/
K*"'
V£^3A\^^
THE LOEB CLASSICAL LIBRARY
FOL'SDED BV JAMES LOEB, LL.D.
EDITED BY t T, E. PAGE, C.H„ LITT.D.
F. CAPPS. PH.D., LL.D. W. H. D. ROUSE, litt.d.
L. A. POST, M.A. E. H. WARMINGTOX, m.a.
HORACE
SATIRES, EPISTLES, ARS POETICA
HORACE
SATIRES, EPISTLES AND AES POETICA
WITH AN ENGLISH TRANSLATION BY H. RUSHTON FAIRCLOUGH
rRovBgsoK or classical literature ik stantobd urnvBRarrv
OALIFORNTA
IX)NDON
WILLIAM HEINEMANN LTD
CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS
HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS
MCMXLII
FEB 1 1 1945
Virsi printed 1926
Revised and rtpritUed 1929
RepriMted 1932, 1936, 1939, 1942
Printed in Great Britain.
ALFREDO BAKER
TORONTONENSI
PROFESSORI EMERITO
AMICITIAE GRATIA
PREFACE
As is the case with many other volumes in the Loeb Classical Library, it has been found necessary to make this book something more than a mere trans- lation — something approaching a new edition of the poet.
Each of the Satires and Epistles has been provided with its own Introduction, and, inasmuch as the poet's transitions are not seldom rather abrupt, and often it is no easy matter to re-establish the con- nexion, a careful effort has been made to indicate the sequence of thought. Numerous allusions have been explained in the notes or Index ; many dubious f)assages have been discussed, however briefly, and the Latin text itself has been scrutinized in every detail. All important variant readings have been duly registered and considered, and the results of both old and recent scholarship have been utilized in translation or interpretation.
Acknowledgements are due to the general editors of the series, one of whom. Dr. T, E. Page, has read my manuscript carefully and offered many a timely
vii
PREFACE
and wise suggestion. Some explanations given of puzzling passages are due to him,
H. R. F.
Harvard University, December 15, 1925.
In preparing for a reprint of this volume, I take the opportunity of thanking all who have offered me helpful criticism, especially Professor Charles N. Smiley of Carleton College, and Professor B, O. Foster of Stanford University.
H. R. F.
February 4, 1929.
CONTENTS
Introduction —
A. Chronology of the Poems
B. Earlier History of Satire
C. Relation of Horace to Lucilius
D. Manuscripts and Commentaries
E. Editions and Bibliography
F. Abbreviations
satires- Book I.
Satire I. „ H. „ III. „ IV. « V. „ VI. „ VII. . „VIII. „ IX. „ X.
Book II. .
Satire I. „ II. „ HI. „ IV.
PAOI
xi
XIV
xvii xxiii xxvii
XXX
1-123
2 17 30 46 62 75 89 95 103 112
1 24-245
. 124 . 134 . 149 . 183 ix
CONTENTS
Satire V. „ VI. „ VII. «VIII.
EPISTLES— Book I. , ElMSTLE I.
« II. „ HI. „ IV.
V. « VI. „ VII. „ VIII. „ IX.
X. « XI. „ XII. „ XIII. „ XIV. „ XV. „ XVI. „ XVII. „ XVIII. „ XIX. „ XX.
Book II. .
Epistle I.
„ II-
ARS POETIC A OR Epistlk Index of Proper Names
PAOR
196
208 221 236
24.8-391
. 248
. 260
. 269
. 275
. 279
. 284
. 293
. 3o:>
. 309
. 313
. 321
. 327
. 333
. 337
. 34.3
. 348
. 358
. 366
. 379
. 387
392-441
. 392
. 421
TO THE PiSONES . 442
. 491
INTRODUCTION
A. Chronology of the Poems
The First Book of the Satires is the first work which Horace pubhshed, though it is possible that some of the Epodes were composed before any of the Satires. In Sat. i. 10. 45 Horace refers to Virgil's Eclogues, which were published in 37 b.c, while the introduc- tion to Maecenas {Sat. i. 6. 54 ff.) is commonly- assigned to 38 B.C. Allowing some time for the friendship between the poet and statesman to mature, and for the general interest, referred to in Sat. i. 6. 47, to be aroused, and keeping in view certain passages in Satires ii. (e.g. 6. 40), we miay claim 35 B.C. as the probable date of the publication of Book I. At this time the poet was in his thirtieth year.
In 33 B.C. Horace received from Maecenas the gift of his Sabine farm, which figures so prominently in Book II. The Sixth Satire of this book makes several allusions to pohtical events. In 1. 53 mention is made of the Dacians, who in the struggle between Octavian and Antony offered themselves first to one leader and then to the other. At this time Octavian was necessarily absent from Rome, and in 1. 38 Horace speaks of the administration of home affairs as being in the hands of Maecenas. After the battle
INTRODUCTION
of Actium (31 B.C.) public lands were assigned to the disbanded soldiers (1. 55). On the other hand the absence of any allusion to the closing of the temple of Janus or to the celebration of a triple triumph shows that Book II. appeared before 29 b.c. We may therefore claim 30 b.c. as the year of its pubhca- tion.
In the intei'val between the appearance of the Satires and that of the Epistles, Horace published the Epodes (29 B.C.) and Books I.-III. of the Odes (23 b.c). The next work to appear was Book I. of the Epistles, the last verse of which {Epist. i. 20. 28) gives the consulship of LoUius as the date of writing. This would naturally imply that the book was finished in 21 B.C., but allusions to later events, such as the close of Agrippa's Cantabrian campaign, the restoration of the standards taken from Crassus {Epist. i. 12. 26 ff.), and the triumphal progress of Tiberius through the East (ib. i. 3. 144.), show that the book was not published before the following year (20 b.c).
The three Literary Epistles which remain are often classed together as the three Epistles of Book II., but the Mss. and Scholia recognize only two Epistles in that Book, giving the third an independent posi- tion and a special name as Ars Poetica. Of the two the Second undoubtedly precedes the first in point of composition. It is addressed to Florus, to whom Epist. i. 3 had been sent, and who is still absent from Rome in the suite of Tiberius. The occasion for this absence need not be the same as for the earher letter, yet in view of Horace's renunciation of lyric poetry (Epist. ii. 2. 65 ff.), this Epistle can hardly have been written in the years when the Carmen Saeculare and Odes iv. were produced (17-13
INTRODUCTION
B.C.). It was therefore, in all probability, written about 19-18 B.C.
The introduction to Epist. ii. 1 gives the main reason for believing that the Epistle to Augustus was ■v\Titten after both the Epistle to Florus and the Ars Poetica. Moreover, there are several passages in it which indicate a connexion between it and Horace's later lyrics. Thus 11. 132-137 refer unmistakably to the Carmen Saeculare of 17 b.c, and 11. 252-256, as Wickham has pointed out, show certain correspond- ences with the political Odes of Book IV., which was pubhshed in 13 b.c.
In the Mss. the Ars Poetica appears after either the Carmen Saeculare or Odes iv. Its present position is due to sixteenth-century editors, and Cruquius (1578) first called it the Third Epistle of Book II. It was perhaps pubhshed by Horace independently, while Augustus was absent in Gaul, 16-13 b.c, but the fact that it reflects so much of the influence of Lucilius would indicate a still earlier date of com- position." It is not certain who the Pisones (a father and two sons) addressed in it are. According to Porphyrio, the father was L. Calpurnius Piso, praefectus urbi in a.d. 14. He was born in 49 b.c. and became consul 15 b.c, but could hardly have had grown-up sons several years before Horace's death. It is more hkely that Piso pater was Cn. Calpurnius Piso, who, like Horace, fought under Brutus at Phihppi and was afterwards consul in 23 B.C. He had a son, Gnaeus, who was consul 7 B.C., and another, Lucius, who was consul 1 b.c.
" See Fiske, Lucilius and Horace, pp. 446-475. According to Professor A. Y. Campbell, " the Ars Poetica was written at some time between 23-20 b.c. inclusive " {Horac«, p. 235).
INTRODUCTION
B. Earlier History of Satire
The great litei'ary critic Quintilian proudly claims Satire as a purely Roman creation, satira quidem iota nostra est (x. 1. 93). This kind of literature had originated in a sort of rustic farce, the mixed char- acter of which had given it its name. As lanx satura was a dish filled with various kinds of fruit offered to the gods, and lex satura was a law which included a variety of provisions, so, in the literary sphere, satura {sc. fahuld) was a miscellaneous story, which was originally presented as a dramatic entertain- ment." After the introduction of the regular drama from Greece, the dramatic saturae, like the mimes and the Atellanae, survived as afterplays (exodid),^ but the saturae of Livius Andronicus and Naevius were probably of the earlier, dramatic type.
Different from these were the saturae of Ennius and Pacuvius. These, to be sure, were miscellaneous both in subjects and in metrical forms, but they were composed for reading, not for acting. The Saturae of Ennius included the Epicharmus, a philo- sophic poem ; the Euhemerus, a rationalistic treat- ment of mythology ; the Hedupkagetica, a mock heroic poem on gastronomy ; the Sota, in the Sotadean metre ; and the Scipio and the Ambracia, wliich dealt with contemporary persons and events. Of the Satires of Pacuvius we know nothing, and
" It is here assumed that the account given of the origin of the drama in Rome by the historian Livy (vii. 2), though somewhat confused, is essentially correct. Certain writers, however, notably Leo and Hendrickson, have regarded Livy's account as pure fiction.
"" i.e. comio scenes performed separately after tragedies.
INTRODUCTION
those of Ennius were quite overshadowed by his epic
and dramatic poems.
The writer uniformly recognized as the founder of literary Satire (inventor, Horace, Sat. i. 10. 48) was Gaius LuciUus, who Uved from 180 to 103 b.c. He was of equestrian rank and a man of wealth, the maternal uncle of Pompey the Great and a member of the Scipionic circle. His thirty books of Saturae," written partly in trochaics, elegiacs and iambics, but mostly in hexameters, handled a great variety of topics. Fragments, numbering over 1300 verses, have been preserved, and are accessible in the splen- did edition by F. Marx (2 vols., 1904., 1905), which has supplanted all earlier collections. A study of these throws a flood of light upon the important question of the relation of Horace to his model in the satiric field, and we are fortunate in having a very thorough survey of the subject in LuciUus and Horace, a study in the Classical Theory of Imitation, by Professor George Converse Fiske,'' to which every future editor of Horace will be much indebted, and to which, therefore, we must often refer.
The Satires of LuciUus were largely autobio- graphical,
. . . quo fit ut omnis votiva pateat veluti descripta tabella vita senis.
(Horace, Sat. ii. 1. 32 ff.),
and if they had survived intact we should to-day have
" Cited thus by grammarians but called by LuciUus him- self ludus ac semiones (fr. 1039). Note that the latter term sermones (or " Talks ") was adopted by Horace in his turn as the title of his Satires.
* Published in University of Wisconsin Studies in Lan- guage and Literature, Madison, 1920.
b XV
INTRODUCTION
as complete a picture of the poet's life and times as any modern diarist has given of his. Lucilius por- trayed not only himself but also his friends and foes, and at the same time discoursed upon the follies and vices of his day, as well as upon philosophy, religion, literature, and grammar ; upon travels and adven- tures ; upon eating and drinking, and the many incidents of daily life.
In his criticism of others Lucilius was unrestrained, and it is because of this Tvapp-qa-la or freedom of speech that Horace makes him dependent upon the Old Comedy of Athens {Sat. i. 4. 1 ff.). Lucihus does indeed show an inexhaustible power of invective, but in this he harks back, not so much to Aristophanes, as to " the vivid and impromptu utterances of the Cynic and Stoic popular preachers."" He was, it is true, familiar with the whole range of Greek litera- ture, and makes citations from Homer, Aristophanes, Euripides, Menander, and Plato. He alludes to Socrates and Aristippus, and draws freely upon the Academy and later exponents of Greek philosophy. Fiske aims at showing that " Lucilian satire is the product of a highly sophisticated Hellenistic environ- ment combined with the Italian penchant for frank, vigorous, dramatic expression." In his diction, Lucilius was quite unlike Terence, that puri sermonis amator, for " GaUic words, Etruscan words, Syrian words, and words from the Italic dialects, Oscan, Pehgnian, Praenestine, Sardinian, and Umbrian, even bits of Greek dialect slang, are found in his pages." ^
We must remember both the plebeian origin of satire, and the chief characteristics of Lucilius, as well as the ancient mode of adhering closely to
" Fiske, p. 128. ^ Fiske, p. tl6.
INTRODUCTION
literary tjrpes, if we are to understand some of the features of later satire. Thus its excessive coarse- ness, especially in Juvenal, is largely a sxu-\'ival from early days, and this element in Horace's Satires, strictly limited to Book I., is due to our poet's following here too closely in the footsteps of Lucihus. So, too, the fierce invective, which Juvenal has taught us to regard as the main feature of satire, is a dis- tinct inheritance from Lucihus.
G. Relation of Horace to Lucilius
In the Satires and Epistles of Horace, it is easy to trace an interesting development in tone and char- acter from the more pecuharly Lucilian compositions to those that are more distinctly independent and Horatian. Thus in the First Book of Satires, the Seventh, which sketches a trial scene before the court of Brutus, is to be closely associated with a satire in Book II. of Lucihus, where Scaevola is accused by Albucius of peculation in the province of Asia. In the Second, deahng with a repulsive sub- ject, not only " the satiric moulding of the material," but even the vocabulary is " distinctly Lucihan." " Both of these poems, as well as the Eighth, were probably composed before Horace's introduction to Maecenas. The Eighth, however, is the only one of this First Book which shows no obvious connexion with Lucihus. It is a Priapeum — a late genre in Roman hterature — but treated in satirical fashion.
The famous Fifth and Ninth Satires, though giving personal experiences of the writer, are nevertheless modelled somewhat closely upon Lucihus. Of the
» Fiske, pp. 271, 272.
INTRODUCTION
Fifth Porphyrio says, " Lucilio hac satyra aemulatuT Horatius," and Horace's encounter with the bore ■will lose none of its interest, even when we learn that the Sixth Book of Lucilius contained a similar satire, which was his direct model." The First Satire handles two themes which were much discussed in the popular philosophy of the Stoics, viz., discontent with one's lot and the love of riches. Both of these figured in more than one satire of Lucilius, the scanty fragments of whose Nineteenth Book furnish sufficient material to enable Fiske to reconstruct the particular Satire which was Horace's model here.^
In the remaining Satires of Horace's First Book, viz., the Third, Fourth, Sixth and Tenth, Horace is on his defence against hostile criticism. He makes a plea for satire as a literary form and tries to prove that it should not be disliked because of its subject matter. It is therefore not without reason that he places the Third next to the Second in the collection, so as to stand in direct contrast with it, for while the Second is coarse, brutal, and extremely personal," the Tliird, dropping all abuse and invective, shows a kindly and genial tone which must tend to disarm all criticism. The Fourth and Tenth Satires still further show that the poet is casting off the spell of Lucilius. He is ready to criticize the very founder of the satiric genus scrihendi and to set up standards of his own. " In fact," as Fiske says,** " Horace's Fourth satire may be regarded as an aesthetic and
• Fiske, p. 335. " Fiske, pp. 246, 247.
• " From no other Satire, as the commentators point out, do we have such an extensive portrait gallery of contempor- aries " (Fiske, p. 270).
" Fiske, p. 278.
INTRODUCTION
ethical analysis of the Lucihan theory of satire," while the Tenth, composed under the smart of hostile criticism, is a vigorous polemic directed, not so much against Lucilius himself, as against those critics of Horace's owti day, who upheld the standards or lack of standards illustrated by the Satires of Lucilius. It is " only in the general recognition of his predecessor as the originator of the poetical form, and in acknowledgement of his skill in the employment of the harshest weapons of satire," that Horace here " treats LuciUus with consideration." " And as the Fourth and Tenth Satires are a defence of his art, so the Sixth is a defence of the poet himself, as well as of his noble patron and the circle of friends to which Horace has been admitted. The fragments show that in the Thirtieth Book Lucihus had discussed liis own relations to some patron, and had placed the poet's calling above the lure of wealth, as Horace places it above political ambition.* If we had the whole poem, we should doubtless find that Horace had drawn a contrast between his owti lowly birth, and the aristocratic origin of Lucihus.*
In the Second Book of the Satires, published as we have seen in 30 B.C., Horace finds it no longer necessary to make a serious defence of his satire. His position as a writer is now well estabhshed, and the controversies underlying Book I. have been settled in his favour. Yet the poet is not wholly
• Hendrickson, Horace and Lucilius, in Studies in Honor o/B. L. Gild^rsleeve, p. 162 (Baltimore, 1903).
» Fiske, p. 318.
* See Sat. i. 6. 58, 59, where claro natum patre probably refers to Lucilius, who, according to Cichorius, had estates near Tarentum. Cf. Fiske, p. 320.
xix
INTRODUCTION
free from anxiety, for there were certain legal restrictions that might prove embarrassing to the writer of satire .'* Horace, therefore, in the First Satire of this book, asserts his right to freedom of speech, and makes an attack, however disguised in its humorous form, upon the libel laws of Rome, proclaiming at the same time that, as a satirist, he is armed for defence not offence, and that he must have the same privilege as Lucilius enjoyed, that of writing down his inmost thoughts and his personal comments upon the world.
The Second Satire of Book II. corresponds in theme, as well as position, with the Second of Book I. It applies the philosophic doctrine of " the mean " to daily living, eating and drinking, just as the earlier one applied it to sexual morality. It is strongly under the influence of Lucilius, though, like Sat. i. 2, it abounds in ideas which were common in the ser- mons of philosophers.
Closely connected with the Second are the Fourth and Eighth, which belong to a genre whose history is outlined in the introduction to the Fourth. The satiric SeiTrvov, of which the Cena Trimalchionis of Petronius is the most famous example, was repre- sented in Lucilius by at least five satires.
The influence of Lucilius is still strong in the lengthy Third Satire, which deals with the Stoic paradox, on 7ras ac^puiv /xatverat, a theme which it would seem Lucilius had handled at least twice.* It is interesting to find that even the scene reproduced
» See Lejay, pp. 289-292. In Book I. twenty-four con- temporaries are criticized ; in II. only four. So Filbey, cited bv Fiske, p. 416.
» Fiske, pp. 390 ff.
XX
INTRODUCTION
by Horace (U. 259-271) from the Eunuckus of Terence, was also utilized by Lucilius."
In the remaining Satires of Book II., the Fifth, Sixth and Seventh, the influence of Lueilius seems to be very slight. The Sixth, it is true, illustrates the autobiographical element so conspicuous in Lueilius, and epic parody, exemphfied in the Fifth, was doubtless employed by Lueilius, even as it had figured in the Middle and New Attic Comedy, but Horace is no longer under his sway, and when in the Seventh we find the poet professing to make himself a target for the shafts of satire, we realize that now at least he can be independent of his model.
The Epistles belong essentially to the same literary class as the Satires. Both kinds are conversational : ^ epistulis ad absentes loquimur, sermone cum praesentibus, says Acron. In subject matter the Epistles cover much the same field as the Satires. They deal with human foibles and frailties, discuss philosophic prin- ciples, open windows upon the poet's domestic circle, and give us incidents and scenes from daily life.
Lueilius had used the epistolary form in a satire of his Fifth Book, and Horace came to realize that this was the most satisfactory mould for him to adopt, when expressing his personal feelings and when passing judgement upon the hterary and social problems of his time. As to thought and contents, however, the influence of Lucihus upon the Epistles is relatively very slight." These poems, indeed, are the offspring of Horace's maturity, and themes
" Fiske, pp. 394 ff.
* Hendrickson, " Are the Letters of Horace Satires ? " American Journal of Philology, xviii. pp. 312-324. " See Fiske, pp. 427-440.
xxi
INTRODUCTION
already handled in the Satires are now presented in more systematic fashion, the Avriter disclosing a riper judgement and a more subtle refinement of mind. " Good sense, good feeling, good taste," says Mackail, " these qualities, latent from the first in Horace, had obtained a final mastery over the coarser strain with which they had at first been mingled."" The Epistles, indeed, with their criticism of life and literature, are the best expression of that " urbanity," which has ever been recognized as the most out- standing feature of Horace.
The two Epistles of the Second Book are devoted to literary criticism, which is an important element in the First Book of the Satires, and which, we may well believe, was first suggested to Horace by his relation to Lucilius. Even in these late productions, therefore, may be found traces of Lucilian influence,^ but Horace writes with a free spirit, and in his literary, as in his philosophic, life, he is
nullius addictus iurare in verba magistri.*
As to the puzzling Ars Poetica, it is evident from the researches of Cichorius*^ and Fiske that it is quite largely indebted to Lucilius, who had a theory of literary criticism " formulated according to the same rhetorical cr^rnxara, and under substantially the same rhetorical influences ... as Horace's Ars Poetica." * Moreover, a detailed comparison of the fragments of Lucilius with the Ars Poetica show numerous and striking similarities. To the present
" Latin Literattire, p. 111.
^ Fiske, pp. 441-446. « Epist. ii. 1. 14.
"* Untersuchungen zu Lucilius, pp. 109-127.
• Fiske, p. 468.
INTRODUCTION
writer it would seem to be an obvious inference jfrom these facts that the Ars Poetica was largely composed some years before it was pubhshed. It may have been -WTitten originally in the regular satiric form, and afterwards adjusted, for publication, to the epistolary mould.
D. Manuscripts and Commentaries
The text of Horace does not rest on as firm a foundation as that of Virgil. Whereas the great epic \vTiter is represented to-day by as many as seven manuscripts ^^Titten in uncial or capital letters, all of the extant Horatian manuscripts are of the cursive type, and not one can claim to be older than the ninth century. Yet, putting Virgil aside, Horace, in comparison ^^■ith the other Augustan poets, has fared very well, and his text has suffered comparatively httle in the process of transmission.
The MSB. number about two hundred and fifty, and have given rise to endless discussion as to their mutual relations, their classification, their hne of descent from a common original, and their comparative value. Such questions have been rendered more uncertain by the incomplete knowledge which we possess of the four Blandinian mss. which were destroyed in 1566, when the Benedictine abbey of St. Peter, at Blanken- berg near Ghent, was sacked by a mob. These mss. had, however, been rather carelessly collated a few years earlier by Cruquius, who, beginning with 1565, edited separate portions of Horace, and finally in 1578 published a complete edition of the poet at Antwerp. Of these lost Blandinian mss. Cruquius
INTRODUCTION
valued most highly the one which he calls vetustissimus, and wliich Bentley, Lachmann, and other later editors have regarded as the soundest foundation for the estabhshment of a correct Horatian text. Unfortun- ately, doubt has been cast upon the accuracy of the statements of Cruquius, and Keller and Holder depreciate the value of this lost ms.
The two scholars just named, the most painstaking editors of the Horatian text, have adopted a grouping of the Mss. in three classes, each of which is based on a lost archetype. The three archetypes are ulti- mately derived from an original archetype of the first or second century. The claim is made that a reading found in the mss. of two classes should take precedence over that found in only one. The three classes are distinguished from one another by the degree of systematic alteration and interpolation to which they have been subjected.
This elaborate classification of Keller and Holder's has proved too complicated and has failed to win general acceptance. A simpler and more satisfactory grouping has been attempted by Professor Vollmer of Munich in his recension of 1906 (2nd edition 1912) in which the editor, returning to the principles of Bentley, endeavours to reconstruct the sixth century Mavortian " edition, beyond which, however far this may have departed from the original Horatian text, one can hardly hope to go. Vollmer enumerates only fifteen mss., which he divides into two groups, I. and II, In Class I. he includes K, a codex not known
" The name of Mavortius, who was consul in a.d. 527, appears in association with that of Felix, orator urbis Romae, as an emendator or Stop^wrijs, in eight mss., including A, \, I, and Goth.
xxiv
INTRODUCTION
to Keller and Holder. The vetustissimus {V^ he places in Class II. along with a Vatican MS., R, of the ninth century and the Gothanus of the fifteenth century, wliich reveals its kinship ^\ith V. The readings of Class II. are often to be preferred to those of Class I. In 1912, in rexising for the Clarendon Press Wick- ham's text edition of Horace, Mr. H. W. Garrod of Oxford carried this simplification still further. He adopts Vollmer's classification, but drops some mss. which he finds to have httle significance, viz. from Class I., A, which is a mere dupUcate of a, and K ; while from Class II. he omits R, Goth., A (Parisinus 7972), and Z ( = Leidensis Lat . 28). On the other hand, he recalls M, which Keller had overestimated but Vollmer had rejected as of httle value. V, placed outside the two classes, is held in high esteem.
The MSS. cited in this edition are as follows :
0 = codex Ambrosianus 136, from Avignon, now in Milan.
Tenth century. Available for Satires and Epistlet,
except from Sat. ii. 7. 27 to ii. 8. 95. ^ = Parisinus 7900 a. Tenth century. V se^ for Epistlesi.
(here by a second hand), and to supplement a. B == codex Bernensis 363 ; in Bern, Switzerland. Written
by an Irish scribe at the end of the ninth century.
Available for Satires up to i. 3. 135, and for Ars Poet.
up to 1. 441. C and ^= codex Monacensis 14685 (two parts). Eleventh
century. C is available from Sat. i. 4. 122 up to
i. 6. 40 ; for Sat. ii. 8 ; and for Ars Poet, up to 1. 441.
E is available for Satires and Epistles, except for Sat.
ii. 5. 87 up to ii. 6. 33 ; and for Ars Poet., except 11. 441
to 476. D = codex Argentoratensis. Destroyed at Strasburg 1870.
Tenth century. Available for Saiires and Epistles,
INTRODUCTION
except from Sat. ii. 2. 132 to ii. 3. 75 ; from Sat. n. 5. 95
to Epist. ii. 2. 112. Not available for Ars Poet. K = codex S. Eugendi, now St. Claude. Eleventh century.
Available for Satires up to ii. 2. 25, and for Ars Poet. M= codex Mellicensis. Eleventh century. Available for
Satires, except from ii. 5. 95 and a portion of ii. 3 ;
and for Epistles, except from i. 6. 67 to i. 16. 35. The above mss. constitute Class I.
R = Vaticanus Reginae 1 703. Ninth century. Available for Satires and Epistles, except from Sat. i. 3. 28 to i. 8. 4, and from Sat. ii. 1. 16 to ii. 8. 95.
S = codex Harleianus 2725. Ninth century. Available for Satires up to i. 2. 114 ; and for Epistles up to i. 8. 8, and from ii. 2. 19 to the end of Ars Poetica.
X = Parisinus 7972. Tenth century. Complete.
/ = Lcidensis Lat. 28. Ninth century. Complete.
a- = codex Parisinus 10310. Ninth or tenth century. Available for Epistles and Ars Poetica, but for Satires only up to i. 2. 70.
<p = codex Parisinus 7974. Tenth century. Complete.
^ = codex Parisinus 7971. Tenth century. Complete.
Goth. = Gothanus. Fifteenth century. This lacks the Ars Poetica. These constitute Class II.
Besides these, account must be taken (through the edition of Cruquius) of the four lost Blandinian mss. (designated as Bland.), the chief of which was F (^=ivetustissimus). In a number of cases F alone (or in conjunction with Goth.) preserved the correct reading. The most striking instance of this is given in Sat. i. 6. 126, but other examples are afforded by Sat. i. 1. 108 ; ii. 2. 56 ; ii. 3. 303 ; ii. 4. 44 ; ii. 8. 88 ; Epist. i. 10. 9 ; i- 16. 43. On the whole, however, V was probably just as faulty as are most of the xxvi
INTRODUCTION
extant mss., no one of which stands out as con» spicuous for accuracy. Yet, as a group, the mss. of Class I. are distinctly superior to those of Class II., though not infrequently the latter preserve correct readings which the former had lost.
Collections of Horatian scholia, or explanatory notes, have come down to us from antiquity under the names of Porphyrio and Acron. These scholars lived probably in the third century of our era, Acron being the earlier of the two, but the scholia now surviving under Acron's name are as late as the fifth century. Both collections are largely interpolated. Both, however, precede our mss. in point of time, and are therefore valuable in determining the priority of conflicting readings.
The term Commentator Cruquianus is given to a collection of notes gathered by Cruquius from the marginaha in his Blandinian mss.
E. Editions and Bibliography
The editio princeps of Horace appeared in Italy, without date or name of place, about 1470, and was followed by the annotated edition by Landinus, Florence, 1482. Lambin's, which first appeared in 1561, was frequently repubhshed in Paris and else- where. The complete edition by Cruquius was issued at Antwerp, 1578. Modern editions may be said to begin with Heinsius, Leyden, 1612. Bentley's (Cam- bridge, 1711, Amsterdam 1713, and frequently re- published) marks an epoch in Horatian study. Among nineteenth-century editors may be mentioned Doring (Leipzig, 1803), Lemaire (Paris, 1829), Peerlkamp
xxvii
INTRODUCTION
(Harlem, 1834), Dillenburger (Bonn, 1844), Duentzer (Brunswick, 1849) and Orelli, whose text and com- mentary (revised by Baiter 1852, then by Hirsch- felder and Mewes — fourth large edition, Berlin, 1892) became the standard. Ritter's edition is dated 1856- 1857, Leipzig. Keller and Holder's (editio maior, Leipzig, 1864-70 ; editio minor, 1878) is based on an exhaustive study of the mss. Vollmer's important edition (2nd, 1912, Leipzig) has a serviceable ap- paratus criiicus. One of the best annotated editions is A. Kiesshng's, Berhn, 1884 and later ; revised by Heinze, 1910. Another good one is that of Schiitz, Berlin, 1880-83, and one by L. Muller, Leipzig, 1891- 1893. English editions are Macleane's, London, 1869 (4th, 1881) ; Wickham's, 2 vols., annotated, Oxford, 1878 and I891, and the Page, Palmer and Wilkins edition, London and New York, 1896. Wickham's text edition, Oxford, 1900, was revised by Garrod, 1912 (see p. xxv). In America the best complete editions are tliose by C. L. Smith and J. B. Greenough, Boston, I894, and by C. H. Moore and E. P. Morris, New York, 1909. In France, there is the Waltz edition, Paris, 1887. Of the Plessis and Lejay edition only the volume of Satires by Lejay has thus far appeared (Paris, 1911)- The best complete edition in Italy is Fumagalli's, Rome, 5th, 1912.
Special editions of the Satires and Epistles are numerous. A few that we may mention are those by A. Palmer, Satires, London and New York, 1883 ; A. S. Wilkins, Epistles, London and New York, 1885 ; J. Gow, Satires, i. Cambridge, I9OI ; J. C. Rolfe, Boston, 1901 ; P. Rasi, Milan, 1906-07 ; Sabbadini, Turin, 19O6 ; E. P. Morris, New York, 1909-11.
INTRODUCTION
Among other •works of importance for the study of Horace may be mentioned the follo^\^ng :
F. Hauthal, Acronis et Porphyrionis commentarii in Horatium, Berlin, 1864-66.
W. Meyer, Porphyrionis commentarii in Horatium, Leip- zig, 1874.
R. M. Hovenden, Horace's Life and Character, London, 1877.
O. Keller, Epilegornena zu Horaz, Leipzig, 1879-80.
W, Y. Sellar, Horace, Roman Poets of the Augustan Age, Oxford, 1892.
R. Y. Tyrrell, Latin Poetry ; Jolms Hopkins Lectures, 1893.
J. W. MackaU, Latin Literature, New York, 1895.
Gaston Boissier, The Country of Horace and Virgil, trans- lated by Fisher, New York, 1896.
A. Cartault, ttude sur les Satires d' Horace, Paris, 1899.
O. Keller, Psendacronis scholia in Horatium vetustiora, Leipzig, 1902-4.
F. Marx, C. Lucilii carminum reliquiae, 2 vol., Leipzig,
1904-6.
G. Cichorius, Untersuchungen zu Lucilius, Berlin, 1908. J. W. Duff, Literary History of Rome, London, 1909.
F. Leo, Geschichte der romischen Literatur, Berlin, 1913. Courtand, Horace, sa vie et sa pensee d, I'epoque des
ipitres, Paris, 1914. Lane Cooper, A Concordance to the Works of Horace,
Washington (The Carnegie Institution), 1916. Mary Rebecca Thayer, The Influence of Horace on the
Chief English Poets of the Nineteenth Century, New
Haven, 1916. J. F. D 'Alton, Horace and his Age, London and New
York, 1917.
G. C. Fiske, Lucilius and Horace : a Study in the Classical
Theory of Imitation, MadL-on, Wisconsin, 1920. Grant Showerman, Horace and his Influence, Boston, 1922. H. N. Fowler, A History of Roman Literature, New York,
1923 (2nd edition). E. E. Sikes, Roman Poetry, London, 1923.
INTRODUCTION
A. Y. Campbell, Horace, a riew Interpretation, London,
1924. Elizabeth H. Haight, Horace and his Art of Enjoyment,
New York, 1925.
There are also many pamphlets and periodical articles, too numerous to record, which must be consulted by an editor of Horace.
F. Abbreviations
A. J. V. = American Journal of Philology.
A.P. A. = Transactions and Proceedings of the American
Philological Association. C.P. = Classical Philology. C.R. = Classical Review. C.W. = Classical Weekly. ¥iske = Lticilius and Horace, by G. C. Fiske. Harv. St. = Harvard Studies in Classical Philology. 3. V. = Journal of Philology. Rh. M. = Rheinisches Museum fiir klaasische Philologie.
Editions of Horace are often referred to by the name of the editor alone, e.g. Lejay = the Lejay edition of the Satires.
XXX
SATIRES
THE RACE FOR WEALTH AND POSITION
The opening Satire serves as a dedication of the whole book to Maecenas, and deals with a conspicuous feature of social life in the Augustan age.
Everybody, says Horace, is discontented with his lot and envies his neighbour. Yet, if some god were to give men a chance to change places, they would all refuse. The cause of this restlessness is the longing for wealth. Men will assure you that the only reason why they toil unceasingly is that they may secure a competence and then retire. They claim to be like the ant, which provides so wisely for the future ; but the ant enjoys its store when winter comes, whereas the money-seeking man never ceases from his labours, so long as there is one richer than himself (1-40).
And yet what is the use of large possessions ? If a man has enough, more wealth will prove a burden and a peril. The miser claims that the wealthier he is the more highly will men think of him, I will not argue the point, says Horace, but will leave him to his self-esteem. He is like Tantalus, tortured with thirst though the waters are so near. Your avaricious man suffers all the pain, and enjoys none of the pleasure that money can buy. There is indeed 2
SATIRES, I. I.
no more certain cause of misery than avarice. Yet one must not run to the other extreme, but should observe the golden mean (41-107).
To return to the starting-point : everybody is trying to outstrip his neighbour in the race for wealth. People are never satisfied, and therefore we seldom see a man who is ready to quit the banquet of life Uke a guest who has had enough (108-119).
But enough of this preaching, or you wiU think that I have rifled the papers of Crispinus (120, 121).
Palmer thinks that this Satire " was probably the last composed of those in the first book," and Morris speaks of its " maturity of style and treatment." Campbell, however, points out " distinct signs of immaturity," such as the Lucretian echo in 11. 23-26, a passage which " smacks of the no\ace in satire- writing " {cf. Lucr. i. 936 fF.), the weakness of 1. 108, and the "lame conclusion" in 11. 120, 121 {Horace, p. 165). Lejay thinks that our author composed the discussion of avaritia (28-117) first, and later, when dedicating his book to Maecenas, added the beginning and the end. This is a very plausible view.
A minute analysis of this Satire is given by Charles Knapp in the Transactions of the American Philo- logical Association, xlv. pp. 91 ff.
SERMONUM
LIBER PRIMUS
I.
Qui fit, Maecenas, ut nemo, quam sibi sortem seu ratio dederit seu fors^ obiecerit, ilia contentus vivat, laudet diversa sequentis ? " o fortunati mercatores ! " gravis annis^ miles ait, multo iam fractus membra labore. 6
coYitra mercator, navem iactantibus Austris, " militia est potior, quid enim ? concurritur : horae momento cita mors venit aut victoria laeta." agricolam laudat iuri^lcgumque peritus, sub galli cantum consultor ubi ostia pidsat. 10
ille, datis vadibus qui rure extractus in urbem est, solos felices viventis clamat' in urbe. cetera de genere hoc, adeo sunt multa, loquacem delassare valent Fabium. ne te morer, audi quo rem deducam. si quis deus " en ego " dicat, 15
1 fors V Mss. : sors B.
* annis mss. : armis conjectured by Bouhier and accepted by Vollmer. * cantat B.
" The reference is not so much to the professional lawyer as to the influential citizen, whose humble clients come at daybreak to ask for advice. Such a citizen would commonly have had a good legal training. With him is
4
SATIRES
BOOK I i^ Satire I
How comes it, Maecenas, that no man li\ing is content with the lot which either his choice has given him, or chance has thro^vn in his way, but each has praise for those who follow other paths ? " O happy traders ! " cries the soldier, as he feels the weight of years, his frame now shattered with hard ser\ice. On the other hand, when southern gales toss the ship, the trader cries : " A soldier's life is better. Do you ask why ? There is the battle clash, and in a moment of time comes speedy death or joyous victory." One learned in law and statutes has praise for the farmer, when towards cockcrow a client comes knocking at his door." The man yonder, who has given surety and is dragged into town from the country cries that they only are happy who Uve in town. The other instances of this kind — so many are they — could tire out the chatterbox Fabius. To be brief with you, hear the conclusion to which I am coming. If some god were to say : *"
contrasted a countryman, who is a defendant in some case and must, therefore, come to the city against his will.
* Horace imagines a dramatic scene where a god appears €x machina. C/. Sat. ii. 7. :24 ; Ara Poetica, 191.
5
HORACE
" iam faciam, quod voltis : eris tu, qui modo miles, mercator ; tu, consultus modo, rusticus ; hinc vos, vos hinc mutatis discedite partibus : eia ! quid statis ? " — nolint.^ atqui licet esse beatis. quid causae est, merito quin illis luppiter ambas 20 iratus buccas inflet neque se fore posthac tarn facilem dicat, votis ut praebeat aurem ?
Praeterea, ne sic, ut qui iocularia, ridens^ percurram : quamquam ridentem dicere verum quid vetat ? ut pueris olim dant crustula blandi 25 doctores, elementa velint ut discere prima : sed tamen amoto quaeramus seria ludo : ille gravem duro terram qui vertit aratro, perfidus hie caupo, miles nautaeque per omne audaces mare qui currunt, hac mente laborem 30 sese ferre, senes ut in otia tuta recedant, aiunt, cum sibi sint congesta cibaria : sicut parvola, nam -gxemplo est, magni formica laboris ore trahit quJWbumque potest atque addit acervo quern struit, haud ignara ac non incauta futuri. 35 quae, simul inversum contristat Aquarius annum, non usquam prorepit et illis utitur ante quaesitis sapiens,^ cum te neque fervidus aestus demoveat lucro neque hiems, ignis, mare, ferrum, nil obstet tibi, dum ne sit te ditior alter, 40
Quid iuvat immensum te argenti pondus et auri furtim defossa timidum deponere terra ? " quod si comminuas, vilem redigatur ad assem."
^ nolent B.
* II. 22, 23 with order inverted BK.
* sapiens F, // ; patiens /.
' The sun enters the sign of Aquarius in Januarj-, the chilHest month of a Roman winter, when the year's cycle begins anew.
6
SATIRES, I. I. 16-43
" Here I am ! I will grant your prayers forthmth. You, who were but now a soldier, shall be a trader ; you, but now a lawyer, shall be a farmer. Change parts ; away with you — and with you ! Well ! Why standing still ? " They would refuse. And yet 'tis in their power to be happy. What reason is there why Jove should not, quite properly, puff out both cheeks at them in anger, and say that never again will he be so easy-going as to lend ear to their prayers ?
^ Furthermore, not to skim over the subject with a laugh like a writer of -w-itticisms — and yet what is to prevent one from telling truth as he laughs, even as teachers sometimes give cookies to children to coax them into learning their ABC ? — still, putting jesting aside, let us turn to serious thoughts : yon farmer, who A\ith tough plough turns up the heavy soil, our rascally host here, the soldier, the sailors who boldly scour every sea, all say that they bear toil with this in \iew, that when old they may retire into secure ease, once they have piled up their pro- visions ; even as the tiny, hard-working ant (for she is their model) drags all she can with her mouth, and adds it to the heap she is building, because she is not unaware and not heedless of the morrow. Yet she, soon as Aquarius saddens the upturned year," stirs out no more but uses the store she gathered beforehand, wise creature that she is ; while as for you, neither burning heat, nor winter, fire, sea, sword, can turn you aside from gain — nothing stops you, until no second man be richer than yourself.
f^ What good to you is a vast weight of silver and gold, if in terror you stealthily bury it in a hole in the ground ? " But if one splits it up, it would
7
HORACE
at ni id fit, quid habet pulchri constructus acervus ?
milia frumenti tua triverit area centum, 45
non tuus hoc capiet venter plus ac^ meus ; ut si
reticulum panis venalis inter onusto
forte vehas umero, nihilo plus accipias quam
qui nil portarit.
Vel die, quid referat intra naturae finis viventi, iugera centum an 50
mille aret ? " at suave est ex magno tollere acervo." dum ex parvo nobis tantundem haurire relinquas, cur tua plus laudes cumeris granaria nostris ? ut tibi si sit opus liquidi non amplius urna vel cyatho, et dicas " magno de flumine mallem^ 55 quam ex hoc fonticulo tantundem sumere." eo fit, plenior ut si quos delectet copia iusto, cum ripa simul avolsos ferat Aufidus acer. at qui tantuli eget, quanto est opus, is neque limo turbatam haurit aquam, neque vitam amittit in undis.
At^ bona pars hominum decepta cupidine falso 61 " nil satis est " inquit, " quia tanti jquantum habeas
sis." quid facias illi ? iubeas miserum esse, libenter quatenus id facit : ut quidam memoratur Athenis sordidus ac dives, populi contemnere voces 66
sic solitus : " populus me sibilat, at mihi plaudo ipse domi, simul ac nummos contemplor in area,"
Tantalus a labris sitiens fugientia captat flumina — quid rides ? mutato nomine de te 1 ac B : quam aDEM. * mallei: inalim, //, Bentley, Vollmer. ^ at K'^ : ut Mss. ; Vollmer.
<» Here and below, the miser speaks for himself.
■" The picture is that of a gang of slaves driven to the market for sale. One of them carries the provisions for all.
' The Aufidus, a stream in Horace's native Apulia, at times became a raging torrent, undermining its banks. 8
SATIRES, I. I. 44-69
dwindle to a paltry penny." " Yet if that is not done, what beauty has the piled-up heap ? Suppose your threshing-floor has threshed out a hundred thousand bushels of grain ; your stomach will not on that account hold more than mine : 'tis as if in the slave-gang you by chance should carry the heavy bread-bag on your shoulder, yet you would receive no more than the slave who carries nothing.*
*® Or, tell me, what odds does it make to the man who lives ^\ithin Nature's bounds, whether he ploughs a hundred acres or a thousand ? " But what a pleasure to take from a large heap ! " So long as you let us take just as much from our little one, why praise your granaries above our bins ? It is as if you needed no more than a jug or a cup of water, and Avere to say, "I'd rather have taken the quantity from a broad river than from this tiny brook." So it comes about that when any find pleasure in undue abundance, raging Aufidus sweeps them away, bank and all ; while the man who craves only so much as he needs, neither draws water thick with mud, nor loses his life in the flood."
®^ But a good many people, misled by bhnd desire, say, " You cannot have enough : for you get your rating from what you have." What can you do to a man who talks thus ? Bid him be miserable, since that is his whim. He is hke a rich miser in Athens who, they say, used thus to scorn the people's talk : " The people hiss me, but at home I clap my hands for myself, once I gaze on the moneys in my chest."
^ Tantalus, thirsty soul, catches at the streams that fly from his hps — why laugh ? Change but
9
HORACE
fabula narratur : congestis undique saccis 70
indormis inhians, et tamquam parcere sacris
cogeris aut pictis tamquam gaudere tabellis.
nescis quo valeat nummus, quem praebeat usum ?
panis ematur, holus, vini sextarius ; adde
quis humana sibi doleat natura negatis. 75
an vigilare metu exanimem, noctesque diesque
formidare malos fures, incendia, servos,
ne te compilent fugientes, hoc iuvat ? horum
semper ego optarim^ pauperrimus esse bonorum.
" At si condoluit temptatum frigore corpus 80
aut alius casus lecto te adfixit,^ habes qui adsideat, fomenta paret, medicum roget, ut te suscitet ac reddat gnatis^ carisque propinquis." non uxor salvum te vult,* non filius ; omnes vicini oderunt, noti, pueri atque puellae. 85
miraris, cum tu argento post omnia ponas, si nemo praestet quem non merearis amorem ? ■* an si^ cognatos, nullo Natura labore quos tibi dat, retinere velis servareque amicos, infelix operam perdas, ut si quis asellum 90
in Campo doceat parentem currere frenis ?
Denique sit finis quaerendi, cumque habeas plus, pauperiem metuas minus et finire laborem incipias, parto quod avebas,® ne facias quod Ummidius quidam.' non Jonga est fabula : dives 93
^ optarem, /. • adfixit K, so Bentley and most editors : adflixit most mss. ' gnatis reddat Goth. * te vult salvum D.
' an si] at si £": an sic Goth. ^ habebas B. ' quidam] qui tam Bentley.
10
SATIRES, I. I. 70-95
the name, and the tale is told of you. You sleep with open mouth on money-bags piled up from all sides, and must perforce keep hands off as if they were hallowed, or take delight in them as if painted pictures. Don't you know what money is for, what end it serves ? You may buy bread, greens, a measure of wine, and such other things as would mean pain to our human nature, if withheld. What, to lie awake half-dead with fear, to be in terror night and day of wicked thieves, of fire, of slaves, who may rob you and run away — is this so pleasant ? In such blessings I could wish ever to be poorest of the poor.
^^ " But if your body is seized with a chill and racked with pain, or some other mishap has pinned you to your bed, have you some one to sit by you, to get lotions ready, to call in the doctor so as to raise you up and restore you to your children and dear kinsmen ? " No, your wife does not want you well, nor does your son : every one hates you, neighbours and acquaintances, boys and girls. Can you wonder, when you put money above all else, that nobody pays you the love you do not earn ? Or, when Nature gives you kinsfolk without trouble, if you sought to hold and keep their love, would it be as fruitless a waste of effort, as if one were to train an ass to race upon the Campus " obedient to the rein ?
'^ In short, set bounds to the quest of wealth, and as you increase your means let your fear of poverty lessen, and when you have won your heart's desire, begin to bring your toil to an end, lest you fare like a certain Ummidius — 'tis a short story — so " The Campus Martius.
11
HORACE
ut metiretur nummos ; ita sordidus, ut se non umquam servo melius vestiret ; ad usque supremum tempus, ne se penuria victus • opprimeret, metuebat. at hunc liberta securi < divisit medium, fortissima Tyndaridax-um. 100
" Quid mi igitur suades ? ut vivam Naevius aut sic ut Nomentanus ? " pergis pugnantia secum frontibus adversis componere. non ego, avarum cum veto te fieri, vappam iubeo ac nebulonem. est inter Tanain quiddam socerumque Viselli : 105 est modus in rebus, sunt certi denique fines, quos ultra citraque nequit consistere rectum.
Illuc, unde abii, redeo, qui nemo, ut^ avarus, se probet ac potius laudet diversa sequentis, quodque aliena capella gerat distentius uber, 110 tabescat, neque se maiori pauperiorum turbae comparet, hunc atque hunc superare laboret. sic festinanti semper locupletior obstat, ut, cum carceribus missos rapit ungula currus, instat equis auriga suos^ vincentibus, ilium 115
praeteritum temnens extremos inter euntem. inde fit ut raro, qui se vixisse beatum
* qui nemo ut V : nemon ut mss., Porph.: cum nemo ut Keck, Vollmer. For other attempts to improve the text see Knapp, loc. cit. pp. 102 ff.
2 suis aDEM.
* i.e. instead of counting it. The idea was proverbial, c/. Xen. Hellen. iii. 2. 27 ; Petronius, Sat. 37.
* Clytemnestra, daughter of Tyndareus, slew her husband Agamemnon with an axe. Possibly the freedwoman's name was Tyndaris.
* Both of these names were used by Lucilius. The men represent the spendthrift type.
12
SATIRES, I. I. 96-117
rich that he measured his money," so miserly that he dressed no better than a slave ; up to his last hour he feared he would die of starvation. Yet a freed- woman cleft him in twain with an axe, bravest of the Tyndarid breed."
101 " What, then, would you have me do ? Live as a Naevius or a Nomentanus ? " " You go on to set opposites in head to head conflict with each other."* When I call on you not to be a miser, I am not bidding you become a worthless prodigal. There is some mean between a Tanais and the father- in-law of Visellius." There is measure in all things. There are, in short, fixed bounds, beyond and short of which right can find no place.
^^ I return to my starting-point, how it comes that no man because of his greed is self-contented, but rather does each praise those who follow other paths, pines away because his neighbour's goat shows a more distended udder, and, instead of matching himself with the greater crowd of poorer men, strives to surpass first one and then another. In such a race there is ever a richer in your way. 'Tis ^ as when chariots are let loose from the barriers and swept onwards behind the hoofed steeds : hard on the horses that outstrip his own presses the charioteer, caring naught for that other whom he has passed and left in the rear. Thus it comes that seldom can we find one who says he has had a happy
' The figure is taken, not so much from gladiators, as from rams or bulls. Knapp takes componere as " reconcile " {loc. cit. p. 101).
• Tanais is said to have been a freedman of Maecenas. The other person is unknown.
' This passage closely resembles Virgil, Georg. L 512 ff.
13
HORACE
dicat et exacto contentus tempore vita^ cedat uti con viva satur, reperire queamus.
lam satis est. ne me Crispini scrinia lippi 120
compilasse putes, verbum non amplius addam.
^ vitae D.
Cf. Lucretius, iii. 938, Cur non ut plenus vitae conviva recedis. Aequo animoque capis securam, stulte, quietem ?
14
SATIRES, I. I. 118-121
life, and who, when his time is sped, will quit life in contentment, hke a guest who has had his fill."
120 Well, 'tis enough. Not a word more ^\ill I add, or you will think I have rifled the rolls of blear- eyed Crispinus.*
* The scrinia were the cylindrical boxes in which rolls of manuscript were kept. Crispiniis, according to the scholiasts, was an aretaloyus, one who babbled about virtue. He wrote, we are told, in verse.
15
n
THE FOLLY OF RUNNING TO EXTREMES
Men seldom keep the golden mean, but run from one extreme to another. Especially may this be illustrated by \'ictims of sensual indulgence and by people guilty of adultery, a vice which has become a shocking feature of the age.
This immature and forbidding sketch, coarse and sensational in tone, and doubtless one of Horace's earhest efforts, is closely associated mth the Lucilian type of satire. It abounds in personalities, freely handled, and Horace liimself (in Sat. i. 4. 92) cites it later as an illustration of the kind of writing which had aroused enmity against the author. Even Maecenas, if we are to believe the schohasts, is tliinly disguised in the Maltinus of 1. 25.
In his introduction to this Satire, Lejay has sho\vn how dependent it ultimately is " upon the erotic literature of the Hellenistic period as expressed in the popular Cynic philosophy, in the New Comedy, and in the Anthology " (Fiske, p. 251). There is a striking parallel between it and a poem on love in the Oxyrhynchus Papyri by the Cynic Cercidas of Megalopolis, who lived in the latter part of the third century b.c. See Chapter I. of Powell and Barber's Setv Chapters in the History of Greek Literature (Oxford, 1921).
c 17
II.
Ambubaiarum collegia, pharmacopolae, mendici, mimae, balatrones, hoc genus omne maestum ac sollicitum est cantoris morte Tigelli : quippe benignus erat. contra hie, ne prodigus esse dicatur metuens, inopi dare nolit amico, fi
frigus quo duramque fameni propellere^ possit. hunc si perconteris, avi cur atque parentis praeclaram ingrata stringat malus ingluvie rem, omnia conductis coemens obsonia nummis : sordidus atque animi quod parvi nolit haberi, 10 respondet. laudatur ab his, culpatur ab illis. Fufidius vappae famam timet ac nebulonis, dives agris, dives positis in faenore nummis : ^ quinas hie capiti mercedes exsecat,"' atque quanto perditior quisque est, tanto acrius urget ; 15 nomina sectatur modo sumpta veste virili sub patribus duris tironum. " maxime " quis non " luppiter ! " exclamat, simul atque audivit ? "at
in se pro quaestu sumptum facit hic.^ vix credere possis
^ depellere, II.
* I. 13 { = Ars Poet. 421) rejected by Sanadon, Holder.
' exigit E^.
* facit. Hie ? some editors, hie] hoc S^i/'.
" The usual rate was one per cent a month, twelve per 18
Satire II
The flute-girls' guilds, the drug-quacks, beggars, actresses, buffoons, and all that breed, are in grief and mourning at the death of the singer Tigelhus. He was, they sav, so generous. On the other hand, here's one who, fearing to be called a prodigal, would grudge a poor friend the where\\-ithal to banish cold and hunger's pangs. Should you ask another why, in his thankless gluttony, he recklessly strips the noble estate of his sire and grandsire, buying up every dainty ^\^th borrowed money, he answers that it is because he would not like to be thought mean and of poor spirit. He is praised by some, blamed by others. Fufidius, rich in lands, rich in moneys laid out at usury, fears the repute of a worthless prodigal ; five times the interest he shces away from the principal," and the nearer a man is to ruin, the harder he presses him ; he aims to get notes-of-hand from youths who have just donned the toga of manhood, and have stern fathers. " Great Jove ! " who does not cry as soon as he hears it ? " but surely he spends on himself in pro- portion to his gains ? " You would hardly beheve
cent a year, but Fufidius charged five times that rate, and took it in advance as in discounting, so that the sum actually received by the borrower was only forty per cent of the amount borrowed.
19
HORACE
quam sibi non sit amicus, ita ut pater ille, Terenti 20 fabula quern miserum gnato vixisse fugato inducit, non se peius cruciaverit atque hie.
Si quis nunc quaerat " quo res haec pertinet ? " illue : dum vitant stulti vitia, in contraria currunt. Maltinus tunicis demissis ambulat ; est qui 25
inguen ad obscenum subductis usque^ facetus. pastillos Rufillus olet, Gargonius hircum. nil medium est. sunt qui nolint^ tetigisse nisi illas quarum subsuta talos tegat instita veste : contra alius nullam nisi olenti in fornice stantem. 30 quidam notus homo cum exiret fornice, " macte virtute esto " inquit sententia dia Catonis : " nam simul ac venas inflavit taetra libido, huc^ iuvenes aequum est descendere, non alienas permolere uxores." " nolim laudarier," inquit 35 " sic me," mirator cunni Cupiennius albi.
Audire est operae pretium, procedere recte qui moechis non voltis, ut omni parte laborent, utque illis multo corrupta dolore voluptas atque haec rara'* cadat dura inter saepe pericla. 40 hie se praecipitem tecto dedit ; ille flagellis ad mortem caesus ; fugiens hie decidit acrem praedonum in turbam, dedit hie pro corpore nummos, hunc perminxerunt calones ; quin etiam illud
^ Punctuation after usque, Vollmer. • nolunt aD. ' hac, II. * rata E.
"In the Heauton Timorumenos, or Self-Tormentor, the father, Menedemus, seized with remorse for his harshness to his son CHnias, punishes himself with hard labour.
* i.e., married women who dress as such.
20
SATIRES, I. 11. 20-44
how poor a friend he is to himself, so that the fathei whom Terence's play pictures as having lived in misery after banishing his son, never tortured himself worse than he."
^ Should one now ask, " What is the point of all this ? " 'tis this : in avoiding a vice, fools run into its opposite. Maltinus walks 'with his garments trailing low ; another, a man of fashion, wears them tucked up indecently as far as his waist. Rufillus smells hke a scent-box, Gargonius Hke a goat. There is no middle course. Some men would deal onlv with women whose ankles are hidden by a robe x^ith low-hanging flounce ; * another is found only with such as Uve in a foul brothel. When from such a place a man he knew was coming forth, " A blessing on thy well-doing : " runs Cato's revered utterance ; " for when shameful passion has swelled the veins, 'tis well that young men come down hither, rather than tamper with other men's wives." " I should not care to be praised on that count," says Cupiennius, an admirer of white-robed lechery.*'
^ It is worth your while ,'* ye who would have disaster wait on adulterers, to hear how on every side they fare ill, and how for them pleasure is marred by much pain, and, rare as it is, comes oft amid cruel perils. One man has thro^mi himself headlong from the roof ; another has been flogged to death ; a third, in his flight, has fallen into a savage gang of robbers ; another has paid a price to save his hfe ; another been abused by stable-boys ; nay, once it
* Roman matrons dressed usually in white.
* Cf. Ennius :
audire est operae pretium procedere recte qui rem Romanam Latiumque augescere voltis.
21
HORACE
accidit, ut quidam testis caudamque salacem 43
demeteret ferro. " iure " omnes : Galba negabat.
Tutior at quanto merx est in classe secunda, libertinarum dico, Sallustius in quas non minus insanit quam qui moechatur. at hie^ si, qua res, qua ratio suaderet, quaque modeste 50
munifico^ esse licet, vellet bonus atque benignus esse, daret quantum satis esset, nee sibi damno dedecorique foret. verum hoc se amplectitur uno, hoc amat et laudat : " matronam nullam ego tango.' ut quondam Marsaeus, amator Originis ille, 55
qui patrium mimae donat fundumque laremque, " nil fuerit mi " inquit " cum uxoribus umquam
alienis." verum est cum mimis, est cum meretricibus, unde fama malum gravius quam res trahit. an tibi abunde personam satis est, non illud quicquid ubique 60
officit evitare ? bonam deperdere famam, rempatris oblimare, malum estubicumque. quid inter- est in matrona, ancilla peccesne^ togata ?
Villius in Fausta Syllae gener, hoc miser uno nomine deceptus, poenas dedit usque superque 65 quam satis est, pugnis caesus ferroque petitus, exclusus fore, cum Longarenus foret intus. huic si mutonis verbis mala tanta videnti
^ at ^ : ut most Mss. * munificum K*.
' -ve uss., Porph.
" Galba was at once an adulterer and (according to the scholiasts) a iu7-is consultus.
* i.e. of adulterer. The reputation of adulterer would come from association with matronae, but not with mere- trices.
' Meretrices wore the toga {cf. v. 82), in contrast with the slola, worn by matrons, cf. v. 71. The ancilla is a slave- girl who had become a meretrix. 22
SATIRES, I. n. 45-68
so befell that a man mowed dovm. with the sword the
testicles and lustful member. " That's the law," cry all, Galba dissenting."
*' But how much safer is trafficking in the second class — with freedwomen, I mean ; after whom Sallustius runs just as wild as an adulterer. Yet he, if he wished to be good and generous, so far as his means and reason would direct, and so far as one might be liberal in moderation, would give a sum sufficient, not such as would mean for him shame and ruin. But no ; because of this one thing he hugs himself, admires and plumes himself, because, says he, " I meddle -with no matron." Just as was once said by Marsaeus, Origo's well-known lover, who gave his paternal home and farm to an actress : " Never may I have dealings with other men's wives ! " But you have with actresses and with courtesans, through whom vour name loses more than does your estate. Or is it enough for you to avoid. the role,'' but not the thing, which in any case works harm ? To throw away a good name, to squander a father's estate, is at all times ruinous. What matters it, whether with matron you offend, or with long-gowned maid " ?
^ Vilhus, son-in-law of Sulla, was punished richly and more than enough because of Fausta <* — by this name alone was the ^\Tetch misled — being smitten with the fist, assailed with the sword, and shut out of doors while Longarenus was within. If while facing such evils a man's mind were thus to plead on
■* The reference is to a scandal of earlier days. Fausta, dausrhter of Sulla, was the wife of Milo, but had other lovers, among them Longarenus and Villius, who is called Sullae gener in derision. Fausta's name indicates her noble birth.
22
HORACE
diceret haec animus : " quid vis tibi ? numquid ego
a te magno prognatum deposco consule cunnum 70
velatumque stola, mea cum conferbuit ira ? " quid responderet ? " magno patre nata puella est." at quanto meliora monet pugnantiaque istis dives opis natura suae, tu si modo recte dispensare velis ac non fugienda petendis 75
immiscere. tuo vitio rerumne labores, nil referre putas ? quare, ne paeniteat te, desine matronas sectarier,^ unde laboris plus haurire mali est quam ex re decerpere fructus. nee naagis huic inter niveos viridisque lapillos 80
(sit licet hoc, Cerinthe, tuum-) tenerum est femur aut
crus rectius, atque etiam melius persaepe togatae est.^ adde hue quod mercem sine fucis gestat, aperte quod venale habet ostendit, nee, si quid honesti est, iactat habetque palam, quaerit quo turpia celet. 85 regibus hie mos est, ubi equos mercantur : opertos* inspiciunt, ne, si facies, ut saepe, decora molli fulta pede est, emptorem inducat hiantem, quod pulchrae clunes, breve quod caput, ardua cervix, hoc illi recte : ne corporis optima Lyncei^ 90
contemplere oculis, Hypsaea caecior ilia quae mala sunt spectes. " o crus, o bracchia ! "
verum
^ sectari matronas aBD.
* Housman {J. P. vol. xxxv.) conjectures aesque, Corintlie. tuum. ' est omitted, most uss.
* This verse begins a neic serino in some usa. For regibus Kiessling conjectured Threcibus.
* lynceis EK.
24
SATIRES, I. II. 69-92
his passion's behalf ; " What wouldst thou ? Do I ever, when my rage is at its worst, ask you for a dame clad in a stola," the offspring of a great consul ? " What would he answer ? " The girl is a noble father's child." But how much better — how utterly at variance ^^^th this — is the course that nature, rich in her own resources, prompts, if you would only manage wisely, and not confound what is to be avoided with what is to be desired ! Do you think it makes no difference, whether your trouble is due to your own fault or to circumstances ? Wherefore, that you mav have no reason to repent, cease to court matrons, for thence one may derive pain and misery, rather than reap enjoyment in the reality. Though this may not be your opinion, Cerinthus, yet not softer or finer are a woman's limbs amidst snowy pearls and green emeralds — nay, often the advantage is with tlie strumpet. She, moreover, presents her wares >vithout disguise ; what she has for sale she openly displays ; and if she has some charm, she does not boastfully show it off, while carefully concealing all unsightUness. This is the way with the rich when they buy horses ; they inspect them covered, so that if a beautiful shape, as often, is supported by a tender hoof, it may not take in the buyer, as he gapes at the comely haunches, the small head, the stately neck. In this they act wisely. So do not survey bodily perfections with the eyes of a Lynceus * and be blinder than Hypsaea, when you gaze upon deformities. '* What a leg ! what arms ! " you crj^,
" The stola was a long over-garment, caught in at the waist by a girdle.
* The keen-sighted Argonaut. Nothing is known of the blind Hypsaea.
35
HORACE
depugis, nasuta, brevi latere ac pede longo est.
matronae praeter faciem nil cernere possis,
cetera, ni Gatia est, demissa veste tegentis. 95
si interdicta petes, vallo circumdata (nam te
hoc facit insanum), multae tibi tum^ efficient^ res,
custodes, lectica, ciniflones, parasitae,
ad talos stola demissa et circumdata palla,
plurima quae invideant pure apparere tibi rem. 100
altera, nil obstat ; Cois tibi paene videre est
ut nudam, ne crure malo, ne sit pede turpi ;
metiri possis oculo latus. an tibi mavis
insidias fieri pretiumque avellier ante
quam mercem ostendi ? " leporem venator ut alta 105
in nive sectetur, positum sic tangere nolit,"
cantat et apponit " meus est amor huic similis ; nam
transvolat in medio posita et fugientia captat."
hiscine versiculis speras tibi posse dolores
atque aestus curasque gravis e pectore pelli^ ? 110
Nonne, cupidinibus statuat natura modum quem,
quid latura sibi, quid sit dolitura negatum,
quaerere plus prodest et inane abscindere* soldo ?
1 dum, 11. 2 officiunt <pyp\l.
3 tolli VBK. * abscedere B.
' A kind of transparent silk was made in the island of Cos.
* Horace makes use of an epigram of the poet Callimacluis (Anthologia Palatina, xii. 102), in which the lover is compared to a hunter who will go to great trouble to catch game, but scorns it when it is caught and lies outstretched upon the ground (so Orelli). The Greek runs thus :
uypevTTis, 'EiriKides, iv oOpiffi iravTa \ay<abp 5i(pq. Kal nd<T7]s fxj'ta SopKaXldos,
26
SATIRES, I. 11. 93-113
but there are thin hips, a long nose, a short waist and a long foot. In a matron one can see only her face, for unless she be a Catia, her long robe conceals all else. But if you seek forbidden charms that are invested with a rampart — for this it is that drives you crazy — many obstacles will then be in your way — attendants, the sedan, hairdressers, parasites, the robe dropping to the ankles, and, covered with a wTap, a thousand things which hinder you from a clear view. In the other — no obstacle. In her Coan silk " vou may see her, almost as if naked, so that she may not have a poor leg, an unsightly foot ; you may measure her whole form with your eye. Or would you rather have a trick played upon you and your money extorted before the wares are shown ? The gallant sings how ^ " the huntsman pursues the hare mid the deep snow, but declines to touch it when thus outstretched," and adds : " My love is like unto this, for it passes over what is served to all, and chases flying game." Do you suppose that ^vith verses such as these, sorrow and passion and the burden of care can be lifted from your breast ?
m Would it not be more profitable to ask what limit nature assigns to desires, what satisfaction she will give herself, what privation will cause her pain, and so to part the "void" from what is "solid" P"^ Or, when thirst parches your jaws, do you ask for cups of
ffTl/Sj (Cat Vl<p€Tl^ K€XpyiH^VOi' i)V 84 TtS fllTTI,
" TTJ, rdde §eji\i)Ta.i dijpiov," ovk fKa^ey.
Xciifibs Ipws Toioade' ra fuv tpevyovra. SiwKew
oT5e, TO. 8' (V /iUffO'ifi Keifieva xapTrireTai..
The positum sic represents roSe /S^/SXt/tcu dtiplov, while in medio
posita translates eV ixeaat^ Keifjieva.
' A reference to Epicurean physics, according to which the universe is composed of "void" {inane) and "solid" atoms.
27
HORACE
num, tibi cum fauces urit sitis, aurea quaeris pocula ? num esuriens fastidis omnia praeter 115 pavonem rhombumque ? tument tibi cum inguina,
num, si ancilla aut verna est praesto puer, impetus in quem continuo fiat, malis tentigine rumpi ? non ego : namque parabilem amo Venerem facilem-
que. 119
illam " post paulo," " sed pluris," " si exierit vir," Gallis, hanc Philodemus ait sibi, quae neque magno stet pretio neque cunctetur cum est iussa venire. Candida rectaque sit ; munda hactenus, ut neque longa nee magis alba velit quam dat^ natura videri. liaec ubi supposuit dextro corpus mihi laevum, 125 Ilia et Egeria est ; do nomen quodlibet illi, nee vereor^ ne, dum futuo, vir rure recurrat, ianua frangatur, latret canis, undique magno pulsa domus strepitu resonet, vepallida^ lecto desiliat^ mulier, miseram se conscia clamet, 130
cruribus haec metuat, doti deprensa, egomet mi. discincta tunica fugiendum est et pede nudo, ne nummi pereant aut puga aut denique fama, deprendi miserum est : Fabio vel iudice vincam.
1 det D. ^ metuo, //.
• vae pallida mss. : vepallida known to Acron : ne pallida Bentley. * dissiliat, //.
« These were priests of Cybele, who mutilated themselves, cf. the Attis of Catullus. Horace is here quoting and sum- marizing an epigram by Philodemus, a Greek philosopher, and a client of the L. Calpurnius PIso who was assailed bv
28
SATIRES, I. II. 114-134
gold ? When hungry, do you disdain everything save peacock and turbot ? When your passions prove unruly, would you rather be torn with desire ? I should not, for the pleasures I love are those easy to attain. " By and by," " Nay more," " If my husband goes out " — a woman who speaks thus is for the Galli," says Philodemus ; for himself he asks for one who is neither high-priced nor slow to come when bidden. She must be fair and straight, and only so far arranged that she will not wish to seem taller or fairer than nature allows. When she and I embrace, she is to me an Iha or an Egeria '' : I give her any name. No fears have I in her company, that a husband may rush back fi-om the country, the door burst open, the dog bark, the house ring through and through with the din and clatter of his knocking ; that the woman, white as a sheet, ^^^ll leap away, the maid in league with her cry out in terror, she fearing for her limbs, her guilty mistress for her dowry, and I for myself. With clothes dishevelled and bare of foot, I must run off, dreading disaster in purse or person or at least repute. To be caught is an unhappy fate : this I could prove, even with Fabius ' as umpire.
Cicero in his In Pisonem, where Philodemus is characterized in 68 ff. The epigram is discussed bv G. L. Hendrickson in A.J.P. xxxix. (1918) pp. 27 ff., and bv F. A. Wright, xlii. (1921) pp. 168, 169.
* Ilia, mother of Romulus, and Egeria, the nymph who inspired Numa, here represent women of highest rank.
* Cf. Sat. i. 1. 14. This writer on Stoicism is said to have been detected in adultery.
29
m
ON MUTUAL FORBEARANCE
The connexion between this satire and the preceding one is indicated at the outset, for the musician Tigellius is again introduced as a person who well illustrates the foibles and inconsistencies of a large class of people. But, says Horace, some one may ask me, " Have you yourself no faults ? " Yes, I have, though they may not be as bad as his. I trust I am not like Maenius, who laid bare the faults of others, but overlooked his own. Self-satisfaction of this sort well deserves to be satirized, A man should examine liimself and search out his own faults before criticizing others (l-37j.
Think how blind is the lover to the defects of his beloved, or how tenderly a fond father treats his child's deformities. Even so we should be indulgent to the weaknesses of our friends. On the contrary, we often look upon real virtues as faults, calling for example modest behaviour stupidity, and simphcity boorishness. We must exercise mutual forbearance and also discriminate between failings, for a mere impropriety is not as serious as a heinous crime (38-95).
In fact the Stoic paradox that all offences are equal, " omnia peccata paria esse " (Cicero, Dejinibus, SO
SATIRES, I. III.
iv. 19. 55), besides being repugnant to common sense, is historically unsound, our social ethics being the result of a process of evolution. Yet your Stoic would punish all offences alike, if he were a king (96-124).
" If he were a king," did I say ? \VTiy, according to another of his paradoxes, the Stoic is already a king, even as he is rich and handsome and everything else that is good. " Yes," he would explain, " I am a king potentially, even as Hermogenes is a singer, though he does not open his Hps." " Well," repUes Horace, " I cannot see that your crown wins you esteem or saves you from ill-treatment. For myself, not being a philosopher, I will remain a private citizen, and live on terms of mutual forbearance with others " (124^142).
In striking contrast with Satire II., this one is kindly and genial in tone, and it would seem that the author was disarming criticism by his assurance that he was not disposed to be over-censorious, as we learn from 11. 63 fF. Horace has now become acquainted with Maecenas, and this improvement in his worldly prospects may to some extent account for the change of tone, and the doffing of the severity of Lucihan invective.
SI
m.
Omnibus hoc vitium est cantoribus, inter amicos ut numquam inducant animum cantare rogati, iniussi numquam desistant. Sardus habebat ille Tigellius hoc. Caesar, qui cogere posset, si peteret per amicitiam patris atque suam, non 5 quicquam proficeret ; si collibuisset, ab ovo usque ad mala citaret " io Bacche^ ! " modo summa voce, modo hac, resonat- quae chordis quattuor ima. nil aequale homini fuit illi : saepe velut qui currebat fugiens hostem, persaepe velut qui^ 10
lunonis sacra ferret ; habebat saepe ducentos, saepe decem servos ; modo reges atque tetrarchas, omnia magna loquens, modo " sit mihi mensa tripes et concha salis puri et toga, quae defendere frigus quamvis crassa queat." deciens centena dedisses 15 huic parco, paucis contento, quinque diebus nil erat in loculis. noctes vigilabat ad ipsum mane, diem totum stertebat. nil fuit umquam sic impar sibi.
^ Bacchae BE. * resonet \p\l.
' B omits I. 10; see C.R. xxx. p. 15.
" A dinner opened with the gustatio or promulsis, supposed to whet the appetite. In this eggs played a part. Fruit was served as a dessert just as with us.
* The refrain of a drinking-song.
' Editors commonly take summa and ima as defining the position of strings on the lyre, summa = vTrdrrj and ima = vrirrj; the former therefore being "lowest," and the latter " highest," and voce being " the note." But see Clement L Spiith in C.B. xx. (1906) pp. 397 ff.
Satire III
All singers have this fault : if asked to sing among their friends they are never so inclined ; if unasked, they never leave off. That son of Sardinia, Tigellius, was of this sort. If Caesar, who might have forced him to comply, should beg him by his father's friend- ship and his own, he could make no headway. If the man took the fancy, then from the egg-course to the fruit" he would keep chanting " lo Bacche ! "* now with highest voice and now with one responding in lowest pitch to the tetrachord." There was nothing consistent in the fellow. Often he would run as if fleeing from a foe ; very often he would stalk as slowly as some bearer of Juno's holy offerings.'' Often he would keep two hundred slaves, often only ten. Now he would talk of kings and tetrarchs, everything grand, and now he'd say, " Give me a three-legged table, a shell of clean salt, and a coat that, however coarse, can keep out the cold." Sup- pose you had given a milhon * to this thrifty gentle- man, contented with so httle ; in a week there was nothing in his pockets. All night, till da^vn, he would stay awake ; all day would snore. Never was a creature so inconsistent.
•* A reference to the Kavr]<pbpoi., or basket-bearers, who in religious processions walked with slow and stately stride.
' i.e. sesterces. The sum in question would amount, roughly speaking, to £10,000 or $50,000.
D 33
HORACE
Nunc aliquis dicat mihi : " quid tu ? 19 nullane habes vitia ? " inimo alia et fortasse minora.^ Maenius absentem Novium cum carperet, " heus tu " quidam ait, " ignoras te, an ut ignotum dai-e nobis verba putas ? " " egomet mi ignosco " Maenius
inquit. stultus et improbus hie amor est dignusque notari.
Cum tua pervideas- oculis mala^ lippus inunctis, 25 cur in amicorum vitiis tarn cernis acutuni quam aut aquila aut serpens Epidaurius ? at* tibi
contra evenit, inquirant vitia ut tua rursus et illi.
Iracundior est paulo, minus aptus acutis^ naribus horum hominum ; rideri possit eo, quod 30 rusticius tonso toga defluit et male laxus in pede calceus haeret : at est bonus, ut melior vir non alius quisquam, at tibi amicus, at ingenium ingens inculto latet hoc sub corpore.^ denique te ipsum concute, num qua tibi vitiorum inseverit' olim 35 natura aut etiam consuetudo mala ; namque neglectis urenda filix innascitur agris.
lUuc praevertamur, amatorem quod amicae* turpia decipiunt caecum vitia, aut etiam ipsa haec delectant, veluti Balbinum polypus Hagnae. 40
vellem in amicitia sic erraremus, et isti errori nomen virtus^ posuisset honestum.
1 B omits I. 20.
2 praevideas Bentley. * male Bentley.
* ac Mss. * aduncis Bentley.
• pectore, //. ' insederit, IT. * amici, II.
• victus Housman, in J. P. xviii. p. 3.
" Epidaurus was famous for the worship of Aesculapius, whose symbol was a serpent or Spd/cw;', a word supposed to come from SdpKOfun, " to see. ' S4,
SATIRES, I. III. 19-42
1* Now someone may say to me : " What about yourself ? Have you no faults ? " Why yes, but not the same, and perhaps lesser ones. When Maenius once was carping at Novius behind his back, " Look out, sir," said someone, " do you not know yourself? Or do you think you impose on us, as one we do not know ? " "I take no note of myself," said Maenius. Such self-love is foohsh and shameless, and deserves to be censured.
^ When you look over your own sins, your eyes are rheumy and daubed ^\'ith ointment ; why, when you view the failings of yoiu: friends, are you as keen of sight as an eagle or as a serpent of Epidaurus * ? But, on the other hand, the result for you is that they, too, in turn peer into your faults.
^ " He is a httle too hasty in temper, ill-suited to the keen noses of folk nowadays. He might awake a smile because his hair is cut in country style, his toga sits ill, and his loose shoe will hardly stay on his foot." * But he's a good man, none better ; but he's your friend ; but under that uncouth frame are hidden great gifts. In a word, give yourself a shaking and see whether nature, or haply some bad habit, has not at some time so^vn in you the seeds of folly ; for in neglected fields there springs up bracken, which you must burn.
^ Let us turn first to this fact, that the lover, in his blindness, fails to see his lady's unsightly blemishes, nay is even charmed with them, as was Balbinus with Hagna's wen. I could wish that we made the like mistake in friendship and that to such an error our ethics had given an honourable name. At any
" The scholiasts sugrgest that this may be a description either of Virgil or of Horace himself.
S5
HORACE
at^ pater ut gnati, sic nos debemus amici^
si quod sit vitium non fastidire. strabonem
appellat paetum pater, et pullum, male parvus 45
si cui filius est, ut abortivus fuit olim
Sisyphus ; hunc varum distortis cruribus, ilium
balbutit scaurum pravis fultum male talis.
parcius hie vivit : frugi dicatur. ineptus
et iactantior hie paulo est : concinnus amicis 60
postulat ut videatur. at est truculentior atque
plus aequo liber : simplex fortisque habeatur.
caldior est : acris inter numeretur. opinor,
haec res et iungit, iunctos et servat amicos.
at nos virtutes ipsas invertimus atque 55
sincerum cupimus^ vas incrustare.* probus quis
nobiscum vivit, multum demissus homo : illi^
tardo cognomen, pingui, damus. hie fugit omnis
insidias nullique malo latus obdit apertum,
cum genus hoc inter vitae versemur,^ ubi acris 60
invidia atque vigent ubi crimina : pro bene sano
ac non incauto fictum astutumque vocamus.
simplicior quis et est qualem me saepe libenter
obtulerim tibi, Maecenas, ut' forte legentem
aut tacitum impellat^ quovis sermone molestus^ : 65
" communi sensu plane caret " inquimus. eheu,
1 at] ac BDEM Vollmer. ^ amicis B.
• fugrimus B : furimus Goth., Vollmer. * incurtare BDE.
' ille V. * versemur V Bentley : versetur mss.
' ut] aut or haut, //. ' impediat Bentley. Some editors punctuate after sermone. * modestus, //.
" The pet names used, viz. paetus, pullus, varus, scaurus, are all adjectives denoting a less objectionable form of the defect referred to, but they were also cognomina in well- known family names. " Paetus " is associated with the Aelii and Papirii, " Pullus " with the Fabii and the lunii, *' Varus " with the Quintilii, and " Scaurus " with the
S6
SATIRES, I. III. 43-66
rate, we should deal with a friend as a father with his child, and not be disgusted at some blemish. If a boy squints, his father calls him " Blinky " ; if his son is sadly puny, like misbegotten Sisyphus of former days, he styles him " Chickabiddy." One with crooked legs he fondly calls " Cruikshank," and one that can hardly stand on twisted ankles, " Curly- legs." <* Is a friend somewhat close ? Let us call him thrifty. Does another fail in tact and show off a bit too much ? He wants his friends to think him agreeable. Or is he somewhat bluff and too out- spoken ? Let him pass for frank and fearless. Hot- headed is he ? Let him be counted a man of spirit. This, I take it, is how to make friends, and to keep them when made. But we turn virtues themselves upside down, and want to soil a clean vessel. Does there hve among us an honest soul, a truly modest fellow ? We nickname him slow and stupid. Does another shun every snare and offer no exposed side to malice, seeing that we live in that kind of a world where keen envy and slanders are so rife ? Instead of his good sense and prudence we speak of his craftiness and insincerity. Is one somewhat simple and such as often I have freely sho^wTi myself to you, Maecenas, interrupting you perhaps while reading or thinking with some annoying chatter ? " He is quite devoid of social tact," ^ we say. Ah, how Aemilii and Aurelii. For the passage as a whole we may compare Plato, Rep. v. 474 d, Lucretius, iv. 1160 fF., Ovid, Ars Am. ii. 657 ; and among modern writers, Moliere, Misanthrope, Act ii. Sc. 5, e.ff. " lis comptent les defauts pour des perfections."
" The expression communis sensus does not mean precisely the same as the phrase we have derived from it, viz. "common sense." It is rather social sense, a sense of propriety in dealing with our fellows, or what the French call savoir fair*.
37
HORACE
quam temere in nosmet legem sancimus iniquam ! nam vitiis nemo sine nascitur : optimus ille est, qui minimis urgetur. amicus dulcis, ut aequum est, cum mea compenset vitiis bona, pluribus hisce, 70 si modo plura mihi bona sunt, inclinet, amari si volet : hac lege in trutina ponetur eadem. qui ne tuberibus propriis ofFendat amicum postulat, ignoscet^ verrucis illius : aequum est peccatis veniam poscentem reddere rursus. 75
Denique, quatenus excidi penitus vitiumirae,^ cetera item nequeunt stultis haerentia, cur non ponderibus modulisque suis ratio utitur, ac res ut quaeque est, ita suppliciis delicta coercet ? si quis eum servum, patinam qui tollere iussus 80 semesos piscis tepidumque ligurrierit ius, in cruce suffigat, Labeone insanior inter sanos dicatur. quanto hoc^ furiosius atque maius peccatum est : paulum deliquit amicus, quod nisi concedas, habeare insuavis : acerbus^ 85 odisti et fugis ut Rusonem debitor aeris, qui nisi, cum tristes misero venere Kalendae, mercedem aut nummos unde unde extricat, amaras porrecto iugulo historias captivus ut audit, comminxit lectum potus, mensave catillum 90
1 ignoscat B. * B omits 76-80.
^ hoc omitted EM : deleted in V.
* Some punctuate after acerbus ; so Orelli and Ritter.
" According to the Stoics only the ideal sage, the sapiens, is excepted from the class of stulti. Horace places himself in the majority. '' Labeo was a crazy jurisconsult.
« Ruso, the usurer, has literary aspirations and writes histories. The fate of the debtor, who is in Ruso's power, and must therefore listen while Ruso reads to him from his works, is humorously regarded as most horrible. Cf. Macaulay's story of the criminal, who went to the galleys rather than read the history of Guicciardini. ("Burleigh
38
SATIRES, I. III. 67-90
lightly do we set up an unjust law to our own harm ! For no living wight is without faults : the best is he who is burdened with the least. My kindly friend must, as is fair, weigh my \irtues against my faults, if he wishes to gain my love, and must turn the scales in their favour as being the more numerous — if only my virtues are the more numerous. On that con- dition he shall be weighed in the same scale. One who expects his friend not to be offended by his o\\Ti warts will pardon the other's pimples. It is but fair that one who craves indulgence for faihngs should grant it in return.
"^ In fine, since the fault of anger, and all the other faults that cleave to fools " cannot be wholly cut away, why does not Reason use her own weights and measures, and visit offences with punishment suited to each ? If one were to crucify a slave who, when bidden to take away a dish, has greedily licked up the half-eaten fish and its sauce, now cold, sane men would call him more insane than Labeo.* How much madder and grosser a sin is this : a friend has committed a slight offence, which you would be thought ungracious not to pardon ; you hate him bitterly and shun him, as Ruso is shunned by his debtor, who, poor vvTctch, if at the coming of the sad Kalends he cannot scrape up from some quarter either interest or principal, must offer his throat like a prisoner of war and hsten to his captor's dreary histories ! * What if in his cups my friend has wet the couch or knocked off the table a bowl once
and his Times" in Critical and Historical Essays.) Cf. Juvenal's
mille pericula saevae Tirbis et Augusto recitantes mense poetas
{Sat. ilL 8).
39
HORACE
Euandri manibus tritum deiecit^ : ob hanc rem, aut positum ante mea^ quia puUum in parte catini sustulit esuriens, minus hoc iucundus amicus sit mihi ? quid faciam si furtum fecerit, aut si prodiderit commissa fide sponsumve negarit ? 95
quis paria esse fere placuit peccata, laborant cum ventum ad verum est : sensus moresque repug- nant atque ipsa Utilitas, iusti prope mater et aequl.
Cum prorepserunt primis animalia terris, mutum et turpe pecus, glandem atque cubilia propter unguibus et pugnis, dein fustibus, atque ita porro 101 pugnabant armis, quae post fabricaverat usus, donee verba, quibus voces sensusque notarent,' nominaque invenere ; dehinc absistere bello, oppida coeperunt munire et ponere leges, 105
ne quis fur esset, neu latro, neu quis adulter, nam fuit ante Helenam cunnus taeterrima belli causa, sed ignotis perierunt mortibus illi, quos venerem incertam rapientis more ferarum viribus editior caedebat ut in grege taurus. 110
iura inventa metu iniusti fateare necesse est, tempora si fastosque veils evolvere mundi. nee Natura potest iusto secernere iniquum, dividit ut bona diversis, fugienda petendis ; nee vincet Ratio hoc, tantundem ut peccet idemque
^ proiecit B.
* me, //: B omits 92, as well as 95-100, and 111-124..
' quibus sensus, vocesque, notarent Housman {cf. Lucr. V. 1041 /•.)
° i.e. of great antiquity and consequently very valuable. ^ This was a doctrine of the Stoics ; cf. Cicero, Be fin. iv. 19. 55, " recte facta omnia aequaiia, omnia peccata paria esse."
* Appeal is here made to the Epicureans, whose moral philosophy rested on a distinctly utilitarian basis.
40
SATIRES, I. III. 91-116
fingered by Evander," is he for such offence, or because when hungry he snatched up first a pullet served on my side of the dish, to be less pleasing in my eyes ? What shall I do if he commits a theft, or betrays a trust, or disowns his bond ? Those whose creed is that all sins are much on a par * are at a loss when they come to face facts. Feelings and customs rebel, and so does Expedience herself, the mother, we may say, of justice and right."
^ When living creatures ** crawled forth upon primeval earth, dumb, shapeless beasts, they fought for their acorns and lairs vnth nails and fists, then with clubs, and so on step by step with the weapons which need had later forged, until they found words and names ' wherewith to give meaning to their cries and feehngs. Thenceforth they began to cease from war, to build towns, and to frame laws that none should thieve or rob or commit adultery. For before Helen's day a wench was the most dreadful cause of war, but deaths unknown to fame were theirs whom, snatching fickle love in wild-beast fashion, a man stronger in might struck down, like the bull in a herd. If you will but turn over the annals and records of the world, you must needs confess that justice was born of the fear of injustice.-^ Between right and \\Tong Nature can draw no such distinction as between things gainful and harmful, what is to be sought and what is to be shunned ; nor yriW Reason ever prove this, that the sin is one and the
* The doctrine of the evolution of society, as here set forth, is based on Lucretius, De rerum natura, v. 780 ff.
* Or " verbs and nouns," the two main divisions of human speech. Cf. A. P. 2^-5.
* According to the utilitarian theory of ethics, the sense of right and wrong is not innate in us.
41
HORACE
qui teneros caules alieni fregerit horti 116
et qui nocturnus sacra divum^ legerit. adsit
regula, peccatis quae poenas inroget aequas,
ne scutica dignum horribili sectere flagello.
nam ut ferula caedas meritum maiora subire 120
verbera non vereor, cum dicas esse pare* res
furta latrociniis et magnis parva mineris
falce recisurum simili te, si tibi regnum
permittant homines.
Si dives, qui sapiens est, et sutor bonus et solus formosus et est rex, 125
cur optas quod habes ? " non nosti quid pater " inquit " Chrysippus dicat : sapiens crepidas sibi numquam nee soleas fecit ; sutor tamen est sapiens." qui^ ? " ut quamvis tacet Hermogenes cantor tamen atque optimus est modulator ; ut Alfenus vafer omni 130 abiecto instrumento artis clausaque taberna"* tonsor'* erat, sapiens operis sic optimus omnis est opifex solus, sic rex." vellunt tibi barbam lascivi pueri ; quos tu nisi fuste coerces, urgeris turba circum te stante miserque^ 135
rumperis et latras, magnorum maxime regum.
* divum sacra aK. '^ qui B : quo other mss.
» ustrina V. * tonsor V: sutor mss., Porph.
* Beginning with 135, B is lacking up to the end of Book II. of the Epistles.
" For another interpretation see T. G. Tucker in C.R. 1920, p. 156.
" The sixth Stoic Paradox according to Cicero, is " solum sapientem esse divitem." The Stoics held that the truly wise man or philosopher was perfect : he was therefore rich, as well as beautiful, accomplished, and a king among men. Horace ridicules these claims here and elsewhere,
12
SATIRES, I. HI. 116-136
same to cut young cabbages in a neighbour's garden and to steal by night the sacred emblems of the gods. Let us have a rule to assign just penalties to offences, lest you flay ^\ith the terrible scourge what calls for the strap. For " as to your striking with the rod one who deserves sterner measures, I am not afraid of that, when you say that theft is on a par with highway robbery, and when you threaten to prune away all crimes, great and small, with the same hook, if men would but give you royal power.
^^ If the wise man is rich,* and a good cobbler, and alone handsome and a king, why crave what you abeady have ? * " You do not know," he answers, " what our father Chrysippus ** means. The wise man has never made himself shoes or sandals ; yet the wise man is a cobbler." How so ? " As Hermogenes, however silent, is still the best of singers and musicians ; as shrewd Alfenus, after tossing aside every tool of his art and closing his shop, was a barber * ; so the wise man — he alone — is the best workman of every craft, so is he king." Mischievous boys pluck at your beard, and unless you keep them off with your staff, you are jostled by the crowd that surrounds you, while you, poor wretch, snarl and burst with rage, O mightiest of mighty
as in Epist. i. 1. 106. Cf. the account of the wise man of the Stoics given in Plutarch, Mor. p. 1057, and for St. Paul's application of the principle see 2 Cor. 6. 4-10.
* The Stoic has just admitted that he is not a king.
** Chrysippus was regarded as the second founder of Stoicism, the first being Zeno.
• The reading tonsor is preferred to sutor. As the Stoic tries to prove that the wise man is a cobbler, he naturally turns elsewhere for illustrations, e.g. to Hermogenes the musician, and to Alfenus the barber.
43
HORACE
ne longum faciam : dum tu quadrante lavatum rex ibis neque te quisquam stipator ineptum praeter Crispinum sectabitur, et mihi dulces ignoscent, si quid peccaro stultus, amici, 140
inque vicem illorum patiar delicta libenter, privatusque magis vivam te rege beatus.
" Like a Persian king, ^affiXein ^aaCKitav. » C/. Sat. i. 1. 120.
44
SATIRES, I. III. 137-142
kings ! " In short, while you, a king, go to your pennj bath, and no escort attends you except crazy Cris- pinus,'' my kindly friends will pardon me if I, yovur foolish man,*^ commit some offence, and in turn I shall gladly put up with their shortcomings, and in my private station shall live more happily than Your Majesty,
' i^. stultus, as the Stoics used it, the opposite of sapiens.
IV
A DEFENCE OF SATIRE
The writers of Old Attic Comedy assailed the vicioug with the utmost freedom. In Roman literature, Lucilius shows the same spirit and boldness, but his metrical forms are different, and his verse is un- couth. He was careless and verbose, more interested in the quantity than in the quality of his work (1-13).
Similar in this last respect is Crispinus, who challenges the poet to a scribbling contest, but Horace decUnes to compete with such poetasters, even as he refuses to emulate the self-satisfied Fannius by reading his verses in public, because this kind of writing is not popular. Men do not like to have their weaknesses exposed. " Give such a poet a wide berth," they cry (14-38).
" Listen to my defence," says Horace. " In the first place, a man who composes verses as I do, verses that are really more like conversation, should not be called a poet. The true poet has imaginative power and lofty utterance. This is why the question has been raised whether comedy is poetry, for even in its most spirited passages, as rendered on the stage, we are really dealing with pure conversation, such as would be suitable to similar scenes in daily life " (38-56).
" So it is with the verses of Lucilius and my own. Take away the metrical element, change the word- order, and you have plain prose. But the question whether satire is poetry must be postponed. At present let us consider the question of its un- popularity " (56-65). 46
SATIRES, I. IV.
" You look upon me as an informer, but even if you are a rogue I am no informer. My friends will acquit me of such a charge. I am not writing for the general public, and my object is not to give pain. Yet it is my habit to observe the conduct of others, and to profit thereby, for I was trained to do so by my father, and have always continued the practice. To be sure, I jot down my thoughts, but what of that ? Nowadays everybody writes, and you, my critic, ■willy-nilly, will take to ^vriting yourself " (65-143).
On the appearance of his first Satires (and it is to be noticed that the carefully chosen subjunctive habeat in 1. 71 does not preclude their publication), the poet's critics had accused Horace of being a malevolent scandal-monger. They also contrasted him unfavourably with Lucilius, who in his open war- fare used the weapons of Old Comedy, was famihar with the Greek moralists and philosophers, and had the pen of a ready writer. In his reply, Horace maintains that his own satire is not personal, but rather social and general in its apphcation. He does not indulge in the invective of Old Comedy, but rather follows the New in spirit as well as in style. His teacher in morals, if not a great philosopher {cf. sapiens, 1. 115), was a representative of the fine, old- fashioned Roman virtues, even his own father. As for the copiousness of Lucihus, that was his predecessor's chief fault, which he himself would carefully avoid.
This is one of the early Satires, and in \iew of the citation in 1. 92 is to be associated closely with the Second. As there is no reference to Maecenas, it was probably composed before the poet's introduction to the statesman in 38 b.c.
4.7
IV.
Eupolis atque Cratinus Aristophanesque poetae atque alii, quorum comoedia prisca virorum est, si quis erat dignus describi, quod malus ac fur, quod moechus foret aut sicarius aut alioqui famosus, multa cum libertate notabant. 5
hinc omnis pendet Lucilius, hosce secutus mutatis tantum pedibus numerisque ; facetus, emunctae naris, durus componere versus, nam fuit hoc vitiosus : in hora saepe ducentos, ut magnum, versus dictabat stans pede in uno ; 10 cum flueret lutulentus, erat quod tollere velles ; garrulus atque piger scribendi ferre laborem, scribendi recte : nam ut multum, nil moror, ecce, Crispinus minimo me provocat : " accipe, si vis, accipiam^ tabulas : detur^ nobis locus, hora, 15
custodes ; videamus uter plus scribere possit." di bene fecerunt, inopis me quodque pusilh finxerunt animi, raro et perpauca loquentis. at tu conclusas hircinis follibus auras usque laborantis, dum ferrum molliat ignis, 20
ut mavis, imitare. ^ accipe iam, 7, but not in harmony with hora. " dentur, II.
" For the emphasis on poetae (denied by Uliman, A. P. A. xlviii. p. 115) see Epist. ii. 1. 247. " Proverbial for " doing without effort." ' For Crispinus see Sat. i. 1. 120. He offers to bet a
18
Satire IV *^
Eupolis and Cratinus and Aristophanes, true poets,*
and the other good men to whom Old Comedy belongs, if there was anyone deserving to be dra\vn as a rogue and thief, as a rake or cut-throat, or as scandalous in any other way, set their mark upon him with _reat freedom. It is on these that Lucilius wholly iiangs ; these he has followed, changing only metre and rhythm. Witty he was, and of keen-scented nostrils, but harsh in framing his verse. Herein lay his fault : often in an hour, as though a great exploit, he would dictate two hundred lines while standing, as they say, on one foot.* In his muddy stream there was much that you would like to remove. He was wordy, and too lazy to put up with the trouble if \\Titing — of writing correctly, I mean ; for as to quantity, I let that pass. See, Crispinus challenges ine at long odds " : " Take your tablets, please ; 111 take mine. Let a place be fixed for us, and time md judges ; let us see which can write the most." Ihe gods be praised for fashioning me of meagre wit and lowly spirit, of rare and scanty speech ! I>ut do you, for such is your taste, be Uke the air -hut up in goat-skin bellows, and ever puffing away until the fire softens the iron.
large sum against a small one on my part. Bentley con- jectured nummo for minimo, i.e. "bets me a sesterce," that being all his poverty would allow.
E 49
HORACE
Beatus Fannius ultro
delatis capsis et imagine, cum mea nemo
scripta legat volgo recitare timentis ob hanc rem,
quod sunt quos genus hoc minime iuvat, utpote pluris
culpari dignos. quemvis media elige^ turba : 25
aut ob avaritiam^ aut miisera^ ambitione laborat.
hie nuptarum insanit amoribus, hie puerorum ;
hunc capit argenti splendor ; stupet Albius aere ;
hie mutat merces surgente a sole ad eum quo
vespertina tepet* regio ; quin per mala praeceps 30
fertur uti pulvis collectus turbine, ne quid
summa deperdat metuens aut ampliet ut rem :
omnes hi metuunt versus, odere poetas.
" faenum habet in cornu : longe fuge ! dummodo
risum
excutiat sibi, non hic^ cuiquam parcet amico ; 35
et quodcumque semel chartis illeverit, omnis
gestiet a furno redeuntis scire lacuque
et pueros et anus."
Agedum, pauca accipe contra.
primum ego me illorum, dederim quibus esse poetas,®
excerpam numero : neque enim concludere versum 40
dixeris esse satis ; neque, si qui scribat uti nos
sermoni propiora, putes hunc esse poetam.
^ erue K, Vollmer : eripe 3 Bland. : arripe Bentley.
2 ab avaritia, see lialfe, C P. vii. p. 246.
=* miser K, II. * patet, //.
* non non, //, adopted by Vollmer and Garrod.
• poetis R and scholia on Sat. i. 6. 25 : so Vollmer.
" Fannius, a petty poet, brought his writings (kept in capsae or cylindrical boxes), together with his portrait, into prominence, but in what way he did so is now unknown. 50
4
SATIRES, I. IV. 21-42
^ Happy fellow, Fannius, who has delivered his books and bust unasked ! " My writings no one reads, and I fear to recite them in pubhc, the fact being that this style * is abhorrent to some, inasmuch as most people merit censure. Choose anyone from amid a crowd : he is suffering either from avarice or some A;\Tetched ambition. One is mad with love for somebody's wife, another for boys. Here is one whose fancy the sheen of silver catches ; Albius " dotes on bronzes ; another trades his wares from the rising sun to regions warmed by his evening rays ; nay, through perils he rushes headlong, like dust gathered up by a whirlwind, fearful lest he lose aught of his total, olKaitSo add to his wealth. All of these dread verses and detest the poet : " He carries hay on his horns,** give him a wide berth. Provided he can raise a laugh for himself, he will >pare not a single friend^^nd whatever he has once scribbled on his sheets he will rejoice to have all know, all the slaves and old dames as they come home from bakehouse and pond." *
^ Come now, listen to a few words in answer. First I will take my owti name from the list of such as I would allow to be poets. For you would not call it enough to round off a verse, nor would you count anyone poet who WTites, as I do, Unes more
Probably he presented them to private libraries. At this time the only public library in Rome was the one founded by Asinius Pollio in 38 b.c, and the only living writer whose works were admitted to it was Varro. Another view is that Tannius's admirers presented the poet with book-cases and bust. * i.e.f Satire.
' The extravagance of Albius impoverishes his son (1.109).
* Dangerous cattle were thus distinguished.
• i.e. the common people, as they went to get bread from the public bakery and water from the public tanks. Agrippa set up seven hundred locus or reservoirs in Ptome.
51
HORACE
ingenium cui sit, cui mens divinior atque os
magna sonaturum, des nominis huius honorem.
idcirco quidam Comoedia necne poema 43
esset quaesivere, quod acer spiritus ac vis
nee verbis nee rebus inest, nisi quod pede certo
differt sermoni, sermo merus. " at pater ardens
saevit, quod meretrice nepos insanus^ arnica
filius uxorem grandi^ cum dote recuset, 50
ebrius et, magnum quod dedecus, ambulet ante
noctem cum facibus." numquid Pomponius istis
audiret leviora, pater si viveret ? ergo
non satis est puris^ versum perscribere verbis,
quern si dissolvas, quivis stomachetur eodem 56
quo personatus pacto pater, his, ego quae nunc,
olim quae scripsit Lucilius, eripias si
tempora certa modosque, et quod prius ordine
verbum* est, posterius facias, praeponens ultima primis, non, ut si solvas " postquam Discordia taetra 60
Belli ferratos postis portasque refregit," invenias etiam disiecti membra poetao.
Hactenus haec : alias iustum sit necne poema, nunc illud tantum quaeram, meritone tibi sit suspectum genus hoc scribendi. Sulcius acer 66
ambulat et Caprius, rauci male cumque libellis, magnus uterque timor latronibus : at bene si quis et vivat puris manibus, contemnat utrumque.
' insanit, //. * grandem, //. ' pueris, //. * versum, II.
" Who Pomponius was is unknown, but in real life he corresponds to the prodigal in the play, and the language used by his father under the circumstances would be similar to that in the scene from Comedy.
" The passage cited is from Ennius and refers to the temple of Janus, which was opened in time of war. It is imitated in Virgil, Aen. vii. 622. 52
SATIRES, I. IV. 43-68
p.kin to prose. If one has gifts inborn, if one has a >oul divine and tongue of noble utterance, to such give the honour of that name. Hence some have questioned whether Comedy is or is not poetry ; for neither in diction nor in matter has it the fire and force of inspiration, and, save that it differs from prose-talk in its regular beat, it is mere prose. " But," you say, " there is the father storming in passion because his spendthrift son, madly in love with a wanton mistress, rejects a wife with large dower, and in drunken fit reels abroad — sad scandal — with torches in broad dayhght." Would Pom- ponius hear a lecture less stern than this, were his father ahve ? " And so 'tis not enough to write out a line of simple words such that, should you break it up, any father whatever would rage in the same fashion as the father in the play. Take from the verses which I am >vriting now, or which Lucilius wrote in former days, their regular beat and rhythm — change the order of the words, transposing the first and the last — and it would not be hke breaking up:
When foul Discord's din War's posts and gates of bronze had broken in,
where, even when he is dismembered, you would find the limbs of a poet.''
^ Of this enough. Some other time we'll see whether this kind of \VTiting is true poetry or not. To-day the only question I'll ask is this, whether you are right in vie-vWng it with distrust. Keen- scented Sulcius and Caprius stalk about, horribly hoarse and armed with wTits, both a great terror to robbers, but if a man is honest of life and his hands
58
HORACE
ut sis tu similis Caeli Birrique latronum,
non ego sim^ Capri neque Sulci : cur metuas me ? 70
nulla taberna meos habeat neque pila libellos,
quis manus insudet volgi Hermogenisque Tigelli ;
nec^ recito cuiquam nisi amicis, idque coactus,
non ubivis coramve quibuslibet. in medio qui
scripta foro recitent, sunt multi, quique lavantes : 75
suave locus voci resonat conclusus. inanis
hoc iuvat, haud illud quaerentis, num sine sensu,
tempore num faciant alieno.
" Laedere gaudes " inquit,' "et hoc studio pravus facis." Unde petitum hoc in me iacis ? est auctor quis denique eorum 80 vixi cum quibus ? absentem qui rodit amicura, qui non defendit alio culpante, solutos qui captat risus hominum famamque dicacis, fingere qui non visa potest, commissa tacere qui nequit : hie niger est, hunc tu, Romane, caveto. 85 saepe tribus lectis videas cenare quaternos, e quibus unus* amet^ quavis aspergere cunctos praeter eum qui praebet aquam ; post hunc quoque
potus, condita cum verax aperit praecordia Liber.
^ sum Porph. * non, //. ' inquis M, 11. * imus, II. * amet 1 Bland., Bentley : avet mss. ; a subjunctive is necessary here.
" Sulcius and Caprius are commonly supposed to have been professional informers, hoarse from bawling in the courts, but Ullman {A. P. A. xlviii. p. 117) takes them to be contemporary satirists, who recite their long-winded poems and carry about copies for free distribution.
" For Tigellius see Sat. i. 3. 129. The scholiasts iden- tify him with the Tigellius of Sat. i. 2. 3, and i. 3. 4, and Ullman convincingly upholds this view {C.P. x. pp. 270 fF.). He was now dead, but Horace treats him as the poet of the volgus. See note on Sat. i. 10. 90. Book-stalls
54
SATIRES, I. IV. 69-89
clean, he may scorn them both." Though you be like Caelius and Birrius, the robbers, I need not be like Caprius or Sulcius : why should you fear me ? I want no stall or pillar to have my httle works, so that the hands of the crowd — and Hermogenes Tigellius * — may sweat over them. Nor do I recite them to any save my friends, and then only when pressed — not anywhere or before any hearers. Many there are who recite their writings in the middle of the Forum, or in the baths. How pleasantly the vaulted space echoes the voice ! That delights the frivolous, who never ask themselves this, whether what they do is in bad taste or out of season.
'* " You hke to give pain," says one, " and you do so with spiteful intent." \Miere have you found this missile to hurl at me ? Does anyone whatever with whom I have lived vouch for it ? The man who backbites an absent friend ; who fails to defend him when another finds fault ; the man who courts the loud laughter of others, and the reputation of a ■wit ; who can invent what he never saw ; who cannot keep a secret — that man is black of heart ; of him beware, good Roman. Often on each of the three couches you may see four at dinner," among whom one loves to bespatter in any way everyone present except the host who provides the water, and later him as well, when he has well drunk and the truth ful god of free speech ** unlocks the heart's secrets
were usually in arcades, the pillars of which were doubtless used for advertising the books within. One may compare the Parisian kiosques.
* Three was the usual number, so that this was a large party. Cicero speaks of five as a great crush : Graeci stipati, quini in lectulis {In Pis. 27. 67).
■* The god Liber was identified with Bacchus. Cf. the proverbs oTvos koX dXddta (Alcaeus), and in vino Veritas.
55
HORACE
hie tibi comis et urbanus liberque videtur, 90
infesto nigris. ego si risi, quod ineptus pastillos RufiUus olet, Gargonius hircum, lividus et mordax videor tibi ? mentio si quac^ de Capitolini^ furtis iniecta Petilli te coram fuerit, defendas ut tuus est mos : 95
" me Capitolinus convictore usus amicoque a puero est, causaque mea permulta rogatus fecit, et incolumis laetor quod vivit in urbe ; sed tamen admiror quo pacto iudicium illud fugerit." hie nigrae sucus lolliginis, haec est 100 aerugo mera. quod vitium procul afore cliartis atque animo prius, ut^ si quid promittei'e de me possum aliud vere, promitto.
Liberius si dixero quid, si forte iocosius, hoc mihi iuris cum venia dabis. insuevit pater optimus hoc me, 105 ut fugerem exemplis vitiorum quaeque notando. cum me hortaretur, parce frugaliter atque viverem uti contentus eo, quod mi ipse parasset : " nonne vides, Albi ut male vivat filius, utque Baius inops ? magnum documentum, ne patriam rem perdere quis veht." a* turpi meretricis am ore 111 cum deterreret : " Scetani dissimilis sis." ne sequerer moechas, concessa cum venere uti possem : " deprensi non bella est fama Treboni,"
* qua KM, II. ^ capitolinis DE, II.
' animo, prius ut, ( = ut prius) Housman. * aut E, II: at M.
" Cited from Sat. i. 2. 27. Hie in 1. 90 is Lucilius, who must have described such a banqueting-scene (11. 86-89) in the first person. See Sat. i. 10. (55, and note.
* The crime of which Petillius is said to have been accused, that of stealing the gold crown of Jupiter on the Capitol, was a proverbial one, as is seen from the allusions
56
SATIRES, I. IV. 90-114
Such a man you think genial and witty and frank — you who hate the black of heart. As for me, if I have had my laugh because silly " RufiUus smells like a scent-box, Gargonius like a goat," " do you think I am a spiteful, snappish cur ? If in your presence somebody hinted at the thefts of Petillius Capitolinus, you would defend him after ^o«r fashion : " Capitohnus has been a comrade and friend of mine from boyhood ; much has he done to serve me when asked, and I rejoice that he is ahve and out of danger here in Rome — but still I do wonder how he got out of that trial." '' Here is the very ink of the cuttlefish ; here is venom unadulterate. That such malice shall be far from my pages, and first of all from my heart, I pledge myself, if there is aught that I can pledge with truth.
^^^ If in my words I am too free, perchance too hght, this bit of liberty you ^\^ll indulgently grant me 'Tis a habit the best of fathers taught me, for, to enable me to steer clear of follies, he would brand them, one by one, by his examples." Whenever he would encourage me to live thriftily, frugally, and content with what he had saved for me, " Do you not see," he would say, " how badly fares young Albius,** and how poor is Baius ? A striking lesson not to waste one's patrimony ! " When he would deter me from a vulgar amour, " Don't be like Scetanus." And to prevent me from courting another's wife, when I might enjoy a love not forbidden, " Not pretty," he would say,
to it in Plautus, e.g. Trinummus 83, Menaechmi 941. The cognomen Capitolinus gave a handle to his assailants.
' The hoc of 1. 105 refers to Horace's freedom of speech (liberius si dixero), while the clause tU fugerem expresses the father's purpose with notando.
" Cf. 1. 28 above.
57
HORACE
aiebat. " sapiens, vitatu quidque petitu 115
sit melius, causas reddet tibi : mi satis est, si traditum ab antiquis morem servare tuamque, dum custodis eges, vitam famamque tueri incolumem possum ; simul ac duraverit aetas membra animumque tuum, nabis sine cortice." sic me formabat puerum dictis, et sive iubebat, 121
ut facerem quid, " habes auctorem quo facias hoc," unum ex iudicibus selectis^ obiciebat ; sive vetabat, " an hoc inhonestum et inutile factu^ necne sit addubites, flagret rumore malo cum 125
hie atque ille ? " avidos' vicinum funus ut aegros exanimat mortisque metu sibi parcere cogit, sic teneros animos aliena opprobria saepe absterrent vitiis.
Ex hoc ego sanus ab illis, perniciem quaecumque ferunt, mediocribus et quis 130 ignoscas^ vitiis teneor. fortassis et istinc largiter abstulerit^ longa aetas, liber amicus, consilium proprium ; neque enim, cum lectulus aut me porticus excepit, desum mihi : " rectius hoc est : hoc faciens vivam melius : sic dulcis amicis 135
occurram : hoc quidam non belle : numquid ego illi imprudens olim faciam simile ? " haec ego mecum compressis agito labris ; ubi quid datur oti,
> electis M, II : electi E. ^ factum aDEM.
' vides, //. * ignoscat, IT. * abstulerint aDEM.
" A reference to the list of jurors, men of high character, annually empanelled by the praetor to serve in the trial of criminal cases.
58
SATIRES, I. IV. 115-138
is the repute of Trebonius, caught in the act. Your philosopher \v\\\ give you theories for shunning or seeking this or that : enough for me, if I can uphold the rule our fathers have handed down, and if, so long as you need a guardian, I can keep your health and name from harm. WTien years have brought strength to body and mind, you will swim without the cork." With words like these would he mould my boyhood ; and whether he were advising me to do something, " You have an example for so doing," he would say, and point to one of the special judges ; " or were forbidding me, " Can you doubt whether this is dishonourable and disadvantageous or not, when so and so stands in the blaze of ill repute ? " As a neighbour's funeral scares gluttons when sick, and makes them, through fear of death, careful of themselves, so the tender mind is oft deterred from vice by another's shame.
^29 Thanks to this training I am free from vices which bring disaster, though subject to lesser frailties such as you would excuse. Perhaps even from these much will be withdrawn by time's advance, candid J finends, self-counsel ; for when my couch welcomes \^\^ me or I stroll in the colonnade,* I do not fail myself: " This is the better course : if I do that, I shall fare more happily : thus I shall delight the friends I meet : that was ugly conduct of so and so : is it possible that some day I may thoughtlessly do anything hke that?" Thus, with lips shut tight, I debate with myself; and when I find a bit of leism-e, I trifle with my
* The colonnades, or porticoes, were a striking archi- tectural feature of ancient Rome, and much used for promenading in. The lectulus was an easy couch for reclining upon while reading, corresponding to our com- fortable arm-chairs.
59
HORACE
illudo^ chartis. hoc est mediocribus illis
ex vitiis unum : cui si concedere nolis, 140
multa poetarum*veniat^ manus, auxilio quae
sit mihi (nam multo plures sumus), ac veluti te
ludaei cogemus in hanc concedere turbam.
^ incumbo, // : Rohl conjectures includo. * veniet Acron, Bentley.
" Horace toys with his papers by jotting down his random thoughts.
* For the eagerness of the Jews to proselytize cf. St. Matthew xxiii. 15.
« Among the numerous articles that contain a discussion of this Satire, reference may be made to the following : —
60
SATIRES, I. IV. 139-143
papers." This is one of those lesser frailties I spoke of, and if you should make no allowance for it, then would a big band of poets come to my aid — for we are the big majority — and we, like the Jews,'' will compel you to make one of our throng."
G. L. Hendrickson, " Horace, Sermones i. 4. A Protest and a Programme," A. J. P. xxi. pp. 121 if.; "Satura — the Genesis of a Literary Form," C.P. vi. pp. 129 If. ;
Charles Knapp, "The Sceptical Assault on the Roman Tradition concerning the Dramatic Satura," A.J.P. xxxiii. pp. 125 flF. ;
H. R. Fairclough, " Horace's View of the Relations between Satire and Comedy," A.J.P. xxxiv. pp. 183 flf. ;
B. L. Ullman, "Horace on the Nature of Satire," A.P.A. xlviiL pp. Ill ff.; "Dramatic Satura," CJ*. ix. pp. 1 ff.
61
A JOURNEY TO BRUNDISIUM
This Satire is modelled upon one by Lueilius, who in his third book had described a journey from Rome to Capua and thence to the Sicilian straits.
Horace's journey was associated with an embassy on which Maecenas and others were sent in 38 b.c. by Octavian, to make terms with Marcus Antonius, who, notwithstanding the so-called treaty of Brundi- sium, made between the rivals of two years earlier, was again somewhat estranged.
The travellers left Rome by the Appian Way, and made a night-journey from Appii Forum to Anxur by canal-boat through the Pomptine marshes. From Capua their road took them over the Apennines into the Apulian hill-country of Horace's birth, whence they passed on to Italy's eastern coast, reaching Brundisium in fifteen days. The journey had been pursued in a leisurely fashion, for if necessary it might have been covered in less than half that time.
Although the mission of Maecenas was a political one, Horace steers clear of political gossip. The account reads like a compilation of scanty notes from a diary, and yet leaves a delightful impression about the personal relations of men distinguished in htera- ture and statesmanship. Some of the character- 62
SATIRES, I. V.
istics of the sketch are doubtless due to Horace's adherence to the satiric type. Thus the encounter of the two buffoons (51-69) is a dramatic scene, treated in a mock-heroic fashion, where the comparison made between Sarmentus and a unicorfa recalls the Lucilian description of a rhinoceros with a projecting tooth,
dente adverse eminulo hie est rinoceros
(117f. ed. Marx.)
while the four disfiguring lines (82-85) are parallel to a similar incident recorded by LuciUus. This close dependence of Horace upon Lucihus throughout is clearly sho^vn both by Lejay, in his introduction to this Satire, and by Fiske in his LuciUus and Horace, pp. 306 ff.
Professor Tenney Frank, in Classical Philology, XV. (1920) p. 393, has made the plausible suggestion that Heliodorus, the rhetor, Graecorum longe doctis- simus, of 11. 2 and 3, is really Apollodorus, who was chosen by Julius Caesar to be the teacher of Octa\ian, and who is called by Wilamowitz " the founder of the classical scliool of Augustan poetry." The name Apollodorus cannot be used in hexameters, and Hehos would be an easy substitution for Apollo. This scholar would have been a not unworthy mem- ber of the distinguished literary group who accom- panied Maecenas to Brundisium.
68
V.
Egressum magna me accepit^ Aricia Roma hospitio modico ; rhetor comes Heliodorus, Graecorum longe^ doctissimus : inde Forum Appi, differtum nautis, cauponibus atque malignis. hoc iter ignavi divisimus, altius ac nos fi
praecinctis unum : minus est gravis Appia tardis. hie ego propter aquam, quod erat deterrima, ventri indico bellum, cenantis haud animo aequo expectans comites.
lam nox inducere terris umbras et caelo difFundere signa parabat. 10
tum pueri nautis, pueris convicia nautae ingerere : " hue appelle ! " " trecentos inseris."
" ohe, iam satis est." dum aes exigitur, dum mula hgatur, tota abit hora. mah culices ranaeque palustres avertunt somnos, absentem ut^ cantat amicam 16 multa prolutus vappa nauta atque viator certatim. tandem fessus dormire viator incipit ac missae pastum retinacula mulae
^ excepitZ), 11. * linguae K,IL ' ut omitted by CDK.
" The " Market of Appius," for which see Acts xxviii. 15, was at the head of the canal which ran through the Pomptine marshes to Feronia.
* i.e. from Rome to Appii Forum, nearly forty miles. The phrase altius praecinctis means literally "higher girt," of. the Biblical " gird up your loins." 64
Satire V >^
Leaving mighty Rome, I found shelter in a modest inn at Aricia, having for companion Heliodorus the rhetorician, far most learned of all Greeks. Next came Appii Forum," crammed with boatmen and stingy tavern-keepers. This stretch '' we lazily cut in two, though smarter travellers make it in a single day ; the Appian Way is less tiring, if taken slowly. Here owing to the water, for it was \-illainous, I declare war against my stomach, and wait impatiently while my companions dine.
' Already night was beginning to draw her curtain over the earth and to sprinkle the sky with stars. Then slaves loudly rail at boatmen, boatmen at slaves : " Bring to here ! " " You're packing in hundreds ! " " Stay, that's enough ! " What with collecting fares and harnessing the mule " a whole hour shps away. Cursed gnats and frogs of the fens drive off sleep, the boatman, soaked in sour wine, singing the while of the girl he left behind, and a passenger <* taking up the refrain. The passenger at last tires and falls asleep, and the lazy boatman
• The mule was to pull the boat through the canal.
"* Some take viator to mean a driver of the mule along the tow-path, but, according to 11. 18, 19, it would seem to be the boatman who drives the mule and who drops his work to take a nap on the bank.
jr 65
HORACE
nauta piger saxo religat stertitque supinus.
iamque dies aderat, nil cum procedere lintrem 20
sentimus, donee cerebrosus prosilit unus
ac mulae nautaeque caput lumbosque saligno
fuste dolat.
Quarta vix demum exponimur hora. ora manusque tua lavimus, Feronia, lympha. milia turn pransi tria repimus atque subimus 25
impositum saxis late candentibus Anxur. hue venturus erat Maecenas optimus atque Cocceius, missi magnis de rebus uterqu& legati, aversos soliti componere amicosf hie oculis ego nigra meis collyria lippus 30
illinere. interea Maecenas advenit atque Cocceius Capitoque simul Fonteius, ad unguem factus homo, Antoni non ut magis alter amicus.
Fundos Aufidio Lusco praetore libenter linquimus, insani ridentes praemia scribae, 35
praetextam et latum clavum prunaeque vatillum. in Mamurrarum lassi deinde urbe manemus, Murena praebente domum, Capitone culinam. postera^ lux oritur multo gratissima : namque Plotius et Varius^ Sinuessae Vergiliusque 40
occurrunt, animae qualis neque candidiores terra tulit, neque quis me sit devinctior alter.
^ proxima a. * varus K, II.
<» The word soliti implies at least one previous experience of this sort and probably refers to the treaty of Brundisium, 40 B.C.
* The Latin expression involves a metaphor from sculpture, for the artist would pass his finger-nail over the marble, to test the smoothness of its joints.
« The chief official at Fundi was doubtless an aedile
66
SATIRES, I. V. 19-42
turns his mule out to graze, ties the reins to a stone, and drops a-snoring on his back. Day was now da\vning when we find that our craft was not under way, until one hot-headed fellow jumps out, and >vith willow cudgel bangs mule and boatman on back and head.
23 At last, by ten o'clock we are barely landed, and wash face and hands in thy stream, Feronia. Then we breakfast, and crawhng on three miles chmb up to Anxur, perched on her far-gleaming rocks. Here Maecenas was to meet us, and noble Cocceius, envoys both on business of import, and old hands at setthng feuds between friends." Here I put black ointment on my sore eyes. Meanwhile Maecenas arrives and Cocceius, and with them Fonteius Capito, a man without flaw,* so that Antony has no closer friend.
^ Fundi, \nth its "praetor"" Aufidius Luscus, we quit with delight, laughing at the crazy clerk's gew- gaws, his bordered robe, broad stripe, and pan of charcoal. Next, wearied out we stop in the city of the Mamurrae,"* Murena proxiding shelter and Capito the larder. Most joyful was the morrow's rising, for at Sinuessa there meet us Plotius, Varius, and Virgil, whitest souls earth ever bore, to whom none can be more deeply attached than I. O the
but as he gave himself airs, Horace dubs him " praetor." Aufidius, Uke Horace himself, had once been a humble tcriba at Rome. In his present exalted position he wears a toga with a purple border, and a tunic with a broad purple stripe. Burning charcoal is carried before him, probably in case some ceremonial sacrifice is seen to be appropriate on the occasion of this visit of Maecenas.
"* Mamurra, a notorious favourite of Julius Caesar, came from Formiae.
67
HORACE
o qui complexus et gaudia quanta fuerunt ! nil ego contulerim^ iucundo sanus amico.
Proxima Campano ponti quae villula, tectum 45 praebuit, et paroehi quae debent ligna salemque. hinc muli Capuae clitellas tempore ponunt. lusum it Maecenas, dormitum ego Vergiliusque : namque pila lippis inimicum et ludere crudis. hinc nos Coccei recipit plenissima villa, 50
quae super est Caudi^ cauponas.
Nunc mihi paucis Sarmenti scurrae pugnam Messique Cicirri, Musa, velim memores, et quo patre natus uterque contulerit litis. Messi clarum genus Osci ; Sarmenti domina exstat : ab his maioribus orti 55 ad pugnam venere. prior Sarmentus : " equi te esse feri similem dico." ridemus, et ipse Messius " accipio," caput et movet. " o tua cornu ni foret exsecto frons," inquit, " quid faceres, cum sic mutilus minitaris^ ? " at illi foeda cicatrix 60 saetosam laevi frontem turpaverat oris. Campanum in morbum, in faciem permulta iocatus, pastorem saltaret uti Cyclopa rogabat : '
nil illi larva* aut tragicis opus esse cothurnis ^ praetulerim C. • caudi BK Porph. : claudi most itss. • miniteris DEM. * barba DR.
« The villula was probably a small house built for the convenience of persons travelling on public business, where officers were stationed whose duty it was to provide ordinary necessaries. For these officers Horace uses a Greek word (paroehi from irap^x^tv), the regular Latin word, according to Porphyrio, being copiarii.
* In mock-heroic style Horace describes a battle of wit between two buffoons, one of whom, Sarmentus, is a freed- man of Maecenas, while the other, Cicirrus, or " game-cock," is of the native Oscan stock of Samnium.
68
Satires, i. v. 43-64
embracing ! O the rejoicing ! Nothing, so long as I am in my senses, would I match \\ith the joy a friend may bring.
•* The little house close to the Campanian bridge put a roof above our heads, and the state-purveyors," as in duty bound, furnished fuel and salt. Next, at Capua, our mules lay aside their saddle-bags at an early hour. Maecenas goes off to ball-playing, V'irgil and I to sleep, for such play is hard on the sore-eyed and the dyspeptic. Another stage, and we are t^en in at the well-stocked villa of Cocceius, lying above the inns of Caudium.
^^ Now, O Muse, recount in brief the contest of Sarmentus the jester and Messius Cicirrus, and the lineage of the two who engaged in the fray.* Messius was of famous stock, an Oscan ; the mistress of Sarmentus is still hving : from such ancestry sprung,* they entered the lists. And first Sarmentus : " You, I say, are Uke a wild horse." We laugh, and Messius himself, " I grant you," and tosses his head. " Oh ! ' says Sarmentus, " if only the horn had not been cut out of your forehead, what would you do, when you can threaten, thus dehorned ? " Now an unsightly scar had disfigured the left side of his bristly brow. With many a joke on his Campanian disease •* and on his face, he begged him to dance the Cyclops shepherd-dance : he would need neither mask nor
• The scholiast on Juvenal, Sat. v. 3, tells us that a certain Sarmentus had been a slave, who on the proscription and death of his master Favonius had been bought by Maecenas and set free. If the Sarmentus of this scene is the same man, the domina is the widow of Favonius.
■ The scholiast in Cruquius explains this of warts, which left scars when removed.
G9
HORACE
multa Gicirrus ad haec : donasset iamne catenam 65 ex voto Laribus, quaerebat ; scriba quod esset, nilo deterius dominae^ ius esse ; rogabat denique, cur umquam fugisset, cui satis una farris libra foret, gracili sic tamque pusillo. prorsus iucunde cenam producimus illam. 70
Tendimus hinc recta^ Beneventum ; ubi sedulus hospes paene macros arsit dum turdos versat in igni ; nam vaga per veterem dilapso^ flamma culinam Volcano summum properabat lambere tectum, convivas avidos cenam servosque timentis 76
tum rapere atque omnis restinguere velle videres.
Incipit ex illo montis Apulia notos ostentare mihi, quos torret* Atabulus et quos numquam erepsemus, nisi nos vicina Trivici villa recepisset, lacrimoso non sine fumo, 80
udos cum foliis ramos urente camino. hie ego mendacem stultissimus usque puellam ad mediam noctem exspecto : somnus tamen aufert intentum veneri ; tum immundo somnia visu nocturnam vestem maculant ventremque supinom. 85
Quattuor hinc rapimur viginti et milia raedis, mansuri oppidulo, quod versu dicere non est, signis perfacile est : venit vilissima rerum hie aqua ; sed panis longe pulcherrimus, ultra callidus ut soleat umeris portare viator. 90
^ domini C. ^ recte D, //.
» delapso CK, II. * terret CE.
' Altino is to-day the local Apulian term for the hot scirocco, which Horace calls the " Atabulus."
'' The name is not recorded, at least correctly, but Horace has in mind a passage in Lucilius, viz. :
I
SATIRES, I. V. 65-90
tragic buskin. Much had Cicirrus to say to this. Had he yet, he inquired, made a votive offering of his chain to the Lares ? Clerk though he was, yet his mistress's claim was not less strong. At the last he asked why he had ever run away, since a pound of meal was enough for one so lean and so puny. Right merrily did we prolong that supper.
'^ Thence we travel straight to Beneventum, where our bustling host was nearly burned out while turning lean thrushes over the fire. For as Vulcan slipped out through the old kitchen the vagrant flame hastened to hck the roof. Then you might have seen the hungry guests and frightened slaves snatching up the dinner, and all trying to quench the blaze.
" From this point Apulia begins to show to my eyes her familiar hills, which the Altino " scorches, and over which we had never crawled had not a \'illa near Trivicum taken us in, but not without smoke that brought tears, as green wood, leaves and all, was burning in the stove. Here I, utter fool that I am, await a faithless girl right up to midnight. Then, after all, sleep carries me off still thinking upon love, and evil dreams assail me.
®* From here we are whirled in carriages four and twenty miles, to spend the night in a little to-WTi I cannot name in verse, though 'tis quite easy to define it by tokens.* Here water, nature's cheapest product, is sold, but the bread is far the best to be had, so that the kno^^ing traveller is wont to shoulder
servorum est festus dies hie quern plane hexametro versu non dicere possis
(vi. 228, ed. Marx), "This is the slaves' festal day, which one cannot freely name in hexameter verse."
71
HORACE
nam Canusi lapidosus (aquae non ditior urna), qui locus a forti Diomede est conditus olim.^ flentibus hinc Varius discedit maestus amicis.
Inde Rubos fessi pervenimus, utpote longum carpentes iter et factum corruptius imbri. 95
postera tempestas melior, via peior ad usque Bari moenia piscosi. dein^ Gnatia lymphis iratis exstructa dedit risusque iocosque, dum flamma sine tura liquescere limine sacro persuadere cupit. credat^ ludaeus Apella, 100
non ego : namque deos didici securum agere aevum, nee, si quid miri faciat natura, deos id tristis ex alto caeli demittere* tecto. Brundisium longae finis chartaeque viaeque est.
* Line 92 was deleted by Bentley. * dehinc, //.
» credet CK Goth. « dimittere BE.
" This implies that Gnatia had no springs. Pliny (N.H. ii. Ill) mentions the miracle of wood, placed on a sacred stone, taking fire spontaneously. The stone would seem to have been at the entrance of a temple.
* The Jews, who were very numerous in Rome under
7«
SATIRES, I. V. 91-104
a load for stages beyond ; for at Caniisium, a place founded long ago by brave Diomede, it is gritty, and as to water, the town is no better off by a jugful. Here Varius leaves us, to the grief of his weeping friends.
^* Thence we come to Rubi, very weary after covering a long stage much marred by the rain. Next day's weather was better, but the road worse, right up to the walls of Barium, a fishing town. Then Gnatia, built under the wrath of the water- nymphs," brought us laughter and mirth in its effort to convince us that frankincense melts v\"ithout fire at the temple's threshold. Apella, the Jew,^ may beheve it, not I ; for I " have learned that the gods lead a care-free life," * and if Nature works any marvel, the gods do not send it dovvn from their heavenly home aloft when in surly mood ** ! Brun- disium is the end of a long story and of a long joiurney.
Augustus, were regarded by the Romans as peculiarly superstitious.
* Horace is quoting from Lucretius, De rerum not. ▼. 82.
* Horace uses tristis of the gods as Virgil speaks of Charon as tristis, Aen. \\. 315.
78
VT
ON SOCIAL AND POLITICAL AMBITION
This Satire, addressed to the poet's patron, is mainly autobiographical. Horace, now an intimate friend of Maecenas, has become an object of suspicion and envy to many people whose social and pohtical aspirations were unsatisfied. He therefore disclaims such ambition for himself, sets forth the principles upon which Maecenas chooses his friends, and pays a noble tribute to his o^ti father, to whom he is indebted for all that he is, both in character and education. Himself the son of a freedman, he has no wish to change places with a man of patrician birth. As it is, he lives a simple and care-free life, and is far more happy than if he had the burden of noble ancestry on his shoulders.
As this interesting Satire contains no allusion to the Sabine farm, it was probably composed before 33 B.C., the year when Maecenas presented him with the estate. In its subject and treatment it is to be grouped with the third, fourth, and tenth Satires. It is at once a defence of Maecenas, who did not look down upon men of lowly birth, and of the poet himself, who is not ashamed of his hiunble origin, but is proud of his freedman father, who had given him the intellectual and moral training which won for him a place in the circle of his patron.
For the influence of LuciUus upon this Satire see Introduction C.
75
VT.
Non quia, Maecenas, Lydorum quidquid Etruscos incoluit finis, nemo generosior est te, nee quod avus tibi maternus fuit atque paternus, olim qui magnis legionibus imperitarent,^ ut plerique solent, naso suspendis adunco 6
ignotos,2 ut^ me libertino patre natum.*
Cum referre negas quali sit quisque parente natus, dum ingenuus, persuades hoc tibi vere, ante potestatem Tulli atque ignobile regnum multos saepe viros nullis maioribus ortos 10
et vixisse probos, amplis et honoribus auctos ; contra Laevinum, Valeri genus, unde Superbus Tarquinius regno pulsus^ fugit, unius assis non umquam pretio pluris licuisse, notante iudice quo nosti populo, qui stultus honores 15
saepe dat indignis et famae servit ineptus, qui stupet in titulis et imaginibus. quid oportet nos facere a volgo longe longeque® remotos ?
Namque esto, populus Laevino mallet honorem
^ imperitarint, I, accepted by Vollmer.
* ignoto Palmer. * ut D: aut aM, II; aut ut C: at ut E.
* natus or natos aCDE.
* pulsus regno CK. * lateque Goth.
" Cf. Odes, i. 1. 1. The Etruscans, according to the tradition commonly accepted in antiquity, came from Lydia.
'' The reference is to Servius Tuliius, the sixth king of Rome, said to have been the son of a female slave. See, however, Livy, i. 39. 5.
76
Satire VI "-^
Though of all the Lydians that are settled in Tuscan lands none is of nobler birth than you," and though grandsires of yours, on your mother's and father's side alike, conunanded mighty legions in days of old, yet you, Maecenas, do not, hke most of the world, curl up your nose at men of unknown birth, men hke myself, a freedman's son.
' ^\^len you say it matters not who a man's parent is, if he be himself free-born, you rightly satisfy yourself of this, that before the reign of Tulhus and his lowly kingship,'' numbers of men, sprung from ancestors of no account, often hved upright hves and were honoured with high office ; that Lae\inus, on the other hand, descendant of that Valerius through whom Tarquin the Proud was driven from his throne to exile, was never valued higher by the price of a single penny, even when rated by the people — the judge you know so well, who in folly often gives office to the unworthy, is stupidly enslaved to fame, and dazzled by titles of honour and waxen masks." What, then, should we •* do, we who are set far, far above the \Tilgar ?
^ For let us grant that the people would rather
* Waxen masks of ancestors ^^-ith accompanying in- scriptions would imply the antiquity and nobility of one's family.
' The plural is generic, meaning intelligent and educated people.
77
HORACE
quam Decio mandare novo, censorque moveret 20
Appius, ingenuo si non essem patre natus :
vel merito, quoniam in propria non pelle quiessem.
sed fulgente trahit constrictos Gloria curru
non minus ignotos generosis. quo tibi, Tilli,
sumere depositum clavum fierique tribuno ? 25
invidia accrevit, privato quae minor esset.
nam ut quisque insanus nigris medium impediit^ crus
pellibus et latum demisit^ pectore clavum,
audit continuo : " quis homo hie est^ ? " " quo patre
natus ? " ut* si qui aegrotet quo morbo Barrus, haberi 30
et cupiat formosus, eat quacumque, puellis iniciat^ curam quaerendi singula, quali sit facie, sura, quali pede, dente, capillo : sic qui promittit civis, urbem sibi curae, imperium fore et Italiam, delubra deorum, 35
quo patre sit natus, num ignota matre inhonestus, omnis mortalis curare et quaerere cogit.^ " tune, Syri, Damae, aut Dionysi filius, audes deicere de saxo civis aut tradere Cadmo ? " " at Novius collega gradu post me sedet uno : 40
1 impediit Porph. : impediet uss. ^ dimisit DEK.
3 est aDE : et CK: aut Bentley. * et 0.
' inliciat CK Goth. * cogit^: cogat Af5S.
" A reference to the well-known fable of the Ass in the Lion's Skin. P. Decius Mus, first of a plebeian family to become a consul, sacrificed himself in the Latin war (Livj', viii. 9 ).
* The laticlave or broad stripe (c/. Sat. i. 5. 36) of purple on the tunic was a mark of the senatorian order. Tillius, according to the scholiasts, was removed from the senate
78
SATIRES, I. VT. 20-40
give office to a Laevinus than to an unknown Decius, and that an Appius as censor would strike out my name if I were not the son of a free-born father — and quite rightly, for not having stayed quiet in my own skin." The truth is, Vanity drags all, bound to her gUttering car, the unkno^^'n no less than the well known. What good was it to you, TilUus, to assume the stripe once doffed and become a tribune ? ' Envy fastened on you afresh, but would be less, were you in a private station. For as soon as any man is so crazy as to bind the black thongs half way up his leg,* and to drop the broad stripe dowTi his breast, at once he hears : " What fellow is this ? What was his father ? " Just as, if one should suffer from the same malady as Barrus, and long to be thought handsome, then wherever he went he would make the girls eager to ask about details — what his face was like, his ankle, his foot, his teeth, his hair : so he who takes it upon himself to look after his fellow-citizens and the city, the empire and Italy and the temples of the gods, compels aU the world to take an interest, and to ask who was his father, and whether he is dishonoured through an unknown mother. " Do you, the son of a S}tus, a Dama, a Dionysius,'* dare to fling from the rock* or to hand over to Cadmus citizens of Rome ? " " But," you say, " Novius, my colleague, sits one row
by Julius Caesar, but after the Dictator's death resumed this dignity and also became a military tribune.
* Senators wore a peculiar shoe, fastened by four black thongs bound about the leg.
* These are common slave-names.
' i.e. the Tarpeian rock from which criminals were sometimes thrown by order of a tribune. Cadmus was a public executioner.
79
HORACE
namque est ille, pater quod erat meus." " hoc tibi
Paulus et Messalla videris ? at hie, si plostra ducenta concurrantque foro tria funera magna, sonabit^ cornua quod vincatque tubas : saltern tenet hoc nos."
Nunc ad me redeo hbertino patre natum, 45
quem rodunt onines hbertino patre natum,^ nunc, quia sim^ tibi, Maecenas, convictor, at ohm, quod mihi pareret legio Romana tribuno. dissimile hoc ihi est, quia non, ut forsit honorem iure mihi invideat quivis, ita te quoque amicum, 50 praesertim cautum dignos adsumere, prava ambitione procul. fehcem dicere non hoc me possim,* casu quod te sortitus amicum : nulla etenim mihi te fors obtulit ; optimus olim Vergilius, post hunc Varius, dixere quid essem. 55 ut veni coram, singultim pauca locutus, infans namque pudor prohibebat plura profari, non ego me claro natum patre, non ego circum me Satureiano vectari rura caballo, sed quod eram narro. respondes, ut tuus est mos, 60 pauca : abeo, et revocas nono post mense iubesque esse in amicorum numero. magnum hoc ego duco, quod placui tibi, qui turpi secernis honestum non patre praeclaro, sed vita et pectore puro.
Atqui si vitiis mediocribus ac mea^ paucis 65
* funera, magna sonabit ; so Palmer, Wickham, Vollmer.
* natus aD. " sum D.
* possunt com. Cruq., Bentley. * aut mea, //.
« Seats in the theatre were assigned according to rank, knights occupying the first fourteen rows, and the senators the orchestral space.
* Horace was a tribune in the army of Brutus, but each legion had six tribunes.
80
SATIRES, I. VI. 41-65
behind me," for he is only what my father was." " Do you therefore fancy yourself a Paulus or a Messala ? Why, this Novius, if two hundred carts and three big funerals come clashing in the Forum, will shout loud enough to drown horns and trumpets : that at least takes with us."
\*^ Now to return to myself, " son of a freedman father," whom all carp at as " son of a freedman father" — now, because I consort with you, Maecenas ; but in other days, because as tribune I had a Roman legion under my command.'' This case and that are different, for though perchance anyone may rightly grudge me the office, yet he should not grudge me your friendship as well — the less so, as you are cautious to choose as friends only the worthy, who stand aloof from base self-seeking. Fortunate I could not call myself as having won your friendship by some chance ; for 'twas no case of luck throwing you in my way ; that best of men, Virgil, some time ago, and after him V'arius, told you what manner of man I was. On coming into your presence I said a few faltering words, for speechless shame stopped me from saying more. My tale was not that I was a famous father's son, not that I rode about my estate on a Saturian " steed : I told you what I was. As is your way, you answered little and I withdrew ; then, nine months later, you sent for me again and bade me join your friends. I count it a great honour that I pleased you, who discern between fair and foul, not by a father's fame, but by blamelessness of life and heart.
*^ And yet, if the flaws that mar my otherwise
sound nature are but trifling and few in number,
* i.e. Tarentine, Saturium being the district in which
Tarentum was founded. The adjective belongs quite as
much to rura as to caballo.
Q 81
HORACE
mendosa est natura, alioqui^ recta, velut si
egregio inspersos reprehendas corpore naevos,
si neque avaritiam heque sordes nec^ mala lustra
obiciet vere quisquam mihi, purus et insons,
ut me collaudem, si et vivo carus amieis ; 70
causa fuit pater his, qui macro pauper agello
noluit in Flavi ludum me mittere, magni
quo pueri magnis e' centurionibus orti,
laevo suspensi loculos tabulamque lacerto,
ibant octonos referentes Idibus aeris,* 75
sed puerum est ausus Romam portare, docendum
artis, quas doceat quivis eques atque senator
semet prognatos. vestem servosque sequentis,
in magno ut populo, si qui^ vidisset, avita
ex re praeberi sumptus mihi crederet illos. 80
ipse mihi custos incorruptissimus omnis
circum doctores aderat.^ quid multa ? pudicum,
qui primus virtutis honos, servavit^ ab omni
non solum facto, verum opprobrio quoque turpi ;
nee timuit, sibi ne vitio quTs^ verteret, olim 85
si praeco parvas aut, ut fuit ipse, coactor
mercedes sequerer : neque ego essem questus : at
hoc'' nunc laus illi debetur et a me gratia maior^
Nil me paeniteat sanum patris huitis, eoque non, ut magna dolo factum negat esse suo pars, 90 quod non ingenuos habeat clarosque parentis, sic me defendam. longe mea discrepat istis
^ alioquin, /, hut cf. Sat. i. 4. 4. • nee (mala) V: ac mss. : aut Porph., Bentley. ' et a.
* octonis . . . aera M, II, retained by Wickham. ^ si quis K, Goth. * servabat, II. ^ ad hoc n^s.
" The pupils paid their small school fee on the Ides of each month. The reading octonis would imply that the school-year lasted eight months.
82
SATIRES, T. VT. 66-92
even as you might find fault with moles spotted over a comely person — if no one "will justly lay to my charge avarice or meanness or lewdness ; if, to venture on self-praise, my hfe is free from stain and guilt and I am loved by my friends — I owe this to my father, who, though poor with a starvehng farm, would not send me to the school of Fla\-ius, to w^hich grand boys used to go, sons of grand centurions, with slate and satchel slung over the left arm, each carrying his eightpence on the Ides" — nay, he boldly took his boy off to Rome, to be taught those studies that any knight or senator would have his own offspring taught. Anyone who saw my clothes and attendant slaves — as is the way in a great city * — would have thought that such expense was met from ancestral wealth. He himself, a guardian true and tried, went with me among all my teachers. Need I say more ? He kept me chaste — and that is virtue's first grace — free not only from every deed of shame, but from all scandal. He had no fear that some day, if I should follow a small trade as crier or like himself as tax- collector, somebody would count this to his discredit. Nor should I have made complaint, but, as it is, for this I owe him praise and thanks the more. |
^ Never while in my senses could I be ashamed of such a father, and so I will not defend myself, as would a goodly nmnber,who say it is no fault of theirs that they have not free-born and famous parents. Far different from this is what I say and what I think :
* I take this to mean that on going to Rome Horace's father did as the Romans did. At Venusia Horace would have gone unattended, carrying liis own books. Some, how- ever, take the words in magno ut populo with vidisset, i.e. " had anyone noticed — so far «s one could notice such things in a great throng."
83
HORACE
et vox et ratio : nam si natura iuberet
a certis annis aevum remeare peractum
atque alios legere ad fastum quoscumque parentis 95
optaret sibi quisque,^ meis contentus honestos^
fascibus et sellis nollem mihi sumere, demens
iudicio volgi, sanus fortasse tuo, quod
nollem onus baud umquam solitus portare molestum.
nam mihi continuo maior quaerenda foret res 100
atque salutandi plures, ducendus et unus
et comes alter, uti ne solus rusve peregreve'
exirem, plures calones atque caballi
pascendi, ducenda petorrita. nunc mihi curto
ire licet mulo vel si libet usque Tarentum, 105
mantica cui lumbos onere ulceret atque eques armos :
obiciet nemo sordes mihi, quas tibi, Tilli,
cum Tiburte via praetorem quinque sequuntur
te pueri, lasanum portantes oenophorumque.
hoc ego commodius quam tu, praeclare senator, 110
milibus atque aliis vivo.
Quacumque libido est, incedo solus ; percontor quanti bolus ac far ; fallacem Circum vespertinumque* pererro saepe Forum ; adsisto divinis ; inde domum me ad porri et ciceris refero laganique catinum. 115
cena ministratur pueris tribus, et lapis albus pocula cum cyatho duo sustinet ; adstat echinus vilis, cum patera gutus, Campana supellex. deinde eo dormitum, non sollicitus mihi quod eras
* si quisque, II. * (h)onustos.
■ peregre aut M8S.: Housman conjectures ne rus solusve peregre. * vespertinusque.
" The fasces were insignia of the consuls and praetors ; the curule sellae were a privilege of the aediles and censors as well.
84
SATIRES, I. VI. 93-119
for if after a given age Nature should call upon us to traverse our past lives again, and to choose in keeping with our pride any other parents each might crave — content >\ith my own, I should dechne to take those adorned with the rods and chairs of state." And though the world would deem me mad, you, I hope, would think me sane for dechning to shoulder a burden of trouble to which I have never been ac- customed. For at once I should have to enlarge my means, to welcome more callers, to take one or two in my company so as not to go abroad or into the country alone ; I should have to keep more pages and ponies, and take a train of wagons. To-day, if I will, I may go on a bob-tailed mule even to Taren- tum, the saddle-bag's weight galhng his loins, and the rider his withers. No one will taunt me with meanness as he does you, praetor Tillius,^ when on the Tibur road five slaves follow you, carrying a commode and case of wine. In this and a thousand other ways I live in more comfort than you, illustrious senator.
^^ Wherever the fancy leads, I saunter forth alone. I ask the price of greens and flour ; often toward evening I stroll round the cheating Circus * and the Forum. I listen to the fortune-tellers ; then home- ward betake me to my dish of leeks and peas and fritters. My supper is served by three boys, and a white stone-slab supports two cups with a ladle. By them stand a cheap salt-cellar, a jug and saucer of Campanian ware. Then I go off to sleep, untroubled with the thought that I must rise early on the morrow
' Apparently the man mentioned in 1. 24 above. * The stalls in the outer wall of the Circus Maximus were used by fortune-tellers, confidence-men, and the like.
85
HORACE
surgendum sit mane, obeundus Marsya, qui se 120
voltum ferre negat Noviorum posse minoris.
ad quartam iaceo ; post banc vagor ; aut ego, lecto
aut scripto quod me taciturn iuvet, unguor olivo,
non quo fraudatis immundus Natta lucernis.
ast ubi me fessum sol acrior ire lavatum 125
admonuit, fugio Campum lusumque trigonem.^
pransus non avide, quantum interpellet inani
ventre diem durare, domesticus otior.
Haec est vita solutorum misera ambitione gravique ; his me consolor victurum^ suavius ac si 130
quaestor avus pater atque meus patruusque^ fuissent.
^ fugio campum lusumque trigonem V^, Goth, (lusitque): fugio rabiosi tempora signi ass. Porph. Bannier {in Rh. M. Ixxiii. neue Folge, pp. 65 ff.) makes the interesting claim that both readings are correct, the original passage having been such as the following :
admonuit fugio campum lusumque trigonem providus et fugio rabiosi tempora signi. * victurus Goth. ' For patruus Biicheler conjectured praetor.
" A statue of the Satyr Marsyas stood in the Forum near the praetor's tribunal. The usurer Novius had his table
86
SATIRES, I. VI. 120-131
and pass before Marsyas, who says he cannot stand the face of No\aus Junior .<» I he a-bed till ten ; then I take a stroll, or after reading or writing something tliat will please me in quiet moments I anoint myself with oil — not such as filthy Natta steals from the lamps- But when I am weary and the fiercer sun has w^'irned me to go to the baths, I shun the Campus and the game of ball.* After a slight luncheon, just enough to save me from an all-day fast, I idle away time at home.
^^ Such is the life of men set free from the burden of unhappy ambition. Thus I comfort myself with the thought that I shall hve more happily than if my grandfather had been a quaestor, and my father and uncle Ukewise.
near by and so gives the poet an opportunity to put his own interpretation on the attitude or facial expression of Marsyas, who, after defeat in a musical contest with Apollo, was flayed alive. Extant copies of Myron's Mars5'as show him with right hand uplifted and a face expressive of pain.
* The trigo was a game of ball in which three players took part. The phrase lusum trigonem means properly "the playing of ball," and implies a transitive use of lud^re (ef. " post decisa negotia," Ep. i. 7. 59 ; also Sat. ii. 3. 248). See Jefferson Elmore, A.P.A. xxxv. p. xciL
87
VII
HO FOR A REGICIDE!
The incident recorded here occurred, probably in 43 B.C., at Clazomenae in Asia Minor, when Brutus, as propraetor of the Pro\'ince, was holding court, and Horace was ser\ing as tribune in his army. The poem gives us a single scene, a battle of ^^it between two litigants, RupiUus Rex, of Praeneste, a man proscribed by Antony and Octa\'ius, and Persius, a half-Greek, half-Roman merchant of Clazomenae. The main point of the story is found in Persius' pun on the name Rex (king), which he cleverly hnks up with the propraetor and the propraetor's most famous ancestor. The latter had driven out of Rome the ancient Tarquin kings, and Brutus himself had slain Caesar.
This little poem, similar, perhaps, to the farcical and dramatic scenes of early Satura, is probably the first of Horace's Sermones, and must have been com- posed before the battle of Philippi (42 b.c ), and the tragic death of Brutus.
89
VII.
Proscripti Regis Rupili pus atque venenum hybrida quo pacto sit Persius ultus, opinor omnibus et lippis notum et tonsoribus esse. Persius hie permagna negotia dives habebat Clazomenis, etiam litis cum Rege molestas, 6
durus homo atque odio qui posset vincere Regem, confidens, tumidus,-"^ adeo sermonis amari, Sisennas, Barros ut equis praecurreret albis.
Ad Regem redeo. postquam nihil inter utrumque convenit (hoc etenim sunt omnes iure molesti, 10 quo fortes, quibus adversum bellum incidit : inter Hectora Priamiden, animosum atque inter Achillem ira fuit capitalis, ut ultima divideret mors, non aliam ob causam, nisi quod virtus in utroque summa fuit : duo si discordia vexet inertis, 15
aut si disparibus bellum incidat, ut Diomedi cum Lycio Glauco, discedat pigrior,^ ultro muneribus missis), Bruto praetore tenente ditem Asiam, Rupili et Persi par pugnat, uti non
^ tumidusque, II. ' pigrior VKi pulchrior if 55.
« He was half-Greek and half-Roman.
90
Satire VII
How the mongrel " Persius took vengeance on the foul and venomous Rupilius Rex (" king "), an out- lawed man, is a tale well known, methinks, to every blear-eyed man and barber.'' This Persius, a rich man, had a very large business at Clazomenae, also a troublesome lawsuit with Rex. A rough man he was, the sort that in ofFensiveness could outdo Rex, bold and blustering and so bitter of speech as to outstrip a Sisenna or a Barrus with the speed of white coiu-sers."
^ To return to Rex. When he and Persius could come to no terms — (for quarrelsome folk all claim the same right as heroes who meet front to front in battle : between Hector, son of Priam, and the wrathful Achilles, the anger was so deadly, that death alone could part them, and for this sole reason that the valour of each was supreme : if two cowards chance to quarrel, or an ill-matched pair meet in war, as Diomede and Lycian Glaucus,'* the less valiant man gives way and sends gifts to boot) — well, when Brutus was praetor in charge of rich Asia, Persius
* The shops of apothecaries and barbers were favourite places of gossip.
* A proverbial expression, white horses being regarded as the swiftest of their kind. Cf. Virgil, Aen. xii. 83 ff.
•* See Index under Glaucus. The reference is to a famous scene in the sixth Iliad.
91
HORACE
compositum^ melius cum Bitho Bacchius. in ius^ 20 acres procurrunt,^ magnum spectaculum uterque.
Persius exponit causam ; ridetur ab omni conventu ; laudat Brutum laudatque cohortem ; solem Asiae Brutum appellat, stellasque salubris appellat comites, excepto Rege ; Canem ilium. 25 invisum agricolis sidus, venisse. ruebat flumen ut hibernum, fertur quo rara securis. tum Praenestinus salso multoque* fluenti expressa arbusto regerit convicia, durus vindemiator et invictus, cui saepe viator 30
cessisset magna compellans voce cuculum.
At Graecus, postquam est Italo perfusus aceto, Persius exclamat : " per magnos, Brute, deos te oro, qui reges consueris tollere, cur non hunc Regem iugulas ? operum hoc, mihi crede, tuorum est." 35
^ compositus DK. ^ in ius] intus V.
* procurrunt VK, II : concurrunt aDEM.
* multumque, //.
" In par and compositum Horace uses terms appropriate to gladiators, to which class Bacchius and Bithus belonged.
'' i.e. in some mountain gorge, which wood-choppers cannot enter.
92
SATIRES, I. VII. 20-35
and Rupilius clashed, a pair « not less well matched than Bacchius and Bithus. Keenly they rush into court, each wondrous to behold.
^2 Persius sets forth his case : all the assembly laugh. He praises Brutus, he praises his staff. The " sun of Asia " he calls Brutus, and " healthful stars " his suite — all except Rex, who had come like tlie Dog-star, hated of husbandmen. On he rushed like some winter torrent, whither the axe is seldom borne.* Then, in answer to his full flood of wit, the man of Praeneste flings back abuse, the very essence of the vineyard, like some vine-dresser, tough and invincible, to whom the wayfarer has often had to yield, when loudly hooting at him " Cuckoo ! " *
^2 But the Greek Persius, now soused with Italian vinegar, cries out : " By the great gods, I implore you, O Brutus, since it is in your line to take off " kings," why not behead this Rex ? <* This, believe me, is a task meet for you."
• In calling out " Cuckoo ! " the passer-by implies that the vine-dresser is late in his pruning, which should be finished before the cuckoo arrives in the spring.
■* It was a Brutus who had driven out the Tarquins, and it was a Brutus who had slain Caesar.
93
VIII
HOW PRIAPUS PUT WITCHES TO ROUT
Horace lays the scene of this incident in that part of the Esquihne which lay outside the famous Agger, or Mound of Servius, on the north-east side of Rome. In this district there had long been a burial-place, used especially for criminals and paupers, where, among the tombs, witches practised their weird and infernal rites. Here, however, Maecenas, co-operating with Augustus in the work of city improvement, had laid out beautiful gardens, in which he later built himself a palace with a conspicuous tower."
The incident must be supposed to have occurred before the transformation from a squalid and repul- sive site had been completed. A wooden statue, however, of Priapus, the god of gardens, had abeady been set up.
The gruesome story of the witches' incantations comes to a ridiculous end when the wood of the statue cracked, and the noise of the explosion drove the hags away in terror.
The Satire is closely connected in subject with Epodes 5 and 17. Virgil's eighth Eclogue may also be compared, as well as the three Priapea to be found among the minor poems attributed to Virgil.
" Cf. "molem propinquam nubibus arduis," Odes ill. 29. 10.
95
VIII.
Olim truncus eram ficulnus, inutile lignum, cum faber, incertus scamnum faceretne Priapum, maluit esse deum. deus inde ego, furum aviumque maxima formido ; nam fures dextra coercet obscenoque ruber porrectus ab inguine palus ; 5
ast importunas volucres in vertice harundo terret fixa vetatque novis considere in hortis. hue prius angustis eiecta cadavera cellis conservus vili^ portanda locabat in area ; hoc miserae plebi stabat commune sepulcrum, 10 Pantolabo scurrae Nomentanoque nepoti. mille pedes in fronte, trecentos cippus in agrum hie dabat, heredes monumentum ne sequeretur.^ nunc licet Esquiliis habitare salubribus atque Aggere in aprico spatiari, quo^ modo tristes 15
albis informem spectabant ossibus agrum ;
* vilis K, II. ' sequerentur K, IL ' qua Bentley.
« Cf. Isaiah xliv. 10 ff., especially 17 " and the residue thereof he maketh a god."
* A wooden statue of Priapus, the garden-god, was used as a scarecrow.
« On the Esquiline Hill, just outside the Servian Wall, was a cemetery largely used for the pauper and criminal classes. Here, however, Maecenas laid out his Horti, or gardens, which became one of the beauty-spots of Imperial Rome.
<* This verse may come from Lucilius. It is repeated in Sat. ii. 1. 22 and Nomentanus is mentioned in Sat. i. 1. 102.
96
Satire VIII
Once I was a fig- wood stem, a worthless log, when the carpenter, doubtful whether to make a stool or a Priapus, chose that I be a god." A god, then, I became, of thieves and birds the special terror* ; for thieves my right hand keeps in check, and this red stake, protruding from unsightly groin ; while for the mischievous birds, a reed set on my head affrights them and keeps them from hghting in the new park." Hither in other days a slave would pay to have carried on a cheap bier the carcasses of his fellows, cast out from their narrow cells. Here was the common burial-place fixed for pauper folk, for Pantolabus the parasite, and spendthrift Nomentanus.'' Here a pillar assigned a thousand feet frontage and three hundred of depth, and provided that the graveyard should pass to no heirs.* To-day one may live on a wholesome Esquihne, and stroll on the sunny Rampart,^ where of late one sadly looked out on ground ghastly vnth bleaching bones. For myself,
• Horace puts into verse form the common inscription, which defined the dimensions of a plot of ground assigned for burial purposes and often closed with the abbrevi- ated formula H. M. H. N. S. {Hoc monument urn heredes non tequttur).
' This is the famous Agger, an embankment and fosse of nearly a mile in length, which on the Esquiline level was a part of the Servian Wall system.
H 97
HORACE
cum mihi non tantum furesque feraeque suetae hunc vexare locum curae sunt^ atque labori, quantum carminibus quae versant atque venenis humanos animos : has nullo perdere^ possum 20
nee prohibere modo, simul ac vaga Luna decorum protulit OS, quin ossa legant herbasque nocentis.
Vidi egomet nigra succinctam vadere palla Canidiam, pedibus nudis passoque capillo, cum Sagana maiore ululantem : pallor utrasque 25 fecerat horrendas aspectu. scalpere terram unguibus et pullam divellere mordicus agnara coeperunt ; cruor in fossam confusus, ut inde manis elicerent, animas responsa daturas, lanea et effigies erat, altera cerea : maior 30
lanea, quae poenis compesceret inferiorem ; cerea suppliciter stabat, servilibus ut quae iam peritura modis, Hecaten vocat altera, saevam altera Tisiphonen : serpentes atque videres infernas errare canes, Lunamque rubentem, 35
ne foret his testis, post magna latere sepulcra. mentior at si quid, merdis caput inquiner albis corvorum, atque in me veniat mictum atque cacatum lulius et fragilis Pediatia furque Voranus. singula quid memorem, quo pacto alterna loquentes 40 umbrae cum Sagana resonarint^ triste et acutum, utque lupi barbam variae cum dente colubrae abdiderint furtim terris, et imagine cerea largior arserit ignis, et ut non testis inultus
^ sint D. * pellere Heinsiua.
^ resonarint Bentley : resonarent uss.
*• The passage is mock-heroic and based upon the famous scene in the eleventh book of the Odyssey (36 ff.), where the blood poured into a trench brought the spirits up from Erebus. 98
SATIRES, I. viii. 17-44
'tis not so much the tliieves and beasts wont to infest the place that cause me care and trouble, as the witches who with spells and drugs vex human souls : these in no >vise can I bring to naught or stop from gathering bones and harmful herbs, as soon as the roving Moon has uplifted her beauteous face.
^ My own eyes have seen Canidia walk with black robe tucked up, her feet bare, her hair dis- hevelled, shrieking ^vith the elder Sagana. Their sallow hue had made the two hideous to behold. Then they began to dig up the earth with their nails, and to tear a black lamb to pieces with their teeth ; the blood was all poured into a trench, that there- from they might draw the sprites, souls that would give them answers." One image there was of wool, and one of wax, the woollen one the larger, to curb and punish the smaller ; the waxen stood in suppliant guise, as if awaiting death in sla\ish fashion. One witch calls on Hecate, the other on fell Tisiphone. You might see serpents and hell-hounds roaming about, and the blushing Moon, that she might not \%itness such deeds, hiding behind the tall tombs. Nay, if I lie in aught, may my head be defiled by ravens' white ordure, and may Julius and the weak- hng Pediatia and the thief Voranus come to water and befoul me ! Why tell each detail — how in con- verse with Sagana the shades made echoes sad and shrill, how the two stealthily buried in the ground a wolf's beard and the tooth of a spotted snake,* how the fire blazed higher from the image of wax, and how as witness I shuddered at the words and deeds
* With this passage cf. the famous witch scene in Macbeth IT. i.
99
HORACE
horruerim voces Furiarum et facta duarum ? 45
nam displosa sonat quantum vesica pepedi diffissa nate ficus : at illae currere in urbem. Canidiae dentes, altum Saganae caliendrum excidere atque herbas atque incantata lacertis vincula cum magno risuque iocoque videres. 50
100
SATIRES, I. VIII. 45-60
of the two Furies — though not unavenged ? For as loud as the noise of a bursting bladder was the crack when my fig-wood buttock split. Away they ran into town. Then amid great laughter and mirth you might see Canidia's teeth and Sagana's high wig come tumbhng down, and from their arms the herbs and enchanted love-knots.
101
IX
AN UlSm^LCOME COMPANION
While taking a morning stroll, Horace is joined by a mere acquaintance, who insists on accompanying iiim, hoping through closer intimacy to secure an introduction to Maecenas. The poet vainly en- deavoiu-s to shake him off, and it is only when the man's adversary in a lawsuit appears on the scene — a genuine deus ex machina — that Horace is rescued from his unhappy position.
The delightful humour, the skilful dramatic treat- ment of the theme, and the poet's well-estabhshed position in Maecenas's circle which is assiuned, indicate that this is one of the latest Satires, in point of composition, in the first book. It may be compared with the sixth Satire, in which Horace gives an account of his introduction to Maecenas.
For the connexion of this Satire with Lucilius see Introduction C.
103
IX.
Ibam forte Via Sacra, sicut meus est mos nescio quid meditans nugarum, totus in illis. accurrit^ quidam notus mihi nomine tantum, arreptaque manu, " quid agis, dulcissime rerum ? *' " suaviter, ut nunc est," inquam, " et cupio omnia quae vis." 5
Cum adsectaretur, " num quid vis ? " occupo. at ille, " noris nos," inquit ; " docti sumus." hie ego, " pluris hoc," inquam," mihi eris." miserediscedere quaerens, ire modo ocius, interdum consistere, in aurem dicere nescio quid puero, cum sudor ad imos^ 10
manaret talos. " o te, Bolane, cerebri felicem ! " aiebam tacitus, cum quidlibet ille garriret, vicos,^ urbem laudaret.
Ut illi nil respondebam, " misere cupis," inquit, " abire ; iamdudum video ; sed nil agis ; usque tenebo ; 15 persequar* hinc quo nunc iter est tibi." " nil opus est te
^ occurrit.
* Bentley punctuated so as to take cum . . . manaret with aiebam.
' ficos, //, Charisius.
* prosequar D, II, Bentley.
" The Sacra Via was the oldest and most famous street in Rome, running into the Forum ; see Via Sacra in Index.
104
Satire IX
y
I was strolling by chance along the Sacred Way," musing after my fashion ^ on some trifle or other, and wholly intent thereon, when up there runs a man I knew only by name and seizes my hand : " How d'ye do, my dearest fellow ? " " Pretty well, as times are now," I answer, " I hope you get all you want."
* As he kept dogging me, I break in with, "Nothing you want, is there ? "' But he : " You must know me ; I'm a scholar." To this I say, " Then I'll esteem you the more." Dreadfully eager to get away I now walk fast, at times stop short, then whisper a word in my slave's ear, wliile the sweat trickled down to my very ankles. " O Bolanus," I kept saying to myself, " how lucky to have your temper ! " while the fellow rattled on about every- thing, praising the streets and the city.
^^ As I was making him no answer, " You're dread- fully anxious to be off," said he, " I have long seen that ; but it's no use, I'll stick to you ; I'll stay with you to your joiu-ney's end."
" There's no need of your being dragged about ;
^ In view oi forte, Wickham rightly associates sicut . . . mos with meditans, not with Ham. So too Lejay.
• The question num quid vis? is a polite formula of dismissal.
105
HORACE
circnmagi : quendam volo visere non tibi notum ; trans Tiberim longe cubat is, prope Gaesaris hortos." " Nil habeo quod agam et non sum piger : usque sequar te,"
Demitto auriculas, ut iniquae mentis asellus, 20 cum gravius dorso subiit onus..
Incipit ille : " si bene me novi, non Viscum pluris amicum, non Varium facies : nam quis me scribere pluris aut citius possit versus ? quis membra movere mollius ? invideat quod et Hermogenes, ego^antQ."
Interpellandi locus hie erat : " est tibi mater, 26 cognati, quis te salvo est opus ? "
" Haud mihi quisquam : omnis composui."
" Felices ! nunc ego resto. confice ; namque instat fatum mihi triste, Sabella quod puero cecinit divina.mota^ anus urna : 30
' hunc neque dira venena nee hosticus auferet ensis nee laterum dolor aut tussis nee tarda podagra ; garrulus hunc quando consumet cumque ; loquaces, si sapiat, vitet, simul atque adoleverit aetas.' "
Ventum erat ad Vestae, quarta iam parte diei 36 praeterita, et casu tunc respondere vadato debebat ; quod ni fecisset, perdere litem. " si me amas," inquit, " paulum hie ades."
^ mota divina Bentley.
<» These gardens, on the right bank of the Tiber, were left by Juhus Caesar to the people of Rome.
^ Qualifications despised by Horace ; cf. Sat. i. 4. 12 fF. 0 See Sat. i. 4. 72.
106
SATIRES, I. IX. 17-38
I want to visit a man you do not know. He's ill abed, a long way off across the Tiber, near Caesar's gardens." "
" I've nothing to do, and I'm not a poor walker ; I'll keep on with you to the end."
Down drop my poor ears hke a sulky donkey's, when he has come under a load too heavy for his back.
^ Then he begins : " If I do not deceive myself, you will not think more of Viscus or of Varius as a friend than of me : for who can WTite more verses or write more quickly than I ? * Who can dance more daintily ? Even Hermogenes " might envy my singing."
^ Here was my chance to break in : " Have you a mother or kindred who are dependent upon your welfare ? "
~^^-Net-one ; I have laid them all to rest."
" O happy they ! now I am left. Finish me ; for now draws near to me that sad fate, which a Sabine dame, shaking her divining urn, sang for me in my boyhood :
No wicked drug shall prove his end. No foeman's sword shall death him send, No cough or pleurisy or gout — A chatterbox shall talk him out : And if he's wise, as he grows old. He'll steer quite clear of talkers bold.
^ fWe had come to Vesta's temple, a fourth of the day being now past, and by chance at that hour he was due to give answer to a plaintiff, on pain of losing his suit, should he fail to appear. " As you love me," he says, " do help me here a while ! "
107
HORACE
" Inteream, si aut valeo stare^ aut novi civilia iura ; et propero quo scis."
" Dubius sum quid faciam," inquit, 40 " tene relinquam an rem." " me, sodes." " non
faciam," ille, et praecedere coepit. ego, ut contendere durum^ cum victore, sequor.
" Maecenas quomodo tecum ? " hinc repetit : " paucorum hominum et mentis bene
sanae. nemo dexterius fortuna est usus. haberes 45
magnum adiutorem, posset qui ferre secundas, hunc hominem velles si tradere ; dispeream, ni summosses omnis."
" Non isto vivimus^ illic" quo tu rere modo ; domus hac nee purior ulla est nee magis his aliena malis ; nil mi* officit, inquam, 50 ditior hie aut est quia doctior ; est locus uni cuique suus."
" Magnum narras, vix credibile ! " " atqui^ sic habet."
" Accendis, quare cupiam magis illi proximus esse."
" Velis tantummodo : quae tua virtus, expugnabis ; et est qui vinci possit, eoque 65
difficilis aditus primos habet."
" Haud mihi deero : muneribus servos corrumpam ; non, hodie si exclusus fuero, desistam ; tempora quaeram,
* ista re Verrall. * durum est. ' vivitur.
* mi omitted by VK Qoth. ' atque, //.
108
SATIRES, I. IX. 38-58
" Confound me if I either have strength to st-and up," or know the laws of the land ! and besides I must hurry, you know where."
" I wonder," said he, " what I ought to do, whether to leave my suit or you." " Me, I pray ! " " No, I won't," said he, and started to go ahead. As for me, since 'tis hard to fight with one's master, I follow.
*3 " How stands Maecenas with you," he thus begins afresh, " a man of few friends and right good sense ? No one ever made wiser use of his luck. You might have a strong backer, who could be your understudy, if you would introduce your humble servant. Hang me, if you wouldn't find that you had cleared the field ! "
" We don't live there on such terms as you think. No house is cleaner or more free from such intrigues than that. It never hurts me, I say, that one is richer or more learned than I. Each has his own place."
" That's a strange tale, I can scarce believe it."
" And yet 'tis so."
" You add flame to my desire to get closer to him."
" You have only to wish it ; such is your valour, you will carry the fort. He's a man who can be won, and that is why he makes the first approaches so difficult."
" I'll not fail myself. I'll bribe his slaves. If shut out to-day, I'll not give up. I'll look for the
" As he would have to do in court. That this is the sense of stare seems to follow from valeo. Some, however, take stare as a synonym of adesse, " to appear in court," or as meaning " to be successful," i.e. in law.
109
HORACE
occurram in triviis, deducam. nil sine magno vita labore dedit morta'ibus."
Haec dum agit, ecce 60 Fuscus Aristius occurrit, mihi carus et ilium qui pulchre nosset. consistimus. " unde venis ? " et " quo tendis ? " rogat tt respondet. vellere coepi et pressare^ manu lentissima braechia, nutans, distorquens oculos, ut me eriperet. male salsus 65 ridens dissimulare ; meum iecur urere bilis.^ - " certe nescio'quid secreto velle loqui te aiebas mecum,"
" Memini bene, sed meliore . tempore dicam ; hodie trieesima sabbata : vin tu Curtis ludaeis oppedere ? "
" Nulla mihi," inquam, 70 " religio est."
" At mi ; sum paulo infirmior, unus multorum. ignosces ; alias loquar."
Huncine solem tam nigrum surrexe mihi ! fugit improbus ac me sub cultro linquit.
Casu venit obviu's illi adversarius, et, " quo tu turpissime ? " magna 76 inclamat voce, et " licet antestari ? " ego vero oppono auriculam. rap^t in ius ; clamor utrimque, undique concursus. sic me servavit Apollo.
^ pressare BK, Porph. : prensare V, Bentley. * bellis, //.
<» Probably a quotation from some poet. The sentiment is found as early as Hesiod, Works and Days, 287.
* This is probably pure nonsense, no particular Sabbath being intended. Perhaps, however, the Sabbath fell on the thirtieth of the month.
« A bystander, consenting to act as witness, allowed the
110
SATIRES, I. IX. 59-78
fitting time ; 111 meet him in the streets ; I'll escort him home.
Life grants no boon to man without much toil." "
^ While he is thus running on, lo ! there comes up Aristius Fuscus, a dear friend of mine, who knew the fellow right well. We halt. " Whence come you ? Whither go you ? " he asks and answers. I begin to twitch his cloak and squeeze his arms — they were quite unfeeling — nodding and winking hard for him to save me.; The cruel joker laughed, pretending not to understand. I grew hot with anger. "Surely you said there was something you wanted to tell me in private."
" I mind it well, but I'll tell you at a better time. To-day is the thirtieth Sabbath.* Would you affront the circumcised Jews ? "
" I have no scruples," say I.
" But I have. I'm a somewhat weaker brother, one of the many. You will pardon me ; I'll talk another day."
To think so black a sun as this has shone for me ! The rascal runs away and leaves me under the knife.
'* It now chanced that the plaintiff came face to face ^\ith his opponent. " Where go you, you scoundrel ? " he loudly shouts, and to me : " May I call you as witness ? " I off"er my ear to touch.* He hurries the man to court' There is shouting here and there, and on all sides a running to and fro. Thus was I saved by Apollo.'*
htigant to touch the tip of his ear. The custom was an old one and is referred to in Plautus.
"* Apollo was the god who befriended poets. The ex- pression comes, however, from Homer {Iliad, xx. 443), Tov 5" iirjpira^ev 'AjroXXuv, words which Lucilius had also used.
Ill
X
ON SATIRE
Horace resumes a discussion of the main subject of his fourth Satire, which had brought down con- siderable censure upon him from the critics, who upheld the excellence of early Latin poetry, and to these he now makes reply.
He reminds them that, while he had found fault with Lucilius's verse, he had also credited it with great satiric power. In this he was quite consistent, for one may admire good mimes without holding them to be good poems. You may make people laugh, but you must also have a terse style and a proper mixture of the grave and the gay, such as is seen in the robust writers of Old Attic Comedy, whom Hermogenes and his school never read. But LuciUus is admired for his skill in blending Greek and Latin. " Nonsense ! " cries Horace, " such a mixture is a serious blemish, and no more acceptable in poetry than in oratory " (1-30).
The poet here confesses that at one time he had thought of writing in Greek instead of Latin, but realized in time that this would be like carrying faggots to the forest (31-35).
So while Bibaculus essays something grand and lofty, Horace is less ambitious and turns to a more modest field. If we survey contemporary literature, comedy is pre-empted by Fundanius ; Polho has won 112
SATIRES, I. X.
fame in tragedy and Varius in the epic ; Virgil is simple and charming in his pastorals. Satire alone was open to Horace, for Varro Atacinus and others had tried it and failed, while Horace has met ^nth success, however short he may come of the first in the field (36-4-9).
It is true that Horace had criticized Lucihus, just as Lucihus had pointed out defects in Accius and Ennius. His verse is faulty- — his stream is muddy, he lacks finish, he ■wrote too freely. If we were to compare him with a writer who is carving out a new species of verse quite untouched by the Greeks, we might attribute to him some pohsh, but the fact remains that had he lived in the Augustan age, he would have filed away his roughnesses, and learned " the last and greatest art, the art to blot " (50-71).
A >\Titer should aim at pleasing, not the multitude, but a small circle of good critics. If he wins their approval, he may bid the cheap teachers of the lecture-room go hang ! (72-91).
With this statement of his conviction, Horace puts the finishing touch to his First Book (92).
In this satire Horace is a spokesman for the chief ^vriters of the Augustan era, setting forth some of their ideals in contrast ^vith the ignorance and \'ulgarity of popular scribblers, as represented by men like Tigellius. Among the requisites of good satire Horace speaks of the appropriate use of humour, together Avith the qualities of bre\-ity, clearness, purity of diction and smoothness of composition, all of which are characteristic of the so-called plain style, or genus tenue, of poetry as of orator)', (For a full discussion see papers by Hendrickson and UUman ; also Fiske, Lucilius and Horace, pp. 336 ff.) I 113
X.
[Lucili, quam sis mendosus, teste Catone defensore tuo pervineam, qui male factos emendare parat versus ; hoc lenius ille, quo melior vir est, longe subtilior illo, qui multum puer et loris at funibus udis 6
exoratus, ut esset opem qui ferre poetis antiquis posset contra fastidia nostra, grammaticorum equitum doctissimus. ut redeam illuc : ]i
Nempe incomposito dixi pede currere versus Lucili. quis tarn Lucili fautor inepte est, ut non hoc fateatur ? at idem, quod sale multo urbem defricuit, charta laudatur eadem.
Nee tamen hoc tribuens dederim quoque cetera ; nam^ sic 5
et Laberi mimos ut pulchra poemata mirer. ergo non satis est risu diducere^ rictum
^ LI. 1-8. These awkward verses are found in uss. of class II only, but are not commented on by the scholiasts. Persius, an imitator of Horace, begins his third satire with nempe. In I. 4, vir, used by the writer as a long syllable, appears as vir et in a few later uss.
* num aM, II. * dcducere K, II.
" The first eight lines are regarded as spurious, and the only reason for reproducing them is that they are given in many mss., though not in the best. The Cato referred to is Valerius Cato, a poet and critic of the late Republic, but who the grammaticorum equitum doctissimus was is not known.
114
Satire X i^^
[Lucilius, how faulty you are I will prove clearly by the witness of Cato, your own advocate, who is setting to work to remove faults from your ill-wrought verses. This task is done so much more gently by him, as he is a better man, of much finer taste than the other, who as a boy was ofttimes gently entreated by the lash and moist ropes, so that later he might give aid to the poets of old against oxir present daintiness, when he had become the most learned of pedagogic knights. But to return •* :]
^ To be sure I did say * that the verses of Lucilius run on with halting foot. Who is a partisan of LuciUus so in-and-out of season as not to confess this ? And yet on the self-same page the self-same poet is praised because he rubbed the city down with much salt.
* Yet, while granting this virtue, I would not also allow Mm every other ; for on those terms I should also have to admire the mimes of Laberius as pretty poems.* Hence it is not enough to make your It is surely impossible " by reaching back over the relative clause intervening" to refer these words to Cato, as does Hendrickson, who upholds the genuineness of these verses.
* In Sat. i. 4, which may be compared with this Satire throughout.
' Mimes were dramatic scenes from low life, largely farcical and grotesque in character. Laberius, a Pioman knight, who was compelled by Julius Caesar to act in his own mimes, was no longer living when Horace wrote.
115
HORACE
auditoris ; et est quaedam tamen hie quoque virtus : est brevitate opus, ut currat sententia neu se impediat vei-bis lassas onerantibus auris ; 10
et sermone opus est modo tristi, saepe iocoso, defendente vieem modo rhetoris atque poetae, interdum urbani/ parcentis viribus, atque extenuantis eas consulto. ridicullim acri fortius et melius magnas plerumque secat res. 15 illi soripta quibus comoedia prisca viris est hoc stabant, hoc sunt imitandi ; quos neque pulcher Hermogenes umquam legit neque simius iste nil praeter Calvum et doctus cantare Catullum.
" At magnum fecit, quod verbis Graeca Latinis 20 miscuit."
O seri studiorum, quine putetis difficile et mirum, Rhodio quod Pitholeonti contigit !
" At sermo lingua concinnus utraque suavior, ut^ Chio nota si commixta Falerni est."
Cum versus facias, te ipsum percontor, an et cum 25 dura tibi peragenda rei sit causa Petilli ? scilicet oblitus^ patriaeque patrisque, Latine* cum Pedius causas exsudet Publicola atque
^ urbane, //. ^ et, //.
' oblitos Bentley ; so Holder, Vollmer.
* Latine comm. Cruq. : Latini V, 7, Bentley.
" This, according to Porphyrio, is the Demetrius mentioned in 1. 90 below. Hendrickson thinks it is Bibaculus (CP. xii. p. 87).
* For cantare " to satirize " cf. Sat. ii. 1. 46. These words are not, as commonly believed, said in depreciation of Calvus and Catullus, for there was no opposition toward thera on the part of the Augustan poets. See Rand, " Catullus and the Augustans," Harv. St. xvii. p. 28, and Ullraan, " Horace, Catullus, and Tigellius," C.P. x. pp. 270 ff. 116
SATIRES, I. X. 8-28
hearer grin with laughter— though even in that there is some merit. You need terseness, that the thought may run on, and not become entangled in verbiage that weighs upon wearied ears. You also need a style now grave, often gay, in keeping with the role, now of orator or poet, at times of the wit, who holds his strength in check and husbands it with wisdom. Jesting oft cuts hard knots more forcefully and effectively than gravity. Thereby those great men who wrote Old Comedy won success ; therein we should imitate them — vsTiters whom the fop Hermo- genes has never read, nor that ape," whose skill lies solely in droning Calvus and Catullus.*
^ But that was a great feat," you say, " his mixing of Greek and Latin words."
O ye late learners ! " ye who really think that a hard and wondrous knack, which Pitholeon of Rhodes achieved !
" But a style, where both tongues make a happy blend, has more charm, as when the Falernian wine is mixed with Chian."-
^ In your verse-making only (I put it to your- self), or does the rule also hold good when you have to plead the long, hard case of the defen- dant Petillius ? Would you forsooth forget father- land and father, and, while Pedius Publicola and Corvinus si^at over their causes in Latin, would
' Seri studiorum is a translation of ofifiaSeh, used of those who make a show of their newly acquired knowledge. In the words following, -ne should not be regarded as interrogative. It is an affirmative particle, as Priscian held it to be. Nothing is known about Pitholeon, but Bentley plausibly supposed he was the same as Pitholaus, who assailed Julius Caesar in verse (Suet. Jul. 75).
117
HORACE
Corvinus, patriis intermiscere petita
verba foris malis, Canusini more bilinguis ? ^^30
Atque^ ego cum Graecos facerem, natus mare citra, versiculos, vetuit me tali voce Quirinus, post mediam noctem visus, cum somnia vera : " In silvam non ligna feras insanitis ac si magnas Graecorum malis implere catervas." 35
Turgidus Alpinus iugillat dum Memnona dumque defingit^ Rheni luteum caput, haec ego ludo, quae neque in aede sonent certantia iudice Tarpa, nee redeant iterum atque iterum spectanda^ theatris.
Arguta meretrice potes Davoque Chremeta 40 eludente senem comis garrire libellos unus vivorum, Fun^ani ; Pollio regum facta canit pede ter percusso ; forte epos aQcr, ut nemo, Varius ducit ; molle atque facetum Vergilio adnuerunt^ gaudentes rure Camenae. 45 hoc erat, experto frustra Varrone Atacino atque quibusdam aliis, melius quod scribere possem,^ inventore minor ; neque ego illi detrahere ausim haerentem capiti cum multa laude coronam.
^ atqui Bentley.
^ defingit, / : diffingit K, II, Porph.
* spectata K, II.
* adnuerant a : adnuerint D. * possim, //.
" At Canusium, in Apulia, both Greek and Oscan were spoken. ^^
* A sarcastic reference to M. Furius BibacvRs, who wrote an epic on Caesar's Gallic Wars, and also an Aethiopis, in which Memnon is slain by Achilles. The references would be more intelligible if the poems of Bibaculus were extant, but his bombastic style is clearly parodied. See further. Sat. ii. 5. 41.
* i.e. the Temple of the Muses, where new poetry could be read. For Tarpa see Index, under Maecius.
'' A reference to New Comedy, as handled by Terence. 118
SATIRES, I. X. 29-49
you prefer to jumble with your native speech words imported from abroad, like the Canusian's jargon <» ?
31 I, too, though born this side of the sea, once took to writing verses in Greek; but after midnight, when dreams are true, Quirinus appeared and forbade me with words like these : " 'Tis just as foolish to carry timber to a wood as to ^vish to swell the crowded ranks of the Greeks."
^ So while the pompous poet of the Alps miu-ders* Memnon and botches with mud the head of the Rhine,* I am toying 'vnth these trifles, which are neither to be heard in the Temple" as competing for Tarpa's verdict, nor are to come back again and again to be witnessed on the, stage.
*^ You alone of living poets, Fundanius, can charm us ^v^th the chit-chat of comedies, where the artful mistress and Davus fool old Chremes."* In measure of triple beat Polho sings of kings' exploits .« Sur- passing all in spirit, Varius moulds the valorous epic' To Virgil the Muses rejoicing in rural life have granted simplicity and charm." This satire, which Varro of the Atax and some others had vainly tried, was what I could vncite with more success, though falhng short of the inventor " ; nor would I dare to ■wTcst from him the crown that clings to his brow with so much glory.
• Pollio us^^he iambic trimeter in his tragedies.
f This was written before Virgil had composed his Aeneid.
' A reference to the Eclogues. Professor C. N. Jackson has won wide acceptance for his view that in moUe atqu4 facetum, commonly rendered as " tenderness and grace," Horace refers to distinctive features of the genus tenu4, or plain style of writing {Hare. St. xxv. pp. 117 ff.).
* Lucilius.
119
HORACE
^ p At^ dixi fluere hunc lutulentum, saepe ferentem 50 pliira quidem tollenda relinquendis. age, quaeso,^ tu nihil in magncf doctus reprehendis Homero ? nil comis tragici mutat Lucilius Acci ? non ridet versus Enni gravitate minores,'' cum de se loquitur non ut maiore reprensis ? 65
quid vetat et nosmet Lucili scripta legentis quaerere, num illius, num rerum dnrfi negarit versiculos natura magis factes^t euntis mollius, ac^ si quis, pedibus quid claudere senis, hoc tantum contentus, amet scripsisse ducentos 60 ante cibum versus, totidem cenatus ? Etrusci quale fuit Cassi rapido ferventius amni ingenium, capsis quem fama eft esse librisque ambustum propriis.
Fuerit Lucilius, inquam, comis et urbanus,^ fuerit limatior idem 65
quam rudis et Graecis intacti carminis auctor quamque poetarum seniorum turba : sed ille, si foret hoc nostrum fato delapsus' in aevum, detereret sibi multa, recideret omne quod ultra ^p^fectum traheretur, et in versu faciendo 70
saepe caput scaberet, vivos et roderet unguis.
Saepe stilum vertas, iterum quae digna legi sint scripturus, neque te ut miretur turba labores,
1 at or adj et \l^. ^ quaero, /. ^ minoris Ooth.
* altos Goth. * et a. ® urbanis, //.
' delapsus V, adopted by Vollmer and Lejay : dilatus one Bland., Bentley and generally accepted : dilapsus mss.
" i.e. hexameters. ' On Cassius see p. 277, note *.
« Cf. Sat. 1. 4. 90. The coincidence implies that there the hie is LuciHus. So Tenney Frank in A.J.P. xlvi. (1925) p. 72. <• Cf. Quintihan, x. 1. 93 "satura tota nostra est."
• The phrase stilum verier e means to erase what has been written on the wax tablet, because the blunt end of the 120
SATIRES, I. X. 50-73
^ But I did say his stream runs muddy, and often carries more that you would rather remove than leave beliind. Come, pray, do you, a scholar, criti- cize nothing in the great Homer ? Does your genial Lucihus find nothing to change in the tragedies of Accius ? Does he not laugh at the verses of Ennius as lacking in dignity, though he speaks of himself as no greater than those he has blamed B' And as we read the writings of Lucihus, what forbids us, too, to raise the question whether it was his own genius, or whether it was the harsh nature of his themes * that denied him verses more finished and easier in their flow than if one were to put his thoughts into six feet <» and, content with thds alone, were proud • of having written two hundred hnes before and two hundred after supping ? Such was the gift of Tuscan Cassius,*" more headstrong than a rushing river, whose own books and cases, so 'tis told us, made his funeral pile.
^ Grant, say I, that Lucilius was genial and witty " : grant that he was also more polished than you would expect one to be who was creating a new style quite untouched by the Greeks,** and more polished than the crowd of older poets : yet, had he fallen by fate upon this our day, he would smooth away much of his work, would prune oflP all that trailed beyond the proper limit, and as he wrought his verse he would oft scratch his head and gnaw his nails to the quick.
■^ Often must you turn your pencil to erase/ if you hope to write something worth a second reading, and you must not strive to catch the wonder of the crowd,
stilus was used to smooth out the surface traced by the sharp end.
^ 121
HORACE
contentus paucis lectoribus. an tua demens vilibus^ in ludis dictari carmina malis ? 75
non ego ; nam satis est equitem mihi plaudere, ut
audax, contemptis aliis, explosa Arbuscula dixit.
Men moveat cimex Pantilius, aut cruciet quod vellicet absentem Demetrius, aut quod ineptus Fannius Hermogenis laedat conviva Tigelli ? O^'*^*^ Plotius et Varius, Maecenas Vergiliusque, Valgius et probet haec Octavius optimus atque Fuscus et haec utinam Viscorum laudet uterque ! ambitione relegata te dicere possum, Pollio, te, Messalla, tuo cum fratre, simulque 86
'vos, Bibule et Servi, simul his te, candide Furni, compluris alios, doctos ego quos et amicos prudens praetereo ; quibus haec, sint quaHacumque, adridere vehm, doUturus, si placeant spe deterius nostra. Demetri, teque, Tigelli, 90
discipularum^ inter iubeo plorare cathedras.
I, puer, atque meo citus haec subscribe libello. ^ milibus xj/Xl. ^ discipularum uss. Porph. : discipulorum.
" i.e. Aristius Fuscus. Octavius is Octavius Musa, poet and historian.
* The phrase iubeo plorare is a satiric substitute for iubeo valere ("I bid farewell to"). Cf. otVcofe in Aristophanes, as in Plut. 257.
* In this paragraph Horace contrasts writers of low literary standards, represented by Tiarellius, with members of the three circles of Maecenas, Pollio and Messalla. He himself, like Virgil, belongs to the circle of