Horace, Epode 16

Altera iam teritur bellis civilibus aetas,

suis et ipsa Roma viribus ruit:

quam neque finitmi valuerunt perdere Marsi

minacis aut Etrusca Porsenae manus,

aemula nec virtus Capuae nec Spartacus acer

novisque rebus infidelis Allobrox,

nec fera caerulea domuit Germania pube

parentibusque abominatus Hannibal,

impia perdemus devoti sanguinis aetas,

ferisque rursus occupabitu solum.

Barbarus heu cineres insistet victor et urbem

eques sonante verberabit ungula,

quaeque carent ventis et solibus ossa Quirini

(nefas videre) dissipabit insolens.

Forte quid expediat communiter aut melior pars

malis carere quaeritis laboribus.

Nulla sit hac potior sententia: Phocaeorum

velut profugit exsecrata civitas

agros atque lares patrios, habitandaque fana

apris reliquit et rapacibus lupis,

ire pedes quocumque ferent, quocumque per undas

Notus vocabit aut protervus Africus.

Sic placet, an melius quis habet suadere? Secunda

ratem occupare quid moramur alite?

Sed iuremus in haec: "Simul imis saxa renarint

vadis levata, ne redire sit nefas;

neu conversa domum pigeat dare lintea, quando

Padus Matina laverit cacumina,

in mare seu celsus procurrerit Appenninus,

novaque monstra iunxerit libidine

mirus amor, iuvet ut tigris subsidere cervis,

adulteretur et columba miluo,

credula nec ravos timeant armenta leones,

ametque salsa levis hircus aequora."

Haec et quae poterunt reditus abscindere dulcis

eamus omnis exsecrata civitas,

aut pars indocili melior grege; mollis et exspes

inominata perprimat cubilia.

Vos quibus est virtus, muliebrem tollite luctum,

Etrusca praeter et volate litora.

Nos manet Oceanus circumvagus: arva, beata

petamus arva divites et insulas,

reddit ubi Cererem tellus inarata quotannis

et imputata floret usque vinea,

germinat et numquam fallentis termes olivae,

suamque pulla ficus ornat arborem,

mella cava manant ex ilice, montibus altis

levis crepante lympha desilit pede.

Illic iniussae veniunt ad mulctra capellae,

refertque tenta grex amicus ubera,

nec vesperinus circumgemit ursus ovile

neque intumescit alta viperis humus;

pluraque felices mirabimur: ut neque largis

aquosus Eurus arva radat imbribus,

pinguia nec siccis urantur semina glaebis,

utrumue rege temperante caelitum.

Non huc ARgoo contendit remige pinus,

neque impudica Colchis intulit pedem;

non huc Sidonii torserunt cornua nautae,

laboriosa nec cohors Ulixei.

Nulla nocent pecori contagia, nullius astri

gregem aestuosa torret impotentia.

Iuppiter illa piae secrevit litora genti,

ut inquinavit aere tempus aureum;

aere, dehinc ferro duravit saecula, quorum

piis secunda vate me datur fuga.

Now another age is worn away by civil wars,

and Rome itself collapses with its own strength:

which neither the neighboring Marsi have the strength to destroy

nor the threatening Etruscan hand of Porsena,

imitate neither the virtue of Capua nor the bold Spartacus

and the treacherous Allobrox with their new things,

nor the blue eyed youth of Germany and Hannibal

hated by parents,

we, impious age devoted of those devoted to blood, will destroy

the land, and the land will again be taken over by wild beasts.

Alas, a barbarian conqueror will stand on the ashes, and the cavalry

will strike the city with resounding hooves,

and the bones of Quirinus which are removed from the winds and the sun

will be scattered arrogantly (a crime to behold).

By chance you all together seek what would liberate us

to be free from these wretched toils.

Let no opinion be better: just as the cursed

city-state of the Phocaeans escaped their ancestral

fields and gods, and abandoned the temples about to be

inhabited by boars and grasping wolves,

the infantry consider to go anywhere, wherever through the waves

Notus or violent Africus will call.

Is it thus resolved, or does someone have something better to suggest? Why do

we delay by a favorable fight to overtake the boat?

But let us swear to this: "When the stones from the lowest

depths raise up, let it be lawful to return;

and let it not be shameful to turn and sail home, when

the Padus will have washed the Matina peaks,

or if the high Appennine will have jutted out into the sea,

and a strange love will have joined new monsters

with desire, when it is pleasing for tigers to lie down with stags,

and a pigeon commits adultery with a hawk,

when the trusting cattle do not fear the tawny lions,

and when the smooth goats love the salty seas."

The entire state having sworn these things and those things which

will delay our return, let us go,

Get rid of your feminine grieving, you all who have virtue,

and fly beyond the Tuscan shores.

The Ocean remains around us: we seek fields, blessed fields

and rich islands,

where earth unplowed returns grain every year

and the unpruned vines ever flower,

and a branch of never-deceptive olive germinates,

and the dark fig decorates its own tree,

honeys drip from hollow oak tree, and from the high

mountains waters crash down with a light foot.

There the unbidden goats come to the milking pails,

and the loyal flock brings back full udders,

at evening the bear does not roar around the sheepfold

and the ground does not swell high with vipers;

and we, happy, will wonder at more things: how rainy Eurus

does not erode the fields with plentiful storms,

how the fat seeds are not burned from the dry soil,

because the king of gods restrains both.

The pine with oarsmen of the Argo does not hasten to this place

and the unchaste . . .

Phoenician sailors did not turn their yardarms to this place,

nor the laborious cohort of Ulysses.

No infections harm the herds, no constellation's

blazing fury burns the flock.

Jupiter separated those shores for righteous people,

when he tainted the golden age with bronze;

from the bronze, from here he hardened the time with iron, the ages

from which a favorable flight is given to pious ones by me, a prophet.