How would it please, should she in English speak, And could Hippolytus reply in Greek? But he, a stranger to your modish way, By your old rules must stand or fall to-day. Augustus had a design to rebuild Troy, and make it the metropolis of the Roman empire, having closeted several senators on the project: Horace is supposed to have written the following ode on this occasion. THE man resolv'd and steady to his trust, May the rude rabble's insolence despise, And the stern brow, and the harsh voice defies, Not the rough whirlwind, that deforms Adria's black gulf, and vexes it with storms, Nor the red arm of angry Jove, That flings the thunder from the sky, And gives it rage to roar, and strength to fly. Should the whole frame of nature round him break, In ruin and confusion hurl'd, He unconcern'd, would hear the mighty crack, And stand secure amidst a falling world. Such were the godlike arts that led By arts like these did young Lyæus rise: Wild from the desert and unbroke: In vain they foam'd, in vain they star'd, He tam'd them to the lash, and bent them to the yoke. He shook off dull mortality, And lost the monarch in the god. Bright Juno then her awful silence broke. And thus th' assembled deities bespoke. Troy, says the goddess, perjur'd Troy has felt Lay heavy on her head, and sunk her to the dust. That durst defraud th' immortals of their pay, Her guardian gods renounc'd their patronage, And now the long-protracted wars are o'er, The soft adult'rer shines no more: No more does Hector's force the Trojans shield, That drove whole armies back, and singly clear'd the field. My vengeance sated, I at length resign To Mars his offspring of the Trojan line: The thin remains of Troy's afflicted host, But far be Rome from Troy disjoin'd, Remov'd by seas, from the disastrous shore, May endless billows rise between, and storms unnumber'd roar. Still let the curs'd detested place, Where Priam lies, and Priam's faithless race, Amidst the mighty ruins play, And frisk upon the tombs of kings. May tigers there, and all the savage kind, Sad solitary haunts, and silent deserts find; VOL. I. I In gloomy vaults, and nooks of palaces, Her brinded whelps securely lay, Or, couch'd, in dreadful slumbers waste the day. While Troy in heaps of ruins lies, Rome and the Roman capitol shall rise, Th' illustrious exiles unconfin'd Shall triumph far and near, and rule mankind. In vain the sea's intruding tide Europe from Afric shall divide, And part the sever'd world in two: Through Afric's sands their triumphs they shall spread, And the long train of victories pursue To Nile's yet undiscover'd head. Riches the hardy soldier shall despise, And look on gold with undesiring eyes, In search of the forbidden ore; Those glitt'ring ills conceal'd within the mine, The piercing colds and sultry heats, Till storms and tempests their pursuits confine; If none his guilty hand employ To build again a second Troy, If none the rash design pursue, Nor tempt the vengeance of the gods anew. |