PREFACE. THE HE editor has founded his text of Horace upon the best manuscripts, as cited by Keller, Ritter, Orelli, and other critics, — after comparing the judgments of the most sagacious editors upon every passage. Readings not adopted, which deserve attention for their importance or their high authority, as well as the most noticeable conjectural emendations, have been placed at the bottom of each page. In the notes, it has been his simple endeavor to meet the wants of American students. While great attention has been paid to the explanation of points of grammatical, philological, and antiquarian interest, he has hoped to aid in making the study of these poems conduce to refinement of taste and to general literary culture. Macleane's admirable Arguments to the Odes and Epodes have been adopted to a great extent; in the Introductions to the Satires and Epistles, aid has been derived from various sources. A long array of commentators has been consulted, as will appear by the references; but particular acknowledgment is due to the always judicious notes of Orelli, the often acute annotations of Ritter, Nauck's sprightly commentary on the Odes, and Krüger's full and accurate notes on the Satires and Epistles. Of recent English annotated editions, the most noticeable is that of Yonge, an Assistant Master of Eton, to whom I acknowledge my indebtedness for occasional assistance. In orthography he follows Munro, non passibus aequis. He is not unacquainted with the great German scholars and critics, although he calls Obbarius "Obbar" and Ritschl "Ritschel; " but his edition is particularly rich in illustrative citations from other authors. In the few instances in which the orthography here adopted differs from that ordinarily used, the student will find the more common form among the various readings, particularly in the first part of the book. In the latter part of the book, readings are given illustrating the most important peculiarities of orthography not adopted in the text. These variations in orthography, as well as the more important various readings indicating actual differences in expression, are all derived from the manuscripts, (older or more recent,) unless indicated as conjectural. The dates at which Horace's poems were written are in some instances easily ascertained, in others will always remain matters of doubtful conjecture. In disputed cases, the two extremes of the dates which have been proposed by scholars, or at least of the most plausible ones, are given in the notes, directly after the caption of each poem. Students of Horace will aid themselves in understanding and appreciating him by judicious collateral reading,- especially in Roman history, where Mommsen and Merivale are particularly recommended to their attention. But nothing can supersede the fond and constant reading of the author himself, continued until his own words speak directly to the mind and ear with a power and beauty unattainable by the best translation. The marks of punctuation indicate variations of interpunction in different editions: except that different readings of the same word or passage are separated by a comma. LIFE OF HORACE. BY THEODORE MARTIN. (ABRIDGED.) Ο UINTUS HORATIUS FLACCUS was born vi. Id. Dec. A. U. C. 689 (B. c. 65), during the consulship of L. Aurelius Cotta and L. Manlius Torquatus. His father was a freedman of the town of Venusia, the modern Venosa, the inhabitants of which belonged to the Horatian tribe, and had received his manumission before his son was born. He had realized a moderate independence in the vocation of coactor, a name borne indifferently by the collectors of public revenue, and of money at sales by public auction. To which of these classes he belonged is uncertain, but most probably to the latter. With the fruits of his industry he had purchased a small property near Venusia, upon the banks of the Aufidus, the modern Ofanto, in the midst of the Apennines, upon the doubtful boundaries of Lucania and Apulia. Here the poet was born, and in this picturesque region of mountain, forest, and stream the boy became imbued with the love of nature, which distinguished him through life. In his father's house, and in those of the Apulian peasantry around him, Horace had opportunities of becoming familiar with the simple virtues of the poor, - their independence, integrity, chastity, and homely worth, which he loved to contrast with the luxury and vice of imperial Rome. He appears to have been an only child. No doubt he had at an early age given evidence of superior powers; and to this it may have been in some measure owing, that his father resolved to give him a higher education than could be obtained under a provincial schoolmaster, and, although ill able to afford the expense, took him to Rome when about twelve years old, and gave him the best training which the capital could supply. No money was spared to enable the boy to keep his position among his fellow-scholars of the higher ranks. He was waited on by numerous slaves, as though he were the heir to a considerable fortune. At the same time, he was not allowed to feel any shame for his own order, or to aspire to a position which he was unable to maintain. Under the stern tutorage of Orbilius Pupillus, a grammarian of high standing, richer in reputation than gold, but unduly fond of the rod, he learned grammar, and became familiar with the earlier Latin writers and with Homer. What was of still more importance, during this critical period of his first introduction to the temptations of the capital, he enjoyed the advantage of his father's personal superintendence, and of a careful moral training. His father went with him to all his classes, and, being himself a man of shrewd observation and natural humour, he gave his son's studies a practical bearing, by directing his attention to the follies and vices of the luxurious and dissolute society around him, and showing their incompatibility with the dictates of reason and common sense. From this admirable father Horace appears to have gathered many of "the rugged maxims hewn from life" with which his works abound, and also to have inherited that manly independence for which he was remarkable, and which, while assigning to all ranks their due influence and respect, never either overestimates or compromises its own. Under the homely exterior of the Apulian freedman we recognize the soul of the gentleman. This At what age Horace lost his father is uncertain, but probably before he left Rome for Athens, to complete his education in the Greek literature and philosophy, under native teachers. he did some time between the age of seventeen and twenty. Athens he found many young men of the leading Roman families, engaged in the same pursuits with himself. He was no careless student of the classics of Grecian literature, and, with a natural enthusiasm, he made his first poetical essays in their flexible and noble language. His usual good sense, however, soon caused him to abandon the hopeless task of emulating the Greek writers on their own ground, and he directed his efforts to transfusing into his own language some of the grace and melody of these masters of song. In the political lull between the battle of Pharsalia, A. U. c. 706 (B. c. 48), and the death of Julius Cæsar, A. U. C. 710 (B. c. 44), Horace was enabled to devote himself without interruption to the tranquil pursuits of the scholar. But when, after the latter event, Brutus came to Athens, and the patrician youth of Rome, fired with zeal for the cause of republican liberty, joined his standard, Horace, infected by the general enthusiasm, accepted a military command in the army which was destined to encounter the legions of Antonius and Octavius. His rank was that of tribune, and his appointment excited jealousy among his brother officers, who considered that the command of a Roman legion should have been reserved for men of nobler blood. But he had manifestly a strong party of friends, who had learned to appreciate his genius and attractive qualities. It is certain that he secured the esteem of his commanders, and bore an active part in the perils and difficulties of the campaign, which terminated in the total defeat of the republican party at Philippi, A. U. C. 712 (B. o. 42). Horace reached home, only to find his paternal acres confiscated. He was enabled, however, to purchase the place of scribe |