DISSERTATION

ON

THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE WORKS,

AND ON

THE LOCALITIES

AND LIFE AND CHARACTER

OF

HORACE.

HAVING now, for more than one third of a century, been engaged in reading the works of Horace with my Pupils, and having long witnessed in his commentators the confusion very often attending their neglect of his chronology, (let me add of his localities also,) I have been strongly inclined for some time past to undertake the illustration of Horace, in that department alone. By the light of Bentley's discoveries in his celebrated Præfatio, the question De temporibus librorum Horatii (though the result only of his investigations without any part of the regular process is given) I ventured to consider after all as in the main decisively settled. And therefore if on the strength of Bentley's name I had proceeded to publish a new edition of the works, without any other recommendation than that of their being printed in the very order in which they were originally published in successive books by the author himself;

b

it struck my mind very forcibly, that such an edition would be hailed by Scholars as an era in Horatian literature.

That design, however, still hung in suspense, and might yet have been indefinitely delayed. But in the course of last year, (1831,) I was led to expect the appearance of a Second Part of the Fasti Hellenici, &c., by Mr. H. Fynes Clinton, brought down to the death of Augustus: and that expectation inspired me with a strong anxiety to learn what the Master Chronologist had done, under the head of Roman Authors, towards fixing or correcting the calculations of Bentley. My satisfaction of course was very great to find, that all the principal points which had been laid down one hundred and twenty years ago for the foundation of that arrangement, may now be received as determined once for all by the very highest authority.

Mr. Clinton himself on being informed of my intention gives me the kindest encouragement to persevere: he approves of my undertaking so useful a work as an edition of the books of Horace, arranged in chronological order: and he assigns as a reason for his approbation, that the neglect of that order has produced much perplexity to the student not of Horace only, but of many other authors of the Augustan age.

Under all these circumstances, I now am emboldened to proceed in the task; and as the design in the first instance is submitted to the judgement of scholars, which it candidly invites, I shall at once lay before them as preliminary to all other disquisition the following extract from Bentley's Præfatio. The title is copied from the formula adopted by Gesner, who in his edition of Horace gives all this extract except what stands as the first section of it: and the division here made of the whole into parts commodious for reference, will on that account be readily allowed.

DE TEMPORIBUS LIBRORUM

HORATII

ET

POEMATUM ADEO

RICH. BENTLEII SENTENTIA.

1. JAM vero et illud monendum est, editiones principes et recentioris ætatis codices alio ac nunc solemus ordine Artem Poëticam collocare, post carmen nempe Sæculare ante Sermones et Epistolas: vetustiores vero omnes Membranas post Carminum libros Artem Epodis præponere. Si quæris, quisnam ex his ordo recte se habeat, seriemque temporum, quibus singula ab auctore edita sunt, rite conservet, vetustusne ille an medius an hodiernus; nullus profecto omnium.

2. Magno quidem studio et acerrima contentione post Tanaquilli Fabri operam Clarissimi viri Dacerius Massonusque in hanc arenam descenderunt; quorum equidem acumen et eruditionem in partibus laudo; in operis vero summa totoque constituendo rem eos infeliciter admodum gessisse censeo. Horum enim rationibus, et Carminibus et Epodis et Sermonibus Epistolisque scribendis uno ac eodem tempore vacavisse Nostrum necesse est; et singula quæque poëmatia separatim in vulgus edidisse: quorum utrumque a vero alienum esse mihi pro comperto est.

3. Quippe omnibus, qui ejusmodi Poëmatia scripserunt, id in more erat, ut non sparsas Eclogas, sed integros Libellos semel simulque in lucem ederent. Ita Catullus fecit, ut ex Epigrammate 1. constat, Cui dono lepidum novum LIBELLUM: ita Tibullus, quem vide Elegia 1. libri tertii, v. 7. et 17. ita Propertius Eleg. 1. librorum 11. III. et IV. ut et Libri 11. Elegia x, v. 25. et xIx, v. 39; ita Virgilius

Bucolica dedit, uti patet ex ultimo illo, Extremum hunc, Arethusa, mihi concede laborem: ita Naso Amorum et Tristium et Ponticorum libros, ipso teste: ita Statius Silvas suas: ita Martialis Epigrammata, ut Præfationes eorum fidem faciunt: ita Persius Satiras; Phædrus et Avienus fabulas; Ausonius, Prudentius, Sidonius, Venantiusque sua Carmina; quod ex eorum Prologis abunde patet.

4. Quid quæris? Ipse quoque Horatius Libellos suos junctim editos aperte indicat; primum Carminum librum ex Prologo; secundum tertiumque ex Epilogis; Epodos ex illo xiv. Inceptos olim promissum carmen Iambos Ad umbilicum adducere; Sermonum priorem librum ex versu ultimo, I puer atque meo citus hæc subscribe LIBELLO; posteriorem ex Prologo; priorem vero Epistolarum et ex Prologo et ex Epilogo. Quartum vero Carminum, et Epistolarum secundum longo post cetera intervallo emissos esse, plenissimum est Suetonii testimonium; quod qui aut refellere aut eludere conantur, inanem operam insu

munt.

5. His jam positis; primum Horatii opus statuo Sermonum librum primum, quem triennio perfecit intra annos ætatis XXVI, XXVII, XXVIII; postea Secundum triennio itidem, annis XXXI, XXXII, XXXIII; deinde Epodos biennio, XXXIV et xxxv; tum Carminum librum primum triennio, XXXVI, XXXVII, XXXVIII; Secundum biennio, XL, XLJ; Tertiumque pariter biennio, XLII, XLIII: inde Epistolarum primum biennio, XLVI, XLVII; tum Carminum lib. quartum et Sæculare triennio, XLIX, L, LI. Postremo Artem Poëticam et Epistolarum librum alterum, annis incertis. Intra hos cancellos omnium poëmation natales esse ponendos, et ex argumentis singulorum et ex Annalium fide constabit.

¶ 6. Inde est, quod in Sermonibus et Epodis et Carminum primo, Cæsar semper, nunquam Augustus dicitur; quippe

qui id nomen consecutus est, anno demum Flacci XXXIX; in sequentibus vero passim Augustus appellatur. Inde est, quod in Sermonibus et Epodis Juvenem se ubique indicat; et quod sola Satirarum laude inclaruisse se dicit, ut Bucolicorum tum Virgilium (Serm. 1, 10. v. 46.) nulla Lyricorum mentione facta.

7. In ceteris autem singulis procedentis ætatis gradus planissimis signis indicat: idque tibi ex hac serie jam a me demonstrata jucundum erit animadvertere; cum operibus Juvenilibus multa obscæna et flagitiosa insint; quanto annis provectior erat, tanto eum et poëtica virtute et argumentorum dignitate gravitateque meliorem castioremque semper evasisse.

8. Ceterum ubicumque viri doctissimi extra limites hic positos in adsignandis temporibus evagantur, toties illi in errores prolabuntur. Facile quidem mihi foret id in singulis ostendere; verum unum modo alterumve hie attingam, cetera tuæ industriæ relinquens. Libri 1. Carmen 21, Dianam teneræ dicite Virgines, perperam Sæculare vocant, et ad Horatii annum XLIX. referunt; ringente Suetonio, qui tres Carminum libros longo intervallo eum annum præcessisse testatur. Atqui nihil quicquam hic de Sæcularibus ludis proditur; sed aut ad Dianæ aut Apollinis festum spectat, quorum illud mense Augusto, hoc Julio singulis annis celebrabatur. Eodem pertinet Catulli carmen xxxv, Dianæ sumus in fide; quod Sæculare etiam a viris doctis pessime inscribitur; cum nihil ibi de Sæculo habeatur, isque diu diem obierit ante Ludos Augusti Sæculares.

¶9. Tum et 11, 17, Ad Maecenatem ægrotum, immani parachronismo ad Horatii annum Lv. ultra libri quarti tempora ablegant; idque levi et futili argumento, quod eo anno continua insomnia vexari cœperit Mæcenas triennio ante diem fatalem. Quasi vero non plus semel in tam longa vita ægrotaverit, quem Plinius major v11, 51. perpetua febre ab adolescentia laborasse tradidit.