quod facerem versus inter fera murmura ponti, Cycladas Aegaeas obstipuisse puto. ipse ego nunc miror tantis animique marisque fluctibus ingenium non cecidisse meum. seu stupor huic studio sive est insania nomen, omnis ab hac cura mens relevata mea est. 10 SACRIFICING A LAMB TO MINERVA. (From a bas-relief in the British Museum and a Pompeian wall-painting.) saepe ego nimbosis dubius iactabar ab Haedis, saepe minax Steropes sidere pontus erat, fuscabatque diem custos Erymanthidos ursae, aut Hyadas seris hauserat Auster aquis: 15 saepe maris pars intus erat; tamen ipse trementi carmina ducebam qualiacumque manu. nunc quoque contenti stridunt Aquilone rudentes, inque modum tumuli concava surgit aqua. ipse gubernator tollens ad sidera palmas 20 quocumque aspexi, nihil est nisi mortis imago, 25 30 et faciunt geminos ensis et unda metus. ille meo vereor ne speret sanguine praedam, haec titulum nostrae mortis habere velit. barbara pars laeva est avidaeque adsueta rapinae, quam cruor et caedes bellaque semper habent: cumque sit hibernis agitatum fluctibus aequor, pectora sunt ipso turbidiora mari. quo magis his debes ignoscere, candide lector, 35 si spe sunt, ut sunt, inferiora tua. non haec in nostris, ut quondam, scripsimus hortis, nec, consuete, meum, lectule, corpus habes : iactor in indomito brumali luce profundo, 40 ipsaque caeruleis charta feritur aquis. improba pugnat hiems indignaturque, quod ausim scribere se rigidas incutiente minas. vincat hiems hominem; sed eodem tempore, quaeso, ipse modum statuam carminis, illa sui. NOTES I. L. 1. urbem: the city, i. e. Rome. Similarly we speak of going to town,' i. e. London. 2. ei mihi: the dative is used in exclamations after ei and vae. 3. incultus: 'in sorry guise, as beseems an exile's book.' The book was to lay aside all ornament and assume the guise of a mourner (incultus): it was to be shaggy and covered with long hairs (hirsutus sparsis comis, 1. 12). Mourners used to cut neither hair nor beard. qualem agrees with librum, which is to be supplied with exulis. Ovid was relegatus, non exul, but he uses exul in its widest sense as including all forms of banishment. See Introduction A. 4. temporis: i. e. circumstances usually plural in this sense. 5. vaccinia: 'bilberries,' the juice of which was used for staining with a purple colour the parchment case in which the roll was placed so as to be protected from injury. See Appendix A. 'Let not thy binding be stained with the bilberry's purple juice-that hue is out of keeping with sorrow.' nec velent: jussive subjunctive. So notetur, 1. 7; geras, 8, &c. The regular negatives in such cases are ne ... neve, but nec nec are common in poetry. 7. nec titulus minio. The title of the book (titulus, or index) was written in vermilion letters (minium) on a small strip of papyrus' or parchment attached to the centre of the roll and hanging down outside: sometimes it was |