At fifty or so, Horace says he is free from love – but in his dreams, he still pursues the elusive Ligurinus.
Hear Horace’s Latin and follow in English here.
The archer-God Apollo, flushed with his victory over Python, the monstrous serpent, has poked fun at Cupid’s bow, suggesting that such weapons are best left to the grown-ups. Cupid takes his revenge by inducing Daphne, a huntress-nymph, to renounce love altogether, and then making Apollo fall for her, head over heels.
Hear Ovid’s Latin and follow in English here.
Propertius has been invited by his friend Tullus to go with him to Greece and Asia, but concern about Cynthia’s reaction keeps him at home.
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An affair with Cynthia is too hard work for you, Propertius tells Gallus, and he has some pretty persuasive-sounding arguments.
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In his fourth poem about his lover, Cynthia, Propertius delivers a sharp response to an acquaintance who tells him he should be looking elsewhere. Her accomplishments include the arts, including music – and certain other things, he adds …
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With a flattering valuation of Cynthia’s natural beauty and an elegant selection of mythological examples to back him up, Propertius takes a swipe at fancy cosmetics and beauty treatments. Hear his Latin and follow in English here.
Virgil is bound for Athens. His friend, Horace, wishes him a voyage watched over by the Gods, and a safe return. In a bravura performance on a conventional theme, he goes on to marvel at the presumption of those who step over the divinely-ordained boundaries of the natural world by hazarding an ocean voyage.
Hear Horace’s Latin and follow in English here.
Horace writes again about love, this time from the point of view of middle age. Others, he says, are now better suited to dedicating marble statues to Venus and her powers.
Hear Horace’s Latin and follow in English here.
To Laelius, brother, parent, wife and child mean less than his loyalty to Caesar his commander. Hear his chilling speech in Lucan’s Latin and follow in English here.
The illustration is David’s “Oath of the Horatii”.