Odes

Horace

Horace. The Odes and Carmen Saeculare of Horace. Conington, John, translator. London: George Bell and Sons, 1882.

Though your buried wealth surpass

The unsunn'd gold of Ind or Araby,

Though with many a ponderous mass

You crowd the Tuscan and Apulian sea,

Let Necessity but drive

Her wedge of adamant into that proud head,

Vainly battling will you strive

To 'scape Death's noose, or rid your soul of dread.

Better life the Scythians lead,

Trailing on waggon wheels their wandering home,

Or the hardy Getan breed,

As o'er their vast unmeasured steppes they roam;