XIV TO THE BAILIFF OF HIS FARM THIS epistle is professedly addressed to the slave, whom the poet had promoted from low rank in his town establishment to the position of bailiff or superintendent of his small country estate. The slave now hankers after city life, while the master, detained in Rome by a friend's bereavement, longs for the country, which he has always preferred. The difference between the two is due to their tastes. The slave still clings to his follies; the master has learned wisdom with advancing years. The theme is essentially the same as in Epistles viii. and x. of this book, while the setting of the letter is in marked contrast with Sat. ii. 7, where it is the slave who lectures the master. XIV. Vilice silvarum et mihi me reddentis agelli, quem tu fastidis, habitatum quinque focis et quinque bonos solitum Variam dimittere patres, certemus, spinas animone ego fortius an tu evellas agro, et melior sit Horatius an res. Me quamvis Lamiae pietas et cura moratur, fratrem maerentis, rapto de fratre dolentis insolabiliter, tamen istuc mens animusque fert et amat spatiis obstantia rumpere claustra. rure ego viventem, tu dicis in urbe beatum. cui placet alterius, sua nimirum est odio sors.1 stultus uterque locum immeritum causatur inique : in culpa est animus, qui se non effugit umquam. Tu mediastinus tacita prece rura petebas, nunc urbem et ludos et balnea vilicus optas : me constare mihi scis et discedere tristem quandocumque trahunt invisa negotia Romam. non eadem miramur; eo disconvenit inter 5 10 15 meque et te. nam quae2 deserta et inhospita tesqua credis, amoena vocat mecum qui sentit, et odit 20 1 res E. 2 quae E, II: qua Va. a These were probably coloni, who held their land in lease under Horace. They would go to Varia (now Vicovaro) to market and for local elections. b Cf. Epist. i. ii. 27 and Odes ii. 16. 19. EPISTLE XIV ―― Bailiff of my woods and of the little farm which makes me myself again - while you disdain it, though the home of five households and wont to send to Varia their five honest heads "-let us have a match to see whether I more stoutly root out thorns from the mind or you from the land, and whether Horace or his farm is in a better state. 6 For me, though kept here by the love and grief of Lamia, who is sighing for his brother, grieving for his lost brother inconsolably, yet thither thought and feeling bear me longing to burst the barriers that block the track. I call him happy who lives in the country; you him who dwells in the city. One who likes another's lot, of course dislikes his own. Each is foolish and unfairly blames the undeserving place; what is at fault is the mind, which never escapes from itself." 14 You, as a common drudge, used to sigh in secret for the country; now as a bailiff you long for the town, its games and baths: as for me, you know that I'm consistent with myself, and depart in gloom, whenever hateful business drags me to Rome. Our tastes are not the same: therein lies the difference between you and me. What you hold to be desert and inhospitable wilds, he who shares my views calls quae tu pulchra putas. fornix tibi et uncta popina incutiunt urbis desiderium, video, et quod angulus iste feret piper et tus ocius uva, nec vicina subest vinum praebere taberna quae possit1 tibi, nec meretrix tibicina, cuius ad strepitum salias terrae gravis; et tamen urges iampridem non tacta ligonibus arva bovemque disiunctum curas et strictis frondibus exples ; addit opus pigro rivus, si decidit imber, multa mole docendus aprico parcere prato. 30 Nunc age, quid nostrum concentum2 dividat audi. quem tenues decuere togae nitidique capilli, quem scis immunem Cinarae placuisse rapaci, quem bibulum liquidi media de luce Falerni, cena brevis iuvat et prope rivum somnus in herba; 35 nec lusisse pudet, sed non incidere ludum. non istic obliquo oculo mea commoda quisquam limat, non odio obscuro morsuque venenat : rident vicini glaebas et saxa moventem. cum servis urbana diaria3 rodere mavis ; horum tu in numerum voto ruis; invidet usum lignorum et pecoris tibi calo argutus et horti. optat ephippia bos, piger optat arare caballus. quam scit uterque libens censebo exerceat artem. 1 possit E, II: posset aR. 25 40 a In the mouth of the bailiff, angulus is a term of contempt. The same expression, however, is used elsewhere by Horace of a place unique in his affections, " ille terrarum mihi praeter omnis angulus ridet " (Odes ii. 6. 13). 66 bi.e. although you have no pleasures. From 1. 22 to 1. 30 Horace repeats some of the grumbling remarks of the bailiff. lovely, and hates what you believe so beautiful. "Tis the brothel, I see, and greasy cookshop that stir in you a longing for the city, and the fact that that ; poky spot will grow pepper and spice as soon as grapes, and that there is no tavern hard by that can supply you with wine and no flute-playing courtesan, to whose strumming you can dance and thump the ground. And yet you toil over fields long untouched by the hoe, you care for the ox after he is unyoked, and you fill him up with fodder you have stripped; when you are dead tired, the brook brings fresh work, for if rain has fallen, it must be taught by many a mounded dam to spare the sunny meadow. b 31 Now come, hear what makes the discord in our common song. One whom fine-spun clothes became, and shining locks, one who, as you know, though empty-handed, found favour with greedy Cinara, and in midday hours would drink the clear Falernian, now takes pleasure in a simple meal, and a nap on the grass beside the stream: nor is it shameful to have once been foolish, but not to cut folly short. Where you live, no one with eye askance detracts from my comforts, or poisons them with the bite of secret hate. As I move sods and stones the neighbours laugh. You would rather be munching rations with the slaves in town; it is their number you fain would join my sharp-witted groom envies you the use of fuel, flock, and garden. The ox longs for the horse's trappings: the horse, when lazy, longs to plough. What I shall advise is that each contentedly practise the trade he understands. с • The verb limat (lit. " files away "), as used with obliquo oculo, involves a play upon limis oculis (cf. Sat. ii. 5. 53). |