Horace, Ode 1.22, tr. by the Earl of Roscommon (“Virtue needs no defence,” or “Integer vitae”)

Recorded in October 2020. Published in 23 B. C. The Earl of Roscommon lived from 1637 to 1685, and his poems were collected in 1701.

Commentary:

Scythia was in central Eurasia; Libya, in North Africa.

Hydaspes is a tributary of the Indus. The great Persian Empire stretched as far as India.

"Sabine Farm" was Horace's estate in the Sabine hills, outside Rome.

The Hercynian Forest was an ancient and dense forest, which stretched eastwards, from the Rhine River, across southern Germany.

Carthage was a powerful civilization in North Africa, which was defeated by Rome. The great Hannibal was a Carthaginian. Numidia was a kingdom to the south.

Neptune was the god of the sea. He controlled the winds and storms.

Jove is Jupiter, or Zeus.

According to the ancient mythology, the sun was pulled across the sky by the chariot of Apollo.

Caelia is Horace’s love, whom he seems to identify with virtue itself. The choice of name is Roscommon’s. In the original Latin, the name is Lalage.