natured imputation, libertino patre natum, cast upon him by certain envious detractors. Assuming this origin of the Satire to be correct, we may accept as literally true, Horace's own account of his beginning to write verse; that he was first driven to it by necessity after the confiscation of his paternal estate ; 2 E. 11. 51. paupertas impulit audax Ut versus facerem. In all the books of Horace, indeed, those of Satires, of Epodes, of Odes, and of Epistles, as the constituent parts now stand arranged in each, I am strongly of opinion, that after a due allowance for much caprice and casualty perhaps, there may still be discovered great ingenuity shown by Horace himself in the close succession by which some pieces are brought together, and not less of skill, judgment, and delicacy in the intentional disjunction of others. The peculiar consideration here suggested from internal evidence, will support the whole hypothesis of Bentley by a train of argument not perhaps suspected before. To exemplify the nature of that reasoning, let a few clear instances suffice for the present. Thus the similarity of attachment which Horace bore to both his friends, Septimius and Pompeius, may fairly account for the neighbourly collocation which those two beautiful Odes (2 C. VI, VII.) now occupy. And thus the general similitude of subject in the two Epistles, XVII. to Scæva, and XVIII. to Lollius, (younger brother to him addressed, Maxime Lolli, 1 E. 11. 1,) though addressed to two characters totally dissimilar, doubtless led to their juxtaposition when published. Strangely enough, with all the obvious difference between the characters, even Gesner (ad 1 E. xvIII. 1.) is inclined to think that the two persons might be identically the same, and that of the two Epistles as they now stand, the latter was either a continuation of the former, or arose as a reply out of Scæva's supposed answer to it. Now is it not clear, on a close comparison, that Lollius, being a young man of rank, the son of a vir consularis, hot and high-spirited, was liable to offend by want of due complaisance? With his natural brusquerie and his fits of contradictory or unaccommodating humour, he was the most unlikely man in Rome (scurrantis speciem præbere) to be mistaken for a sycophant. Scæva, on the other hand, timid apparently and somewhat necessitous himself, with relatives perhaps ill provided for, while he required encouragement to undertake the office of living with the great, might stand no less in need of delicate caution, how to improve his fortunes as the comes (v. 52) to a rex (v. 43) without meanness and without importunity. This view of the matter I am happy to find confirmed by Wieland as quoted with approbation by Morgenstern, in a Dissertation to be noticed more particularly by and by. After remarking the skill of Horace in similibus argumentis tractandis, he refers for illustration of it to these very Epistles; Sic Epistolæ ad Scavam et Lollium eandem docent cum principibus vivendi artem: at quam callide diverso utriusque ingenio et conditioni attemperantur præcepta ! p. 61. The vth Epode on Canidia, is by several others separated from the xvIIth on the same Beldame: evidently to keep the pathetic and the horrible apart in reading from the invective and ironical. And to take another example from the same family: The two Odes (1 C. XVI, XVII.) O matre pulchrá, &c. and Velox amænum, &c. are now generally considered as addressed to one person, the daughter of Canidia, (or Gratidia,) under the Greek name of Tyndaris. Assuming as a fact what is most highly probable, then, in the position of the apology first and of the invitation immediately afterwards, we instantly see the fine address of the Poet. Once disjoin the two odes in arrangement: by what attraction should they find their way back again? M. Sanadon, instead of recognising the criminosi Iambi (vv. 2, 3.) in the extant Epodes v and XVII, imagines those libellous verses to be lost; and as well in disjoining as in conjoining-on a plan of his own-the different pieces here alluded to, surpasses even his usual reach of extravagance; whereas in the natural succession which is now given to those pieces, 1 S. VIII. Olim truncus eram (and 2 S. 1. 48. Canidia Albuci, quibus est inimica, venenum.) Ep. v. At O Deorum...; and xvII. Jam jam efficaci ; O matre pulchrâ . ; and XVII. Velox amænum 1 C. XVI. ... ; the history of all the parties concerned may be read straightforward with every advantage of interest and perspicuity. It is time to proceed to the Id Book of Satires. As far however as the personal history of Horace is involved in settling the question of his chronology and localities, I have already anticipated in those pages the principal remarks which belong to this part of the Dissertation. Nor will the reader be displeased, after so extended and discursive a range, to be told that we are now approaching towards the conclusion so far of my original design. A few points only remain to bring matters down to the closing date of the Epodes. And then, the writings of Horace either in the Odes or in the Epistles, when those works are once set in chronological order, may well be allowed to tell the story of his life, which in fact his writings then constitute; illustrated only by a few references to the public annals of Rome. Let us now, therefore, take up the second book of Satires. At this stage of Horace's history, when he was just possessed of the Sabine estate, we find him forming grand resolutions as a kind of censor and moralist. 2 S. 111. 9. Atqui vultus erat multa et præclara minantis. He had this year retired on the Saturnalia (v. 5) into the country for leisure and for warmth. v. 10. Si vacuum tepido cepisset villula tecto. The latter charm we know the country possessed. 1 E. x. 15. Est ubi plus tepeant hyemes? If it be asked what were the causes of that advantage, the Cato Major § XVI. may be consulted for explanation: Ubi enim potest illa ætas aut calescere vel apricatione melius vel igni, aut vicissim umbris aquisve refrigerari salubrius ?-the command of a sunny position on the one hand, and the plenty of fuel on the other. And it may be remembered that in that famous Epistle (xIV.) on the Sabine farm, Horace tells his Villicus that the Calo in the city envied him amongst other things (vv. 41, 2.) the ready supply of logs; which at Rome they had not. invidet usum Lignorum et pecoris tibi calo argutus et horti. Horace (who reports himself [1 E. xx. 24] solibus aptum) when more advanced in years, loved to pass his winters on the sea-coast. Thus in that fine Epistle to Mæcenas, 1 E. vII. 10—13. Quod si bruma nives Albanis illinet agris, Incidentally we gather from another Epistle, that to Scæva, (XVII. 52, 3,) that Brundusium and Surrentum also were scenes of resort in winter r; Brundisium comes aut Surrentum ductus amœnum, Qui queritur salebras et acerbum frigus et imbres, &c. f and in that (xvth.) to Numonius Vala, Quæ sit hyems Veliæ, quod cœlum, Vala, Salerni, &c. when he thought of going to the cold-baths of the one place or the other, after he has stated (vv. 2, 3.) Antonius Musa's judgment on his case, Mihi Baias supervacuas... Horace proceeds to tell his friend, that he will have to ride his horse past the hitherto well known houses of call, on the way to Cumæ or Baiæ; Mutandus locus est, et diversoria nota Præteragendus equus: Quo tendis ? non mihi Cumas Est iter aut Baias, &c. To return to the Id Satire; on the literary design then alluded to, in packing up his books to carry with him from Rome, he did not forget (v. 12) Archilochus: and when we come to the Epodes, we shall discover in the assaults on Mana (Iv), on Cassius Severus (v1), on Mævius (x), and on other unlucky objects of his wrath, that in studying under that great master of Iambic bitterness he had learned his trade well; πολλοὶ μαθηταὶ κρείσσονες διδασκάλων. as the man said when he stole the Mercury. This fact too, in its way, is demonstrative of the Epodes being absurdly collocated in the old order before the Satires: the fruit produced, and then the tree planted! Of the vith Satire (Hoc erat in votis, &c.) good use has been made in the former part of this Dissertation, as bearing on the great object, to illustrate the life and localities of Horace one only remark shall be drawn from it now. In the golden treatise De Senectute (§ XIV.) old Cato describes in general his convivial enjoyments: Me vero et magisteria delectant, &c. (he proceeds to transfer the scene into the country :) quæ quidem in Sabinis etiam persequi soleo; conviviumque vicinorum quotidie compleo, quod ad multam noctem, quam maxime possumus, vario sermone pro ducimus. |