February 5th | Fastorum Liber Secundus: Februarius
D • NON • NP | Nonis | II.119-148, Ovid compares Augustus to Romulus.
Nunc mihi mille sonos, quoque est memoratus Achilles,
vellem, Maeonide, pectus inesse tuum, 120
dum canimus sacras alterno pectine Nonas:
maximus hic fastis accumulatur honor.
deficit ingenium, maioraque viribus urgent:
haec mihi praecipuo est ore canenda dies.
quid volui demens elegis imponere tantum 125
ponderis? heroi res erat ista pedis,
sancte pater patriae, tibi plebs, tibi curia nomen
hoc dedit, hoc dedimus nos tibi nomen, eques.
res tamen ante dedit. sero quoque vera tulisti
nomina, iam pridem tu pater orbis eras. 130
hoc tu per terras, quod in aethere Iuppiter alto,
nomen habes: hominum tu pater, ille deum.
Romule, concedes: facit hic tua magna tuendo
moenia, tu dederas transsilienda Remo.
te Tatius parvique Cures Caeninaque sensit: 135
hoc duce Romanum est solis utrumque latus.
tu breve nescio quid victae telluris habebas:
quodcumque est alto sub Iove, Caesar habet.
tu rapis, hic castas duce se iubet esse maritas:
tu recipis luco, reppulit ille nefas. 140
vis tibi grata fuit, florent sub Caesare leges.
tu domini nomen, principis ille tenet.
te Remus incusat, veniam dedit hostibus ille.
caelestem fecit te pater, ille patrem.
iam puer Idaeus media tenus eminet alvo 145
et liquidas mixto nectare fundit aquas.
en etiam, siquis Borean horrere solebat,
gaudeat: a Zephyris mollior aura venit.
129 Now could I wish for a thousand tongues and for that soul of thine, Maeonides,1 which glorified Achilles, while I sing in distichs the sacred Nones. This is the greatest honour that is heaped upon the calendar. My genius faints; the burden is beyond my strength: this day above all others is to be sung by me. Fool that I was, how durst I lay so great a weight on elegiac verse? the theme was one for the heroic stanza. Holy Father of thy Country,2 this title hath been conferred on thee by the people, by the senate, and by us, the knights.3 But history had already conferred it; yet didst thou also receive, though late, thy title true; long time hadst thou been the Father of the World. Thou bearest on earth the name which Jupiter bears in high heaven: of men thou art the father, he of the gods. Romulus, thou must yield pride of place. Caesar by his guardian care makes great thy city walls; the walls thou gavest to the city were such as Remus could o’erleap. Thy power was felt by Tatius,4 the little Cures, and Caenina; under Caesar’s leadership whate’er the sun beholds on either side is Roman. Thou didst own a little stretch of conquered land: all that exists beneath the canopy of Jove is Caesar’s own. Thou didst rape wives: Caesar bade them under his rule be chaste.5 Thou didst admit the guilty to thy grove: he hath repelled the wrong. Thine was a rule of force: under Caesar it is the laws that reign. Thou didst the name of master bear6: he bears the name of prince. Thou hast an accuser in thy brother Remus: Caesar pardoned foemen. To heaven thy father raised thee: to heaven Caesar raised his sire.
145 Already the Idaean boy7 shows himself down to the waist, and pours a stream of water mixed with nectar. Now joy too, ye who shrink from the north wind; from out the west a softer gale doth blow.
Homer: an epithet applied to him as, according to some writers, he was born in Maeonia, the ancient name for a portion of Lydia.
Augustus.
See Monumentum Ancyranum, vi. 35, in L.C.L. Velleius Paterculus, p. 401.
Tatius was king and Cures capital of the Sabines: Caenina, a city of Latium associated with them.
Augustus encouraged marriage by legislation.
Augustus rejected the title dominus, “master of slaves.” see Suetonius, Aug. 53. I, preferring that of princeps, “foremost” or “chief.” There is no proof that Romulus was ever called dominus.
Ganymede, popularly identified with Aquarius. The true morning rising was then on January 22, the apparent rising on February 22.