Ode II
Silver shines only in use. Generous use of wealth makes Proculeius immortal. He that ruleth his spirit is better than he that taketh a city. Hydroptic immoderate desire is a disease curable only by removal of its cause. The true king sits not on the throne of Cyrus. 'Tis he who is not the slave of greed. Translated by Cotton in Johnson's Poets, 18, p. 16. For similar 'barren scraps, to say the least, of Stoic commonplaces' (Dobson), cf. 1.16.17; 3.2.17; 4.9.39; Sat. 1.3.125; Epp. 1.1.106.
The parallel: silver has no lustre in the mine, wealth is worthless except for noble uses, is given a personal application by the introduction of the address to Sallustius. The clause nisi. . . splendeat depends upon inimice which thus forms the apodosis of a conditional sentence.
color: brightness; cf. οὐκ ἔστ᾽ ἐν ἄντροις λευκός, ὦ ξέν᾽, ἄργυρος, Anon. apud Plut. περὶ δυσωπίας 10. avaris: either as 1.28. 18; 3.29.61; or by association with miser's greed.
terris: abl., the ore of the mine being meant (cum terra celat, 3.3.50). lamnae: for syncope, cf. 1.36.8; Epode 9.1; Kirkland, p. xv. Bullion, bar silver, with implied contempt for the 'pale and common drudge 'tween man and man.'
Crispe Sallusti: there is, perhaps, a touch of familiarity in putting the family name before the gentile. Cf. Hirpini Quinti, 2.11.2; Fuscus Aristius, Sat. 1.9.61. Sallustius was the grand-nephew and adopted son of the historian, and the fortunate owner of the famous Horti Sallustiani and of rich copper mines. Originally an adherent of Antony, he was in later life a confidant of Augustus and a signal example of his clemency. (Sen. de Clem. 1.10; Tac. Ann. 3.30.) An epigram of the contemporary poet Krinagoras celebrates his liberality, Anth. Pal. 16.40.
usu: that to shine in use is the test of true metal, both in physics and morals, is a favorite commonplace of Greek poetry. Cf. Theog. 417, 449-450; Aeschyl. Ag. 390; Soph. Fr. 780, λάμπει γὰρ ἐν χρείαισιν ὥσπερ ἐκπρεπὴς χαλκός.
vivet: so. the 'life of fame in others' breath.' Cf. Ov. Met. 15.878, perque omnia saecula fama,| siquid habent veri vatum praesagia, vivam. extento aevo: abl. as occulto aevo, 1.12.45. Cf. 3.11.35 and Verg. Aen. 6.806, virtutem extendere factis; 10. 468, famam extendere factis. Proculeius: C. Proculeius, the brother of Maecenas' wife Terentia and of L. Licinius Murena (2.10) shared his estate, Porphyry tells us, with his brothers, who lost their property in the civil wars. Cf. Cotton's naive expansion of the passage, 'Soon as this generous Roman saw| His father's sons proscribed by law,| The knight discharged a parent's part,| They shared his fortune and his heart.| Hence stands consigned a brother's name| To immortality and fame.'
in: toward; cf. 4.4.28. animi: with notus, = propter animum. Page, holding this impossible, construes notus with vivet and animi as gen. of qual. with Proculeius.
aget: bear aloft, upbear, cf. levat, 4.2.25. penna: cf. pinnata fama (Verg. Aen. 9.473). Cf. ibid. 4.181; Spenser, Ruins of Time, 'But Fame with golden wings aloft doth fly,' etc. metuente solvi: unflagging, with a possible glance at the wax-joined wings of Icarus. Indissolubilis would be unpoetical and impracticable here. Periphrasis with metuo ekes out the slender resources of Latin as does periphrasis with careo. Cf. 3.11.10; 3.24.22; 4.5.20; Verg. G. 1.246, arctos . . . metuentes aequore tingui. Cf. also 3.26.10. n.
Cf. Ov. Trist. 3.7.50, me tamen extincto fama superstes erit. 9 sqq. The Stoic paradox, dives qui sapiens est . . . solus formosus et est rex, Sat. 1.3.125. Cf. Cic. Paradox. 6, ὅτι μόνος ὁ σοφὸς πλούσιος, which goes back to Socrates' prayer, πλούσιον δὲ νομίζομαι τὸν σοφόν, Plat. Phaedr. 279 C. regnes: second sing. indefinite, you would reign.-domando contains the condition and so = si domes. Cf. 'Yet he who reigns within himself, and rules| Passions, desires, and fears is more a king' (Milton, P. R. 2).
Tyrrell (Latin Poetry, p.197) says somewhat captiously, 'What is the meaning of to "join Libya to the distant Gades"? Surely to unite Africa to Spain by a bridge.' But cf. the millionaire in Petron. 48, nunc coniungere agellis Siciliam volo ut cum Africam libuerit ire per meos fines navigem. et: and (so). uterque Poenus: sc. of Carthage and of her Spanish colonies, where remnants of the old Phoenician population doubtless still lingered.
serviat: perhaps literally, since the latifundia were cultivated by chain-gangs of slaves. With whole passage cf. 3. 16. 31-41.-uni: sc. tibi.
The dropsy, symbol of greed, is personified and substituted for the thing it signifies. ὕδρωψ is both the sick man and the malady. The image is a commonplace. Cf. Polyb. 13.2; Lucil. 28.27, aquam te in animo habere intercutem; Donne, 'the worst voluptuousness, an hydroptic immoderate desire of human learning and languages.' For thirst of dropsy, of. Ov. Fast. 1.215. indulgens sibi: by self-indulgence.
aquosus . . . languor: lassitude caused by the water. A Greek poet would have had his choice between ὑδατώδης, ὑδερής, ὑδατόχροος, λευκόχροος, and a dozen other convenient derivatives in this connection. The poorer Latin has only the vague aquosus for all these, for ομβροφόρος, Epode 16.54, and Homer's πολυπῖδαξ as well. Cf. on 3. 20. 15. fugerit: cf. Epp. 1.6.29, quaere fugam morbi.
redditum: despite his restoration. Cyri: typical, cf. Plut. Alex. 30, and Milton's 'won Asia and the throne of Cyrus held| At his dispose.' Phraaten: for his restoration to throne of Parthia, cf. on 1.26.5.
beatorum: cf. 2.3.27; 3.29.35, for hypermetron, and 4.9.46, and Epp. 1.16.18-20 for thought.
Virtus: the Stoic sage, spokesman of the Stoic Virtue (3.2.17), uses the porticoes of the people but not their estimates of good and evil (dissidens plebi, of. Epp. 1. 1.71), like Socrates (Plato, Gorg. 470 e) refuses to count even the Great King happy without knowing how he stands in respect of culture and virtue, defines real kingship as 'a truer mental and higher moral state' (Ruskin), and assigns the safer diadem and the inalienable laurel to him who can pass by heaps of treasure with unreverting eye.-populum . . . uti: teaches the people to cease using false terms. Cf. Sal. Cat. 52. iam pridem . . . nos vera vocabula rerum amisimus.
regnum: for sage as king cf. Sat. 1.3.133; Epp. 1.1.59, 1.1.107; Sen. Thyest. 389 sqq. tutum: which the tiara of Phraates was not.
propriam: cf. Sat. 2.6.5, propria haec mihi munera faxis; Verg. Aen. 3.85.
oculo . . . inretorto spectat: passes them with a glance and does not turn to look at them again. Cic. in Cat. 2.1.2 says of Catiline leaving Rome, retorquet oculos profecto saepe ad hanc urbem. For same idea in different image cf. Pers. Sat. v.110-112.
acervos: sc. aeris acervos et auri, Epp. 1.2.47; cf. Sat. 1.1.44; 2.2.105; Epp. 1. 6.35; Tenn. The Golden Year, 'When wealth shall rest no more in mounded heaps.' Milt. Comus, 'unsumm'd heaps| Of miser's treasure.'
