Severe poverty, and an hereditary farm, with a dwelling suited to it, formed this hero useful in war; as it did also Curius with his rough locks, and Camillus.  The fame of Marcellus increases, as a tree does in the insensible progress of time.  But the Julian constellation shines amid them all, as the moon among the smaller stars.  O thou son of Saturn, author and preserver of the human race, the protection of Caesar is committed to thy charge by the Fates:  thou shalt reign supreme, with Caesar for thy second.  Whether he shall subdue with a just victory the Parthians making inroads upon Italy, or shall render subject the Seres and Indians on the Eastern coasts; he shall rule the wide world with equity, in subordination to thee.  Thou shalt shake Olympus with thy tremendous car; thou shalt hurl thy hostile thunderbolts against the polluted groves.

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ODE XIII.

To Lydia.

O Lydia, when you commend Telephus’ rosy neck, and the waxen arms of Telephus, alas! my inflamed liver swells with bile difficult to be repressed.  Then neither is my mind firm, nor does my color maintain a certain situation:  and the involuntary tears glide down my cheek, proving with what lingering flames I am inwardly consumed.  I am on fire, whether quarrels rendered immoderate by wine have stained your fair shoulders; or whether the youth, in his fury, has impressed with his teeth a memorial on your lips.  If you will give due attention to my advice, never expect that he will be constant, who inhumanly wounds those sweet kisses, which Venus has imbued with the fifth part of all her nectar.  O thrice and more than thrice happy those, whom an indissoluble connection binds together; and whose love, undivided by impious complainings, does not separate them sooner than the last day!

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ODE XIV.

To the Roman state.

O ship, new waves will bear you back again to sea.  O what are you doing?  Bravely seize the port.  Do you not perceive, that your sides are destitute of oars, and your mast wounded by the violent south wind, and your main-yards groan, and your keel can scarcely support the impetuosity of the waves without the help of cordage?  You have not entire sails; nor gods, whom you may again invoke, pressed with distress:  notwithstanding you are made of the pines of Pontus, and as the daughter of an illustrious wood, boast your race, and a fame now of no service to you.  The timorous sailor has no dependence on a painted stern.  Look to yourself, unless you are destined to be the sport of the winds.  O thou, so lately my trouble and fatigue, but now an object of tenderness and solicitude, mayest thou escape those dangerous seas which flow among the shining Cyclades.

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