1.5 suggests, but never describes, the brave new world of violence and political intrigue in which Horatian satire came to be. In the final analysis, this poem, with its placement between 1.4 and 1.6 reveals that the political, the stylistic, and the personal cannot be disentangled in these texts. Each of these elements—metonymically represented by Maecenas, the switch from an Old to a New Comic and Callimachean style, and Horace’s father—conditions and is conditioned by all the others. Poem 1.5, in its very anodyne recounting of a trip among friends, articulates the space in which these seemingly disparate elements come together.
1–6. Horace’s initial route directly recalls Lucilius’s. He departs from Rome and takes the via Appia south to Aricia (modern La Riccia). From there, he goes to Forum Appi (Foro Appio) where he will proceed by barge on a canal that led to the grove of Feronia. Like Lucilius, he begins with a traveling companion (comes), the Greek orator, Heliodorus. The first verse is almost a golden line. This kind of delicate attention to the aesthetics of word order are alien to the spirit of Lucilian improvisation.
Differtum < differtus, –a, –um: “crammed, stuffed, crowded,” modifies Forum.
Nautis = the boatmen who navigated the canal and the Pomptine marshes southeast of Rome.
Cauponibus < caupo, –onis: “innkeeper.”
Divisimus: they took two days to make this portion of the journey.
Altius … praecinctis = literally “those who have gird themselves more highly,” i.e., “those prepared to move more swiftly.” The phrase was sufficiently elliptical to require a gloss in the scholia.
Ac = “than.”
Minus … gravis = facilius, an example of the rhetorical figure of litotes.
7–9. Due to the bad water, Horace declares war (indico bellum) on his stomach. Note the mock epic style. Cenantis: the final syllable is long.
9–10. A lovely poetic image in the midst of a most prosaic context. It continues the mock epic tone but contains a hint of the sublime. Diffundere = “sprinkle.”
11–12. The mood is broken with a quick return to comic realism as slaves (pueri) and sailors curse each other when the travelers prepare to embark.
Nautis = dative.
Convicia < convicium: “shout, clamor, abuse, insult.”
Ingerere = historical infinitive, “heap upon.”
12–13. Examples of their exchanges. Huc appelle = “land it over here,” i.e., the barge.
Trecentos: understand homines.
Mula = the barge’s means of conveyance.
14–19. Meanwhile the noise and flies ensure the weary traveler gets no rest.
Culices < culex, culicis: “gnat.”
Ranae < rana: frog.
Prolutus < proluo, –ere, –i, –tum: “to wash” and hence “to soak.”
Vappa: here taken in its literal sense, “sour wine.” Compare 1.2.12.
Nauta atque viator certatim: the drunken boatman and the driver of the mule engage in a singing contest. This is a realistic send up of the pastoral trope of singing shepherds. Viator here = the mule driver, as Pseudo-Acron notes. Otherwise the following lines make little sense.
Pastum < pasco, –ere, pavi, pastum: “to graze,” supine of goal of motion with missae.
Retinacula = “the traces.”
Stertit < sterto, –ere: “to snore.”
20–3. The travelers awake to find the boat stopped as the mule grazes and the boatmen sleep.
Lintrem < linter, –tris: “skiff or small boat,” the subject of procedere in indirect discourse governed by sentimus.
Cerebrosus < cerebrosus, –a, –um: “hot headed.”
Saligno < salignus, –a, –um: “willow.”
Fuste < fustis, –is: “stick, cudgel.”
Dolat = “work over,” literally “to hew with an axe.”
23–6. The travelers awake, eat, and continue on to Anxur (modern Terracina) atop limestone cliffs (saxis … candentibus).
Quarta … hora: the fourth hour after sunrise.
Exponimur < expono, –ere, –posui, positum: “to put out, disembark.”
Feronia: an Italic goddess often identified with Juno whose temple was near Anxur.
Repimus < repo, –ere, repsi, reptum: “to creep or crawl.” The verb gives a vivid image of the travelers clambering up the hill on all fours. Compare Lucilius 108–11.
27–31. Only here is mention made of the political purpose of the trip. Horace treats it almost as an afterthought. He is not a part of, let alone a commentator on, the momentous events of the day. Rather, in a moment of ironic bathos, he juxtaposes the mission of Maecenas and Cocceius to reconcile Antony and Octavian (aversos … componere amicos) with his own petty ocular discomforts.
Cocceius = L. Cocceius Nerva, consul in 39 BCE. He was a mutual friend of Octavian and Antony and was sent to moderate the negotiations.
Soliti: this was not the first time. Maecenas and Cocceius had been sent on a similar mission in 40 BCE when they negotiated the treaty of Brundisium.
Collyria = “salve.”
Lippus = “having conjunctivitis.” Oliensis (1998: 26–30) suggests that Horace’s “eye trouble” may represent a willful blindness to the political stakes involved in this trip. He is the soul of discretion.
Illinere = “to smear,” historical infinitive.
31–3. While Horace attends to his eyes, the delegates for the conference gather.
Capitoque … Fonteius = C. Fonteius Capito, consul in 33 BCE, a partisan of Antony.
Ad ungem factus = literally “made for the thumbnail.” Porphyrion tells us that this colloquial expression for elegance and urbanity comes from checking the joints in marble work by running your thumbnail over them to look for gaps. Note the humorous contrast between Capito’s elegance and the blear-eyed Horace, his eyelids smeared with black salve.
Antoni non ut magis alter amicus = Antoni amicus ut non alter [sit] magis.
34–6. The delegation is greeted by the mayor of Fundi decked out in all his official finery. The understated nature of Horace’s party, which, though on a mission of great moment for the state, proceeds with the air of friends going on holiday, contrasts with the self-importance of the provincial official. Note the compressed narrative style. Linquimus pictures the party’s departure without ever having described its arrival.
Aufidio Lusco praetore = “in the praetorship of Aufidius Luscus.” The joke here is double. Praetor is an exalted title to give a small town mayor and the manner of Horace’s expression recalls the way of recording dates in Rome. Years were not numbered. Instead, a person was born or died, for example, in the consulship of Caesar and Bibulus, Caesare et Bibulo consule [56]
Libenter = “gladly.”
Insani … scribae = Aufidius. He had formerly been a scribe, like Horace. As 1.6 makes clear, however, Horace understood the limits of his status. Aufidius plays the buffoon.
Praemia = “insignia of office.”
Praetextam = toga praetexta, the toga with a purple border worn by magistrates.
Latum clavum = the broad purple stripe down the front of the tunic that was normally reserved for those of the senatorial order. Aufidius’s puffery is particularly out of place since Maecenas himself only wore the narrow stripe of the equestrian.
Prunaeque vatillum = “a small shovel of coals” for burning incense.
37–8. From there they make their way to Formiae, home of the gens Mamurrae, immortalized in Catullus’s invective against one its members, Julius Caesar’s praefectus fabrum, to whom he gave the sobriquet, Mentula.
Murena = L. Licenius Terentius Varro Murena, brother of Maecenas’s wife, Terentia.
Capitone: understand praebente.
Culinam < culina: “kitchen,” often metonymy for “food.”
39–42. They are joined by other members of Maecenas’s circle.
Plotius et Varius: M. Plotius Tucca and L. Varius Rufus were Vergil’s literary executors. Varius was an esteemed epic poet and tragedian in his own right.
Animae is in apposition to the names in the previous line. Qualis is nominative plural. “Souls such as neither has the earth brought forth, nor may any other be dearer than me to these.”
Quis = quibus, dative.
Me: ablative of comparison.
Sit: optative subjunctive.
Devinctior: comparative of devinctus, past participle of devincio, –ire, –vinxi, –vinctum: “to bind, attach.”
44. Contulerim: potential subjunctive of conferro: “to compare.” Note the implicit contrast between the personal friendships Horace values and the political amicitia between Antony and Octavia (aversos … amicos, line 29). Amicitia in this period is a much-contested term. Traditionally, it refers at least as much to political alliances based on reciprocal benefacta as to personal relationships. The poets of the previous generation had increasingly used it for ties of purely personal affection (Miller 2004: chapter 1). Horace plays on the two senses of the term in this satire as he also redefines satura along the lines outlined in 1.4.
45–6. Next they stayed at public accommodations set up for travelling officials (villula). The antecedent of quae is villula. Est should be understood.
Parochi = the officials charged with supplying the basic necessities (ligna salemque) for those traveling.
47. Capuae = locative. Capua was a mere thirteen miles from where they started the day.
Clitellas < clitellae, –arum: “a pack-saddle.”
Tempore = “in good time.”
48–9. Lusum and dormitum are both supines.
Pila = ablative of means, “with a ball.”
Crudis = “those with indigestion,” i.e., Vergil. On lippis, see line 30.
50–1. The next stop was Cocceius’s villa. Cauponas: see line 4.
Caudi = the Samnite town of Caudium.
51–4. Horace pauses for a mock epic invocation of the muse prior to recounting the contest between two lower-class scurrae (see 1.4.86–9). The passage is based on a similar scene from Lucilius’s journey to Sicily (lines 117–18). The contest is the longest episode in Satire 1.5 (lines 51–70). Sarmentus is described at some length in the scholia on Juvenal 5 and mentioned in Quintilian. He was a freedman who had become a scriba. Messius Cicirrus (Messius “the fighting cock”) is otherwise unknown. The cognomen is Oscan and may indicate he was part of the local talent. Sarmentus was with Maecenas’s party.
Paucis: assume verbis.
Quo patre natus: a parody of epic genealogies.
Contulerit litis = “joined the conflict.” On contulerit, see line 44.
54–6. The mock epic vain continues. Osci: the Oscans were seen as particularly uncouth. Clarum is ironic.
Domina = “slave mistress.”
Exstat = “still living.”
Ab his: note that the ‘h’ cannot be counted to make a double consonant and hence make the preceding vowel long by position.
56–61. Horace treats us to what passes for witty repartee at a provincial table. The humor is double. The mock epic frame is comically inappropriate and we are clearly invited to laugh at the two clowns as much as with them. Horace and Maecenas’s party remain graciously aloof from these proceedings, even as the satirist allows us to witness them. There is always a protective distance between Horace and the buffoons, one made all the more necessary by the fact that Horace, like Sarmentus, was a scriba of ultimately servile origins. Moreover, his status as a poet in the great man’s retinue would have appeared to many traditionalists little different from that of other entertainers. Horace must carve out a place for himself that is neither that of Lucilius nor that of Sarmentus. Satires 1.4, 1.5, and 1.6 dramatize the difficulty and necessity of this negotiation.
Equi … feri = “a unicorn.” See Lucilius’s rinoceros (line 118).
Messius accepts the sobriquet and plays the part, shaking his head in a threatening fashion. The joke, however, is on him since the scar (cicatrix) which gave rise to the comparison shows the Oscan to have already lost his horn (cornu … exsecto).
Cum = “since.”
Saetosam < saetosus, –a, –um: “bristly.”
62–4. Sarmentus, then, asks Messius to perform the Cyclops’s shepherd’s dance, presumably a rustic affair based on the myth of Polyphemus’s clumsy attempts to woo the sea nymph Galatea, recounted in Theocritus. We have artistic renditions of Cupid inspiring Polyphemus to song.
Campanum morbum: an unidentified disease that scarred the face.
Larva aut tragicis … cothurnis = “a mask or tragic buskins,” the traditional garb of tragic actors. They are ablatives with opus esse, an idiom expressing necessity. Messius needs no costume. The irony of comparing him to a tragic actor should not be lost. Messius’s performance is clearly comic. Indeed, this broad burlesque would most properly have been performed in the satyr plays that rounded off each tragic trilogy. It is perhaps indicative of the typical content of these plays that the sole surviving exemplar is Euripides’s Polyphemus.
65–70. Messius responds with his own raillery on Sarmentus’s servile origins. Sarmentus is asked if he had dedicated his chains (catenam) to the household gods (Laribus) of his mistress.
Multa Cicirrus: understand dixit.
Scriba … esse: understand dicebat implied by the two verbs of asking (quaerebat and rogabat) governing the surrounding clauses. Sarmentus may now be a scribe, but his mistress’s legal claim to him is no less strong (nilo deterius). Messius implies that Sarmentus was not a freed man but a runaway.
Farris < far, farris: “spelt,” a coarse grain. The implication is that the minimum slave-ration, as prescribed by the Twelve Tables, of one pound of grain a day, should have been more than enough for one of such small stature. Cato moreover—never one given to expansive generosity—recommended four to five pounds of bread a day for his field slaves, depending on the season. Sarmentus, however, can be safely assumed not to have fallen into this category, given his educational level.
Prorsus = “in this manner.”
Producimus = “we drew out,” historical present. Note how the use of the present tense not only makes the scene more vivid, but also effectively “draws it out” to the present moment of our reading.
71–4. The next day the party sets off for Beneventum (modern Benevento). There the overzealous host nearly burns the house down. In trying to make his guests “well-come,” (bene venti) he almost makes them “ill-come,” which is what the original name of the town (Maleventum) would have meant in Latin. The name, in fact, was based on the transliteration of a Greek word that had no sinister connotations, but it was later changed for obvious reasons. Horace, then, engineers a subtle pun for those in the know.
Arsit < ardeo, –ere, arsi, arsum: “to burn,” intransitive. Paene goes with arsit. The disruption of normal word order is given various interpretations, none of them persuasive. Kiessling and Heinze (1999) allege it reflects the hunger of the guests, Morris (1968) says it reveals the confusion of the host.
Turdos < turdus, –i: “thrush.”
Vulcano is metonymy for igne. Note the mock epic alliteration with vaga and veterem.
75–6. Hungry guests and panicked slaves struggle to save their dinner and put out the fire.
77–81. From here the mountains of Horace’s native Apulia come into view. The description of the rigors of climbing the hills recalls Lucilius lines 108–11.
Montis = accusative plural.
Atabulus = the Apulian term for the sirocco. As Horace approaches his home, he briefly lapses into the native patois.
Erepsemus = syncopated form of erepsissemus < erepo, –ere, erepsi: “to creep up.”
Camino < caminus, –i: “forge, fireplace.”
82–5. Horace waits for a young girl who has promised him her favors. When she does not appear, his sleep is disturbed by a wet dream. The passage is the sole description of a nocturnal emission in ancient literature, outside of a technical phil
osophical or medical context. This passage is an example of that gentle, if somewhat grotesque, self-mockery that is the trademark of Horatian satire. Horace’s little comedy is kept at a safe distance from Maecenas. By marginalizing his own misadventures, while subtly juxtaposing the small trials of private life with the unnamed anxieties of the public man, Horace carefully leaves the structures of power and their ruling ideology firmly in place.
Intentum: understand me. There is sexual pun. The literal meaning of intendo is “to stretch or extend.”
Visu < visus, –us: “sight, vision.”
86–92. Horace then continues onto a city impossible to name in verse for metrical reasons. It can be recognized by its horrible water and wonderful bread. The town, according to the scholiasts, is Aequus Tuticus, but all modern commentators note this would be a geographical impossibility and favor the region near Ausculum.
Raedis < raeda, –ae: “a four-wheeled carriage.”
Quod versu dicere non est: Porphyrion lists a parallel for this passage in Lucilius’s sixth book of satires. Understand pote.
Venit < veneo, –ivi, –itum: “is sold.” Here they sell that which everywhere else is free (vilissima).
Canusi = Canusium, a town in Apulia. Understand panis est.
Lapidosus = “gritty.”
Aquae non ditior urna: “not richer by one urn of water.” Aquae = genitive of material. Urna = ablative of degree of difference. The comparison is relative to the unnamed town in the previous lines. Note the compression and acceleration of the narrative.
93. The mock epic tone of Varius’s departure goes well with the invocation of Diomedes in the previous line.
94–5. Rubos = Rubi, the modern Ruvo.
Utpote = “since,” explaining fessi.
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