Ode V
Too long absent, great guardian of the race of Romulus, restore the light of thy countenance to thy people, who yearn for thee as a mother longs for a son detained beyond seas by contrary winds. Bounteous harvests, seas freed from pirates, faith, chastity, justice at home, the barbarian cowed abroad,- such are the blessings of thy reign. After a busy day amo'ng his vines the husbandman pours his after-dinner libation to thee as to his household gods, and invokes thy name as grateful Greece invokes her mythic benefactors. The three years following the defeat of Lollius by the Sygambri (B.C. 16; cf. 4. 2.36), Augustus spent in the West, partly with a view to restoring order in Gaul and Spain, partly, as was said (Dio, 55.19), in order, like Solon, to escape by absence the odium aroused by his measures of reform. In this care-fully polished official utterance the Poet Laureate expresses the loyalty of the growing class who gratefully recognized that 'l'empire c'est la paix.' Cf. Sellar, p.189, and Velleius, 2.89. The ode follows the praise of Drusus in 4, as 15 follows the praise of Tiberius in 14.
divis . . . bonis: abl. abs. (cf. Sat. 2.3.8, iratis natus dis); when the gods were kind. The birth of Augustus was a gift of boni divi (4. 2. 38).--Romulae: as adj. Cf. C. S. 47. But Catull. 34.22 has Romuli . . . gentem. The oblique cases of Rōmŭlus have to be replaced by those of Remus in hexameters, but he comes to his own in lyric.
custos: 1.12.49; 4.15.17.
sancto: august; a standing epithet of Senatus. Cf. Verg. Aen. 1.426.
lucem: the Homeric φάος. Cf. Aeschyl. Persae, 300; Verg. Aen. 2.281.--tuae: emphatic.--dux bone: cf. 37, and 3.14.7. He is the war-lord and captain to whom allegiance is due.
instar: usually of quantity, as in Vergil's instar montis equum.--veris: cf. Shelley, Revolt of Is. Ded. 7.2, 'Thou friend, whose presence on my wintry heart |Fell like bright spring upon some herbless plain.'
it dies: cf. 2.14.5, quotquot eunt dies.
soles: for poetry, as for Heracleitus, the sun is νέος ἐπ᾽ ἡμέρῃ. Cf. 4.2.46.
Editors cite, for the image, Oppian, Hal. 4.335. Kiessling suspects that the mother is substituted here for some lovelorn heroine (of Callimachus) waiting like Asterie (3.7) for her lover.
mater iuvenem: note juxtaposition ; the details may follow.--invido: so the river that keeps Ovid's lover from his tryst is 'invidious,' and the first rays of the dawn that is to sever Romeo and Juliet are 'envious streaks.'--Carpathii:1.35.8.
longius annuo: navigation has closed, and he must pass the winter in the East, as Gyges (3.7.5) in Oricum.
Cf. Livy, Pref. 13, cum bonis potius ominibus votisque et precationibus, etc. She makes vows, consults the omens, and offers prayers in her impatience.
curvo: winding, a standing epithet. Cf. Epode 10.21; Verg. Aen. 3.223, etc.
icta: ἱμέρῳ πεπληγμένος. Cf. Lucret. 2.360, desiderio perfixa iuvenci.--desideriis: pl. mainly metri causa.
quaerit: cf. 3.24.32. --patri Caesarem: cf. 9. 17 sqq. Cf. Ov. Fast., 1.701-704, Gratia dis domuique tuae, religata catenis| Iampridem vestro sub pede bella iacent.| Sub iuga bos veniat, sub terras semen aratas, |Pax Cererem nutrit, pacis alumna Ceres; Germanicus, Aratea, 9, Si non parta quies te praeside puppibus aequor| cultorique daret terras.
tutus: cf. 1.17.5.--perambulat: grazing in conscious security. Others, walks before the plough.
rura: the fields which. Horace repeats and dwells on the image with complacency. The contrast with the picture in Verg. G. 1.506-508 would flatter Augustus.--Faustitas: found only here. There was a Fausta Felicitas. Cf. Αὐξησία (Hdt. 5.82), Αὐξώ, and Θαλλώ.
pacatum: from pirates by defeat of Sextus Pompey, B.C. 36. Cf. Ant. and Cleop. 1.4, 'Menecrates and Menas famous pirates |make the sea serve them.' Augustus boasts (Mon. Ancyr. 5.1), mare pacavi a praedonibus. Cf. also Suet. Oct. 98; Epode 4. 19.--volitant: cf. Vergil's pelagoque volamus (Aen. 3. 124); Epode 16. 40; Catull. 4.5; Homer, Odyss. 11.125, 23.272; Hes. Op. 626; Verg. Aen. 1.224, mare velivolum; Lucret. 5.1442; Eurip. Tro. 1086; Hippol. 752; Aeschyl. Pers. 565; Prom. 468; Tenn In Mem. 9 ; Merchant of Ven. 1.1, 'As they fly by them with their woven wings,' etc.
metuit: cf. 3.11.10; 2.2.7.--fides: commercial, as in 3.24.59.
mos et lex: 3.24.35.--lex: the leges Iuliae de adulteriis et pudicitia (B. C. 18). Cf. C. S. 18-20.--edomuit: e, completely. 'The publication of the Ars Amandi a few years later, and the career of the two Julias, afford an impressive commentary on these lines' (Sellar, p. 155).
simili prole: for, or rather by, the resemblance of the child (to the father). Cf. Hes. Op. 235; Catull. 61.226, sit suo similis patri, etc.; Martial, 6.27.3; Shaks. Winter's Tale, 1.2; Pater, Marius, chap. 13.
premit: follows close upon. Punishment no longer limps with tardy foot (3.2.32). For premit comes, cf. Sat. 2.7.115.
Cf. 3.14.15; 4.15.17; and the fine epigram of Crinagoras (Anth. Pal. 9.291).
horrida: suggests Germany silvis horrida, Tac. Ger. 5 Cf. Verg. Aen. 9.382.
quos . . . fetus: the brood which; German fecundity. Cf. Milton's 'A multitude like which the populous North| Poured never, from her frozen loins to pass | Rhene or the Danau'; οὐδ᾽ ἢν Γερμανίη Ῥῆνον ἅπαντ᾽ ἐφίῃ (Crinagoras). --incolumi: 3.5.12.
Hiberiae: cf. on 2.6.2; 4.14.50.
condit: passes; cf. cantando . . . condere soles (Verg. Eclog. 9.52); Georg. 1.458; Munro on Lucret. 3.1088, condere saecla.--collibus: 1.20.12; Verg. Georg. 2.521-522, et alte mitis in apricis coquitur vindemia saxis.--suis: emphatic; his own vine and fig tree, as it were.
viduas: i.e. unwedded. Cf. on 2.15.4; Epode 2.10. --ducit: cf. 'or they led the vine| To wed her elm ; she spoused about him twines |Her marriageable arms' (Milton, P. L. 5); Catull. 62.49; Shaks. Corn. of Err. 2.2,' Thou art an elm, my husband, I a vine'; F. Q. 1. 1.8, 'The vine-prop elm'; Gray's letters from Italy, 'Very public and scandalous doings between the vine and the elm trees, and how the olive trees are shocked thereat'; Juv. 8.78; Martial, 3.58.3, etc.--redit: sc. domum.
alteris . . . mensis: at dessert; 'across the walnuts and the wine.' This second course, mensae . . . secundae (Verg. Georg. 2.101), was prefaced by libations to the household Lares, with whom, by popular feeling and express decree of the Senate, Augustus' name was associated. Cf. Merivale, chap. 33; Dio, 51.19; Kirkland on Epist. 2.1.16; Ov. Fast. 2.633.
adhibet: cf. Verg. Aen. 5.62, adhibete Penatis . . . epulis.
te: for stylistic effect of the repetition, cf. 4.14.41 sqq. --prosequitur: honors.
defuso: cf. 1.31.2-3, de . . . fundens. For Latin concreteness here, cf. on 2.4.10.
miscet: unites.
The genitives are construed with numen, but felt also with memor. For the popular feeling towards Augustus, cf. further Epist. 2.1.16; Renan, Hibbert Lectures, p.15; Boissier, Religion Romaine, 1.141; Ov. Fast., 2.633 sqq.
o utinam: 1.35.38.--ferias: 'vacation' is peace.
Hesperiae: cf. on 2.1.32.--integro: when the day is still intact and wholly ours. Cf. Pater, 'Marius,' p.132, 'that youth the days of which he had already begun to count jealously in entire possession.'
sicci: 1.18.3.--uvidi: 1.7.22; 2.19.18; 3.21.9; Sat 2.6.70, uvescit; Sat. 2.1.9, irriguum.
Quiet close; cf. 4.2. 55-60. n.
