Horace, Odes 1.7

Horace, Odes 1.7

Others will praise shining Rhodos or Mytilene
Or Ephesus or the bulwarks of Corinth between
The seas, as Thebes is marked by Bacchus, as Delphi
By Apollo, or Thessaly by the Tempe.
There are those whose one labor is to celebrate
In endless song the city of chaste Minerva, and
To place upon their brow a wreath of olive from all parts.
Many a one offers suitable Greek horses and Mycanean
Wealth in the honour of Juno.
Not so has enduring Lacadaemon, not so
Has the field of fertile Larisa struck me,
Than the house of resonating Albunea
And headlong Anio and the grove of the Tiber
And orchards wet by the fast-flowing rivers.
As often white Notus scatters clouds from
Darkened sky, and nor does it desire rains
Without end, thus you are wise to remember to cease
Labours and the trouble of life, Plancus, with
Soothing wine, whether the shining camps hold
You with standards, or if the dense shade of
Your Tibur will hold you. Though Teucer fled
Salamis and his father, nevertheless it is said that he
Encircled his brows, wet from wine, with poplar crown,
And thus he, saddened, addressed his men:
‘Wherever fortune may bear us, kinder than my father,
We shall go, o men and comrades!
Do not despair with Teucer as your leader and as protector,
Surely resolved Apollo has promised uncertain
Future to Salamis in a new world.
O men, who with me often have endured
Worse fortunes, now, banish cares with wine;
Tomorrow we shall set out upon the boundless sea!’