matters are a little deficient, I commend, the snug and homely fare, of sufficient resolution amid mean provisions; but, if any thing be offered better and more delicate, I, the same individual, cry out, that ye are wise and alone live well, whose wealth and estate are conspicuous from the elegance of your villas.
EPISTLE XVI.
TO QUINCTIUS.[1]
He describes to Quinctius the form, situation, and advantages of his country house: then declares that probity consists in the consciousness of good works; liberty, in probity.
Ask me not, my best Quinctius, whether my farm maintains its master with corn-fields, or enriches[2] him with olives, or with fruits, or meadow land, or the elm tree clothed with vines: the shape and situation of my ground shall be described to you at large.
There is a continued range of mountains, except where they are separated by a shadowy vale; but in such a manner, that the approaching sun views it on the right side, and departing in his flying car warms the left. You would commend its temperature. What? If my [very] briers produce in abundance the ruddy cornels and damsens? If my oak and holm tree accommodate my cattle with plenty of acorns, and their master with a copious shade? You would say that Tarentum, brought nearer [to Rome], shone in its verdant beauty. A fountain too, deserving to give name to a river, insomuch that Hebrus does not surround Thrace more cool or more limpid, flows salubrious to the infirm head, salubrious
- ↑ We may suppose, that Quinctius had often rallied our poet on the situation, extent, and revenues of his estate. After having satisfied all his questions in very few words, he throws himself into the moral, and touches upon certain points, probably of much importance to Quinctius; but all is pleasing, interesting, and instructive. The name of Augustus in the twenty-ninth line is a proof that the letter was written after the year 726. San.
- ↑ Opulentet is purely a country word derived from ops, terra. It is not easy to say whether Horace invented the word, but at least he gave it credit, and it was afterward used by Columella. San.
