Horatius Eques Et Scriba: Satires 1.6 and 2.7 Author(S): David Armstrong Source: Transactions of the American Philological Association (1974-), Vol

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Horatius Eques et Scriba: Satires 1.6 and 2.7 Author(s): David Armstrong Source: Transactions of the American Philological Association (1974-), Vol. 116 (1986), pp. 255- 288 Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/283920 . Accessed: 26/06/2014 18:56

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HORATIUS EQUES ET SCRIBA: SATIRES 1.6 AND 2.7

DAVID ARMSTRONG Universityof Texas,Austin

In 1925, Lily Ross Taylor argued that the loose-living Roman eques whose portraitis drawn by Horace's slave Davus at Satires 2.7.53-56 is Horace himself.'It followsfrom this that at the time of the publication of Satires2 (c. 30 B.C.) Horace dressed as an eques, wearingthe narrow- stripedtoga and gold ring of the order; though for illicitsexual adven- tures at night,Davus claims, he threwthese badges aside and dressed as poorly as one of his own slaves. It also follows from the word iudice(54) thatHorace was an equestrianiudex selectus2 at thisperiod- interestingly,because the elder Horace had held these dignitariesup to him as models when he was a boy being educated at his father's expense in Rome: sive iubebat ut faceremquid, "habesauctorem quo faciashoc," unumex iudicibusselectis obiciebat. (S. 1.4.121-23) Now, though according to Davus his behavior is not so exemplary, Horace belongs himselfto the albumiudicum. Historianshave tended to accept Taylor's argument;literary critics, reluctantto abandon the literal view of Horace's mensa tenuis,have tended to contradictor ignore it.3 Taylor herselfnear the end of her life

LilyRoss Taylor,"Horace's Equestrian Career," AJP 46 (1925) 161-70. 2 On the iudicesselecti, and howthey were made up in Horace'sday, and thedistinction between eques equo publico and eques selectorum(Horace was both, but the greatertitle includesthe lesser)see A. H. M. Jones, Studiesin Roman Governmentand Law (Oxford 1960) 40-44; on theprobability of Horace'shaving been one, Taylor(above, note 1) 162, note 11; "Republicanand AugustanWriters Enrolled in the EquestrianCenturies," TAPA99 (1968) 469-86,478, note15. " Thereis no mentionof Taylor'sarticle or of Horace'sequestrian rank in E. Fraenkel, Horace(Oxford 1957). N. Rudd,Horace's Satires (Cambridge 1966) 278, note2, mentions thearticle and calls therank "not certain,but probable"; he makesno use of it in inter- pretation.Compare Jaako Suolahti, Junior Officers of theRoman Army, Acad. Scient. Fen- nica,Annales 97 (1955) 83, who takesit forgranted that Horace was equestrianalready be,forehis commissionby Brutusand "was strivingfor a publiccareer"; C. Nicolet, L'Ordre equestrea l'epoque republicaine(Paris 1966) 2.914-15; Susan Treggiari, Roman Freedmenduring the Late Republic (Oxford 1969) 64-66; T. P. Wiseman, New Men in the

This content downloaded from 141.222.42.208 on Thu, 26 Jun 2014 18:56:45 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 256 David Armstrong complainedof thisneglect,4 perhaps especially because Eduard Fraenkel, in his veryfull review of Horace's life,passed over her interpretations in silence.She was entirelyright, however; Horace was an eques, he enjoyeda comfortableliving and a good positionin lifebefore he met Maecenas,and he neverceased to be proudof it. In fact,Horace men- tionshis equestrianstatus explicitly, not onlyin the passageon which Taylorrelied, but in two passagesof Satires1.6 whichshe did not cor- rectlyunderstand (nor has anycommentator so far).These passagesput Horace's statusas eques beyondquestion, even forthe periodc. 43- 38 B.C., beforehis introductionto Maecenas' circle.They lead us to examinethe evidencefor his financialposition that can be deduced fromhis purchaseand tenureof the officeof scribaquaestorius after Philippi,and fromother hints in the Suetonianvita and the poems. Withthis evidence in hand,we can proceedto a clearerinterpretation of some Horatianpoems, especially Satires 1.6 and 2.7, thanhas previously been attempted.

I. HoratiusEques The positionof militarytribune Horace held in Brutus'army in 43 and 42 normallyentailed the rank of equesin addition,both in Republi- can timesand underthe Empire.5There is an amusingand touching monumentto the pride with whichone freedmancontemporary of Horace and his fatherregarded his son's achievementof the military tribuneshipand theattendant rank of eques-the monumentof themili- tarytribune L. Appuleiusand his parents,discussed in Paul Zanker's studyof thefunerary reliefs of late Republicanand earlyImperial freedman.6Indeed, had Taylorever seen this monument(CIL 14.3948,

Roman Senate (Oxford 1971) 71-72; John H. D'Arms, Commerceand Social Standingin AncientRome (Cambridge, Mass. 1982) 108-16.Historians even beforeTaylor tended to see Horaceas moreindependent and self-assuredthan do literarycritics: cf. B. G. Curtius, Vortrdgeiuber rbmische Geschichte (1832) 3.132-37. He thought Horace's fatherwas an Italianand probablyonly in slaverybecause of theSocial War-a conjecturerepeated, and withgood argumentsespecially concerning the enslavementof Venusianfreemen in this war, by E. T. Salmon, Samniumand the Samnites (Cambridge 1967) 365, note 5, 369, note4. Curtiusalso arguedthat Horace's education and resourcesmade him much more independentof Augustusand Maecenasthan was Vergil.Fraenkel notices this account to borrowa minorpoint (2, note3), buthis ownchapter on the lifeof Horaceis notin the same spirit.Scholars are stillmisled today by Fraenkel'sattitude: cf. AdditionalNote below. Taylor1968 (above, note 1), esp. 477-79. Suolahti(above, note 2) 55-57. 6 Paul Zanker,"Grabreliefs romischer Freigelassener," JDAI 90 (1975) 267-315, a studyvery important for an understandingof Horace'sbackground among late Republican freedmenof means,especially for its generaland interpretativecomments in conclusion (309-15). The reliefmentioned here is hisfig. 44, p. 305,discussed pp. 304-5.

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Mentana), or a pictureof it, she would have been delighted.Time has wornaway the threefaces, but the otherdetails are clear.Below the leftand rightfigures, a fatherand motherin Romandress, are their names: L APPVLEIVS L *L APPVLEIA *L *L ASCLEPIADES SOPHANUBA This means,of course,that both parents were libertiniof the same man. Like manyother freedmen of the late Republic,they flaunted on theirmonument with special pride theirRoman dress and their statusas legalmarried people (foras slavesthey could onlylive in con- tubernium).Many freedmenalso proudlydisplay their children at right or left,frequently wearing the Roman bulla thatthey themselves had been denied as slave children.But here, exceptionally,and because of theirson's highrank, Asclepiades and Sophanubahave made him the centralfigure, with themselves looking at him respectfullyon each side: L *APPVLEIVS *L F* TR(ibunius)*MIL(itum)' He is in "heroic"soldierly costume, wearing the paludamentumon the shoulderof his bare torso,presenting a sword-displayingprominently on the fourthfinger of his lefthand, as he does so, a disproportionately oversizedequestrian ring which, as Zankerconjectures, was mostprob- ably gildedon the monumentfor extra display. The monumentis of Republicantimes; Zanker attributes it on groundsof styleto 40-30 B.C., and Dessau notedthat the younger,free-born Appuleius' not bearinga cognomenmay point to the same period.There could be no morestrik- ingand poignantproof that a freedman'sson, likeHorace, who attained the rankof tribunusmilitum acquired with it thatof eques-and would hardlybe allowedby his delightedkinfolk to forgetit. Furthermore,the position of scribaquaestorius which Horace bought afterobtaining pardon for having fought at Philippi,according to Sueto- nius' life,is itselfmentioned explicitly by Ciceroin a famouspassage of the Verrinesas givingotherwise qualified candidates an entreeto the equestrianorder.7 According to a recentstudy of the apparitores,of whomthe scribaewere the highestgrade, inscriptional evidence shows equitesamong all theirranks, but the highestpercentage by far (18%, nearlya fifth)among the scribae.8Nor, thoughthey were debarred by custom(not law) fromholding senatorial rank, were freedmen's sons in

7 2 Verr.3.184, discussed e.g. byWiseman (above, note 3) 73. 8 N. Purcell,"The Apparitores:a Study in Social Mobility,"PBSR 51, n.s. 38 (1983) 125-73,esp. 154-59.

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anyway forbidden the rank of equesin Horace'sday, or apparentlyfrom earliesttimes, even bythe strictest censors.9 Reluctanceto interpretDavus' wordsof Horacehimself, therefore, can onlycome fromthe pruderyof critics,from Lambinus on, who did not wantto take the disreputableslave literallyin his declarationthat Horace'sprivate morals were the same as his own or worse.'0There is, of course,a plausiblecover for this reluctance. One could arguefrom the contextthat Davus is merelytalking of a diatribe-figure,an imagi- naryopponent. But the contextas a wholeshows this to be impossible and so is worthquoting at length: quid,si mestultior ipso quingentisempto drachmis deprenderis? aufer me voltuterrere; manum stomachumque teneto, dumquae Crispinidocuit me ianitoredo: te coniunxaliena capit, meretricula Davum. peccatuter nostrum cruce dignius? acris ubi me naturaintendit, sub claranuda lucerna quaecumqueexcepit turgentis verbera caudae, clunibusaut agitavitequum lasciva supinum, dimittitneque famosum neque sollicitum, ne ditioraut formaemelioris meiat eodem; tucum proiectis insignibus, anulo equestri Romanoquehabitu, prodis ex iudiceDama, nones quod simulas?(S. 2.7.42-56) These cannotbe impersonalcommonplaces of Stoicdiatribe. Davus' comparisonof himselfand Horace began,and began angeringHorace, beforeDavus identifiedit, attempting to turnaway wrath, as the sortof thinghe learnedfrom a neighboringphilosopher's slave. Ego and tu, Davus and Horace,occur both before and afterthe referenceto Crispi- nus' doorkeeper.Why is eitherany more a "diatribe-figure"the second timethan the first?Next, the passagequoted is precededby an exactly similarunflattering comparison of Horace and his scurraMilvius, re- portedby Davus fromMilvius' own mouth,and not as a diatribe- commonplace(29-42). Finally,if the Roman eques is imaginaryand a commonplaceof diatribe,Davus mustrefer to himself,Davus, byname as imaginaryalso: forthe nextline, after the promiseto retail"Crispi- nus' janitor's"ideas, contrasts tu and Davus as the oppositepoles of the comingdiscourse. One can see whyRenaissance and Victorianschool- masterswanted to save Horace's virtuein this passageand make the

9 Treggiari(above, note 2) 64. 10 "Non suntautem haec ita accipienda, quasi Horatiussignificet, se equitemesse Roma- num,sed eo dicunturtantum, ut intelligamus,plerosque dominos servis suis esse deterio- res et nequiores,"Lambinus (1566) on S. 2.7.53,followed by many commentators, up to the latestedition of Kiessling-Heinze-Burck(on 2.7.43: "Erstmit v. 72 wendetsich der Vortragwieder Horaz selbst zu"), as also byRudd (above,note 3) 191-92,195.

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immoralknight imaginary, but it should have occurredto themthat theywere also undertakingthe impossibletask of savingDavus' virtue and makinghim imaginary as well. Taylor,given the limitsof scholarlydiscourse about such matters thatapplied in 1925,was of courseadmirably circumspect in attributing misbehaviorto "Horace." We would nowadaysrightly say that the misbehavioris attributedto his persona,and that only as seen by "Davus," an even purercreation of the poem.1"S. 2.7 is good evidence,therefore, that Horace was an eques in real life;but hardlyevi- dence forhow Horace dressedon his actualevenings out, or thathe actuallyhad a slave named Davus. But now thatwe can discusssuch passagesas these more frankly,we can see, as shouldlong ago have been seen, thatpart of the comedycomes fromthe brilliantgrossierete of the veryfirst words of whatDavus calls "philosophy."They are a pornographicdescription of Davus' own frank,raunchy sex lifein the open light,finely contrasted with Horace's furtiveone in the dark streets,down to clever wordplays(note the clara ... L Ucernaof Da- vus' prostituteand the obscuranteLAcerna Horace wears). The details of thiscomic descriptionare not commonplacesof the Stoic diatribe- sermon;'2they are meantto be seen as highlypersonal reflections of Davus'. We are thereforeeven less likelyto be talkingabout imaginary diatribe-personaein lines 46-52, and thelast objection to Taylor'sthesis disappears.'3 We can now add the two passagesfrom S. 1.6 mentionedabove. Their forcetoo in provingHorace an eques, not just in 30 B.C., but fromthe days of his serviceas militarytribune with Brutus in 43-42 onward,cannot, once theirtrue meaning is seen, be doubtedor shaken. The firstoccurs in Horace'saccount of his introductionto Maecenasby Vergiland Varius: ut venicoram, singultim pauca locutus (infansnamque pudor prohibebat plura profari) nonego me claronatum patre, non ego circum me Satureianovectari rura caballo,

11 On thebiographical "reality" of the Satiresand therole played by the fictional persona of Horacein them,see J. E. G. Zetzel, "Horace's LiberSermonum: The Structureof Ambiguity,"Arethusa 13.1 (1980) 59-79,esp. 60-63. 12 In spiteof Lejay'seffort to pretendthat a Stoicwould normally have gone as faras Davus does in XE7ELV Ta crijKa G-iJKa: see his introductionto thissatire, Horace. Satires (Paris1911) 548-49. Keissling-Heinzesay more reasonably (on 2.7.43) "erstvon v. 72 an wirddas Thematiefer und im eigentlichphilosophischen Sinne angefasst." Cf. also Gilbert Highet,"Libertino Patre Natus," AJP94 (1973) 268-81, esp. 272-76 (= TheClassical Papersof GilbertHighet [New York 19831 169-72). 13 Tayloralso discussedthe possibility that Horace's watching the ludiwith Maecenas, i.e. fromthe equestrianseats (S. 2.6.48) is evidenceof his rank (Taylor1925 [above, note11 163,cf. Taylor 1968 [above,note 21 478).

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sed quod eramnarro: respondes, ut tuusest mos, pauca.... (58-61) Horace'sintroduction to Maecenasclearly took place at Maecenas'morninglevee, as the brevityand formalityof the conversationindicate: and at the morninglevee togaswere worn. Now, the threefeatures Horace deniedhe possessed-a claruspater, rura broad enough to rideround, and a caballusto ride roundthem on-are the same threethings he himselfuses at AP 248 to paraphraseeques Romanus: offendunturenim, quibus est equus'4 etpater et res. Horacetherefore told Maecenassomething about his equestrianstatus. One mightsuppose at firstthat Horace told Maecenas he was not an eques,but thisis not possible.His togawould itself have toldMaecenas at a levee whetherhe was or not.'5Horace is ratherexplaining himself as a low-ranking,however genuine, member of the ordoequester. If Horacetold Maecenas as frankly"what he was" as he tellsthe reader of the satire,he told him thathe was not a freebornand wealthyman's son withlanded property near Tarentumand a horseof the region,on whichto ride roundit-the ideal situationfor a memberof the secun- dus ordoborn as he was in Apuliaor Lucania-but a freedman'sson, libertinopatre natus (1.6.6, 45, 46), a refrainliable to be sungafter him in the streets'6if he aspiredtoo high. His fatherwas not rich in land- macropauper agello (71) -and theselands were lost afterPhilippi (E. 2.2.51f.).However, he said (and he repeatsfor the readersof this poem), he was entitledto the rankof equesboth as an ex-tribuneof a legion (48) and as the possessorof the comfortableindependence and leisureof a scribaquaestorius described at 110-31.That seems muchthe most plausibleinterpretation of the passage: Horace was obliged by Maecenas' veryfirst remark to him to accountwith some stammering (infansnamque pudor prohibebat plura profari) for his equestriandress, and explainedthat he was not some countrynobleman's son withlands and a caballus,but-what he was.

14 The equesRomanus is notelsewhere than in S. 1.6 referredto humorouslyby a para- phrasewith caballus or (see below) mulus,but Horace'sparaphrase in the AP withequus is obvious,inevitable, and suggestedby such commonLatin phrases as equesRomanus equo publico, equitespeditesque, equo merere.Cf. Martial's quod non vis equiti, vis dare, praetor,equo (4.67.8), and his epigramon thetwo brothers who could only make up one equestriancensus between them: uno credisequo posse sedereduos? (5.38.4). 15 Equiteswho meantto standfor senatorial office wore the latusclavus until Augustus forbadethe practice, probably in 18 B.C.: see R. J.A. Talbert,The Senate of Imperial Rome (Princeton1984) 11-15 on thismeasure and itslater fate. As Horacemeant not to do so, he no doubtwore the narrow stripe. 16 GilbertHighet (above, note 12) speculates(268) thatthe rhythm is trochaic-accentual; the repetitionat 45-46 and of parentenatus (7f.), patrenatus (20, 29, 36, 45, 46; natum patre58) certainlysuggests a chantor catch-phraseof thestreets.

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Horacerefers to his equestrianstatus in the same way,and witha similarparaphrase-joke, later in the satire.He claimshe could easily collect,had he the rightancestry, the additionalwealth and influenceto be some sortof a senator(which renders his possessionof the equestriancensus beyond doubt)"7 but does notwant to: nammihi continuo maior quaerenda foret res atquesalutandi plures; ducendus et unus et comesalter, uti ne solusrusve peregreve exirem,plures calones atque caballi pascendi,ducenda petorrita. nunc mihi curto irelicet mulo vel si libetusque Tarentum, manticacui lumbosonere ulceret atque eques armos: obicietnemo sordes mihi, quas tibi,Tilli, cumTiburte via praetoremquinque sequuntur te pueri,lasanum portantes oenophorumque; hoc ego commodiusquam tu, praeclare senator, milibusatque aliis vivo. (100-111) Nunc:"as thingsare," a favoriteHoratian use of theparticle.'8 As an eques,Horace need notlive up in publicto thepretensions of a senator'9 likeTillius, no betterborn than himself, who is praetorand (sarcastically) praeclarus.Eques at 106 is alwaystranslated "rider"; but surely one sees thesame joke hereas aboutthe caballusearlier, the minute it is pointed out-an excellentjoke, thoughmissed for so long.Senators need, among otherthings, caballi to be respectablewhen they travel, just as Horace needed (one) caballusat 59 to be a respectableknight. But since the behaviorof equitesis notthe subject of so muchpublic comment as that of senators,Horace is perfectlysafe from criticism as an equestraveling not on an equus,or even a caballus,but on a mulus-andthat a gelded one, curtus.The pointis furtherdriven home by the contrastof status words:Tillius, a freedman'sson who has insistedon standingfor the senate,is nowa praetor(108) and a praeclarus,a morethan clarus, senator(110) and so his "relativedeprivation" brings him nothing but scorn. Seneca retailsto Lucilius(Ep. 87) the storythat the elderCato did not disdainto travelin exactlythe same manneras Horaceclaims to-

17 The senatorialand equestriancensus at the time of Satires1 were both set at HS 400,000(cf. note 19 below),but no doubtHorace is referringto theexpenses of the electionand ofcanvassing as an additionalburden for which more would be needed. 18 For nuncas Greekviv 8E = "nun aber, as thingsare" cf.e.g. J.E. B. Mayoron Juve- nal 5.141, Krebs-Schmalz, Antibarbarusder Lateinsprache(repr. 19628) 2.179 (both with examplesand furtherreferences). 19 Underthe Republic, from at leastthe time of theSecond Punic War, the census for a senatorwas HS 400,000,the same as foran eques.Augustus raised it to HS 1,000,000for senators,probably in 18 B.C., cf.Talbert (above, note 15) 10-11, and the longerdiscus- sion in C. Nicolet,"Le Cens senatorialsous la republiqueet sous Auguste,"JRS 66 (1976) 20-38.

This content downloaded from 141.222.42.208 on Thu, 26 Jun 2014 18:56:45 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 262 David Armstrong so exactly,that the passages may even draw on a commonsource. Seneca has been travelingcheaply, he says, withhis friendCaesonius Maximus,and is ashamedof himselfbecause he findsit humiliating, philosopheror not, to makeso poorand contemptiblea figure, a sena- tortraveling in publicwith half-dead mules and a shoelessmuleteer; but afterall: quid ad rempertinent mulae saginatae unius omnes coloris, quid istavehicula caelata? ... istanec dominummeliorem faciunt nec mulam.M. Cato censorius... cantheriovehebatur et hippoperis quidemimpositis, ut secumutilia portaret. 0 quam cuperemilli nuncoccurrere aliquem ex his trossulis,in via divitibus,cursores et Numidaset multumante se pulverisagentem! ... 0 quantum erat saeculidecus imperatorem,triumphalem, censorium, quod superomnia haec est, Catonem,uno caballoesse contentumet ne totoquidem: partem enim sarcinae ab utroquelatere depen- dentesoccupabant. ita non omnibusobesis manniset asturconi- bus et tolutariispraeferres unicum illum equum ab ipso Catone defrictum?video non futurumfinem in ista materiaullum, nisi quemipse mihi fecero ... (87.8-11) It is strikinghow manyof the same featuresappear here as in Horace's passage.The trossuliin via divites,the "troopersof fashionrich only for show on the road," are obvious contrasts,like Tillius,to the rider's simplicity;on the otherside, both simpleriders' titles to statusare mentioned:Horace's statusas eques in contrastwith the pretentious praetorof no betterbirth than his own,Cato's as imperator,triumphalis, censorius,and-in a Senecanrhetorical "climax"-Cato himself.Neither is compelledto travelthis way; bothchoose to. Cato's hippoperae,his horse-wallets,and Horace's manticaare equallymodest luggage. Both ride geldings(cantherius, mulus curtus) and both ride withoutsaddles (Horace onereulceret his mount,whereas Cato's is ab ipsoCatone defrictum).Also, Seneca makesclear that this tableau, Cato ridingalone with his pack,is a toposon whichhe could,as a rhetorician,easily expand further;it is most probably,then, a rhetoricalschool-commonplace mucholder than himself.20 In 35 B.C., then,Horace was a Roman eques withthe propercen- sus, or indeedmore-enough to aspireto the senate (and at thirtyhe was just reachingthe legal age to do so), if his birthhad made that appropriate,and had he wantedthe criticismand expensethe election and the consequentstatus involved. Whatever it had cost him to fight

20 On the requirementsof the average Roman senator for travel in public, besides the Seneca passage, cf. the inscriptionof Sagalassus in Pisidia, early in Tiberius' reign,which assumes that any traveling senatorpopuli Romani may need to requisition up to ten wagons-as manyas were allowed the Imperialprocurator himself; equites may have three, centurionsone: Stephen Mitchell,"Requisitioned Transportin the Roman Empire: A New Inscriptionfrom Pisidia," JRS 66 (1976) 106-31; Talbert (above, note 15) 76.

This content downloaded from 141.222.42.208 on Thu, 26 Jun 2014 18:56:45 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions HoratiusEques et Scriba 263 on Brutus'side had been partlyrecovered between Philippi and thetime he met Maecenas in 38 or 37; and if we say "partly"recovered, the statushe giveshimself in S. 1.6 remindsus thathis, and his father's, undamagedfortune before Philippi must have been ampleindeed. This musthave been by means of the governmentposition he boughtafter obtainingpardon, and we are at libertyto believehe is bothforeshort- eningthe storyand exaggeratinghis "poverty"humorously when he tellsFlorus at E. 2.2.49-52: undesimul primum me dimiserePhilippi, decisishumilem pennis, inopemque paterni et lariset fundipaupertas impulit audax ut versusfacerem. For certainlyHorace did not restorehis fortunesby verseonly: he had firstrestored them to the degreehe describesin S. 1.6, by making himselfa scriba.21

II. HoratiusScriba BelloPhilippensi excitus a M. Brutoimperatore tribunus militum meruit, says Suetonius'life (emphasizingby thisphraseology the legitimacyof the appointment)and goes on victisquepartibus venia impetrata scriptum quaestoriumcomparavit. This impliesthat he boughtthe position(with the help,no doubt,of the same sortof influential,aristocratic school- friendsas had earliergot him his appointmentfrom Brutus and, after Philippi,his pardon)as soon as possibleafter Philippi, probably in 41. Horace is thereforedescribing in Satires1.6 his statusin lifeas it was whenhe metMaecenas, a comfortableone. Thatis the secondpoint by whichHorace hopes to representhimself as a creditablecompanion for Maecenas:his possessionof a gentlemanlyand leisurelyliving of his own,which makes him no mere scurrato Maecenasfor lands, money, or favors(a pointHorace emphasizedtwice more afterreceiving the Sabine Farm, Satires2.6.1-5 and especiallyEpodes 1.23-24). His positionas scribahad madehim independent already. Fraenkelrightly complains that "In morethan one book on Horace it is said thathe became 'a clerkin the Treasury.'That may do as a roughtranslation of scribaquaestorius, but it hardlygives the modern readeran adequate idea of the natureof the officeand of the social positionof its occupants ... " Horace's fatherbecame a very rich man at the bottomof a scale of publicofficers paid to workon commission, of whichthe scribaeof the Roman magistrateswere at the verytop. Theywere permanent officials with a lifesalary, and werepaid a com- missionfor the businessthey transacted and recordedfor the treasury,

21 As Fraenkelargued at some length (above, note 3) 13-15.

This content downloaded from 141.222.42.208 on Thu, 26 Jun 2014 18:56:45 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 264 David Armstrong but since the aerariumwas also a recordoffice, they had otherequally importantduties to discharge.They recordedresolutions of the senate and keptrecords of them.If an interestedparty wanted access to official documents,the scribaehad to producethem and makeauthentic copies. This made themin manytransactions more influential than the magis- tratesthey served; Cicero sarcastically claimed that eae legessunt, quas apparitore.snostri volunt (Leg. 3.46, cf.48). The positionwas obtainedby recommendationand purchasedfor life.22 and the scribae,like the other apparitores,thus bore the same relationto the annuallyelected officials theyserved as permanentcivil servants nowadays do to appointedones, exceptthat their theoretical supervisors were in officemore briefly. There were (apparently)thirty-six scribae quaestorii, divided into threedecuriae. The livingto be made fromthe officeproper was evi- dentlyso good thateach of these decuriae,apparently, was allowedto serve in Rome onlyone yearof everythree,23 but therewas lucrative workto be done in offyears in the provincesfor the promagistrates' quaestorsalso, if a scribewanted it.24 The positiontherefore offered everyopportunity for as muchprofitable business and legalwork, or as muchliterary leisure, as its holderhappened to want.Appointment as apparitorat anylevel to thecentral government in Rome, and especially the scribeship,the top grade,was muchsought after by literarypeople in particularfor this very reason.25 Any yet in the same breathFraenkel says: "The poet's economic circumstanceschanged completely (italics mine) when, at some time before31 B.C.. presumablynot long afterthe publicationof the first book of his Satires,Maecenas presentedhim with the Sabine farm whichwas to mean so muchto him.It is likelythat, in consequenceof this change,he resignedhis post as scriba,or at any rate ceased to

22 Purchaseof the scribeshipappears, from Cicero 2 Verr.3.184 and otherevidence (collectedby Mommsen,Staatsrecht I3, 343), to have been the rule;of coursesome sort of recommendationand patronagemust have been a necessityalso, and probablylay in the firstinstance with the currentmagistrates whom the scribeswere to serve.Cicero made his freedmanM. Tulliusa scribe,or got himmade one, so he wouldhave an absolutely trustworthyaccountant for his governmentin Cilicia.Tullius undoubtedly received this officefor life, like the others:see Treggiari(above, note 2) 258-59. Cf. Purcell(above, note8) 138-39,who emphasizes the necessity of nominationbut doubts the regularityof purchase;but if Cicerocan say the scribeshipis a regularmeans by whichbad men qui nummuliscorrogatis ... cum decuriamemerunt, ex primoordine explosorum in secundumordi- nemcivitatis se venissedicunt, its purchase must at leasthave been both common and legal. 23 A. H. M. Jones,Studies in Roman Governmentand Law (Oxford1960) 154-55, esp. 155, note 6, showsthat this was trueof the praeconesand viatoresattached to the scribaldecuries, and concludesthat it was trueof thethree decuries themselves. 24 Some significantexamples of Romanscribes profiting in thisfashion in the provinces are collectedand discussedby Purcell (above, note 8) 160. 25 See Purcell(above, note 8) sectionV, "The Apparitoresand RomanLiterary Life," 142-46.

This content downloaded from 141.222.42.208 on Thu, 26 Jun 2014 18:56:45 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions HoratiusEques et Scriba 265 spendmuch trouble on it; he could now be expectedto attenda meet- ingof the corporationonly when some extraordinarymatter was under discussion."26 In factthere seems to be clearevidence in Epistles1.7 thatHorace stillheld thispost at the timeof the publicationof Epistles1 in 20 B.C. In thatpoem Horaceaccuses Maecenas of thinkingthat he is no longer capableof resigningthe Sabine farmand returningto activelife, and consequentlyis compelledto waiton his patronwhenever he is wanted. That,says Horace, is likethe fable of thefox in thegranary, who made himselftoo fatto leave by the same crackin the wall he came in. He thengoes on to tell an allegory-a verythinly veiled one-of himself and Maecenas.Volteius Mena was a praeco,a person,therefore, of the same rankexactly as Horace's father,the coactorargentarius; a rank whichHorace says the elderHorace would not have been disappointed to see his son attainalso, forall his expensiveeducation: nec timuit,sibi ne vitioquis verteret,olim si praecoparvas aut, ut fuitipse, coactor mercedessequerer: neque ego essemquestus; at hoc nunc laus illidebetur et a me gratiamaior (S. 1.6.85-88) -hoc meaning,evidently, the much higher status than his father's,the rankof equestrianscriba, that Horace had attainedbefore he metMae- cenasor was giventhe SabineFarm. Volteius,the Horace-figure of theparable, is approachedby a noble- man lookingto amuse himselfwith the folliesof the humble-L. Mar- cius Philippus,consul in 91 B.C., whose son became Augustus'step- father,the Maecenas-figureof the parable.He is invitedto dinner,

2'6 Fraenkel (above, note 3) 14-15. A similarambiguity about Horace's positionis shown by Charles BrewsterRandolph, "Horace and the ScriptusQuaestorius," TAPA 56 (1925) 130-49. He calls the position "a responsibleundersecretaryship, comparable in a measure to the post of an assistantsecretary in one of our governmentaldepartments at Washing- ton, like that of State or War" (143); but assumes three pages later that Horace resigned his post withembarrassment as soon as he could ("his work as a quaestor's clerk," 146). Eitherthe scribeship,one would think,was "like" being an undersecretaryfor Harding or Coolidge, whichwould hardlyhave excluded one fromupper-class social life in 1925, or it wasn't. Actually,it was a post perfectlycreditable to wealthyfreedmen, to theirsons, and to the less well-bornequites in general. Several are known to have gone on to the senate, and others to have marriedinto senatorialfamilies (like the Emperor Vespasian's father- in-law, Suet. Vesp. 3). But probablythe scribeshiphad to be laid down to serve in the senate, and snobs could criticizesuch a beginningto the career of even a freebornsenator. The evidence is discussed by Wiseman (above, note 3) 71-73. If Horace was embarrassed by the post, however,as (e.g.) Wiseman argues Romans were embarrassed-or pretended to be-in society by salaried positions of any kind (73-77), he would hardlyparade it at Satires 2.6.36-37. Of course (see below) Horace also parades his freedomfrom its daily obligationsas he does so; which probablywas more than enough to satisfythe require- ments of Roman snobberyabout wages.

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made a friendof, and at last subsidizedin the purchaseof-a Sabine farm.It turnsout, however,that this is too muchtrouble to manage, and Volteius,as thepoem ends, is beggingoff the gift: te perGenium dextramque deosque Penatis obsecroet obtestor,vitae me redde priori! (1.7.94-95) -that is, to his lifeand callingas praeco.Horace adds: qui semelaspexit, quantum dimissa petitis praestent,mature redeat repetatque relicta. metirise quemquesuo moduloac pedeverum est. (96-98) Whatdoes Horace have, then,that was dimissumand relictum,to whichhe can return?What does he have thatwould be morelike his origins,and, takenup again,would make him feel that he was measur- ing himselfsuo moduloinstead of by Maecenas' standards?Surely he means his life-positionas scriba,a pinnacleof ambition,certainly, for the praeconesand coactoresamong whom he was bornand broughtup as a child,but workof the same kindin the end. If Horaceprotests his fondnessfor otium and country-lifeas a reasonfor giving up the Sabine Farm,if it entailsattending Maecenas, and returningto his vitaprior, thatis no barrierto thisinterpretation either. Horace had alreadyrepre- sentedhimself fifteen years before, still a scribeand ungiftedas yetwith the Sabine Farm, as a gentlemanof equestrianleisure, otia liberrima (S. 1.6.111-28). Horace thereforecertainly, or almost certainly,kept his scriptus quaestorius(and whynot?) as a fall-backoption until 20 B.C. Whether he keptit to the end of his lifeis less clear,though at the timeof the epistleto Florus, probablyone of his latestpoems, he was still an importantenough businessman to be calledon frequentlyfor his spon- sumwhen he visitedRome (E. 2.2.67). But we knowof nothingthat wouldhave made Horaceresign the wages and perquisitesof a placehe ownedoutright,27 and thesale of thisoffice evidently did notbring in its value; the one accountwe have suggeststhat only a desperateman wouldsell just forthe money.28Augustus offered the secretaryshipof

27 On howexcellent these wages and perquisitescould be, asidefrom the businesswork, on whicha commissionwas earned,cf. Purcell (above, note 8) 138. We lackprecise figures forscribal salaries at Rome, but the duumviralscribes at Caesar's colonyat Urso made HS 1200 per quarter-3 to 4 timesthe salaryof centurionsbefore Caesar and Augustusraised their pay (Wiseman [above, note 31 72, 74). The salarypaid to thescribes of thecentral government was no doubtconsiderably higher (cf. following note). 2'8 Accordingto thescholiast on Juvenal5.3, the scurraSarmentus, a freedman,a favor- ite of Maecenas,and an acquaintanceof Horace(S. 1.5.52-70),obtained the quaestorian scribeship.He was booed by the audience,lampooned, and laterprosecuted for immedi- atelypresuming to wearequestrian dress and sit in the equestrianseats in the theatres (significant,that he was encouragedto do so merelyby obtainingthe position).He

This content downloaded from 141.222.42.208 on Thu, 26 Jun 2014 18:56:45 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions HoratiusEques et Scriba 267 his privatecorrespondence to Horace, a positionhigher in rank and recompense,which would indeed have entailedhis resigning,or rather selling,the scriptus.29But Horacedid not take it. Even then,Augustus insistedon advancingHorace in wealthand status.The Suetoniuslife says unaqueet alteraliberalitate locupletavit, and one of these liberalitates was probablythe house at Horace'sbeloved Tibur that Suetonius saw.30 But whyshould Horace have abandonedthe scriptusand its income- especiallysince he was hardlyliable, as an imperialfavorite, to anyof its dutiesthat interrupted his studiesand hisequestrian otium?

III. Horace'sSocial Status in Satires1.6 and 2.7 These pointshelp us understandthe poetryand structureof Sat- ires1.6. In thatpoem nearly every degree on theladder of Romanranks fromcenturion to imperator,from slave to censorand patrician,is mentioned,and theyall helpilluminate Horace's self-positioning not just on thisladder but in life. Horace opens by describingMaecenas as at the top of the ladder, whereone couldonly be byhigh birth: Non quia, Maecenas,Lydorum quidquid Etruscos incoluitfinis, nemo generosior est te, nec quod avustibi maternus fuit atque paternus olimqui magnislegionibus imperitarent ... (1-4) From the beginning,birth, rank, status, and ambitioare themes,the themes,of thispoem. For example,the last linesof 1.6 echo the first, verbally: hisme consolorvicturum suavius ac si quaestoravus pater atque meus patruusque fuissent. (131-32) JamesGow thought,following P. Willems,that the occasionof the poem is Maecenas' askingHorace whetherhe would like to leave his scribeshipand be supportedfor the firstrank of the senate,the quaes- escapedpunishment by Maecenas' influence. Later in life,finding himself bankrupt (aucti- onari coactus) Sarmentus was asked cur scriptumcensorium (to which he had presumably moved by exchange) quoque venderet,and replied"that he had a good memory," se bonae memoriaeesse. The quoqueshows it was considereda strangething to sell the position. Trimalchioclaimed that he mighthave been a scribe,if he had liked-justas Horace claimshe mightno less thanMaecenas have been a senator;cf. D'Arms (above,note 3) 108-16. 29 This of coursewas not like the positionof ab epistuliseither in its Julio-Claudian version,as a post forthe greatimperial freedmen, or its laterequestrian one. On the origins(after Augustus) of the positionof imperialab epistulis,cf. FergusMillar, The Emperorin theRoman World(Oxford 1977) 73. 30 Domusque ostenditurcirca Tiburniluculum; Rostagni ad loc., Suetoniode Poetis (Turin 1944) 120.

This content downloaded from 141.222.42.208 on Thu, 26 Jun 2014 18:56:45 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 268 David Armstrong torship.31We all knownowadays there are otherreasons a poem like this could be writtenand publishedthan as the resultof an actual requestin real life.But as an imaginarysituation between Horace and Maecenas,why not? Horace considers,in the poem, whathappens to freedmen'ssons who do become quaestorsor tribunes(24-44); he believeshimself financially prosperous enough to undertakethis, if he had the ancestry(100-105); he concludesby imaginingfor a moment, picturesquely,what it would be like, not just to be a marginal,low- rankingsenator but to have a wholefamily of these."2Even thatfor one like himselfwould be a dream-worldof highbirth, Horace humorously implies,in a piquantcontrast to Maecenas'true noble birth as described at theoutset. A second thoughtsuggested at the outset by the openinglines: whilemany different interpretations have been givenof thewords quemrodunt omnes libertino patre natum ... quodmihi pareret legio Romana tribuno (46-48) -that Horaceis beingpompous and callinghis tribuneshipthe command of a wholelegion,33 or even morewildly that Brutus' troops at Philippi musthave lost theirlegates and had literallyto be commandedby the tribuni34-surely the trueinterpretation is obvious. Line 48 is intention- ally contrastedwith line 4, just as Horace's unattainabledream of a familyof-quaestors!-at theend is humorouslycontrasted with Maece- nas' brilliantheritage, and saysnothing more than that while Maecenas' ancestorswere imperatores over many legions at once-Etruscanlegions, not Roman ones, however-Horacwas mockedin publicmerely for beingobeyed by a singleRoman (his criticsuse Romanaemphatically and indignantly)legion, if onlyas one of its tribunes,because he was a freedman'sson. If we can getthis far in solvingminor puzzles of emphasisby stress- ing rankas a theme,then it is worthwhileto look further.Maecenas, Horace continues,even withsuch a heritageas his, does not scorna man merelybecause his fatherwas a nobodyor even a freedman(6). Two more pointshere: as Lejay saw, that means that Horace is ac- quiescing,not just tacitlybut explicitly,in the social prejudicethat led bothAugustus and Maecenasto excludefreedmen, like his father,from

:1' JamesGow, Q. HoratiFlacci SaturarumLiber I (Cambridge 1901) 79. Willems noted in additionthat Horace, being about 30 at the time of Satires 1, was just arrivingat the legal age to stand forthe quaestorship. 32 Like the examples discussed in Ronald Syme, The Roman Revolution(Oxford 1939) 78-96, "Caesar's New Senators," especially 81, note 1, of familieslimited to the homo novusparvusque senator (Bell. Afr.57.4). 3 Gow (above, note 31) xi, note 4. '4 Fraenkel (above, note 3) 11, note 4.

This content downloaded from 141.222.42.208 on Thu, 26 Jun 2014 18:56:45 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions HoratiusEques et Scriba 269 theirtables.35 It also means thatHorace is sayinghis own class, the libertinorumfilii, deserves their friendship. In the next lines, Horace impliesthat Maecenas' fairnessto freedmen'ssons extendseven to approvingof themas senators: cumreferre negas, quali sit quisque parente natus,dum ingenuus, persuades hoc tibivere, antepotestatem Tulli atque ignobile regnum multossaepe virosnullis maioribus ortos et vixisseprobos, amplis et honoribusauctos. (7-11) Maecenas has no disdainfor freedmen's sons; and he arguesthat manylow-born men fromthe beginningof Romanhistory, even before Servius,have been honoribusaucti. King Servius Tullius was patrenullo, matreserva, Livy 4.3.10-12 (whereCanuleius is arguing,in fact,for exactlythis point: still earlier kings than Servius, Numa, and the elder Tarquinwere also of birththat would have disqualifiedthem for high officeby Republicanstandards). Contrariwise, Maecenas is made to argue,sons of the noblestfamilies-even patricians-have been refused the senator'stoga by the populus,because theywere too patentlyun- worthy(12-16). Then whatis the subjectof the poem, if not whetherHorace is a properperson to standfor honores, for the senate? Even froma political pointof view,one can see whythis would have been a good thingfor Horace to give out as Maecenas' view. The last censorship,that of AppiusClaudius in 50 B.C., who had ejectedall freedmen'ssons from the senate,had been intenselyunpopular,36 and the mid-thirtieswas no timefor Maecenas and Octavianto claimthat they intended to purge the senateof the low-born.It was a timeof confusionwhen, Dio Cas- sius says, therewere sixty-sevenpraetors in one year;not just freed-

'5 Lejaycompares Suetonius Augustus 74: convivabaturassidue, non sine magnoordinum hominumque dilectu. ValeriusMessala tradidit, neminem umquam libertinorum adhibitum ab eo cenae exceptoMena, sed assertoin ingenuitatempost proditam Sexti Pompeiclassem. ipse scribit, invitasse se quendam,in cuiusvilla maneret, qui speculatorsuus olimfuisset. If thatis as faras Augustus'snobbery and ordinumdilectus went, he and Maecenas,as describedin Horace,had muchthe same policy. 36 Dio claimsthat both censors of 50 helpedCaesar, the PompeianAppius no less than theCaesarian Piso: Claudiusmeant to oppose Caesar,for he favoredPompey's party, but unintentionallyaided himgreatly instead; for he struckvery many senatorsand knightsfrom the rolls,and made themall favorCaesar as a result.Piso ... did no such thing,but did not oppose him when he expelledall freedmen'ssons and manyof quitenoble birth ... fromthe Senate.(40.63.4)

This content downloaded from 141.222.42.208 on Thu, 26 Jun 2014 18:56:45 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 270 David Armstrong men's sons, of whomJulius Caesar had alreadyadmitted as a popular gesturea selectfew, but actual freedmen were put up forthe senate and elected; indeed,a slave stilllegally in ownershipwas foundto have become praetorand executedfor it.37 If Octavianand Maecenas were concernedto maintaintheir popularity in Italyat thisperiod, what more probablethan that they would like to have it thoughtthat they were no threatto thesocial ambitions of thefreedman class? On the otherhand, Horace refuses in termsthat make it clearthat he thinksequestrian rank is suitablefor a personof his birth,but not senatorialrank, in whichone mightmerely be marginallysafe from the censors,and a buttof mockeryas well."In theory,"Syme says, "every free-borncitizen was eligibleto standfor the quaestorship:in fact,the wealthand standingof a knightwas requisite-noexorbitant condition. Sons offreedmen had sat in theSenate before now, furtive and insecure, underthe menace of expulsionby implacable censors; the scribe likewise mightwell be in possessionof the census of a Roman knight.... "38 Thatessentially sums up Horace'ssituation and explainshis reply. quidoportet nos facerea volgolonge longeque remotos? namqueesto, populus Laevino mallet honores quam Decio mandarenovo, censorque moveret Appius,ingenuo si non essempatre natus; vel merito,quoniam in proprianon pellequiessem; sed fulgentetrahit constrictos Gloria curru non minusignotos generosis. (17-24) If these lines figurein the contextof Maecenas' suggestingthat senatorialrank would be all rightfor Horace, and Horace's refusalto accept the suggestion,choosing between the variousambiguities the Latin suggestsis not crucial.The basic meaningseems to be, "what shouldI do" (or, sinceMaecenas is also a knightwho caresnothing for senatorialrank for himself, "what should we do"; it hardlymatters, and perhapsboth meanings are intended)"who am farabove the common people/whohave nothingto do withthe populus in politics?For suppose yourreasoning is false39and thatthe peoplemight in factelect even a

37 Dio 48.43 (38 B.C.) (the67 praetors);48.53 (continualsuccessions of notonly consuls and praetorsbut quaestors,some foronly a day); 48.34 and 42 (freedmen'ssons and slavesin the senate).These passagesare muchdiscussed: cf. P. Willems,Le Senatde la repubfiqueromaine (Louvain/Paris 1878-85) 1.613-14; Syme (above, note 32) 196-97, 244-45; Treggiari(above, note 3) 61f. :1 Syme(above, note 32) 78. 39 For a surveyof interpretationsof esto,cf. Gow (above, note 31) 83-84 (Orelli, Palmer,Lendrum [CR 4 (1890) 253f.],Kiessling): most of these,like Kiessling-Heinze- Burck,assume that esto mallet offers in one wayor anotherthe oppositesupposition to Maecenas',whether as a certaintyor just as a riskHorace would still run: Maecenas thinks Horacemight have the luckto succeed,Horace thinks he probablywould not. Gow sup-

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Laevinusrather than a new Decius (i.e. the case you proposewouldn't happen,and I would failin my bid), or a censorlike Appius40might eject me, once elected,because my fatherwas a freedman-rightly, perhaps,because I was in falseclothing-yet ambition draws the ignoble as well as the well-bornto standfor the senate" (i.e. plentyof freedmen's sons do the same thing).Or (giventhe ambiguityHorace has purposelycreated by the clippeduse of conjunctionsin the passage): "Let us forgetsuch thoughts;the peoplewould rather elect a Laevinus thana new Decius (ifI ran),and (ifI won) a censorlike Appiuswould ejectme. Butone sees freedmen'ssons drawnto thesenate by ambition anyway."These, I suppose,would be the poles of possibleinterpreta- tion. Eitheror both-and perhapsboth are intended,since theycan both reasonablybe got fromthe Latin-make good sense. There are otherways of fillingthe semanticgaps Horace leaves here, none of whichmakes that much difference, falling as theydo in between.4' What is importantto interpretationis that the figurenow conjured up, Tillius,is no mere Lucilianfiction, but an alterego of Horace- anotherfreedman's son, like Horace himself,who has run for the senateand won,and gottenonly invidia and ridiculefor his newstatus: quo tibi,Tilli, sumeredepositum clavum fierique tribuno? invidiaadcrevit, privato quae minoresset; namut quisqueinsanus nigris medium impediit crus pellibuset latumdemisit pectore clavum, auditcontinuo: "quis homohic est? quo patrenatus?" (24-29) That is the same song Horace heard when he threatened,by being a tribunusmilitum, to starta senatorialcareer.42

poses thatesto must concede Maecenas his point,and Horacewould then argue onward fromthe concession:"I grantyou that,but the peoplemight still prefer a Laevinus,and the censor Appius mighteject me . . . " 40 Thereis anotherambiguity here. Appius' ancestor Ap. ClaudiusCaecus as censorin 312 had done just the oppositething-allowed freedmen's sons into the senateagainst opposition(Livy 8.46.10-11)-and to call the Appiusof 50 merelycensor... Appiusis to remindthe reader of the contrast.The obviousambiguity occasionally deceived an editor (in timeswhen ambiguity was unwelcome)into supposing that only the earlierAppius couldbe meant:cf. Palmer on S. 1.6.21. 41 On anyinterpretation, the passageinvolves an assumptionthat Horace could possibly getpast the people, snobs though they are, and be electedin spiteof theirpreference for noblefools like Laevinus; or howwould the censor Appius have the chanceto ejecthim fromthe senate,deservedly or not? Thatmakes a good parallelwith Tillius' case in the followinglines: Tillius is overwhelmedwith contempt, but after his election. 42 Even Fraenkel,evidently, admitted that Horace must have intended a senatorialcareer in his youth,when he becametribunus militum, just by virtueof becomingone ([above, note31 10,note 7; afterPhilippi "there could be no longerany idea of his makinga career in themagistracy," 13).

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The ancientscholiasts invent a Tillius,brother of the conspirator againstCaesar Tillius Cimber, who was supposedlyejected from the senate and beganhis careeragain either in the senateor as tribunusmilitum laticlavius.This imposedon Mommsenand others,but was finallydis- provedby Taylor,Fraenkel, and T. P. Wiseman.43Why would such a man,an aristocraticRepublican of equal birthwith Casca or Ligarius,be askedwith sarcasm who his father was or whohe himselfwas? Tilliusis a freedman'sson; the depositumclavum is the purple-borderedtoga free- bornboys wore before they put on the togavirilis; and thetribuneship is the tribuneshipof the plebs-at thisperiod the onlyalternative to the quaestorshipas thefirst rank in thesenatorial cursus honorum.44 A freedman's son who promisespompously to watchover the citizens and their empire,over Italyand the templesof the gods, is notjust riskingbut demandingthat his parentagebe lookedinto (34-37), and so Tilliusis askedhow he daresexercise the tribune's authority over Romans,when he is theson of"some SyrianDama or Dionysius"(38f.). This passageis oftentreated as if it werea "Lucilian"interlude, as ifit couldbe understoodapart from what Horace says about himself; as forexample by Fraenkel:45 It is witha sighof reliefthat we greetthe announcement(45) nuncad me redeolibertino patre natum, by whichwe are assured thatnow the parade of drearycharacters is overand thatwe shall at lastbe allowedto enjoythe company of a farmore interesting and pleasantman, Q. HoratiusFlaccus .... He himselfseems glad to getout of theLucilian masquerade.... But the irrelevancyis simplynot there.Horace never leftthe stage. Tillius is Horace,suffering as Horace mightif he took Maecenas' well-meant advice.We are expected,after all, to have read S. 1.4.105-37,as we progressthrough the unifiedsequence of poemsthat make up Satires1. Tilliusis one of thosedeterrent examples Horace's father taught him to

4s Fraenkel(above, note 3) 102,note 6; Wiseman(above, note 3) 266, followingTaylor 1925(above, note 1) 168-69.See also Lejay'svery firm rejection of theidentification with eitherthe conspirator or his brother,Satires 172-73, and on 1.6.24;I noticethat this still needs to be set straightin RichardA. LaFleur'sotherwise excellent survey of personal namesin the Satires,"Horace and the Law of Satire,"ANR W 2.31.3, 1790-1826(see page 1802).Is Wisemanright to make"Tillius" a realperson (was he perhapsa freedman of theTillii to whomCaesar's assassin belonged?), or might"Tillius" rather belong with "Novius"and "Barrus"as mereconventional Lucilian names for satire-figures? 44 One normallyheld the quaestorshipbefore being tribune (Mommsen, Staatsrecht 1:, 551) butthe counter-examples are mostlyfrom this disturbed period (42-31 B.c.), cf.RE "TribunusPlebis" col. 2489. PerhapsTillius skipped a rankin his eagernessfor a career; or perhapswe are meantto deduce thathe was, whenthe thingsdescribed occurred, alreadyat the secondstage of his cursushonorum-just as laterin the poem we are to deducethat at itsdramatic date Tillius had already advanced to praetor. 45 Fraenkel(above, note 3) 103.

This content downloaded from 141.222.42.208 on Thu, 26 Jun 2014 18:56:45 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions HoratiusEques et Scriba 273 look for,and Horacesays of himtoo, numquidego illi/ imprudensfaciam simile?(1.4.136-37). Tillius dressed up imprudently,as Horace might be temptedto by Maecenas' indulgence,in literallythe wrongskins, the senator'ssandal-thongs (pelle, 22; pellibus,28) and is ridiculedfor it. Mostsignificantly, and mostunfairly, he turnsout to be, in thelanguage of popularabuse, SyriDamae autDionysifilius: that is theiranswer to the sing-songquestion he and Horaceboth know so well,quo patre natus ? Horace's nuncad me redeodeceived Fraenkel. That is not the most dramatictransition in the poem. It is interestingand strikingto turn back to the real, modest,equestrian Horace fromhis ambitiousand ridiculousalter ego Tillius.But the characterreally waiting to be intro- duced is Horace's own father,whom so manywords in the opening passageadumbrate: avus tibimaternus atque paternus (3) ignotos,ut me libertinopatre natum (6) cumreferre negas quali sit quisque parente natus(7-8) ingenuosi non essempatre natus (21) "iquishomo hic est? quopatre natus?" (29) quopatre sit natus (36) est ille,pater quod eratmeus (41) If Horace stood for the senate, his fatherwould be describedin the same brutalwords: Syrus Dama aut Dionysius,nor would Horace have any way to tell the people who the elder Horace reallywas. Or, if we like,we can say thatthe secondhalf of the transitionalline 45 is as importantas thefirst. Rhetoric should tell us so; it is repeated: nuncad me redeo,libertino patre natum quemrodunt omnes, libertino patre natum (45-46) and repeated: nonego me claronatum patre ... (58) and again: nonpatre praeclaro, sed vitaet pectorepuro (64) untilwe getto thereal point at line71: causa fuitpater his, whenthe answer to thequestion quo patre natus? can finallybe givenas Horacewants to giveit.46 Maecenascares, not aboutHorace's birth, but

46 For this artisticpoint in the structureof 1.6, cf. E. L. Harrison,"Horace's Tribute to his Father," CP 60 (1965) 111-14.

This content downloaded from 141.222.42.208 on Thu, 26 Jun 2014 18:56:45 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 274 David Armstrong aboutwhat sort of manhe reallyis. He is thereforeassumed to carealso whatsort of man Horace'sfather really was, not whatthe peoplewould rudelyclaim he was, if Horacewere a marginaland precarioussenator livingin fearof anotherhyper-conservative censorship. There is somethingamusing, however, about the appearanceHor- ace's fatheractually makes in the poem. One mighthave expected Horace to dwellat thispoint on his father'sexcellence as a moralper- son and a moralteacher; to go on in the vein of the famouspassage 1.4.105-37,cited earlier. After all, the argumentis thatif Horace is a good personas a man and friend,and of fewand forgivablevices, his fatherwas the cause (65-71). But insteadof that,Horace tells us with pridehow expensiveand how gentlemanlyan educationhe had, and how it was meant to, and did, advance him in society.That is his answerto the questionquo patrenatus? Even the one referenceto what we mightbe temptedto call moralityin the passageabout his father- thatthe elder Horace was a vigilantenough guardian to preservehis son not only fromjuvenile unchastitybut fromthe reputationof it (82-84)-is in contextmerely one more detail of Horace's claim to have had a genuinelyupper-class education. The vulgarcenturions' boys Horace'sfather spared him as schoolmateshad neitherpedagogues nor parentsat leisureto oversee theirmorals. The rest is all, unambigu- ously,about status.Horace's fatherwas macropauper agello (71), but did not send him to a low-classcountry ludus to be educatedfor business insteadof literatureand philosophy(72-75).47 Instead

47 In spiteof Fraenkel'sfantasies about Horace's sufferings as a childfrom the children at the Flaviludus ([above,note 31 3, followedincautiously by Wiseman[above, note 31 67), was Horaceever in anydanger of goingthere? The pointof S. 1.6.72-75is itscon- temptfor every detail of the pupils' equipage: magni quo puerimagnis e centurionibusorti laevosuspensi loculos tabulamque lacerto ibantoctonos referentes Idibus aeris. Horace,by contrast, had slaves (plural)to carryhis satchels and tabletsfor him, and one assumesOrbilius, and his otherfashionable teachers, were paid by themor his father. Centurionsand theirsons are not likelyto have feltthemselves above wealthyfreedmen and theirsons: they got more, not less, contempt when they pushed into the upper classes (Wiseman[above, note 31 76-77)-except forthose who were rich, and whohad not been privatesoldiers first; and such menwould not have senttheir sons to a ludus,any more thanHorace's father did. The luduswas evidentlynot, as was once thought,a primary schoolby whichstudents qualified for the schola.It was ratherfor the practicaland ele- mentarybusiness education of the lowerclasses. See A. D. Booth,"Elementary and Sec- ondaryEducation in the RomanEmpire," Florulegium 1 (1979) 1-14; "The Schoolingof Slavesin First-CenturyRome," TAPA109 (1979) 11-19; R. Kaster,"Notes on 'Primary' and 'Secondary'Schools in Late Antiquity,"TAPA 113 (1983) 323-46. The reverseof whatFraenkel says is morelikely to be true(Booth puts it well:"Horace's father had him

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puerumest ausus Romamportare docendum artisquas doceatquivis eques atquesenator semetprognatos. vestem servosque sequentis in magnout populo,siqui vidisset, avita ex re praeberisumptus mihi crederet illos; ipsemihi custos incorruptissimus omnis circumdoctores aderat. (76-82) Accompanyinghis son to schoolpresumably was not an inelegantthing to do, giventhe displayof slaves attendingHorace as well, and given thatit implied,on Horace's father'spart, all the leisurein the world, and thereforea made fortune.Of course he did not insiston pushing Horaceforward into the ranks of equitesand senatores: nec timuit,sibi ne vitioquis verteretolim, si praecoparvas aut, ut fuitipse, coactor mercedessequerer: neque ego essemquestus; at hoc nunc laus illidebetur et a me gratiamaior. (85-88) Nunc:"as thingsare." If Horacewere expressing a desireto advancein societystill further on thesegrounds, the passage would be vulgareven in termsof Roman feelings.But "as thingsare" he is not Maecenas' parasite,and does not need to be. Horace's fatherbought his son the education,Horace has himselfwon the position,of a prosperous,eques- trianamicus instead. One can see why Victoriancommentators passed so easily over Horace'sgood competence,upper-middle class status,and easyjob that are such a sourceof prideto him,such an obviousargument (to him) thathe is not, and cannotbe conceivedas, some mere scurracon- demnedto live on a greatman's favors.The picturethey left behind, whichneeds to be dismissedfrom Horatian studies, is of a poortrades- man's son admittedto aristocraticcompany, as he mighthave been at Eton, forhis literarygenius, and keepingthat privilege all his lifeby handingwine-glasses and lookingup quotationsfor his greatpatrons. In nineteenth-centuryschool editionsof Horace, Charles Lamb and his clerkshipat the East India House are invokedoften. But the picture Horacedraws of his youthfulself, which Suetonius' life amply confirms, is morelike George Osborne in VanityFair, provided by a richbut not quiteacceptable father in the Citywith education, a commissionin the army,and smilingpermission to spendhis timethere losing at cardsto, and gainingsocial advancementfrom, the youngerCiceros and the ValeriusMessallas of theday, the Lord Tarquins and Lord Deuceaces. Did Horace'sfather intend still more? Probably he did. Horaceand his fatherwere evidently in Rome in 50 B.C., whenHorace was fifteen, avoida cheapludus in Venusia,""Schooling" 19, note37). If Horaceever associated with suchchildren, they suffered from his snobbery, not he fromtheirs.

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and AppiusClaudius Pulcher damaged the Pompeiancause he had just joinedby "purifying"the senate of all thefreedmen's sons he couldfind on therolls. No doubtthe comparisonHorace obliquely makes by men- tioninghim as censorAppius and callingto memoryhis ancestor,the censorAppius of 312 B.C. who had wonthe adoration of thelower classes by encouragingignoto patre and libertinopatre nati to join the senatefor the firsttime, was heardin the streetsin Horace's youth,and often.48 But Appiuswas an exceptionallysevere and (to the cause he served) embarrassingcensor, who alienatedvaluable support from Pompeius. If Horacewanted to use the educationand friendshe won in Rome and Athensto theirfull potential he mightwell have hopedfor better than a merelymarginal career in thesenate; but that much at least. In the end Horace maywell have had Brutus'encouragement too. Whywas he given his tribuneshipin Brutus'army? Fraenkel quotes Plutarch,Brutus 24.2 on Brutus'search for talent in Athens:49

TOV'9 oxoka&ovrag a7ro Tp'PE,u1 Ev aWoTEL vEov; avEXa/.43aVEKal t It c I d I - I UVVELXEV. WV 7)V KaL KLKE'pwVO' vLOq, ov vIraLvEL 8&aepOVTW' KaL O(olV ... OaV/Otv OVTO) yEvvatov ovTa KaL pA/oTvpavvov. Butthat was Cicero's son. Thereis a goodreason, one couldsuggest, why Brutuslooked lower in thesocial scale for at leastone ofhis appointments (it need nothave been theonly one): he had himselfhelped, along with Pompey,to defendAppius in 50 againstthe charges of ambitusand maie- stasthat nearly aborted his candidaturefor the censorship.50 He was well known,then, to be partlyresponsible for Appius' war on low-bornsena- tors.Brutus could well have feltit expedientto give peoplelike Horace officialappointments, in orderto showthat the cause of theRepublic did notinvolve reversing all Caesar'sencouraging gestures to themunicipali- ties,the business classes, and thefreedmen and theirfamilies. If Brutus had won,Horace might have hopedfor a successfulcareer indeed. He did not win,and Horacefound himself deprived of his father's lands at Venusia-not, evidently,because theywere his, but because Venusiawas selectedfor the unpopularconfiscations of land afterPhi- lippithat Octavian was leftby Antoniusto manage.He mentionsthis elsewhereas havingbeen a heavierfinancial blow to him than one would have thoughtfrom his modestlycalling his fathermacro pauper agelloin 1.6: undesimul primum me dimiserePhilippi, decisishumilem pennis inopemque paterni et laris et fundi. (E. 2.2.49-51)

"I Cf.note 40 above. 41 Fraenkel(above, note 3) 10,note 4. 50 RE "Junius"53, col. 980 (Geizer).

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Yet Horacewas stillable fromwhat was leftof his familyfortune, pre- sumablyin nummi(with his father'sbankers?), and the influenceof his friends,to obtainpardon and buy himselfthe scribeshipand the comfortableliving he describeshere: nunc,"as thingsare," he is doingas wellas his fatherhoped and better.He is scribaquaestorius, at thetop of the hierarchyof governmentofficials, while the coactoreslike his father (whetherthey worked for business, the government,or both) ranked farlower;51 eques Romanus, iudex selectus, and an amicusof Maecenas, Vergil,and Varius.In thisrank, moreover, he is freeto live as casually as he likeshis lifeof equestrianleisure: no one willcriticize him if he has the Catoniansimplicity to appearin publictraveling as a lone eques on a muluscurtus.

IV. 0 totiensservus: The OtherSide of theHoratian Persona Withone last complacentsneer at his alternate-self,at poorTillius tryingto look praeclaruswhen he cannotbe (110), Horacenow turnsto a descriptionof his innocent,lazy, Epicureanday of leisure,the nunc thathis father'sefforts and his ownhave boughthim: quacumquelibido est incedosolus, percontor quanti olus ac far, fallacemcircum vespertinumque pererro saepeforum, adsisto divinis. inde domum me ad porriet cicerisrefero laganique catinum; cena ministraturpueris tribus et lapisalbus poculacum cyatho duo sustinet,adstat echinus vilis,cum patera guttus, Campana supellex. deindeeo dormitum,non sollicitus,mihi quod cras surgendumsit mane, obeundus Marsya, qui se voltumferre negat Noviorum posse minoris. ad quartamiaceo: posthanc vagor aut ego lecto autscripto quod me tacitumiuvet unguor olivo, nonquo fraudatisinmundus Natta lucernis. ast ubi me fessumsol acriorire lavatum admonuit,fugio campum lusumque trigonem. pransusnon avide,quantum interpellet inani ventrediem durare, domesticus otior. haec est vitasolutorum misera ambitione gravique.... (S. 1.6.111-29) A beautifulpicture, which leads us, however,into more complex regionsof thoughtas faras Horace's poeticpersona is concerned.For, as Lejay long ago saw, it is (forall its realisticRoman details) pure convention.The "Epicureanday" is a topos-a leisure-classone, so it suits well withHorace's modestbut firmproclamation that he has a

51 On the coactores,cf. Fraenkel (above, note 3) 5; J. A. Crook,Law and Lifeof Rome (London1967) 219-20.

This content downloaded from 141.222.42.208 on Thu, 26 Jun 2014 18:56:45 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 278 David Armstrong competence and does not need to live offMaecenas' charity.Not only that, so is the sort of satiricalattack on the "Epicurean day" that a Crispinus or his ianitormight make. The passages that give away the "secret" are in Cicero and Epictetus. Cicero writesin 46 to his Epicu- rean friendL. Papirius Paetus (ad Fam. 9.20) that he has given himself over to the pleasures of the table: in Epicurinos, adversarinostri, castra coniecimus, nec tamenad hancinsolentiam sed ad illamtuam lautitiam.... haec igiturest nunc vita nostra:mane salutamusdomi et bonos virosmultos, sed tristis,et hos laetosvictores, qui me quidemperofficiose et peramanterobservant. ubi salutatiodefluxit, litteris me involvo: aut scriboaut lego. veniuntetiam qui me audiuntquasi doctum hominemquia paulo sum quam ipsi doctior.inde corporiomne tempusdatur. (1, 3) Lejay on 1.6.129 quotes this passage, adding "La salutatioet les consultationsmontrent que Ciceron ne pouvait pas entierementse de- pouillerle vieux homme. Horace se rapprochebien plus du programme du veritableepicurien." He then quotes Epictetus 3.24, which needs to be set out here at greaterlength than in Lejay: Whatelse do they[the Epicureans]wish than to sleep without impedimentand withoutnecessity, and thengetting up to yawn at leisureand wash theirface, thenwrite and read what they wish,then to talk some nonsenseor otherand get praisedby theirfriends, no matterwhat they say, thento go out intothe walksand walk a bit and thentake theirbath, then eat, then sleep-the kindof "sleep" you mightexpect of such men-why shouldI tellyou? anyonecould guess. Come, showme yourway of lifethat you so love, you zealot of truthand Socratesand Diogenes.What are you doinghere in Athens?just this?worse, perhaps?so whydo you call yourselfa Stoic? And thentraitors to the Romanstate are punishedharshly, but traitorsat once to so greata nameand so greata thingare to be let offscot free? Or is thisimpossible, but is the law divineand authoritativeand not to be run awayfrom like a slave (aiva7ropacros).... For what does it say? " ... let him that disobeys the divine ordering be lowly,be a slave,let himhurt, be grudged,be pitied,in sum, let himfail, let himmourn." (3.24.39-43) Justas Cicero's and Epictetus' obviously conventional"Epicurean" accounts of a leisure day resemble Horace's in every small detail, Epic- tetus' equally conventional Stoic rebuke to the enjoyers of such days resembles obviously the o totiensservus lecture Davus gives his master in 2.7. In that poem, Horace looks back on his "innocent" Epicurean life, but fromthe point of view of his own scurraeand slaves-who see it more or less as Epictetusdoes. Two thoughtsresult. First,that the "Epicurean day" in Horace is more of a luxuryitem than it looks. We need hardlybelieve (as so many seekers forbiographi-

This content downloaded from 141.222.42.208 on Thu, 26 Jun 2014 18:56:45 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions HoratiusEques et Scriba 279 cal factin the poemshave done) thatHorace could afford no morethan threeslaves to servehis tableat his Romanhouse. The toposof Epicu- rean "simplicity,"rather, is plainlyone forthe luxuriousand gentlemanly,who can affordbetter but considerthis much tasteful.It is a toposfor Cicero joking painfully about how he abandonsthe Republic, now Caesar has won, for a life like that of Paetus, devoted not to extravagancebut to lautitia;or forEpictetus trying to makethe Marcus Cicerosof his day, the youngRoman nobilitylounging about Athens and givingmore timeto leisurethan to study,feel guiltyabout living withpleasurable "simplicity." The pointof Satires1.6, afterall, is the descriptionof Horace's secure,gentlemanly status as an amicusof the great,not a scurra.The toposhe choosesto elaborateby way of showing how muchhe owes his father'sefforts to make himsecure, is one that revealshim as the possessorof an otiumnot simplyequestre, but even senatorial-orat leastquaestorian. Nor does it undercuthis assertionof comfortand independenceto have an imaginaryStoicising slave in a laterpoem satirize this otium as somethingless moral:it is otiumstill. Secondly,the revelationin Epictetusof whata contemporaryStoic, like "Crispinus"or his janitor,might have said sarcasticallyof such an innocentday takes us a littledeeper, if not intoHorace, at leastinto his persona.Epictetus doubts that the Epicurean leisure-artist's nights are all thatinnocent; and when Horace protestsat 1.6.68 his freedomfrom mala lustra,disreputable pursuits, as the resultof his excellentfather's training,does thatnot strain credulity a littlein theauthor of Satires1.2 and Epodes8, 11, and 12? Or when he proteststhe simplicityof his house and table,does thatnot straincredulity a littlein the amateur criticof good foodand dinnermanners of Satires2.4 and 8? It is interesting,therefore, to considerthe rope he gives,in Satires2, to imaginarysatirists of himself-Damasippusin 3, Davus in 7-for they say (in the name of the Stoics)much what Epictetus says of the Epicu- reanman of leisurein thepassage quoted above. Damasippusclaims that Horace'sreading and writing,aut lecto aut scripto / quodme tacitum iuvet, lead nowherebut to mereindolence (2.3.1-16)-a splendidjoke, consid- eringthat this opens a 326-linesatirical diatribe half as longas a book of epic, writtenby Horace himself.By this device, Horace managesto asserthis possessionof perfectliterary otium, and lampoonit, and assert its productivityall at the same time.Damasippus criticizes Horace for makingcostly improvements to his Sabinefarm and adds: an quodcumquefacit Maecenas, te quoque verumest, tantumdissimilem et tantocertare minorem? (312-13) Keissling-Heinze-Burck,however, will have none of this. The fable convenueabout Horace's villa is thatit was a modestaffair, and that mustbe savedat all costs:

This content downloaded from 141.222.42.208 on Thu, 26 Jun 2014 18:56:45 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 280 David Armstrong Aedificat:das wirdnichts weiter sein, als dassH. aufseinem vor kurzemerhaltenen GUtchen das Wohnhaus,das bis dahinwohl nureinen Pachter beherbergt hatte, nach seinen BedUrfnissen um- baut,hochstens, dass er dort ein neues errichtet. (on S. 3.2.308) Of course the point of the note is that Damasippus'claim that Horaceis rivalingMaecenas in house-buildingis extravagant,and so it is. But whyshould Horace's house not be newlybuilt, or less fine,or less finelyredone, than any otherequestrian house? Onlybecause of the Victoriantradition. And if he builta new house ("at most"!), why need it have been a poorone? Horacealready owned a house in Rome. House ownershipin thecity of Rome, let alone of a house withstables, grooms,and withinwalking distance of the businessdistricts, the Cam- pus, and the lawcourts(for so Horacepictures his situationin 1.6, 1.9, E. 1.14,and elsewhere),was a greatand unusualluxury, and manyan eques, and even senators,paid throughthe nose to rentinstead.52 If Horacewas able to indulge(and parade)a tastefor improvements that saysmore about him still. Damasippusgoes on to accuse Horace of cultummaiorem censu (324)-so his publicappearance was fairlyelegant, at least on occasion, after all-and millepuellarum, puerorum mille furores (325). These are lightcharges, however, compared to Davus' characterizationof his mas- teras a scurraat heartand a slave. Here,it is importantto considerthe place of S. 2.3 and 2.7 in the contextof the well-organizedAugustan poetrybook in whichthey appear. S. 2.3 obviouslyundercuts, in so far as it is directedat Horacehimself, the poet's praiseof the ideal of sim- plicityin diet and lifethrough the mouthof the rusticOfellus of 2.2, once frugallyrich and nowhappily poor. In 2.3 Damasippus,once extrav- agantlyrich and now sourlyphilosophical, is mordantlysuspicious of Horace's beliefin any such thing.A similarbut muchmore important kindof irony and undercuttingis found in thecontrast of 2.6 and 2.7. It mightbe said that1.6 and 2.6 are counterpartsto each otherin the two books of Satires.Both portray Horace's relationshipto Maece- nas, to Roman society,and to the ideal of the simplelife, but 2.6 updatesthe informationin 1.6. Horace now has the Sabine Farm in

52 We need not supposethat such ownershipwas alreadyas rareas in the fourthcen- turyA.D., whenthe Roman regionary catalogues list about 1800 private homes as opposed to 42,000 insulae.But verymany wealthy freedmen, equites, and even senatorsrented, unlike Horace and his father:cf. B. W. Frier, Landlordsand Tenantsin ImperialRome (Princeton1980) 21-47, especially39-41. E. J. Champlinpoints out to me a textmissed by Frier,Plutarch Caesar 42.2 (thoseof Pompey'ssupporters at Pharsaliawho expected the praetorshipor consulshipif he won werealready renting suitable houses at Rome throughtheir agents). Martial, an equesalso, was finallyable to buya houseon theQuiri- nal aboutA.D. 94 aftermany years of renting,and is distinctlyinclined to crowabout it (cf.esp. 9.97.8:Frier, 44 note).

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Rome's expensive,close-in surburbana in additionto his townhouse. He is now Maecenas' secureand enviedfriend of severalyears' stand- ing,and liftedabove the invidiaof the crowd.He is obsequiouslypur- sued by seekersfor favor both in his own rightand as Maecenas' amicus, yet longs forthe peace and quiet of the countryside(he claims) everymoment he is in Rome. There are lines in this Satire,too, that can be clearedup by thinkingof Horace as eques et scriba,a man of stationand rankin lifethat is not merelyMaecenas' giftto him.In his new countryretreat, thanks to Maecenas,Horace can be freeof mala ambitio(28) and the need to obeythe obligationsof amicitiaby beinga sponsoror givingsurety of another'sgood faithin court: "eia, ne priorofficio quisquam respondeat, urge." sive aquiloradit terras seu brumanivalem interiorediem gyro trahit, ire necessest. postmodoquod mi obsit clare certumque locuto. (23-26) Fromthis Horace intendsus to understandthat his testimonyis both soughtafter and profitableto himas partof his observanceof the obligationsof amicitia,though his beliefin the other'sgood faithmay not be all thatsincere. Then he pusheshis waythrough the crowd,glorying in beingasked if he is so pushybecause he is on his wayto see Maece- nas (28-31). Then, as he approachesthe Esquiline,he is overwhelmed withmore requeststo help otheramici in court;and summonsesto corporationmeetings of the scribes;and requestsfor Maecenas' sign- manual.This bringshim to recallwhat he had writtenin S. 1.6: revocasnono postmense, iubesque esse inamicorum numero. (61f.) septimusoctavo propior iam fugerit annus ex quo Maecenasme coepithabere suorum innumero. (2.6.40-42) But the friendshipis stillmisunderstood; it is stillthe subjectof invidia. The invidia,however, has softenedto somethingmore like whatwe wouldcall "envy." Horace is Fortunaefilius to the crowdwhen he sits besideMaecenas in thefourteen rows at the ludi,or playsball with him in public.Because people do notunderstand that Horace is no repositoryof Maecenas'and Caesar's secrets,they shake their heads and admirehim as a Sphinx(57-58) whenhe claimsnot to knowthese. Still: when can he getback to thecountry, where his Epicurean day of 1.6 is stillopen to him (how cleverlyHorace has said: becausehe is nowadaysunavoidably an importantperson, with business to do, whenhe is at Rome): o rus,quando ego te aspiciamquandoque licebit nuncveterum libris, nunc somno et inertibushoris

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duceresollicitae iucunda oblivia vitae? o quandofaba Pythagorae cognata simulque unctasatis pingui ponentur oluscula lardo? (60-65) At these noctescenaeque deum, the discourseis of philosophy,not common Romangossip of businessand the theatre,and the poem goes on to the idyllof the countrymouse and the citymouse, told by one of Horace's rusticguests, with which it concludesas the countrymouse (notHorace) says: "haudmihi vita est opus hac," ait et "valeas:me silvacavusque tutusab insidiistenui solabitur ervo." (115-17) Therecan be fewmore shattering transitions in the Satiresthan that betweenthis conclusion and 2.7. Davus, his slave,accosts Horace with a tiradeabout the inconsistenciesof "Priscus,"modeled on Horace'sown about the equally inconsistentHermogenes Tigellius of S. 1.3.1-19. There, Horace had been asked by an imaginaryinterlocutor, "quid tu / nullanehabes vitia?" and replied,"immo alia et fortasseminora" (1.3.19-20). However,in thispoem, when asked (21) quorsumhaec tam putidatendunt by his master,apparently uninterested in thetribute to his own earlierverses in 1.3, Davus repliesad te-you are the one who has no consistency-andgoes on witha listof all the lies Horace has told about himselfin earlierpoems in the twobooks, comparing them with his "actual"behavior. Horace's praise of Catoniansimplicity, of the fortunamet mores antiquaeplebis, is only a pretence(2.7.22-24). His fondnessfor the countryside,so lovinglydescribed in the previoussatire (2.6), is equally a pretence,for he longsfor Rome whenhe is there(28-29). So much foro rus,quando ego te aspiciama page or twoback at 2.6.60; Horaceis no betterthan the rich fools in Lucretiuswho can be happywith neither urbsnor rus, withneither town-house nor country-house(Lucretius 3.1060-75) because of theirlack of innerpeace. Horace's praise of simpledinners vanishes the minutean impromptuinvitation from Mae- cenas arrives,and he leaves his own scurrae(Horace has them!) to cursehim as a hypocriteas bad as theyare, who makesit worsestill by lecturingthem on morals(29-42). His nocturnaladventures are what Epictetusand Crispinus'Stoic janitor agree a lazyluxurious Epicurean's wouldbe (46-72). All of thisadds up, as in Epictetus,to showthat the personwho lives such an "Epicurean"life is merelya servus,full of guiltand pain. In the strangelybeautiful concluding lines of Davus' tirade-strangely,because in sucha lowcontext: adde quod idem non horamtecum esse potes,non otia recte ponere,teque ipsum vitas fugitivus et erro,

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iam vinoquaerens, iam somnofallere curam: frustra:nam comes atra premit sequiturque fugacem. (111-15) Beingrich has itsdark side, its inescapable"dark companion." In terms of whatmust have been the familiardiatribe-thoughts Epictetus gives us, Horace,the eques and iudexwith his gold ring,is to Davus onlya 8oviAXoand a runawayat that,a fugitivusfrom the OEZ0o ivo-'o a'va7ro- 8paoro7: 8Vo-rTVXEirT,6p71EVErT. In a wonderfulfinal joke, Horacecon- cludes by gettingfuriously angry at all this and threateningDavus with-exileto the SabineFarm! His slave,as an operarius(accedes opera agronona Sabino, 118) may learnthe contentthere, presumably, that Horace does not have in Rome but has in the country.His slave "Davus," thatis; a characterin the poem,or merelythe accusingcon- scienceof the poem's persona-Horace,and not quite to be takenseri- ouslyeven as that,moving and pointedas some of Davus' wordsare. For of course,wonderful as all thisis, it is an elaborateliterary and philosophicaljoke, nota seriesof biographicalrevelations about Horace; ifat firstit seems seriousself-accusation, Horace's pointing so clearlyto Damasippus',Davus', and his own sourcesin the commonplacesof the philosophicaldiatribe opens up a splendidlyconfusing series of receding mirrorsin whichfacts vanish and Horace,Damasippus, and Davus all threebecome puzzlingfeatures in a wonderfulgame of Alexandrian cat's cradle.If the personaof the satiricalHorace develops its darkside alongwith its pastoral,leisurely, and Epicureanone, the worldof the factualmemoir is stillleft far behind. We knowas a factfrom the Sat- ires,exactly as Lily Ross Taylorthought, that Horace was prosperous, thathe was in factno such timidand dependentcreature in societyas the nineteenthcentury used to make him out. But thatis onlywhat a readerof his daywould have seen at once,the sort of historicaltruth we have to reconstructfrom the text. It is nonethelesstrue. Horace's talk of his modestcircumstances and poeticpoverty is a merepolite pretence, exactly like Catullus'.He was neverpoor. T. P. Wisemandiscusses the "essentialhomogeneity" of the Romanmoneyed class, and the sizablefortune even one-quarter of the equestriancensus, 100,000sesterces, must have amountedto in the eyes of respectablemiddle-class Romans. Pre-Caesarian centurions, for example,like those whose childrenand theirteachers the little Horace was taughtto scorn,made at most 1440 sestercesa year.Yet Oppiusand Balbuscould53 in courteousmock-modesty, describe themselves in a letterto Ciceroas "homineshumiles," when in factthey were very rich men.One has to distinguishbetween the standards applied within the upperclass, wherebya fortuneof 100,000HS is compara-

53 Wiseman (above, note 3) 67.

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tivelyinsignificant, and those describingRoman societyas a whole.Most of the ancientsources concentrate on the former, withmisleading results for the historian who incautiouslyaccepts theirlanguage in modernterms as applyingto the whole spec- trumof society. Horace'sdescription of himselfas humiliswhen he had at leastthe HS 400,000required for a senatorand thegold ring which indicated the equesequo publico is preciselysimilar, a gracefulupper-class affectation. Oppius and Balbus, like Catullus,had manyimitators in all periods, some muchricher than Horace. The youngerPliny speaks of his modicae facultates,and mostoutrageously Fronto, who was pleased (becauseof itsHoratian memories) to own,along with much else, Maecenas'palace on the Esquilinea hundredand fiftyyears later, speaks of his reshaud copiosae(Ver. Imp. 2.7.5) and says"pauperem me quam ope cuiusquam adiutum,postremo egere quam posceremalui" (Nep. Am. 9). These are wordsHorace himself-dissimulator opis propriae, as he worriesabout makinghimself (E. 1.9.9)-might have inspired.54 What we can know,on the otherhand, about Horace's personal feelingsand ideals throughthis maze of literaryreference, cross-refer- ence, and reworkeddiatribe-topoi adorned with convincing "real-life" details,is not preciselyhistory. In one way it is truethat (as Fraenkel beginshis book by saying)"Horace tells us farmore about himself, his character,his development,and his wayof life(his &3ioq)than any other greatpoet in antiquity."In anotherit is as trueof thispoet as anythat "When thou hast done, thou hast not Donne"; and even the taskof seeingwhat is statedas factrequires the literary critic's work as muchas the historian's.Were all Horace's days spentat leisurein the period 38-30 B.C., for example;and none "visitingMarsyas" and gathering the scribalcommissions to pay for improving,or even buildingfrom scratch,a finehouse in Rome? If we take his poetryas flathistorical fact,we mightthink one thing;if we are morecareful about whatthe boundariesof poeticself-portraiture and factmight be, anotherentirely. But the tone of Horace's poetryis fromthe firsta proudone; the aureamediocritas he marksout forhimself is in social termssomething worthhaving, that he knowsis worthhaving, that sets him farabove scurraelike Sarmentus and tastelessnouveaux riches like the Nasidienus of S. 2.8-neitherof whom,however, Maecenas disdainsto associate with.For Horacedoes not in factrepresent his friendas a snob, butas thepatron of all classesand kindsof men,just as thefirst lines of S. 1.6 proclaimhim. Horace feels himself,however, and appearsfrom his poetryand fromSuetonius' life to have been feltby the governing

54 On this rhetoricalconvention among the rich,see E. J. Champlin, Frontoand Antonine Rome (Cambridge,Mass. 1980) 21-23, 25 (esp. note 28, p. 151).

This content downloaded from 141.222.42.208 on Thu, 26 Jun 2014 18:56:45 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions HoratiusEques et Scriba 285 classes he served,to be verymuch Sarmentus'or Nasidienus'social superior.No doubt by the rules of contemporaryRoman societyhe actuallywas, giventhe manytitles to respecthe had as knight,tribune, scribe,and learnedperson; his circleof powerfulamici, who werenot givenhim, any more than these titles, by Maecenas,but beganwith his friendsfrom school in Rome and Athens;and his amplecensus. The affectationof humility,therefore, that has misled so many criticsabout his attitudesis in the end merelyone moreof the governing class clicheshis educationand status,his secure social position belowthe senatorsand the best-bornequites, and above nearlyevery- bodyelse, made easy to him.Nisbet and Hubbard(on Odes 1.29) well commenton the familyresemblance between Horace's raillery to young Icciusabout the moneyto be made fightingin the provinces,and Cic- ero's on similartopics to the youngTrebatius Testa, laterto be Hor- ace's friendalso. They observethat "Horace's attitudeto the Arabian war suits his period and new-foundstatus ... " and that he "has trans- ferredto poetrythe ironicbanter of a civilizedgoverning class."55 How truethat is of the SatiresLily Ross Taylorshould long ago have made us realize.56

AdditionalNote Afterthis paper was accepted,and whileI was revisingit forpublication, E. Badian'sreview article on Literaryand ArtisticPatronage in AncientRome, ed. BarbaraK. Gold (Austin1982) appearedin CP 80 (1985) 341-57. In attacking J. E. G. Zetzel'sessay in thatbook, because it givesclientela a minimalrole in determiningthe content of poetry,Badian touches on thesubject of mypresent paper,arguing that of the fourpoets Zetzel mentions as freefrom any financial need of patronage,Catullus, Vergil, Horace, and Propertius,Catullus alone qualifiedfor this description (350). But hereZetzel is (as the footnotesto the above articleshow) on the side of the historians,Treggiari, Wiseman, and the rest.Badian has puthimself on the side of the literarycritics who takeliterally thebadinage of theRoman rich about being pauper and tenuis. Hereare Badian'sprincipal statements on thesubject. " . . . It is misleading (though,later in theirlives, true) to describe[Vergil, Horace, and Propertius] as equitesof independentmeans ... it was clientpoetry that gave themthe meansof independence,which for a long time (in a sense, all the time) they had to workhard to maintain."(347) "It was onlyin 30 B.C., afterabout nine yearsof acquaintance,that the long-promised gift of thefarm (a pointon which

55 R. G. M. Nisbetand MargaretHubbard, A Commentaryon Horace;Odes, Book I (Oxford1970) 338-39. 56 An earlydraft of thispaper was givenat theAPA meetingin Toronto,1984. I wishto thankthe Departmentof Classicsat PrincetonUniversity for their generous invitation to spendthe springof 1985 teachingat Princeton,where it was written;and severalcol- leaguesand studentsat Texas and Princetonfor help and comments,especially M. Gwyn Morganand JeffTatum at Texas, and theeditor, E. J. Champlin,Glenn Most, and John Walshat Princeton.

This content downloaded from 141.222.42.208 on Thu, 26 Jun 2014 18:56:45 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 286 David Armstrong we have no reason to disbelievethe poet) releasedHorace fromthe worst miseriesof a client'slife.... the factthat we have no such data on Vergiland Propertiusgives us no reasonto postulatethat their experience was essentially different...." (350). But Satires1.6 is a portraitof Horacein 35 B.C., severalyears before the SabineFarm. If Horacehad to work"all thetime" at thisperiod to maintainhis independence(even "in a sense"), he doesn'tsound like it. Vergil'sand Pro- pertius'work schedules are notavailable, but they also soundlike menof fairly abundantleisure. As forHorace's nine years of "theworst miseries of a client's life,"that is eithermeaningless, or impliesthat Horace-and Vergil,and Pro- pertius,since "we have no reasonto postulatethat their experience was essen- tiallydifferent" -stood in line forsportulae, lent their sides to help Maecenas' litterthrough the streets,and dinedat lowertables on worsefood thantheir host's. In note 7, p. 347, Badiantries to accountfor Horace's scriptusquaestorius, nowthat we all knowit was an expensiveand privilegedjob and nota clerkship; thereforethat Horace was, in anyevent, not poor from 41 on. It deserves. . . commentthat Horace never alludes to thepurchase of his scriptus,in spiteof his loquacityabout his originsand the battleof Phi- lippi.... Yet he had returnedafter the battle,a libertinifilius who had risenabove his station on thelosing side, to findhis father'slar et.fundus confiscated.It is inconceivablethat he notonly gained a fullpardon, but hadenough money of hisown left for that purchase ... theprice must be assumedto have been highand the postin anycase to have been available onlythrough patronage.... Since Horaceis not elsewherereticent abouthis benefactors,his silenceabout his patronwho securedhim his office(and perhapshis pardonas well) must be deliberate.The only reasonconceivable is thatthe man laterfell into disgrace and couldnot be mentioned.Since we have no relevantinformation, names cannot confidentlybe suggested.But it is clearthat the patron cannot have stood on theside of theRepublic (aristocrats who had were, at thattime, them- selvesafraid for their lives and properties):he musthave been wellcon- nectedon the Triumviralside. An obviouscandidate would be Salvi- dienusRufus, at the heightof his powerafter Philippi and sent to his deathby M. Antonius'betrayal in 40. Butwe knowof no connectionwith Horace.However, the answermay be simpler:an Antonianconnection wouldalso be best forgotten,at the timewhen Horace was writinghis autobiographicalpoems. It is, rather,perfectly conceivable that Horace's father's entire landed property (or ratherHorace's own: his fatherwas dead beforePhilippi) could have disap- pearedand stillleft him enoughto buy the scribeship.A man like the elder Horacewas likelierto be divespositis in faenore nummis, as becamea businessman,than dives agris, as becamea gentleman.If he educatedhis son in Athens on anythingremotely like the scale of the youngaristocrats among whom he intendedHorace to makean impression,it cost hima lot. Ciceroassigned his son, forhis stayin Athensat the same time,HS 80,000per annum,the net rents,after commissions, of about HS 1,000,000in urbanrental property whose incomewas set aside forthe purpose,and was indignantonly when he found that MarcusCicero spentstill more: see Bruce Frier'sdiscussion, "Cicero's Managementof his UrbanProperties," CJ 74 (1978) 1-6. If Horace's school funds,or if some of the rest of his father'scapital, survived at his father's bankers'in Rome,it is perfectlyconceivable that it reachedthe going price of a scribeship,which sounds as ifit equaledthe equestrian census or somewhatless; perhapsHS 200,000-400,000.

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As forpossible patrons, we have a richfield to choose from,once morein Satires1. Besides Maecenas,Horace had wealthyamici in drovesin 35 B.C., some who had been his companionsin Brutus'army and some who had fought againstBrutus, some who werecurrently working for Octavian and some who were workingfor Antonius;to give one group-list,which does not exhaust thosementioned in Satires1: Plotiuset Varius,Maecenas Virgiliusque, Valgiuset probethaec Octavius optimus atque Fuscuset haec utinamViscorum laudet uterque; Pollio,te, Messalla,tuo cum fratre, simulque vos, Bibuleet Servi,simul his te, candide Furni, compluresalios, doctos ego quos et amicos prudenspraetereo. (1.10.81-88) The imageryof thispassage is explicitlythat of clientela:Horace can joy- ouslyappear before the "court" of hiscritics, accompanied by so greata bandof literaryand politicalamici. Among these are farbetter candidates for Horace's helperto the scriptus:Badian thinks we wantan Antonian,and thatit cannot have been someonewho stood on the side of the Republic,because all those peoplewere too frightened"for their lives and properties"after Philippi to help Horace. There are two especiallyinteresting Antonians here, both of whom wereimmediately pardoned and admittedto Antonius'high favour after Philippi, and had not the least reasonto be afraidof helpingan old comradein arms fromBrutus' army. First, the greatM. ValeriusMessalla Corvinus, patron of poets,historian, orator, grammarian, subject of the PanegyricusMessallae, and a lifelongfriend of Horace(C. 3.21, AP 371,etc.). He was in Athenswith Horace and servedwith Brutus, but refusedto inheritthe commandafter Philippi, engineeringinstead a generalcapitulation to Antoniusof nobleswho had fledto Thasos,in whichthey all obtainedpardon and manyentered Antonius' service. Second,Brutus' stepson L. CalpurniusBibulus (RE "Calpurnius"27), a school- fellowof Horaceand theyounger Cicero at Athens,and also a comradein arms of Horace's underBrutus, joining him at the same timeas Messalla (Appian Civil Wars4.38). (A side note: in Att.12.32 [45 B.C.], Cicero hopefullyasks Atticusto hold bothMessalla and Bibulusup to his son as examplesof young noblesstudying in Athenswho would thinkHS 80,000a yearperfectly suffi- cient).In 35, whenthis was published,Messalla had gone over fromAntonius to Octavian,but Bibuluswas stillon Antonius'side: he was shortlyto be praetor, and to die in 32 as Antonius'governor of Syria.Horace was therefore unconscious,in 35, thathis "Antonianconnections were best forgotten." Or at anyother time; one of Horace'slatest odes (4.2, 15 B.C.) iS to lullusAntonius, who wouldhardly have been interestedin homagefrom a poetwho had basely cancelledhis versesto Antonians.For Horace's Antonianamici in 35, cf. also Messalla's half-brotherL. Gellius Poplicola(cos. 36), mentionedalong with him,who remainedan Antonianto the end, and C. FonteiusCapito (cos. 33), ad unguem/ factushomo, Antoni non ut magisalter amicus (S. 1.5.35f.).The compluresalios ... quosprudens praetereo might contain others; at all eventsthey makeit verydoubtful that Horace is never,in anyinstance, "reticent about his benefactors,"i.e. failsto mentionthem by name in his poems.In fact,we know Horacereceived two large benefactions from Augustus himself later in life,about whichhis poems say not a word. There is one pointof pure literarycriticism Badian bringsup-Horace's pridein his own poetryas expressedin Odes 3.30-which touchesmy own portraitof Horacetoo closelyto be omittedhere. Zetzel claimed that Horace in

This content downloaded from 141.222.42.208 on Thu, 26 Jun 2014 18:56:45 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 288 David Armstrong thispoem calls himselfa poeticprinceps, and Badian(352) thinkshe has caught Zetzelin a mistranslationof the Latin: It is simplyfalse to say thathe callshimself "poetic princeps" or thathe paints"an imageof the poetas conquerorand princeps."... We must resistattempts at substitutingthe critic'svision for what the poet obvi- ouslyintended.... For the meaningof princepshere (not thatit is hard to see) we fortunatelyhave Horace's own restatement in themore pedes- trianstrain of Epistles1.19.21-24: liberaper vacuum posui vestigia princeps, and so on. Anyonecan judge whether Zetzel's point is hardto see. It is justan applica- tion of Nietzsche'sfamous comment on the Odes, "thismosaic of words,in whichevery word, by sound,by placing,and by meaning,spreads its influence to theright, to theleft, and overthe whole": dicar,qua violensobstrepit Aufidus et qua pauperaquae Daunusagrestium regnavitpopulorum, ex humilipotens princepsAeolium carmen ad Italos deduxissemodos. (Odes 3.30.10-14) Ex humilipotens is takenby Porphyrioand "Acro," and nearlyall critics since,to referto Horace("ex humilipotens: gloriatur libertino patre natum se ad tantamclaritatem studiorum pervenisse," Porphyrio.) Bentley convinced himself it meantDaunus, "qui (Illyricaegentis clarus vir, auctore Festo) primusapud Apulosregnum capessivit, et proindeex homineprivato princeps(!), ex exsule tyrannus,ex humilipotens est factus."Surely in lyricpoetry we mayadmit that the wordorder suggests, and is intendedto suggest,that both potens and princeps are predicatedof both men: Daunus became ex humilipotens princeps, Horace,of whomthe words are reallymeant, ex humiliboth potens and princeps deduxissemodos. There is nothingextravagant whatever in acceptingthe sub- auditionZetzel claims, that Horace is a powerfulprince, potens princeps, of song.

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