-
1. The Limits of Satire, Iam satis est: Satires 1.1–3
- University of Wisconsin Press
- Chapter
- Additional Information
Satires ., , and are called the “diatribe satires,” because they conform to the cajoling moral philosophy that is the pattern of diatribe, or as Albin Lesky defines it, “the propaganda speech declaimed with sharp wit and aggressive satire and enlivened with polemic in fictional dialogues” (, ). They are probably milder than the lost works of Bion of Borysthenes, the Cynic associated prominently with diatribe; but long after Horace wrote the Satires, he called them his Bionei sermones (Epistles ..). The The Limits of Satire, Iam satis est Satires .– If you fail to refer each of your actions on every occasion to nature’s end [το τε λος τη ς ϕυσε ως], and stop short at something else in choosing or avoiding [ϕυγη ν ... δι ωξιν], your actions will not be consequential on your theories. —, Key Doctrines Whenever intense passion is present in natural desires which do not lead to pain if they are unfulfilled, they have their origin in empty opinion [κενη δο ξα]; and the reason for their persistence is not their own nature but the empty opinion [τη ν κενοδοξι αν] of the person. —Key Doctrines He who knows the limits of life [τα πε ρατα του ] βι ου knows how easy it is to obtain that which removes pain caused by want and that which makes the whole of life complete. He therefore has no need for competitive involvements [πραγµα των α γω νας κεκτηµε νων]. —Key Doctrines evident fact that these first three poems of the Satires are recognizable genre pieces of popular philosophizing, however, does not help to illuminate their function in Horace’s first book.1 I shall argue in this chapter that in the first three satires of book , Horace is concerned with the idea of limitation in an ethical or experiential sense. Beginning in Satires ., however, Horace will turn this ethical concern with limits self-reflexively upon the genre of satire itself, a genre that he will thereby transform. Horace is writing satire against an expectation that he is largely responsible for creating. The satiric genre of biting and abrading, of noting faults and scaring the audience, is at issue in Horace’s satire because it is what Horace says he doesn’t want to write; his treatment of satires is a sort of extended praeteritio. Readers of Roman literature are likely to assess Lucilius’s writings on the basis of what Horace says about Lucilius, rather than on the basis of the twelve hundred lines of fragments left to us from Lucilius. Similarly, we form the idea of satire as a genre of menace and harsh speaking from the warnings Horace issues in Satires . about the fear and hatred the genre inspires, rather than from a comprehensive assessment of the republican history of Roman satire. But before Horace issues those warnings, he provides a conceptual frame in the first three satires of book to demonstrate the need to abide by human limitations and to show the dangers of going beyond the limits that our material circumstances impose on us. The first three Satires articulate a view of human happiness that is familiar to any student of ancient moral philosophy: if we live within realistic limits we can live a contented life; we already possess what is sufficient unto the day. Each of the first three Satires takes a slightly different turn on the concept of sufficiency, of what is satis. The outlook of these three poems expands from the point of view of one’s relation to oneself, outward to one’s relation to others. Horace’s pun on satura, through his use of the word satis and its affines, points to the theoretical path he will follow in his satire. If fullness is possible, then there necessarily are borders or limits (fines) that delineate this condition of satiety. The first three satires consider these limits and the consequences of living within and without them: they present what, according to Horatian satire, is satis. Each of the first three satires explores the context of a certain limit on human desire, and the discussion moves outward from the narcissistic situation of one’s relation to desires for objects that gratify the self, to one’s relation to the desires of other human beings. In Horace’s satiric The Limits of Satire, Iam satis est conception, the desires most in need of limitation are those that belong to satire’s genetic forebears, invective speech and the speech of magical incantation. These are both verbal ways to control a listener, ways to exploit the passivity of listening in order to gain control over another, and to expand the (speaking) self past...