Horace, Ode I.

37, Nunc est bibendum

Trans. C. Sydenham (Duckworth, 2005), p. 69.
Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus, 65-8 BCE) published Bks. 1-3 of his Odes in 23 BCE. Cleopatra, the
demented queen, was the last of the Ptolemies and committed suicide in 30 BCE, in the aftermath of
Octavians complete victory at the Battle of Actium.

Now it is the time to drink, to stamp the ground,

without restraint, my friends, to deck with feasts
the tables of the gods, to set them
banquets worthy of the Salian priests.

Nunc est bibendum, nun pede libero

pulsanda tellus, nunc Saliaribus
ornare pulvinar deorum
tempus erat dapibus, sodales.

Till now is was unfitting to fetch down

the treasured vintage from its dusty home,
while that demented queen was plotting
rack and ruin for the might of Rome.

Antehac nefas depromere Caecubum

cellis avitis, dum Capitolio
regina dementis ruinas,
funus et imperio parabat

abetted by her vice-polluted crew

of semi-men, with luck intoxicated
and blind with limitless ambition
till her folly was at last deflated

contaminato cum grege turpium

morbo virorum, quidlibet impotens
sperare fortunaque dulci
ebria. Sed minuit furorem

by scarce on ship escaping from the flames,

and then her mind, awash with eastern wine,
was jolted into sober dread by
Caesar bearing down her line

vix una sospes navis ab ignibus,

mentemque lymphatam Mareotico
redegit in veros timores
Caesar, ab Italia volantem

of flight from Roman waters as a hawk

stoops on a dove, or as upon the plains
of Thessaly the hunter courses
down the hare meaning to put in chains

remis adurgens, accipiter velut

mollis coumbas aut leporem citus
venator in campis nivalis
Haemoniae, daret ut catenis

the deadly fiend; but she, seeking a death

more noble, neither womanishly quailed
before the sword, nor headlong with her
galleys to some secret refuge sailed,

fatale monstrum. Quae generosius

perire quaerens nec muliebriter
expavit ensem nec latentis
classe cita reparavit oras;

but bore to look upon her fallen walls

with face unmoved, and found the hardihood
to grasp the scaly serpent, so its
venom could be drunk into her blood;

ausa et iacentem visere regiam

vultu sereno, fortis et asperas
tractare serpentes, ut atrum
corpore combiberet venenum,

once set on death she was more ruthless than

the fierce Liburnians, her high disdain
refused to countenance the public
degradation of the triumph-train.

deliberata morte ferocior;

saevis LIburnis scilicet invidens
privata deduci superbo
non humilis mulier triumpho.