Vatis amici.
Horace, Odes, II. vi. 9-end.
Subject. ‘Septimius, my dear friend who would accompany me to the ends of the earth, let me spend the close of my life at Tibur (Tivoli), or if not there, then at Tarentum. Let us go there together, and live there till I die.’—Wickham.
9 unde = from this place, i.e. from Tibur.
10 dulce pellitis ovibus = dear to the skin-clad (pellitis) sheep, so clad to keep their fleeces clean.—Gow.
10-11 Galaesi flumen, flows into the Gulf of Tarentum, near the city.
12 Phalantho, an exile from Sparta, founded Tarentum, 708 B.C.
13, 21, 22 Ille (13) . . . ille (21) . . . ibi (22) = Tarentum, emphatic guiding words. Cf. te mecum (21) . . . tu amici (22, 24) = Septimius and Horace.
14-15 ubi non . . . decedunt = where the honey does not give way to (is not inferior to) that of Hymettus.
15-16 viridi Venafro = with the green (olive-groves of) Venafrum (N. of Campania).