15). Whether wealthy supporters also helped Horace financially or despite the loss of his family property, he had sufficient resources to secure the office for himself is not clear. 1. Despite these traditional metres, he presented himself as a partisan in the development of a new and sophisticated style. The later Middle Ages however gave special significance to Satires and Epistles, being considered Horace's mature works. This often takes the form of allusions to the work and philosophy of Bion of Borysthenes [nb 13] but it is as much a literary game as a philosophical alignment. Horace declined the post of secretary, pleading his own ill health. The letter has taken on a special irony over the centuries. mihi dum tibique Although it has … The poem that immediately follows this procession of stately Alcaics, however, is neither stately nor Alcaic but a light poem in the erotic tradition and Asclepiadian meter. He addressed his first book of Epistles to a variety of friends and acquaintances in an urbane style reflecting his new social status as a knight. More recent verse translations of the Odes include those by David West (free verse), and Colin Sydenham (rhymed).                  assure you, The poet represents himself as grateful and content, living a simple life far from ambitious Rome, where folk wisdom and animal fables—like the tale of the city mouse and country mouse with which the satire ends—take the place of urban philosophizing. Some addressees appear only in the letters while others appear elsewhere—for example, Julius Florus is also the addressee of a second letter (Epist. Four of the 15 poems celebrate the princeps and his heirs directly (Odes 4, 5, 14, 15), and a fifth, a recusatio, praises Augustus while denying the poet’s ability to laud the emperor in the Pindaric style he deserves. Perhaps the greatest irony of the poet who so relished irony is that by constantly talking about himself, he has left a portrait of a man varying not only from generation to generation but also from reader to reader. [22] An educated young Roman could begin military service high in the ranks and Horace was made tribunus militum (one of six senior officers of a typical legion), a post usually reserved for men of senatorial or equestrian rank and which seems to have inspired jealousy among his well-born confederates. 1.10 and Odes 1.22, Horace’s close friend Aristius Fuscus appears among the readers whose critical approval Horace values (Sat. He compliments Agrippa (Odes 1.6) and Augustus (Odes 2.12, 4.2), for example, by telling them that his talents are not equal to creating the poetic praise they deserve. Horace was often evoked by poets of the fourth century, such as Ausonius and Claudian. As a result of temperament and training, Horace suggests, advancement in public life held little attraction for him. 1.10). The tribunate was a junior military post usually held by either young men of equestrian rank or those whose family finances were large enough (400,000 sesterces) that the post would establish them as equestrians and offer an entrée into public life. Horace’s ability to work complex arguments and homely commonplaces into verses masterly in their balance and variety has attracted admirers since antiquity. The scholia of Pomponius Porphyrio, written in the 3rd century, also survive. The poem begins with the principle of poetic unity, but its own synthesis is less than harmonious, and its narrator is sometimes reminiscent of Catius spouting culinary precepts in Sat. Muse dictate? His work expressed genuine freedom or libertas. Some of them censured oppression of the poor by the rich, but they gave no practical lead, though they may have hoped to see well-meaning rulers doing so. (Thaw follows frost; hard on the heel of spring [3] In his writings, he tells us far more about himself, his character, his development, and his way of life, than any other great poet of antiquity. His poetic renunciation of poetry in favour of philosophy is intended to be ambiguous. He composed a controversial version of Odes 1.5, and Paradise Lost includes references to Horace's 'Roman' Odes 3.1–6 (Book 7 for example begins with echoes of Odes 3.4). Similarly, book 3 opens with a six-poem series of Alcaics, called the Roman Odes because of their concern with Rome and its values. They are verse conversations in a different voice and a different mode. "[38] There were advantages on both sides: Horace gained encouragement and material support, the politicians gained a hold on a potential dissident. Context: Horace Greeley published an angry open “letter” to President Lincoln in the pages of his newspaper, the New York Tribune, on August 20, 1862.Greeley was upset that Lincoln had not yet begun enforcing the … Porphyrio arranged the poems in non-chronological order, beginning with the Odes, because of their general popularity and their appeal to scholars (the Odes were to retain this privileged position in the medieval manuscript tradition and thus in modern editions also). The previous ceremonies had taken place in 146 BCE, and there may have been plans for secular games in 46 BCE; none, however, took place. Horace’s father could thus have been a freeborn native, enslaved for siding with the revolutionaries in the Social War, who later regained his freedom. [nb 5] The poem includes this passage: If my character is flawed by a few minor faults, but is otherwise decent and moral, if you can point out only a few scattered blemishes on an otherwise immaculate surface, if no one can accuse me of greed, or of prurience, or of profligacy, if I live a virtuous life, free of defilement (pardon, for a moment, my self-praise), and if I am to my friends a good friend, my father deserves all the credit... As it is now, he deserves from me unstinting gratitude and praise. From May 30 to June 3, the days and nights were full of unprecedented pomp and fanfare—rituals, sacrifices, and purification ceremonies that involved both Roman leaders and the people.     And good Aeneas, we are dust and dreams.). But oh, whate’er the sky-led seasons mar, The earliest datable poem, Odes 1.37, concerns the Battle of Actium (31 BCE) and the subsequent suicide of Cleopatra. [39] Horace was probably also with Maecenas on one of Octavian's naval expeditions against the piratical Sextus Pompeius, which ended in a disastrous storm off Palinurus in 36 BC, briefly alluded to by Horace in terms of near-drowning. Under the guidance of Horace as their vates (prophet-poet) Romans can find a new home set in a golden age (Epod. [105] The vernacular languages were dominant in Spain and Portugal in the sixteenth century, where Horace's influence is notable in the works of such authors as Garcilaso de la Vega, Juan Boscán, Sá de Miranda, Antonio Ferreira and Fray Luis de León, the last writing odes on the Horatian theme beatus ille (happy the man). 1.5 was of considerable interest to Horace’s ancient audience and is still of interest today, for its goal was the reconciliation of the two leading men of Rome. [19] Meanwhile, he mixed and lounged about with the elite of Roman youth, such as Marcus, the idle son of Cicero, and the Pompeius to whom he later addressed a poem. In 1946, Larkin discovered the poetry of Thomas Hardy and became a great admirer of his poetry… He often voices his dislike for criminal activity by stating, "I don't like … Horace’s tenuis Musa plays several roles. Musa dictaret? Many of the themes of the collection appear in the Parade Odes as well. The glimpse available to outsiders makes the group more desirable and at the same time more unattainable. 1.19.     pulvis et umbra sumus. Ben Jonson put Horace on the stage in 1601 in Poetaster, along with other classical Latin authors, giving them all their own verses to speak in translation. 1.10-15) the literary possibilities of his subject: Now, therefore, I am putting aside poetry and other playthings: [23][24] He learned the basics of military life while on the march, particularly in the wilds of northern Greece, whose rugged scenery became a backdrop to some of his later poems. Horace’s shifting focus keeps the reader from feeling that he has found a smooth solution to keeping the balance he advocates. A … Neither profession was prestigious, but “fishmonger” is probably a literary rather than a biographical reference. whatever the complexion of my life, I will write. Horace gives his version of his first encounter with Maecenas and their subsequent friendship in Sat. The first nine odes of book 1, for example, are often referred to as the Parade Odes, since each of them displays a different Greek meter made to sing in the Latin language. There is no house more unsullied than It was no idle boast. 1.9, the fawning praetor in Sat. [1] Nevertheless, his work in the period 30–27 BC began to show his closeness to the regime and his sensitivity to its developing ideology. [nb 25] Despite its naivety, the schematism involved an appreciation of Horace's works as a collection, the Ars Poetica, Satires and Epistles appearing to find favour as well as the Odes. He imitated other Greek lyric poets as well, employing a 'motto' technique, beginning each ode with some reference to a Greek original and then diverging from it. The Ars itself is a rambling, difficult poem. Come we where Tullus and where Ancus are, Suetonius recorded some gossip about Horace's sexual activities late in life, claiming that the walls of his bedchamber were covered with obscene pictures and mirrors, so that he saw erotica wherever he looked. This hymn later became the basis of the solfege system (Do, re, mi...)—an association with western music quite appropriate for a lyric poet like Horace, though the language of the hymn is mainly Prudentian. The fictional hero Tom Jones recited his verses with feeling. 1.17) that his social status bars him from an aggressive pursuit of his goals; and he advises Lollius (Epist. Philip Francis left out both the English and Latin for those same two epodes, a gap in the numbering the only indication that something was amiss. 1.1.24-25). The force of tradition is so strong at Rome, Horace complains, that the highly polished works of contemporary poets are dismissed in favor of the “classics,” the works of the pioneers of Roman literature, valued more for their antiquity than for their merit. Horace’s response was the first of the two poems that comprise Epistles II, the opening lines of which (1-4) praise Augustus’s leadership while offering an excuse for the poet’s hesitation in addressing one of his verse letters to the emperor: “Since all by yourself you shoulder so many and such important public affairs, you keep Italy safe by arms, furnish her with good values, correct her faults with laws: I should offend the public good, Caesar, if I should waste your time with lengthy conversation.”. Poetry books often present a related series of poems, as in the three satiric diatribes that, part philosophical lesson and part harangue, begin Satires I. Scholars have divided Satires I into halves (1-5 and 6-10) and into thirds (1-3: diatribes; 4-6: the literary, ethical, political Horace; 7-9: short narratives; 10: conclusion). If an ideal craftsman could be constructed from Horace’s work, he would be someone whose art is furthered by natural talent (408-411) and who knows himself and his abilities well (38-40); someone who is willing to work hard (289-294), to be satisfied with excellence alone (372-373), and to accept criticism (385-390, 438-452). Davus had become a philosopher through the servant grapevine: he learned the rudiments of Stoic argumentation from the Stoic Crispinus’s doorkeeper, who had in turn learned them by eavesdropping on his master’s lectures. Horace writes of having one’s works shelved in the library as an honor, a symbol of acceptance into the Roman literary canon. [15], Horace left Rome, possibly after his father's death, and continued his formal education in Athens, a great centre of learning in the ancient world, where he arrived at nineteen years of age, enrolling in The Academy. But nobody before Horace had ever composed an entire collection of verse letters,[73] let alone letters with a focus on philosophical problems. The rhetorician Quintilian regarded his Odes as just about the only Latin lyrics worth reading: "He can be lofty sometimes, yet he is also full of charm and grace, versatile in his figures, and felicitously daring in his choice of words. 2.5). Horace might already have been part of the latter group; it is also possible that the exigencies of war superseded the normal requirements for appointment. Horace is known for detailed self-portraits in genres such as epodes, satires and epistles, and lyrics. The Parade Odes in the first book demonstrate a variety of themes and addressees as well as a variety of meters. In the Roman Odes (for example, Odes 3.1-6) the poet sets himself apart as a priest of the Muses admonishing Rome. 2.1.214-218), a suggestion that implies that Augustus’s literary interests may have affected the emphasis on this genre. Horace’s promise that the youthful chorus will cherish the memory of their performance at the secular games looks to a conspicuous argument of the book—the power of poetry to immortalize otherwise mortal men, including the poet. It is uncertain if those being addressed by the self-mocking poet-philosopher are being honoured or criticised. Much of what Horace says, familiar from his earlier work, is presented fresh in lyric, rather than satiric, arguments. Moreover, the incident allowed him to identify himself with some famous poets who had long ago abandoned their shields in battle, notably his heroes Alcaeus and Archilochus. Pyrrha’s beauty, for example, is “simplex munditiis” (Odes 1.5.5), which John Milton’s otherwise impressive translation rendered “plain in thy neatness” (lines 1-8): Quis multa gracilis te puer in rosa Instead of rationalizing the potential for conflict, Horace points to it. As an authority for the curative powers of wine, the poet cites the centaur Chiron, Achilles’ tutor. In Epode 7 the poet appeals to his countrymen to stop the destruction and frenzy, a curse he says is rooted in Romulus’s fratricide. Horace addressed the critical importance of pure diction and arrangement, obvious in all his works, in the Ars poetica: a clever juxtaposition rendering a familiar word new is the mark of superior diction (A. p. 46-48). [nb 18], His influence had a perverse aspect. While little is known about the scribae, a candidate probably needed backing by a wealthy and powerful connection as well as the financial resources to purchase the desired post. Not only a “monumentum aere perennius” (monument to outlast bronze, Odes 3.30.1), the Odes are a challenge no other Latin poet equaled. 2.6 contrast with the extremes of philosophizing (Sat. 1, 7, 19), Augustus’s stepson Tiberius (7), the advocate Trebatius (5), and Albius (probably the poet Tibullus, 4)—and to others who are otherwise unattested and perhaps friends only of the poet’s imagination. The Ars Poetica has "exercised a great influence in later ages on European literature, notably on French drama" and has inspired poets and authors since it was written. 1.20). The world of the Odes is bound inextricably with their poetics. His Odes featured more complex measures, including alcaics and sapphics, which were sometimes a difficult fit for Latin structure and syntax. Horace modelled these poems on the poetry of Archilochus. To the muse Melpomene, Horace expresses his gratitude for the literary prestige he has won (Odes 4.3). [83], The first poem of the Epistles sets the philosophical tone for the rest of the collection: "So now I put aside both verses and all those other games: What is true and what befits is my care, this my question, this my whole concern." The next year Propertius published the Monobiblos and joined Maecenas’s circle. A poetic talent suited only for lighter, personal themes provides Horace an excuse, in a poetic form known as the recusatio, for not writing the epic praises of great men. The letter is, in fact, a fairly lengthy conversation (270 lines) about literature. The poem advocates a mutual and affectionate acceptance of failings among friends rather than a rigid stoicism. The obscene qualities of some of the poems have repulsed even scholars[nb 37] yet more recently a better understanding of the nature of Iambic poetry has led to a re-evaluation of the whole collection. [107], During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, or the Age of Enlightenment, neoclassical culture was pervasive. In recent years, however, some scholars have suggested that Horace, a man of equestrian rank and a scribe, had the financial resources to buy the estate without Maecenas’s aid. As of old tragedy formerly the chorus by itself performed the whole drama and later Thespis invented a single actor to … While Horace studied, Caesar battled Pompey and his supporters throughout the Mediterranean, returning victorious to Rome in 46 BCE. Thus Christopher Smart entirely omitted Odes 4.10 and re-numbered the remaining odes. Despite its informality and mundane subject matter—the antithesis of epic—satire in Horace’s hands is more than versifying. At some time between his return to Rome and 38 BCE, Horace became a friend of another young poet five years his senior, Virgil. In his work on the training of orators, Quintilian gives several examples of Horace’s eloquence and calls him Rome’s chief lyric poet: “At lyricorum idem Horatius fere solus legi dignus: nam et insurgit aliquando et plenus est iucunditatis et gratiae et uarius figuris et uerbis felicissime audax” (Of the lyric poets Horace is nearly the only one who deserves to be read: for at times he soars and he is full of a pleasing delightfulness and varied in his expression and most excellently bold in his choice of words, Institutio Oratoria, 10.1.96). Where Poland draws her Eastern bow, Horace acquired an estate in the Sabine Hills outside of Rome. An officer in the republican army defeated at the Battle of Philippi in 42 BC, he was befriended by Octavian's right-hand man in civil affairs, Maecenas, and became a spokesman for the new regime. Damasippus, a convert to philosophy, sees his new learning as yet another in a string of schemes to get ahead in the world (Sat. [123], Edward FitzGerald's Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, though formally derived from the Persian ruba'i, nevertheless shows a strong Horatian influence, since, as one modern scholar has observed, "...the quatrains inevitably recall the stanzas of the 'Odes', as does the narrating first person of the world-weary, ageing Epicurean Omar himself, mixing sympotic exhortation and 'carpe diem' with splendid moralising and 'memento mori' nihilism. takes them away; and not, if things go badly now, Not until several years later did he publish a full work, Satires I (ca. After honoring Maecenas and Augustus with the first and second odes, Horace reserves the third for Virgil. Horace was born in southeast Italy on the border between Lucania and Apulia (modern Puglia), where the Romans had founded a colony in 291 BCE after the third Samnite War. Horace does not expose Roman social life as a fraud but instead shows a complex ethical awareness in action among people of different social levels in a society that places a high premium on competition and advancement. Trebatius counsels his friend to give up satire, or, if he has to write, to compose epic praises of Octavian. Most frequent is Alcaic (33/88); third is Sapphic (23/88). Horace was often commended in periodicals such as The Spectator, as a hallmark of good judgement, moderation and manliness, a focus for moralising. Translated by Steven Willett Note: The first photo shows the head of Cleopatra VII in a Roman sculpture of the mid-first century BC about the time of her visit to Rome in 46~44BC.The second photo is an early first-century AD fresco from Pompeii that shows her red hair and ornaments. [112] Some Latin imitations of Horace were politically subversive, such as a marriage ode by Anthony Alsop that included a rallying cry for the Jacobite cause. In Epist. The poet makes clear that his interests and talents lie in writing poetry, not in social maneuvering, by telling a tale at his own expense about the antics of an ambitious pest who confounds Horace’s attempts at escape. 1.9 is the last of a series of three fairly short narratives. For some commentators, his association with the regime was a delicate balance in which he maintained a strong measure of independence (he was "a master of the graceful sidestep")[1] but for others he was, in John Dryden's phrase, "a well-mannered court slave". Venusia joined the revolt in 90 BCE. The narrative stance is sometimes reminiscent of the satires as well. The poet encourages his companions to turn a winter storm to their advantage and to chase away their worries with old wine, scented oils, and song. 2.8). Greek poets had cultivated a lively satiric spirit, especially in iambic poetry and in comedy, but the genre itself was, as Quintilian claimed, completely new and Roman: “Satura quidem tota nostra est” (Institutio Oratoria, 10.1.93). In that case, young Horace could have felt himself to be a Roman[10][11] though there are also indications that he regarded himself as a Samnite or Sabellus by birth. 17). emirabitur insolens! And, gentle, do not care to know The fourth satire roots Horace’s literary endeavors in the rigorous ethical training of his childhood and credits his father with instilling the lessons that inspire satire. "[nb 32] Matthew Arnold advised a friend in verse not to worry about politics, an echo of Odes 2.11, yet later became a critic of Horace's inadequacies relative to Greek poets, as role models of Victorian virtues, observing: "If human life were complete without faith, without enthusiasm, without energy, Horace...would be the perfect interpreter of human life. Acron’s commentary partially survives in a much-expanded and reworked version, the scholia of Pseudo-Acron, much of which was written in the 5th century AD, with many later additions. Though he emerges as an Epicurean, it is on the understanding that philosophical preferences, like political and social choices, are a matter of personal taste. French editions of Horace were influential in England and these too were regularly bowdlerized. Instead of analytical classifications that aim at explicating the whys and hows of human discourse, Horace presents his reader with a view of the poetic art metamorphosed into poetry.             because someone is more affluent or more learned; each Literature and ethics are the focus of the letter to Julius Florus (Epist. Unlike Lucretius in his Epicurean epic De rerum natura (which, written a generation earlier, greatly influenced the letters), Horace in the Epistles is not concerned with explicating a particular philosophical system and winning over his audience to a new way of thinking. He would especially understand the importance of decorum, the principle that harmonizes style and content, a key theme of the Ars. 2.5) portrayed in the book. The first typifies his facetious manner: “ridentem dicere verum / quid vetat” (What’s wrong with someone laughing as they tell the truth? Horace prides himself on following his predecessor’s tradition of courageously attacking the failings of people of any rank. On returning to Italy, he was confronted with yet another loss: his father's estate in Venusia was one of many throughout Italy to be confiscated for the settlement of veterans (Virgil lost his estate in the north about the same time). [nb 19] Juvenal's caustic satire was influenced mainly by Lucilius but Horace by then was a school classic and Juvenal could refer to him respectfully and in a round-about way as "the Venusine lamp". [nb 26] However a measure of his influence can be found in the diversity of the people interested in his works, both among readers and authors. 1.2; the conflict between Pentheus and Dionysius (Epist. Compared to Horace’s Odes, “All the rest of poetry becomes, in contrast, something too popular—a mere garrulity of feelings” (“What I owe to the ancients,” Twilight of the Idols, 1). Simplicity and clarity (ethical, social, and political) distinguish the countryside from its complicated urban counterpart. Some of the biographical material contained in his work can be supplemented from the short but valuable "Life of Horace" by Suetonius (in his Lives of the Poets).

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