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A Poetical Translation of the works of Horace

With the Original Text, and Critical Notes collected from his best Latin and French Commentators. By the Revd Mr. Philip Francis...The third edition
  

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Ode VI. To the Romans.
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245

Ode VI. To the Romans.

Though guiltless of your Father's Crimes,
Roman, 'tis thine, to latest Times,
The Vengeance of the Gods to bear,
'Till Thou their awful Domes repair,
Profan'd with Smoke their Statues raise,
And bid their sacred Altars blaze.
That You the Powers divine obey,
Boundless on Earth extends your Sway;
From hence your future Glories date,
From hence expect the Hand of Fate.
Th'offended Gods, in Horrours dire,
On sad Hesperia pour'd their Ire:
The Parthian Squadrons twice repell'd
Our inauspicious Powers, and quell'd
Our boldest Efforts, while they shone
With Spoils, from conquer'd Romans won.

147

The Dacian, whose unerring Art
Can wing with Death the pointed Dart;
Th'Ægyptian, for his Navies fam'd,
Who Neptune's boundless Empire claim'd,
Had almost in their Rage destroy'd
Imperial Rome, in civil Strife employ'd.
Fruitful of Crimes, this Age first stain'd
Their hapless Offspring, and profan'd
The nuptial Bed, from whence the Woes,
Which various and unnumber'd rose
From this polluted Fountain Head,
O'er Rome, and o'er the Nations spread.
With plyant Limbs the ripen'd Maid
Now joys to learn the wanton Trade
Of Dance indecent, and to prove
The Pleasures of forbidden Love:
But soon amid the Bridal Feast
Boldly she courts her Husband's Guest;
Her Love no nice Distinction knows,
But round the wandering Pleasure throws,
Careless to hide the bold Delight
In Darkness, and the Shades of Night.

249

Nor does she need the thin Disguise,
The conscious Husband bids her rise,
When some rich Factor courts her Charms,
Who calls the Wanton to his Arms,
And, prodigal of Wealth and Fame,
Profusely buys the costly Shame.
Not such the Youth, of such a Strain,
Who dyed with Punic Gore the Main;
Who Pyrrhus' flying War pursued,
Antiochus the Great subdued,
And taught that Terrour of the Field,
The cruel Hannibal, to yield:
But a rough Race inur'd to Toil,
With heavy Spade to turn the Soil,
And by a Mother's Will severe
To fell the Wood, and homeward bear
The ponderous Load, even when the Sun
His downward Course of Light had run,
And from the Western Mountain's Head
His changing Shadows lengthening spread,
Unyok'd the Team with Toil opprest,
And gave the friendly Hour of Rest.

251

What feels not Time's consuming Rage?
More vicious than their Father's Age
Our Sires begot the present Race,
Of Actions impious, bold and base,
And yet, with Crimes to us unknown,
Our Sons shall mark the coming Age their own.