Latin Verse Satire

by Miller, Paul Allen

  49–52. Horace’s interlocutor replies that comedy does not lack spiritus and vis because in the stock plot of New Comedy the pater ardens (“angry father”) always saevit (“rages”) and the insanus filius (“crazed son”) is always ebrius (“drunk”). This was not the sort of “inspiration” and “power” Horace had in mind. He was alluding to that of the lyric, epic, or tragic poet.

  Nepos = “a spendthrift, prodigal.”

  Dedecus = “shame,” neuter noun.

  51–2. The son leads a drunken torch-lit procession to his mistress’s door where he would serenade her and if need be break the door down. Ante noctem: to walk about with torches in the daylight was proverbial for folly.

  52–3. Horace’s point is that comedy, like satire, merely represents the prosaic events of normal life, not the great heroes of myth and legend found in epic and tragedy. Pomponius, otherwise unknown, would hear words no less harsh (istis … leviora), if his father viveret (“were alive,” either in the sense of “still alive” or in the sense of “not being a fiction” like the pater ardens of comedy). Pomponius = the proverbial spendthrift heir.

  Numquid = interrogative particle.

  54–6. Horace summarizes his argument on satire’s prosaic nature.

  Puris … verbis: compare sermo merus in 48.

  Dissolvas: i.e., if you rearranged the word order so the line no longer scanned as verse.

  Stomachetur = “would rage.”

  Personatus … pater = “would wear the comic mask of the father.” Note the poetic hyperbaton.

  Pacto: an idiomatic use of pactum, meaning “way” or “manner.”

  57–62. This is a long period whose syntactical complexity both heightens the diction and illustrates Horace’s point about word order in his and Lucilius’s satires.

  His = neuter, dative after eripias, functioning as the antecedent to both quae nunc and quae olim.

  Tempora certa modosque = “regular rhythms and meters.”

  Verbum is modified by both prius and posterius.

  Non goes with invenias in 62.

  Ut = “as.”

  Si solvas: compare si dissolvas in 55.

  60–1. The quoted passage is from Ennius’s Annales. In addition to the elevated subject matter and the personification of Discordia and Bellum, note the pronounced use of alliteration characteristic of Ennius’s epic diction [44]: postquam … postis portasque. Lest we be completely taken in by Horace’s refusal of the name poet, we should note that poetae in the following line continues the alliterative pattern, even as prius … posterius … praeponens primis anticipates it. The boundary between the poetic and prosaic is thus more difficult to determine than the literal content of the sentence would lead one to believe. Sermo merus is a heightened, purified language and not the mere versification of the colloquial.

  62. The image of the poet ripped apart recalls Orpheus, even as the transfer of epithet involved in having disiecti modify poetae rather than membra exemplifies the poetic diction Horace disclaims. The membra of the poet are a metaphor for the verse that is pulled apart as the word order is regularized and the meter “dissolved.”

  63–5. “But this kind of genre parsing is beside the point. The real question is: are the accusations made against satire justified?” Note that satura is never used by Horace in this discussion of the genre, thus adding an extra degree of distance between his work and Lucilius’s, even as he acknowledges that he has taken up genus hoc scribendi.

  Hactenus haec = “that’s the way things are.” Horace sums up the current state of the discussion.

  Alias = the adverb, “at another time.”

  65–8. Sulcius and Caprius were the names of two professional informers (delatores). While, as Horace indicates, such men were looked down upon (contemnat) in the republic and early principate, they became a major source of terror and corruption in the imperial period.

  Libellis = “notebooks.”

  69–70. I am no delator. Ut = concessive.

  Latronum = genitive plural in apposition to Caeli Birrique. Similis takes the genitive. Caelius and Birrus are otherwise unknown.

  71–2. Nor are my books widely sold. Horace takes a fastidious pride in his own lack of popularity. It is the mark of adherence to Callimachean principles of composition, which stress labor, erudition, and brevity of composition. Lucilius, of course, was very popular and, as portrayed by Horace, very un-Callimachean [39]. See lines 6–13.

  Pila = a pillar in an arcade where booksellers hung their wares.

  Quis = quibus, dative with insudet.

  Hermogenisque Tigelli: see 1.2.3–6.

  73–4. Horace recites his poetry only to close friends, and only when forced (idque coactus). Clearly, we must not take such a statement at face value. Horace, however, is neither the aristocratic scourge of vice on the model of Lucilius, nor a lower-class informer out for a quick buck, but the practitioner of a refined and modest art for a small circle of worthy friends. Such a profession of poetic faith is at odds with his earlier claim not to be a poet at all. Horace is redefining satire as a subtle art of purified daily speech that provides delight and instruction to friends, not a force of public discipline as in the case of Lucilius nor a heroic work in the manner of epic, tragedy, and the higher forms of lyric.

  75–6. “Many recite their works in public places like the Forum or the baths.” The image of the vaulted ceilings of the baths echoing with these poets’ voices offers an elegant metaphor for empty bombast.

  76–8. Inanis and quaerentis are accusative plural.

  Num = “whether.”

  Tempore … alieno = “at the wrong time.”

  79–80. The interlocutor returns: the satirist gains a perverse (pravus) pleasure from his work.

  Studio = “with zeal.”

  79–80. Petitum = substantive participle from peto, –ere, meaning “attack.”

  80–1. Quis = aliquis “someone.”

  81–5. Beware the slanderous friend. Horace turns the standard accusation against the satirist back on his accuser.

  Rodit < rodo, –ere, rosi, rosum: “to gnaw” and hence “to eat away at” or “disparage.” The metaphor is vivid.

  Solutos = both “relaxed”—the image is of men at leisure in conversation—and “unrestrained, licentious,” i.e., not bound by the rules of decorum. The scene is the banquet described below.

  Dicacis = genitive singular of dicax: “witty.”

  Non visa = “things never witnessed.”

  Commissa tacere = “to keep secret.”

  Niger: the scholiast glosses this as maledicus, malignus, et lividus, sive obscurus et latens [“slanderous, mean-spirited, and envious or secretive and hiding”].

  Hunc tu, Romane, caveto: Kiessling and Heinze (1999) note the resemblance between the formal and archaic quality of this clause and the pronouncement of a prophecy, citing parallel passages in Vergil and Livy. Caveto = future imperative.

  86–9. The scene switches to a banquet. The Roman table was surrounded on three sides by couches (lecti) on each of which normally three diners reclined. This banquet is marked as excessive, though not unusual (saepe), by the inclusion of a fourth diner on each couch. See Gellius 13.11.12. The unus is the scurra, a hanger-on to his aristocratic host, who would amuse the party as jester and buffoon. The emphasis on number (tribus, quaternos, unus) leads the reader to believe that the scurra is the unus in excess. In the strict hierarchy of a Roman party he would normally recline in the final position (imus) on the last couch (imus), with the host. He marks the transgression of decorum that Horatian satire refuses. Implicit is a denial that Horace occupies the position of scurra in Maecenas’s household [64], a barb aimed at Horace’s relatively low social status [62–3]. Such a charge could never have been made against Lucilius.

  Aspergere = “to sprinkle,” and hence “to speak ill of indiscriminately.” The image anticipates the next line’s periphrasis for the host.

  Eum qui praebet aquam: this was the host, who offered
both hot water for washing before the meal and cool water for mixing with the wine during and after it. The host was therefore also in a position to regulate the amount of wine consumed.

  Post … potus: after the scurra has drunk, even the host (hunc) becomes the target of abuse.

  Liber = Bacchus, metonymy for wine.

  90–1. This seems witty and urbane (urbanus) to you. Note the pun between liber (“worthy of a free Roman citizen”) and Liber, a name for Bacchus, the god who makes you free with your tongue.

  Infesto nigris: infesto agrees with tibi, Horace’s interlocutor: a foe to all who slander others. Infestus = “hostile.” On nigris, see niger, line 85.

  91–100. “You chastise me because I twit Rufillus and Gargonius for their foolishness, while you bring up far more serious charges against your friend Petillius Capitolinus and then laugh them off.” See line 82 on defending absent friends. The satirist’s foe is a hypocrite. Line 92 is a direct quotation of 1.2.27.

  De Capitolini furtis … Petilli: Petillius was quaestor in 43 BCE. Coins have been found with his name on them. He was charged with theft and later acquitted despite strong evidence to the contrary.

  Iniecta < inicio, –icere, –ieci iectum, in agreement with mentio. The image is of a topic tossed in at random in casual conversation.

  Te coram = “in your presence.”

  Convictore usus amicoque = “has been my host and treated me as a friend.”

  Usus < utor, uti, usum. Utor takes the ablative.

  Pacto: see line 56.

  100–3. Nigrae … lolliginis < lolligo, lolliginis, f.: a cuttle-fish or squid. Note the repeated use of the adjective niger. Cf. 85 and 91.

  Aerugo mera = “pure copper rust.” This substance was thought to be a poison if ingested. Hence, “this is unadulterated poison.” Contrast this with Horace’s sermo merus line 48.

  Vitium = the subject of afore in indirect discourse, governed by promitto.

  103–15. If I speak freely, it is from the example of my father who was accustomed to point out examples of virtue and vice to me. Liberius should be taken in both its literal and social senses. If I speak more freely, in the manner of one who is liber, it is because of my father who is libertus. The idea on one level is perfectly transparent, but, in terms of Roman social hierarchy, it presents a paradox.

  104. Hoc mihi iuris … dabis = “you will grant me this privilege.” Iuris = partitive genitive.

  105. Insuevit < insuesco, –ere, insuevi, insuetum = “to accustom.” It can take a double accusative.

  Pater optimus: Horace consistently speaks with great affection for his father. His status as a freedman is not made clear till 1.6.45. Optimus is also a common way of referring to a member of the traditional aristocracy. Hence the political conflicts between the optimates and the populares. Horace is deliberately conflating ethical with social and political categories.

  106. Notando recalls line 5. Horace’s father was thus a kind of poor man’s Lucilius.

  107–8. The prose order would be uti parce atque frugaliter viverem contentus eo.

  Parasset = a syncopated pluperfect subjunctive, paravisset, “prepared, set aside.”

  109–10. Albius, Baius and the other people mentioned throughout this section are almost certainly fictional.

  Ut = “how.”

  Magnum documentum: understand est. The neuter refers to the general situation described in the previous sentence.

  Patriam rem = “inheritance.”

  111–14. These lines review the subject matter of 1.2. Concessa … venere = the sexual favors of readily available slaves and prostitutes, not expensive meretrices.

  115–29. Horace’s father, unlike the delator or the man who will not defend his absent friend, seeks neither material nor social benefit from his observations, but simply teaches virtue in the traditional Roman fashion. This is the homely office Horace marks as his own, even as he claims a level of refinement and exclusivity to his sermo that was not the domain of Lucilian satura. Where Lucilius’s satire served as a form of social control of and for the ruling élite, Horace’s work offers a technology of the self in the service of private virtue.

  Sapiens = the educated man or sophos in Greek. Horace’s father’s wisdom was homespun.

  Vitatu and petitu = supines.

  116. Traditum ab antiquis morem: the return to the mos maiorum was a central part of the Augustan political program.

  117–18. Tuamque modifies vitam famamque.

  120. Nabis sine cortice = “you will swim without a float,” a vivid proverbial image. Nabis = natabis.

  122. Quid = aliquid.

  Auctorem = “exemplar.”

  123. The metaphor comes from jury selection by the praetor. These would be equestrians, men of substance and good social standing but not the political class. Its wider implications should not be lost: those on whom Horace is to model his behavior are also his judges. This formulation nicely captures the duality of ethical practice in daily life. We judge ourselves by how we appear in the eyes of those we also judge.

  124. An introduces the main question: addubites.

  Factu = supine.

  Cum = “when”

  Flagret < flagro, –are: “to blaze, to suffer.”

  126. Avidos = “gluttons.”

  Funus = neuter.

  Ut = “as.”

  127. Exanimat = “to take the breath away, stun.”

  Sibi parcere = “to take care of themselves.”

  129–38. Thanks to my father’s teaching I am only afflicted by moderate vices that anyone would forgive. His habit of observation and drawing instruction from the behavior of others stays with me. These reflections form the basis of my satire. Hoc = neuter ablative referring to the whole experience.

  Illis modifies vitiis and serves as the antecedent for quaecumque.

  130. Quis = quibus.

  131. Fortassis = fortasse.

  Istinc = ab istis mediocribus vitiis.

  132–3. Largiter = “much, abundantly.”

  Longa aetas, liber amicus, consilium proprium = “long age, a frank friend, [or] my own reflection.” The suppression of the conjunction is an example of the rhetorical figure of asyndeton. What follows is Horace’s consilium proprium.

  133–4. Neque … desum mihi = “I am not unaware of my behavior.” Horace practices the kind of attention to virtue that Socrates recommends in the Apology. This “care for the self” would become an important motif in imperial philosophy.

  Lectulus = a little couch, often used for reading or study.

  Porticus = the colonnades through which one strolled. As Pseudo-Acron observes, the sense is “whether sitting or standing I am always thinking about virtue.”

  135–7. Sic dulcis amicis occurram = “Acting in this fashion I would be a pleasure to my friends.”

  Quidam = “so and so.” The subject of an understood fecit.

  Numquid anticipates a negative answer.

  Olim = “one day.”

  138. Oti = contracted form of otii < otium. This is the common form of the genitive for nouns in –ius or –ium during the republican period (before 31 BCE).

  139. Illudo = “to play around with.” The idea of poetry as a lusus can be traced to the neoteric poets and is common in Catullus.

  139–43. If you will not forgive my dabblings in verse, may the whole great troop of poets come to my aid. Note that the satire begins with poetae (line 1) and ends with poetarum (141). In the first instance, Horace denies that he is the same kind of poet as Lucilius, whom he associates with the harsh invective of Old Comedy. In the middle of the poem, he denies that he is a poet at all, but associates his work with that of New Comedy. By the end, poetry has been redefined and Horace not only includes himself among the poets (plures sumus), but also imagines them coming to his aid.

  140. Concedere = “pardon.”

  141–2. Auxilio quae sit mihi = double dative construction.

  143. Iudaei cogemus in hanc concedere turbam: this lin
e refers to the large number of Jews living in Rome at the end of the first century and their efforts to proselytize. Thus, Pseudo-Acron glosses cogemus as cogemus te poetam fieri “we shall force you to become a poet.”

  1.5

  This poem works on three levels simultaneously. First, it is an object lesson in Horace’s rewriting of satire as defined by Lucilius. It fulfils the poetic program outlined in 1.4. Where Lucilius takes the whole of his Book 3 to narrate his trip to Sicily in his typical leisurely, and unconstrained style, Horace polishes off the journey to Brundisium in a mere 104 lines. This will be Callimachean satire [39].

  Second, 1.5 forms the bridge between 1.4 and 1.6. In 1.4, Horace introduces his new satiric program and hints at the reasons why the broad Old Comic style of Lucilius was no longer practicable in Rome, and certainly not by someone of Horace’s status [65]. In 1.6, we are told the story of Horace’s introduction to Maecenas [64]. In 1.4, we find out that Horace learned to write satire from his father’s habit of pointing out models of behavior to be imitated and those to be shunned. In 1.6, we learn that the virtues Horace’s father taught earned the poet his entrance into Maecenas’s inner circle. In 1.5, Horace goes on a journey with Maecenas and his retinue to Brundisium. The purpose is only vaguely insinuated in the satire. It is in part this very discretion that earned Horace his position at Maecenas’s side. In 1.5, then, we have not Old Comic political invective, but a New Comic satire of personal foibles and comic situations.

  Third, 1.5’s political subtext reveals a fundamentally changed social and historical situation from that of Lucilius’s. This requires a new type of satire: polished and discreet. In 38 BCE, Maecenas was sent to Athens to arrange a meeting between Antony and Octavian. That meeting took place in 37 BCE in Tarentum. It successfully mended fences between the two triumvirs for the next six years. The dramatic date of the satire is either 38 BCE, when Maecenas left for Athens from Brundisium, or 37, in which case Horace’s party is supposed to have stopped at Brundisium while Maecenas continued on to Tarentum to meet with Octavian and Antony. The period between the assassination of Julius Caesar (44 BCE) and the battle of Actium (31 BCE) was one of instability and civil war. During this last great paroxysm of political bloodshed, the republic and the aristocratic order to which Lucilius and his patrons belonged disappeared.