The Date of Horace's First Epode

M. W. Thompson

doi:10.1017/S0009838800036314

The Date of Horace's First Epode

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 February 2009

M. W. Thompson

Show author details

M. W. Thompson: Affiliation:
Queen Mary College, University of London

Article contents

Extract
References

Get access

Rights & Permissions

Extract

THE first Epode provides no clear indication of date. We learn only that Maecenas is about to join Octavian on a dangerous expedition and has suggested that Horace should not accompany him, while Horace retorts that he will be unable to enjoy himself in the absence of his patron and would be ready to follow him to the ends of the earth, whatever the danger, in the hope of earning his gratitude.

The Epodes were published about 30 B.C. and, perhaps for that reason, the scholiast Pseudo-Acron confidently assigns the poem to the period immediately before the battle of Actium with the comment: ‘Maecenatem prosequitur euntem ad bellum navale cum Augusto adversum Antonium et Cleopatram.’ It is curious that in referring to the activities of Octavian in 31 the author uses the title Augustus, which was not conferred on him before 27,: but the substance of his comment accords with the known facts. In the spring of 31 Octavian asked all Romans of influence to meet him at Brundisium, thereby to demonstrate their willingness to take part in the war against Antony and Cleopatra, and more than seven hundred senators are known to have offered their services.

Type: Research Article
Information: The Classical Quarterly , Volume 20 , Issue 2 , December 1970 , pp. 328 - 334

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0009838800036314 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © The Classical Association 1970

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

^{page 328 note 1} Scholiasts elsewhere use the title Augustus on inappropriate occasions (Porphyrio, for example, on Odes 1. 37), but suspicions are nevertheless aroused.

^{page 328 note 2} Dio 50. 11. 5.

^{page 328 note 3} Res Gestae Divi Augusti 25.

^{page 328 note 4} For the date of the Satire see below.

^{page 328 note 5} Wistrand, E., Horace's Ninth Epode and its Historical Background (1958), 6–19.Google Scholar Wistrand p. 34) feels ‘fairly sure’ that Horace addressed the ninth Epode to Maecenas in the theatre of war just before the battle of Actium but is unable to counter all the arguments advanced by Fraenkel, E. in Horace (1957), 71–5.Google Scholar For a more recent discussion of the poem see Williams, G. in Tradition and Originality in Roman Poetry (1968), 212 ff.Google Scholar

^{page 328 note 6} Keller, O., Symbola Philologorum Bonnenstum (1867).Google Scholar

^{page 329 note 1} See R. B. Steele, The Nux, Maecenas and Consolalio ad Liviam (1933), 33–5.Google ScholarSkutsch, F. in Pauly-Wissowa (iv. 945–6)Google Scholar objects that if the poet had known of Seneca's charges he would have dealt with his remarks in the same epistula about Maecenas’ comitatus and uxor. But note Steele's comments in op. cit. 34.

^{page 329 note 2} See Steele, , op. cit. 35–8Google Scholar, and Axelson, B., ‘De Aetate Consolationis ad Liviam et Elegiarum in Maecenatem’, Eranos, xxviii (1930), I ff.Google Scholar

^{page 329 note 3} This view, advanced by Mitscherlich (1800), is accepted by Hermann, L.{Horace Épodes [1953]) and other modern scholars.Google Scholar

^{page 330 note 1} Wickham, E. C. (1874) 'san exception. He acknowledges Dyer's interpretation but offers no personal opinion.Google Scholar

^{page 330 note 2} In the preface of his edition (1711).

^{page 330 note 3} Tate, J., Horatius Restitutus (1837), 91.Google Scholar

^{page 330 note 4} Note also Dyer's entry on Maecenas in Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology.

^{page 330 note 5} Appian, BC 5. 97. 404. Dio (49. 1. 1) names his starting-point as Baiae (Puteoli is on the Sinus Baianus) and says that he set out in the spring, but Appian's statement that everyone knew of his intention to sail on the tenth day after the summer solstice and his theory that 1 July was chosen because that month was named after Julius Caesar, the ever-successful conqueror, are more definite and convincing.

^{page 330 note 6} Appian, BC 5. 98. 408–10; Dio 49. 1. 3; Veil. Pat. 2. 79. 3–4. Note also Suet. Aug. 16. 1.

^{page 330 note 7} Appian, BC 5. 99. 412–14.

^{page 330 note 8} Appian, BC 5. 112. 470.

^{page 330 note 9} For references see n. 6.

^{page 330 note 10} Note Wistrand's views on this stanza (op. cit. 16–17).

^{page 330 note 11} I am indebted to Professor Clayton, F. W. for drawing my attention to this passage and its implications and for making valuable comments on other aspects of the problem.Google Scholar

^{page 331 note 1} sit modus lasso maris et viarum militiaeque! (Odes 2. 6. 7–8

^{page 331 note 2} Appian BC 5. 100. 416–17. Cf. Dio 48. 19. 2, 48. 48. 5.

^{page 331 note 3} Note in particular Odes 1. 3. 9 ff.

^{page 331 note 4} Appian, De Rebus Illyricis 3.

^{page 331 note 5} Veget. 4. 33; Plut. Ant. 67. 2. Cf. Hor. Odes 1. 37. 30.

^{page 332 note 1} (Plut. Ant. 65. 6). Velleius Paterculus (2. 85. 2) says that Agrippa had complete charge of the operations, while Octavian sailed wherever he could be of service.

^{page 332 note 2} Appian, BC 5. 99. 411.

^{page 332 note 3} Ibid. 5. i n. 463.

^{page 332 note 4} Ibid. 5. 112. 468.

^{page 332 note 5} Caesar, , BC 3. 5. 3, 3. 9. 1.Google Scholar

^{page 332 note 6} Lucan 3. 534.

^{page 332 note 7} Wickham, for instance, makes assumption ‘if the scene is Actium’.

^{page 332 note 8} Dio 50. 18. 5–6, 23. 2–3, 32. 2; Florus 2. 21. 5–6; Oros. 6. 19. 9.

^{page 332 note 9} See his remarks on this phrase in his commentary (1826).

^{page 332 note 10} Dio 49. 1. 2, 3. 2; Appian BC 5. 106. 438.

^{page 332 note 11} Dyer, T., loc. cit. 210.Google Scholar

^{page 333 note 1} It is true that Sabine farms were not highly valued (see Catull, . 44. 1–4).Google Scholar Horace himself says in Odes 2. 18. 14 that he is ‘satis beatus unicis Sabinis’ and in Odes 3. 1. 47–8 asks: cur valle permutem Sabina divitias operosiores? But such reflections on the modesty of his farm would not necessarily be suitable in the Epodes, which were published about seven years earlier.

^{page 333 note 2} D'Alton, J. F., Horace and his Age (1917), 138, n. 2.Google Scholar

^{page 333 note 3} See Sat. 1. 6. 61–2, 2. 6. 40–2. For the date of Sat. 2. 6 see section 2 of Wickham's general introduction to the Satires.

^{page 333 note 4} Appian, BC 5. g2. 385.

^{page 333 note 5} This is less probable because, if Maecenas went to Brundisium and then had to continue to Tarentum, it is difficult to understand why Horace should say at the end of the Satire (v. 104): Brundisium longae finis chartaeque viaeque est.

^{page 333 note 6} Antony sailed to Brundisium, but when the local inhabitants refused to admit him to the harbour, he made for Tarentum (Plut. Ant. 35. 1). Possibly Maecenas was to have met him at Brundisium; he was certainly with Octavian immediately afterwards, when Octavia approached her brother and persuaded him to be peaceable towards Antony in the coming negotiations at Tarentum (Plut. Ant. 35. 3).

^{page 333 note 7} See Conington's general introduction to the Eclogues and particularly his remarks preceding Eclogue 10.

^{page 333 note 2} See 63 ff.

Article contents

The Date of Horace's First Epode

Extract

Access options

References

Save article to Kindle

Save article to Dropbox

Save article to Google Drive

Reply to: Submit a response

Your details

You have entered the maximum number of contributors

Conflicting interests