No Fragments extant.[1830]
FOOTNOTES:
[1830] The few Fragments referred to these books are, in better MSS. and editions, ascribed to others, where they will be found.
BOOK XXVI.
ARGUMENT.
Gerlach considers this book to contain the strongest evidences of how much Horace was indebted to Lucilius, not only in the choice of his subjects, but also in his illustration and method of handling the subject when chosen. In the 105th of the Fragmenta incerta, we find the words "Valeri sententia dia" (which Horace imitates, i., Sat. ii., 32, "sententia dia Catonis"). By Valerius he here supposes Q. Valerius Soranus to be intended; a man of great learning and an intimate friend of Publius Scipio and Lucilius. He was author of a treatise on grammar, entitled ἐποπτίδων; which contained, according to Turnebe's conjecture, a discussion on the mysteries of literature and learning (ἐπόπτης being applied to one initiated into the mysteries). This is not improbable; as he is said to have lost his life for divulging the sacred and mysterious name of Rome. Vid. Plut., Qu. Rom., lxi. [Two verses of his are quoted by Varro, L. L., vii., 3, and x., 70. Cf. Plin., H. N., Præf., p. 6, Hard. A. Gell., ii., 10.]
With him, therefore, as a man of judgment and experience, Lucilius, who had already acquired some ill-will from his Satires, consults, as to the best method of avoiding all odium for the future, and as to the subjects he shall select for his compositions. This book then contains an account of this interview between the poet and his adviser; and Gerlach most ingeniously arranges the fragments in such an order as to represent in some manner the topics of discussion in a methodical sequence. These are, chiefly, the propriety of his continuing to pursue the same style of writing, and the enunciation of the opinions of both on matters relating to war, marriage, and literary pursuits.
Van Heusde and Schoenbeck give no definite idea of the subject. Petermann considers the subject matter to have been far more diversified. The book begins, in his opinion, with a vivid description of the miseries of conjugal life, introducing a very graphic matrimonial quarrel; this is followed by so infinitely diversified a farrago of sentiments that it is hopeless to attempt to establish any systematic connection between them.
Corpet considers the whole to have been a philosophical discussion of the miseries of human life, especially those attendant on the married state, which the poet illustrated by the very forcible example of Agamemnon and Clytæmnestra.
The whole of the book was composed in the Trochaic metre; consisting of tetrameters catalectic and acatalectic. A few Fragments consist of Iambic heptameters and octometers (Iambici septenarii et octonarii), unless, as is not improbable, these lines have been referred to this book, through the inadvertence of grammarians or copyists. It might, however, have been intentional, as in the succeeding books we find Iambic, Trochaic, and Dactylic metres indiscriminately employed.