Chapter 40

time. We have references to Actium (B.C. 31), as in _Sat._ ii. 5, 63; and _Sat._ ii. 1 (written last) speaks of Augustus (ll. 11-15) as the hero in war, not yet the bringer of peace, and was probably therefore composed before the temple of Janus was shut in the beginning of B.C. 29.

(2) _Epodon liber_, B.C. 30, as above. _Epod._ 9 was written shortly after the battle of Actium, 2nd September, B.C. 31, before it was known whither Antony had fled.

(3) _Carmina_ (Odes) Books i.-iii., published B.C. 23. In _Od._ i. 12, 45,

'Crescit occulto velut arbor aevo fama Marcellis,'

we have a reference to the marriage in B.C. 25 of Augustus' daughter, Julia, to his nephew, Marcellus. Marcellus died in the autumn of B.C. 23, and the lines must have been written before his death. _Od._ ii. 10 and iii. 19 contain references to Licinius Murena, brother of Terentia, Maecenas' wife. Murena was executed for his share in the conspiracy of Fannius Caepio in the end of B.C. 23, and it is improbable that Horace could have made these references after that event.[56]

(4) _Epistles_, Book i., published B.C. 20. The date is fixed by _Ep._ i. 20, 26-8, already quoted, p. 164.

The year referred to is B.C. 21, and the book was therefore composed in B.C. 20, before December of that year.

(5) _Carmen Saeculare_, composed for the _Ludi Saeculares_ of B.C. 17 (see Sueton. quoted above). An inscription commemorating these games was discovered in 1890 on the left bank of the Tiber, and in it Horace is mentioned: 'Sacrificioque perfecto pueri xxvi. quibus denuntiatum erat patrimi et matrimi et puellae totidem carmen cecinerunt eodemque modo in Capitolio. Carmen composuit Q. Horatius Flaccus.'[57]

(6) _Odes_, Book iv., published B.C. 13. _Od._ 4 and 14 celebrate the campaign of Drusus and Tiberius in Rhaetia and Vindelicia B.C. 15. _Od._ 2 and 5 were written just before Augustus' return, B.C. 13, from Gaul, where he had been since B.C. 16.

(7) _Epistles_, Book ii. _Ep._ ii. 1, to Augustus, was written B.C. 14 in response (see the quotation from Suetonius above) to the emperor's request for a poem addressed to himself, after seeing that no mention was made of him in _Ep._ ii. 2 and the _Epistula ad Pisones_. These are the _sermones quidam_ (both, like _Ep._ ii. 1, on literary criticism) referred to by Suetonius, and not Book i. of the Epistles, where Augustus is frequently mentioned. The date is fixed by l. 15, 'praesenti tibi maturos largimur honores,' etc., referring to the worship of the _numen Augusti_, which was legalized B.C. 14, and by the reference in ll. 252 _sqq._ to the victories of Drusus and Tiberius, and their celebration in _Od._ iv. 4; iv. 14. _Ep._ ii. 2 (to Iulius Florus) was written B.C. 18. Horace hints (l. 25, ll. 84-6) that he has not yet returned to lyric poetry; the epistle was therefore written before B.C. 17. The _Epistula ad Pisones_ or _De Arte Poetica_ was probably written B.C. 17 or 16 after the _Carmen Saeculare_, but before Horace had entered on the composition of the fourth Book of the Odes.

The _Satires_ are called _Sermones_ in all the MSS., but as Horace gave this name both to his Satires (_Sat._ i. 4, 42) and to his Epistles (_Ep._ ii. 1, 4; 250) it is convenient to call them _Satirae_, the name which Horace also gives them (_Sat._ ii. 1, 1; 6, 17), and which represent their intended scope. Horace's chief model is Lucilius, whom he wished to adapt to the Augustan age. _Sat._ i. 4, 56,

'his, ego quae nunc, olim quae scripsit Lucilius.'

So _Sat._ ii. 1, 28 and 74. Lucilius' influence is seen most in _Sat._ i. 2; 5; 7; 8; ii. 2; 3; 4; 8. Horace, after the reception _Sat._ i. 2 met with, did not, like Lucilius, attack individuals; nor did his position as a dependent (_Sat._ ii. 1, 60-79) allow him to do so. We find, therefore, no political satire in Horace, who confines himself to social and literary topics. He does not attack his contemporaries by name, but (_a_) takes some names from Lucilius, as Albucius (_Sat._ ii. 1, 48), Opimius (_Sat._ ii. 3, 142); (_b_) invents 'tell-tale-names,' as Pantolabus (_Sat._ i. 8, 11), Novius (_Sat._ i. 3, 21). In _Sat._ i. 4 and ii. 1 he defines the moral and social aim of his satire. In _Sat._