The Complete Works of Horace
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About Google Book Search Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and to make it universally accessible and useful. Google Book Search helps readers discover the world’s books while helping authors and publishers reach new audiences. You can search through the full text of this book on the web at http://books.google.com/ 1 > .v" .0.' v -v V7 - : 3 "-0 V'' V, -- t HARPER'S CLASSICAL LIBRARY. THE WOKKS OF HORACE, TRANSLATED LITERALLY. f-fslaJgU^. Qctuntli^ THE WORKS OF HORACE. TRANSLATED LITERALLY INTO ENGLISH PROSE, BY C. SMART, A.M., Cr FEMBEOKE COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE. A NEW EDITION, REVISED, WITH A COPIOUS SELECTION OF NOTES, BT THEODORE ALOIS BUCKLEY, A.A. Or CHRIST CHURCH. NEW YORK: HARPER & BROTHERS, 8S» Sc 881 PEABL STREET. 1894. HARPER'S NEW CLASSICAL LIBRARY. LtTKBAL TB1NSLATI0NS OW OESAR. CICERO'S TUSCULAN DISPUTA VIRGIL. TIONS, THE NATURE OK THE SALLUST. GODS, AND THE COMMON HORACE. WEALTH. TERENCE. JUVENAL. TACITUS. 9 Voli. XENOPHON. LIVY. JVoli HOMER'S ILIAD. CICERO'S ORATIONS. HOMER'S ODYSSEY. CICERO'S OFFICES, L.SLIUS, HERODOTUS. CATO MAJOR, PARADOXES, DEMOSTHENES. 1 Vols. SCIPIO'S DREAM, LETTER THUCYDIDES. TO QUINTUS. jESCHYLUS. CICERO ON ORATORY AND SOPHOCLES. ORATORS. EURIPIDES. ! Voli. PLATO (SELECT DIALOGUES). ISmo, Cloth, $1 00 per Volume. Published by HARPER & BROTHERS, New York. IS" The above workt are for m e by all booktellert, or they will be tent by Harper & Brothers to any aldrett on receipt of price at quoted. If ordered tent by maii, 10 per cent, should be added to the price to cover cost of postage. TA Az. PREFACE. In the present edition of Smart's Horace, the trans lation has been revised wherever it seemed capable of being rendered closer and more accurate. Orelli's text has been generally followed, and a considerable number of useful annotations, selected from the best commentaries, ancient and modern, have been added. Several quotations from Hurd on the " Ars Poetica," though somewhat lengthy, have been introduced, as their admirable taste can not but render them accept able to readers of every class. THEODORE ALOIS BUCKLEY, CHRIST CHURCH. INTRODUCTION. Quintus Horatius Flaccus was born on the 8th of December, in the year 65, b. c, at Venusium, a town situated between Apulia and Lucania. Although a freedman, his father possessed competent means, and left him a comfortable patrimony on the banks of the Aufidus. To the education of our poet the greatest attention was paid, and no means were spared to endow him with the highest gifts of mental culture. The severe Orbilius was his guide through the realms of Roman literature, for the poets of which he seems to have con ceived an early distaste, preferring the more finished and less rugged beauties of the Greek originals, from whose sources he was himself destined hereafter to draw so largely, and with such distinguished success. The life of Horace, although spent in the society of those who were most actively mixed up with public affairs, is rather a detail of every-day transactions with the ordinary world, a table-talk of private acts and feelings, than a succession of stirring political relations, exploits, and embarrassments. viii INTRODUCTION. abroughtofattainedof study Whilehis Rome. literary which on engagedthe Horacethe rank fame, was crisis in of hereafter joined the the betweena military study assassination the to ofthe formrepublican tribune philosophy contending the of under J ground-work ulius party,at interests Athens, Brutus. Caesar and I'■II. wasquentIn whatever shared battle but of light Philippi, by we too regardmany it is uponcertain his flight that that day, at the the in disgrace subse- which |<' thechanged Eomans public lost virtue their lastfor private hopes of luxury freedom, and and refine- ex- |i ment. ' those With of the Virgil, probability were confiscated that his small to remunerate possessions, a likesol I diery who had fought against their own countrymen, we may fairly suppose that this misfortune first tended to develop the poetical genius of Horace, and that his necessities became a powerful motive for the exer tion of talents which had been chastened and ripened by every advantage afforded by the times. Gradually his powers of wit and repartee, aided perhaps by the propitiatory oblation of little poems " upon occasion," increased his friendships with the great, and introduced him to the intimacy of Maecenas. A friendship of the firmest kind sprang up from what was at first but a distant and patronizing courtesy, and Horace, like Vir gil, henceforth became the constant friend and asso ciate of Maecenas, whom he accompanied upon the most confidential missions. About the year 37, b. c. (for the date is very uncertain,)1 Horace followed his 1 See Dunlop, Lit. Rom. vol. iii. p. 201, note. INTRODUCTION. patron to Brundusium, where, in company with Coc- ceius Nerva and Capito, he was engaged in negotiating a reconciliation between Antony and Augustus. A most amusing description of " travelers' miseries," in the fifth Satire of the first Book, commemorates this event, and gives an entertaining picture of the domes tic habits of the wealthier ciasses at Rome during the Augustan age. In accompanying Maecenas in the war against Sextus Pompey, a storm arose, and our poet narrowly escaped being drowned in the Gulf of Velia. Nevertheless, he volunteered himself as his companion in the expedition that ended in that decisive battle of Actium, an offer which Maecenas, probably out of tenderness to the health of his friend, declined to ac cept. Maecenas was not a mere complimentary friend, but one of tried liberality. To his kindness our poet was indebted for his villa at Tibur, and to his intercession with Augustus, for a grant of land in the Sabine dis trict. The emperor even offered him the appointment of private secretary to himself, but he declined this honor, as it would have separated him from the fre quent society of Maecenas. Augustus bore this refusal in good part, and even personally encouraged our poet to further literary exertions. Alternating between his dwelling on the then healthy Esquiline hill at Rome, and the quieter and more con genial retirement of his villa at Praeneste, Horace lived a life of Epicurean enjoyment, nor wholly untainted with the vices of the times, but yielding to them rather mth the carelessness of a wit, than with the wanton ness of a voluptuary. His mode of living at home A* INTRODUCTION. was simple and unostentatious, but he was by no means insensible to the pleasures of the table, especially in society. He was a kind and indulgent master, and a faithful friend. In fact, an unruffled amiability, re lieved by a keen and well-expressed perception of other men's follies, seems to have been the leading fea ture in our author's conduct, and the guiding principle of his writings. The beautiful compliment paid to the memory of his father," is unsurpassed either as a de scription of what education ought to be, or as a grate ful tribute of filial affection.