Ov. Met. xi. 769.
A very amusing and somewhat malicious mistake was recently witnessed at one of our English Universities. A prize was offered for a composition on “Hesperiæ mala luctuosæ.” Spain was manifestly intended. But the wags spreading all manner of doubts and difficulties, the “Dons” were obliged to come out with a public notice, intimating that “the gentlemen had better confine themselves to the Spanish Peninsula!”
Cantabria, which is the scene of this poem, was likewise the scene of some of Augustus’s victories. His policy seems to have been here as successful as his generalship. “Domuit autem, partim ductu, partim auspiciis suis Cantabriam.” (Sueton. cap. 20.) But the Cantabrians, then as now unformed for subjugation, rebelled again the moment Augustus returned to Rome. Augustus, however, paid them a second visit, and appears to have quieted them in Roman fashion, this being the last of his warlike exploits: “Hic finis Augusto bellicorum certaminum fuit: idem rebellandi finis Hispaniæ.” (Luc. Flor. lib. iv. c. 12.)
It was the proud distinction of the Cantabrian in the ancient world to be indomitable, a character very significantly assigned to him in Horace’s well known line:
Cantabrum indoctum juga ferre nostra.
Carm. ii. 6.
In a later ode Horace commemorates the subjugation of the Cantabrians, but it was only momentary, and the difficulty with which it was effected is acknowledged by the poet himself:—
Servit Hispanæ vetus hostis oræ
Cantaber, serâ domitus catenâ.