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The Works of Horace
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116 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 16, 2012
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About the author
Horatius
3,546 books330 followers
Odes
and
Satires
Roman lyric poet Quintus Horatius Flaccus exerted a major influence on English poetry.
(December 8, 65 BC – November 27, 8 BC)
Horace, the son of a freed slave, who owned a small farm, later moved to Rome to work as a coactor, a middleman between buyers and sellers at auctions, receiving 1% of the purchase price for his services. The father ably spent considerable money on education of his son, accompanied him first to Rome for his primary education, and then sent him to Athens to study Greek and philosophy.
After the assassination of Julius Caesar, Horace joined the army, serving under the generalship of Brutus. He fought as a staff officer (tribunus militum) in the battle of Philippi. Alluding to famous literary models, he later claimed to throw away his shield and to flee for his salvation. When people declared an amnesty for those who fought against the victorious Octavian Augustus, Horace returned to Italy, only to find his estate confiscated and his father likely then dead. Horace claims that circumstances reduced him to poverty.
Nevertheless, he meaningfully gained a profitable lifetime appointment as a scriba quaestorius, an official of the Treasury; this appointment allowed him to practice his poetic art.
Horace was a member of a literary circle that included Virgil and Lucius Varius Rufus, who introduced him to Maecenas, friend and confidant of Augustus. Maecenas became his patron and close friend and presented Horace with an estate near Tibur in the Sabine Hills (contemporary Tivoli). A few months after the death of Maecenas, Horace died in Rome. Upon his death bed, Horace with no heirs relinquished his farm to Augustus, his friend and the emperor, for imperial needs, and it stands today as a spot of pilgrimage for his admirers.
(December 8, 65 BC – November 27, 8 BC)
Horace, the son of a freed slave, who owned a small farm, later moved to Rome to work as a coactor, a middleman between buyers and sellers at auctions, receiving 1% of the purchase price for his services. The father ably spent considerable money on education of his son, accompanied him first to Rome for his primary education, and then sent him to Athens to study Greek and philosophy.
After the assassination of Julius Caesar, Horace joined the army, serving under the generalship of Brutus. He fought as a staff officer (tribunus militum) in the battle of Philippi. Alluding to famous literary models, he later claimed to throw away his shield and to flee for his salvation. When people declared an amnesty for those who fought against the victorious Octavian Augustus, Horace returned to Italy, only to find his estate confiscated and his father likely then dead. Horace claims that circumstances reduced him to poverty.
Nevertheless, he meaningfully gained a profitable lifetime appointment as a scriba quaestorius, an official of the Treasury; this appointment allowed him to practice his poetic art.
Horace was a member of a literary circle that included Virgil and Lucius Varius Rufus, who introduced him to Maecenas, friend and confidant of Augustus. Maecenas became his patron and close friend and presented Horace with an estate near Tibur in the Sabine Hills (contemporary Tivoli). A few months after the death of Maecenas, Horace died in Rome. Upon his death bed, Horace with no heirs relinquished his farm to Augustus, his friend and the emperor, for imperial needs, and it stands today as a spot of pilgrimage for his admirers.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
March 30, 2022
Only read book I: 1-9, 17, 30; book II: 19-20; book III: 1-6, 13; book IV: 1, 7 as per The Well-Educated Mind by Susan Wise Bauer.
I suppose Susan Wise Bauer expected readers to read all of the works by Horace in his collection of Odes, which are lyrical poems about a particular topic or theme; but I only read Bauer's suggested selection because I had already read some of Horace's poetry in the previous book, and I am not a good student of the Ancients. No matter how much I have been exposed to Ancient/Classical works, I fail to finish them. So I kept it brief.
Horace's personal life was interesting to me. He lived during the time of Augustus Caesar, and somehow became an integral part of the regime. He may have even been friends with Virgil. He certainly wrote about him in Ode III: To the Ship, In Which Virgil Was About to Sail to Athens.
But about the Odes, many are centered around themes on human nature, like love, virtue, youth, friendship, and death. The selections I read were extremely short. They offered advice on living rightly or doing what is good and true. Horace even offered warnings. He was a lot like a philosopher-poet.
I did enjoy reading a few Odes, including:
Ode IV: To Sextius,
Ode I: On Contentment,
Ode II: Against the Degeneracy of the Roman Youth, and
Ode VI: To the Romans
And I found one quote that stood out:
Seldom hath punishment, though lame, of foot, failed to overtake the wicked.
But that's all I've got.
I suppose Susan Wise Bauer expected readers to read all of the works by Horace in his collection of Odes, which are lyrical poems about a particular topic or theme; but I only read Bauer's suggested selection because I had already read some of Horace's poetry in the previous book, and I am not a good student of the Ancients. No matter how much I have been exposed to Ancient/Classical works, I fail to finish them. So I kept it brief.
Horace's personal life was interesting to me. He lived during the time of Augustus Caesar, and somehow became an integral part of the regime. He may have even been friends with Virgil. He certainly wrote about him in Ode III: To the Ship, In Which Virgil Was About to Sail to Athens.
But about the Odes, many are centered around themes on human nature, like love, virtue, youth, friendship, and death. The selections I read were extremely short. They offered advice on living rightly or doing what is good and true. Horace even offered warnings. He was a lot like a philosopher-poet.
I did enjoy reading a few Odes, including:
Ode IV: To Sextius,
Ode I: On Contentment,
Ode II: Against the Degeneracy of the Roman Youth, and
Ode VI: To the Romans
And I found one quote that stood out:
Seldom hath punishment, though lame, of foot, failed to overtake the wicked.
But that's all I've got.
June 11, 2014
Horace 65 BCE–8 BCE (Quintus Horatius Flaccus)
Print Length: 256 pages
Page Numbers Source ISBN: B001OP2ZM6
Language: English
ASIN: B00846TE40
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horace
Odes.
Book 3, circa 23 BCE:
Kindle Location 505: "It is sweet and glorious to die for one's country"
510: "Jupiter, when slighted, often joins a good man in the same fate with a bad one."
511: "Seldom hath punishment, though lame, of foot, failed to overtake the wicked." (Not so sure about that one.)
526: According to Juno, Rome was "more brave in despising gold as yet undiscovered, and so best situated while hidden in the earth, than in forcing it out for the uses of mankind, with a hand ready to make depredations on everything that is sacred."
581: Ode to the Romans: "The marriageable virgin delights to be taught the Ionic dances, and even at this time is trained up in seductive arts, and cherishes unchaste desires from her very infancy."
722: Ode XXIV, To the Covetous: "Scythians that dwell in the plains, whose carts, according to their custom, draw their vagrant habitations, live in a better manner; and so do the rough Getae, whose uncircumscribed acres produce fruits and corn free to all . . .
"Poverty, a great reproach, impels us both to do and to suffer any thing, and deserts the path of difficult virtue. . . .
"the father's perjured faith can deceive his partnerand friend, and he hastens to get money for an unworthy heir. In a word, iniquitous wealth increases, yet something is ever wanting to the incomplete fortune."
Print Length: 256 pages
Page Numbers Source ISBN: B001OP2ZM6
Language: English
ASIN: B00846TE40
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horace
Odes.
Book 3, circa 23 BCE:
Kindle Location 505: "It is sweet and glorious to die for one's country"
510: "Jupiter, when slighted, often joins a good man in the same fate with a bad one."
511: "Seldom hath punishment, though lame, of foot, failed to overtake the wicked." (Not so sure about that one.)
526: According to Juno, Rome was "more brave in despising gold as yet undiscovered, and so best situated while hidden in the earth, than in forcing it out for the uses of mankind, with a hand ready to make depredations on everything that is sacred."
581: Ode to the Romans: "The marriageable virgin delights to be taught the Ionic dances, and even at this time is trained up in seductive arts, and cherishes unchaste desires from her very infancy."
722: Ode XXIV, To the Covetous: "Scythians that dwell in the plains, whose carts, according to their custom, draw their vagrant habitations, live in a better manner; and so do the rough Getae, whose uncircumscribed acres produce fruits and corn free to all . . .
"Poverty, a great reproach, impels us both to do and to suffer any thing, and deserts the path of difficult virtue. . . .
"the father's perjured faith can deceive his partnerand friend, and he hastens to get money for an unworthy heir. In a word, iniquitous wealth increases, yet something is ever wanting to the incomplete fortune."
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews