XIX. Prisco si credis, Maecenas docte, Cratino, nulla placere diu nec vivere carmina possunt, quae scribuntur aquae potoribus.! ut male sanos adscripsit Liber Satyris Faunisque poetas, vina fere dulces oluerunt mane Camenae. Jaudibus arguitur vini vinosus Homerus 3 Ennius ipse pater numquam nisi potus ad arma prosiluit dicenda. “ Forum Putealque Libonis mandabo siecis, adimam cantare severis ” : hoe simul edixi, non cessavere poetae nocturno certare mero, putere diurno. quid? si quis voltu torvo ferus et pede nudo exiguaeque togae simulet textore? Catonem, virtutemne repraesentet moresque Catonis ? rupit Iarbitam Timagenis aemula lingua,* dum studet urbanus tenditque disertus haberi. 1 potioribus BRr. ? edixi E, Porph. : edixit a. 3 ex ore dy: extore 2. cena al. 10 15 @ On Cratinus see Index. In his Murivy he jested upon his own intemperance. > Of. Miad, vi. 261 dvdpi d€ xexundre névos eye olvos déter, and the use of epithets applied to wine, such as edjvwp, 750ror0s, penindys, nedippar. ¢ Ennins says of himself, “numquam poetor nisi si podager.” 380Epistuz XIX If you follow old Cratinus,? my learned Maecenas, no poems can please long, nor live, which are written by water-drinkers. From the moment Liber en- listed brain-sick poets among his Satyrs and Fauns, the sweet Muses, as a rule, have had a scent of wine about them in the morning. Homer, by his praises of wine, is convicted as a winebibber Even Father Ennius never sprang forth to tell of arms save after much drinking. ‘To the sober I shall assign the Forum and Libo’s Well¢; the stern I shall debar from song.” Ever since I put forth this edict, poets haye never ceased to vie in wine-drinking by night, to reek of it by day. What, if a man were to ape Cato with grim and savage look, with bare feet and the cut of a scanty gown, would he thus set before us Cato’s virtue and morals? In coping with Tima- genes, his tongue brought ruin to Iarbitas’; so keen was his aim and effort to be deemed a man of 4 Cf. Sat. ii. 6. 35. The expression forum putealque Libonis denotes a life of business. « For the term used ef. Sat. ii. 2. 51. / The precise meaning of rupit is uncertain. Porphyrio takes it literally, as if the attempt to rival the eloquence of Timagenes (a rhetorician of the day) made Iarbitas “ burst asunder.” More probably the word has the general sense of ** ruined.” 381HORACE decipit excmplar vitiis imitabile : quod si pallerem! casu, biberent exsangue cuminum. 0 imitatores, servum pecus, ut mihi saepe bilem, saepe iocum vestri movere tumultus ! 20 Libera per vacuum posui vestigia princeps, non aliena meo pressi pede. qui sibi fidet,? dux reget? examen. Parios* ego primus iambos ostendi Latio, numeros animosque secutus Archilochi, non res et agentia verba Lycamben. 25 ac ne me foliis ideo brevioribus ornes, quod timui mutare modos et carminis artem, temperat Archilochi Musam pede mascula Sappho, temperat Alcaeus, sed rebus et ordine dispar, nee socernm qnaerit, quem versibus oblinat® atris, 30 nec sponsae laqueum famoso carmine nectit. hune ego, non alio dictum prius ore, Latinus® volgavi fidicen. iuvat immemorata ferentem ingenuis’ oculisque legi manibusque teneri. Scire velis, mea cur ingratus opuscula lector 35 laudet ametque domi, premat extra limen iniquus + non ego ventosae plebis suffragia venor impensis cenarum et tritae munere vestis ; non ego, nobilium scriptorum auditor’ et ultor, 1 pallerent Iv, 2 fidit pyrl. 3 regit. 4 patrios, I. 5 obtinet II. © Latinis Ml. 7 ingeniis. ® adiutor. @ A pale complexion was supposed to result from drinking cummin, > i.e, in the Epodes. ¢ Sappho was worthy to rank with men. M. B. Ogle argues (against Bentley) in favour of construing Musam with Archilochi, and of interpreting temperat as ‘moderates ” (A.J.P. xliii. (1922) pp. 55 48.). 4 A reference to Neobule and her father Lycambes, who were assailed by Archilochus ; ¢f. Epod. vi. 13. 382EPISTLES, I. x1x. 17-39 wit and eloquence. A pattern with faults easy to copy leads astray. So if by chance I lost my colour, these poets would drink the bloodless cummin.* O you mimics, you slavish herd! How often your pother has stirred my spleen, how often my mirth ! 21 | was the first to plant free footsteps on a virgin soil; I walked not where.others trod. Who trusts himself will lead and rule the swarm. I was the first to show to Latium the iambics ° of Paros, follow- ing the rhythms and spirit of Archilochus, not the themes or the words that hounded Lycambes. And lest you should crown me with a scantier wreath because I feared to change the measures and form of verse, see how manlike * Sappho moulds her Muse by the rhythm of Archilochus ; how Alcaeus moulds his, though in his themes and arrangement he differs, looking for no father-in-law to besmear with deadly verses, and weaving no halter for his bride¢ with defaming rhyme. Him, never before sung by other lips, I, the lyrist of Latium, have made known.’ It is my joy that I bring things untold before, and am read by the eyes and held in the hands of the gently born. % Would you know why the ungrateful reader praises and loves my pieces at home, unjustly decries them abroad? I am not one to hunt for the votes of a fickle public at the cost of suppers and gifts of worn-out clothes’ I am not one who, listening to ¢ The poet referred to in hune (1. 32) is Aleaeus, not Archilochus, and Horace is now boasting, not of his Zpodes, but of his Odes. 7 The poet here contrasts himself with the politician seeking votes. He does not invite people to come together to hear his poems. and then by unworthy means seek to win their approval. 383HORACE grammaticas ambire tribus et pulpita dignor. 40 hinc illae lacrimae. “ spissis indigna theatris scripta pudet recitare et nugis addere pondus,” si dixi, “ rides,” ait, “ et Iovis auribus ista servas : fidis enim manare poetica mella te solum, tibi pulcher.”” ad haec ego naribus uti 45 formido et, luctantis acuto ne secer ungui, “ displicet iste! locus,” clamo et diludia posco. ludus enim genuit trepidum certamen et iram, ira truces inimicitias et funebre bellum. ? ile, 17. * T take nobiles as used in irony, not in seriousness, for the opening words of Juvenal “Semper ego auditor tantum ? numquamne reponam . . .?”’ show what 1. 39 means as a whole. Ultor is also ironical; after listening to those who called themselves nobiles scriptores the poet takes his revenge by reciting. Others take nobiles scriptores to mean Pollio, Virgil, Varius, etc., so that Horace says, “I hear such good poets that I neglect and so offend the professors of literature.” In this case, ultor is added by way of jest. > The grammatici, who lecture upon the poets from their pulpita or platforms, are the professional teachers of litera- ture. Tribus is said in contempt. 384EPISTLES, 1. x1x. 4049 “noble writers” and taking my revenge,* deign to court the tribes of lecturing professors.® ‘* Hence those tears.”¢ If I say, ‘‘ I am ashamed to recite my worthless writings in your crowded halls, and give undue weight to trifles,” ‘‘ You are in merry mood,” says one, ‘‘ and keep your lines for the ears of Jove.# Fair in your own eyes vou are, and believe that you, and you alone, distil the honey of poesy.” At this I am afraid to turn up a scornful nose, and lest, if he wrestle with me, I be torn by his sharp nails, “The place * you choose suits me not,” I cry, and call for a truce in the sports. For such sport begets tumultuous strife and wrath, and wrath begets fierce quarrels, and war to the death. © This expression, first used literally by Terence in his Andria (1. 125), where Pamphilus shed tears of sympathy at the funeral of Chrysis, became proverbial in Latin literature, and was used, as here, even when there were no actual tears; ef. Cic. Pro Cael. 25. 61. 4 i.e. Augustus. Sat. ii. 6. 52. * The battle of wits has become a gladiatorial contest. In this, a combatant, if he thought his opponent had an unfair advantage in position, might call for a pause in the struggle (diludia), and an adjustment of conditions. 2c 385