The only
and improbable, as any of the theories which he way to escape, if we refer the division to that sug-
rejects with such sovereign contempt.
and improbable, as any of the theories which he way to escape, if we refer the division to that sug-
rejects with such sovereign contempt.
William Smith - 1844 - Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities - b
) When young he was irascible in
hood of Rome. Horace was one of his chosen temper, but easily placable. (Carm. i. 16. 22, &c. ,
society.
iii. 14. 27, Epist. i. 20. 25. ) In dress he was
This constant transition from the town to the rather careless. (Epist. i. 1. 94. ) His habits,
country life is among the peculiar charms of the even after he became richer, were generally frugal
Horatian poetry, which thus embraces every form and abstemious; though on occasions, both in youth
of Roman society. He describes, with the same and in maturer age, he seems to have indulged in
intimate familiarity, the manners, the follies, and conviviality. He liked choice wine, and in the
vices of the capital ; the parasites, the busy cox society of friends scrupled not to enjoy the luxuries
combs, the legacy-hunters, the luxurious banquets of his time.
of the city; the easy life, the quiet retirement, the Horace was never married; he seems to have
more refined society, the highest aristocratical cir- entertained that aristocratical aversion to legitimate
cles, both in the city, and in the luxurious country wedlock, against which, in the higher orders, Au-
palace of the villa ; and even something of the gustus strove bo vainly, both by the infliction of
simple manners and frugal life of the Sabine pea- civil disabilities and the temptation of civil pri-
santry.
vileges. In his various amours he does not appear
The intimate friendship of Horace introduced him to have had any children. Of these amours the
naturally to the notice of the other great men of his patient ingenuity of some modern writers has en-
period, to Agrippa, and at length to Augustus him- deavoured to trace the regular date and succession,
self. The first advances to friendship appear to if to their own satisfaction, by no means to that of
have been made by the emperor; and though the poet their readers. With the exception of the adven-
took many opportunities of administering courtly ture with Canidia or Gratidia, which belongs to
flattery to Augustus, celebrating his victories over his younger days, and one or two cases in which
Antony, and on the western and eastern frontiers the poet alludes to his more advanced age, all is
of the empire, as well as admiring his acts of peace, arbitrary and conjectural ; and though in some of
yet he seems to have been content with the patron his amatory Odes, and in one or two of the latter
age of Maecenas, and to have declined the offers of Epodes, there is the earnestness and force of real
favour and advancement made by Augustus himself. passion, others seem but the play of a graceful
According to the life by Suetonius, the emperor fancy. Nor is the notion of Buttman, though
desired Maecenas to make over Horace to him as rejected with indignation by those who have
his private secretary ; and instead of taking offence wrought out this minute chronology of the mistresses
at the poet's refusal to accept this office of trust of Horace, by any means improbable, that some
and importance, spoke of him with that familiarity of them are translations or imitations of Greek
(if the text be correct, coarse and unroyal fami- lyrics, or poems altogether ideal, and without any real
liarity) which showed undiminished favour, and groundwork. (Buttman, Essay in German, in the
bestowed on him considerable sums of money. Berlin Transactions, 1804, and in his Mythologus,
He was ambitious also of being celebrated in the translated in the Philological Museum, vol. i.
poetry of Horace. The Carmen Seculare was written p. 439. )
by his desire ; and he was, in part at least, the The political opinions of Horace were at first
cause of Horace adding the fourth book of Odes, republican. Up to the battle of Philippi (as we
by urging him to commemorate the victory of his have seen) he adhered to the cause of Brutus. On
step-sons Drusus and Tiberius over the Vindelici. his return to Rome, he quietly acquiesced in the
With all the other distinguished men of the great change which established the imperial mon-
time, the old aristocracy, like Aelius Lamia, the archy. He had abandoned public life altogether,
statesmen, like Agrippa, the poets Varius, Virgil, and had become a man of letters. His dominant
Pollio, Tibullus, Horace lived on terms of mutual feeling appears to have been a profound horror for
respect and attachment. The “ Personae Hora- the crimes and miseries of the civil wars. The stern-
tianae" would contain almost every famous name est republican might rejoice in the victory of Rome
of the age of Augustus.
and Augustus over Antony and the East. A go-
Horace died on the 17th of November, A. V. C. vemment, under whatever form, which maintained
746, B. c. 8, aged nearly 57. His death was so internal peace, and the glory of the Roman arms
sudden, that he had not time to make his will ; on all the frontiers, in Spain, in Dacia, and in the
but he left the administration of his affairs to East, commanded his grateful homage. He may
Augustus, whom he instituted as his heir. He was have been really, or may have fancied himself, de
buried on the slope of the Esquiline Hill, close ceived by the consummate skill with which Augus-
to his friend and patron Maecenas, who had died tus disguised the growth of his own despotism
before him in the same year. (Clinton, Fasti Hellen. under the old republican forms. Thus, though he
sub ann. )
gradually softened into the friend of the emperor's
Horace bas described his own person. (Epist. favourite, and at length the poetical courtier of the
i. 20. 24. ) He was of short stature, with dark emperor himself, he still maintained a certain in-
eyes and dark hair (Art. Poët. 37), but early dependence of character. He does not suppress
tinged with grey. (Epist. l. c. ; Carm. iii. 14. his old associations of respect for the republican
25). In his youth he was tolerably robust (Epist. leaders, which break out in his admiration of the
i. 7. 26), but suffered from a complaint in his indomitable spirit of Cato ; and he boasts, rather
eyes. (Sat. i. 6. 30. ) In more advanced life than disguises, his services in the army of Brutus,
he grew fat, and Augustus jested about his pro- If, with the rest of the world, he acquiesced in the
tuberant belly. (Aug. Epist. Frag. apud Sue inevitable empire, it is puerile to charge him with
ton. in Vita. ) His health was not always good. apostacy.
He was not only weary of the fatigue of war, but The religion of Horace was that of his age, and
unfit to bear it (Carm. i. 6, 7, Epod. i. 15), and of the men of the world in his age. He maintains
aray in enjoratie
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## p. 522 (#538) ############################################
522
HORATIUS.
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the poetic and conventional faith in the gods with of Lucretius, the Georgics of Virgil, and per.
decent respect, but with no depth of devotion. haps the Satires of Juvenal, the most perfect
There is more sincerity in a sort of vague sense of and most original form of Roman verse. The
the providential government, to which he attributes title of the Art of Poetry for the Epistle to
his escape from some of the perils of his life, his the Pisos, is as old as Quintilian, but it is now
flight from Philippi, his preservation from a wolf agreed that it was not intended for a complete
in the Sabine wood (Carm. i. 22. 9), and from the theory of the poetic art. Wieland's very probable
falling of a tree in his own grounds. (Carm. ii. 13. notion that it was intended to dissuade one of the
17, 27, iii. 8. 6. ) In another well-known passage, younger Pisos from devoting himself to poetry, for
he professes to have been startled into religious emo- which he had little genius, or at least to suggest
tion, and to have renounced a godless philosophy, the difficulties of attaining to perfection, was
from hearing thunder in a cloudless sky.
anticipated by Colman in the preface to his trans-
The philosophy of Horace was, in like manner, lation. (Colman's Works, vol. iii. ; compare Wie
that of a man of the world. He playfully alludes land's llorazens Briefe, ii. 185. )
to his Epicureanism, but it was practical rather
The works of Horace became popular very soon.
than speculative Epicurcanism. His mind, indeed, In the time of Juvenal they were, with the poems
was not in the least speculative. Common life of Virgil, the common school book. (Juv. Sut.
wisdom was his study, and to this he brought a vii. 227. )
quickness of observation, a sterling common sense, The chronology of the Iloratian poems is of great
and a passionless judgment, which have made his importance, as illustrating the life, the times, and
works the delight and the unfailing treasure of the writings of the poet. The earlier attempts by
felicitous quotation to practical men.
Tan. Faber, by Dacier, and by Masson, in his
The love of Horace for the country, and his in- elaborate l'ie d’llorace, to assign each poem to
tercourse with the sturdy and uncorrupted Sabine its particular year in the poet's life, were crushed
pensantry, seems to have kept alive an honest free by the dictatorial condemnation of Bentley, who in
dom and boldness of thought ; while his familiarity his short preface laid down a scheme of dates,
with the great, his delight in good society, main both for the composition and the publication of each
tained that exquisite urbanity, that general | book. The authority of Bentley has been in ge-
amenity, that ease without forwardness, that re- veral acquiesced in by English scholars. The late
spect without servility, which induced Shaftesbury Dr. Tate, with admiration approaching to idolatry,
to call him the most gentlemanlike of the Roman almost resented every departure from the edict of
poets.
his master; and in his Horatius Restitutus published
In these qualities lie the strength and excellence the whole works in the order established by Bentley.
of Horace as a poet. His Odes want the higher in- Mr. Fynes Clinton, though in general favouring the
spirations of lyric verse--the deep religious senti Bentleian chronology, admits that in some cases his
ment, the absorbing personality, the abandonment to dates are at variance with facts. (Fasti Hellenici,
overpowering and irresistible emotion, the unstudied vol. iii. p. 219. ) Nor were the first attempts to
harmony of thought and language, the absolute overthrow the Bentleian chronology by Sanadon and
unity of imagination and passion which belongs to others (Jani's was almost a translation of Masson's
the noblest lyric song. His amatóry verses are ex- life) successful in shaking the arch-critic's au-
quisitely graceful, but they have no strong ardour, thority among the higher class of scholars.
no deep tenderness, nor even much of light and Recently, however, the question has been re-
joyous gaiety. But as works of refined art, of the opened with extraordinary activity by the con-
most skilful felicities of language and of measure, oftinental scholars. At least five new and complete
translucent expression, and of agreeable images, schemes have been framed, which attempt to assign
embodied in words which imprint themselves in a precise period almost to every one of the poems
delibly on the memory, they are unrivalled. Accord of Horace. 1. Quaestiones Horatianae, a C. Kirch-
ing to Quintilian, Horace was almost the only ner, Lips. 1834. 2. Histoire de la Vie et des
Roman lyric poet worth reading.
Poésies d'Horace, par M. le Baron Walckenaer,
As a satirist Horace is without the lofty moral | 2 vols. Paris, 1840. 3. Fasti Horatiani, scrip
indignation, the fierce vehemence of invective, which sit C. Franke, 1839. 4. The article Horatius,
characterised the later satirists. In the Epodes there in Ersch and Gruber's Encyclopädie, by G. F.
is bitterness provoked, it should seem, by some per- Grotefend. 5. Quintus Horatius Flaccus als Mensch
sonal hatred, or sense of injury, and the ambition of und Dichter, von Dr. W. E. Weber, Jena, 1844.
imitating Archilocus; but in these he seems to have Besides these writers, others, as Heindorf (in his
exhausted all the malignity and violence of his edition of the Satires), C. Passow, in Vita Horat.
temper. In the Satires, it is the folly rather than (prefixed to a German translation of the Epistles),
the wickedness of vice, which he touches with such C. Vanderbourg, Preface and Notes to French
playful skill. Nothing can surpass the keenness translation of the Odes, and Weichert, in Poctar.
of his observation, or his ease of expression : it is Latin. Reliq. have entered into this question.
the finest comedy of manners, in a descriptive instead The discrepancies among these ingenious writers
of dramatic form. If the Romans had been a may satisfy every judicious reader that they have
theatrical people, and the age of Augustus a dra- attempted an impossibility ; that there are no in-
matic age, Horace, as far at least as the perception ternal grounds, either historical or aesthetic, which
of character, would have been an exquisite dra. can, without the most fanciful and arbitrary proofs,
matic writer.
determine the period in the life of Horace to which
But the Epistles are the most perfect of the belong many of his poems, especially of his Odes.
Horatian poetry
the poetry of mannera and On the other hand, it is clear that the chronology
society, the beauty of which consists in a kind of of Bentley must submit to very important modi-
ideality of common sense and practical wisdom. fications.
The Epistles of Horace are with the Poem The general outline of his scheme as to the period
have gained his
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## p. 523 (#539) ############################################
HORATIUS.
523
HORATIUS.
THE
205
be
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In the
of the publication of the several books does not / gested a former division, made in the year of Horace
differ very materially from that of Franke. On the 31 (30), B. C. 35. But as seven full, and nearer
successive order of publication there is the same eight years (septimus octavo propior jam fugerit
agreement, with few exceptions in all the writers on annus) had elapsed when that Satire was written,
this prolific subject. Though Bentley's opinion, since his introduction to Maecenas, to which must
that the poems were published collectively in sepa- be added nine months between the first introduo-
rate books, be unquestionably true, yet his asser- tion and the intimate friendship, the introduction
tion that Horace devoted himself exclusively to one is thrown up before the battle of Philippi, B. C.
kind of poetry at a time, that he first wrote all the 42, and we have besides this to find time for
Satires, then began to write iambics (the Epodes), Horace to acquire his poctic fame, to form his
then took to lyric poetry, is as hardy, groundless, friendships with Virgil and Varius, &c.
The only
and improbable, as any of the theories which he way to escape, if we refer the division to that sug-
rejects with such sovereign contempt. The poet gested by Bentley, is to suppose that it was pro-
himself declares that he was driven in his sweet mised in B. c. 35, but not fulfilled till several years
youth to write iambics (the Bentleian theory assigne later ; but this is improbable in any way, and
all the Epodes to his 34th and 35th years). Some hardly reconcileable with the circumstances of that
of the Odes have the freshness and ardour of youth; division in the historians. It is quite impossible to
and it seems certain that when Horace formed the date the publication of this book earlier than the
friendship of Pollio, Varius, and Virgil, and was latter part of B. c. 32 (aet. Horat. 33), the year be-
introduced by the two latter to Maecenas, he must fore Actium ; but the probability is strong for the
have shown more than the promise of poetic talent. year after, B. C. 31.
It is hence most probable that, although not col- Still so far there is no very great discrepancy in
lected or published till a later period, and Horace the various schemes ; and (with the exception of
appears to have been slow and unwilling to expose M. Vanderbourg and Baron Walckenaer) the
his poems on the shelves of the Sosii (Sat. i. 4. 70), Epodes are generally allowed to be the third book
many of his lyric and iambic pieces bad becn re- in the order of publication ; and Bentley and the
cited before his friends (Sat. i. 4. 73), had been more recent writers likewise nearly concur in the
circulated in private, and formed, no doubt, his re- date of publication, the poet's 35th or 36th year.
commendation to the lovers and patrons of letters. Bentley, however, and his followers authoritatively
Either this must have been the case, or he must confine the period of its composition to the 34th
have gained his reputation by poems which have and 35th year of his life. There can be no doubt
not survived, or which he himself did not think that when he speaks of himself as a writer of
worthy of publication.
iambics, Horace alludes to his Epodes. (Franke,
The first book of Satires (on this all agree) was note, p. 46. ) The name of Epodes is of later and
the first publication. Some indeed have asserted very questionable origin. But as he asserts that in
that the two books appeared together ; but the first his sweet youth he wrote iambics, either those
line of the second book-
iambics must be lost, or must be contained in the
“Sunt quibus in Satira videar nimis acer," book of Epodes. The single passage in which he
is conclusive that Horace had already attained seems to rest his poetical fame up to a certain
public reputation as a writer of satire. The differ- period op his Satires alone, is in itself vague and
ence between the Chronology of Bentley and that general (Sat. i. 4. 41. ); and even if literally taken,
of Franke, in his Fasti Horatiani, is this: that is easily explicable, on the supposition that the
Bentley peremptorily confines the composition (na- Epodes were published later than the Satires.
tales) of this book to the 26th, 27th, and 28th The observation of Bentley, which every one
years of the poet's life (and Bentley reckons the would wish to be true, that all the coarser and
year of the poet's birth, though born in December, more obscene poems of Horace belong to his earlier
as his first year), and leaves him idle for the two period, and that he became in mature years more
following years. Franke more reasonably enlarges refined, is scarcely just, if the more gross of the
the period of composition from his 24th to his 30th Epodes were written in his 34th and 35th years :
year. In this year (u. c. 719, B. C. 35), the pub- the adventures and connections to which they
lication of the first book of Satires took place. In allude are rather those of a young and homeless
the interval between the two books of Satires, Ho- adventurer, cast loose on a vicious capital, than the
race received from Maecenas the gift of the Sabine guest and friend of Maecenas, and the possessor of
a sufficient estate. Franke dates the publication
The second book of Satires is assigned by Bent- late B. c. 30, or early B. C. 29. (Vit. Hor. 36. )
ley to the 31st, 32d, and 33d (30, 31, 32) of the We are persuaded that their composition extended
poet's life; the publication is placed by Franke over the whole period from his first residence in
in the 35th year of Horace (B. c. 30). This is Rome nearly to the date of their publication.
perhaps the most difficult point in the Horatian Epodes vii. and xvi. ? are more probably referred
chronology, and depends on the interpretation of to the war of Perusia, B. C. 40, than to that with
passages in the sixth Satire. If that Satire were Antony; and to this part of the poet's life belong
written and the book published after the war those Épodes which allude to Canidia.
with Antony and the victory of Actium, it is re- The three first books of Odes follow by almost
markable that peither that Satire, nor the book universal consent in the order of publication, though
itself, in any passage, should contain any allusion the chronologists differ as to their having appeared
to events which so fully occupied, it appears from consecutively or at the same time. According to
other poems, the mind of Horace. If, however, Bentley, they were composed and published in suc-
the division of lands to be made to the veterans in cession, between the 34th and 42d, according to
Italy or Sicily (Serm. i. 6. 56) be that made after Franke, the 35th and 41st or 42d year of the poet.
the battle of Actium, this must be conclusive for their successive or simultaneous publication within
the later date. To avoid this objection, Bentley sug- I that period might appcar unquestionable but for
Jao und
spirit
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French
ET LORE
lis perasi
## p. 524 (#540) ############################################
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the great difficulty of the third Ode, relating to the a compiler of commentaries, some of but late date,
poet Virgil about to embark for Greece. It is said quoted as Comm. Cruquii. II. Lambini, last edite
by Donatus that Virgil did undertake such a voy- Paris, 1605. 111. Tortentii, Antwerp, 1108.
age in the year B. c. 19, three years later than Lambinus and Torrentius are the best of the
the last date of Bentley-five than that of Franke. older editors. IV. Bentleii, Cantab. 1711. V.
Hence Grotefend and others delay the publication Gesneri et Zeunii, Lips. and Glasg. v. y. from
of the three books of Odes to that year or the fol- 1762 to 1794. VI. Carmina, Mitscherlich, Lips.
lowing; and so perplexing is the difficulty, that 1800. VII. Doering, Lips. 1803. VIII. Romae, à
Franke boldly substitutes the name of Quintilius C. Fea. Fea professed to have collated many MSS.
for that of Virgilius; others recur to the last resort in the Vatican, &c. IX. Carmina (with French
of desperate critics, and imagine another Virgi- translation), C. Vanderbourg, Paris, 1812. Vander-
lius. Dr. Weber, perhaps more probably, suspects bourg collated 18 MSS. X. A J. Braunhard, Lips.
an error in Donatus. If indeed it relates to 1833, with a reprint of the old Scholia. XI. Orellii,
that voyage of Virgil (yet may not Virgil have | Turici, 1843. This last surpasses all former edi-
undertaken such a voyage before ? ), we absolutely tions. XII. Satiren erklärt von L. F. Heindorf.
fix the publication of the three books of Odes to Neu-bearbeitet von E. F. Wüstemann, Leipzig,
one year, that of Virgil's voyage and death ; for 1843. The German Commentary excellent. XIII.
after the death of Virgil Ilorace could not have Episteln erklärt von F. E. Theodor Schmid. Hal-
published his Ode imploring the gods to grant him berstadt, 1828.
safe return. We entertain no doubt that, though The translations of Horace in all languages are
first published at one of these periods, the three almost innumerable, perhaps because he is among
first books of Odes contain poems written at very the most untranslateable of poets. Where the
different times, some in the earliest years of his beauty of the poetry consists so much in the exqui-
poetry; and Buttman's opinion that he steadily site felicity of expression, in the finished terseness
and laboriously polished the best of his smaller and perspicuity of the Odes, or the pure idiomatic
poems, till he had brought them to perfection, and Latin of the Satires and Epistles, the transfusion
then united them in a book, accounts at once for into other words almost inevitably loses either the
the irregular order, in point of subject, style, and meaning or the harmony of thought and language.
metre, in which they occur.
In English the free imitations of Pope and of Swift
The first book of the Epistles is by Bentley as- gire by far the best notion of the charm of the
signed to the 46th and 47th (45th and 46th), by Horatian poetry to an unlearned reader. Some of
Franke is placed between the 41st and 45th years Dryden's versions have his merits and faults-ease
of Horace. Bentley's chronology leaves two years and vigour, carelessness and inaccuracy. The
of the poet's life, the 44th and 45th, entirely un- translation of Francis is that in common use,
occupied.
rather for want of a better than for its intrinsic
The Carmen Seculare, by almost universal con- worth. We shall name in our selection of the
sent, belongs to the 48th year of Horace, B. c. 17. most important among the numberless critical and
The fourth book of Odes, according to Bentley, aesthetical works on Horace (a complete list of Libri
belongs to the 49th and 51st ; to Franke, the 48th Horatiani would occupy many columns) the best
and 520 years of the poet's life. It was pub- of the French and German translations:
lished in his 51st or 52d year.
Dacier, Oeuvres d'Horace. Masson, Horatij
The dates of the second book of Epistles, and of Vita, Lug. Bat. 8vo. 1708. Casaubon, de Satira,
the Ars Poetica, are admitted to be uncertain, though à Rambach, Halae, 1774. Ernesti, Onomasticon
both appeared before the poet's death, ann. aet. 57. Poetarum imprimis Q. Horatü Flacci. Horaz als
There are several ancient Lives of Horace : the Mensch und Bürger von Rom, R. von Ommerai
first and only one of importance is attributed to übersetzt von Walch. Lips. 1802. Lessing, Ret-
Suetonius; but if by that author, considerably in- tungen des Horaz. Werke, vol. iv. Berlin, 1838.
terpolated. The second is to be found in the edi- Horazens Satiren, übersetzt von C. M. Wieland,
tion of Horace by Bond. The third from a MS. Leipsig, 1815; Briefe, 1837. To these clever
in the Vatican library, was published by M. Van- translations are appended dissertations and notes
derbourg, and prefixed to his French translation of full of very ingenious criticism, on the characters
the Odes. A fourth from a Berlin MS. edited by and on the works of Horace. Wieļand is well
Kirchner, Quaestiones Horatianae. These, how- corrected by F. Jacobs in his Lectiones Venusinae
ever, are later than the Commentators, Acron and in his Vermischte Schriften. Les Odes d'Horace,
Porphyrion.
par C. Vanderbourg. See above. M. Vander-
The Editio Princeps of Horace is in 4to, without bourg's translation is hard and stiff, not equal in
name or date. Maittaire (with whom other biblio- ease and fluency to the translation by Count Daru.
graphers agree) supposes it to have been printed by On the Topography, see Capmartin de Chaupy,
Zarotus at Milan, 1470. Fea describes an edition and other works, quoted above.
which contests the priority by T. P. Lignamini, On the Chronology, Buttmann. See above.
but this is doubtful. II.
hood of Rome. Horace was one of his chosen temper, but easily placable. (Carm. i. 16. 22, &c. ,
society.
iii. 14. 27, Epist. i. 20. 25. ) In dress he was
This constant transition from the town to the rather careless. (Epist. i. 1. 94. ) His habits,
country life is among the peculiar charms of the even after he became richer, were generally frugal
Horatian poetry, which thus embraces every form and abstemious; though on occasions, both in youth
of Roman society. He describes, with the same and in maturer age, he seems to have indulged in
intimate familiarity, the manners, the follies, and conviviality. He liked choice wine, and in the
vices of the capital ; the parasites, the busy cox society of friends scrupled not to enjoy the luxuries
combs, the legacy-hunters, the luxurious banquets of his time.
of the city; the easy life, the quiet retirement, the Horace was never married; he seems to have
more refined society, the highest aristocratical cir- entertained that aristocratical aversion to legitimate
cles, both in the city, and in the luxurious country wedlock, against which, in the higher orders, Au-
palace of the villa ; and even something of the gustus strove bo vainly, both by the infliction of
simple manners and frugal life of the Sabine pea- civil disabilities and the temptation of civil pri-
santry.
vileges. In his various amours he does not appear
The intimate friendship of Horace introduced him to have had any children. Of these amours the
naturally to the notice of the other great men of his patient ingenuity of some modern writers has en-
period, to Agrippa, and at length to Augustus him- deavoured to trace the regular date and succession,
self. The first advances to friendship appear to if to their own satisfaction, by no means to that of
have been made by the emperor; and though the poet their readers. With the exception of the adven-
took many opportunities of administering courtly ture with Canidia or Gratidia, which belongs to
flattery to Augustus, celebrating his victories over his younger days, and one or two cases in which
Antony, and on the western and eastern frontiers the poet alludes to his more advanced age, all is
of the empire, as well as admiring his acts of peace, arbitrary and conjectural ; and though in some of
yet he seems to have been content with the patron his amatory Odes, and in one or two of the latter
age of Maecenas, and to have declined the offers of Epodes, there is the earnestness and force of real
favour and advancement made by Augustus himself. passion, others seem but the play of a graceful
According to the life by Suetonius, the emperor fancy. Nor is the notion of Buttman, though
desired Maecenas to make over Horace to him as rejected with indignation by those who have
his private secretary ; and instead of taking offence wrought out this minute chronology of the mistresses
at the poet's refusal to accept this office of trust of Horace, by any means improbable, that some
and importance, spoke of him with that familiarity of them are translations or imitations of Greek
(if the text be correct, coarse and unroyal fami- lyrics, or poems altogether ideal, and without any real
liarity) which showed undiminished favour, and groundwork. (Buttman, Essay in German, in the
bestowed on him considerable sums of money. Berlin Transactions, 1804, and in his Mythologus,
He was ambitious also of being celebrated in the translated in the Philological Museum, vol. i.
poetry of Horace. The Carmen Seculare was written p. 439. )
by his desire ; and he was, in part at least, the The political opinions of Horace were at first
cause of Horace adding the fourth book of Odes, republican. Up to the battle of Philippi (as we
by urging him to commemorate the victory of his have seen) he adhered to the cause of Brutus. On
step-sons Drusus and Tiberius over the Vindelici. his return to Rome, he quietly acquiesced in the
With all the other distinguished men of the great change which established the imperial mon-
time, the old aristocracy, like Aelius Lamia, the archy. He had abandoned public life altogether,
statesmen, like Agrippa, the poets Varius, Virgil, and had become a man of letters. His dominant
Pollio, Tibullus, Horace lived on terms of mutual feeling appears to have been a profound horror for
respect and attachment. The “ Personae Hora- the crimes and miseries of the civil wars. The stern-
tianae" would contain almost every famous name est republican might rejoice in the victory of Rome
of the age of Augustus.
and Augustus over Antony and the East. A go-
Horace died on the 17th of November, A. V. C. vemment, under whatever form, which maintained
746, B. c. 8, aged nearly 57. His death was so internal peace, and the glory of the Roman arms
sudden, that he had not time to make his will ; on all the frontiers, in Spain, in Dacia, and in the
but he left the administration of his affairs to East, commanded his grateful homage. He may
Augustus, whom he instituted as his heir. He was have been really, or may have fancied himself, de
buried on the slope of the Esquiline Hill, close ceived by the consummate skill with which Augus-
to his friend and patron Maecenas, who had died tus disguised the growth of his own despotism
before him in the same year. (Clinton, Fasti Hellen. under the old republican forms. Thus, though he
sub ann. )
gradually softened into the friend of the emperor's
Horace bas described his own person. (Epist. favourite, and at length the poetical courtier of the
i. 20. 24. ) He was of short stature, with dark emperor himself, he still maintained a certain in-
eyes and dark hair (Art. Poët. 37), but early dependence of character. He does not suppress
tinged with grey. (Epist. l. c. ; Carm. iii. 14. his old associations of respect for the republican
25). In his youth he was tolerably robust (Epist. leaders, which break out in his admiration of the
i. 7. 26), but suffered from a complaint in his indomitable spirit of Cato ; and he boasts, rather
eyes. (Sat. i. 6. 30. ) In more advanced life than disguises, his services in the army of Brutus,
he grew fat, and Augustus jested about his pro- If, with the rest of the world, he acquiesced in the
tuberant belly. (Aug. Epist. Frag. apud Sue inevitable empire, it is puerile to charge him with
ton. in Vita. ) His health was not always good. apostacy.
He was not only weary of the fatigue of war, but The religion of Horace was that of his age, and
unfit to bear it (Carm. i. 6, 7, Epod. i. 15), and of the men of the world in his age. He maintains
aray in enjoratie
but doi kenasty
ens which bessed
pire. Wbea Vie
25 Octavigs in že
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resided constant
## p. 522 (#538) ############################################
522
HORATIUS.
HORATIUS.
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the poetic and conventional faith in the gods with of Lucretius, the Georgics of Virgil, and per.
decent respect, but with no depth of devotion. haps the Satires of Juvenal, the most perfect
There is more sincerity in a sort of vague sense of and most original form of Roman verse. The
the providential government, to which he attributes title of the Art of Poetry for the Epistle to
his escape from some of the perils of his life, his the Pisos, is as old as Quintilian, but it is now
flight from Philippi, his preservation from a wolf agreed that it was not intended for a complete
in the Sabine wood (Carm. i. 22. 9), and from the theory of the poetic art. Wieland's very probable
falling of a tree in his own grounds. (Carm. ii. 13. notion that it was intended to dissuade one of the
17, 27, iii. 8. 6. ) In another well-known passage, younger Pisos from devoting himself to poetry, for
he professes to have been startled into religious emo- which he had little genius, or at least to suggest
tion, and to have renounced a godless philosophy, the difficulties of attaining to perfection, was
from hearing thunder in a cloudless sky.
anticipated by Colman in the preface to his trans-
The philosophy of Horace was, in like manner, lation. (Colman's Works, vol. iii. ; compare Wie
that of a man of the world. He playfully alludes land's llorazens Briefe, ii. 185. )
to his Epicureanism, but it was practical rather
The works of Horace became popular very soon.
than speculative Epicurcanism. His mind, indeed, In the time of Juvenal they were, with the poems
was not in the least speculative. Common life of Virgil, the common school book. (Juv. Sut.
wisdom was his study, and to this he brought a vii. 227. )
quickness of observation, a sterling common sense, The chronology of the Iloratian poems is of great
and a passionless judgment, which have made his importance, as illustrating the life, the times, and
works the delight and the unfailing treasure of the writings of the poet. The earlier attempts by
felicitous quotation to practical men.
Tan. Faber, by Dacier, and by Masson, in his
The love of Horace for the country, and his in- elaborate l'ie d’llorace, to assign each poem to
tercourse with the sturdy and uncorrupted Sabine its particular year in the poet's life, were crushed
pensantry, seems to have kept alive an honest free by the dictatorial condemnation of Bentley, who in
dom and boldness of thought ; while his familiarity his short preface laid down a scheme of dates,
with the great, his delight in good society, main both for the composition and the publication of each
tained that exquisite urbanity, that general | book. The authority of Bentley has been in ge-
amenity, that ease without forwardness, that re- veral acquiesced in by English scholars. The late
spect without servility, which induced Shaftesbury Dr. Tate, with admiration approaching to idolatry,
to call him the most gentlemanlike of the Roman almost resented every departure from the edict of
poets.
his master; and in his Horatius Restitutus published
In these qualities lie the strength and excellence the whole works in the order established by Bentley.
of Horace as a poet. His Odes want the higher in- Mr. Fynes Clinton, though in general favouring the
spirations of lyric verse--the deep religious senti Bentleian chronology, admits that in some cases his
ment, the absorbing personality, the abandonment to dates are at variance with facts. (Fasti Hellenici,
overpowering and irresistible emotion, the unstudied vol. iii. p. 219. ) Nor were the first attempts to
harmony of thought and language, the absolute overthrow the Bentleian chronology by Sanadon and
unity of imagination and passion which belongs to others (Jani's was almost a translation of Masson's
the noblest lyric song. His amatóry verses are ex- life) successful in shaking the arch-critic's au-
quisitely graceful, but they have no strong ardour, thority among the higher class of scholars.
no deep tenderness, nor even much of light and Recently, however, the question has been re-
joyous gaiety. But as works of refined art, of the opened with extraordinary activity by the con-
most skilful felicities of language and of measure, oftinental scholars. At least five new and complete
translucent expression, and of agreeable images, schemes have been framed, which attempt to assign
embodied in words which imprint themselves in a precise period almost to every one of the poems
delibly on the memory, they are unrivalled. Accord of Horace. 1. Quaestiones Horatianae, a C. Kirch-
ing to Quintilian, Horace was almost the only ner, Lips. 1834. 2. Histoire de la Vie et des
Roman lyric poet worth reading.
Poésies d'Horace, par M. le Baron Walckenaer,
As a satirist Horace is without the lofty moral | 2 vols. Paris, 1840. 3. Fasti Horatiani, scrip
indignation, the fierce vehemence of invective, which sit C. Franke, 1839. 4. The article Horatius,
characterised the later satirists. In the Epodes there in Ersch and Gruber's Encyclopädie, by G. F.
is bitterness provoked, it should seem, by some per- Grotefend. 5. Quintus Horatius Flaccus als Mensch
sonal hatred, or sense of injury, and the ambition of und Dichter, von Dr. W. E. Weber, Jena, 1844.
imitating Archilocus; but in these he seems to have Besides these writers, others, as Heindorf (in his
exhausted all the malignity and violence of his edition of the Satires), C. Passow, in Vita Horat.
temper. In the Satires, it is the folly rather than (prefixed to a German translation of the Epistles),
the wickedness of vice, which he touches with such C. Vanderbourg, Preface and Notes to French
playful skill. Nothing can surpass the keenness translation of the Odes, and Weichert, in Poctar.
of his observation, or his ease of expression : it is Latin. Reliq. have entered into this question.
the finest comedy of manners, in a descriptive instead The discrepancies among these ingenious writers
of dramatic form. If the Romans had been a may satisfy every judicious reader that they have
theatrical people, and the age of Augustus a dra- attempted an impossibility ; that there are no in-
matic age, Horace, as far at least as the perception ternal grounds, either historical or aesthetic, which
of character, would have been an exquisite dra. can, without the most fanciful and arbitrary proofs,
matic writer.
determine the period in the life of Horace to which
But the Epistles are the most perfect of the belong many of his poems, especially of his Odes.
Horatian poetry
the poetry of mannera and On the other hand, it is clear that the chronology
society, the beauty of which consists in a kind of of Bentley must submit to very important modi-
ideality of common sense and practical wisdom. fications.
The Epistles of Horace are with the Poem The general outline of his scheme as to the period
have gained his
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## p. 523 (#539) ############################################
HORATIUS.
523
HORATIUS.
THE
205
be
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po bi
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h's
leurt
In the
of the publication of the several books does not / gested a former division, made in the year of Horace
differ very materially from that of Franke. On the 31 (30), B. C. 35. But as seven full, and nearer
successive order of publication there is the same eight years (septimus octavo propior jam fugerit
agreement, with few exceptions in all the writers on annus) had elapsed when that Satire was written,
this prolific subject. Though Bentley's opinion, since his introduction to Maecenas, to which must
that the poems were published collectively in sepa- be added nine months between the first introduo-
rate books, be unquestionably true, yet his asser- tion and the intimate friendship, the introduction
tion that Horace devoted himself exclusively to one is thrown up before the battle of Philippi, B. C.
kind of poetry at a time, that he first wrote all the 42, and we have besides this to find time for
Satires, then began to write iambics (the Epodes), Horace to acquire his poctic fame, to form his
then took to lyric poetry, is as hardy, groundless, friendships with Virgil and Varius, &c.
The only
and improbable, as any of the theories which he way to escape, if we refer the division to that sug-
rejects with such sovereign contempt. The poet gested by Bentley, is to suppose that it was pro-
himself declares that he was driven in his sweet mised in B. c. 35, but not fulfilled till several years
youth to write iambics (the Bentleian theory assigne later ; but this is improbable in any way, and
all the Epodes to his 34th and 35th years). Some hardly reconcileable with the circumstances of that
of the Odes have the freshness and ardour of youth; division in the historians. It is quite impossible to
and it seems certain that when Horace formed the date the publication of this book earlier than the
friendship of Pollio, Varius, and Virgil, and was latter part of B. c. 32 (aet. Horat. 33), the year be-
introduced by the two latter to Maecenas, he must fore Actium ; but the probability is strong for the
have shown more than the promise of poetic talent. year after, B. C. 31.
It is hence most probable that, although not col- Still so far there is no very great discrepancy in
lected or published till a later period, and Horace the various schemes ; and (with the exception of
appears to have been slow and unwilling to expose M. Vanderbourg and Baron Walckenaer) the
his poems on the shelves of the Sosii (Sat. i. 4. 70), Epodes are generally allowed to be the third book
many of his lyric and iambic pieces bad becn re- in the order of publication ; and Bentley and the
cited before his friends (Sat. i. 4. 73), had been more recent writers likewise nearly concur in the
circulated in private, and formed, no doubt, his re- date of publication, the poet's 35th or 36th year.
commendation to the lovers and patrons of letters. Bentley, however, and his followers authoritatively
Either this must have been the case, or he must confine the period of its composition to the 34th
have gained his reputation by poems which have and 35th year of his life. There can be no doubt
not survived, or which he himself did not think that when he speaks of himself as a writer of
worthy of publication.
iambics, Horace alludes to his Epodes. (Franke,
The first book of Satires (on this all agree) was note, p. 46. ) The name of Epodes is of later and
the first publication. Some indeed have asserted very questionable origin. But as he asserts that in
that the two books appeared together ; but the first his sweet youth he wrote iambics, either those
line of the second book-
iambics must be lost, or must be contained in the
“Sunt quibus in Satira videar nimis acer," book of Epodes. The single passage in which he
is conclusive that Horace had already attained seems to rest his poetical fame up to a certain
public reputation as a writer of satire. The differ- period op his Satires alone, is in itself vague and
ence between the Chronology of Bentley and that general (Sat. i. 4. 41. ); and even if literally taken,
of Franke, in his Fasti Horatiani, is this: that is easily explicable, on the supposition that the
Bentley peremptorily confines the composition (na- Epodes were published later than the Satires.
tales) of this book to the 26th, 27th, and 28th The observation of Bentley, which every one
years of the poet's life (and Bentley reckons the would wish to be true, that all the coarser and
year of the poet's birth, though born in December, more obscene poems of Horace belong to his earlier
as his first year), and leaves him idle for the two period, and that he became in mature years more
following years. Franke more reasonably enlarges refined, is scarcely just, if the more gross of the
the period of composition from his 24th to his 30th Epodes were written in his 34th and 35th years :
year. In this year (u. c. 719, B. C. 35), the pub- the adventures and connections to which they
lication of the first book of Satires took place. In allude are rather those of a young and homeless
the interval between the two books of Satires, Ho- adventurer, cast loose on a vicious capital, than the
race received from Maecenas the gift of the Sabine guest and friend of Maecenas, and the possessor of
a sufficient estate. Franke dates the publication
The second book of Satires is assigned by Bent- late B. c. 30, or early B. C. 29. (Vit. Hor. 36. )
ley to the 31st, 32d, and 33d (30, 31, 32) of the We are persuaded that their composition extended
poet's life; the publication is placed by Franke over the whole period from his first residence in
in the 35th year of Horace (B. c. 30). This is Rome nearly to the date of their publication.
perhaps the most difficult point in the Horatian Epodes vii. and xvi. ? are more probably referred
chronology, and depends on the interpretation of to the war of Perusia, B. C. 40, than to that with
passages in the sixth Satire. If that Satire were Antony; and to this part of the poet's life belong
written and the book published after the war those Épodes which allude to Canidia.
with Antony and the victory of Actium, it is re- The three first books of Odes follow by almost
markable that peither that Satire, nor the book universal consent in the order of publication, though
itself, in any passage, should contain any allusion the chronologists differ as to their having appeared
to events which so fully occupied, it appears from consecutively or at the same time. According to
other poems, the mind of Horace. If, however, Bentley, they were composed and published in suc-
the division of lands to be made to the veterans in cession, between the 34th and 42d, according to
Italy or Sicily (Serm. i. 6. 56) be that made after Franke, the 35th and 41st or 42d year of the poet.
the battle of Actium, this must be conclusive for their successive or simultaneous publication within
the later date. To avoid this objection, Bentley sug- I that period might appcar unquestionable but for
Jao und
spirit
2647 ܂
GF.
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*
French
ET LORE
lis perasi
## p. 524 (#540) ############################################
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the great difficulty of the third Ode, relating to the a compiler of commentaries, some of but late date,
poet Virgil about to embark for Greece. It is said quoted as Comm. Cruquii. II. Lambini, last edite
by Donatus that Virgil did undertake such a voy- Paris, 1605. 111. Tortentii, Antwerp, 1108.
age in the year B. c. 19, three years later than Lambinus and Torrentius are the best of the
the last date of Bentley-five than that of Franke. older editors. IV. Bentleii, Cantab. 1711. V.
Hence Grotefend and others delay the publication Gesneri et Zeunii, Lips. and Glasg. v. y. from
of the three books of Odes to that year or the fol- 1762 to 1794. VI. Carmina, Mitscherlich, Lips.
lowing; and so perplexing is the difficulty, that 1800. VII. Doering, Lips. 1803. VIII. Romae, à
Franke boldly substitutes the name of Quintilius C. Fea. Fea professed to have collated many MSS.
for that of Virgilius; others recur to the last resort in the Vatican, &c. IX. Carmina (with French
of desperate critics, and imagine another Virgi- translation), C. Vanderbourg, Paris, 1812. Vander-
lius. Dr. Weber, perhaps more probably, suspects bourg collated 18 MSS. X. A J. Braunhard, Lips.
an error in Donatus. If indeed it relates to 1833, with a reprint of the old Scholia. XI. Orellii,
that voyage of Virgil (yet may not Virgil have | Turici, 1843. This last surpasses all former edi-
undertaken such a voyage before ? ), we absolutely tions. XII. Satiren erklärt von L. F. Heindorf.
fix the publication of the three books of Odes to Neu-bearbeitet von E. F. Wüstemann, Leipzig,
one year, that of Virgil's voyage and death ; for 1843. The German Commentary excellent. XIII.
after the death of Virgil Ilorace could not have Episteln erklärt von F. E. Theodor Schmid. Hal-
published his Ode imploring the gods to grant him berstadt, 1828.
safe return. We entertain no doubt that, though The translations of Horace in all languages are
first published at one of these periods, the three almost innumerable, perhaps because he is among
first books of Odes contain poems written at very the most untranslateable of poets. Where the
different times, some in the earliest years of his beauty of the poetry consists so much in the exqui-
poetry; and Buttman's opinion that he steadily site felicity of expression, in the finished terseness
and laboriously polished the best of his smaller and perspicuity of the Odes, or the pure idiomatic
poems, till he had brought them to perfection, and Latin of the Satires and Epistles, the transfusion
then united them in a book, accounts at once for into other words almost inevitably loses either the
the irregular order, in point of subject, style, and meaning or the harmony of thought and language.
metre, in which they occur.
In English the free imitations of Pope and of Swift
The first book of the Epistles is by Bentley as- gire by far the best notion of the charm of the
signed to the 46th and 47th (45th and 46th), by Horatian poetry to an unlearned reader. Some of
Franke is placed between the 41st and 45th years Dryden's versions have his merits and faults-ease
of Horace. Bentley's chronology leaves two years and vigour, carelessness and inaccuracy. The
of the poet's life, the 44th and 45th, entirely un- translation of Francis is that in common use,
occupied.
rather for want of a better than for its intrinsic
The Carmen Seculare, by almost universal con- worth. We shall name in our selection of the
sent, belongs to the 48th year of Horace, B. c. 17. most important among the numberless critical and
The fourth book of Odes, according to Bentley, aesthetical works on Horace (a complete list of Libri
belongs to the 49th and 51st ; to Franke, the 48th Horatiani would occupy many columns) the best
and 520 years of the poet's life. It was pub- of the French and German translations:
lished in his 51st or 52d year.
Dacier, Oeuvres d'Horace. Masson, Horatij
The dates of the second book of Epistles, and of Vita, Lug. Bat. 8vo. 1708. Casaubon, de Satira,
the Ars Poetica, are admitted to be uncertain, though à Rambach, Halae, 1774. Ernesti, Onomasticon
both appeared before the poet's death, ann. aet. 57. Poetarum imprimis Q. Horatü Flacci. Horaz als
There are several ancient Lives of Horace : the Mensch und Bürger von Rom, R. von Ommerai
first and only one of importance is attributed to übersetzt von Walch. Lips. 1802. Lessing, Ret-
Suetonius; but if by that author, considerably in- tungen des Horaz. Werke, vol. iv. Berlin, 1838.
terpolated. The second is to be found in the edi- Horazens Satiren, übersetzt von C. M. Wieland,
tion of Horace by Bond. The third from a MS. Leipsig, 1815; Briefe, 1837. To these clever
in the Vatican library, was published by M. Van- translations are appended dissertations and notes
derbourg, and prefixed to his French translation of full of very ingenious criticism, on the characters
the Odes. A fourth from a Berlin MS. edited by and on the works of Horace. Wieļand is well
Kirchner, Quaestiones Horatianae. These, how- corrected by F. Jacobs in his Lectiones Venusinae
ever, are later than the Commentators, Acron and in his Vermischte Schriften. Les Odes d'Horace,
Porphyrion.
par C. Vanderbourg. See above. M. Vander-
The Editio Princeps of Horace is in 4to, without bourg's translation is hard and stiff, not equal in
name or date. Maittaire (with whom other biblio- ease and fluency to the translation by Count Daru.
graphers agree) supposes it to have been printed by On the Topography, see Capmartin de Chaupy,
Zarotus at Milan, 1470. Fea describes an edition and other works, quoted above.
which contests the priority by T. P. Lignamini, On the Chronology, Buttmann. See above.
but this is doubtful. II.
