An Asianist Sensation: Horace on Lucilius as Hortensius

The Asianist orator Hortensius Hortalus is a partial model for Horace's critique of Lucilius in his début collection Satires 1. Much mileage is derived from the metaphor of Lucilius as a "muddy river." The appearances of Hortensius, a wealthy lover of luxury and innovator in dining habits, in Varro's De Re Rustica 3, Cicero's Brutus (where, recently deceased, he is especially memorialized) and Orator, and Catullus 65 are grist to Horace's mill. Lucilius is tendentiously linked to Asianism as well as Asia itself, and the identification is pursued through recall of Lucilius' own statements, as Horace toys with Republican texts.