sedpalam. laneous mythology seems designed to " III. 4. 77. , prevent recognition. See also i. 8. 13. MURENA. 81 designate the hero of the Iliad. Will this comparison help us to explain the construction of iv. 6 ? One point at least, the most difficult of all, it will clear at once — and that is the purpose of the third and fourth stanzas. The sharp antithesis between the treacherous surprise which Achilles would have disdained and the open enmity which (alas !) was not inconsistent with his character — all this is as much to the real purpose of Horace, as it is alien from the practice for the Carmen Saeculare. Horace had earned the right to speak his mind ; if he consented to celebrate the victories of Tiberius, it was because Augustus condescended to beg, and the poet, as he himself says, poterat pretitivi dicere muneri (iv. 8, 12). The price which he took of the emperor and his step-son was the liberty to say, plainly enough for them and the higher society of Rome, what in his former book he hardly dared to hint — that a certain person, though he was, as the poet had said before, both arrogant and inhumane, and though, as an enemy to ' Apollo ', he had used an insolence (magna lingua) for which he paid dear, nevertheless was an honourable enemy, and not, as the senatorial judges were pleased to decide, a treacherous assassin. Like the huge pine, which courts the winds, was his overtopping greatness (ll. 10. 10) ; like the pine beneath the axe or the cypress bowed by the East wind he fell, and the towers that shook at his spear were but symbols of his own overthrow before a mightier than he (II. 10. 11). There is very little in the description which even for us has not a traceable reference to the Murena of the first three books; and it is reasonable to suppose that if Caepio's plot and Murena's life were better known to us, we could interpret much that is now without meaning. Thus the strange construction of the poem, if not techni- cally justified, is at least historically explained. The real importance of the two parts is inversely as their ostensible importance; and the very irrelevance of the, preface to the sequel is practically not without advantage, when it is to be understood that the ' sequel ' is a mere excuse for the ' preface.' And indeed there is connexion enough between the two, though it is not the wire-drawn thread of mythical logic V. H. (3 82 KSSAY II. which is seen at first view. Between the Saecular Festival and the death of Achilles there is no real connexion at all ■ but between the retrospective defence of Murena and the writing of the Carmen Saeculare there is a connexion, and a very signi- ficant one. To the success of the vates Horatius as poet of the Roman nation in the Carmen Saeculare, as much as to the fame of his three books, might be attributed the request or injunction of the emperor that he should bend his powers to the praise of Tiberius. In no way, therefore, could he better dignify his compliance than by thus conjoining the renown of 'Apollo' vindex magnae linguae with an allusion to the Rhaetian war, with his own dignity as author of the Carmen, and above all with an emphatic declaration that treachery was not in the character of ' Achilles'. If the result is not very artistic, the immediate object was something more important even than art to ' the honour of the Daunian Muse '; it was to be shown that Phoebus had given the poet not only ' art ' but ' spirit* '. ' The literary and moral meanings similar passage n. 16. 37 of spiritue are precisely those of its niihi parva rura et modem representative (see the Diotio- tpiritum Graiae tenuem Camenae nary s.v.), and the equivoque is the parca non mendax dedit, «( ma(i!m™n same m Latm as in Enghsn. It has not been forgotten in the somewhat NOTE A. (See pp. 16 foil, and p. 68.) In the foregoing account of Murena will be found no mention of two points usually given in the books of reference (Smith Diet. Biog., Drumann Geschichte Roms) and editions of Horace, (1) that he was consul auffecbus in B.C. 23, (2) that he conducted the war against the Salassi in B.C. 25. The first statement, which is indirectly of the greatest importance, is founded, so far as I can discover, entirely upon an error — indeed, a double error. The consuls for the year 23 mentioned by Dion Cassius (53. 30 and Argumenta) are (1) Augustus XI., (2) Cn. Calpumius Piso, (3) L. Sestius, mffectus in the place of Augustus after his resignation. These statements are confirmed so far as they go, by the various Fasti and other authorities. But from the Fasti Capitolini, as restored apparently with certainty by Th. Mommsen, we learn that Piso, as well as Augustus, had a predecessor, who died in office, named A. Terentius Varro Murena, (Corp. Inscr. Vol. I. p. 441). The omission of this person by Dion, who was not writing a calendar but a history, is only natural. His tenure of office must have been exceedingly brief, for Piso had succeeded him before the illness of Augustus, the very first event mentioned in the year. The conspirator, then, if identi- fied with this A. Terentius, would be not ' consul suffectus ' but original consul for that year. The identity is generally assumed and apparently not denied by the editor of the Fasti (Corp. Inscr. note on p. 450). But it is not merely unproved, it is clearly impossible. The one thing we know of Aulus is that he died early in 23, a full year before Lucius conspired. To make them identical, it would, in the first place, be necessary to throw over the whole account of the conspiracy of Caepio G— 2 84 NOTE A. and Murena given by Dion in the year 22, in natural sequenc after the death of Marcellus (autumn of 23), and to transfe it, against both authority and probability, to the very begii ning of the previous year. The date of Dion is confirmei by Velleius (il. 93), who allows ' about three years ' betwee the conspiracy of Egnatius (B.C. 19) and that of Murens Further, we should have to account for the fact that neithe Suetonius nor Velleius (who is careful to sketch the officia career of Egnatius, il. 91) nor Seneca nor Tacitus gives a hin that Murena was actually consul at the time of the conspiracj surely a circumstance not to be omitted if true. It seem hardly necessary to discuss further a hypothesis without basi and contradicted by all the evidence. The only suggestion of identity is the partial resemblana of name, and even this will not bear inspection. The conspira tor is called — by Horace Licinius or (twice) Murena, by Sueton ius Varro Murena (Aug. 19, Tib. 8) or Murena (Aug. 56 ib. 66) by Velleius (I. c.) L. Murena or Murena, by Dion (l. c.) Licinim Murena or Murena, by Seneca Murena (de Brev. Vit. 5. 4, di Clem. I. 9. 5.) All the authorities agree in showing that hii proper name was Licinius Murena, Varro being an acquirec distinction. There is no proof that he ever assumed the gentilf name Terejitius, and the only prsenomen which he receives ii Lucius. He is not called even Varro simply, except in ai anecdote, probably referring to him, in Suet, de Grammati- cis 9 — ' Orbilius interrogatus a Varrone diversae partis advo- cate, quidnam ageret et quo artificio uteretur, gibberosos se di sole in umbram transferre respondit, quod Murena gibber erat, where it is plain from the context that we ought to restore thf passage to conformity with the usage of Suetonius in the Vita Caesarum by writing in the first place Varrone Murena Tacitus (Ann. I. 10) writes Varrones in an allusion, interfestoi Romae Varrones Egnatios lulos 'a Varro, an Egnatius, ai lulus' ; but this is explained by the invidious purpose, foi which the illustrious name of the great scholar is much mors effective than Murenas would have been. As for the consul o: 23 A. Terentius Varro Murena, the modern authorities an MURENA. 86 probably right in connecting him, by identification or descent, with the Yarro Murena mentioned in Cic. ad Fam iii. 22, and immediately afterwards called 'Varro' simply, with the A. Terentius of Cic. pro Caec. 9, and the A. Varro of Cic. ad Fam. 16. 12 and Caes. Bell. Civ. 3. 19. On the one hand we have an A. Terentius Varro, who had acquired and sometimes bore the distinctive addition Mure7ia, on the other a L. Licinius Murena, sometimes also called Varro — not a strong ground for identify- ing two persons whose histories are quite irreconcileable. How this branch of the Terentii Varrones came by the name Murena, we do not know and need not enquire. How the conspirator came by the name Varro, we do need to know and, I think, may discover. If he ever took the name Terentius at all, it was probably with the prasnomeu Marcus ; but we do not know that he did. The second point, whether Murena the conspirator was commander in the war against the Salassi and founder (on behalf of Augustus) of Aosta, cannot be so easily decided. The commander is called Terentius Varro both by Dion Cassius and Strabo. Supposing that he is identical with some Terentius Varro otherwise known to us, the most probable is the consul of B.C. 23. On the other hand, if the conspirator could ever have been described by these names, the year 25 would be a very natural time; for the Romans, like ourselves, sometimes assumed the name of a testamentary benefactor for a time and afterwards dropped or modified it ; and the identification would bring an additional point to the allusion in Hor. Od. III. 4. 38 (see above p. 59). On the whole, however, probability seems against it. The name Terentius Varro is itself a difficulty, and there is no evidence to show that Murena ever stood in such relations to the imperial government, as to have been selected for a command so important and, if abused, so dangerous. To make him senator and augur was another thing. A few words may be added on the name of the conspirator's sister, wife of Maecenas. The historians, all whose notices date from times after 22, call her Terentia, Horace in ii. 12 Licymnia. It is generally said (see Orelli and others) that this represents 86 NOTE A. Terentia, by equivalence of quantity, according to the practice in amatory compositions — Lesbia = Clodia (Catullus), Delia = Plania (Tibullus), Cynthia = Hostia (Propertius), etc. The analogy however is imperfect, for the amatory names are really intended to conceal, while (apart from the grotesque inconsis- tency between such a poem as ii. 12 and the general tone of the Three Books, if Licymnia were any other than the wife) Maecenas' domina could not possibly escape identification. The resemblance to Licinia is surely more striking than the quanti- tative equivalence to Terentia. Indeed the choice of the Greek name is probably not altogether arbitrary. It was a common practice among the Roman nobility to trace their origin through such resemblances into Greek mythical anti- quity ; thus Vergil deduces the Sergii from Sergestea,. the Gluentii from Cloanthus ; and the analogy of AiKVf/.vw! — Licin- ius is not likely to have escaped the genealogists. Historically, the ' sister ' of Murena, — if we interpret soror as meaning the closest relationship it can, and the events of 22 suggest that we should, — probably took by birth the name Licinia ; she may have changed it for Terentia when her brother became Varro Murena, and for similar reasons ; at all events after 22 it is easy to see why Terentia was preferred. In using a form which points so strongly to Licinia, Horace gives ii. 12 an ostensible date which suits with its pui-pose and position. Of course the possibility of the interpretation Terentia did not escape his notice and is extremely convenient. It is curious to note that the taste for dancing, even in public, by which Licinia had evidently scandalized some of her grave countrymen (il. 12. 17), was in the family. Cicero {pro Murena 6) defends the consul of 62, probably her father, against a similar reproach. NOTE B. (See pp. 16 foil.) The accounts of the temporary estrangement of Augustus from Maecenas are dissimilar but easily explained. Suetonius, among whose materials were Augustus' autograph documents, refers it entirely to the conspiracy of Murena. Neque enim temere ex omni numero in amicitia eius afflicti reperientur praeter 8alvidienum...et Qallimi. . .Reliqui poteniia atque opibus ad finem vitae. . .floruerunt, quamquam et offensis intervenientihus. Desi- deravit enim nonnunquam...MaeGenatis tadturnitatem, cum hie tsecretum de comperta Murenae coniuratione uxori Terentiae prodidisset {Aug. 66). Dion says nothing of Maecenas under the year 22 (732), except that he could not save Murena, but under the year 16 (738), upon the visit of Augustus to Gaul and the creation of the office of praefectus urbis, he says, xai rive'. » ^/.t . •,*•> ^ > ■»v t f "'.tIJSS'*'''-. ■f r