^ ,v &V </ ,.v <A o- p^rll/''^ # % *v oo' 0d ", » ., ,v' V ./> -s* <k THE ODES OF HORACE Cnnislntcu into (fiiglislj Brrse WITH A LIFE AND NOTES THEODORE MARTIN LONDON JOHN W. PARKER AND SON, WEST STRAND MDCCCLX. ^ What practice, howsoe'er expert, In filling- aptest words to thing's; Or voice, the richest-toned that sinus Hath power to give lliee as thou wert? Tennyson. 'Z~3f3Z3 LEIl'ZIG PRINTED BY K. G. TEUP.iNKK. LIFE OF HORACE. A* Horace is Iris own biographer. All the material facts of his personal history are to be gathered from allusions scattered throughout his poems. A memoir, attributed to Suetonius, of somewhat doubtful authenticity, furnishes a few additional details, but none of moment, either as to his character or career. Quintus Horatius Flaccus was born vi. Id. Dec. a.u.c. 689 (Dec. 8, b.c. 65)/, during the consulship of L. Aure- lius Cotta and L. Manlius Torquatus. His father was a freedman, and it was long considered that he had been a slave of some member of the great family of the Ho- ratii , whose name , in accordance with a common usage, he had assumed. But this theory has latterly given place to the suggestion, based upon inscriptions, that he was a freedman of the town of Venusia, the modern Venosa, the inhabitants of Avhich belonged to the Hora- tian tribe. The question is, however, of no importance in its bearings on the poet's life. The elder Horace had re- ceived his manumission before his son was born. He had realized a moderate independence in the vocation of co- aclor, a name borne indifferently by the collectors of public revenue, and of money at sales by public auction. To which of these classes he belonged is uncertain, but most probably to the latter. With the fruits of his industry he had purchased a small property near Venusia, upon VI LIFE OF HORACE. the banks of the Aufidus, the modern Ofanto , in the midst of the Apennines, upon the doubtful boundaries of Luca- nia and Apulia. Here the poet was born, and in this pic- turesque region of mountain, forest, and stream, the boy became imbued with the love of nature, which distinguish- ed him through life. • He describes himself (Ode IV. B. 3) as having lost his way, when a child upon Mount Vultnr, and being found asleep, under a covering of laurel and myrtle leaves, which the wood pigeons had spread to shield this favourite of the gods from snakes and wild animals. The augury of the future poet said to have been drawn from the incident at the time was probably an afterthought of Horace himself, who had not forgotten Anacreon and the bees; but, whatever may be thought of the omen, the picture of the strayed child, asleep with his hands full of spring flowers, is pleasing. In his father's house, and in those of the Apulian peasantry around him, Horace had opportunities of becoming familiar with the simple vir- tues of the poor, — their independence, integrity, chas- tity, and homely Avorth, — which he loved to contrast with the luxury and vice of imperial Rome. Of his mother no mention occurs, directly or indirectly, throughout his poems. This could scarcely have happened, had she not died while he was very young. He appears also to have been an only child. No doubt he had at an early age given evidence of superior powers; and to this it may have been in some measure owing , that his father resolved to give him a higher education than could be obtained under a provincial schoolmaster, and, although ill able to afford the expense, took him to Rome when about twelve LIFE OF HORACE. VII years old, and gave him the best education which the ca- pital could supply. Xo money was spared to enable the boy to keep his position among his fellow-scholars of the higher ranks. He was waited on by numerous slaves, as though he were the heir to a considerable fortune. At the same time he was not allowed to feel any shame for his own order, or to aspire to a position which he was un- equal to maintain. His father taught him to look forward to filling some situation akin to that in which he had him- self acquired a competency, and to feel that in any sphere culture and self-respect must command influence, and afford the best guarantee for happiness. Under the stern tutorage of Orbilius Pupillus, a grammarian of high stand- ing, richer in reputation than gold, whose undue exer- cise of the rod the poet has condemned to a bad immor- tality, he learned grammar, and became familiar with the earlier Latin writers, and with Homer. He also ac- quired such other branches of instruction as were usually learned by the sons of Romans of the higher ranks. But, what was of still more importance, during this critical pe- riod of his first introduction to the seductions of the capi- tal, he enjoyed the advantage of his fathers personal su- perintendence, and of a careful moral training. His father went with him to all his classes , and , being himself a man of shrewd observation and natural humour, he gave his son's studies a practical bearing, by directing his atten- tion to the follies and vices of the luxurious and dissolute society around him, and showing their incompatibility with the dictates of reason and common sense. From this ad- mirable father, Horace appears to have gathered many of "the rugged maxims hewn from life", with which his VIII LIFE OF HORACE. works abound , and also to have inherited that manly in- dependence for which he was remarkable , and which, while assigning to all ranks their due influence and re- spect, never either overestimates or compromises its own. Under the homely exterior of the Apulian freedman we re- cognise the soul of the gentleman. His influence on his son was manifestly great. In the full maturity of his powers Ho- race penned a tribute to his worth*, in terms, which prove how often and how deeply he had occasion in after-life to be grateful for the bias thus early communicated. His father's character had given a tone and strength to his Own, which in the midst of manifold temptations had kept him true to himself and to his genius. At what age Horace lost his father is uncertain. Most probably this event occurred before he left Rome for Athens to complete his education in the Greek literature and philosophy, under native teachers. This he did some time between the age of seventeen and twenty. At Athens he found many young men of the leading Roman families — Bibulus, Messala, the younger Cicero, and others — engaged in the same pursuits with himself. His works prove him to have been no careless student of the clas- sics of Grecian literature , and with a natural enthusiasm he made his first poetical essays in their flexible and noble language. His usual good sense, however, soon caused him to abandon the hopeless task of emulating the Greek wri- ters on their own ground, and he directed his efforts to trans- fusing into his own language some of the grace and me- lody of these masters of song. In the political lull between * For a translation of the passage in the Sixth Satire of the First Book here referred to, see note, infra, p. 241. LIFE OP HORACE. IX the battle of Pharsalia, a.u.c. 706 (b. c. 48), and the death of Julius Caesar, a.u.c. 710 (b.c. 44), Horace was enabled to devote himself without interruption to the tranquil pur- suits of the scholar. But when after the latter event Bru- tus came to Athens , and the patrician youth of Rome, fired with zeal for the cause of republican liberty, joined his standard, Horace, infected by the general enthusiasm, accepted a military command in the army which was destined to encounter the legions of Anthony and Octavius. His rank was that of tribune, a position of so much impor- tance, that he must have been indebted for it either to the personal friendship of Brutus , or to an extraordinary dearth of officers , as he was not only without experience or birth to recommend him, but possessed no particular aptitude, physical or moral, for a military life. His ap- pointment excited jealousy among his brother officers, who considered that the command of a Roman legion should have been reserved for men of nobler blood ; and here probably he first came into direct collision with the aristocratic prejudices which the training of his father had taught him to defy, and which, at a subsequent period, grudged to the freerlman's son the friendship of the emperor and of Maecenas. At the same time he had manifestly a strong party of friends, who had learned to appreciate his genius and attractive qualities. It is certain that he se- cured the esteem of his commanders, and bore an active part iu the perils and difficulties of the campaign , which terminated in the total defeat of the republican party at Pliilippi, A.u.c. 712 (b.c. 42). A playful allusion by him- self to the events of that disastrous field (Odes, II. vii. 9 el seq) has been turned by many of his commentators into , LIFE OF nORACK. an admission of his own cowardice. This is absurd. Such a confession is the very last which any man , least of all a Roman, would make.