The Odes of Horace

Introduction

Horace’s Life and Times The Latin poet Quintus Horatius Flaccus, known to English speakers as Horace (this is the Anglicized version of his nomen, or family name), was born on 8 December 65 BCE, in the town of Venusia, located in the border area between the southern Italian regions of Apulia and Lucania. He died on 27 November 8 BCE, in the city of Rome. He and Vergil are the best known Latin poets from the second half of the first century BCE. Our knowledge of Horace comes primarily from two sources. The first is Horace ’s own writings. These, of course, due to the circular nature of selfreference , like those of any writer, need to be used with caution as a source on their own author. The second is a short biography of him, which has come down to us in the history of literary transmission along with some of the manuscripts of his writings. This biography is probably a version of the life of Horace written by the biographer Suetonius (b. ca. 69 CE) for De Poetis (Concerning Poets), a section of his work De Viris Illustribus (Concerning Illustrious Men), his collection of lives of Roman literary figures. Horace’s name, itself, is preserved for us in his own writings as well as in an inscription that still exists, which records Horace’s composition of a poem known in Latin as the carmen saeculare, or centennial hymn. This poem was commissioned especially for the Secular Games of 17 BCE, held by the emperor Augustus. These games were a Roman celebration marking the end of one age, or saeculum, and the beginning of the next. They had not been held at Rome for over a century. It would have been a great honor to Horace to have been the poet asked to write for this occasion. The hymn was performed by a chorus of boys and girls, first at the newly built temple of Apollo on the Palatine hill, and then on the Capitoline hill, or Capitolium, the religious center of Rome. It featured many figures important to Rome, including Apollo, the god with whom Augustus closely associated himself. The century in which Horace lived and died saw the end of the Roman Republic and the beginning of the Roman Empire. The emperor Augustus, called Octavian before receiving this honorific title from the Roman Senate in 27 BCE, emerged as the dominant political figure in Horace’s lifetime and brought to an end a long period of civil war among the Romans. His rule also brought to an end the republican form of government, whose Introduction Ronnie Ancona xviii INTRODUCTION power lay in the Senate, the consuls, and the assemblies, and ushered in what we now call the Roman Empire, a government that was based primarily on the rule of one individual. Horace’s life and work were deeply influenced by the times in which he lived. In his later life, Horace became close to the political and intellectual elite of Rome, but he did not start out as part of that milieu. Horace was born the son of a freedman, or ex-slave. His father worked as a coactor argentarius, or auction agent; we do not know anything about his mother. Horace’s father may have become enslaved during the so-called Social Wars (91–87 BCE), or wars with the allies, in which Horace’s birthplace, the town of Venusia, which had a lesser version of citizenship called Latin rights, was taken by the Romans. When the fighting ended, Venusia was granted full Roman citizenship. Social status was very significant among the Romans, and the distinction between slave and free was a fundamental one. Horace’s lower status, as the son of a freedman, may have made his rise to importance within Roman society somewhat more di;cult. Roman society had a certain amount of social fluidity, but one’s status always mattered . Finances and social status, though, did not have the automatic correlation one might expect. Despite issues of status, Horace’s father was wealthy enough to educate his son along with sons of the Roman elite, providing him with an education that was typical for those from families of the equestrian and senatorial classes. (Among free people three classes were distinguished: senatorial, the very wealthy who had political careers in the Senate; equestrian, the wealthy nonsenatorial class; and last, the common people. Former slaves ranked below the common people in social...