ther free, or ourselves enamored of aught, light as our wont,
sing of banquets; we, of the battles of maids desperate against young
fellows--with pared nails.

* * * * *

ODE VII.

TO MUNATIUS PLANCUS.

Other poets shall celebrate the famous Rhodes, or Mitylene, or Ephesus,
or the walls of Corinth, situated between two seas, or Thebes,
illustrious by Bacchus, or Delphi by Apollo, or the Thessalian Tempe.
There are some, whose one task it is to chant in endless verse the city
of spotless Pallas, and to prefer the olive culled from every side, to
every other leaf. Many a one, in honor of Juno, celebrates Argos,
productive of steeds, and rich Mycenae. Neither patient Lacedaemon so
much struck me, nor so much did the plain of fertile Larissa, as the
house of resounding Albunea, and the precipitately rapid Anio, and the
Tiburnian groves, and the orchards watered by ductile rivulets. As the
clear south wind often clears away the clouds from a lowering sky, now
teems with perpetual showers; so do you, O Plancus, wisely remember to
put an end to grief and the toils of life by mellow wine; whether the
camp, refulgent with banners, possess you, or the dense shade of your
own Tibur shall detain you. When Teucer fled from Salamis and his
father, he is reported, notwithstanding, to have bound his temples,
bathed in wine, with a poplar crown, thus accosting his anxious friends:
"O associates and companions, we will go wherever fortune, more
propitious than a father, shall carry us. Nothing is to be despaired of
under Teucer's conduct, and the auspices of Teucer: for the infallible
Apollo has promised, that a Salamis in a new land shall render the name
equivocal. O gallant heroes, and often my fellow-sufferers in greater
hardships than these, now drive away your cares with wine: to-morrow we
will re-visit the vast ocean."

* * * * *

ODE VIII.

TO LYDIA.

Lydia, I conjure thee by all the powers above, to tell me why you are so
intent to ruin Sybaris by inspiring him with love? Why hates he the
sunny plain, though inured to bear the dust and heat? Why does he
neither, in military accouterments, appear mounted among his equals; nor
manage the Gallic steed with bitted reins? Why fears he to touch the
yellow Tiber? Why shuns he the oil of the ring more cautiously than
viper's blood? Why neither does he, who has often acquired reputation by
the quoit, ofte