Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/537

Rh of the publication of the several books does not differ very materially from that of Franke. On the successive order of publication there is the same agreement, with few exceptions, in all the writers on this prolific subject. Though Bentley's opinion, that the poems were published collectively in sepa- rate books, be unquestionably true, yet his asser- tion that Horace devoted himself exclusively to one kind of poetry at a time, that he first wrote all the Satires, then began to write iambics (the Epodes), then took to lyric poetry, is as hardy, groundless, and improbable, as any of the theories which he rejects with such sovereign contempt. The poet himself declares that he was driven in his stveei youth to write iambics (the Bentleian theory assigns all the Epodes to his 34th and 35th years). Some of the Odes have the freshness and ardour of youth ; and it seems certain that when Horace formed the friendship of Pollio, Varius, and Virgil, and was introduced by the two latter to Maecenas, he must have shown more than the promise of poetic talent. It is hence most probable that, although not col- lected or published till a later period, and Horace appears to have been slow and unwilling to expose his poems on the shelves of the Sosii {Sat. i. 4. 70), many of his lyric and iambic pieces had been re- cited before his friends {Sat. i. 4. 73), had been circulated in private, and formed, no doubt, his re- commendation to the lovers and patrons of letters. Either this must have been the case, or he must have gained his reputation by poems which have not survived, or which he himself did not think worthy of publication.

The first book of Satires (on this all agree) was the first publication. Some indeed have asserted that the two books appeared together ; but the first line of the second book —

" Sunt quibus in Satira videar nimis acer,"

is conclusive that Horace had already attained public reputation as a writer of satire. The differ- ence between the Chronology of Bentley and that of Franke, in his Fasti Horatiani, is this: that Bentley peremptorily confines the composition {na- tates) of this book to the 26th, 27th, and 28th years of the poet's life (and Bentley reckons the year of the poet's birth, though born in December, as his first year), and leaves him idle for the two following years. Franke more reasonably enlarges the period of composition from his 24th to his 30th year. In this year (u. c. 719, n. c. 35), the pub- lication of the first book of Satires took place. In the interval between the two books of Satires, Ho- race received from Maecenas the gift of the Sabine estate.

The second book of Satires is assigned by Bent- ley to the 31st, 32d, and 33d (30, 31, 32) of the poet's life; the publication is placed by Franke in the 35th year of Horace (b. c. 30). This is perhaps the most difficult point in the Horatian chronology, and depends on the interpretation of passages in the sixth Satire. If that Satire were written and the book published after the war with Antony and the victory of Actium, it is re- markable that neither that Satire, nor the book itself, in any passage, should contain any allusion to events which so fully occupied, it appears from other poems, the mind of Horace. If, however, the division of lands to be made to the veterans in Italy or Sicily {Serm. i. 6. 56) be that made after the battle of Actium, this must be conclusive for the later date. To avoid this objection, Bentley sug- gested a former division, made in the year of Horace 31 (30), B. c. 35. But as seven full, and nearer eight years (septimus octavo propior jam fugerit annus) had elapsed when that Satire was written, since his introduction to Maecenas, to which must be added nine months between the first introduc- tion and the intimate friendship, the introduction is thrown up before the battle of Philippi, b. c. 42, and we have besides this to find time for Horace to acquire his poetic fame, to form his friendships with Virgil and Varius, &c. The only way to escape, if we refer the division to that sug- gested by Bentley, is to suppose that it was pro- mised in b. c. 35, but not fulfilled till several years later ; but this is improbable in any way, and hardly reconcileable with the circumstances of that division in the historians. It is quite impossible to date the publication of this book earlier than the latter part of b. c. 32 (aet. Horat. 33), the year be- fore Actium ; but the probability is strong for the year after, b. c. 31.

Still so far there is no very great discrepancy in the various schemes ; and (with the exception of M. Vanderbourg and Baron Walckenaer) the Epodes are generally allowed to be the third book in the order of publication ; and Bentley and the more recent writers likewise nearly concur in the date of publication, the poet's 35th or 36th year. Bentley, however, and his followers authoritatively confine the period of its composition to the 34th and 35th year of his life. There can be no doubt that when he speaks of himself as a writer of iambics, Horace alludes to his Epodes. (Franke, note, p. 46. ) The name of Epodes is of later and very questionable origin. But as he asserts that in his sweet youth he wrote iambics, either those iambics must be lost, or must be contained in the book of Epodes. The single passage in which he seems to rest his poetical fame up to a certain period on his Satires alone, is in itself vague and general {Sat. i. 4. 41.) ; and even if literally taken, is easily explicable, on the supposition that the Epodes were published later than the Satires.

The observation of Bentley, which every one would wish to be true, that all the coarser and more obscene poems of Horace belong to his earlier period, and that he became in mature years more refined, is scarcely just, if the more gross of the Epodes were written in his 34th and 35th years: the adventures and connections to which they allude are rather those of a young and homeless adventurer, cast loose on a vicious capital, than the guest and friend of Maecenas, and the possessor of a sufficient estate. Franke dates the publication late B. c. 30, or early b. c. 29. ( Vit. Hor. 36.) We are persuaded that their composition extended over the whole period from his first residence in Rome nearly to the date of their publication. Epodes vii. and xvi. ? are more probably referred to the war of Perusia, B.C. 40, than to that with Antony ; and to this part of the poet's life belong those Epodes which allude to Canidia.

The three first books of Odes follow by almost universal consent in the order of publication, though the chronologists differ as to their having appeared consecutively or at the same time. According to Bentley, they were composed and published in suc- cession, between the 34th and 42d, according to Franke, the 35th and 41st or 42d year of the poet. Their successive or simultaneous publication within that period might appear unquestionable but for