ns, fill the city with my name unpunished? What did it avail
me to have enriched the Palignian sorceress [with my charms], and to
have prepared poison of greater expedition, if a slower fate awaits you
than is agreeable to my wishes? An irksome life shall be protracted by
you, wretch as you are, for this purpose, that you may perpetually be
able to endure new tortures. Tantalus, the perfidious sire of Pelops,
ever craving after the plenteous banquet [which is always before him],
wishes for respite; Prometheus, chained to the vulture, wishes [for
rest]; Sisyphus wishes to place the stone on the summit of the mountain:
but the laws of Jupiter forbid. Thus you shall desire at one time to
leap down from a high tower, at another to lay open your breast with the
Noric sword; and, grieving with your tedious indisposition, shall tie
nooses about your neck in vain. I at that time will ride on your odious
shoulders; and the whole earth shall acknowledge my unexampled power.
What shall I who can give motion to waxen images (as you yourself,
inquisitive as you are, were convinced of) and snatch the moon from
heaven by my incantations; I, who can raise the dead after they are
burned, and duly prepare the potion of love, shall I bewail the event of
my art having no efficacy upon you?

* * * * *

THE SECULAR POEM OF HORACE.

TO APOLLO AND DIANA.

Phoebus, and thou Diana, sovereign of the woods, ye illustrious
ornaments of the heavens, oh ever worthy of adoration, and ever adored,
bestow what we pray for at this sacred season: at which the Sibylline
verses have given directions, that select virgins and chaste youths
should sing a hymn to the deities, to whom the seven hills [of Rome] are
acceptable. O genial sun, who in your splendid car draw forth and
obscure the day, and who arise another and the same, may it never be in
your power to behold anything more glorious than the city of Rome! O
Ilithyia, of lenient power to produce the timely birth, protect the
matrons [in labor]; whether you choose the title of Lucina, or
Genitalis. O goddess multiply our offspring; and prosper the decrees of
the senate in relation to the joining of women in wedlock, and the
matrimonial law about to teem with a new race; that the stated
revolution of a hundred and ten years may bring back the hymns and the
games, three times by bright daylight restored to in crowds, and as
often in the welcome night. And you, ye fa