Part 5

_1._ 2. oppositast: equals opposita est. The joke turns on the double meaning of opponere, to expose and to mortgage. We may render the passage as,--My little farm is not exposed to the drafts of the south wind...but to a draft for, etc. 3. Apeliotae: a Greek word for east wind, meaning from the sun, i.e. from the region where the sun rises. For declension see B. 22; A. & G. 44. 4. ducentos: sc. sestertios. The sestertius was worth from four to five cents. 5. O ventum...pestilentem: O unhealthy draft!

_2._ Latin did not naturally use h at all with consonants nor favor its use before vowels. Greek, however, frequently employs the aspirated consonants ch, ph, and th as well as the rough breathing; and, though in earlier times the Romans were satisfied to take Greek words over into their language without aspirating, e.g. Corintus for [Greek: Korinthos], in later times aspirating became a fashion. Of this fashion Arrius is an unskilful follower, who, while believing himself to be achieving a fine reputation for good form, makes himself a target for the ridicule of Catullus.

1. vellet: imperfect subjunctive in the protasis of a general condition, B. 302, 1, 3, a; A. & G. 518, c. 3. sperabat: he used to flatter himself. 4. quantum poterat: with might and main. Arrius makes all the display that he can of his elegant (?) accomplishment. 5. liber: implying that Arrius' uncle had been a slave and that the family is of humble origin. Catullus thus intimates that what Arrius thinks an accomplishment really stamps him as of low birth. 7. misso: sent to Syria on some public service, perhaps with Crassus in 55 B.C. 8. audibant: B. 116, 4, b; A. & G. 183, 1. leniter et leviter: the devotees of the aspirating fashion whom Arrius had left behind in Rome were not so obtrusive about it as he, did not speak out 'quantum poterant.' 9. postilla: equals postea. 11. Ionios: news of Arrius would come soon from the Ionian Sea, for, lying as it did to the west of Greece, it would soon be reached by him on his eastward journey. isset: B. 116, 1; A. & G. 181, b.

The following is Martin's translation:

Whenever Arrius wished to name 'Commodious,' out 'chommodious' came: And when of his intrigues he blabbed, With his 'hintrigues' our ears he stabbed; And thought, moreover, he displayed A rare refinement when he made His h's thus at random fall With emphasis most guttural. When suddenly came news one day Which smote the city with dismay, That the Ionian seas a change Had undergone, most sad and strange; For, since by Arrius crossed, the wild 'Hionian Hocean' they were styled.

_3._ 1. Veneres: the plural is symmetrical with Cupidines, while suggesting 'the Graces.' 2. et...venustiorum: and all who have a soul for beauty. hominum: partitive genitive. venustiorum: B. 240, 1; A. & G. 291, a. The expression describes those who possess qualities of grace and charm, and implies that they can appreciate such qualities. 3. puellae: probably Clodia, wife of Q. Caecilius Metellus Celer, to whom under the name of 'Lesbia' Catullus addressed a number of poems. His attachment for her was the 'one all-absorbing passion of the poet's life.' 6. mellitus: a honey. suamque: his lady. Catullus speaks of the sparrow in language appropriate to a lover. 11. iter tenebricosum: the shadowy journey to Hades. 12. Cf. _Hamlet_, 3. 1:

The undiscover'd country from whose bourn No traveller returns.

13. At...tenebrae: Evil be to you, evil shadows! 17. tua opera: for you, i.e. for the sparrow, ablative of cause. 18. turgiduli...ocelli: my girl's pretty eyes are so red and swollen.

_4._ 2. antistans...trecentis: worth a million of the rest to me. milibus: depends on antistans, B. 187, III, 1; A. & G. 370. 4. Anum: aged, used as an adjective. 5. mini: B. 188, c; A. & G. 378, 1. nuntii: plural, though for a single message. 6. Hiberum: genitive plural. 7. facta: deeds. 8. adplicansque collum: i.e. with arm about your neck drawing you to me. 10. Cf. 1, 2 and note on venustiorum. Translate O! of happy, happy mortals. 11. quid: a 'neuter not very rare in Latin in similar sweeping appeals.'--Merrill.

_5._ Date, 56 B.C. 1. egelidos: in which there is no chill. 4. Catullus is at the end of a year of absence in Bithynia on the staff of Memmius the governor, and is about to return to Italy. Phrygii campi: the plains about Nicaea. 6. claras Asiae urbes: the famous Greek cities on the western coast of Asia Minor, as Ephesus, Smyrna. 7. praetrepidans: tremulous with anticipation. 9. comitum: the other members of the governor's staff, or cohors. 11. diversae variae: separate and varied.

_6._ Date, 56 B.C. Sirmione (Sirmio) is a peninsula--at high water an island--extending into the Lago di Garda (Lacus Benacus). An ancient ruin here of Constantine's time was long known as Catullus' villa. Cf. with this and the ninth selection Tennyson's '_Frater, Ave atque Vale_':

Row us out from Desenzano, to your Sirmione row! So they row'd and there we landed--'O venusta Sirmio!' There to me thro' all the groves of olive in the summer glow, There beneath the Roman ruin where the purple flowers grow, Came that 'Ave atque Vale' of the poet's hopeless woe, Tenderest of Roman poets nineteen hundred years ago, 'Prater, Ave atque Vale'--as we wander'd to and fro Gazing at the Lydian laughter of the Garda Lake below Sweet Catullus' all-but-island, olive-silvery Sirmio!

1, 2. Paene insularum...ocelle: pearl of all peninsulas. Paene is used as an adjective by a Greek construction, A. & G. 321, c. Cf. Ovid, _Heroides_, 15.357, paene puer. ocelle: cf. Milton, _Paradise Regained_, 4. 240, 'Athens, the eye of Greece.' 3. fert...Neptunus: twin-realmed (Cranstoun) Neptune upholds in lakes or sea. fert: Poseidon, according to Homer, is the earth-upholding. Cf. _Exodus_ 20.4 'the water under the earth.' uterque: i.e. as god of stagna (lakes) and of mare. 5. Thyniam: the part of Bithynia on the shore of the Thracian Bosporus. 6. liquisse: the poets are fond of using uncompounded forms of verbs. Cf. 5, 4, linquantur. 7. O...curis: 'The form of expression suggests that the cares now past are, as past, actual pleasures.'--Ellis. 8, 9. peregrine labore: the toil of travel. larem: the home, lit. the household god. 11. Hoc...tantis: This it is that of itself is a compensation for so great labors. 12. venusta: Ellis praises 'the beauty of Sirmio, with its high cliffs descending into the transparently blue water, and the exquisite color of the surrounding land and sky.' ero gaude: be glad for thy master, i.e. thy master bids thee 'Rejoice!' 13. Lydiae: the shores of the lake were once occupied by Etruscans, and they were said to have come originally from Lydia. The epithet is transferred from lacus to undae. 14. quidquid...cachinnorum: the clause is to be taken as a vocative.

_7._ 2. Calve: Calvus was an accomplished orator and poet. Of his literary work almost nothing remains. He was Catullus' intimate friend and is often mentioned with him. 3. desiderio: yearning, in apposition to dolore, defining and specializing it. 4. olim missas: lost in by-gone days, missas equals amissas. Cf. _Selection_ 6, 6 and note. 6. Quintiliae: Calvus' young wife. Calvus himself wrote elegies in her memory.

_8._ This poem was sent to Hortensius introducing a translation from the Greek poet Callimachus (which is possibly Carmen 66 and of the _Coma Berinices_). 2. Ortale: Q. Hortensius Ortalus, Cicero's chief rival as an orator. virginibus: the Muses. 3. fetus: fruitage. 4. mens animi: my thoughtful soul. Cicero, _De Republica_, 2.40.67, describes the mens as pars animi. 5, 6. Lethaeo gurgite manans unda: the wave slow-streaming from the gulf of oblivion. The 'river of death' which the brother of Catullus has just crossed (Catullus says forded) to return no more, is called Lethaean (Greek [Greek: lethe], 'forgetfuluess'), since the dead forget the living, and the living the dead. 6. pallidulum: poor, pallid foot. 7. Rhoeteo: Rhoeteum was a promontory of the Troad. 8. obterit: crushes. 13. Daulias: the nightingale, lit. the (transformed) woman of Daulis. Catullus has taken this name from the legend of Tereus (see _Harper's Classical Dictionary_, 'Tereus'), while he has followed the myth as it appears in Odyssey, 19. 518 ff., where the plaintive song of the nightingale is represented as the lamentation of Aedon for her child Itylus, whom before her transformation into the nightingale 'she slew unwittingly with the bronze.' 15. haec expressa carmina Battiadae: these verses translated from Callimachus. Callimachus of Cyrene, 'the son of Battus,' was a Greek poet of the Alexandrine school. His death occurred about 240 B.C. 16. nequiquam...ventis: i.e. ineffectual.

_9._ 'An invocation accompanying offerings at the tomb of the poet's brother.'--Merrill. Catullus probably made this visit to the Troad on his Bithynian journey. Date, probably 57 B.C. 2. miseras ad inferias: for these sad offerings. The inferiae, or offerings to the dead, consisted of wine, milk, blood, honey, flowers, etc. 4. nequiquam: no answer would be returned. 6. indigne: wrongfully, because his death was premature. 7. Nunc tamen interea: But now while I thus am sorrowing, interea, as in 14. 21, 36. 18, and _Ciris_, 44 ff., marks the transition from reflection upon a situation to the act which that situation demands at the moment. 9. multum manantia: drenched. 10. ave atque vale: the formula of farewell to the dead, spoken at the conclusion of the funeral ceremonies. Cf. Vergil, _Aeneid_, 11. 97 ff.

IV. VERGIL.

70-19 B.C.

Roman Vergil, thou that singest Ilion's lofty temples robed in fire, Ilion falling, Rome arising, Wars, and filial faith, and Dido's pyre;

Thou that singest wheat and woodland, Tilth and vineyard, hive and horse and herd; All the charm of all the Muses Often flowering in a lonely word;

Poet of the happy Tityrus Piping underneath his beechen bowers; Poet of the poet-satyr Whom the laughing shepherd bound with flowers;

I salute thee, Mantovano, I that loved thee since my day began, Wielder of the stateliest measure Ever molded by the lips of man.

Tennyson, _To Vergil_.

Vergil, as the author of the _Bucolics_ and the _Aeneid_, is already known to the student. The _Georgics_ were composed after the former and before the latter, since they were begun in 36 B.C. and finished in 29 B.C. Hesiod's _Works and Days_ supplied a partial model, and the influence of Lucretius was powerful. The poet shows an intense enthusiasm for his subject, which Mr. Merivale asserts to be the Glorification of Labor. The First Book treats of the tillage of the ground, the Second of the culture of trees and of the vine, the Third of the care of the animals bred by the farmer, and the Fourth and last of bee-keeping. Elegant episodes diversify the poem, the longest of which we extract. The dedication of the _Georgics_ is to Maecenas. Their extent is about 2200 lines.

For Reference: Conington's _Vergil_, Fifth Edition, revised by Haverfield, George Bell and Sons, London, 1898, Vol. I, pp. 135-165, and notes upon _Georgics_, 4. 315-558.

Metre: Dactylic Hexameter, B. 368; A. & G. 615.

_1._ Servius twice tells us (_Eclogues_ 10. 1 and _Georgics_ 4. 1) that the poet Cornelius Gallus was Vergil's friend, and that the latter half of the fourth _Georgic_ was originally written in his praise, but that this was suppressed at the command of Augustus and the tale of Aristaeus substituted. Gallus, we remember, appears in the sixth and tenth _Eclogues_. The story of his disgrace by the emperor and his suicide is a familiar one.

Aristaeus, having lost his bees 'by disease and hunger,' is commanded by the nymph Cyrene, his mother, to obtain from the sea-god Proteus the reason for this manifestation of divine displeasure. He learns that it is because Eurydice, the wife of Orpheus, has perished as a result of his amorous pursuit; and the story of Orpheus' descent to the lower world to recover her is narrated to him. Then Cyrene instructs him how to secure a new swarm. 1. hanc...artem: this method of obtaining new swarms of bees by slaying cattle and allowing bees to form in their decaying bodies. 3. Peneia Tempo: Tempe is a beautiful valley in Thessaly through which the river Peneus flows. 5. extremi: i.e. the rising river. amnis: the Peneus. 7. gurgitis: flood. 9. Thymbraeus: Thymbra was a city near Troy where there was a temple of Apollo. 10. fatis: by the fates, B. 189, 2; A. & G. 375. nostri: objective genitive, 11. caelum sperare: Aristaeus was deified after death. 12. honorem: honor from the possession of wealth. 14. relinquo: leave with reluctance, lose. 15. Quin age: _Why not go on?_ in ironical remonstrance. 17. molire: wield, imperative. 18. taedia: loathing of my praise, B. 55, 4, c. The plural expresses the aversion on each occasion. 19. thalamo sub: in the deep river's chamber. Sub governs thalamo, but follows it. Cyrene, as daughter of the river-god Peneus, dwells in subterranean chambers at the source of that stream. She is at this time in the thalamo described in 60 ff. Aristaeus enters through the river, thought of as emerging from the earth a full-grown stream, the waters arching over his head to admit him. He passes beneath the earth where he sees groves and lakes, and rivers which are presently to issue as the various streams of the upper world. 20. Milesia: the wool of Miletus, a city on the west coast of Asia Minor, was famous. 21. carpebant: were plucking the fleeces, i.e. spinning. hyali...colore: dyed with the rich, glass-green color. 22. A similar catalogue of names is in _Iliad_, 18. 39 ff. Drymoque: que is long according to Greek usage before the double consonant beginning the next word. 28. auro ff.: arrayed in skins embroidered with threads of gold. 31 ff. _Odyssey_, 8. 34. mollia pensa: their soft tasks. See _Lex_. pendo II, pensum, B, 1. 35. impulit: struck his mother's ears. 39. procul: sc. dixit. frustra: idly, without reason. 42. nomine: ablative of specification. 43. nova: strange. 44. age: quick. 46. qua ff.: purpose clause, that the youth might enter there. 48. misit: let him pass, lit. sent him. He enters the earth through the opening by which the Peneus finds exit. 52. sub...terra: so Plato in the myth of the _Phaedo_ conceives of rivers as penetrating the depths of the earth. 53 ff. For the rivers named see _Lex_. 57. cornua: accusative of specification. voltu: dative, B. 49, 2; A. & G. 89. 60. in thalami pendentia pumice tecta: tecta may be regarded either as participle or noun. In the former case thalami tecta, 'the covered things of the chamber,' equals thalamum teclum, 'the covered chamber,' as strata viarum equals stratae viae; pendentia pumice tecta, roofs or covered things hanging with pumice (ablative of instrument) equals pendente pumice tecta, roofs of hanging pumice (ablative of description). Translate: into the chamber roofed with arching pumice. 61. inanis: since so easily removed, accusative plural. 63. tonsis...villis: of shorn nap, smooth and soft. 64. onerant: B. 254, 4, a; A. & G. 317, d. 65. Panchaeis ignibus: incense-burning flames. Panchaea was a fabulous island, east of Arabia, rich in incense. 66. et mater: sc. dixit. Maeonii: Lydian. Bacchi: the wine, as Vestam (1. 70) is the fire, the deities being named for that over which they preside. 69. centum: simply expressing a large number. 71. subiecta: shooting up. 73 ff. This part of the story has its original in _Odyssey_ 4. The Carpathian Sea is between Crete and Rhodes. 74. caeruleus: an epithet applied to Proteus as a god of the azure sea. 75. The yoked chariot of two-footed steeds equals the chariot yoked to two-footed steeds. 77. Pallenen: a peninsula of Emathia, or Macedonia. 79. quae...trahantur: what in the near future is drawn on in the chain of events. 83. eventusque secundet: and may make the issue favorable. 94. fulva cervice: ablative of description. 101. ambrosiae: used as an ointment, as _Iliad_, 14. 170, Aeneid, 12.419. 102. perduxit: anointed; _Lex_. perduco, I. C. 1. 105, 106. quo...reductos: whither many a billow marches before the wind and divides into files that fall back, cogo and reductos may be used in a military sense. The wind is the rear-guard of the marching files of billows formed as the main wave enters an indentation in the shore. As the wave divides, all the secondary waves pursue the original direction, but the outer ones are retarded, as compared with the middle ones, and seem to fall back. Statio, just below, is familiar as a military term. Or reductos sinus can mean the depths of the bay. 107. deprensis: weather-bound. 108. vasti...obiice saxi: by the barrier of a vast rock, i.e. behind a rock. 109. averaum a lumine: in the darkness. 114. faucibus: i.e. the deep-cut channels. Perhaps the author intends with a bold personification to speak of the almost dried-up rivers as dry-throated, siccis faucibus would then be well taken as ablative of description. 115. antra: plural in view of the many chambers. 117. rorem amarum: the bitter dew, beautifully used of the salt spray. 121. acuunt: whet the wolves, i. e. their hunger. 131. Nam quis equals quisnam, Who pray? Surprise is expressed. 133. neque est: nor is it possible, used with infinitive in Greek construction, _Lex_. 1 sum, I, B, 5, 6, e. 135. lassis rebus: shattered fortunes. 137. glauco: azure. 139. Non...nullius: double negative for greater emphasis. It is in very truth the wrath of a god that pursues thee. irae: B. 55,4, c; A. & G. 100, c. 141. haud quaquam ob meritum poenas: penalties by no means on account of thy guilt, i.e. less than thy guilt. 147-149. Rhodope and Pangaeus are mountains, the Getae a tribe, Hebrus a river,--all in Thrace. Athenian Orithyia, daughter of Erechtheus, king of Athens, was carried by Boreas to Thrace, where she bore Calais and Zetes. As a nymph of the country she is interested in the fate of the Thracian Orpheus and Eurydice. 153. Taenarias: a cavern on the promontory of Taenarus in Laconia was fabled to be the entrance of the infernal regions. 157. Erebi: Greek [Greek: Erebos], a place of darkness, i.e. the lower world. 159 ff. Cf. _Aeneid_ 6. 309-312. 161 ff. Cf. _Aeneid_ 6. 306-308. 165 ff. Cf. _Aeneid_ 6. 438-439. 167, 168. intima Leti Tartara: the inmost prison cells of death. crinibus: dative. anguis: accusative of specification. 169. Eumenides: the Furies, deities who punish crime; even they are moved by Orpheus' song. Cerberus: the three-headed dog at the entrance of Hades who kept the spirits from escaping. 171. Ixion, for an attempt upon the chastity of Juno, was bound to an ever-revolving wheel. vento: ablative of cause. The logic is loose; because of the wind's stopping. 173. pone: adverb. Cf. _Aeneid_, 2. 208. 177. animi: locative genitive, B. 232, 3; A. & G. 358. 179. stagnis: ablative of source. 182. natantia: swimming. 188. praeterea vidit: saw him more, praeterea here equalling postea. 192. nabat: was sailing. 194. Strymonis: a river on the borders of Thrace. 196. agentem: that trees followed the music of Orpheus became one of the commonplaces of poetry. 197-201. Notice the sweetness of sound due to the alliteration, especially of the liquids. 202. hymenaei: nuptials. 203. Hyperboreas: Hyperborean, i.e. northern, lit. beyond the north wind. Tanaim: now the Don, a river named here, as are the Rhipaei monies of the following line, because belonging to the cold, distant, desolate North. 204. numquam viduata: never bereaved, with a thought of the bereaved Orpheus. The setting corresponds to the situation. The grim landscape is forever wedded to its desolation as Orpheus to his bereavement. 206. Ciconum: a Thracian people. munere: tribute to the dead. The word is used technically of funeral honors. 206-213. Cf. _Lycidas_, 61-63:

By the rout that made the hideous roar His gory visage down the stream was sent, Down the swift Hebrus to the Lesbian shore.

210. Oeagrius: Oeagrius was a king of Thrace and father of Orpheus. 213. referebant: echoed with. Cf. Pope, _Ode on St. Cecilia's Day_, 113-116:

Yet ev'n in death Eurydice he sung, Eurydice still trembled on his tongue, Eurydice the woods, Eurydice the floods, Eurydice the rocks, and hollow mountains rung.

214. iactudedit: i.e. iecit. 219. choros...agitabat: used to dance. Agito means to occupy oneself with, as Plautus, Asinaria, 5. 1. 7. 221. Napaeas: Dell-nymphs, Greek [Greek: napaiai], belonging to a wooded vale. 225. Lycaei: a mountain of Arcadia. 234. facessit: he despatches. 235-239. The repetitions from 224-232 are in the Homeric manner. 241 ff. The bees are thought to form within the bodies and to force their way through the yielding sides. 244. uvam demittere: to let fall a cluster. The cluster formed by the bees when they alight in swarming resembles a bunch of grapes.

V. PHAEDRUS.

Flourished about 15 A.D.

Phaedrus, born in Thrace, came to Rome as a slave, and was set free by Augustus. Under Tiberius he was the victim of political persecution on account of some verses offensive to Sejanus. He published five books of fables (with occasional anecdotes) largely imitated from Aesop.

His style is fluent, his tone lively and sometimes coarse, his diction correct, his verse skilful.--Teuffel, Schwabe, and Warr, _History of Roman Literature_, vol. 2, p. 30.

For Reference: Teuffel, Schwabe, and Warr, _History of Roman Literature_, vol. 2, p. 29 ff.

Metre: Iambic Trimeter, B. 370, 1, 2; A. & G. 618, a, b.

_1._ Aesopus: a famous writer of fables, born in Phrygia about 600 B.C. He is said to have been liberated from slavery, to have lived at Sardis and to have been Croesus' ambassador to Delphi, where he was murdered by the angry townspeople, who hurled him over a precipice. Babrius, a Greek who lived about 100 B.C., made a comprehensive collection of Aesopian fables which Phaedrus imitated with considerable closeness. 5-7. 'Let no one censure me for representing trees as speaking; it is merely the play of fancy and a fable.'

_2._ 4. latro: the robber wolf. 7. Qui: how? Qui is the old ablative of the relative, interrogative, and indefinite pronouns.

_4._ 1. devocat: allures. 3. Tanto...melior: 'That is good!' See _Lex_. under tantus, I, C, 3, a, b. 4. prosecutus: and went on to say. See _Lex_. underprosequor, II, B. 5. unde: equivalent to a quo. 7. dignum ff.: with a double meaning. 10. namque: for, a strengthened nam.

_5._ This story is also told by Cicero, _De Oratore_, 2. 352 ff., and by others. 1, 2. Quantum...superius: an earlier fable (4. 23) relates how Simonides, shipwrecked and destitute, was received most hospitably by one of his admirers. 4. Simonides: the renowned Greek lyric poet of Ceos. His ode upon those who fell at Thermopylae was especially famous. Sterling translates:

Of those who at Thermopylae were slain, Glorious the doom, and beautiful the lot; Their tomb an altar: men from tears refrain To honor them; and praise, but mourn them not. Such sepulchre nor drear decay Nor all-destroying time shall waste; this right have they. Within their grave the home-bred glory Of Greece was laid; this witness gives Leonidas, the Spartan, in whose story A wreath of famous virtue ever lives.

5. pyctae: a word borrowed directly from the Greek. 8. poetae more: poets who wrote odes in honor of victories at the games usually inserted some legend containing an account of a similar victory won by a god or a hero. 9. gemma Ledae pignera: Castor and Pollux, the latter famous as a boxer. pignera: see _Lex_. II, B, 1. 10. auctoritatem...gloriae: citing the authority of a like glory. 11, 12. tertiam partem: only a third. 13. duae: sc. partes, two-thirds. 24. humanam supra formani: the gods and heroes were 'divinely tall.' The diminutive servulo is in strong contrast. 31. Ut...rei: When the incident was told just as it occurred.