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{{Short description|Roman lyric poet (65–8 BC)}}
{{about|the Roman poet|the Egyptian god|Horus|other uses|Horace (disambiguation)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2022}}
{{Infobox writer <!-- For more information see [[:Template:Infobox Writer/doc]]. -->
| name             = Horace
| image            = File:(contorniate Médaillon Horace Rome (...)Horace (0065-0008 btv1b11343890r 1 (cropped).jpg
| image_size       = 
| alt              = 
| caption          = Bronze medallion depicting Horace, 4th–5th century
| pseudonym        = 
| birth_name       = Quintus Horatius Flaccus
| birth_date       = 8 December 65 BC
| birth_place      = [[Venosa|Venusia]], [[Italy (Roman Empire)|Italy]], [[Roman Republic]]
| death_date       = 27 November 8 BC (age 56)
| death_place      = [[Rome]]
| resting_place    = Rome
| occupation       = Soldier, [[scriba (ancient Rome)|scriba quaestorius]], poet, [[senator]]
| language         = [[Latin]]
| citizenship      = 
| education        = 
| alma_mater       = 
| period           = 
| genre            = [[Lyric poetry]]
| subject          = 
| movement         = 
| notableworks     = ''[[Odes (Horace)|Odes]]''<br />"[[Ars Poetica (Horace)|The Art of Poetry]]"
| spouse           = 
| partner          = 
| children         = 
| relatives        = 
| awards           = 
| signature        = 
| signature_alt    = 
| website          = 
| portaldisp       = 
}}

'''Quintus Horatius Flaccus''' ({{IPA|la-x-classic|ˈkʷiːntʊs (h)ɔˈraːtiʊs ˈfɫakːʊs|lang|link=yes}}; 8 December 65 BC – 27 November 8 BC),<ref name=s>[[Suetonius]], ''[https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Suetonius/de_Poetis/Horace*.html Life of Horace].</ref> commonly known in the English-speaking world as '''Horace''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|h|ɒr|ɪ|s}}), was the leading Roman [[Lyric poetry|lyric poet]] during the time of [[Augustus]] (also known as Octavian). The rhetorician [[Quintilian]] regarded his ''[[Odes (Horace)|Odes]]'' as the only Latin lyrics worth reading: "He can be lofty sometimes, yet he is also full of charm and grace, versatile in his figures, and felicitously daring in his choice of words."<ref group="nb">Quintilian 10.1.96. The only other lyrical poet Quintilian thought comparable with Horace was the now obscure poet/metrical theorist, [[Caesius Bassus]] (R. Tarrant, ''Ancient Receptions of Horace'', 280)</ref>

Horace also crafted elegant [[Prosody (Latin)|hexameter verses]] (''[[Satires (Horace)|Satires]]'' and ''[[Epistles (Horace)|Epistles]]'') and caustic [[Iambus (genre)|iambic poetry]] (''[[Epodes (Horace)|Epodes]]''). The hexameters are amusing yet serious works, friendly in tone, leading the ancient satirist [[Persius]] to comment: "as his friend laughs, Horace slyly puts his finger on his every fault; once let in, he plays about the heartstrings".<ref group="nb">Translated from Persius' own 'Satires' 1.116–17: "omne vafer vitium ridenti Flaccus amico / tangit et admissus circum praecordia ludit."</ref>

His career coincided with Rome's momentous change from a republic to an empire. An officer in the republican army defeated at the [[Battle of Philippi]] in 42 BC, he was befriended by Octavian's right-hand man in civil affairs, [[Maecenas]], and became a spokesman for the new regime. For some commentators, his association with the regime was a delicate balance in which he maintained a strong measure of independence (he was "a master of the graceful sidestep")<ref name="ReferenceA">J. Michie, ''The Odes of Horace'', 14</ref> but for others he was, in [[John Dryden]]'s phrase, "a well-mannered court slave".<ref>N. Rudd, ''The Satires of Horace and Persius'', 10</ref><ref group="nb">Quoted by [[Niall Rudd|N. Rudd]] from John Dryden's ''Discourse Concerning the Original and Progress of Satire'', excerpted from W.P.Ker's edition of Dryden's essays, Oxford 1926, vol. 2, pp. 86–87</ref>

==Life==
[[File:Horatii Flacci Sermonum.tif|thumb|''Horatii Flacci Sermonum'' (1577)]]
Horace can be regarded as the world's first autobiographer.<ref>R. Barrow R., ''The Romans'' Pelican Books, 119</ref> In his writings, he tells far more about himself, his character, his development, and his way of life, than any other great poet of antiquity. Some of the biographical material contained in his work can be supplemented from the short but valuable "Life of Horace" by [[Suetonius]] (in his ''Lives of the Poets'').<ref>Fraenkel, Eduard. ''Horace.'' Oxford: 1957, p. 1.<br />
For the Life of Horace by Suetonius, see: ([http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/6399/pg6399.html ''Vita Horati''])</ref>

===Childhood===
He was born on 8 December 65 BC<ref group="nb">The year is given in ''Odes'' 3.21.1 ([[Lucius Manlius Torquatus|"Consule Manlio"]]), the month in ''Epistles'' 1.20.27, the day in Suetonius' biography ''Vita'' (R. Nisbet, ''Horace: life and chronology'', 7)</ref> in [[Lucania]], in southern [[Italy (Roman Empire)|Italy]].<ref>''Brill's Companion to Horace'', edited by Hans-Christian Günther, Brill, 2012, p. 7, [https://books.google.com/books?id=N2b0YUwXfM8C&pg=PA7 Google Books]</ref> His home town, [[Venosa|Venusia]], lay on a trade route in the  region of [[Lucania]] at the border with [[Apulia]]. Various Italic dialects were spoken in the area and this perhaps enriched his feeling for language. He could have been familiar with Greek words even as a young boy and later he poked fun at the jargon of mixed Greek and Oscan spoken in neighbouring [[Canusium]].<ref>''Satires'' 1.10.30</ref> One of the works he probably studied in school was the ''Odyssia'' of [[Livius Andronicus]], taught by teachers like the '[[Orbilius]]' mentioned in one of his poems.<ref>''Epistles'' 2.1.69 ff.</ref> Army veterans could have been settled there at the expense of local families uprooted by Rome as punishment for their part in the [[Social War (91–88 BC)]].<ref>E. Fraenkel, ''Horace'', 2–3</ref> Such state-sponsored migration must have added still more linguistic variety to the area. According to a local tradition reported by Horace,<ref>''Satires'' 2.1.34</ref> a colony of Romans or Latins had been installed in Venusia after the [[Samnites]] had been driven out early in the third century. In that case, young Horace could have felt himself to be a Roman<ref>T. Frank, ''Catullus and Horace'', 133–34</ref><ref>A. Campbell, ''Horace: A New Interpretation'', 84</ref> though there are also indications that he regarded himself as a Samnite or [[Sabellus]] by birth.<ref>''Epistles'' 1.16.49</ref><ref>R. Nisbet, ''Horace: life and chronology'', 7</ref> Italians in modern and ancient times have always been devoted to their home towns, even after success in the wider world, and Horace was no different. Images of his childhood setting and references to it are found throughout his poems.<ref>E. Fraenkel, ''Horace'', 3–4</ref>

Horace's father was probably a Venutian taken captive by Romans in the Social War, or possibly he was descended from a [[Sabine]] captured in the [[Samnite Wars]]. Either way, he was a slave for at least part of his life. He was evidently a man of strong abilities however and managed to gain his freedom and improve his social position. Thus Horace claimed to be the free-born son of a prosperous 'coactor'.<ref name="Kiernan">V. Kiernan, ''Horace: Poetics and Politics'', 24</ref> The term 'coactor' could denote various roles, such as tax collector, but its use by Horace<ref>''Satires'' 1.6.86</ref> was explained by [[scholia]] as a reference to 'coactor argentarius' i.e. an auctioneer with some of the functions of a banker, paying the seller out of his own funds and later recovering the sum with interest from the buyer.<ref>E. Fraenkel, ''Horace'', 4–5</ref>

The father spent a small fortune on his son's education, eventually accompanying him to [[Rome]] to oversee his schooling and moral development. The poet later paid tribute to him in a poem<ref name="Satires 1.6">''Satires'' 1.6</ref> that one modern scholar considers the best memorial by any son to his father.<ref group="nb">"No son ever set a finer monument to his father than Horace did in the sixth satire of Book I...Horace's description of his father is warm-hearted but free from sentimentality or exaggeration. We see before us one of the common people, a hard-working, open-minded, and thoroughly honest man of simple habits and strict convictions, representing some of the best qualities that at the end of the Republic could still be found in the unsophisticated society of the Italian ''municipia''"&nbsp;{{emdash}}&nbsp;E. Fraenkel, ''Horace'', 5–6</ref> The poem includes this passage:

<blockquote>
If my character is flawed by a few minor faults, but is otherwise decent and moral, if you can point out only a few scattered blemishes on an otherwise immaculate surface, if no one can accuse me of greed, or of prurience, or of profligacy, if I live a virtuous life, free of defilement (pardon, for a moment, my self-praise), and if I am to my friends a good friend, my father deserves all the credit... As it is now, he deserves from me unstinting gratitude and praise. I could never be ashamed of such a father, nor do I feel any need, as many people do, to apologize for being a freedman's son. ''Satires 1.6.65–92''
</blockquote>

He never mentioned his mother in his verses and he might not have known much about her. Perhaps she also had been a slave.<ref name="Kiernan"/>

===Adulthood===

Horace left Rome, possibly after his father's death, and continued his formal education in Athens, a great centre of learning in the ancient world, where he arrived at nineteen years of age, enrolling in [[Platonic Academy|The Academy]]. Founded by [[Plato]], The Academy was now dominated by [[Epicureans]] and [[Stoics]], whose theories and practices made a deep impression on the young man from Venusia.<ref>V. Kiernan, ''Horace: Poetics and Politics'', 25</ref> Meanwhile, he mixed and lounged about with the elite of Roman youth, such as Marcus, the idle son of [[Cicero]], and the Pompeius to whom he later addressed a poem.<ref>''Odes'' 2.7</ref> It was in Athens too that he probably acquired deep familiarity with the ancient tradition of Greek lyric poetry, at that time largely the preserve of grammarians and academic specialists (access to such material was easier in Athens than in Rome, where the public libraries had yet to be built by [[Asinius Pollio]] and Augustus).<ref>E. Fraenkel, ''Horace'', 8–9</ref>

Rome's troubles following the assassination of [[Julius Caesar]] were soon to catch up with him. [[Marcus Junius Brutus]] came to Athens seeking support for the republican cause. Brutus was fêted around town in grand receptions and he made a point of attending academic lectures, all the while recruiting supporters among the young men studying there, including Horace.<ref>E. Fraenkel, ''Horace'', 9–10</ref> An educated young Roman could begin military service high in the ranks and Horace was made [[tribunus militum]] (one of six senior officers of a typical legion), a post usually reserved for men of senatorial or equestrian rank and which seems to have inspired jealousy among his well-born confederates.<ref>''Satires'' 1.6.48</ref><ref name="Nisbet">R. Nisbet, ''Horace: life and chronology'', 8</ref> He learned the basics of military life while on the march, particularly in the wilds of northern Greece, whose rugged scenery became a backdrop to some of his later poems.<ref>V. Kiernan, ''Horace'', 25</ref> It was there in 42 BC that [[Octavian]] (later [[Augustus]]) and his associate [[Mark Antony]] crushed the republican forces at the [[Battle of Philippi]]. Horace later recorded it as a day of embarrassment for himself, when he fled without his shield,<ref>''Odes'' 2.7.10</ref> but allowance should be made for his self-deprecating humour. Moreover, the incident allowed him to identify himself with some famous poets who had long ago abandoned their shields in battle, notably his heroes [[Alcaeus of Mytilene|Alcaeus]] and [[Archilochus]]. The comparison with the latter poet is uncanny: Archilochus lost his shield in a part of Thrace near Philippi, and he was deeply involved in the Greek colonization of [[Thasos]], where Horace's die-hard comrades finally surrendered.<ref name="Nisbet"/>

Octavian offered an early amnesty to his opponents and Horace quickly accepted it. On returning to Italy, he was confronted with yet another loss: his father's estate in Venusia was one of many throughout Italy to be confiscated for the settlement of veterans ([[Virgil]] lost his estate in the north about the same time). Horace later claimed that he was reduced to poverty and this led him to try his hand at poetry.<ref>''Epistles'' 2.2.51–52</ref> In reality, there was no money to be had from versifying. At best, it offered future prospects through contacts with other poets and their patrons among the rich.<ref>V. Kiernan, ''Horace: Poetics and politics''</ref> Meanwhile, he obtained the sinecure of ''scriba quaestorius'', a civil service position at the ''aerarium'' or Treasury, profitable enough to be purchased even by members of the ''ordo equester'' and not very demanding in its work-load, since tasks could be delegated to ''scribae'' or permanent clerks.<ref>E. Fraenkel, ''Horace'', 14–15</ref> It was about this time that he began writing his ''Satires'' and ''Epodes''.

He describes<ref>''Epistles'' 1.16.5-16 </ref> in glowing terms the country villa which his patron, Maecenas, had given him in a letter to his friend Quinctius:

{{Quotation|"It lies on a range of hills, broken by a shady valley which is so placed that the sun when rising strikes the right side, and when descending in his flying chariot, warms the left. You would like the climate; and if you were to see my fruit trees, bearing ruddy cornils and plums, my oaks and ilex supplying food to my herds, and abundant shade to the master, you would say, [[Taranto|Tarentum]] in its beauty has been brought near to Rome!

There is a fountain too, large enough to give a name to the river which it feeds; and the [[Maritsa|Hebrus]] itself does not flow through Thrace with cooler or purer stream. Its waters also are good for the head and useful for digestion. This sweet, and, if you will believe me, charming retreat keeps me in good health during the autumnal days."}}

The remains of [[Horace's Villa]] are situated on a wooded hillside above the river at [[Licenza]], which joins the Aniene as it flows on to Tivoli.

====Poet====
[[File:Fedor Bronnikov 014.jpg|thumb|Horace reads his poems in front of [[Gaius Maecenas|Maecenas]], by [[Fyodor Bronnikov]]]]
[[File:Adalbert_von_Rössler_Horaz.jpg|thumb|Horace reciting his verses, by [[Adalbert von Rössler]].]]

The ''Epodes'' belong to [[iambic poetry]]. Iambic poetry features insulting and obscene language;<ref>Christopher Brown, in ''A Companion to the Greek Lyric Poets'', D.E. Gerber (ed), Leiden 1997, pages 13–88</ref><ref>Douglas E. Gerber, ''Greek Iambic Poetry'', Loeb Classical Library (1999), Introduction pages i–iv</ref> sometimes, it is referred to as ''blame poetry''.<ref>D. Mankin, ''Horace: Epodes'', C.U.P., 8</ref> ''Blame poetry'', or ''shame poetry'', is poetry written to blame and shame fellow citizens into a sense of their social obligations. The poems typically feature an archetypal character Horace wishes to shame, or teach a lesson to. Horace modeled these poems on the poetry of [[Archilochus]]. Social bonds in Rome had been decaying since the destruction of [[Carthage]] a little more than a hundred years earlier, due to the vast wealth that could be gained by plunder and corruption.<ref>D. Mankin, ''Horace: Epodes'', 6</ref> These social ills were magnified by rivalry between Julius Caesar, Mark Antony and confederates like [[Sextus Pompey]], all jockeying for a bigger share of the spoils. One modern scholar has counted a dozen civil wars in the hundred years leading up to 31 BC, including the [[Third Servile War]] under [[Spartacus]], eight years before Horace's birth.<ref>R. Conway, ''New Studies of a Great Inheritance'', 49–50</ref> As the heirs to Hellenistic culture, Horace and his fellow Romans were not well prepared to deal with these problems:

{{Quotation|At bottom, all the problems that the times were stirring up were of a social nature, which the Hellenistic thinkers were ill qualified to grapple with. Some of them censured oppression of the poor by the rich, but they gave no practical lead, though they may have hoped to see well-meaning rulers doing so. Philosophy was drifting into absorption in self, a quest for private contentedness, to be achieved by self-control and restraint, without much regard for the fate of a disintegrating community.|[[V. G. Kiernan]]<ref>V. Kiernan, ''Horace: Poetics and Politics'', 18–19</ref>}}

Horace's Hellenistic background is clear in his Satires, even though the genre was unique to Latin literature. He brought to it a style and outlook suited to the social and ethical issues confronting Rome but he changed its role from public, social engagement to private meditation.<ref>F. Muecke, ''The Satires'', 109–10</ref> Meanwhile, he was beginning to interest Octavian's supporters, a gradual process described by him in one of his satires.<ref name="Satires 1.6"/> The way was opened for him by his friend, the poet Virgil, who had gained admission into the privileged circle around Maecenas, Octavian's lieutenant, following the success of his ''[[Eclogues]]''. An introduction soon followed and, after a discreet interval, Horace too was accepted. He depicted the process as an honourable one, based on merit and mutual respect, eventually leading to true friendship, and there is reason to believe that his relationship was genuinely friendly, not just with Maecenas but afterwards with Augustus as well.<ref>R. Lyne, ''Augustan Poetry and Society'', 599</ref> On the other hand, the poet has been unsympathetically described by one scholar as "a sharp and rising young man, with an eye to the main chance."<ref>J. Griffin, ''Horace in the Thirties'', 6</ref> There were advantages on both sides: Horace gained encouragement and material support, the politicians gained a hold on a potential dissident.<ref name="ReferenceB">R. Nisbet, ''Horace: life and chronology'', 10</ref> His republican sympathies, and his role at Philippi, may have caused him some pangs of remorse over his new status. However, most Romans considered the civil wars to be the result of ''contentio dignitatis'', or rivalry between the foremost families of the city, and he too seems to have accepted the principate as Rome's last hope for much needed peace.<ref>D. Mankin, ''Horace: Epodes'', 5</ref>

In 37 BC, Horace accompanied Maecenas on a journey to [[Brundisium]], described in one of his poems<ref>''Satires'' 1.5</ref> as a series of amusing incidents and charming encounters with other friends along the way, such as Virgil. In fact the journey was political in its motivation, with Maecenas en route to negotiate the [[Treaty of Tarentum]] with Antony, a fact Horace artfully keeps from the reader (political issues are largely avoided in the first book of satires).<ref name="ReferenceB"/> Horace was probably also with Maecenas on one of Octavian's naval expeditions against the piratical Sextus Pompeius, which ended in a disastrous storm off [[Palinurus]] in 36 BC, briefly alluded to by Horace in terms of near-drowning.<ref>''Odes'' 3.4.28</ref><ref group="nb">''Odes'' 3.4.28: "nec (me extinxit) Sicula Palinurus unda"; "nor did Palinurus extinguish me with Sicilian waters". Maecenas' involvement is recorded by [[Appian]] ''Bell. Civ.'' 5.99 but Horace's ode is the only historical reference to his own presence there, depending however on interpretation. (R. Nisbet, ''Horace: life and chronology'', 10)</ref> There are also some indications in his verses that he was with Maecenas at the [[Battle of Actium]] in 31 BC, where Octavian defeated his great rival, Antony.<ref>''Epodes'' 1 and 9</ref><ref group="nb">The point is much disputed among scholars and hinges on how the text is interpreted. ''Epodes'' 9 for example may offer proof of Horace's presence if 'ad hunc frementis' ('gnashing at this' man i.e. the traitrous Roman ) is a misreading of 'at huc...verterent' (but hither...they fled) in lines describing the defection of the Galatian cavalry, "ad hunc frementis verterunt bis mille equos / Galli canentes Caesarem" (R. Nisbet, ''Horace: life and chronology'', 12).</ref> By then Horace had already received from Maecenas the famous gift of his [[Horace's Villa|Sabine farm]], probably not long after the publication of the first book of ''Satires''. The gift, which included income from five tenants, may have ended his career at the Treasury, or at least allowed him to give it less time and energy.<ref>E. Fraenkel, ''Horace'', 15</ref> It signalled his identification with the Octavian regime yet, in the second book of ''Satires'' that soon followed, he continued the apolitical stance of the first book. By this time, he had attained the status of ''[[Equites|eques Romanus]]'' (Roman 'cavalryman', 'knight'),<ref>''Satires'' 2.7.53</ref> perhaps as a result of his work at the Treasury.<ref>R. Nisbet, ''Horace: life and chronology'', 11</ref>

====Knight====

''Odes'' 1–3 were the next focus for his artistic creativity. He adapted their forms and themes from Greek lyric poetry of the seventh and sixth centuries BC. The fragmented nature of the [[Greek world]] had enabled his literary heroes to express themselves freely and his semi-retirement from the Treasury in Rome to [[Horace's Villa|his own estate]] in the Sabine hills perhaps empowered him to some extent also<ref>V. Kiernan, ''Horace: Poetics and Politics'', 61–62</ref> yet even when his lyrics touched on public affairs they reinforced the importance of private life.<ref name="ReferenceA"/> Nevertheless, his work in the period 30–27 BC began to show his closeness to the regime and his sensitivity to its developing ideology. In ''Odes'' 1.2, for example, he eulogized Octavian in hyperboles that echo Hellenistic court poetry. The name ''Augustus'', which Octavian assumed in January of 27 BC, is first attested in ''Odes'' 3.3 and 3.5. In the period 27–24 BC, political allusions in the ''Odes'' concentrated on foreign wars in Britain (1.35), Arabia (1.29) Hispania (3.8) and Parthia (2.2). He greeted Augustus on his return to Rome in 24 BC as a beloved ruler upon whose good health he depended for his own happiness (3.14).<ref>R. Nisbet, ''Horace: life and chronology'', 13</ref>

The public reception of ''Odes'' 1–3 disappointed him, however. He attributed the lack of success to jealousy among imperial courtiers and to his isolation from literary cliques.<ref>''Epistles'' 1.19.35–44</ref> Perhaps it was disappointment that led him to put aside the genre in favour of verse letters. He addressed his first book of ''Epistles'' to a variety of friends and acquaintances in an urbane style reflecting his new social status as a knight. In the opening poem, he professed a deeper interest in moral philosophy than poetry<ref>''Epistles'' 1.1.10</ref> but, though the collection demonstrates a leaning towards stoic theory, it reveals no sustained thinking about ethics.<ref>V. Kiernan, ''Horace: Poetics and Politics'', 149, 153</ref> Maecenas was still the dominant confidante but Horace had now begun to assert his own independence, suavely declining constant invitations to attend his patron.<ref>''Epistles'' 1.7</ref> In the final poem of the first book of ''Epistles'', he revealed himself to be forty-four years old in the consulship of Lollius and Lepidus i.e. 21 BC, and "of small stature, fond of the sun, prematurely grey, quick-tempered but easily placated".<ref>''Epistles'' 1.20.24–25</ref><ref>R. Nisbet, ''Horace: life and chronology'', 14–15</ref>

According to Suetonius, the second book of ''Epistles'' was prompted by Augustus, who desired a verse epistle to be addressed to himself. Augustus was in fact a prolific letter-writer and he once asked Horace to be his personal secretary. Horace refused the secretarial role but complied with the emperor's request for a verse letter.<ref>E. Fraenkel, ''Horace'', 17–18</ref> The letter to Augustus may have been slow in coming, being published possibly as late as 11 BC. It celebrated, among other things, the 15 BC military victories of his stepsons, Drusus and Tiberius, yet it and the following letter<ref>''Epistles'' 2.2</ref> were largely devoted to literary theory and criticism. The literary theme was explored still further in ''Ars Poetica'', published separately but written in the form of an epistle and sometimes referred to as ''Epistles'' 2.3 (possibly the last poem he ever wrote).<ref>R. Ferri, ''The Epistles'', 121</ref> He was also commissioned to write odes commemorating the victories of Drusus and Tiberius<ref>''Odes'' 4.4 and 4.14</ref> and one to be sung in a temple of Apollo for the [[Secular Games]], a long-abandoned festival that Augustus revived in accordance with his policy of recreating ancient customs (''Carmen Saeculare'').

Suetonius recorded some gossip about Horace's sexual activities late in life, claiming that the walls of his bedchamber were covered with obscene pictures and mirrors, so that he saw erotica wherever he looked.<ref group="nb">Suetonius signals that the report is based on rumours by employing the terms "traditur...dicitur" / "it is reported...it is said"  (E. Fraenkel, ''Horace'', 21)</ref> The poet died at 56 years of age, not long after his friend Maecenas, near whose tomb he was laid to rest. Both men bequeathed their property to Augustus, an honour that the emperor expected of his friends.<ref>E. Fraenkel, ''Horace'', 23</ref>

==Works==
The dating of Horace's works is only approximately known, and scholars often debate the precise order in which they were first "published". There are persuasive arguments for the following chronology:<ref>R Nisbet, ''Horace: life and chronology'', 17–21</ref>
* ''[[Satires (Horace)|Satires 1]]'' (c. 35–34 BC)<ref group="nb">36–35 BC according to Gowers (2012) 4 (note 22), citing DuQuesnay (1984) 20–21</ref>
* ''[[Satires (Horace)|Satires 2]]'' (c. 30 BC)
* ''[[Epodes (Horace)|Epodes]]'' (30 BC)
* ''[[Odes (Horace)|Odes 1–3]]'' (c. 23 BC)<ref group="nb">According to a recent theory, the three books of ''Odes'' were issued separately, possibly in 26, 24 and 23 BC (see G. Hutchinson (2002), ''Classical Quarterly'' 52: 517–37)</ref>
* ''[[Epistles (Horace)|Epistles 1]]'' (c. 21 BC)
* ''[[Carmen Saeculare]]'' (17 BC)
* ''[[Epistles (Horace)|Epistles 2]]'' (c. 11 BC)<ref group="nb">19 BC is the usual estimate but c. 11 BC has good support too (see R. Nisbet, ''Horace: life and chronology'', 18–20</ref><ref group="nb">14 BC, according to Gowers (2012) 3</ref>
* ''[[Odes (Horace)|Odes 4]]'' (c. 11 BC)<ref group="nb">13 BC, according to Gowers (2012) 3</ref>
* ''[[Ars Poetica (Horace)|Ars Poetica]]'' (c. 10–8 BC)<ref group="nb">The date however is subject to much controversy with 22–18 BC another option (see for example R. Syme, ''The Augustan Aristocracy'', 379–81</ref>

===Historical context===
Horace composed in traditional [[Meter (poetry)|metres]] borrowed from [[archaic Greece]], employing [[hexameter]]s in his ''Satires'' and ''Epistles'', and [[iamb (poetry)|iambs]] in his ''Epodes'', all of which were relatively easy to adapt into [[Prosody (Latin)|Latin forms]]. His ''Odes'' featured more complex measures, including [[Alcaic verse|alcaics]] and [[Sapphic stanza|sapphics]], which were sometimes a difficult fit for Latin structure and [[syntax]]. Despite these traditional metres, he presented himself as a partisan in the development of a new and sophisticated style. He was influenced in particular by [[Hellenistic poetry|Hellenistic]] aesthetics of brevity, elegance and polish, as modelled in the work of [[Callimachus]].<ref>S. Harrison, ''Style and poetic texture'', 262</ref>
{{Quotation|As soon as Horace, stirred by his own genius and encouraged by the example of Virgil, Varius, and perhaps some other poets of the same generation, had determined to make his fame as a poet, being by temperament a fighter, he wanted to fight against all kinds of prejudice, amateurish slovenliness, philistinism, reactionary tendencies, in short to fight for the new and noble type of poetry which he and his friends were endeavouring to bring about.|[[Eduard Fraenkel]]<ref>E. Fraenkel, ''Horace'', 124–25</ref>}}

In modern literary theory, a distinction is often made between immediate personal experience (''Urerlebnis'') and experience mediated by cultural vectors such as literature, philosophy, and the visual arts (''Bildungserlebnis'').<ref>{{cite book|last1=Gundolf|first1=Friedrich|title=Goethe|date=1916|publisher=Bondi|location=Berlin, Germany}}</ref> The distinction has little relevance for Horace,{{citation needed|date=August 2014}} however, since his personal and literary experiences are implicated in each other. ''Satires'' 1.5, for example, recounts in detail a real trip Horace made with Virgil and some of his other literary friends, and which parallels a Satire by [[Gaius Lucilius|Lucilius]], his predecessor.<ref>E. Fraenkel, ''Horace'', 106–07</ref> Unlike much Hellenistic-inspired literature, however, his poetry was not composed for a small coterie of admirers and fellow poets, nor does it rely on abstruse allusions for many of its effects. Though elitist in its literary standards, it was written for a wide audience, as a public form of art.<ref>E. Fraenkel, ''Horace'', 74</ref> Ambivalence also characterizes his literary persona, since his presentation of himself as part of a small community of philosophically aware people, seeking true peace of mind while shunning vices such as greed, was well adapted to Augustus's plans to reform public morality, corrupted by greed—his personal plea for moderation was part of the emperor's grand message to the nation.<ref>E. Fraenkel, ''Horace'', 95–96</ref>

Horace generally followed the examples of poets established as classics in different genres, such as [[Archilochus]] in the ''Epodes'', Lucilius in the ''Satires'', and [[Alcaeus of Mytilene|Alcaeus]] in the ''Odes'', later broadening his scope for the sake of variation and because his models weren't actually suited to the realities confronting him. Archilochus and Alcaeus were aristocratic Greeks whose poetry had a social and religious function that was immediately intelligible to their audiences, but which became a mere artifice or literary motif when transposed to Rome. However, the artifice of the ''Odes'' is also integral to their success, since they could now accommodate a wide range of emotional effects, and the blend of Greek and Roman elements adds a sense of detachment and universality.<ref>J. Griffin, ''Gods and Religion'', 182</ref> Horace proudly claimed to introduce into Latin the spirit and iambic poetry of Archilochus, but (unlike Archilochus) without persecuting anyone (''Epistles'' 1.19.23–25). It was no idle boast. His ''Epodes'' were modelled on the verses of the Greek poet, as 'blame poetry', yet he avoided targeting real [[scapegoat]]s. Whereas Archilochus presented himself as a serious and vigorous opponent of wrong-doers, Horace aimed for comic effects and adopted the persona of a weak and ineffectual critic of his times (as symbolized, for example, in his surrender to the witch Canidia in the final epode).<ref>S. Harrison, ''Lyric and Iambic'', 192</ref> He also claimed to be the first poet to introduce into Latin the lyrical methods of Alcaeus (''Epistles'' 1.19.32–33), and he was actually the first Latin poet to make consistent use of Alcaic meters and themes: love, politics, and the [[symposium]]. He imitated other Greek lyric poets as well, employing a 'motto' technique, beginning each ode with some reference to a Greek original and then diverging from it.<ref>S. Harrison, ''Lyric and Iambic'', 194–96</ref>

The satirical poet Lucilius was a senator's son who could castigate his peers with impunity. Horace was merely a freedman's son who needed to tread carefully.<ref name="E. Fraenkel, Horace, 32, 80">E. Fraenkel, ''Horace'', 32, 80</ref> Lucilius was a rugged patriot and a significant voice in Roman self-awareness, endearing himself to his countrymen through his blunt frankness and explicit politics. His work expressed genuine freedom or [[libertas|''libertas'']]. His style included  'metrical vandalism'  and looseness of structure. Horace instead adopted an oblique and ironic style of satire, ridiculing stock characters and anonymous targets. His ''libertas'' was the private freedom of a philosophical outlook, not a political or social privilege.<ref>L. Morgan, ''Satire'', 177–78</ref> His ''Satires'' are relatively easy-going in their use of meter (relative to the tight lyric meters of the ''Odes''),<ref>S. Harrison, ''Style and poetic texture'', 271</ref> but formal and highly controlled relative to the poems of Lucilius, whom Horace mocked for his sloppy standards (''Satires'' 1.10.56–61)<ref group="nb">"[Lucilius]...resembles a man whose only concern is to force / something into the framework of six feet, and who gaily produces / two hundred lines before dinner and another two hundred after."{{spaced ndash}}''Satire'' 1.10.59–61 (translated by [[Niall Rudd]], ''The Satires of Horace and Persius'', Penguin Classics 1973, p. 69)</ref>

The ''Epistles'' may be considered among Horace's most innovative works. There was nothing like it in Greek or Roman literature. Occasionally poems had borne some resemblance to letters, including an elegiac poem from [[Solon]] to [[Mimnermus]], and some lyrical poems from [[Pindar]] to [[Hieron of Syracuse]]. Lucilius had composed a satire in the form of a letter, and some epistolary poems were composed by [[Catullus]] and [[Propertius]]. But nobody before Horace had composed an entire collection of verse letters,<ref>R. Ferri, ''The Epistles'', pp. 121–22</ref> let alone letters with a focus on philosophical problems. The sophisticated and flexible style that he had developed in his ''Satires'' was adapted to the more serious needs of this new genre.<ref>E. Fraenkel, ''Horace'', p. 309</ref> Such refinement of style was not unusual for Horace. His craftsmanship as a wordsmith is apparent even in his earliest attempts at various kinds of poetry, but his handling of each genre tended to improve over time, as he adapted it to his own needs.<ref name="E. Fraenkel, Horace, 32, 80"/> Thus, for example, it is generally agreed that his second book of ''Satires'', where human folly is revealed through dialogue between characters, is superior to the first, where he propounds his ethics in monologues. Nevertheless, the first book includes some of his most popular poems.<ref>V. Kiernan, ''Horace: Poetics and Politics'', 28</ref>

===Themes===
Horace developed a number of inter-related themes throughout his poetic career, including politics, love, philosophy and ethics, his own social role, and poetry itself. His ''Epodes'' and ''Satires'' are forms of "blame poetry", and both have a natural affinity with the moralising and diatribes of [[Cynicism (philosophy)|Cynicism]]. This affinity often takes the form of allusions to the work and philosophy of [[Bion of Borysthenes]],<ref group="nb">There is one reference to Bion by name in ''Epistles'' 2.2.60, and the clearest allusion to him is in ''Satire'' 1.6, which parallels Bion fragments 1, 2, 16 ''Kindstrand''</ref> but it is as much a literary game as a philosophical alignment.

By the time he composed his ''Epistles'', Horace was a critic of [[Cynicism (philosophy)|Cynicism]] along with all impractical and "high-falutin" philosophy in general.<ref group="nb">''Epistles'' 1.17 and 1.18.6–8 are critical of the extreme views of [[Diogenes]] and also of social adaptations of Cynic precepts, and yet ''Epistle'' 1.2 could be either Cynic or Stoic in its orientation (J. Moles, ''Philosophy and ethics'', p. 177</ref><ref>J. Moles, ''Philosophy and ethics'', pp. 165–69, 177</ref>

The ''Satires'' also include a strong element of [[Epicureanism]], with frequent allusions to the Epicurean poet [[Lucretius]].<ref group="nb">''Satires'' 1.1.25–26, 74–75, 1.2.111–12, 1.3.76–77, 97–114, 1.5.44, 101–03, 1.6.128–31, 2.2.14–20, 25, 2.6.93–97</ref> So, for example, the Epicurean sentiment ''[[carpe diem]]'' is the inspiration behind Horace's repeated punning on his own name (''Horatius ~ hora'') in ''Satires'' 2.6.<ref>K. J. Reckford, ''Some studies in Horace's odes on love''</ref> The ''Satires'' also feature some [[Stoicism|Stoic]], [[Peripatetic school|Peripatetic]] and [[Platonic Dialogues|Platonic]] (''Dialogues'') elements. In short, the ''Satires'' present a medley of philosophical programmes, dished up in no particular order—a style of argument typical of the [[Satires (Horace)|genre]].<ref>J. Moles, ''Philosophy and ethics'', p. 168</ref>

The ''Odes'' display a wide range of topics. Over time, Horace becomes more confident about his political voice.<ref>Santirocco "Unity and Design", Lowrie "Horace's Narrative Odes"</ref> Although he is often thought of as an overly intellectual lover, he is ingenious in representing passion.<ref>Ancona, "Time and the Erotic"</ref> The ''Odes'' weave various philosophical strands together, with allusions and statements of doctrine present in about a third of the ''Odes'' Books 1–3, ranging from the flippant (1.22, 3.28) to the solemn (2.10, 3.2, 3.3). [[Epicureanism]] is the dominant influence, characterising about twice as many of these odes as Stoicism.

A group of odes combines these two influences in tense relationships, such as ''Odes'' 1.7, praising Stoic virility and devotion to public duty, while also advocating private pleasures among friends. While generally favouring the Epicurean lifestyle, the lyric poet is as eclectic as the satiric poet, and in ''Odes'' 2.10 he even proposes Aristotle's [[golden mean (philosophy)|golden mean]] as a remedy for Rome's political troubles.<ref>J. Moles, ''Philosophy and ethics'', pp. 171–73</ref>

Many of Horace's poems also contain substantial reflection on genre, the lyric tradition, and the function of poetry.<ref>Davis "Polyhymnia" and Lowrie "Horace's Narrative Odes"</ref> ''Odes'' 4, thought to be composed at the emperor's request, takes the themes of the first three books of ''Odes'' to a new level. This book shows greater poetic confidence after the public performance of his "''Carmen saeculare''" (or "Century hymn") at a public festival orchestrated by Augustus. In the book, Horace addresses the emperor Augustus directly with more confidence and proclaims his power to grant poetic immortality to those he praises. It is the least philosophical collection of his verses, excepting the twelfth ode, addressed to the dead Virgil as if he were living. In that ode, the epic poet and the lyric poet are aligned with [[Stoicism]] and [[Epicureanism]] respectively, in a mood of bittersweet pathos.<ref>J. Moles, ''Philosophy and ethics'', p. 179</ref>

The first poem of the ''Epistles'' sets the philosophical tone for the rest of the collection: "So now I put aside both verses and all those other games: What is true and what befits is my care, this my question, this my whole concern." Horace's poetic renunciation of poetry in favour of philosophy is intended to be ambiguous. Ambiguity is the hallmark of the ''Epistles''. It is uncertain if those being addressed by the self-mocking poet-philosopher are being honoured or criticised. Though he emerges as an [[Epicureanism|Epicurean]], it is on the understanding that philosophical preferences, like political and social choices, are a matter of personal taste. Thus he depicts the ups and downs of the philosophical life more realistically than do most philosophers.<ref>J. Moles, ''Philosophy and ethics'', pp. 174–80</ref>

==Reception==
[[File:Quinto Orazio Flacco.jpg|thumb|Horace, portrayed by [[Giacomo Di Chirico]]]]

The reception of Horace's work has varied from one epoch to another and varied markedly even in his own lifetime. ''Odes'' 1–3 were not well received when first 'published' in Rome, yet Augustus later commissioned a ceremonial ode for the Centennial Games in 17 BC and also encouraged the publication of ''Odes'' 4, after which Horace's reputation as Rome's premier lyricist was assured. His Odes were to become the best received of all his poems in ancient times, acquiring a classic status that discouraged imitation: no other poet produced a comparable body of lyrics in the four centuries that followed<ref>R. Tarrant, ''Ancient receptions of Horace'', 279</ref> (though that might also be attributed to social causes, particularly the parasitism that Italy was sinking into).<ref>V. Kiernan, ''Horace: Poetics and Politics'', 176</ref> In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, ode-writing became highly fashionable in England and a large number of aspiring poets imitated Horace both in English and in Latin.<ref>D. Money, ''The seventeenth and eighteenth centuries'', 326, 332</ref>

In a verse epistle to Augustus (Epistle 2.1), in 12 BC, Horace argued for classic status to be awarded to contemporary poets, including Virgil and apparently himself.<ref>R. Lyme, ''Augustan Poetry and Society'', 603</ref> In the final poem of his third book of Odes he claimed to have created for himself a monument more durable than bronze ("Exegi monumentum aere perennius", ''[[Carmina]]'' 3.30.1). For one modern scholar, however, Horace's personal qualities are more notable than the monumental quality of his achievement:
{{blockquote|... when we hear his name we don't really think of a monument. We think rather of a voice which varies in tone and resonance but is always recognizable, and which by its unsentimental humanity evokes a very special blend of liking and respect.|[[Niall Rudd]]<ref>[[Niall Rudd]], ''The Satires of Horace and Persius'', 14</ref>}}

Yet for men like [[Wilfred Owen]], scarred by experiences of World War I, his poetry stood for discredited values:

{{poemquote|
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The Old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.<ref group="nb">Wilfred Owen, ''[[Dulce et decorum est]]'' (1917), echoes a line from ''Carmina'' 3.2.13, "it is sweet and honourable to die for one's country", cited by Stephen Harrison, ''The nineteenth and twentieth centuries'', 340.</ref>
}}

The same motto, ''[[Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori]]'', had been adapted to the ethos of martyrdom in the lyrics of early Christian poets like [[Prudentius]].<ref>R. Tarrant, ''Ancient receptions of Horace'', 282–83</ref>

These preliminary comments touch on a small sample of developments in the reception of Horace's work. More developments are covered epoch by epoch in the following sections.

===Antiquity===
Horace's influence can be observed in the work of his near contemporaries, [[Ovid]] and [[Propertius]]. Ovid followed his example in creating a completely natural style of expression in hexameter verse, and Propertius cheekily mimicked him in his third book of elegies.<ref group="nb">Propertius published his third book of elegies within a year or two of Horace's Odes 1–3 and mimicked him, for example, in the opening lines, characterizing himself in terms borrowed from Odes 3.1.13 and 3.30.13–14, as a priest of the Muses and as an adaptor of Greek forms of poetry (R. Tarrant, ''Ancient receptions of Horace'', 227)</ref> His ''Epistles'' provided them both with a model for their own verse letters and it also shaped Ovid's exile poetry.<ref group="nb">Ovid for example probably borrowed from Horace's ''Epistle'' 1.20 the image of a poetry book as a slave boy eager to leave home, adapting it to the opening poems of ''Tristia'' 1 and 3 (R. Tarrant, ''Ancient receptions of Horace''), and ''Tristia'' 2 May be understood as a counterpart to Horace's ''Epistles'' 2.1, both being letters addressed to Augustus on literary themes (A. Barchiesi, ''Speaking Volumes'', 79–103)</ref>

His influence had a perverse aspect. As mentioned before, the brilliance of his ''Odes'' may have discouraged imitation. Conversely, they may have created a vogue for the lyrics of the archaic Greek poet [[Pindar]], due to the fact that Horace had neglected that style of lyric (see [[Pindar#Influence and legacy|Influence and Legacy of Pindar]]).<ref>R. Tarrant, Ancient receptions of Horace, 280</ref> The iambic genre seems almost to have disappeared after publication of Horace's ''Epodes''. Ovid's ''Ibis'' was a rare attempt at the form but it was inspired mainly by [[Callimachus]], and there are some iambic elements in [[Martial]] but the main influence there was [[Catullus]].<ref>R. Tarrant, ''Ancient receptions of Horace'', 278</ref> A revival of popular interest in the satires of Lucilius may have been inspired by Horace's criticism of his unpolished style. Both Horace and Lucilius were considered good role-models by [[Persius]], who critiqued his own satires as lacking both the acerbity of Lucillius and the gentler touch of Horace.<ref group="nb">The comment is in Persius 1.114–18, yet that same satire has been found to have nearly 80 reminiscences of Horace; see D. Hooley, ''The Knotted Thong'', 29</ref> [[Juvenal]]'s caustic satire was influenced mainly by Lucilius but Horace by then was a school classic and Juvenal could refer to him respectfully and in a round-about way as "''the Venusine lamp''".<ref group="nb">The allusion to ''Venusine'' comes via Horace's ''Sermones'' 2.1.35, while ''lamp'' signifies the lucubrations of a conscientious poet. According to Quintilian (93), however, many people in Flavian Rome preferred Lucilius not only to Horace but to all other Latin poets (R. Tarrant, ''Ancient receptions of Horace'', 279)</ref>

[[Statius]] paid homage to Horace by composing one poem in Sapphic and one in Alcaic meter (the verse forms most often associated with ''Odes''), which he included in his collection of occasional poems, ''Silvae''. Ancient scholars wrote commentaries on the lyric meters of the ''Odes'', including the scholarly poet [[Caesius Bassus]]. By a process called ''derivatio'', he varied established meters through the addition or omission of syllables, a technique borrowed by [[Seneca the Younger]] when adapting Horatian meters to the stage.<ref>R. Tarrant, ''Ancient receptions of Horace'', 280–81</ref>

Horace's poems continued to be school texts into late antiquity. Works attributed to [[Helenius Acro]] and [[Pomponius Porphyrio]] are the remnants of a much larger body of Horatian scholarship. Porphyrio arranged the poems in non-chronological order, beginning with the ''Odes'', because of their general popularity and their appeal to scholars (the ''Odes'' were to retain this privileged position in the medieval manuscript tradition and thus in modern editions also). Horace was often evoked by poets of the fourth century, such as [[Ausonius]] and [[Claudian]]. [[Prudentius]] presented himself as a Christian Horace, adapting Horatian meters to his own poetry and giving Horatian motifs a Christian tone.<ref group="nb">Prudentius sometimes alludesto the ''Odes'' in a negative context, as expressions of a secular life he is abandoning. Thus for example ''male pertinax'', employed in Prudentius's ''Praefatio'' to describe a willful desire for victory, is lifted from ''Odes'' 1.9.24, where it describes a girl's half-hearted resistance to seduction. Elsewhere he borrows ''dux bone'' from ''Odes'' 4.5.5 and 37, where it refers to Augustus, and applies it to Christ (R. Tarrant, ''Ancient receptions of Horace'', 282</ref> On the other hand, [[St Jerome]], modelled an uncompromising response to the pagan Horace, observing: "''What harmony can there be between Christ and the Devil? What has Horace to do with the Psalter?''"<ref group="nb">St Jerome, ''Epistles'' 22.29, incorporating a quote from ''2 Corinthians'' 6.14: ''qui consensus Christo et Belial? quid facit cum psalterio Horatius?'' (cited by K. Friis-Jensen, ''Horace in the Middle Ages'', 292)</ref> By the early sixth century, Horace and Prudentius were both part of a classical heritage that was struggling to survive the disorder of the times. [[Boethius]], the last major author of classical Latin literature, could still take inspiration from Horace, sometimes mediated by Senecan tragedy.<ref name="Tarrant">R. Tarrant, ''Ancient receptions of Horace'', 283</ref> It can be argued that Horace's influence extended beyond poetry to dignify core themes and values of the early Christian era, such as self-sufficiency, inner contentment and courage.<ref group="nb">''Odes'' 3.3.1–8 was especially influential in promoting the value of heroic calm in the face of danger, describing a man who could bear even the collapse of the world without fear (''si fractus illabatur orbis,/impavidum ferient ruinae''). Echoes are found in Seneca's ''Agamemnon'' 593–603, Prudentius's ''Peristephanon'' 4.5–12 and Boethius's ''Consolatio'' 1 metrum 4.(R. Tarrant, ''Ancient receptions of Horace'', 283–85)</ref>

===Middle Ages and Renaissance===
[[File:Horaz beim Studium.jpg|thumb|Horace in his Studium: German print of the fifteenth century, summarizing the final [[:wikisource:la:Carmina (Horatius)/Liber IV/Carmen XV|ode 4.15]] (in praise of Augustus).]]

Classical texts almost ceased being copied in the period between the mid sixth century and the [[Carolingian Renaissance|Carolingian revival]]. Horace's work probably survived in just two or three books imported into northern Europe from Italy. These became the ancestors of six extant manuscripts dated to the ninth century. Two of those six manuscripts are French in origin, one was produced in [[Alsace]], and the other three show Irish influence but were probably written in continental monasteries ([[Lombardy]] for example).<ref>R. Tarrant, ''Ancient receptions of Horace'', 285–87</ref> By the last half of the ninth century, it was not uncommon for literate people to have direct experience of Horace's poetry. His influence on the [[Carolingian Renaissance]] can be found in the poems of [[Heiric of Auxerre]]<ref group="nb">Heiric, like Prudentius, gave Horatian motifs a Christian context. Thus the character Lydia in ''Odes'' 3.19.15, who would willingly die for her lover twice, becomes in Heiric's ''Life'' of St Germaine of Auxerre a saint ready to die twice for the Lord's commandments (R. Tarrant, ''Ancient receptions of Horace'', 287–88)</ref> and in some manuscripts marked with [[neumes]], notations that may have been an aid to the memorization and discussion of his lyric meters. ''Ode'' [[:wikisource:la:Carmina (Horatius)/Liber IV/Carmen XI|4.11]] is neumed with the melody of a hymn to John the Baptist, ''[[Ut queant laxis]]'', composed in [[Sapphic stanza]]s. This hymn later became the basis of the [[solfege]] system (''Do, re, mi...''){{emdash}}an association with western music quite appropriate for a lyric poet like Horace, though the language of the hymn is mainly Prudentian.<ref>R. Tarrant, ''Ancient receptions of Horace'', 288–89</ref> Lyons<ref>Stuart Lyons, Horace's Odes and the Mystery of Do-Re-Mi</ref> argues that the melody in question was linked with Horace's Ode well before Guido d'Arezzo fitted ''Ut queant laxis'' to it.  Ovid<ref>Tristia, 4.10.49–50</ref> does testify to Horace's use of the lyre while performing his Odes.

The German scholar [[Ludwig Traube (palaeographer)|Ludwig Traube]] once dubbed the tenth and eleventh centuries ''The age of Horace'' (''aetas Horatiana''), and placed it between the ''aetas Vergiliana'' of the eighth and ninth centuries, and the ''aetas Ovidiana'' of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Horace was a substantial influence in the ninth century as well, and Traube concentrated too much on Horace's ''Satires''.<ref>B. Bischoff, ''Living with the satirists'', 83–95</ref> Almost all of Horace's work found favour in the Medieval period, with scholars associating Horace's different genres with the different ages of man. A twelfth-century scholar encapsulated the theory: 

<blockquote>"...Horace wrote four different kinds of poems on account of the four ages, the ''Odes'' for boys, the ''Ars Poetica'' for young men, the ''Satires'' for mature men, the ''Epistles'' for old and complete men."<ref>K. Friis-Jensen,''Horace in the Middle Ages'', 291</ref></blockquote> 

It was then thought that Horace had composed his works in the order in which they had been placed by ancient scholars.<ref group="nb">According to a medieval French commentary on the ''Satires'': "...first he composed his lyrics, and in them, speaking to the young, as it were, he took as subject-matter love affairs and quarrels, banquets and drinking parties. Next he wrote his ''Epodes'', and in them composed invectives against men of a more advanced and more dishonourable age...He next wrote his book about the ''Ars Poetica'', and in that instructed men of his own profession to write well...Later he added his book of ''Satires'', in which he reproved those who had fallen a prey to various kinds of vices. Finally, he finished his oeuvre with the ''Epistles'', and in them, following the method of a good farmer, he sowed the virtues where he had rooted out the vices." (cited by K. Friis-Jensen, ''Horace in the Middle Ages'', 294–302)</ref> This schematism involved an appreciation of Horace's works as a collection, the ''Ars Poetica'', ''Satires'' and ''Epistles'' appearing to find favour as well as the ''Odes''. The later Middle Ages, however, gave special significance to ''Satires'' and ''Epistles'', considered Horace's mature works. [[Dante]] referred to Horace as ''Orazio satiro'', and he awarded him a privileged position in the first circle of Hell, with [[Homer]], Ovid and [[Lucan]].<ref>K. Friis-Jensen, ''Horace in the Middle Ages'', 293, 304</ref>

Horace's popularity is revealed in the large number of quotes from all his works found in almost every genre of medieval literature, and also in the number of poets imitating him in [[Prosody (Latin)#Two rhythms|quantitative Latin meter]]. The most prolific imitator of his ''Odes'' was the Bavarian monk, [[Metellus of Tegernsee]], who dedicated his work to the patron saint of [[Tegernsee Abbey]], [[Quirinus of Tegernsee|St Quirinus]], around the year 1170. He imitated all Horace's lyrical meters then followed these up with imitations of other meters used by Prudentius and Boethius, indicating that variety, as first modelled by Horace, was considered a fundamental aspect of the lyric genre. The content of his poems however was restricted to simple piety.<ref>K. Friis-Jensen, ''Horace in the Middle Ages'', 296–98</ref> Among the most successful imitators of ''Satires'' and ''Epistles'' was another Germanic author, calling himself [[Sextus Amarcius]], around 1100, who composed four books, the first two exemplifying vices, the second pair mainly virtues.<ref>K. Friis-Jensen, ''Horace in the Middle Ages'', 302</ref>

[[Petrarch]] is a key figure in the imitation of Horace in accentual meters. His verse letters in Latin were modelled on the ''Epistles'' and he wrote a letter to Horace in the form of an ode. However he also borrowed from Horace when composing his Italian sonnets. One modern scholar has speculated that authors who imitated Horace in accentual rhythms (including stressed Latin and vernacular languages) may have considered their work a natural sequel to Horace's metrical variety.<ref>K. Friis-Jensen, ''Horace in the Middle Ages'', 299</ref> In France, Horace and [[Pindar]] were the poetic models for a group of vernacular authors called the [[Pléiade]], including for example [[Pierre de Ronsard]] and [[Joachim du Bellay]]. [[Montaigne]] made constant and inventive use of Horatian quotes.<ref>Michael McGann, ''Horace in the Renaissance'', 306</ref> The vernacular languages were dominant in Castilia and Portugal in the sixteenth century, where Horace's influence is notable in the works of such authors as [[Garcilaso de la Vega (poet)|Garcilaso de la Vega]], [[Juan Boscán]], [[Sá de Miranda]], [[António Ferreira (poet)|Antonio Ferreira]] and [[Fray Luis de León]], the last writing odes on the Horatian theme ''beatus ille'' (''happy the man'').<ref>E. Rivers, ''Fray Luis de León: The Original Poems''</ref> The sixteenth century in western Europe was also an age of translations (except in Germany, where Horace wasn't translated into the vernacular until well into the seventeenth century). The first English translator was [[Thomas Drant]], who placed translations of [[Jeremiah]] and Horace side by side in ''Medicinable Morall'', 1566. That was also the year that the Scot [[George Buchanan]] paraphrased the [[Psalms]] in a Horatian setting. [[Ben Jonson]] put Horace on the stage in 1601 in ''[[Poetaster (play)|Poetaster]]'', along with other classical Latin authors, giving them all their own verses to speak in translation. Horace's part evinces the independent spirit, moral earnestness and critical insight that many readers look for in his poems.<ref>M. McGann, ''Horace in the Renaissance'', 306–07, 313–16</ref>

===Age of Enlightenment===
During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, or the [[Age of Enlightenment]], neoclassical culture was pervasive. English literature in the middle of that period has been dubbed [[Augustan literature|Augustan]]. It is not always easy to distinguish Horace's influence during those centuries (the mixing of influences is shown for example in one poet's pseudonym, ''Horace Juvenal'').<ref group="nb">'Horace Juvenal' was author of ''Modern manners: a poem'', 1793</ref> However a measure of his influence can be found in the diversity of the people interested in his works, both among readers and authors.<ref>D. Money, ''The seventeenth and eighteenth centuries'', 318, 331, 332</ref>

New editions of his works were published almost yearly. There were three new editions in 1612 (two in [[Leiden]], one in [[Frankfurt]]) and again in 1699 ([[Utrecht]], Barcelona, [[Cambridge]]). Cheap editions were plentiful and fine editions were also produced, including one whose entire text was engraved by [[John Pine]] in [[copperplate engraving|copperplate]]. The poet [[James Thomson (poet, born 1700)|James Thomson]] owned five editions of Horace's work and the physician [[James Douglas (physician)|James Douglas]] had five hundred books with Horace-related titles. Horace was often commended in periodicals such as [[The Spectator (1711)|The Spectator]], as a hallmark of good judgement, moderation and manliness, a focus for moralising.<ref group="nb">see for example ''Spectator'' '''312''', 27 February 1712; '''548''', 28 November 1712; '''618''', 10 November 1714</ref> His verses offered a fund of mottoes, such as ''[[simplex munditiis]]'' (elegance in simplicity), ''[[splendide mendax]]'' (nobly untruthful), ''[[sapere aude]]'' (dare to know), ''[[nunc est bibendum]]'' (now is the time to drink), ''[[carpe diem]]'' (seize the day, perhaps the only one still in common use today).<ref name="Tarrant"/> These were quoted even in works as prosaic as [[Edmund Quincy (1703-1788)|Edmund Quincy]]'s ''A treatise of hemp-husbandry'' (1765). The fictional hero [[The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling|Tom Jones]] recited his verses with feeling.<ref>D. Money, ''The seventeenth and eighteenth centuries'', 322</ref> His works were also used to justify commonplace themes, such as patriotic obedience, as in James Parry's English lines from an Oxford University collection in 1736:<ref>D. Money, ''The seventeenth and eighteenth centuries'', 326–27</ref>

{{poemquote|
What friendly [[Muse]] will teach my Lays
To emulate the Roman fire?
Justly to sound a Caesar's praise
Demands a bold Horatian lyre.
}}

Horatian-style lyrics were increasingly typical of Oxford and Cambridge verse collections for this period, most of them in Latin but some like the previous ode in English. [[John Milton]]'s [[Lycidas]] first appeared in such a collection. It has few Horatian echoes<ref group="nb">One echo of Horace may be found in line 69: "''Were it not better done as others use,/ To sport with Amaryllis in the shade/Or with the tangles of Neaera's hair?''", which points to the Neara in ''Odes'' 3.14.21 (Douglas Bush, ''Milton: Poetical Works'', 144, note 69)</ref> yet Milton's associations with Horace were lifelong. He composed a controversial version of ''Odes'' 1.5, and [[Paradise Lost]] includes references to Horace's 'Roman' ''Odes'' 3.1–6 (Book 7 for example begins with echoes of ''Odes'' 3.4).<ref>J. Talbot, ''A Horatian Pun in Paradise Lost'', 21–3</ref> Yet Horace's lyrics could offer inspiration to libertines as well as moralists, and neo-Latin sometimes served as a kind of discrete veil for the risqué. Thus for example [[Benjamin Loveling]] authored a catalogue of Drury Lane and Covent Garden prostitutes, in Sapphic stanzas, and an encomium for a dying lady "of salacious memory".<ref>B. Loveling, ''Latin and English Poems'', 49–52, 79–83</ref> Some Latin imitations of Horace were politically subversive, such as a marriage ode by [[Anthony Alsop]] that included a rallying cry for the [[Jacobitism|Jacobite]] cause. On the other hand, [[Andrew Marvell]] took inspiration from Horace's ''Odes'' 1.37 to compose his English masterpiece [[Horatian Ode upon Cromwell's Return from Ireland]], in which subtly nuanced reflections on the execution of [[Charles I of England|Charles I]] echo Horace's ambiguous response to the death of [[Cleopatra]] (Marvell's ode was suppressed in spite of its subtlety and only began to be widely published in 1776). [[Samuel Johnson]] took particular pleasure in reading ''The Odes''.<ref group="nb">Cfr. [[James Boswell]], "The Life of [[Samuel Johnson]]" ''Aetat.'' 20, 1729 where Boswell remarked of Johnson that Horace's ''Odes'' "were the compositions in which he took most delight."</ref> [[Alexander Pope]] wrote direct ''Imitations'' of Horace (published with the original Latin alongside) and also echoed him in ''Essays'' and [[The Rape of the Lock]]. He even emerged as "a quite Horatian Homer" in his translation of the ''[[Iliad]]''.<ref>D. Money, ''The seventeenth and eighteenth centuries'', 329–31</ref> Horace appealed also to female poets, such as [[Anna Seward]] (''Original sonnets on various subjects, and odes paraphrased from Horace'', 1799) and [[Elizabeth Tollet]], who composed a Latin ode in Sapphic meter to celebrate her brother's return from overseas, with tea and coffee substituted for the wine of Horace's [[symposium|sympotic]] settings:
{{verse translation|lang=la
|
Quos procax nobis numeros, jocosque
Musa dictaret? mihi dum tibique
Temperent baccis Arabes, vel herbis
Pocula Seres<ref>E. Tollet, ''Poems on Several Occasions'', 84</ref>
|
What verses and jokes might the bold
Muse dictate? while for you and me
Arabs flavour our cups with beans
Or Chinese with leaves.<ref>Translation adapted from D. Money, ''The seventeenth and eighteenth centuries'', 329</ref>
}}
[[File:Horace 18th-19th century engraving (cropped).jpg|thumb|Horace in an anonymous late 18th to early 19th century engraving]]
Horace's ''Ars Poetica'' is second only to Aristotle's ''Poetics'' in its influence on literary theory and criticism. Milton recommended both works in his treatise ''of Education''.<ref>A. Gilbert, ''Literary Criticism: Plato to Dryden'', 124, 669</ref> Horace's ''Satires'' and ''Epistles'' however also had a huge impact, influencing theorists and critics such as [[John Dryden]].<ref>W. Kupersmith, ''Roman Satirists in Seventeenth Century England'', 97–101</ref> There was considerable debate over the value of different lyrical forms for contemporary poets, as represented on one hand by the kind of four-line stanzas made familiar by Horace's Sapphic and Alcaic ''Odes'' and, on the other, the loosely structured [[Pindarics]] associated with the odes of [[Pindar]]. Translations occasionally involved scholars in the dilemmas of censorship. Thus [[Christopher Smart]] entirely omitted ''Odes'' [[:wikisource:la:Carmina (Horatius)/Liber IV/Carmen X|4.10]] and re-numbered the remaining odes. He also removed the ending of ''Odes'' [[:wikisource:la:Carmina (Horatius)/Liber IV/Carmen I|4.1]]. [[Thomas Creech]] printed ''Epodes'' [[:wikisource:la:Epodi#VIII|8]] and [[:wikisource:la:Epodi#XII|12]] in the original Latin but left out their English translations. [[Philip Francis (translator)|Philip Francis]] left out both the English and Latin for those same two epodes, a gap in the numbering the only indication that something was amiss. French editions of Horace were influential in England and these too were regularly [[bowdlerize]]d.

Most European nations had their own 'Horaces': thus for example [[Friedrich von Hagedorn]] was called ''The German Horace'' and [[Maciej Kazimierz Sarbiewski]] ''The Polish Horace'' (the latter was much imitated by English poets such as [[Henry Vaughan]] and [[Abraham Cowley]]). Pope [[Urban VIII]] wrote voluminously in Horatian meters, including an ode on gout.<ref>D. Money, ''The seventeenth and eighteenth centuries'', 319–25</ref>

===19th century on===

Horace maintained a central role in the education of English-speaking elites right up until the 1960s.<ref>S. Harrison, ''The nineteenth and twentieth centuries'', 340</ref> A pedantic emphasis on the formal aspects of language-learning at the expense of literary appreciation may have made him unpopular in some quarters<ref>V. Kiernan, ''Horace: Poetics and Politics'', x</ref> yet it also confirmed his influence{{emdash}}a tension in his reception that underlies [[Lord Byron|Byron]]'s famous lines from ''[[Childe Harold's Pilgrimage|Childe Harold]]'' (Canto iv, 77):<ref>S. Harrison, ''The nineteenth and twentieth centuries'', 334</ref>

{{poemquote|
Then farewell, Horace, whom I hated so
Not for thy faults, but mine; it is a curse
To understand, not feel thy lyric flow,
To comprehend, but never love thy verse.
}}

[[William Wordsworth]]'s mature poetry, including the [[Preface to the Lyrical Ballads|preface]] to ''[[Lyrical Ballads]]'', reveals Horace's influence in its rejection of false ornament<ref>D. Money, ''The seventeenth and eighteenth centuries'', 323</ref> and he once expressed "a wish / to meet the shade of Horace...".<ref group="nb">The quote, from ''Memorials of a Tour of Italy'' (1837), contains allusions to ''Odes'' 3.4 and 3.13 (S. Harrison, ''The nineteenth and twentieth centuries'', 334–35)</ref> [[John Keats]] echoed the opening of Horace's ''Epodes'' 14 in the opening lines of ''[[Ode to a Nightingale]]''.<ref group="nb">"''My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains / my sense...''" echoes Epodes [[:wikisource:la:Epodi#XIV|14.1–4]] (S. Harrison, ''The nineteenth and twentieth centuries'', 335)</ref>

The Roman poet was presented in the nineteenth century as an honorary English gentleman. [[William Makepeace Thackeray|William Thackeray]] produced a version of ''Odes'' [[:wikisource:la:Carmina (Horatius)/Liber I/Carmen XXXVIII|1.38]] in which Horace's 'boy' became 'Lucy', and [[Gerard Manley Hopkins]] translated the boy innocently as 'child'. Horace was translated by [[Sir Theodore Martin]] (biographer of [[Albert, Prince Consort|Prince Albert]]) but minus some ungentlemanly verses, such as the erotic ''Odes'' [[:wikisource:la:Carmina (Horatius)/Liber I/Carmen XXV|1.25]] and ''Epodes'' 8 and 12. [[Edward Bulwer-Lytton]] produced a popular translation and [[William Ewart Gladstone|William Gladstone]] also wrote translations during his last days as Prime Minister.<ref>S. Harrison, ''The nineteenth and twentieth centuries'', 335–37</ref>

[[Edward FitzGerald (poet)|Edward FitzGerald]]'s ''[[Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam]]'', though formally derived from the Persian ''[[ruba'i]]'', nevertheless shows a strong Horatian influence, since, as one modern scholar has observed, "''...the quatrains inevitably recall the stanzas of the 'Odes', as does the narrating first person of the world-weary, ageing [[Epicurus|Epicurean]] Omar himself, mixing [[Symposium|sympotic]] exhortation and 'carpe diem' with splendid moralising and 'memento mori' [[nihilism]].''"<ref group="nb">Comment by S. Harrison, editor and contributor to ''The Cambridge Companion to Horace'' (S. Harrison, ''The nineteenth and twentieth centuries'', 337</ref> [[Matthew Arnold]] advised a friend in verse not to worry about politics, an echo of ''Odes'' [[:wikisource:la:Carmina (Horatius)/Liber II/Carmen XI|2.11]], yet later became a critic of Horace's inadequacies relative to Greek poets, as role models of [[Victorian Age|Victorian]] virtues, observing: "''If human life were complete without faith, without enthusiasm, without energy, Horace...would be the perfect interpreter of human life.''"<ref>M. Arnold, ''Selected Prose'', 74</ref> [[Christina Rossetti]] composed a sonnet depicting a woman willing her own death steadily, drawing on Horace's depiction of 'Glycera' in ''Odes'' [[:wikisource:la:Carmina (Horatius)/Liber I/Carmen XIX|1.19.5–6]] and Cleopatra in ''Odes'' [[:wikisource:la:Carmina (Horatius)/Liber I/Carmen XXXVII|1.37]].<ref group="nb">Rossetti's sonnet, ''A Study (a soul)'', dated 1854, was not published in her own lifetime. Some lines: ''She stands as pale as Parian marble stands / Like Cleopatra when she turns at bay...'' (C. Rossetti, ''Complete Poems'', 758</ref> [[A. E. Housman]] considered ''Odes'' [[:wikisource:la:Carmina (Horatius)/Liber IV/Carmen VII|4.7]], in [[Prosody (Latin)#First Archilochian|Archilochian]] couplets, the most beautiful poem of antiquity<ref>W. Flesch, ''Companion to British Poetry, 19th Century'', 98</ref> and yet he generally shared Horace's penchant for quatrains, being readily adapted to his own elegiac and melancholy strain.<ref>S. Harrison, ''The nineteenth and twentieth centuries'', 339</ref> The most famous poem of [[Ernest Dowson]] took its title and its heroine's name from a line of ''Odes'' [[:wikisource:la:Carmina (Horatius)/Liber IV/Carmen I|4.1]], ''Non sum qualis eram bonae sub regno Cynarae'', as well as its motif of nostalgia for a former flame. [[Kipling]] wrote a famous parody of the ''Odes'', satirising their stylistic idiosyncrasies and especially the extraordinary syntax, but he also used Horace's Roman patriotism as a focus for British imperialism, as in the story ''Regulus'' in the school collection ''[[Stalky & Co.]]'', which he based on ''Odes'' [[:wikisource:la:Carmina (Horatius)/Liber III/Carmen V|3.5]].<ref>S. Medcalfe, ''Kipling's Horace'', 217–39</ref> Wilfred Owen's famous poem, quoted above, incorporated Horatian text to question patriotism while ignoring the rules of Latin scansion. However, there were few other echoes of Horace in the war period, possibly because war is not actually a major theme of Horace's work.<ref>S. Harrison, ''the nineteenth and twentieth centuries'', 340</ref> The Spanish poet [[Miquel Costa i Llobera]] published his renowned collection of poems named ''Horacianes'', thus being dedicated to the Latin poet Horace, and employing Sapphics, Alcaics and similar types of stanzas.<ref>{{cite book |title=Costa i Llobera i el món clàssic (1854-1922)|last1=Cifre Forteza |first1=Bernat| publisher=Lleonard Muntaner Editor|page=313}}</ref>

[[File:Michelin Poster 1898.jpg|thumb|[[Bibendum]] (the symbol of the [[Michelin]] tyre company) takes his name from the opening line of [[:wikisource:la:Carmina (Horatius)/Liber I/Carmen XXXVII|Ode 1.37]], ''[[Nunc est bibendum]]''.]]
Both [[W. H. Auden]] and [[Louis MacNeice]] began their careers as teachers of classics and both responded as poets to Horace's influence. Auden for example evoked the fragile world of the 1930s in terms echoing ''Odes'' [[:wikisource:la:Carmina (Horatius)/Liber II/Carmen XI|2.11.1–4]], where Horace advises a friend not to let worries about frontier wars interfere with current pleasures.

{{poemquote|
And, gentle, do not care to know
Where Poland draws her Eastern bow,
     What violence is done;
Nor ask what doubtful act allows
Our freedom in this English house,
     Our picnics in the sun.<ref group="nb">Quoted from Auden's poem ''Out on the lawn I lie in bed'', 1933, and cited by S. Harrison, ''The nineteenth and twentieth centuries'', 340</ref>
}}[[Image:Horatius - Boek I Ode XIV - Cleveringaplaats 1, Leiden.JPG|thumb|''Odes'' 1.14 – [[Wall poems in Leiden|Wall poem in Leiden]] ]]

The American poet [[Robert Frost]] echoed Horace's ''Satires'' in the conversational and sententious idiom of some of his longer poems, such as ''The Lesson for Today'' (1941), and also in his gentle advocacy of life on the farm, as in ''Hyla Brook'' (1916), evoking Horace's ''fons Bandusiae'' in ''Ode'' [[:wikisource:la:Carmina (Horatius)/Liber III/Carmen XIII|3.13]].  Now at the start of the third millennium, poets are still absorbing and re-configuring the Horatian influence, sometimes in translation (such as a 2002 English/American edition of the ''Odes'' by thirty-six poets)<ref group="nb">Edited by McClatchy, reviewed by S. Harrison, ''Bryn Mawr Classical Review'' 2003.03.05</ref> and sometimes as inspiration for their own work (such as a 2003 collection of odes by a New Zealand poet).<ref group="nb">I. Wedde, ''The Commonplace Odes'', Auckland 2003, (cited by S. Harrison, ''The nineteenth and twentieth centuries'', 345)</ref>

Horace's ''Epodes'' have largely been ignored in the modern era, excepting those with political associations of historical significance. The obscene qualities of some of the poems have repulsed even scholars<ref group="nb">'Political' Epodes are 1, 7, 9, 16; notably obscene Epodes are 8 and 12. E. Fraenkel is among the admirers repulsed by these two poems, for another view of which see for example Dee Lesser Clayman, 'Horace's Epodes VIII and XII: More than Clever Obscenity?', ''The Classical World'' Vol. 6, No. 1 (September 1975), pp 55–61 {{JSTOR|4348329}}</ref> yet more recently a better understanding of the nature of [[Iambus (genre)|Iambic poetry]] has led to a re-evaluation of the ''whole'' collection.<ref>D. Mankin, ''Horace: Epodes'', 6–9</ref><ref>R. McNeill, ''Horace'', 12</ref> A re-appraisal of the ''Epodes'' also appears in creative adaptations by recent poets (such as a 2004 collection of poems that relocates the ancient context to a 1950s industrial town).<ref group="nb">M. Almond, ''The Works'' 2004, Washington, cited by S. Harrison, ''The nineteenth and twentieth centuries'', 346</ref>

==Translations==
*The ''[[Ars Poetica (Horace)|Ars Poetica]]'' was first translated into English by [[Thomas Drant]] in 1556, and later by [[Ben Jonson]] and [[Lord Byron]].
*[[John Dryden]], [https://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=eebo;idno=A36697.0001.001 ''Sylvæ; or, The second Part of Poetical Miscellanies''] (London: Jacob Tonson, 1685) with adaptations of three of the ''Odes'', and one Epode.
*[[Philip Francis (translator)|Philip Francis]], ''The Odes, Epodes, and Carmen Seculare'' ''of Horace'' (Dublin, 1742; London, 1743) 
*——— ''The Satires, Epistles, and Art of Poetry'' ''of Horace'' (1746) [[Samuel Johnson]] favoured these translations. 
*[[Charles Stuart Calverley|C. S. Calverley]], [https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/4096 ''Verses and Translations''] (1860; rev. 1862) Included versions of ten of the ''Odes.'' 
*[[John Conington]], [[iarchive:odesandcarmensa00conigoog/mode/2up|''The Odes and Carmen Sæculare of Horace'']] (1863; rev. 1872)
*——— ''The Satires'', ''Epistles'' ''and'' ''Ars Poëtica of Horace'' (1869)
*[[Theodore Martin]], [https://books.google.com/books?id=3KUGAQAAIAAJ ''The Odes of Horace, Translated Into English Verse, with a Life and Notes''] (Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1866)

* Edward Marsh, ''The Odes of Horace. Translated into English Verse by Edward Marsh'' (London: Macmillan & Co., 1941).

*[[James Michie]], ''The Odes of Horace'' (London: Rupert Hart-Davis, 1964) Included a dozen ''Odes'' in the original [[Sapphic stanza|Sapphic]] and [[Alcaic]] metres.
*More recent verse translations of the Odes include those by David West (free verse), and Colin Sydenham (rhymed).
*In 1983, Charles E. Passage translated all the works of Horace in the original metres.
*''Horace's Odes and the Mystery of Do-Re-Mi'' Stuart Lyons (rhymed) Aris &  Phillips {{ISBN|978-0-85668-790-7}}

== In literature and the arts ==
The Oxford Latin Course textbooks use the life of Horace to illustrate an average Roman's life in the [[Roman Republic|late Republic]] to [[Roman Empire|Early Empire]].<ref>{{Cite book|title=Oxford Latin Course Part one.|last1=Balme|first1=Maurice|last2=Moorwood|first2=James|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1996|isbn=978-0195212037}}</ref> Horace was portrayed by [[Norman Shelley]] in the 1976 miniseries ''[[I, Claudius (TV series)|I, Claudius]]''.

==See also==
{{Portal|Literature|Ancient Rome|Biography}}
* [[Carpe diem]]
* [[Horatia gens]]
* [[List of ancient Romans]]
* [[Otium]]
* [[Prosody (Latin)]]
* [[Translation#Western theory|Translation]]
* [[Horace's Villa]]

==Notes==
<references group="nb" />

==Citations==
{{reflist|25em}}

==References==
{{Refbegin|30em}}
* {{cite book | last=Arnold | first=Matthew | title=Selected Prose | publisher=Penguin Books | year=1970 | isbn=978-0-14-043058-5 | url=https://archive.org/details/selectedprose00arno }}
* {{cite book | last=Barrow |first=R | title=The Romans | publisher=Penguin/Pelican Books | year=1949 }}
* {{cite book | last=Barchiesi |first=A | title=Speaking Volumes: Narrative and Intertext in Ovid and Other Latin Poets | publisher=Duckworth| year=2001 }}
* {{cite book | last=Bischoff |first=B | title=Classical Influences on European Culture AD 500–1500 | publisher=Cambridge University Press | year=1971 | chapter=Living with the satirists}}
* {{cite book | last=Bush |first=Douglas | title=Milton: Poetical Works | publisher=Oxford University Press | year=1966 }}
* {{cite book | last=Campbell |first=A | title=Horace: A New Interpretation | publisher=London | year=1924 }}
* {{cite book | last=Conway |first=R | title=New Studies of a Great Inheritance | publisher=London | year=1921 }}
* {{cite book | last=Davis |first=Gregson | title =Polyhymnia. The Rhetoric to Horatian Lyric Discourse | publisher=University of California | year=1991}}
* {{cite book | last=Ferri |first=Rolando | title=The Cambridge Companion to Horace | publisher=Cambridge University Press | year=2007 | chapter=The Epistles|isbn=978-0-521-53684-4 }}
* {{cite book | last=Flesch |first=William | title=The Facts on File Companion to British Poetry, 19th Century | publisher=Infobase Publishing | year=2009 |isbn= 978-0-8160-5896-9}}
* {{cite book | last=Frank |first=Tenney | title=Catullus and Horace | publisher=New York | year=1928 }}
* {{cite book | last=Fraenkel |first=Eduard | title=Horace | publisher=Oxford University Press | year=1957 }}
* {{cite book | last=Friis-Jensen |first=Karsten | title=The Cambridge Companion to Horace | publisher=Cambridge University Press | year=2007 | chapter=Horace in the Middle Ages}}
* {{cite book | last=Gowers |first=Emily | title=Horace Satires Book 1 | publisher=Cambridge University Press | year=2012}}
* {{cite book | last=Griffin |first=Jasper | title=Horace 2000 | publisher=Ann Arbor | year=1993 | chapter=Horace in the Thirties}}
* {{cite book | last=Griffin |first=Jasper | title=The Cambridge Companion to Horace | publisher=Cambridge university Press | year=2007 | chapter=Gods and religion}}
* {{cite book | last=Harrison |first=Stephen | title=A Companion to Latin Literature | publisher=Blackwell Publishing | year=2005 | chapter=Lyric and Iambic}}
* {{cite book | last=Harrison |first=Stephen | title=The Cambridge Companion to Horace | publisher=Cambridge University Press | year=2007 | chapter=Introduction}}
* {{cite book | last=Harrison |first=Stephen | title=The Cambridge Companion to Horace | publisher=Cambridge University Press | year=2007 | chapter=Style and poetic texture}}
* {{cite book | last=Harrison |first=Stephen | title=The Cambridge Companion to Horace | publisher=Cambridge University Press | year=2007 | chapter=The nineteenth and twentieth centuries}}
* {{cite book | last=Hooley |first=D | title=The Knotted Thong: Structures of Mimesis in Persius | publisher=Ann Arbor | year=1997 }}
* {{cite book | last=Hutchinson |first=G | title=Classical Quarterly 52 | year=2002| chapter=The publication and individuality of Horace's Odes 1–3}}
* {{cite book | last=Kiernan |first=Victor | title=Horace: Poetics and Politics| publisher=St Martin's Press | year=1999 }}
* {{cite book | last=Kupersmith |first=W | title=Roman Satirists in Seventeenth Century England | publisher=Lincoln, Nebraska and London | year=1985 }}
* {{cite book | last=Loveling |first=Benjamin | title=Latin and English Poems, by a Gentleman of Trinity College, Oxford | publisher=London | year=1741 }}
* {{cite book | last=Lowrie |first=Michèle | title =Horace's Narrative Odes | publisher=Oxford University Press | year=1997}}
* {{cite book | last=Lyne |first=R | title=The Oxford History of the Classical World | publisher=Oxford University Press | year=1986 | chapter=Augustan Poetry and Society}}
* {{cite book | last=Mankin |first=David | title=Horace: Epodes| publisher=Cambridge university Press| year=1995 }}
* {{cite book | last=McNeill |first=Randall | title=Horace | publisher=Oxford University Press | year=2010 |isbn= 978-0-19-980511-2 }}
* {{cite book | last=Michie |first=James | title=The Odes of Horace | publisher=Penguin Classics | year=1967 | chapter=Horace the Man}}
* {{cite book|last=Moles|first=John|title=The Cambridge Companion to Horace | publisher=Cambridge University Press | year=2007 | chapter=Philosophy and ethics}}
* {{cite book | last=Money |first=David | title=The Cambridge Companion to Horace | publisher=Cambridge University Press | year=2007 | chapter=The seventeenth and eighteenth centuries}}
* {{cite book | last=Morgan |first=Llewelyn | title=A Companion to Latin Literature | publisher=Blackwell Publishing | year=2005 | chapter=Satire}}
* {{cite book | last=Muecke |first=Frances | title=The Cambridge Companion to Horace | publisher=Cambridge University Press | year=2007 | chapter=the Satires}}
* {{cite book | last=Nisbet |first=Robin | title=The Cambridge Companion to Horace | publisher=Cambridge University Press | year=2007 | chapter=Horace: life and chronology}}
* {{cite book|last=Reckford|first=K. J.|title=Horatius: the man and the hour|publisher=American Journal of Philology|volume=118|pages=538–612|year=1997}}
* {{cite book | last=Rivers |first=Elias | title=Fray Luis de León: The Original Poems| publisher=Grant and Cutler| year=1983 }}
* {{cite book | last=Rossetti |first=Christina | title=The Complete Poems | publisher=Penguin Books | year=2001 }}
* {{cite book | last=Rudd |first=Niall | title=The Satires of Horace and Persius| publisher=Penguin Classics | year=1973 }}
* {{cite book | last=Santirocco |first=Matthew | title =Unity and Design in Horace's Odes | url=https://archive.org/details/unitydesigninhor00sant | url-access=registration | publisher=University of North Carolina | year=1986}}
* {{cite EB1911 |wstitle=Horace |volume=13 |page=687 |first1=William |last1=Sellar |first2=James |last2=Gow}}
* {{cite book | last=Syme |first=R | title=The Augustan Aristocracy | publisher=Oxford University Press | year=1986 }}
* {{cite book | last=Talbot |first=J | title=Notes and Queries 48 (1) | publisher=Oxford University Press | year=2001 | chapter=A Horatian Pun in Paradise Lost}}
* {{cite book | last=Tarrant |first=Richard | title=The Cambridge Companion to Horace | publisher=Cambridge University Press | year=2007 | chapter=Ancient receptions of Horace}}
* {{cite book | last=Tollet |first=Elizabeth | title=Poems on Several Occasions | publisher=London | year=1755 }}
{{Refend}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite book|last=Davis|first=Gregson|title=Polyhymnia the Rhetoric of Horatian Lyric Discourse|year=1991|publisher=University of California Press|location=Berkeley|isbn=0-520-91030-3}}
* {{cite book|last=Fraenkel|first=Eduard|title=Horace|year=1957|publisher=Clarendon Press|location=Oxford}}
* {{cite book|last=Horace|title=The Complete Works of Horace|year=1983|publisher=Ungar|location=New York|isbn=0-8044-2404-7|others=Charles E. Passage, trans}}
* {{cite book|last=Johnson|first=W. R.|title=Horace and the Dialectic of Freedom: Readings in Epistles 1|url=https://archive.org/details/horacedialectico00john|url-access=registration|year=1993|publisher=Cornell University Press|location=Ithaca|isbn=0-8014-2868-8}}
*{{cite book |last1=Lutkenhaus |first1=Veronika |title=And with the Teian lyre imitate Anacreon: The reception of Anacreon and the Carmina Anacreontea in Horace's lyric and iambic poetry |date=2023 |publisher=Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht |location=Go ttingen |isbn=9783525311516}}
* {{cite book|last=Lyne|first=R.O.A.M.|title=Horace: Behind the Public Poetry|year=1995|publisher=Yale Univ. Press|location=New Haven|isbn=0-300-06322-9}}
* {{cite book | last = Lyons | first = Stuart | title = Horace's Odes and the Mystery of Do-Re-Mi | publisher = Aris & Phillips | year = 1997 }}
* {{cite book | last = Lyons | first = Stuart | title = Music in the Odes of Horace | publisher = Aris & Phillips | year = 2010 }}
* {{cite book | last = Michie | first = James | title = The Odes of Horace | publisher = Rupert Hart-Davis | year = 1964 }}
* {{cite book|last=Newman|first=J.K.|title=Augustus and the New Poetry|year=1967|publisher=Latomus, revue d’études latines|location=Brussels}}
* {{cite book|last=Noyes|first=Alfred|title=Horace: A Portrait|url=https://archive.org/details/horaceportrait0000noye|url-access=registration|year=1947|publisher=Sheed and Ward|location=New York}}
* {{cite book|last=Perret|first=Jacques|title=Horace|year=1964|publisher=New York University Press|location=New York|others=Bertha Humez, trans}}
* {{cite book|last=Putnam|first=Michael C.J.|title=Artifices of Eternity: Horace's Fourth Book of Odes|year=1986|publisher=Cornell University Press|location=Ithaca, NY|isbn=0-8014-1852-6|url=https://archive.org/details/artificesofetern00putn}}
* {{cite book|last=Reckford|first=Kenneth J.|title=Horace|year=1969|publisher=Twayne|location=New York}}
* {{cite book|editor-last=Rudd|editor-first=Niall|title=Horace 2000: A Celebration&nbsp;– Essays for the Bimillennium|year=1993|publisher=Univ. of Michigan Press|location=Ann Arbor|isbn=0-472-10490-X}}
* {{cite book | last = Sydenham | first = Colin | title = Horace: The Odes | publisher = Duckworth | year = 2005 }}
*{{cite book | last = West | first = David | title = Horace The Complete Odes and Epodes | publisher = Oxford University Press | year = 1997 }}
* {{cite book|last=Wilkinson|first=L.P.|title=Horace and His Lyric Poetry|authorlink=Patrick Wilkinson (scholar)|year=1951|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge}}

==External links==
{{sisterlinks|d=y|s=Author:Horace|c=Category:Quintus Horatius Flaccus|v=no|voy=no|m=no|mw=no|species=no|b=no|n=no}}
{{Library resources box |by=yes |onlinebooks=yes |others=yes |about=yes |label=Horace
  |viaf= |lccn= |lcheading= |wikititle= }}
* {{Gutenberg author |id=1790 | name=Horace}}
* {{Internet Archive author}}
* {{Librivox author |id=3050}}
* Q. Horati Flacci ''[https://archive.org/details/qhoratiflacciop00flacgoog opera]'', recensuerunt O. Keller et A. Holder, 2 voll., Lipsiae in aedibus B. G. Teubneri, 1864–9.
* [https://books.google.com/books?id=KWMCAAAAQAAJ Q. Horati Flacci opera] (critical edition of all Horace's poems), edited by O. Keller & A. Holder, published by B. G. Teubner, 1878.
* [http://latin.topword.net/?Horace Common sayings from Horace]
* [http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/hor.html The works of Horace] at [[The Latin Library]]
* [http://www.stilus.nl/horatius/index-latine.htm Carmina Horatiana] All ''Carmina'' of Horace in Latin recited by Thomas Bervoets.
* [http://www.poetseers.org/the_great_poets/the_classics/horace/ Selected Poems of Horace]
* [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/searchresults?q=Horatius&redirect=true Works by Horace at Perseus Digital Library]
* {{cite web |last1=Willett |first1=Steven |title=A Biography of Horace and an Annotated Bibliography |url=https://diotima-doctafemina.org/translations/latin/selections-from-horaces-odes/a-biography-of-horace-and-an-annotated-bibliography/ |website=[[Diotíma (website)|Diotíma]]: Selections from Horace's Odes |date=1998 |ref=none}}
* [http://www.intratext.com/Catalogo/Autori/Aut186.HTM Horace's works]: text, concordances and frequency list
* [http://www.rhapsodes.fll.vt.edu/horace_ode_1.htm SORGLL: Horace, ''Odes'' I.22, read by Robert Sonkowsky] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090527202758/http://www.rhapsodes.fll.vt.edu/horace_ode_1.htm |date=27 May 2009 }}
* [http://toutcoule.blogspot.com/search/label/horace Translations of several odes in the original meters (with accompaniment).]
* [http://www.thethepoetry.com/2011/02/some-notes-on-translations-of-horace/ A discussion and comparison of three different contemporary translations of Horace's ''Odes''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200818115922/http://www.thethepoetry.com/2011/02/some-notes-on-translations-of-horace/ |date=18 August 2020 }}
* academia.edu: Tossing Augustus out of Horace's Ars Poetica 
* [http://www.horatius.net Horati opera, Acronis et Porphyrionis commentarii, varia lectio etc. (latine)]
* [http://openn.library.upenn.edu/Data/0023/html/horace_ms_1a.html Horace MS 1a Ars Poetica and Epistulae at OPenn]

{{Horace|state=expanded}}
{{Ancient Rome topics|state=collapsed}}

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Horace| ]]
[[Category:65 BC births]]
[[Category:8 BC deaths]]
[[Category:1st-century BC Romans]]
[[Category:1st-century BC writers in Latin]]
[[Category:Roman Republican soldiers]]
[[Category:Golden Age Latin writers]]
[[Category:People from Venosa]]
[[Category:Ancient Roman poets]]
[[Category:Ancient Roman satirists]]
[[Category:Iambic poets]]
[[Category:Ancient literary critics]]
[[Category:Horatii|Flaccus, Quintus]]
[[Category:Ancient Roman philhellenes]]
[[Category:Simple living advocates]]
[[Category:People of the War of Actium]]