Page:Satires, Epistles, Art of Poetry of Horace - Coningsby (1874).djvu/179

THE EPISTLES.

BOOK II.

I. To Augustus.

Cum tot sustineas.

 
INCE you, great Cæsar, singly wield the charge
Of Rome's concerns, so manifold and large,
With sword and shield the commonwealth protect,
With morals grace it, and with laws correct,
The bard, methinks, would do a public wrong
Who, having gained your ear, should keep it long.
Quirinus, Bacchus, and the Jove-born pair,
Though now invoked with in cense, gifts, and prayer,
While yet on earth they civilized their kind,
Tilled lands, built cities, properties assigned,
Oft mourned for man's ingratitude, and found
The race they served less thankful than the ground.
The prince whose fated vassalage subdued
Fell Hydra's power and all the monster brood,