Horace's claim to originality is greater than is usually admitted. In his day the question of imitation of Greek models had ceased to exist, and the question was, rather, which model to choose. In the Augustan Age we find two schools, those who followed the Alexandrine writers, and those who went back for their inspiration to the Greeks of the classical period. Horace belonged to the latter class. His con tempt for the followers of Alexandria is out spoken, and so undiscriminating as to include such really great poets as Calvus and Catullus. He certainly knew how to make what he bor rowed his own, and many of his odes are so thoroughly national in character that they can have owed little except their external form to Greek sources. In his satires, in spite of his avowed imitation of Lucilius in the beginning, his originality is far greater, and these are in reality his greatest works. While less popular with the general reader, they are of great inter est for the light which they throw on Horace's life, personality and habits, as well as for the vivid pictures which they set before us of the complex Roman life. In his daily walks about the city, Horace used his powers of observa tion, and drew material from all sides and from all classes of society. Above all we can trace in them his own self-improvement and the de velopment of his character, and the gradual growth of that sound judgment and good taste which characterize the work of his mature years. The satires are further characterized by a genial and good-natured humor. Like Dickens, he chose appropriate names for many of his characters — such as Novius, or Newman, for the parvenu, though, like those of Dickens, they were not always of his own coinage. The satires also abound in the familiar phrases of every-day life, in puns and plays upon words, in proverbs and homely fables and stories.
Horace's works, as he himself humorously predicted, became school textbooks at an early period. Juvenal implies that this was the case in his day. This fact and his general popularity led to the numerous commentaries on his works; which began to appear as early as the days of Nero, of which those of Porphyrio, of the early part of the 3d century, and the collection falsely attributed to Helenius Acron, have come down to us. The great number of manuscripts which exists testifies to his popularity in the Middle Ages. His fame at that time was, however, much less than that of Virgil, and, though he also was regarded as a magician, it was only at Palestrina and at Venusia that such legends were current. In modern times his influence on French and English satire has been great, as well as on modern poetry in general. See ODES (Horace).
Bibliography.—The date of the first edi tion is uncertain, but is earlier than 1471. Since then the editions of Horace's works, or of parts of them, have been legion. Of these may be mentioned as epoch-making that of Richard Bentley (Cambridge 1711), which has often been reprinted (the reprint at Berlin in 1869 contains a word-index by C. Zangermeister).
The standard critical text is that of 0. Keller and A. Holder (Leipzig 1864-70, a second edi tion of the first volume containing The (Odes,)
and
Saculare,) 'appearing in 1899). A commentary on this edition is furnished by Keller's
The simplicity and directness of Horace's thought have been a constant temptation to translators, and the number of English ver sions, particularly of the
is very great. But his care in composition and his inimitable skill in the use of words, his curiosa felicitas, as Petronius terms it, make him exceedingly difficult to translate, and, while some brilliant successes have been achieved with single odes, no one has done justice to him as a whole. Many of the attempts which have been made are reviewed in two articles in the Quarterly Review (Vol. CIV, 1858, and Vol. CLXXX, 1895). The following may be mentioned: Lord Lytton, 'Odes and Epodes' (London 1869) • Cooper,
Odes Englished and Imitated by Various Hands) (London 1880); Martin, 'Works of Horace) (Edinburgh 1888); Conington, (Odes and Epodes' (3d ed., Lon don 1885) ;
JoHN C. ROLFE, Professor of Latin Language and Literature, University of Pennsylvania.