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Outstanding Latin lyric poet and satirist. The most frequent themes
in Horace's ODES and verse EPISTLES are love, friendship, and the
art of poetry.
"This used to be among my prayers - a piece of land not so
very large, which would contain a garden, and near the house a
spring of ever-flowing water, and beyond these a bit of wood."
Horace was born at Venusia (Venosa). His father was a former slave,
who had worked as tax collector and had saved enough money to educate
the future poet in Rome. Later Horace expressed his deep gratitude
for his father who not only supervised his early education but also
influenced his moral training.
When Horace about 19-years old, he continued his studies of philosophy
in Athens. After Julius Caesar's murder in March 44 B.C. Horace
joined Marcus Brutus' army and gained the rank of military tribune.
The defeat of Brutus and Cassius at Philippi, where Horace fought,
ended the republican cause. Horace returned to Italy sad and disillusioned.
His father had died and he sought Octavian's (later styled Augustus)
favour. In this he was helped by Maecenas, Octavian's friend and
political adviser, who was also known patronage of literature, supporting
the poet Vergil (Vergilius) among others. Since Horace's property
had been confiscated, he secured a position as scriba quaestorius,
or clerk of the treasury. To earn extra money he began to write
in his spare time. During these years Horace produced his earliest
EPISTLES, which attacked social abuses, and SATIRES, written in
hexameter verse and stating poet's rejection of public life.
Horace's contact with Maecenas deepened into intimate friendship.
Maecenas bought him a farm in the Sabine county, beyond Tibur (Tivoli).
There Horace devoted himself to writing. When he needed peace, Horace
escaped the bustle of Rome to his farm and expressed in several
of his poems the joys of simple life. "In Rome you long for the
country; in the country - oh inconstant! - you praise the distant
city of stars." In 35 B.C. Horace published his first book of
SATIRES, and five years later the second book and the collection
of EPODES, iambic poems. His three books of ODES appeared in 23
B.C., and three years later appeared the first book of EPISTLES.
The familiar phrase 'snatch the day' (carpe diem) occurs
in Horace's Odes (I, xi):
Dum loguimur, fugerit invida
Aetas: carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero.
With the death of Virgil in 19 B.C., Horace became the most celebrated
poet of the Augustan age, although the social status of a poet was
not very high. However, in the Augustan age the court and private
individuals supported arts on a grand scale. The Emperor was overtly
worshipped as divine not only by plebeians but also by Horace and
Virgil. Horace's CARMEN SAECULARE (Secular Hymn), appeared in 17
B.C., and was commissioned by Augustus. When Maecenas died in 8
B.C, Horace died himself a month or two later on November 17.
Horace's works were often autobiographical and dealt with moral
and political issues. In his iambic EPODES Horace suggest leaving
Rome to find a new Golden Age in the distant islands in the Atlantic.
In the Secular Hymn Horace expresses his approval of Augustus'
reforms and in the fourth book of the Odes he reflects on the inevitability
of death, the immortality given by poetry to those who perform outstanding
deeds, such as carried out by Augustus.
Among Horace's mature works is EPISTULA AD PISONES, usually known
as ARS POETICA. According to some researchers it was written in
20 B.C. or even earlier, but it has also dated to 17-13 B.C. In
it Horace discusses with informality and humour such topics as the
unity of poem, the importance of decorum (the which is fitting
in language, style and subject matter), and the necessity for a
writer to have both innate ability and adequate training.
"Think to yourself that everyday is your last; the hour to
which you do not look forward will come as a welcome surprise.
As for me, when you want a good laugh, you will find me, in a
fine state, fat and sleek, a true of hog of Epicurus' herd"
Horace's ARS POETICA had much influence on Western poetry - SEE
ALSO: Alexander Pope. His works were quoted by early Christina writers,
among them St. Jerome and later his lyric meters were used by Prudentius
and other hymn composers. Dante listed Horace in his Divine Comedy
third among poets, after Homer and Virgil. Horace's influence is
seen later in the works of such authors as Montaigne, Ben Johnson,
Henry Fielding, John Gay, Lord Chesterfield and Horace Walpole.
For further reading: Profile of Horace by D.R. Shackleton
Bailey, et al.(1982); Polyhymnia: The Rhetoric of Horatian Lyric
Discourse by Gregson Davis (1992); The Odes of Horace: A Critical
Study by Henry Steele Commager (1995); Artifices of Eternity:
Horace's Fourth Book of Odes by Michael C. J. Putnam (1996); Horace:
A Life by Peter Levi (1998); Horace: Poetics and Politics by V.
G. Kiernan (1999) ; The Complete Odes and Satires of Horace by
Sidney Alexander et al (1999)
Note: Iamb is a prosodic foot of two syllables,
an unstressed followed by a stressed one: 'The cur/few tolls/
the knell/ of parting day'. - Hexameter is classical prosody,
a line of six metrical feet (Greek) or six metra (Latin), usually
dactyls (- u u ). The epics of Homer and Virgil are composed in
dactylic hexameter.
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