neque enim concludere versum Dixeris esse satis: neque, si quis scribat, uti nos, Sermoni propiora, putes hunc esse poetam. From this passage, Hardouin very ingeniously and justly concludes, Horatium se nullas odas scripsisse profiteri : nothing in itself more true AT THAT TIME. But the good Father too hastily assumed, that the Odes if written by Horace at all, had been written as their collocation to him indicated, at some period prior to that of the Satires. Hardouin would have been disarmed of at least one argument, perhaps in his opinion a very strong one; if he had ever viewed the books of Horace in the order of their original publication. (2.) If there be any truth in Bentley's calculations, the 2d book of these Satires was collectively published not later than the year B. c. 32. If there be any faith in the Fasti Hellenici, the restoration of the Roman Eagles from Parthia did not take place earlier than the year B. c. 20. Horace (2 S. 1. 10-15) when thus urged by his learned friend Trebatius, Aut si tantus amor scribendi te rapit, aude Cæsaris invicti res dicere, mu ta laborum Præmia laturus. declines the task with much elegance and address, on the ground of inability to describe the scenes of heroic warfare. cupidum, pater optime, vires Deficiunt; neque enim quivis horrentia pilis The Parthians and Gauls, from having been the principal objects of dread to the Roman armies, are the nations selected to furnish, each of them, a very tremendous image of battle; with a tacit reference perhaps to the exploits of Marius at a distant period and of Ventidius on a later occasion, B. c. 39. What is the remark of Baxter on this passage? "15. Bene labentis equo: nam Parthorum pugna fere erat equestris. Apposuit autem ista, quo gratificaretur Augusto, ob recepta signa Marco Crasso adempta." Anachronism and confusion like this might be expected from Baxter. One may wonder that the cautious and accurate Gesner should interpose no correction of it. But neither is he found always faithful to his qualified declaration of agreement with Bentley. Hoc certe confirmare possum, me, dum recenseo singulas Eclogas, diligenter attendisse, si quid esset Bentleianis temporum rationibus adversum, nec deprehendisse quidquam, quod momentum aliquod ad eam evertendam haberet; licet quibusdam Eclogis non improbabili ratione forte tempus etiam aliud, recentius præsertim, possit adscribi. The clearness of view which arises from placing the Satires before the Epodes, and the Epodes before the Odes, cannot be denied. The advantage to be derived from Bentley's arrangement in placing the 4th book of Odes after the 1st book of Epistles, may not perhaps be quite so evident. One example or two will serve to show the importance of that distribution. There is an intellectual as well as a linear perspective. And some space for time and thought must be allowed to intervene or in the case of great moral and political changes taking place, without the aid of that interval, very often all the probabilities of expectation will be shocked. Thus, if seven or eight years are considered to elapse betwixt the average date of the 3d book of Odes and the publication of the 4th; even in the omens of moral improvement displayed in the latter we shall see nothing extravagant, in those of political alteration we shall see the highest credibility. с In the vith Ode of the 3d book, Horace traces the vice and immorality which he there laments, to the predominance of luxury and corruption, which no Censorian regulations could control: and in the xxivth Ode, impressed with the very same feeling (vv. 35, 6.) he exclaims, Quid leges sine moribus Vanæ proficiunt? But in the vth Ode of the 4th book (addressed to Augustus) he piously exults in the blessings of a new era; and by the very phrase (v. 22.) adopted there, he recalls in contrast that vicious state of social life which now seemed to be past or to be passing away. Mos et lex maculosum edomuit nefas. Then again, in the xvth Ode of the same book, with what energy does he hail the revival of the virtues under the reign of a reforming Prince! Tua, Cæsar ætas -et ordinem Rectum evaganti fræna licentiæ Et veteres revocavit artes. In the year B. C. 24, Augustus came home from the Cantabrian war: Horace, catching a happy allusion to the heroic wanderings of Hercules, congratulates the commonalty of Rome on the victorious return of their sovereign. Herculis ritu modo dictus, O Plebs, Morte venalem petiisse laurum Cæsar, Hispanâ repetit penates Victor ab orâ. 3 C. XIV. Here Sanadon (at times so acute and intelligent) condemns at once the opening line of this Ode; and betrays exactly what Dr. Parr would call the coxcomb, in the following remark. O Plebs.] On ne peut disconvenir que ce vers n'est pas le meilleur de la piéce. Cette chute est assommante, et je ne pardonne point à nôtre Poète d'avoir si mal débuté. The fact is, that Sanadon saw nothing here beyond the surface. Augustus, tribunus plebis, be it remembered, and plebi gratior quam optimatibus, had been very dangerously ill in Spain: ille rumor (of course) plebem maxime terruit. Klotz. p. 317. the commons were trembling for the loss of their protector: the nobility caught at the chance of regaining their old ascendancy in the state. Or take it from the Argumentum of the Ode, as it stands in Gesner's edition. Bello Cantabrico maximus erat novorum tumultuum a partibus Optimatium metus, ob diuturnam Augusti Tarracone decumbentis valetudinem. Illo igitur jam domum reverso, publicas ferias Palatio universæque PLEBI Horatius indicit. Several conspiracies a formed against the life of that Prince are recounted by Suetonius in D. Oct. Cæs. Augusto, § XIX. But the most affecting story of the kind is that related by Seneca, of Cinna's desperate design...non occidere, sed immolare: nam sacrificantem placuerat adoriri. The recorded exclamation of Augustus carries a point with it, which renders all comment unnecessary. Ego sum NOBILIBUS adolescentibus expositum caput, in quod mucrones acuant! Seneca de Clementiâ, 1. 9. Turn now to the 4th book of Odes: imagine the lapse of a few eventful years, say from B.C. 24 to the year 15, when Augustus yet remained in Gaul; and then, in the absence of all alarm, mark the lofty tone of pride and security, and the oblivion of all political distinctions. ii. 50. Non semel dicemus, Io triumphe! | Civitas omnis. v. 1-8. Divis orte bonis, optime Romule Custos gentis, abes jam nimium diu: Lucem redde tuæ, dux bone, patriæ: * For "the conspiracy and death of Murena," &c., &c., vide Fast. Hellen. B.C. 22. Adfulsit populo; gratior it dies, Et soles melius nitent. xiv. 1-5. Quæ cura Patrum, quæve Quiritium, Auguste, virtutes in ævum Per titulos memoresque fastos PART II. LOCALITIES. To understand the writings of Horace with complete satisfaction in those parts which at all involve his personal history, the knowledge of his actual residences will be found similarly useful, if not equally necessary, as the correct distribution of his books in their original order. His localities, indeed, when rightly ascertained, are so directly connected with the Chronology and just arrangement of his works; that even Bentley's masterly calculation may derive support from a careful development of the scenes of his residence, hitherto partially or erroneously stated. For the sake of clearness in what follows, though it be in part anticipating, let the principal places in which I believe Horace to have resided after his return from Philippi, be here at once laid before the reader. At an early period, then, he had beyond all dispute a house in Rome, (on the higher ground of that city, Fuge quo descendere gestis. 1 E. xx, 5.) which during his life time he appears to have kept: by the liberality of Mecenas |