HORACE
te Cantaber non ante domabilis Medusque et Indus, te profugus Scythes miratur, o tutela praesens Italiae dominaeque Romae. 45te, fontium qui celat origines, Nilusque et Hister, te rapidus Tigris, te beluosus qui remotis obstrepit Oceanus Britannis, te non paventis funera Galliae 50duraeque tellus audit Hiberiae, te caede gaudentes Sygambri compositis venerantur armis.
15
Phoebus volentem proelia me loqui victas et urbis increpuit lyra, ne parva Tyrrhenum per aequor vela darem. tua, Caesar, aetas 5fruges et agris rettulit uberes, et signa nostro restituit Iovi derepta Parthorum superbis postibus et vacuum duellis Ianum Quirini clausit et ordinem 10rectum evaganti frena licentiae iniecit emovitque culpas et veteres revocavit artis, per quas Latinum nomen et Italae crevere vires, famaque et imperi 15porrecta maiestas ad ortus solis ab Hesperio cubili.
ODES IV.15
You are the one whom the Cantabrian, hitherto invincible, the Mede and the Indian and the retreating Scythian all regard with awe, yes, you, the ever-present defender of Italy and Rome, mistress of the world. To you the Nile, who conceals the sources of his stream, and the Danube, to you the fiercely flowing Tigris, to you the monster-teeming Ocean that roars at the distant Britons, to you the land of Gaul that fears not death, and that of stubborn Spain—all listen obediently; you receive the homage of the bloodthirsty Sygambri who have now laid aside their weapons.
15The blessings of the Pax Augusta
When I wanted to sing of battles and the conquest of cities, Phoebus banged on the lyre, to prevent me from setting sail in my tiny craft across the Etruscan Sea.
Your age, Caesar, has brought back rich harvests to the fields, and restored to our Jove the standards torn down from the proud doorposts of the Parthian;39 it has closed the temple of Janus Quirinus, now empty of war; it has put a bridle on licence which was straying beyond the proper limits,40 removed sin, and revived the ancient arts41 by which the name of Latium, the power of Italy, and the prestige and majesty of the Empire were extended from the sun’s western bed to his rising.