Horace1_37
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Horace, Ode I.37, Nunc est bibendum Trans. C. Sydenham (Duckworth, 2005), p. 69. Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus, 65-8 BCE) published Bks. 1-3 of his Odes in 23 BCE. Cleopatra, the “demented queen,” was the last of the Ptolemies and committed suicide in 30 BCE, in the aftermath of Octavian’s complete victory at the Battle of Actium. Now it is the time to drink, to stamp the ground, without restraint, my friends, to deck with feasts the tables of the gods, to set them banquets worthy of the Salian priests. Nunc est bibendum, nun pede libero pulsanda tellus, nunc Saliaribus ornare pulvinar deorum tempus erat dapibus, sodales. Till now is was unfitting to fetch down the treasured vintage from its dusty home, while that demented queen was plotting rack and ruin for the might of Rome. Antehac nefas depromere Caecubum cellis avitis, dum Capitolio regina dementis ruinas, funus et imperio parabat abetted by her vice-polluted crew of semi-men, with luck intoxicated and blind with limitless ambition till her folly was at last deflated contaminato cum grege turpium morbo virorum, quidlibet impotens sperare fortunaque dulci ebria. Sed minuit furorem by scarce on ship escaping from the flames, and then her mind, awash with eastern wine, was jolted into sober dread by Caesar bearing down her line vix una sospes navis ab ignibus, mentemque lymphatam Mareotico redegit in veros timores Caesar, ab Italia volantem of flight from Roman waters – as a hawk stoops on a dove, or as upon the plains of Thessaly the hunter courses down the hare – meaning to put in chains remis adurgens, accipiter velut mollis coumbas aut leporem citus venator in campis nivalis Haemoniae, daret ut catenis the deadly fiend; but she, seeking a death more noble, neither womanishly quailed before the sword, nor headlong with her galleys to some secret refuge sailed, fatale monstrum. Quae generosius perire quaerens nec muliebriter expavit ensem nec latentis classe cita reparavit oras; but bore to look upon her fallen walls with face unmoved, and found the hardihood to grasp the scaly serpent, so its venom could be drunk into her blood; ausa et iacentem visere regiam vultu sereno, fortis et asperas tractare serpentes, ut atrum corpore combiberet venenum, once set on death she was more ruthless than the fierce Liburnians, her high disdain refused to countenance the public degradation of the triumph-train. deliberata morte ferocior; saevis LIburnis scilicet invidens privata deduci superbo non humilis mulier triumpho.
description
Race in the ancient Mediterranean
Transcript of Horace1_37
Horace, OdeI.37, Nunc est bibendum Trans. C. Sydenham (Duckworth, 2005), p. 69. Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus, 65-8 BCE) published Bks. 1-3 of his Odes in 23 BCE.Cleopatra, the demented queen, was the last of the Ptolemies and committed suicide in 30 BCE, in the aftermath of Octavians complete victory at the Battle of Actium. Now it is the time to drink, to stamp the ground, without restraint, my friends, to deck with feasts the tables of the gods, to set them banquets worthy of the Salian priests. Nunc est bibendum, nun pede libero pulsanda tellus, nunc Saliaribus ornare pulvinar deorum tempus erat dapibus, sodales. Till now is was unfitting to fetch down the treasured vintage from its dusty home, while that demented queen was plotting rack and ruin for the might of Rome. Antehac nefas depromere Caecubum cellis avitis, dum Capitolio regina dementis ruinas, funus et imperio parabat abetted by her vice-polluted crew of semi-men, with luck intoxicated and blind with limitless ambition till her folly was at last deflated contaminato cum grege turpium morbo virorum, quidlibet impotens sperare fortunaque dulci ebria. Sed minuit furorem by scarce on ship escaping from the flames, and then her mind, awash with eastern wine, was jolted into sober dread by Caesar bearing down her line vix una sospes navis ab ignibus, mentemque lymphatam Mareotico redegit in veros timores Caesar, ab Italia volantem of flight from Roman waters as a hawk stoops on a dove, or as upon the plains of Thessaly the hunter courses down the hare meaning to put in chains remis adurgens, accipiter velut mollis coumbas aut leporem citus venator in campis nivalis Haemoniae, daret ut catenis the deadly fiend; but she, seeking a death more noble, neither womanishly quailed before the sword, nor headlong with her galleys to some secret refuge sailed, fatale monstrum. Quae generosius perire quaerens nec muliebriter expavit ensem nec latentis classe cita reparavit oras; but bore to look upon her fallen walls with face unmoved, and found the hardihood to grasp the scaly serpent, so its venom could be drunk into her blood; ausa et iacentem visere regiam vultu sereno, fortis et asperas tractare serpentes, ut atrum corpore combiberet venenum, once set on death she was more ruthless than the fierce Liburnians, her high disdain refused to countenance the public degradation of the triumph-train. deliberata morte ferocior; saevis LIburnis scilicet invidens privata deduci superbo non humilis mulier triumpho.
