Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/538

524 the great difficulty of the third Ode, relating to the poet Virgil about to embark for Greece. It is said by Donatus that Virgil did undertake such a voy- age in the year b. c 1 9, three years later than the last date of Bentley — five than that of Franke. Hence Grotefend and others delay the publication of the three books of Odes to that year or the fol- lowing ; and so perplexing is the difficulty, that Franke boldly substitutes the name of Quintilius for that of Virgilius ; others recur to the last resort of desperate critics, and imagine another Virgi- lius. Dr. Weber, perhaps more probably, suspects an error in Donatus. If indeed it relates to that voyage of Virgil (yet may not Virgil have undertaken such a voyage before ? ), we absolutely fix the publication of the three books of Odes to one year, that of Virgil's voyage and death ; for after the death of Virgil Horace could not have published his Ode imploring the gods to grant him safe return. We entertain no doubt that, though first published at one of these periods, the three first books of Odes contain poems written at very diiferent times, some in the earliest years of his poetry ; and Buttman's opinion that he steadily and laboriously polished the best of his smaller poems, till he had brought them to perfection, and then united them in a book, accounts at once for the irregular order, in point of subject, style, and metre, in which they occur.

The first book of the Epistles is by Bentley as- signed to the 46th and 47th (45th and 46th), by Franke is placed between the 41st and 45th years of Horace. Bentley 's chronology leaves two years of the poet's life, the 44th and 45th, entirely un- occupied.

The Carmen Seculare, by almost universal con- sent, belongs to the 48th year of Horace, B. c. 17.

The fourth book of- Odes, according to Bentley, belongs to the 49th and 51st ; to Franke, the 48th and 52d years of the poet's life. It was pub- lished in his 51st or 52d year.

The dates of the second book of Epistles, and of iQ Ars Poetica^ are admitted to be uncertain, though both appeared before the poet's death, ann. aet. 57.

There are several ancient Lives of Horace : the first and only one of importance is attributed to Suetonius ; but if by that author, considerably in- terpolated. The second is to be found in the edi- tion of Horace by Bond. The third from a MS. in the Vatican library, was published by M. Van- derbourg, and prefixed to his French translation of the Odes. A fourth from a Berlin MS. edited by Kirchner, Quaesliones Horatianae. These, how- ever, are later than the Commentators, Acron and Porphyrion.

The Editio Princeps of Horace is in 4to, without name or date. Maittaire (with whom other biblio- graphers agree) supposes it to have been printed by Zarotus at Milan, 1470. Fea describes an edition which contests the priority by T. P. Lignamini, but this is doubtful. II. Folio, without name or date, of equal rarity. III. 4to. (the first with date 1474) Milan, apud Zarotuni. IV. Ferrara, 1474, Odae et Epistolae. V. Neapol. 1474. VI. Milan, 1476, P. de Lavagna. VII. Fol. without date, but it appeared 1481, with the Scholia of Acron and Porphyrion. VIII. Florence, 1482, with the Commentary of Landino. Of the countless later editions we select the following as the most important: — I. Cruquii, last edit. Lug. Bat. 1603. It contains the Scholia of a commentator, or rather a compiler of commentaries, some of but late date, quoted as Comm. Cruquii. II. Lambini, last edit., Paris, 1605. III. Torrentii, Antwerp, 1108. Lambinus and Torrentius are the best of the older editors. IV. Bentleii, Cantab. 1711. V. Gesneri et Zeunii, Lips, and Glasg. v. y. from 1762 to 1794. VI. Carmina, Mitscheriich, Lips. 1800. VI L Doering, Lips. 1803. VIIL Romae,a C. Fea. Fea professed to have collated many MSS. in the Vatican, &c. IX. Carmina (with French translation), C. Vanderbourg, Paris, 1812. Vander- bourg collated 18 MSS. X. A J. Braunhard, Lips. 1 833, with a reprint of the old Scholia. XL Orellii, Turici, 1843. This last surpasses all former edi- tions. XII. Satiren erklart von L. F. Heindorf. Neu-bearbeitet von E. F. Wlistemann, Leipzig, 1843. The German Commentary excellent. XIII. Episteln erklart von F. E. Theodor Schmid. Hal- berstadt, 1828.

The translations of Horace in all languages are almost innumerable, perhaps because he is among the most untranslateable of poets. Where the beauty of the poetry consists so much in the exqui- site felicity of expression, in the finished terseness and perspicuity of the Odes, or the pure idiomatic Latin of the Satires and Epistles, the transfusion into other words almost inevitably loses either the meaning or the harmony of thought and language. In English the free imitations of Pope and of Swift give by far the best notion of the charm of the Horatian poetry to an unlearned reader. Some of Dryden's versions have his merits and faults — ease and vigour, carelessness and inaccuracy. The translation of Francis is that in common use, rather for want of a better than for its intrinsic worth. We shall name in our selection of the most important among the numberless critical and aesthetical works on Horace (a complete list of Lihri Horatiani would occupy many columns) the best of the French and German translations:

Dacier, Oeuvres (THorace. Masson, Horatii Vita, Lug. Bat. 8vo. 1708. Casaubon, de Satira, a Rambach, Halae, 1774. Ernesti, Ofiomasticou Poetarum imprimis Q. Horatii Flacci. Horaz als Menscli und Burger von Rom, R. von Ommerai ubersetzt von Walch. Lips. 1802. Lessing, /^eZ- iungen des Horaz. Werke, vol. iv. Berlin, 1838. Horazens Satiren, ubersetzt von C. M. Wieland, Leipsig, 1815 ; Briefe, 1837. To these clever translations are appended dissertations and notes full of very ingenious criticism, on the characters and on the works of Horace. Wieland is well corrected by F. Jacobs in his Lectiones Vemisinae in his Vermischte Schriften. Les Odes d^Hurace, par C. Vanderbourg. See above. M. Vander- bourg's translation is hard and stiff, not equal in ease and fluency to the translation by Count Daru.

On the Topography, see Capmartin de Chaupy, and other works, quoted above.

On the Chronology, Buttmann. See above. Baron Walckenaer, Kirchner, Franke, Grotefend, Weber, Passow, Vit. Hor. ; Vanderbourg, Odes d''Horace ; Weichert, Poet. Lat. Reliq. et de Lucio Vario et Cassia Parmensi ; Heindorf. ad Sat. &c, ; T. Dyer, in Classical Museum^ No, 5. Compare Fynes Clinton, Fasti Hellenici.

On the Metres of Horace — Tate, Horatius Resti- tutus; Hermann, de Metris^ iii. c. 16.



HO′RCIUS, the god who watches over oaths, or is invoked in oaths, and punishes their violation, occurs chiefly as a surname of Zeus, 