Synopsis (by C.H. Moore): "Guardian of the Roman race, thou art too long away. Grant us again the light of thy countenance that makes the very sun shine brighter. As a mother suffers for her son detained across the sea by winter winds, so longs thy land for thee (1-16). Safe are our cattle, bounteous our crops, no pirates vex the sea. Faith, chastity, and justice sure, no fear of foreign foe -- these are the blessings which thy rule has brought (17-28). After a peaceful day of toil, the farmer at his evening meal makes libation and offers prayer to thee among his household gods, even as Greece remembers her great benefactors. At morning and at eventide we pray that thou wilt give thy country peace (29-40)."
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Diuis orte bonis, optime Romulae custos gentis, abes iam nimium diu; maturum reditum pollicitus patrum sancto concilio, redi. |
Born when the gods were auspicious, best guardian of Romulus' race, now you have been absent too long; return, having promised a timely return to the holy council of fathers. |
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5 |
Lucem redde tuae, dux bone, patriae; instar ueris enim uoltus ubi tuus adfulsit populo, gratior it dies et soles melius nitent. |
Grant, good captain, light to your fatherland; for when your countenance (like springtime) has shined upon the people, the day passes more pleasantly and suns shine more brightly. |
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10 |
Vt mater iuuenem, quem Notus inuido flatu Carpathii trans maris aequora cunctantem spatio longius annuo dulci distinet a domo, |
As a mother, when the south wind keeps [her] son far from his sweet home, delayed more than a year by the envious breezes beyond the expanses of the Carpathian sea, |
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15 |
uotis ominibusque et precibus uocat, curuo nec faciem litore dimouet: sic desideriis icta fidelibus quaerit patria Caesarem. |
calls [him] with promises and omens and prayers and does not turn [her] face away from the curved shoreline, so the fatherland, overcome by faithful longings, seeks Caesar. |
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20 |
Tutus bos etenim rura perambulat, nutrit rura Ceres almaque Faustitas, pacatum uolitant per mare nauitae, culpari metuit fides, |
For in safety the cow wanders over the countryside, Ceres and fostering Fertility nourish the countryside, sailors flit across the sea made peaceful [by you], honesty fears blame, |
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nullis polluitur casta domus stupris, mos et lex maculosum edomuit nefas, laudantur simili prole puerperae, culpam poena premit comes. |
the chaste home is not stained by any defilements, sentiment and law have overpowered unsightly crime, mothers who have just given birth are praised for children resembling [their fathers], without delay punishment crushes sin. |
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25 |
Quis Parthum paueat, quis gelidum Scythen, quis Germania quos horrida parturit fetus, incolumi Caesare? Quis ferae bellum curet Hiberiae? |
As long as Caesar is safe, who would fear the Parthian, who [would fear] the frozen Scythian, who [would fear] the swarms which savage Germany breeds? Who would worry about war with fierce Spain? |
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30 |
Condit quisque diem collibus in suis et uitem uiduas ducit ad arbores; hinc ad uina redit laetus et alteris te mensis adhibet deum; |
Each [farmer] spends the day in his own hills and joins the vine to unwed trees; hence he returns [home] to his wine and invites you as a god at the second course [of his meal]; |
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35 |
te multa prece, te prosequitur mero defuso pateris et Laribus tuum miscet numen, uti Graecia Castoris et magni memor Herculis. |
he beseeches you with much prayer, with wine poured out from bowls, and he combines your godhead with the Lares, just as Greece [is] mindful of Castor and great Hercules. |
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40 |
'Longas o utinam, dux bone, ferias praestes Hesperiae!' dicimus integro sicci mane die, dicimus uuidi, cum sol Oceano subest. |
'Good captain, may you grant long periods of peace to Hesperia!' we say in the morning when we are thirsty, with the whole day [before us], we say as the sun sinks beneath the sea, when we have drunken our fill. |
1 The poem is addressed to Augustus. Horace, Odes 4.2.37-40, calls Augustus a gift of the gods: "Than whom the fates and the auspicious gods have given and will give nothing greater, nothing better to the world, even if times return to the old-fashioned golden [age]" (quo nihil maius meliusue terris / fata donauere bonique diui / nec dabunt, quamuis redeant in aurum / tempora priscum).
This ode has some marked similarities with the encomium on Romulus (Rome's founder and first king) in the first book of Ennius' Annals:
For a long time longing holds their hearts, then all together amongst
Themselves they speak as follows: 'O Romulus, godlike Romulus,
How excellent a guardian of the fatherland did the gods create in you!
O father, o sire, o offspring born of the gods,
You brought us forth into the shores of light.
In heaven with the gods that produce everything does Romulus his days
Spend.'
pectora diu tenet desiderium, simul interNote, for example:
sese sic memorant, 'o Romule, Romule die,
qualem te patriae custodem di genuerunt!
o pater o genitor o sanguen dis oriundum,
tu produxisti nos intra luminis oras.
Romulus in caelo cum dis genitalibus aevum
degit.'
2 Augustus was absent from Rome from 16 to 13 B.C., and this ode may have been written to celebrate his return, even though its dramatic date is set during his absence. Cicero, Letters to Atticus 2.1.4: "You have been absent too long" (nimis abes diu).
3 The holy council of fathers is the Roman senate. Ennius, Annals book 7: "the holy senate" (sanctoque senatu).
7 The appearance of a ruler, especially on his arrival home from abroad, is like the sun at its rising.
9 Imitated by St. Jerome, Letters 3.2: "So the worried mother, sitting by the curved shoreline, awaits her son" (sic curuo adsidens litore anxia filium mater expectat).
10 Carpathus is an island in the Aegean Sea, between Crete and Rhodes. The sea around it is the Carpathian Sea, which has nothing to do with the modern-day land-locked region of Carpathia in eastern Europe.
13 It is easy to understand how the mother calls her son with "prayers" and "promises", but "omens" is a bit puzzling. Cf. Livy, preface 13: "Rather with good omens and promises and prayers to gods and goddesses" (cum bonis potius ominibus uotisque et precationibus deorum dearumque).
18 Ceres is the Roman goddess of grain, commonly associated with the Greek Demeter. Faustitas is a personification of Favor, from the adjective faustus (lucky, auspicious) -- the word occurs only here in classical literature.
19 Augustus made the seas safe for navigation by getting rid of pirates.
21 In 18 B.C. Augustus, by virtue of his appointment as supervisor of morals and laws and the tribunician power vested in him, succeeded in getting laws passed which are known as the "Julian laws on the marriage of the orders and on repressing adultery" (leges Iuliae de maritandis ordinibus et de adulteriis coercendis). These laws prescribed penalties for adultery and failure to marry, and privileges for those with three children. Many comments by later legal scholars on the lex Iulia de adulteriis coercendis can be found in Justinian's Digest 48.5 (some translations here). See O.F. Robinson, The Criminal Law of Ancient Rome (London: Duckworth, 1995), pp. 58-68.
23 In the days before blood and DNA tests for paternity, a child who obviously resembled his father was prized.
25 Suetonius, Life of Augustus 21.3: "By his reputation for valor and moderation, he even persuaded the Indians and the Scythians, [peoples] known only by hearsay, to seek of their own will through ambassadors his friendship and that of the Roman people. The Parthians also readily yielded to him when he claimed Armenia, and at his demand they gave back the military standards which they had taken from Marcus Crassus and Marcus Antonius. In addition, they offered hostages and finally, once when several [Parthians] were rivals for the kingship, they only accepted [the claimant] selected by him." (qua uirtutis moderationisque fama Indos etiam et Scythas auditu modo cognitos pellexit ad amicitiam suam populi Romani ultro per legatos petendam. Parthi quoque et Armeniam uindicanti facile cesserunt et signa militaria, quae M. Crasso et M. Antonio ademerant, reposcenti reddiderunt obsidesque insuper optulerunt, denique pluribus quondam de regno concertantibus, non nisi ab ipso electum probauerunt).
26 Suetonius, Life of Augustus 21.1: "Partly under his leadership and partly under his auspices, he conquered Cantabria [part of Spain], Aquitania, Pannonia, Dalmatia together with all of Illyricum, as well as Raetia and the Vindilici and Salassi, [which are] Alpine tribes. He also restrained the inroads of the Dacians, killing three of their leaders and lots of their troops, and he pushed the Germans back beyond the river Albis. Of the Germans, he moved the Suebi and the Sigambri (who surrendered to him) into Gaul and settled them in lands near the Rhine." (domuit autem partim ductu partim auspiciis suis Cantabriam, Aquitaniam, Pannoniam, Delmatiam cum Illyrico omni, item Raetiam et Vindelicos ac Salassos, gentes Inalpinas. coercuit et Dacorum incursiones tribus eorum ducibus cum magna copia caesis, Germanosque ultra Albim fluuium summouit, ex quibus Suebos et Sigambros dedentis se traduxit in Galliam atque in proximis Rheno agris conlocauit).
27 A Roman coin of 16 B.C. promotes the belief that the safety of the state was synonymous with the safety of Augustus -- it has the inscription "by a decree of the senate on account of the preservation of the state together with the safety of the ruler Caesar Augustus" (senatus consulto ob rem publicam cum salute imperatoris Caesaris Augusti conseruatam).
Cf. Cicero, On Behalf of Marcellus 32: "C. Caesar, we are not able to be safe unless you are safe. Wherefore all of us both urge and beg you (who wish these things to be safe) to take pains to protect your life and safety." (nisi te, C. Caesar, saluo ... salui esse non possumus. qua re omnes te, qui haec salva esse volumus, et hortamur et obsecramus, ut vitae tuae et saluti consulas). Rather insincere, especially if we read it in light of Cicero's subsequent letter of congratulations to Basilius, one of the assassins of Caesar (Letters to His Friends 6.5).
29 This is close to the ideal described in 1 Kings 4:25: "And Judah and Israel dwelt safely, every man under his vine and under his fig tree, from Dan even to Beersheba, all the days of Solomon," an ideal worth aiming at even today.
30 Trees were used as props for vines, and the relationship between the two is often described in terms of a marriage. Some trees were especially well suited to this arrangement (elms and poplars), while others with their broad leaves kept out too much of the sun (plane trees).
31 The second course (literally "second tables") was the dessert course, during which offerings were made and libations were poured.
34 The Lares were the household gods of the Romans. Their shrine was called a lararium, usually in the form of a cupboard containing either painted images of the Lares or small statues. Painted images may be seen in the lararium in the house of the Vettii in Pompeii (1st century A.D.), and terra cotta figurines (1st century B.C.) from the Museo Nazionale in Naples are reproduced here. The images are stylized, usually a pair of Lares dancing with drinking horns. On p. 732 of The Oxford History of the Classical World (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986), there is a photo of a wooden cupboard-shrine from the House of the Wooden Shrine in Herculaneum: on the top shelf are small statues of the Lares and Penates, and on the bottom shelf are dishes.
Ovid, Fasti 2.633-638, in his description of the family feast Caristia (celebrated on February 22), mentions offerings and prayers to the Lares and Augustus together: "And consecrate the feast with a libation, so that the offered bowl may nourish the girt Lares (a pledge of welcome honor). And now, as the damp night is about to bring peaceful sleep, take wine with a generous hand as you start to pray, and say, 'May it be well with you, [Lares], and with you, father of the fatherland, best Caesar.' Let your words be auspicious as the wine is poured out." (et libate dapes, ut, grati pignus honoris, / nutriat incinctos missa patella Lares. / iamque, ubi suadebit placidos nox umida somnos, / larga precaturi sumite vina manu, / et 'bene vos, bene te, patriae pater, optime Caesar' / dicite; suffuso sint bona verba mero.).
Cf. Dio Cassius 51.19.7 (tr. Ian Scott-Kilvert): "The priests and priestesses were instructed, when they offered up prayers for the Roman people and the Senate, to pray for him [Octavian, who later took the name Augustus] likewise, and both at public and at private banquets everyone was to pour a libation for him."
35 The Greeks, especially the Spartans, regarded the Dioscuri (Castor and Pollux) and Hercules as benefactors. They are mentioned together in the following passages:
In Latin, the oaths "mecastor" and "mehercule" mean "by Castor" and "by Hercules".
The brothers Castor and Pollux are not only called Dioscuri (sons of Zeus), but also the Twins, or Gemini. Luke, Acts of the Apostles 28.11, provides a good example of the devotion of sailors to the Twins: "After three months we set sail in a ship which had wintered in the island [Malta], a ship of Alexandria, with the Twin Brothers as figurehead."
38 Hesperia, the "western land" from the point of view of the Greeks, is Italy. Vergil, Aeneid 1.530: "There is a place, [which] the Greeks call Hesperia by name" (est locus, Hesperiam Graii cognomine dicunt). Hesperia is related to the Latin word vesper (evening). The sun sets in the west, and the evening star (actually the planet Venus) rises there.
As a rule, I eschew bibliography in these notes on Horace's Odes, but it's worth breaking the rule in the case of the following excellent analyses of this ode:
Heavens choicest gift, Romes greatest stay,
Now thou art too too long away:
The holy Senate urge thy word
For soon return, return. Afford
Like day, thy presence; like the Spring
Give a new life to every thing:
The first, good Prince, our night will chace,
The second will prolong our days.
As a fond mother for her son,
Whom, having over seas been gone,
Above a year, the envious wind
Keeps back from her embraces kind;
And now she eyes the Vane, and prayes,
And from the crooked shore doth gaze:
So, with a loyal passion strook,
The People for their Caesar look.
For now the Oxen walk in peace:
Corn, and white innocence increase:
The cleared Main the Sea-men sail:
Faith promises, and dares not fail.
The married Bed unsoil'd remains,
Custom and law preventing stains:
Babes, like the father, praise the Mother:
Punishment is Sins Twin-brother.
Who fears cold Scythians? who the Medes?
Fierce sons of Germany, who dreads?
Whilest Caesar doth in safety raign,
Who is afraid of Wars with Spain?
Each man his proper Field doth till,
And hides the Sun behind his hill:
Returning then to sup with Glee,
His second course is praising thee.
For thee he prayes, to thee propines,
Thee with his houshold gods he joyns,
As, for like reason, thankful Greece
Did Castor and great Hercules.
Long last these golden Holy-dayes!
Thus Italy for thy life prayes:
Sprinkled at night, not chang'd at morn,
When to dry labour they return.
Best guardian of the race of Romulus,
And sprung thyself from deities benign,
Absent too long, fulfil thy promised pledged
To Rome's high court -- return.
Bring to thy country back, beloved chief,
The light: thy looks are to thy people Spring,
And where they smile, more grateful glides the day,
More genial shines the sun.
As the fond mother with all passionate prayers
Calls back the son more than one year away,
By adverse winds beyond Carpathian seas
Kept from sweet home afar,
Fixing intent upon the curving shore
The unmoving stillness of her wistful eyes;--
So for her Caesar, smit with faithful love,
His country looks and pines.
Safe plods the steer among the rural fields;
The rural fields Ceres and Plenty bless;
The wing'd ships fly though unmolested seas;
Honour's fine dread of shame
Returns; no lusts pollute the modest home;
Licence is tamed by manners as by laws;
Nor reads the husband in his infant's face
A likeness not his own.
Fast by Crime stands its comrade Punishment.
Who fears the Parthian, who the frozen Scyth?
Who (Caesar safe) whatever monstrous birth
Germania's womb conceives?
Let fierce Iberia threaten war -- who cares?
Each spends safe days on his own hills, and weds
His vine to widowed elms, then, home regained,
Brims his glad cup to thee,
Blending with prodigal libation prayers;
And, as Greece honoured Leda's starry son,
Or great Alcides, -- with his household gods
Mingles thy hallowed name.
Live, O good chief, Rome's feast-days to prolong!
this is our orison at sober morn,
Our prayer with wine-dews on the lip, when sinks
Underneath seas the sun.
Best seed of gods, best keeper of the race
Of Romulus, thou art too long from home.
Thy word, giv'n in the Senate's holy place,
Redeem that word, and come.
Restore, good Prince, thy country's light of day,
For when thy visage dawns, like spring benign,
The hours more smoothly wind their gracious way,
The suns more kindly shine.
When Notus blows, and envious blasts detain,
All round the circle of the rolling year,
Beyond the breadth of the Carpathian main,
Some youth, whose home is dear;
To omens, prayers, and vows, his mother turns
And bends her aching vision o'er the main,
With loyal longings so his country yearns
To see her prince again.
For Ceres now, and Fortune, nurse the seed;
Suspicion's breath from firm-set Honour flees;
The safe ox traverses a tranquil mead,
The sailors, tranquil seas.
The unpolluted home is free from lust;
Right laws, right habits, these have conquered crime;
The children's likeness stamps the father's trust;
Quick justice strikes in time.
Who cares how Parthian, or cold Scythian thrives,
With what wild issue teem the German woods;
Who o'er the war, if only Caesar lives,
Of fierce Iberia broods?
Each, passing his own day at his own doors,
Trains vines athwart his trees: the joyous cup
Then handles as he wills, and thee adores
As god, in winding up.
As Hercules in Greece, or Castor, may,
So thou hast our libations and our prayers;
Before our Lares we, our debt to pay,
Thy godhead blend with theirs.
'Good prince, prolong our halcyon holiday:'
So when we sober, so when mellow crave,
Sober at sundawn, mellow when his ray
Has sunk beneath the wave.
Best guardian of Rome's people, dearest boon
Of a kind Heaven, thou lingerest all too long:
Thou bad'st thy senate look to meet thee soon:
Do not thy promise wrong.
Restore, dear chief, the light thou tak'st away:
Ah! when, like spring, that gracious mien of thine
Dawns on thy Rome, more gently glides the day,
And suns serener shine.
See her whose darling child a long year past
Has dwelt beyond the wild Carpathian foam;
That long year o'er, the envious southern blast
Still bars him from his home:
Weeping and praying to the shore she clings,
Nor ever thence her straining eyesight turns:
So, smit by loyal passion's restless stings,
Rome for her Caesar yearns.
In safety range the cattle o'er the mead:
Sweet Peace, soft Plenty, swell the golden grain:
O'er unvex'd seas the sailors blithely speed:
Fair Honour shrinks from stain:
No guilty lusts the shrine of home defile:
Cleansed is the hand without, the heart within:
The father's features in his children smile:
Swift vengeance follows sin.
Who fears the Parthian or the Scythian horde,
Or the rank growth that German forests yield,
While Caesar lives? who trembles at the sword
The fierce Iberians wield?
In his own hills each labours down the day,
Teaching the vine to clasp the widow'd tree:
Then to his cups again, where, feasting gay,
He hails his god in thee.
A household power, adored with prayers and wine,
Thou reign'st auspicious o'er his hour of ease:
Thus grateful Greece her Castor made divine,
And her great Hercules.
Ah! be it thine long holydays to give
To thy Hesperia! thus, dear chief, we pray
At sober sunrise; thus at mellow eve,
When ocean hides the day.
O'erlong thou bidest, child of gracious heaven, Thou best of guardians of the race of Rome, Make good thy promise to the Fathers given, And in right season come! Revive the land, good captain, with thy ray, For once the April face of thee hath shone Upon the people, gladder goes the day And fairer beams the sun. Like some fond mother peering o'er the foam, Her face set ever toward the winding shore, Who seeks her sailor sun wind-bound from home A weary year and more, And falls unceasingly, till he returns, To vows and sacrifice and prayer, E'en so the fatherland for Caesar yearns With loyal, longing care. To-day secure the oxen roam the lea; Ceres and kindly Plenty nurse the grain; Our ships are winging o'er a summer sea, And Honour shrinks from stain; No scandal smirches happy married lives; Custom and code have killed the taint within; Sons like to fathers praise the faith of wives; And doom treads hard on sin. Who thinks of Medes or Scythians of the North? Who cares how savage Spain with war may chafe? Who dreads the swarms rough Germany brings forth, While we have Caesar safe? Twining the widowed elms about with vines On his own hills each man lays day to rest, Then gladly home, and as he drinks and dines He bids the meal be blest By thee, his Godhead; prayers and wine he pours To thee as to his household deities, As men do yet in Greece, which still adores Castor and Hercules. O bless our land of Italy, good chief, With one long holiday! this, this we crave, Dry-lipped at dawn, and o'er our drink at eve When Phoebus dips the wave.
God-given guardian of Quirinus' sons, The sacred Senate holds thy promise dear; Return, return; too long his absence runs Who spake of brief delay and is not here. Restore to Rome the radiance of that face Which, smiling on us like the budding year, Can lend to gracious day a novel grace, And gift the sunshine with a warmer cheer; For us some mother hungering for her son -- Fast bound beyond the far Carpathean swell By jealous gales till all the year be done, In exile from the home that loves him well, -- Calls him with vows and prayers and augur's art, Her eyes still set toward the sinuous sand, So from a grateful people's faithful heart A cry for Caesar echoes through the land. For safe the cattle range the peaceful mead, -- Ceres the mead and glad Abundance bless; O'er bloodless seas the flying galleys speed; And faith is fearful of unfaithfulness. Our homes are pure and happy, every one; Good laws, good customs cleanse our leprosies; The father's face is imaged in the son; Immediate vengeance follows hard on vice. Who recks of dwellers in the Scythian snows? Who dreads the Mede? Who fears, if Caesar reign, Yon savage brood the Teuton forest knows? Or who is troubled for the war with Spain? Each sees the sun down in his native glen, There wedding widower elm and tender vine; Then blithely hies him homeward, and again Crowns his glad cup and bids thee bless the wine. Thee with all prayer, with all libation thee, Thee in the number of his Lares set He worships; so Hellenic piety To Castor and Alcides paid its debt. Good chief, with years of joy thy country dower! Thus at the dawn of days not yet begun Dry-lipped we pray; and thus in wassail hour When couched in ocean sleeps the weary sun.
Sprung from Gods, best guard of Rome, Long, too long, thou leav'st thy home. Thou didst promise shorter stay; Ah! return, the Fathers pray. Ah! return, thy country cries, Like the spring-time to our skies; Days shall glide more sweetly o'er, Suns come brighter to our shore. As the mother mourns her son, Who 'mid gales his course has run, Forced Carpathian seas to roam, Long a wanderer from sweet home -- How her prayers kind Heaven implore, How she scans the winding shore -- So our hearts entreat the skies, Rome for absent Caesar sighs. Oxen safely roam the fields, Ceres golden harvests yields; Ships fly peaceful o'er the deep; Faith and Truth their pledges keep. Homes are pure, in virtue strong, Law and order conquer wrong; Gone the stain of former time, Justice strikes the heels of crime. Who the Scyth or Parthian fears, Or the hordes Germania rears, Or the wars with distant Spain? Caesar lives -- sweet peace shall reign. Each the day of quiet sees; Vines once more espouse the trees; Swains return at evening hour; Joyful they invoke thy power. Prayer they offer, wine they pour, Thee with household Gods adore; Hercules thus Greece reveres; Thus great Castor's name she fears. Long thy reign, good Prince, we pray, Grace by many a festal day; This our prayer at sober morn, This, at cheerful eve's return.