TO POMPONIUS NUMIDA. For whofe return from Spain, he rejoices with much exula tation. WITH the fweet cenfer and the lyre, And fatted calf upon the facred fire, The tutelary Gods we bless, That we our Numida once more carefs ; That they were form'd by one preceptor's skill, Left Baffus fhe out-drink-the table deck PROSE INTERPRETATION. tion. Let there be no prescription refpecting the ready jar, nor, after the manner of the Salians, let there be any reft of footing it: nor let the tippling Damalis exceed Baffus in toffing off the Thracian cup; nor let there be roses wanting to the good cheer, nor ever-green parfley, nor fhort bloom VOL. I. K ing Omnes in Damalin putres Deponent oculos: nec Damalis novo Divelletur adultero, Lafcivis ederis ambitiofior. PROSE INTERPRETATION. ing lily. All will fix their putrid eyes on Damalis but she, more ambitious than the luxuriant ivy, will not be forced from her new cully. ODE They all will turn their putrid eyes Quos hortatur ad indulgendum genio ob victoriam Alliacam. NUNC eft bibendum, nunc pede libero Pulfanda tellus: nunc Saliaribus Ornare pulvinar deorum Tempus erat dapibus fodales. Ebria. Sed minuit furorem Vix una fofpes navis ab ignibus: Cæfar, ab Italiâ volantem Remis adurgens (accipiter velut Molles columbas, aut leporem citus Legendum (opinor) orbo virorum. S. PROSE INTERPRETATION. O my companions, now we must drink, now the ground must be beaten with a free foot: now was the proper time to adorn the couch of the Gods with Salian banquets. Before this it was a fin to draw out the old Cæcuban, the cellars of our ancestors, while the queen (Cleopatra) with a vitiated crew of base emafculated fellows, was preparing wild ruin for TO HIS COMPANIONS. Whom he invites to indulge their geniuses on occafion of the victory at Allium. To O drink and dance with all the glee Of men that find their country free Now, now's the time- now deck the hallow'd fhrine, Like Mars his active priests, and make the temple fine. The long-kept Cæcuban to bring, With her contaminated train Of eunuchs, arrogant and vain, In hopes to compass every point at last, Drunk with a long fuccefs, and her good fortune paft. But now her rage is fomewhat tame, Since fcarce a ship escap'd the flame, And, tho' at large the Egyptian grape fhe fwill'd, With real horrors now her frantic foul is fill'd. For as from Italy fhe flies, His urgent oar Auguftus plies, PROSE INTERPRETATION. for the capitol, and deftruction for the empire, being weak enough to expect any thing, and drunk with the sweets of good fortune, But hardly a fingle fhip, faved from the flames, has leffened her fury, and Cæfar reduced her mind, maddened with Egyptian wine, to real fears urging her, as he fled from Italy, with his oars (as the hawk the tender doves K 3 |