INTRODUCTION TO THE ODES AND

EPODES.

I.

HORACE'S LIFE.

1. Birth and Early Life. Quintus Horatius Flaccus was born at the little town of Venusia, on the borders of Apulia and Lucania, December 8, 65 B.C. His father was a freedman, who seems to have been a collector of taxes. In this business he saved some money, and, dissatisfied with the advantages offered by the school at Venusia, took the young Horace to Rome for his early education. This plan evidently involved no little personal and financial sacrifice on the father's part-a sacrifice appreciated to the full by Horace, if not at the time, at least in his later life. In a touching passage almost unique in ancient literature (Sat. i. 6. 70 ff.), the poet tells us of the father's devotion at this period. Ambitious only for his son's mental and moral improvement, without a thought of the larger material prizes of life, he not only provided Horace with the best instruction the capital afforded, but watched with anxious care over the boy's moral training as well, even accompanying him to school and back again to his lodgings. One of Horace's teachers at this period was Orbilius, who is referred to in Epist. ii. 1. 70 as a severe disciplinarian (plagosum). Under Orbilius, Horace apparently pursued the grammatical studies which formed the staple of the literary training of the day. Later, he probably devoted attention to the

vii

more advanced rhetorical training; under what teacher is unknown.

-

2. Athens. In his nineteenth year or thereabouts (i.e. about 46 B.C.), Horace went to Athens to add the finishing touches to his education by the study of philosophy, which still enjoyed a flourishing existence and was represented by several schools, the Stoic, Epicurean, Peripatetic, and Academic. The Greek poets also engaged his attention largely. Among his friends at this time may be mentioned the young Cicero, son of the orator, and M. Valerius Messalla, who, with many other young Romans, were residing at Athens for the purpose of study.

3. Brutus and Philippi. After some two years, the still air of delightful studies' was rudely agitated for Horace by political events. Caesar had been assassinated in March of 44 B.C., and, in September of that year, Brutus arrived in Athens, burning with the spirit of republicanism. Horace was easily induced to join his standard, and, though without previous military training or experience, received the important position of tribunus militum in Brutus's army. The battle of Philippi (November, 42 B.C.) sounded the death-knell of republican hopes, and left Horace in bad case. His excellent father had died, and the scant patrimony which would have descended to the poet had been confiscated by Octavian in consequence of the son's support of Brutus and Cassius.

4. Return to Rome. Beginning of Career as Man of Letters. Maecenas. The Sabine Farm. Taking advantage of the general amnesty granted by Octavian, Horace returned to Rome in 41 B.C. and there secured a position as quaestor's clerk (scriba), devoting his intervals of leisure to composition in verse. He soon formed a warm friendship with Virgil, then just beginning his career as poet, and with

Varius; through their influence he was admitted (39 B.C.) to the intimacy and friendship of Maecenas, the confidential adviser of Octavian, and a generous patron of literature. About six years later (probably 33 B.C.), he received from Maecenas the Sabine Farm, situated some thirty miles to the northeast of Rome, in the valley of the Digentia, a small stream flowing into the Anio. This estate was not merely adequate for his support, enabling him to devote his entire energy to study and poetry, but was an unfailing source of happiness as well; Horace never wearies of singing its praises.

5. Horace's Other Friendships. — Horace's friendship with Maecenas, together with his own admirable social qualities and poetic gifts, won him an easy entrance into the best Roman society. His Odes bear eloquent testimony to his friendship with nearly all the eminent Romans of his time. Among these were: Agrippa, Octavian's trusted general, and later his son-in-law; Messalla, the friend of Horace's Athenian student days, and later one of the foremost orators of the age; Pollio, distinguished alike in the fields of letters, oratory, and arms. The poets Virgil and Varius have already been mentioned. Other literary friends were: Quintilius Varus, Valgius, Plotius, Aristius Fuscus, and Tibullus.

6. Relations with Augustus. With the Emperor, Horace's relations were intimate and cordial. Though he had fought with conviction under Brutus and Cassius at Philippi, yet he possessed too much sense and patriotism to be capable of ignoring the splendid promises of stability and good government held out by the new régime inaugurated by Augustus. In sincere and loyal devotion to his sovereign, he not merely accepted the new order, but lent the best efforts of his verse to glorifying and strengthening it.

In the life of Horace attributed to Suetonius, we learn that Augustus offered the poet the position of private secretary. Horace, with dignified independence, declined the offer, a step that seems to have made no difference, however, in the cordial friendship with which Augustus continued to honor him.

He remained true to the Muse till his death, November 27, 8 B.C., a few days before the completion of his fiftyseventh year, and but a few weeks after the death of his patron and friend, Maecenas.

7. The Satires.

II.

HORACE'S WORKS.

Horace's first published work was Book I. of the Satires, which appeared in 35 B.C. Five years later, Book II. was published. Though conventionally called 'Satires,' and alluded to by Horace himself as satirae, these were entitled by him Sermones, as being talks, so to speak, couched in the familiar language of everyday life. They represent a type of literature whose early beginnings are obscure, but which is clearly an indigenous Roman product and not an imitation of Greek models, as is the case with almost every other type of Latin poetry. Horace was not the first representative of this kind of writing among the Romans. Ennius, Lucilius, and Varro had been his predecessors in the same field. Of these three, Lucilius beyond question exercised the greatest influence upon the poet. In Horace's hands, satire consists in the main of urbane comment upon the vices and foibles of the day, coupled with amusing incidents of personal experience and good-natured raillery at the defects of the prevailing philosophical systems, of which he was always an earnest and intelligent student. Besides this we have several pieces dealing directly with

the scope and function of satire as a species of literary composition.

8. The Epodes. These were published in 29 B.C. and mark the transition from the Satires to the Odes. They resemble the Satires in their frequent polemic character, the Odes in the lyric form in which they are cast. Though published after the two books of the Satires, several of them apparently represent the earliest of Horace's efforts in verse that have been preserved.

Books I.-III. of the

9. The Odes and Carmen Saeculare. Odes were published in 23 B.C., when Horace was forty-two years old. Many of them had unquestionably been written several years before, some apparently as early as 32 B.C. These Odes at once raised Horace to the front rank of Roman poets, and assured his permanent fame. Six years later (17-B.C.), he was the natural choice of Augustus for the composition of the Carmen Saeculare to be sung at the saecular celebration held in that year. In 13 B.C. appeared Book IV. of the Odes. Though containing some of the poet's best work, this last book nevertheless bears certain traces of perfunctoriness. The Suetonian life of Horace records that it was written at the express request of the Emperor, a statement borne out by the lack of spontaneity characteristic of some of the poems.

10. The Epistles and Ars Poetica. There are two books of Epistles. Book I. was published in 20 B.C., Book IL probably in 14 B.C. Of the epistles contained in Book I., some are genuine letters such as friend might write to friend; others are simply disquisitions in verse form on questions of life, letters, or philosophy. Book II. consists of but two epistles, one to Julius Florus, the other to Augustus. Both these pieces deal with questions of literary criticism. and poetic composition.