I'll climb Song's flowery prow, and there recite
Thy valour's praise. Ever doth martial might
Youthful vigour glorify. The prouder, then, thy boast:
For not thy worth in wars alone, afoot or mounted, thou hast shown!
But riper Wisdom's renown is thine,
Then fearless flows my praise and free. Farewell! these songs I send to thee,
Like Tyrian wares o'er the foaming brine."
So also Hiero is not directly warned to abandon his schemes of aggression against Thero, but he is gently reminded that thus far his reign has brought to his people the blessings of peace—blessings which extend also to his neighbours the Italian Locrians:—
"Deinomenes' son, of thee
Sings at her door each Locrian maid, and looks abroad no more afraid,
From horrors of war by thy power set free!"
Pindar does not expressly urge Hiero to contrast the blessings of this peaceful present with the gloomy future which he is preparing for himself by war with Thero. He does not say ia so many words, "Look on this picture and on that." But his moral is perfectly clear, and Hiero could hardly fail to draw it for himself.
With all his tact Pindar is no mere courtier, prepared to ignore his patron's faults. He might easily have avoided the dangerous topic altogether. That he did not do so, proves both that he really cared for Hiero—or why should he have sought to reform him?—and
