VIRGIL AND TWO MUSES.
Mosaic in the Bardo Museum, Tunis.
CHAPTER IX
HORACE
Quintus Horatius Flaccus, 65-8 B. C.—Virgil and Horaces—Life of Horace—The first book of Satires—The Epodes—The second book of Satires—The first three books of Odes—The first book of Epistles—The literary Epistles—The Carmen Sæculare—The fourth book of Odes—Conclusion.
Throughout the Middle Ages Virgil was regarded as incomparably the greatest of Roman poets. In modern times his greatness has been called in question, and some scholars have even gone so far as to deny that he was a great poet at all. Virgil and Horace. The difference is due, in great measure, to the fact that in the Middle Ages the poems of Homer, Theocritus, and the other Greek poets whom Virgil imitated, were unknown, and Virgil was regarded as the great epic and pastoral poet of antiquity. That Virgil imitated the Greek poets is evident, but in the last chapter enough has been said to show that his poetry contains qualities not to be found in the works of the Greeks, and that although his poems are in many respects not equal to those of Homer, he must still be regarded as one of the greatest poets of the world. The increase of knowledge which has led to the undue depreciation of Virgil tended to make the second great poet of the Augustan period more highly appreciated. The odes of Horace, which are the best known and the most popular of his poems, are imitations of the poetry of the Greek lyrists, Alcæus, Sappho, Anacreon, and their followers, but the Greek originals are for the most part lost, so that Horace can not suffer by comparison with them. Moreover, modern taste is less pleased with epic than with lyric verse, and the delicate, highly finished, and charming odes of Horace appeal strongly to the cultivated modern reader. In his satires and epistles, too, Horace, whatever his indebtedness to Lucilius and others, displays undoubted originality. It is, therefore, natural that he is sometimes called the greatest of Roman poets. But Virgil wrote of greater themes; he was the great national poet, who sang in grand, prophetic tones of the greatness of Rome and her destinies, while Horace appealed to a narrower circle of cultured readers. Yet Horace is, in his own field, unsurpassed, and deserves all the admiration that has been accorded him.
Quintus Horatius Flaccus was born at Venusia, in Apulia, near the border of Lucania, December 8, 65 B. C. His father was a freedman, the owner of a small farm, but he determined to give his son the best education possible. The school at Venusia was unsatisfactory, and Horace’s father moved with his family to Rome, where he gained his livelihood as a coactor or collector of the money offered by bidders at auctions. Life of Horace. This was a business of some importance at Rome, and must have been lucrative, for Horace attended the best schools, where he came in contact with the sons of wealthy and noble parents. His father exercised personal supervision over the boy’s education, accompanying him to the school, and calling his attention to what went on about him, pointing out the evil effects of bad conduct, and giving him practical advice. In school, under a strict master, Orbilius, who did not spare the rod, Horace read the translation of the Odyssey by Livius Andronicus, and also the Iliad, the latter, perhaps, in the original Greek. From Rome, he went to Athens to study philosophy, and was there when Brutus arrived in 44 B. C., after the death of Cæsar. Like many another patriotic young Roman, he joined the army of Brutus, in which he was given the rank of tribunus militum. He took part in the battle of Philippi and the flight that followed it. In the distribution of lands among the soldiers of the victorious armies, Horace’s farm was confiscated, and the young man, whose father had died during his absence, returned to Rome, where he obtained, perhaps with the last remnants of his father’s savings, a small position as a clerk of the quæstors.
This position gave him a livelihood and some leisure for poetry. Poverty, he says,[65] drove him to write verses, and certainly his poems brought him prosperity, for they led Virgil and Varius to introduce him to Mæcenas in the spring of 38 B. C., and in the following winter Mæcenas admitted him to the circle of his familiar friends. Horace, with his short, rotund figure, his witty, genial conversation, and his poetic genius, became socially very intimate with Mæcenas, without, however, being his confidant in political matters. When Mæcenas went to Brundusium to negotiate an agreement between Augustus and Antony, Horace, with Virgil, Varius, Plotius, and the Greek rhetorician Heliodorus, was in his train.[66] In 34 or 33 B. C. Mæcenas gave him a country seat in the Sabine hills not far from Tibur (Tivoli), so large that it contained five farmhouses. Here the poet spent a great part of his remaining years. Mæcenas also introduced him to Augustus, who wished to make him his private secretary, but Horace refused the honor, probably because he preferred to retain his freedom. The emperor was not offended by the refusal, but continued to regard him as a friend. Honored by Augustus and his circle, Horace lived in comfort and peace. He died November 27, 8 B. C., and was buried near the tomb of Mæcenas, on the Esquiline. He made Augustus his heir.