THE

SATIRES OF HORACE

EDITED, WITH NOTES,

BY

ARTHUR PALMER, M. A.,

FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE,

AND

PROFESSOR OF LATIN IN THE UNIVERSITY OF DUBLIN.

SECOND EDITION.

London:

MACMILLAN AND CO.

1885.

[The Right of Translation is reserved.]

PREFACE

HORACE having returned to Rome after the rout of Philippi, aged about twenty-four years, obtained an appointment as a clerk in the quaestor's office; and in all likelihood would have stuck to his desk, and never have become famous as a poet, had it not been for the appearance of Maecenas on the stage of Roman politics. To Maecenas most of the poetry of the Augustan age is due. As soon as he became a power in politics, about 40 B. C., he diligently collected around him the literary aspirants of the day. Sint Maecenates non derunt Flacce Marones, wrote Martial,* most truly. Not only such brilliant poets as Virgil, Horace, and Propertius, but lesser menVarius, Fundanius, Valgius, and othersflourished under the encouragement of the appreciative minister.

* Martial, viii. 56. 5.