Sermonum Q. Horatii Flacci Libri Duo

Introduction

   Horace says (Sat. I.10.74),--
        . . . An tua demens
        Vilibus in ludis dictari carmina malis?
        Non ego.

But his genius and fame very early brought upon him the fate which he deprecates, of having his works used as a literary textbook in all kinds of schools. And this use of his poetry has brought with it several important consequences. In the first place, it insured their preservation to our own times, while so many writers have been absolutely lost. Secondly, it has prevented any serious interpolation by imitators of later times. Thirdly, it has caused an arrangement of his works in manuscripts and in later printed editions which is not chronological but educational. The Satires and Epodes were his earliest poetical efforts, being written, for the most part, about the same time, between B.C. 40 and B.C. 30, though in manuscripts and editions, as well as in educational use, the Odes precede them. Fourthly, it has produced in the manuscripts a state of things that is perhaps unparalleled in those of any other author. Classical authors generally have come down to us in such a form, that by a careful study such as has been given to the subject by the scholars of the last fifty years, the manuscripts can be divided into families, and their genesis and trustworthiness determined with considerable accuracy and certainty. But with Horace, the number and late date of the manuscripts,--some two hundred and fifty, all probably of later date than the tenth century,--along with the uninterrupted cross correction of one by another, caused by the general familiarity with the poet, has made it next to impossible to establish any families, or any precedence of any one over others, or even of any dozen over the rest. So that what we have of Horace is a text very much altered by the tinkering of scholars according to their knowledge and whims, but as the same time checked off by reference to the constant stream of tradition. This process has apparently been going on from the poet's own time. So that very little can be done now in the way of improvement of the text, unless some manuscript should come to light that has lain unused for more than a thousand years. For a description of the manuscripts, the student is referred to Orelli and (less fully) Keller and Holder.

   The Satires and the poems generally seem to have been first written for private reading and circulation, somewhat as single poems appear nowadays in ephemeral literature and are later collected into volumes, and not to have been properly published until some time after their composition. Exactly at what time this was done in the case of the Satires is unknown, but we may well suppose that the first book was published before B.C. 33, in which year Horace received from Maecenas the gift of his Sabine farm, a gift which can hardly be looked upon otherwise than as a return for the compliment of the dedication to Maecenas in I.1. There is no clear indication that the two books of Satires were published separately, yet there is a slight difference of style between the two, and the scene with Trebatius in II.1. seems to indicate a new undertaking, a conclusion which is also strengthened by the completeness of the first book and the evident incompleteness of the second.
   The form of composition Horace himself calls Sermones, to distinguish it from the higher flights of poetry which he attempts in his lyrics. But the name Satura must also have been given to the work at the time (as in II.1.1), and has always been the prevailing title.
   This kind of literature, which is almost entirely, it not entirely, Roman (Satura quidem tota nostra est, Quint. X.1.93), had not originally the same meaning that satire has at present. Its real meaning is "miscellany" (Cf. lanx satura, lex satura), and it was first used, so far as we know, by Ennius (B.C. 239-169) to describe a collection of verse with mixed metres as well as mixed subjects. This meaning was also followed by Pacuvius, his nephew, and later by M. Terentius Varro, the great antiquarian, a contemporary of Cicero. Lucilius, in the time of Africanus the Younger, used the word to denote a series of pictures of life and manners in verse (generally hexameter), more nearly, though not entirely, in the style which we now call satirical. His satires, of which we have fragments, consist of scenes and character sketches from life, and are generally, though not always, aimed at the folly and wickedness of mankind, particularly as found in the party opposed to the clique of Scipio and his friends. The exact connection of Lucilius' efforts with Greek models is not clear. In Horace's time there seems to have been no idea that there was any immediate connection with anything Greek except a remote one with Old Comedy. Some of the writings of Ennius may have suggested the development that Lucilius gave to satire. There was evidently also among the Romans a strong tendency towards dramatic composition of a lighter kind, as is indicated by the Fescennine and Atellane farces. There was also a strong tendency to "convicia," or personal abuse in conversational form, "chaffing," or "Billingsgate." [billingsgate: violent vulgar words of abuse; from the abusive language of fish-sellers in Billingsgate market, London. --webmaster] There were also extant at that time some compositions in Greek called Silloi, which seem to have been poetical semidramatic character sketches, something like the prose writings of Lucan. These Silloi may have given a suggestion to Ennius and Lucilius; and as the comedy which would naturally have sprung from all these seeds was crowded out by the translation of the more advanced Greek dramas, the Satire seems to have been the result of the comic tendency of the Romans turned by the want of Roman comedy and by the Greek character sketches in another direction. In this sense Satire is an abortive comedy.
   The model of Lucilius was exactly followed by Horace, and the result is these two books of Satires, which for genial humor and amusing representation of the vices and follies of mankind, are unequalled in any literature. From the acute observation of human nature and social life that they show, and the felicity of expression that abounds on every page, they have always been among the most admired and most quoted works of ancient literature.
   The style is always easy and graceful; never forced nor affected. They must have been written at a dash, however much Horace may have trimmed them and filed them afterwards. They are never labored, notwithstanding the care with which they must have been written, and if an idea attributed to Horace is far-fetched we may be almost sure it is wrong and not Horatian. The difficulties often found in following the thought are not caused, as in some authors, by a labored obscurity. They are the natural consequence of a quick seizing and setting forth of salient points to an audience that could readily supply the missing links.
   The peculiar characteristic of Horace is his genial humor. He does not inveigh against the vices of mankind, but sets forth the laughable aspects of their vices, and constantly includes himself among the objects of his satire, being in this respect more like Thackeray than any other author before or since.

   Archaisms.--The Satires, in accordance with their colloquial character, are full of expressions such as were used in common life, though they had become antiquated or had never appeared in literature.
   E.g., the passive infinitive in -ier; quis (long i, pronounced quees) for quibus; the contracted forms of the perfect, like erepsemus, surrexe, evasti; caballus; quid agis; dulcissime rerum; unde mihi lapidem; licebit. . .celebret (II.2.59); mille ovium (II.3.197); nummo addicere (II.5.109); quid causae est; soldum; caldior; periclum; narrare (for dicere), etc.

   Prosody.--Horace allows himself several liberties in the composition of his verse:--

1. Short syllables lengthened before the caesura.
        qui non defendit, || alio. . ., I.4.82.
        confidens tumidus || adeo. . . (doubtful reading), I.7.7.
        ne quis humasse velit || Aiacem. . ., II.3.187 (originally long).
        Galloni praeconis erat || acipensere. . ., II.2.47 (originally long).
2. Consonantizing of i. vindemyator, I.7.30.
3. Frequent elisions, perhaps a colloquial usage.
        nulla ne habes vitia, immo alio et fortasse minora, I.3.20.
4. Shortening long vowels before another vowel.
        si me amas, I.9.38.
5. Synizesis, cerea, I.8.43, and Contraction, deicere de saxo.
6. Hypermetic verses, running over to the next verse (only two).
        . . .convictore usus amicoque
        a puero. . ., I.4.95.
        . . .uti ne solus rusve peregreve
        exirem. . ., I.6.102.
7. Hiatus, num adest (doubtful reading), II.2.28

-- Introduction from The Satires and Epistles of Horace, ed. J. B. Greenough. Ginn & Company: Boston, 1888.