Ode XXIV
Villas by the sea and all the wealth of Araby or Ind cannot deliver thee from death or the fear of death. Better the rude virtues of the nomad Scythian than our luxury and vice. Who will prove the true father of his country and curb this license? Posterity will give him the honors that envious contemporaries grudge. But of what avail are laws or complaints when our manners recognize no disgrace save poverty? Away with our gems and pernicious gold. Our youths must be trained in a sterner school. What marvel if the son cannot keep his saddle and prefers dicing to the hunt, when his perjured sire defrauds his associate and still piles up gold for an unworthy heir?
The moralizing is in the vein of 3.1.14-45,3.2.1-7, 3.6,2.15, with the fervid rhetoric of Epode 16. In 4.5.21-25 and 4.15. 10-15 the savior of society here invoked is found in Augustus. Cf. Sellar, p.156; Sueton. Octav. 34.89; and the boast of Augustus, Mon. Ancyr. 2.12-14, Legibus novis latis complura exempla maiorum exolentia iam ex nostro usu reduxi et ipse multarum rerum exempla imitanda posteris tradidi.
The date may be approximately that of 3.6,--B.C. 28-27.
intactis: unrifled (cf. on 1.29. 1); 'richer than the treasures 'is a natural brachylogy (cf. on 2.14.28; 1.8.9).
Indiae: 1.31.6. n. caementis: 3.1.35.
Tyrrhenum . . . Ăpulicum: All Mss. read Tyrrhenum. For Ăpulicum many have publicum. The text can be defended only as a loose hyperbole for 'every coast.' Lachmann's ingenious terrenum . . . et mare publicum is not really proved, as German editors affirm, by Porphyrio's non terram tantum, verum etiam maria occupantem, etc., which might be said, whatever the text here, by any one familiar with 2.18.22 and 3.1.36. Mare publicum, it is true, prettily brings out the special force of occupes, and the quantity of Ăpulicum lacks support. See on 3.4.9. Cf.3.1.40.
figīt: cf. 1.3.36. n. adamantinos: cf. Plat. Rep. 616 C; L. and S. s.v. ἀδάμας Older English writers use 'diamond.' Cf. 'nails of diamond,' 1.35.17. n.
summis verticibus: the image will not square with matter-of-fact logic. The meaning seems to be, 'You build, but the last nail will be driven by destiny.' Cf. on 2.18.29-31; 1.35.17. Summis verticibus will then be in (or into) the topmost gable. It has also been taken 'up to the heads' (of the nails), and, some-what grotesquely, 'into the heads' (of men).
laqueis: O. T. passim, e.g., Psalms, 18.5, 'the snares of death prevented me'; Stat. Silv. 5.155, undique leti|vallavere plagae. The Hindoo death-god Yama flings a noose. Aeschylus is fond of the 'net of doom' (Ag. 361,1048, 1376; Prom. 1078). Milton has 'tangled in the fold | Of dire necessity' (Sams. Ag.); Shelley, Cenci, 'a net of ruin.'
campestres: of the plains (steppes). Cf. 3.8.24; 1.35.9. melius: Tac. Ger. 19, melius quidem adhuc eae civitates, etc.
vagas: not proleptic, but a poetic oxymoron with domos. Cf. Pind fr. 105, ἁμαξοφόρητον οἶκον; Arnold, Strayed Reveller, 'They see the Scythian| On the wide steppe, unharnessing| His wheel'd house at noon'; Sen. Herc. Fur. 537, intravit (Hercules) Scythiae multivagas domos. Cf. also Aesch. Prom. 709; Milton, P. L. 3, 'the barren plains |Of Sericana where Chineses drive| With sails and wind their cany waggons light.' rite: after their manner (Verg. Aen. 9.252).
rigidi: frozen (2.9.20), or stern and rude, severe; Epp. 1. 1. 17, virtutis verae custos rigidusque satelles; Epp. 2. 1.25.
immetata . . . liberas: the land is undivided and its produce common, as in the golden age. Verg. G. 1.126, ne signare quidem aut partiri limite campum |fas erat: in medium quaerebant; Ov. Met. 1.135; Claud. in Rufin. 1.380.
Cererem: cf. 1.7.22. n.; Epode 16.43.
cultură . . . annuā: i.e. they stay only a year in one place, and only a part of the tribe is detailed to raise the year's crops. So Caesar, B. G. 4.1, relates of the Suevi, and Tac. Ger. 19, of the Germans.
defunctum: of the year's labors here; in 2. 18. 38, functum, of all life's labors. Cf. Bréal, Sémantique, 170.
recreat: relieves. sorte: abl. manner, on like terms.
illic: there among those children of nature all the virtues flourish for Horace's imagination, as they did for Tacitus (Germania), for the Greek rhetors of the empire (Dio Chrysost. Or. 69), and for Voltaire, Montesquieu, and Goldsmith in China, Persia, or Peru.
temperat: spares (deals kindly with) the motherless step-children. The cruelty of the iniusta noverca was proverbial. Cf. Epode 5. 9; Otto, s.v. innocens: wronging them not, perhaps etymologically not nocens. Cf. on 4.4.65.
nec dotata: dowries are unknown. By the Greek proverb, 'a dowerless woman cannot speak her mind.' The richly dowered apparently could (Plaut. Men. 759; Aul. 526; Martial, 8.12). The dower had to be returned if the husband divorced her.
nitido: spruce, dandified. Cf. 3.19.25. fidit: coniunx, rather than dotata coniunx, is felt as the subject.
dos . . . magna: a moral or metaphorical dower. Cf. Plaut. Amphitr. 839; Auth. Pal. 9.96.6.
Cf. Tennyson's daintier expression '. . . The laws of marriage character'd in gold| Upon the blanched tablets of her heart . . . crown 'd Isabel. . . The queen of marriage, a most perfect wife.' metuens: that shrinks from; cf. 3.19.16, 3.11. 10. certo foedere: cf. 1.13.18. Loose characterizing abl.
et peccare nefas: editors generally supply illic est. It can be more idiomatically taken as the third part of the dowry, which consists of (1) honorable birth, (2) sensitive purity, (3) the stern tradition of Scythian morality. The idiom is an extension of that of ademptus Hector (2.4.10), which young students cannot take too much pains to master. Cf. Lucan, 2. 656, where Roma . . . capi . . . facilis is one third of the subject; Juv. 10.110, summus nempe locus nulla non arte petitus = the unscrupulous pursuit of power. peccare: cf. 3.7.19. n. aut: 3.12.2. n. pretium: a vox media. Cf. Juv. 13. 105, ille crucem sceleris pretium tulit, hic diadema; so μισθός (Aesch. Ag. 1261); Spenser, 'Bold Procrustes' hire' (punishment). Or oxymoron.
O quisquis: returning to wicked Rome and the hope of reform. impias: 1.35.34-35. n.
rabiem: Epode 7.13. civicam: 2.1.1. n.
pater urbium: a variation on pater patriae. Cf. 1.2.50. n.; Cic. ad Q. Fr. 1.1.31, parentem Asiae; Stat. Silv. 3.4.48, pater . . . urbis. Augustus appears in an inscription as parens coloniae. The provinces and cities of Asia took the lead in the apotheosis of the emperor. Hence conceivably urbium is to be taken with statuis. Some editors print PATER URBIUM, but it is to be taken predicatively with subscribi.
refrenare: cf. Tennyson's etymological 'trade refrain the powers.' For the image, cf. 4.15.10; Cic. de Or. 3.41, validae legum habenae (quotation); Cic. de Div. 2.20; Shaks. Hen. V., 5.3.3, 'What rein can hold licentious wickedness | When down the hill he holds his steep career?' Hen. IV., 2.4.4, 'For the fourth Harry from curb'd license plucks | The muzzle of restraint.'
post genitis: posteris, ὀψιγόνοις, posterity, found only here. quatenus: in so far as, inasmuch as, since. G. L. 538. n. 5. It motivates post genitis. The thought is elaborated, Epp. 2.1. 10-20, 86-89, whence Pope's imitation, 'These suns of glory please not till they set.' Cf. Menander, Stob. 125.3; Vell. 2. 92; Propert. 4.1.22; Ov. Am. 1.15.39; Phaedr. Fab. 5 Praefat. Mart. 5.10.12, 5.13.4; Herrick, 624, 'I make no haste to have my numbers read: |Seldome comes Glorie till a man be dead'; Tenn., 'neither count on praise:| It grows to guerdon afterdays'; Ruskin, Pref. Modern Painters, 2d ed. heu nefas: 4.6.17.
incolumem: in the living, 1.3.7, 3.5.12, 4.5.27.
quaerimus: i.e. requirimus, miss. Cf. Mart. 5. 10. 5, sic veterem ingrati Pompei quaerimus umbram.
tristes: dismal, austere, not sad. Cf. 3.16.3.
reciditur: in Sat. 1.3.122, of pruning (furta） falce recisurum. In Ov. Met. 1.190, the metaphor is surgical: sed immedicabile vulnus | ense recidendum ne pars sincera trahatur.
leges sine moribus vanae: the words reinforce each other as in the phrases, coram a praesentibus, ignari casu aliquo, palam ante oculos. Cf. Verg. Aen. 1.392. For thought, cf. 4.5. 22; Tac. Ger. 19, plus ibi boni mores valent quam alibi bonae leges.
For thought, cf. 1.3, Intr.
pars: 3.3.55. inclusa: shut in (away) from man domibus negata, 1.22.22. Cf. Lucret. 5.204,inde duos porro prope partis fervidus ardor| adsiduusque geli casus mortalibus aufert.
latus: 1.22.19.
solo: i.e. (in) solo.
mercatorem: the thought of 1.3 (Intr.), The restless merchant seeks unnatural gains. Cf. 1.1.16; A. P.117; Sat. 1.6, 29; Epp. 1.1.46, per mare pauperiem fugiens; Pers. 5.55, 132 sqq.; Herrick, 106, 'Thou never plow'st the Ocean's foame |To seek and bring rough pepper home.' horrida callidi: man's cunning pitted against nature. Cf. on 1.6.9; Soph. Antig. 335 sqq.; 'And skilful shipmen flout the horrors of the deep' (Martin). With this clause and the next supply si.
Cf. on 1.24, for Latin and English idiom.
quidvis: cf. 1.3.25. n.; 3.3.52, omne. Cf. Sat. 2.3.91-92; Lucian de Merc. Cond. 717, πενίαν πάντα ποιεῖν καὶ πάσχειν ἀναπείσουσαν; Eurip. El. 375; Shaks. R. and J. 5.1, 'My poverty but not my will consents.'
virtutis viam: τὴν δι᾽ ἀρετῆς ὁδόν, Xen.Mem.2. 1.21. It is proverbially steep. Hamlet, 1. 3, 'Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven'; Hes. Op. 289; Simon. fr. 58; Tenn. Ode on Duke of Well. 8; Stat. Theb. 10.8.45, ardua virtus. Cf. iter, 3.2.22. deserit: the felt subject is pauper.
Horace, in the role of a Savonarola, calls for a 'bonfire of vanities,' so to speak.
vel . . . vel: the method is indifferent, so the end be attained.
in Capitolium: sc. feramus latent in mittamus (50), to dedicate them to Jupiter amid the plaudits of the crowd, clamor et turba (46), as in a triumph. For the enormous treasures deposited there by Augustus una donatione, cf. Suet. Octav. 30.
proximum: cf. on fortuitum, 2.15.17.
gemmas et lapides: the separate application of these terms to pearls, cut gems, and precious stones generally, is disputed. inutile: not as 1. 14. 13, unavailing, or (3. 17. 10) worthless, but by litotes, baneful. So Cic. Phil. 1.19, iniquum et inutile.
materiem: substance; wealth is not merely the root but the constituent matter of evil, or perhaps the fuel that feeds the fire. Cf. Sall. Cat. 10, igitur primo pecuniae, deinde imperi cupido crevit: ea quasi (so to speak) materies omnium malorum fuere.
Si bene paenitet: if our repentance is sincere.
eradenda . . . elementa: if Horace felt elementa here as letters, the figure is that of making tabula rosa; if he felt it as seed-germs (root ol, 'grow'), we must think of the gardener's hoe. Probably he did not go back of the faded generalized meaning, beginnings.
haerere: apparently the normal word. Cf. Cic. pro Deiot. 28, haerere in eo (sc. equo); Ov. Met. 4.26, pando non fortiter hacret asello. ingenuus: heightening the shame. 'But chiefly skill to ride seems a science| Proper to gentle blood' (F. Q. 2.4.1).
doctior: scornful antithesis to rudis.
trocho: the Greek name invidiously (Juv. 3.67) for the effeminate sport (hoop-trundling, κρικηλασία) opposed to the manlier exercises of Rome. Cf. Sat. 2.2.9; Epp. 1.18.49. For the vogue of the trochus, cf. A. P.380; Ov. Trist. 2.486; Martial, 14.169.
mālis: not mălis! vetita: nominally, Cic. Philip. 2. 56; Ov. Trist. 2.471.
cum . . . fallat: cf. Hale, Cum-Const., p. 191; 'Faithless faith such as Jove kept with thee' (Shelley, Prom. 3.3).
fides: 1.5.5. n.; 1.18.16. n.
consortem socium: his associate in business, partner. Sors is the capital of the business.
indigno: contrast the irony of 2.14.25, dignior.
properet: trans. ; cf. 2.7.24. scilicet: yes, truly, 'Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter.' improbae: 3.9. 22, unconscionable, transferred from the nian who is never satisfied to the object of his insatiate greed. Cf. Verg. Aen. 2. 356; Lucret. 5.1006.
crescentem: 3.16.17; 3.16.42.
curtae: every estate is incomplete ; it always falls short of the owner's growing desires. Epp. 1.6.34-35; wealth is an ἄπειρον, Ar. Eth. Cf. Solon, fr. 13.71 sqq. rei: 3.16.25.
