Chapter XI: Book II: , Ode 20

I, whom you call
Your friend, Maecenas.

With Ritter I have rendered according to the interpretation which makes dilecte Maecenas' address to Horace; but it is a choice of evils.

BOOK III, ODE 1.

And lords of land
Affect the sea.

Terrae of course goes with fastidiosus, not with dominus. Mine is a loose rendering, not a false interpretation.

BOOK III, ODE 2.

Her robes she keeps unsullied still.

The meaning is not that worth is not disgraced by defeat in contests for worldly honours, but that the honours which belong to worth are such as the worthy never fail to attain, such as bring no disgrace along with them, and such as the popular breath can neither confer nor resume.

True men and thieves
Neglected Justice oft confounds.

"The thieves have bound the true men."
SHAKESPEARE, Henry IV, Act ii. Scene 2;
where see Steevens' note.

BOOK III, ODE 3.

No more the adulterous guest can charm
The Spartan queen.

I have followed Ritter in constructing Lacaenae adulterae as a dative with splendet; but I have done so as a poetical translator rather than as a commentator.