Odes by Horace

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THE ODES AND CARMEN SAECULARE OF HORACE

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QUAE CURA PATRUM.


What honours can a grateful Rome,

A grateful senate, Caesar, give

To make thy worth through days to come

Emblazon'd on our records live,

Mightiest of chieftains whomsoe'er

The sun beholds from heaven on high?

They know thee now, thy strength in war,

Those unsubdued Vindelici.

Thine was the sword that Drusus drew,

When on the Breunian hordes he fell,

And storm'd the fierce Genaunian crew

E'en in their Alpine citadel,

And paid them back their debt twice told;

'Twas then the elder Nero came

To conflict, and in ruin roll'd

Stout Raetian kernes of giant frame.

O, 'twas a gallant sight to see

The shocks that beat upon the brave

Who chose to perish and be free!

As south winds scourge the rebel wave

When through rent clouds the Pleiads weep,

So keen his force to smite, and smite

The foe, or make his charger leap

Through the red furnace of the fight.

Thus Daunia's ancient river fares,

Proud Aufidus, with bull-like horn,

When swoln with choler he prepares

A deluge for the fields of corn.

So Claudius charged and overthrew

The grim barbarian's mail-clad host,

The foremost and the hindmost slew,

And conquer'd all, and nothing lost.

The force, the forethought, were thine own,

Thine own the gods. The selfsame day

When, port and palace open thrown,

Low at thy footstool Egypt lay,

That selfsame day, three lustres gone,

Another victory to thine hand

Was given; another field was won

By grace of Caesar's high command.

Thee Spanish tribes, unused to yield,

Mede, Indian, Scyth that knows no home,

Acknowledge, sword at once and shield

Of Italy and queenly Rome.

Ister to thee, and Tanais fleet,

And Nile that will not tell his birth,

To thee the monstrous seas that beat

On Britain's coast, the end of earth,

To thee the proud Iberians bow,

And Gauls, that scorn from death to flee;

The fierce Sygambrian bends his brow,

And drops his arms to worship thee





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