later his Georgics[1] and his Aeneid[2] abound in references to Parthia, Media, Bactria, and distant India. The Parthian bow, the feigned retreat, the parting shot from behind, the Armenian tiger, the Hyrcanian dog, Assyrian dye and spice, Indian or Assyrian ivory, the inhospitable Caucasus, the tepid Tigris, the broad Euphrates, the beautiful Ganges, the Indian Hydaspes, the wool of the Seres—all these and many more become stock phrases which persist in literature long after the events which caused them to spring into being have become ancient history. Epics and plays were written with Parthian settings.[3] Horace was greatly interested in the East,[4] especially in the proposed expedition of Tiberius and the recovery of the standards.[5] Hints of an expedition to the East at the direction of Augustus are plentiful in Propertius.[6]
- ↑ Georg. i. 509; ii. 121–23, 126, 134–39, 171 f., 440, 465; iii. 26 ff.; iv. 210 f., 290, 313 f., 425 f., 560 f.
- ↑ Aeneid iv. 367; vi. 794; viii. 685–88, 705 ff., 726, 728; ix. 31 f.; xii. 67 and 857 f.
- ↑ Horace (Sat. ii. 1. 15) declares he cannot write an epic (as others were apparently doing) depicting the Parthians falling from their horses. Persius (Sat. v. 1–4), roughly a hundred years later, perhaps modeling his phrase on the passage in Horace, speaks of the poets' theme of a wounded Parthian.
- ↑ Horace Ep. i. 12; vii. 9; xiii. 8; Od. i. 2. 21 f. and 51; 11. 2; 12. 53 ff.; 19. 10–12; 21. 15; 22. 6–8; 26. 5; 29. 1–5; 31. 6; 35. 9 and 40; 38. 1; ii. 2. 17; 7. 8; 9. 17 ff.; 11. 16; 13. 17 f.; 16. 6; iii. 1. 44; 2. 3; 3. 44; 5. 4; 8. 19; 24. 1 f.; 29. 27 f.; iv. 5. 25; 14. 42; 15. 23; Carmen saec. 53 ff.; Epist. i. 1. 45; 6. 6 and 39; 7. 36; ii. 1. 112 and 256.
- ↑ See pp. 139 f., nn. 50 and 55.
- ↑ See p. 139, n. 50.
