6

too high, raised designedly, not to excite the ill-will of his contemporaries.' His popularity was, however, unquestionably great in ancient times, and is testified to by Cicero, Quintilian, and Tacitus.

23. Horace seems to have written at first along the lines followed by Lucilius, to judge from Serm. i. 2. This style of writing did not, however, accord with his personal disposition, and in Serm. i. 4 and 101 he criticises the work of his predecessor and defines his own ideal. At the same time, he regarded Lucilius as having established the outward form of this species of composition, and he follows him in using the dactylic hexameter, ignoring Varro's return to the old-fashioned medley. While deprecating Lucilius's severity in invective, he follows the general lines of his predecessor, giving us experiences from his own life,2 treating ethical problems, and defining his literary aims. and ideals.*

24. The first collection, consisting of Serm. i., was published between 37 and 33 B.C., probably in the year 35. The title appears to have been Sermones, or 'Talks,' while Satura seems to be a general designation for this species of composition and includes the Epistulae as well. The book

1 See the 'Outlines.'

2 i. 5, 6, 7, 9. 3 i. 1, 2, 3. 4 i. 4, 10.

5 See Porph. on Serm. i. 1, Quamvis saturam esse opus hoc suum Horatius ipse confiteatur, cum ait: Sunt quibus in satura videar nimis acer, et ultra Legem tendere opus (Serm. ii. 1. 1–2), tamen proprios titulos voluit ei accommodare. Nam hos priores duos libros Sermonum,' posteriores Epistularum' inscribens, in sermonum nomine vult intellegi quasi apud praesentem se loqui, epistulas vero quasi ad absentes missas. In this book the terms Satires and Satire are used of the Sermones and Epistulae together or of the literary satire in general. The two divisions are referred to separately either by their Latin names, or as Sermones and Epistles.

6 See below, p. xxii.

begins in due form with a dedication to Maecenas, and the arrangement of the separate satires is a natural, though not a chronological one, and may well be the one chosen by Horace himself. In most cases the poet himself appears as the speaker,' although considerable dialogue is introduced. That the reception given to this work was not altogether favorable, is shown by Horace's own words in the introductory satire of the second Book of Sermones, which seems to have been published in 30 B.C. This book has no formal dedication and no epilogue, and is cast for the most part in dialogue form. Horace himself plays usually a very subordinate part, and in one satire he does not appear at all.2 The first and sixth satires are of a personal nature; the former is a dialogue between Horace and Trebatius, the latter practically a monologue, although it is assimilated to the other works of the collection by the introduction of Cervius and his fable of the town and the country mouse.

25. The Epistulae belong to the general class of Saturae,3 but they are distinguished from the Sermones not only by their form, but by their contents as well. Hexameter verse is not well suited to dialogue, and Horace evidently preferred to adopt a new literary form, the poetic epistle, for his saturae, rather than to abandon the conventional metre. The first book of Epistulae seems to have been issued in 20 B.C. During the ten years which had elapsed since his last venture in the field of satire, Horace had published three books of Odes, and had reached the age of forty-five. The practical philosophy of life now seems to him the thing most worthy of his attention, and it is to the teaching of this that his first book of Epistles is in the main devoted.

1 The only real exception is i. 8.

2 ii. 5.

3 See above, p. xxi., and Hendrickson's Are the Letters of Horace Satires? Amer. Jour. of Phil. xviii. (1897), pp. 313 ff.

It is dedicated to Maecenas and closes with an epilogue. It consists of actual letters and of fictitious ones.1

The second book of Epistles is devoted wholly to literary criticism. Horace has renounced the writing of lyrics, he tells us, and will hereafter teach the art of poetry instead of practising it. The chronology of this book offers not a few difficulties. The second Epistle is evidently the earliest and may be placed between 20 and 17 B.C.

The recognition of Horace as the poet laureate of Rome, by the invitation to write the Carmen Saeculare, gave him a very different position before the public, and is responsible for the assured tone of the De Arte Poetica, originally the third letter of the collection, although the second in chronological order. It is assigned with most probability to the year 16.B.C. These two letters, with an introductory epistle in which the collection is dedicated to Augustus, appear to have been published in 14 B.C.

26. The school of Lucilius is further represented by the six satires of A. Persius Flaccus (34-62 a.n.) of Volaterrae in Etruria. He was a diligent reader and ardent admirer of Horace, whose language he frequently paraphrases in his own peculiar style. Also by the sixteen satires of D. Iunius Iuvenalis (circ. 46-130 A.D.) of Aquinum.

27. Of other writers of satire, evidently of the school of Lucilius, Horace expressly mentions P. Terentius Varro (82-37 B.C.) of Atax in Gallia Narbonensis, called Atacinus to distinguish him from the author of the Saturae Menippeae. No fragments of his satires have been preserved, although we have scanty remains of an epic, the Bellum Sequanum, of a Chorographia, and of an Ephemeris.

The quibusdam aliis of the same passage may refer to

1 E.g. 13 and 14.

2 Serm. i. 10. 46.

2

Sevius Nicanor1 and L. Albucius, and perhaps to others whose very names have been lost.

28. A decided satiric vein is found in many Roman writers whose works properly belong to other fields of literature. This is strikingly the case with Martial and with Tacitus. The latter's Germania has often erroneously been supposed to have been designed as a satire on Roman corruption and degeneracy.3

The work of Petronius Arbiter, of the time of Nero, is pervaded by this satiric vein, and has some resemblance to the satire of the school of Ennius in its literary form; but, like the Metamorphoses of Apuleius, it belongs properly to the field of the Romance.

V.

GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SATIRES.

29. Horace expressly states that the model of his Satires is Lucilius, and, as has already been said, this is confirmed by a comparison of the two works, so far as this is possible. For reminiscences of Lucilius, see the Notes, passim. Horace's wide reading, both in the Greek literature and that of his native land, is shown by numerous passages. His acquaintance with, and admiration for, the Homeric poems are directly stated in Epist. i. 2, and are shown besides by frequent allusions to the heroes and events of the Iliad and the Odyssey, as well as by the occurrence of phrases and expressions which are reminiscent of both poems. He must have been a diligent reader of the dramatic writers both of Greece and of Rome, and a frequent attendant at

4

1 Suet. de Gramm. 5.

2 Varro, De Re Rust. iii. 2. 7.

8 See Gudeman's Germania, Introd. p. xi. 4 See Serm. ii. 3. 11 f.

the theatre, to judge from his numerous references to the stage, and the abundance of metaphors derived from the drama. Although he does not anywhere mention Lucretius, the number of passages which show a parallelism with the De Rerum Natura is very striking. See the Notes, passim.

30. As Lucilius had evidently done,' Horace gives us in his Satires an intimate acquaintance with his life and habits. He sketches his early life and training, and pays a well-deserved tribute to his father. He tells us of his friendships and his enmities, his successes and disappointments. As a rule he is contented with his lot, although it is clear that the envious gossip which he pretends to despise and the unfavorable criticism of his literary work were not without a sting. He was evidently on most friendly terms with Virgil and Tibullus, and with Varius and other less wellknown poets of the day. Propertius he never mentions by name, and while there is no evidence at all that the bore' of Serm. i. 9 is Propertius, there is an evident allusion to him in Epist. ii. 2. 95 ff., of such a nature as to show that he and Horace were rivals rather than friends.

31. One of the most striking features of the Satires is the keen observation of the daily life of the Romans by which they are characterized. It was Horace's custom, he tells us, to wander about the city and to observe the various occupations and amusements of the people. This he turned to account by drawing from them lessons for his own guidance and that of his friends, as well as by enlivening his literary work with many realistic pictures of daily life, not only that of the higher classes, but also that of the humbler artisans and the slaves. Quite striking is the impression which the vast commercial and business interests of Rome

1 See Serm. ii. 1. 32.