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A C lassical SettingqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA for a C lassical Poem : Philidor’s Carme n Sascularc C H A R L E S M IC H A E L C A R R O L L The ce le b rationof the se cular game s in Rome d e rive d(ac­ cording to Roman historians) from an Etruscan custom of sacri­ ficing to the gods at the beginning of a new saeculum or century on behalf of the coming generation. In Roman tradition the custom became associated with celebrating the anniversary of the founding of the city of Rome in 753 B.C. Among the Etruscans the saeculum comprised a period of one hundred and ten years, but even this irregular period was not strictly observed in Rome. The games were given in 249 B.C. and again in 146. Augustus ordered them to be celebrated in 17 B.C., and they were given on seven later occasions at varying intervals by succeeding emperors. After A.D. 262 the custom was abandoned. The festival lasted three days, marked by sacrifices to the gods, principally Apollo and Diana, who were the tutelary deities of Rome and also the patrons of Augustus. Processions, plays, and athletic competitions contributed their part to the festivities. The climax of the festival was reached on the evening of the third day, 97 98 / cbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA C H A R LE S M IC H A E L C A R R O LL whe n a chorus of twenty-seven young men and a like number of maidens, chosen from the Patrician families, sang the “Secular Hymn” to Apollo and Diana in the temple of Apollo built by Augustus on the Palantine hill. It was for this event of the festival that Quintus Horatius Flaccus composed his Carm en Saeculare in 17 B.C., at the specific request of the Emperor Augustus. The Carm en Saeculare has held an exalted place in poetry from that time, as one of the major creations of Horace, who has generally been revered in the West as the greatest Latin poet next to his contemporary Virgil. But exactly what constitutes the original poem has not been so well established. The work tradi­ tionally known as the Carm en Saeculare has consisted only of a poem of nineteen stanzas, beginning “Phoebe silvarumque potens Diana,” which forms the fourth part of Philidor’s musical setting. The first three parts derive from an arrangement by Noel-Etienne Sanadon, a Jesuit who in 1728 published his French translation of Horace.1 In that edition Sanadon remarks that he found among the works of Horace several poems which were incongruous in their settings, but which seemed to refer to the celebration of the secular games. Specifically, these were Ode XXI of Book One, the first stanza of Ode I of Book Three, and Ode VI of Book Four, which he added to the traditional Carm en Saeculare in the following order: Prologus: first stanza of Ode I of Book Three (“Odi profanum vulgus et arceo”) Prima Pars: lines 1-28 of Ode VI of Book Four (“Dive, quern proles Niobea magnae”) Secunda Pars: Ode XXI of Book One (“Dianam tenerae dicite virgines”) Tertia Pars: Carm en Saeculare (“Phoebe silvarumque potens Diana”) Quarta Pars: lines 29-44 of Ode VI of Book Four (“Spiritum Phoebus mihi, Phoebus artem”) To distinguish his arrangement from the traditional one, Sanadon called his “reconstituted” poem the Polym etrum Saturnium in Ludos Saeculares, or Saturnian Poem for the Secular G am es. When Philidor’sqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA Carme n Sae culare / 99 Philip Francis pub lishe d his e d itionof the works of Horace in Dublin and London during the 1740s,2 he adopted Sanadon’s ideas but rearranged the sequence of verses, placing Sanadon’s Part Four just after the Prologue, so that the order of verses in Francis’ edition becomes: Prologus: “Odi, profanum vulgus et arceo” Prima Pars: “Spiritum Phoebus mihi” Secunda Pars: Dive, quem proles” Tertia Pars: “Dianam tenerae” Quarta Pars: Carm en Saeculare While this has the curious result of taking the latter half of Ode VI of Book Four and placing it before the first half, it must...

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