ODE VI. To the ROMAN PEOPLE, By WENTWORTH, Earl of RoscoMMON. TH I. HOSE Ills your Ancestors have done, Unless you foon repair The falling Temples, which the Gods provoke, And Statues fully'd yet with facrilegious Smoke. II. Propitious Heaven, that rais'd your Fathers high, For humble grateful Piety, As it rewarded their Respect, Hath fharply punifh'd your Neglect. All Empires on the Gods depend, Begun by their Command, at their Command they end. III. Let Craffus' Ghoft, and Labienus, tell How twice, by Jove's Revenge, our Legions fell; And, with infulting Pride, Shining in Roman Spoils, the Parthian Victors ride. IV. The IV. The Dacian and Egyptian Scum While our Seditions took their Part, Fill'd each 3 Ægyptian Sail, and wing'd each + Datian Dart. V. First, thefes flagitious Times, Pregnant with unknown Crimes, Confpire to violate the nuptial Bed: From which polluted Head, 6 Infectious Streams of crowding Sins began, And through the spurious Breed, and guilty Nation, ran. VI. Behold a ripe and melting Maid Bound 'Prentice to the wanton Trade; s Ionian Artifs, at a mighty Price, Inftruct her in the Myfteries of Vice; What Nets to spread; where fubtle Baits to lay; And, with an early Hand, they form the temper'd Clay. VII. Married, their Leffons fhe improves And fcorns the common mean Design, To take Advantage of her Husband's Wine; Or Or fnatch, in fome dark Place, A hafty illegitimate Embrace. No! the brib'd Husband knows of all, VIII. Hither a Merchant, from the Streights, Who feeds upon the Flesh of Heirs, Deep funk in Vice! whofe tributary Flame Pays the full Price of Luft, and gilds the flighted Shame. IX. 'Twas not the Spawn of such as these, That dy'd with Punic Blood the conquer'd Seas, And quell'd the ftern 1 acides; Made the proud Afian Monarch feel, How weak his Gold against the Roman Steel; Forc'd e'en dire 12 Hannibal to yield, And won the long-disputed World, at Zama's fatal Field. X. But Soldiers of a 13 ruftic Mold, Or made hewn Woods with weighty Strokes refound; And, And, after the declining Sun, Had chang'd the Shadows, and their Task was done, Home with the weary Team they took their Way, And drown'd, in friendly Bowls, the Labour of the Day. XI. Time fenfibly all Things impairs ; 14 Our Fathers have been worse than theirs ; And we than ours: Next Age will see A Race more profligate than we, (With all the Pains we take) have Skill enough to be. NOTE S. This Ode is wholly moral. Horace fhows, that the Contempt of Religion, and a general Corruption of Manners, were the fole Caufes of all the Calamities, which had oppreffed Rome. It was written after the De. feat of Antony, that is to say, about the Year of Rome 724, or 725. DACIER. 1 Dis te minorem quod geris. imperas.] Chriftians cannot give a better Leffon to Princes, than this: • You reign, only because you own a God above you, and that you hold every thing from him.' Horace did not defign this fo much for the Romans as for Auguftus; of whom he had faid, in the 12th Ode of the first Book, addreffing himself to Jupiter, Te minor latum reget æquus orbem. 2 Horace fpeaks here of the Army of Antony and Cleopatra, who pretended to conquer Rome, as he had obferved before, in the 37th Ode of the first Book: Dum Capitolio Regina demantes ruinas, It is well known, that the Ethiopians and Dacians made a great Part of Antony's Army. 3 Antony's Navy was compofed chiefly of Egyptian Galleys. Thofe Northern People, the Dacians, were very skilful Archers. According to Strabo, their Arms were a Sword and Buckler, with a Bow and Quiver. 5 Facunda culpæ fecula.] The prevailing Corruption of Manners in Horace's Time cannot be better displayed than by the following Epigram of Catullus : Confule Pompeio primum duo, Cinna, folebant But, Cinna, now we Thousands fee, Sprung from thefe two. Adultery By thofe two Adulterers, Catullus meant Cæfar and Mamurra. Soon after Horace had written this Ode, Augufus published the Julian Law De adulteriis, Concerning Adulteries. DACIER. 6 It is very remarkable, that Horace afcribes the Civil Wars, and all the Misfortunes of Rome, to Adultery. Herein he follows the Doctrine of Pythagoras, who taught, that nothing is fo apt to entail Calamities on a Nation, as the Corruption of Families by a spu rious Iffue. DACIER. 7 Matura virgo.] He fays matura virge, because the old Romans thought it an immodeft thing for a marriageable young Woman to learn to dance: That Diverfion was only allowed to Girls. 8 Motus doceri gaudet Iönicos.] The Ionic Dances were very lafcivious; for the Ionians were the most voluptuous People in the World. 9 Non bis juventus orta parentibus.] He here proves what he had advanced in the former Part of this Ode, and fhows how widely the Romans of his Time (corVOL. II. D rupted |