EXTRACTS FROM THE SUETONIAN LIFE Maecenas' regard for him. MAECENAS quantopere eum dilexerit satis monstratur illo epigram mate: 'Ni te visceribus meis Horati Plus iam diligo, tu tuum sodalem sed multo magis extremis iudiciis tali ad Augustum elogio: 'Horati Flacci, ut mei, esto memor.' Augustus' offer to him of the post of Private Secretary. Augustus epistolarum quoque ei officium obtulit, ut hoc ad Maecenatem scripto significat: 'Ante ipse sufficiebam scribendis epistolis amicorum: nunc occupatissimus et infirmus Horatium nostrum a te cupio abducere. Veniet igitur ab ista parasitica mensa ad hanc regiam, et nos in epistolis scribendis adiuvabit Ac ne recusanti quidem aut succensuit quicquam aut amicitiam suam ingerere desiit. Extracts from letters of Augustus to him. 'Sume tibi aliquid iuris apud me tanquam si convictor mihi fueris: recte enim et non temere feceris, quoniam id usus mihi tecum esse volui si per valetudinem tuam fieri possit.' Tui qualem habeam memoriam poteris ex Septimio quoque nostro audire: nam incidit ut illo coram fieret a me tui mentio: neque si tu superbus amicitiam nostram sprevisti ideo nos quoque ȧvbνñeрþрoνοῦμεν. ut ne Vereri Sed si 'Pertulit ad me Dionysius libellum tuum, quem ego, accusem brevitatem, quantuluscunque est, boni consulo. autem mihi videris ne maiores libelli tui sint quam ipse es. statura deest, corpusculum non deest. Itaque licebit in sextariolo scribas, ut circuitus voluminis tui sit yκwdéσraros sicut est ventriculi tui.' Cp. Hor. Epp. 1. 4. 14, 1. 20. 24. The Composition of the Carm. Saec., Book IV of the Odes, and Book II of the Epp. Scripta eius usque adeo probavit [Augustus] mansuraque perpetuo opinatus est ut non modo saeculare carmen componendum iniunxerit, sed et Vindelicam victoriam Tiberii Drusique privignorum suorum, eumque coegerit propter hoc tribus carminum libris ex longo intervallo quartum addere; post sermones vero lectos quosdam nullam sui mentionem habitam ita sit questus: 'Irasci me tibi scito quod non in plerisque eiusmodi scriptis mecum potissimum loquaris. An vereris ne apud posteros infame tibi sit quod videaris familiaris nobis esse?' Expressitque eclogam illam cuius initium est 'Cum tot sustineas et tanta negotia solus,' etc. Of Horace's country houses. Vixit plurimum in secessu ruris sui Sabini aut Tiburtini; domusque eius ostenditur circa Tiburni luculum. [The first clause might be interpreted as merely giving two alternative designations of the Sabine Farm, but the second distinctly recognizes the belief that he had besides a villa at Tibur itself, as the 'Tiburni luculus' can hardly be other than the 'Tiburni lucus' of Od. 1. 7. 13; cp. Stat. Silv. 1. 3. 74. The form, however, of the statement, 'the house is still shown,' is quite compatible with the idea that it is an addition to the original text interpolated after the tradition of a second Tiburtine villa had grown up. The passages in which he speaks of Tibur (e.g. Od. 2. 6. 5, 4. 2. 31, Epp. 1. 8. 12) are quite enough to account for such a tradition, and are inadequate to substantiate it.] Of spurious Writings attributed to him. Venerunt in manus meas et elegi sub eius titulo, et epistola prosa oratione, quasi commendantis se Maecenati: sed utraque falsa puto: nam elegi vulgares, epistola etiam obscura, quo vitio minime tenebatur. His Death. Decessit quinto Kal. Decembres C. Marcio Censorino et C. Asinio Gallo coss. post nonum et quinquagesimum annum (this is a mistake, as Suetonius himself puts his birth in the consulship of L. Aurelius Cotta and L. Manlius Torquatus, i. e. in B.C. 65, which would make him just short of fifty-seven on Nov. 27 B.C. 8) herede Augusto palam nuncupato, cum urgente vi valetudinis non sufficeret ad obsignandas testamenti tabulas. Humatus et conditus est extremis Esquiliis iuxta Maecenatis tumulum. INTRODUCTION TO BOOKS I-III OF THE ODES. I. THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE ODES. § 1. THE general period during which the greater number of the Odes of Books i-iii must have been composed can be fixed with some certainty. The earlier limit is fixed by the Battle of Actium. Epod. 9 was written immediately after the victory, while even the direction of Antony's flight was still unknown. Od. 1. 37 is written on Cleopatra's death in the following autumn, B.C. 30. It is of course possible that some of the Odes may have been composed before the Epodes were finished, but there is none that bears any clear mark of it. In the absence of such proof the presumption is against it for Horace's usual practice seems to be to finish one collection of poems before he begins another. There is development of style within one collection in the direction of the next, but no appearance of overlapping. That the Epodes themselves were softening into something hardly distinguishable from the Odes, and that some of the Odes retain metres, or even the tone, of the Epodes, makes it more difficult to understand why, if particular Odes were written before 31, they were not included in the volume of Epodes. § 2. The second limit, the latest date at which the Three Books as a whole can have been published, is fixed mainly by the reference in Od. 1. 12. 45–48. Marcellus died in the autumn of B. C. 23. It is inconceivable that these lines should be (as Ritter suggests) a complimentary allusion to one already dead; an assurance to Augustus that at least the fame of his son-in-law survived: all that the author of the dirge on Quintilius could offer to match Virgil's 'Tu Marcellus eris.' And it is almost equally impossible that, written before his early death, they should have been published (as from other considerations it would be necessary to conclude) within a year or two of that great disappointment of the hopes of Rome and of the Emperor. An argument, second only in weight to this, is founded upon the Odes (2. 10 and 3. 19) which have reference to Licinius Murena, the brother of Terentia, Maecenas' wife (see also on Od. 2. 2. 5). Murena was executed for participation with Fannius Caepio in a conspiracy against Augustus in B. C. 22. The presumption seems very strong that even if Horace's feelings would have allowed him to publish these poems, and especially Od. 2. 10, after his friend's catastrophe, he would have been deterred by the knowledge that the reminiscences must be displeasing to Maecenas as well as to Augustus. Franke recalls the story of Virgil's striking out the praises of Gallus from the end of Georg. iv on somewhat similar grounds. The arguments for postponing the publication of the Odes to a later date are not such as can really be set against these considerations. They turn mainly on Od. 1. 3, which is taken to refer to the voyage of Virgil to Athens in the last year of his life, B.C. 19: and on the supposed allusions (the strongest case is Od. 2. 9) to the expedition of Tiberius into Armenia, and the restoration of the standards by the Parthians in B.C. 20. Some remarks on these points will be found in the Introductions to Od. 1. 3 and 2. 9. There remains the possibility that these (and if these, then other) Odes may have been inserted after the first publication. It will be seen that this is not likely to have been the case with 1. 3; and the theory of any such insertions is perhaps hardly compatible with that pause in lyric composition between the publication of Books i-iii and the commencement of Book iv, which is implied in Suetonius' statement, and in Horace's own words, Od. 4. 1. 1, Epp. 1. 1. 1-10. §3. When we pass from the general epoch to the date of special Odes we are on less safe ground. A very few can be fixed with exactness. Such are 1. 31, which is written for the dedication of the temple of Apollo Palatinus in B.C. 28; 2. 4, which Horace dates himself in B.C. 25, by reference to his own age; 1. 24 and 3. 14, both of which are fixed to B.C. 24, the one by the known date of the death of Quintilius, the other by the return of Augustus from Spain. We may perhaps add a few, though in their case of course more latitude must be given, which speak in terms of near anticipation of political events which can themselves be dated. Such are 1. 35, which represents Augustus as on the point of starting for Britain, a purpose for which we know that he set out from Rome in B. c. 27 (see Introd. to that Ode, Dion 53. 22, 25); and 1. 29, which seems to refer to preparations more or less immediately preceding Aelius Gallus' expedition into Arabia Felix in B. C. 24. § 4. Those who would go much beyond this in fixing with accuracy the date of single Odes have to lean a good deal on Horace's references to events on the frontier and beyond it, movements of the Cantabrian, the Scythian, the Parthian. In estimating the value of these it is of course necessary to be sure of the nature of the allusion. We are in danger of confusing poetry with history when we look too closely into every mention of Dacian or Indian and search the pages of Dion or Strabo for some detail that will exactly suit it. Horace's verses are full of the feeling of the greatness of the Roman empire, the remoteness of its frontiers, the immense charge which Caesar has taken on himself. And the names of distant and unknown places and tribes had a spell in ancient times which they have lost in days of maps and geography. Even when we come to more definite references, as those to the quarrels of Phraates and Tiridates, or to the frequent risings of the Cantabri, though we have here ample ground for dating generally the period during the course of which the poems must have been composed, and exactly, if we know the date of a special event referred to, the year before which the particular poem could not have been composed, we yet soon get to the point where the event has become a standing illustration of the vicissitudes of fortune or a statesman's anxieties, a poetical commonplace which may recur till it is supplanted by some fresh circumstance which strikes the poet's imagination. To this it must be added that the foreign history of the time is imperfectly known to us, and that some uncertainty hangs over the dates of several of those events which are known. § 5. It may be convenient and may save some repetitions to give shortly in this place the few facts which are known with respect to the Cantabrians, the Dacians and Scythians, and the Parthians, to which, if to any known historical events, allusions in these Books must have reference. § 6. The Cantabri, a tribe living in the mountains of the northern coast of Spain, are named by Dion (51. 20), with their neighbours the Astures, as in arms against Rome at the time of the general pacification in B.C. 29, and as being conquered in that year by Statilius Taurus. The next mention of them is in B.C. 26 (Dion 53. 25, in |