Note 74 — VOL. XXVI., No. 153.—DECEMBER, 1877.
Reading edition
“Than if far Cadiz, Libya’s plain,
And either Carthage owned your sway.”
—Horat. Carm. ii. 2.
En passant, it may be said that this stanza, which begins
“Latius regnes, avidum domando
Spiritum quam si,” etc.,
furnishes a curious parallel to the words of Holy Writ, Prov. xvi. 32: “He that ruleth his spirit [is better] than he that taketh cities.” It is far from being the only passage in Horace which in spirit, if not in letter, suggests the inspired writers so strongly as to tempt one to believe that he must have had some acquaintance with them. Cf. Virgil’s Pollio.