Horace was born at Venusia in southern Italy. His
first memories were of a nurse, so his mother must
have died when he was young. His father, Flaccus,
was a freed slave who farmed a small plot of land
and may have elevated himself to the position of
district tax collector. Flaccus made a modest living,
but he was able to save his money and accompany
his talented and vivacious young son to Rome for a
better education than could be had in their isolated
village. In Rome,Horace received scholarly instruction
and moral training. Flaccus remained in the
city, walking the boy to and from his classes. After
he became a poet, Horace wrote movingly about
his father’s devotion and sacrifice on his behalf.
When he was about 19, Horace traveled to
Athens to complete his education with the study of
philosophy and Greek poetry. Some two years
later, in 44 B.C., Julius CAESAR was slain. Brutus, one
of his assassins, arrived in Athens, filled with patriotic
zeal for the tradition of aristocratic republicanism,
to recruit officers for his army. He was an
imposing presence, the very embodiment of the
republican ideal, and his fervor was infectious,
leading Horace, among many others, to join Brutus’s
forces.
It was an inauspicious career move that came to
an end, along with dreams of a republican revival,
at the battle of Philippi in 42 B.C. Horace returned
to Rome and meager prospects. His father had
died; what little Horace might have inherited had
been confiscated by Octavian, Caesar’s adopted
son and heir (later Emperor AUGUSTUS), and his old
friends had fallen out of political favor.
A failed revolutionary, Horace took a menial
job as a magistrate’s clerk. Undefeated in spirit,
however, he began spending his leisure time composing
verse and hoping to secure the support of a
benefactor. He became intimate friends with the
fledgling Roman poet VIRGIL, and his fortunes soon
brightened. Virgil recommended Horace to Maecenas,
the trusted counselor of Augustus and, like
the emperor, a generous patron of literature. (This
era would become known as the Golden Age of
Roman literature.) Around 33 B.C., Maecenas
made Horace a gift of the Sabine Farm, some 25
miles northeast of Rome, complete with tenants
and servants, so he might devote all of his time and
energy to writing poetry. Horace’s subsequent
fame reflected well on Maecenas for having “discovered”
the brilliant lyricist.
Horace’s friendship with the powerful political
adviser, his talent, and his considerable social skills
(he loved parties and flirtations and was a shrewd
observer with a good sense of humor) provided
him entry into the upper crust of Roman society,
and his eminent friends found their way into his
poetry. Although the poet had opposed the future
emperor at Philippi, he developed a sincere patriotic
devotion to the new regime, its leader, and
peace. These sentiments, too, he expressed in his
writings.
Upon the unexpected death of his dear friend
Virgil in 19 B.C., Horace became the official poet of
the Augustans.As such, he was chosen to commemorate
and immortalize imperial affairs in verse.
These compositions became his celebrated Odes
and ensured his enduring fame.He died shortly before
his 58th birthday and a few weeks after the
passing of his benefactor and friend Maecenas.
Horace’s first published works,written between
41 and 30 B.C., were called Satires, but they do not
contain the caustic invective we associate with
satire today. Rather, they poke gentle fun at human
foibles (avarice, the yearning for wealth and status,
hypocrisy), cults of philosophy, various fashions
of the day, or whatever strikes the poet’s fancy
(a journey from Rome to Brundisium with Maecenas;
Flaccus’s devotion to his son).While the tone
is affectionate and good-natured and the style
chatty, the poems signify Horace’s distinguished
intellect, sharp wit, and sophistication. He frequently
identifies by name exactly whom he is caricaturing,
and Horace himself is no less than
others a target of his own barbs.
The Epodes were published around 29 B.C. They
serve as a transition between the Satires and the
Odes, with the controversial character of the former
and the lyric form of the latter. Their subject
matter ranges from a tribute to friendship, to the
joys of country living (his farm at Sabine was a
constant source of pleasure to Horace), to the ill effects
on one’s social life of eating garlic.
The Odes were first published in 23 B.C., followed
by two books of Epistles, or letters, in
roughly 20 and 14 B.C. The Epistles are addressed to
Horace’s friends, including Maecenas and Augustus,
and feature agile, entertaining, and erudite ruminations
on contemporary life and art.
Critical Analysis
The brilliant and lyrical Odes “at once raised Horace
to the front rank of Roman poets,” writes
translator C. E. Bennett, and their popularity has
proved enduring. By the time he wrote these
poems, Horace was a more recognized artist than
he was when he composed his previous works. He
was self-sufficient and established, professionally,
socially, and financially. These factors are reflected
in a more confident and authentic poetic voice.
Because Horace was interested in artistic experimentation,
each of the first nine poems exhibits a
different meter and a range of subject matter: a
dedication to Maecenas; a tribute to Augustus;Virgil’s
voyage to Greece; the arrival of springtime; an
entreaty to a flirt; and an exhortation to enjoy the
indoor pleasures of wine, women, and song while
winter rages outdoors. Other subjects in these
works include the gods, pastoral life, jealousy, vanity,
and the poet’s immortality. The Odes are by
turns patriotic and sentimental, formal and lighthearted,
dotted with laughter and lamentations,
entertaining, and profoundly philosophical.
The Odes are presented in four books. The bestknown
and most beloved poems are I:XI, to which
C. E. Bennett gave the title “Enjoy the Passing
Hour!”; and the dignified, majestic first six poems
of the third book, known as the Roman Odes, particularly
IV:VII, “Spring’s Return,” on the constant
beat of the passage of time; and Carmen Saeculare,
a hymn that was officially commissioned by Augustus
to be sung at the ceremonies of the Secular
Games that celebrated the peace and prosperity of
the age.
Horace’s poem “Carpe Diem” is also wellknown
because it introduces the enduring concept
of CARPE DIEM, or “seize the day,” a concept
Horace also uses in Ode I:XI: “Life Is Brief,” the
poet counsels.“Even while we speak, envious Time
has sped. Reap the harvest of to-day, putting as little
trust as may be in the morrow!” Carpe diem
later became a pet motif among 17th-century English
lyric poets.
“Spring’s Return” is rich in mythological, theological,
and natural imagery:
The snow has fled; already the grass is returning
to the fields and the foliage to the
trees. Earth is going through her
changes. . . . The Grace, with the Nymphs
and her twin sisters, ventures unrobed to
lead her bands. . . . The cold gives way before
the zephyrs; spring is trampled underfoot
by summer, destined likewise to pass
away so soon as fruitful autumn has poured
forth its harvest; and lifeless winter soon returns
again.
In his translation of Horace’s works, C. E. Bennett
calls Horace “unexcelled among Roman
poets.”
English Versions of Works by Horace
Odes and Epodes. Translated by C. E. Bennett. Cambridge,
Mass.: Harvard University Press; London:
William Heinemann Ltd., 1964.
The Odes and Epodes. Translated by Niall Rudd. Cambridge,
Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2004.
The Satires, Epistles, and Art of Poetry. IndyPublish.com,
2004.
Works about Horace
Anderson,William Scovil, ed. Why Horace? A Collection
of Interpretations. Wauconda, Ill.: Bolchazy-
Carducci Publishers, 2001.
Coolidge, Olivia. Lives of Famous Romans. Boston:
Houghton Mifflin Company, 1965.
Feeney, Denis and Tony Woodman, eds. Traditions
and Contexts in the Poetry of Horace. New York:
Cambridge University Press, 2002.
Mendell, Clarence W. Latin Poetry: The New Poets &
The Augustans. New Haven, Conn.; London: Yale
University Press, 1965.
Watson, Lindsay C. Commentary on Horace’s Epodes.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003.