Roman History Books and More

back to horace: carpe diem

Odes, Book 1, XI

Tu ne quaesieris (scire nefas) quem mihi, quem tibi
finem di dederint, Leuconoe, nec Babylonios
temptaris numeros. Vt melius quicquid erit pati!
Seu pluris hiemes seu tribuit Iuppiter ultimam,
quae nunc oppositis debilitat pumicibus mare               5
Tyrrhenum, sapias, uina liques et spatio breui
spem longam reseces. Dum loquimur, fugerit inuida
aetas: carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero.

Leuconoë, don’t ask, we never know, what fate the gods grant us,
whether your fate or mine, don’t waste your time on Babylonian,
futile, calculations. How much better to suffer what happens,
whether Jupiter gives us more winters or this is the last one,
one debilitating the Tyrrhenian Sea on opposing cliffs.
Be wise, and mix the wine, since time is short: limit that far-reaching hope.
The envious moment is flying now, now, while we’re speaking:
Seize the day, place in the hours that come as little faith as you can.

Original text:  Latin Library:  Q. HORATIVS FLACCVS
Translation:  A.S. Kline, Poetry in Tranlation: Horace

another online translation of horace

Update:  Robert found the same translation at Wikisource: The Works of Horace, translated by By C. Smart. No date given though either, but looks like it's this Christopher Smart (1722 - 1771).  (Works by Christopher Smart).

• First Book of Satires
• Second Book of Satires

---

At Authorama: 

Horace: The Works of Horace  (no translator name given)

• The First Book of the Satires of Horace
• The Second Book of the Satires of Horace

reading horace satires (ctd.)

Now here is a true satire!

Book II Satire V – Legacy Hunting

BkIISatV:1-22 Ulysses questions Tiresias. 4

BkIISatV:23-44 The path to riches. 4

BkIISatV:45-69 Will-hunting!5

BkIISatV:70-88 Try every trick, but be careful!6

BkIISatV:89-110 Be discrete even after inheriting

reading horace satires (ctd.)

Comparing Horace with Juvenal, I perceive Horace' Satires much less over the top, which when he describes scenes, gives us moderns a pretty good first hand impression of life in the Rome of his times.  A good example, I think, is Satire 1, V – Journey to Brundisium:

BkISatV:1-33 Off to meet Maecenas, going to Brindisi4

BkISatV:34-70 Onward to supper at Cocceius’ villa. 4

BkISatV:71-104 And so by stages to journey’s end

Of course, one has to chuckle quite a bit over Satire 2, VIII – A Dinner Party:

BkIISatVIII:1-19 Nasidienus’ dinner-party. 4

BkIISatVIII:20-41 The guests. 4

BkIISatVIII:42-78 The trials of being a host5

BkIISatVIII:79-95 The guests disperse!

Texts from A.S. Kline (Poetry in Translation)

reading horace satires …

… sitting outside on a nice summer day, with some iced tea by my side, reading Horace.  But a bit unhappy, as most translations of the Satires don't read well … Going back to A.S. Kline (Poetry in Translation) online, still the best (it also has the advantage of a linked glossary).  Somewhere I read that Horace is most difficult to translate.

Anyway, here is what Horace has to say about satire:

gaius maecenas, patron of the arts

Gaius Maecenas, friend and counselor of Augustus (until he fell from grace) was an important friend of Horace, whose Satires we will be discussing next week.  N.S. Gill has more: 

Who Was Maecenas

Definition: A wealthy descendant of Etruscan kings, Gaius Maecenas was a Roman literary patron and writer whose works have not survived except as titles and in fragments.  He was born April 13, c. 70 B.C.

The equestrian Maecenas was an advisor and friend of Augustus. Maecenas as well as Agrippa fought for Augustus during the civil wars;  Agrippa the more so since Maecenas was often in Rome where he served as magistrate. Maecenas is mentioned as having fought at Mutina, Philippi and Perusia, according to Propertius, in the 1911 Encyclopedia.

The name and patronage of Maecenas is associated with Vergil, Horace, Propertius, and Varius.  read on

Here is a typical 19th century Schinken, At Maecenas' Reception by Stepan Bakalovich:

Image Courtesy Wikimedia Commons
click on image to enlarge

gaius lucilius, writer of satires, and his influence on horace

Gaius Lucilius (Wikipedia, handle with care), c.160–103/2 BC, is considered the earliest Roman satirist.  (Other sites give his dates a c.180–102.)  Only fragments of his work remain.  He was a Roman citizen of the equestrian class and belonged to the circle of Scipio Aemilianus.  Horace was influenced by him, and Lucilius appears in several of the latter's satires:

BkISatIV:1-25 Horace praises and also criticises him.
BkISatIV:26-62 An example of a great Satirist.
BkISatX:1-30 Horace’s criticism of his style.
BkISatX:50-71 Lucilius’ own criticism of others.
BkIISatI:1-23 He wrote about Scipio Africanus.
BkIISatI:24-46 Horace considers Lucilius a better man than himself.
BkIISatI:47-86 Lucilius’ satires were tolerated.

Jacques Perret in his Horace points out similarities, such as being part of a circle around the patron:  Aemilianus/Maecenas, the independence of being an equestrian, chroniclers of little groups, etc.  He writes, "[Horace found], in Lucilius, the assurance that one could build a literary work around one's own person.  Perhaps no Greek author would have have encouraged him in that direction."

reading about horace

From what I can see, biographies of Horace do not abound – information to the contrary is greatly appreciated – but I found one at a library today when I searched for a print edition of the works of Horace:

Jacques Perret: Horace
with a foreword by Jotham Johnson
translated by Bertha Humez
New York University Press, 1964

AbeBooks.com has a number of inexpensive copies.

A glance through the book indicates that it is very readable.  Perret, a professor of Latin at the Sorbonne, has written about Vergil too.   JSTOR has several reviews indicating that the book is written for a general audience, i.e., us; three out of four reviews are favorable, with some reservations which probably would pass by the general reader.

next book discussion, july 1: the satires by horace

Update June 23: Google Books has limited previews of The Cambridge Companion to Horace and The Cambridge Companion to Roman Satire.

Scroll down here.

---

Next we are going back to Roman satires, it's Quintus Horatius Flaccus this this time.

In print:  The Satires by Horace.  There are plenty more editions.

An excellent companion book is The Cambridge Companion to Roman Satire (Cambridge Companions to Literature), summarized in this BMCR review:

In sum, this volume proves to be a worthy companion.  Each author hands the traveler on to the next author, never isolating the reader but always providing connections by which to find a way back and to make the current scenery familiar.  Egressum magna me accepit Freudenburg Roma hospitio magno ...

looking ahead: the satires by horace a.s. kline's online translation – update & correction

Update:  I originally downloaded the wrong file   :(

Our next read on July 1 is Horace: The Satires.

A.S. Kline (Poetry in Translation) translated the entire Horace and put it online:

HORACE (Quintus Horatius Flaccus)
Translated by A. S. Kline © 2003, All Rights Reserved
This work may be freely reproduced, stored, and transmitted, electronically or otherwise, for any non-commercial purpose.

Those of you who like me prefer reading a PDF file rather than a browser file can download the entire file, and here it is for your convenience:

Download Horace: THE SATIRES, EPISTLES AND ARS POETICA (fully interactive)

There are other download options of the above file too.  Google Books has various editions of the Satires – look for "full view;" or you could search the Internet Archive if you like flipbooks.

who, catiline, can boast a nobler line

Juvenal Satires, Book III, Satire 8

[...]

Who, Catiline, can boast a nobler line
Than thy lewd friend Cethegus's and thine?
Yet you took arms, and did by night conspire
To set our houses and our gods, on fire
(An enterprise which might indeed become
Our enemies the Gauls, not sons of Rome;
To recompense whose barbarous intent,
Pitch'd shirts would be too mild a punishment)
But Cicero, our wise consul, watch'd the blow,
With care discover'd, and disarm'd the foe:
Cicero, the humble mushroom, scarcely known,
The lowly native of a country town
(Who, till of late, could never reach the height
Of being honour’d as a Roman knight),
Throughout the trembling city placed a guard,
Dealing an equal share to every ward;
And by the peaceful robe got more renown
Within our walls than young Octavius won
By victories at Actium, or the plain
Of Thessaly, discolour’d by the slain:
Him, therefore, Rome in gratitude decreed
The father of his country, which he freed.

(from Juvenal and Persius by G. G. Ramsay)

Satires of Juvenal

In Print:  Sixteen Satires (Penguin Classics)
by Juvenal (Author), Peter Green (Translator, Introduction)

Peter Green

mary beard on publishing in ancient rome

Illustration by Greg Clarke, New York Times

Mary Beard has an essay in this weekend's Books section at the New York Times:

Essay
Scrolling Down the Ages
By MARY BEARD

Published: April 19, 2009

There’s a lot in the Roman literary world that seems familiar: money-making booksellers, exploited authors.

“My book is thumbed by our soldiers posted overseas, and even in Britain people quote my words. What’s the point? I don’t make a penny from it.”  This is not the complaint of some young American author who has suddenly discovered that his contract pays him nothing for foreign sales.  These are the words of the Roman poet Martial, first-century satirist and defender of authors’ rights.   read on

Hat tip to David Meadow, who adds   [...]  If I think about it too hard, I start thinking of the ancient literate slave as the Roman equivalent of an iPod Touch, with a longer battery life.

Marcus Didius Falco, in Lindsey Davis' Ode to a Banker (just reissued) has plenty of experience with Roman Publishers.

titus maccius plautus and quintus ennius – playwright and poet

In Steven Saylor's novel Roma: The Novel of Ancient Rome, our current read, one of the Kaesos is a patron of Plautus, and his friend Scipio Africanus is a fan of the poet Ennius.  (Wikipedia links, as usual handle with care)

N.S. Gill has an excellent write-up about Plautus at About.com, as well as links to Ennius.

Plautus at Britannica
Quintus Ennius at Britannica

Plautus at Smith's Dictionary
Ennius at Smith's Dictionary

more on ovid: peter green

(updated 8/4)

In our recent chats on Ovid, some of us used translations by Peter Green, and since then I have become a fan of his. I recently acquired for a pittance the 1989 hardcover edition of his collection of essays, Classical Bearings: Interpreting Ancient History and Culture, re-isssued on 1998 as trade paperback.

I don't think this Bryn Mawr Classsical Review does the book full justice. But then I'm not a professional historian, and much closer to Mr. Green in age and share some of his views on postmodern scholarship.  Certainly some aspects will be outdated by now and new historical or archaeological facts may have been discovered.  I found his approach to his subjects and his writing highly entertaining.  The essays roam all over the place; a chapter list follows further below.

albius tibullus, roman poet

Albius Tibullus (c. 54–19 BCE) was a Roman poet and almost-contemporary of Ovid.  Not much is known of him.  Nonetheless, the preceding link from Britannica and this Wikipedia page (as usual handle with care) do tell us quite a bit.  Tibullus shared with Ovid their patron, Marcus Valerius Messalla Corvinus (also on Wikipedia).  Tibullus' genre was the Elegy (see Latin literature).  His extant works can be found online:

The Elegies of Tibullus at The Latin Library
Works by Tibullus at Project Gutenberg
English translation only: Selections from Tibullus

Tibullus in print.  In the visual arts, the British painter Lawrence Alma-Tadema, one of the foremost painters depicting classical antiquity of his age, painted

Tibullus at Delia's

1866 Oil on Wood, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
from the Wikimedia Commons

it seems nothing much has changed in about 2000 years . . .

But you’ll no more number the acorns on oak branches,
or bees on Hybla, wild beasts on Alpine mountains,
than I can possibly count so many fashions:
every new day adds another new style.
And tangled hair suits many girls: often you’d think
it’s been hanging loose since yesterday: it’s just combed.

Ovid, The Art of Love, Book Three

ovid's 'amores' as translated by christopher marlowe

P. Ovidius Naso, Amores (ed. Christopher Marlowe)

Click on the Marlowe link at top and enjoy!

ovid in exile as art

Ovid in his Poems of Exile (The Tristia, Ex Ponto, and Ibis with a hyper-linked in-depth index – A.S. Kline's Poetry In Translation) describes his domicile of exile as bleak and desolate.  In fact, Tomi at the Black Sea (Wikipdia, handle with care) was a Greek colony dating back to 500 BCE, with amphitheatre and all.  But he also writes about the Scythians in an ethnographic way.  I found two paintings online associated with Ovid in his exile, today's Romanian Constanţa, covering both aspects:

Ovid Banished from Rome (painting - oil on canvas) by William Turner, 1838, (in a private collection), on Wikimedia Commons, shows a Greek city.

ovid's 'fasti'

The Fasti by Ovid, the poem on the Roman Calendar, can be easily viewed  and read online on A.S. Kline's Poetry In Translation site, with a handy hyper-linked in depth index.

I'm still reading off and on The Cambridge Companion to Ovid, see also its Bryn Mawr Classical Review, but it's tough to follow, as the opinions of the various essayists on the meanings of the Fasti are often divergent.  What did Ovid want to accomplish? Is it Augustan, Augustan propaganda, or what?  Or even satire?  What do the internal contradictions mean?   Are the last six months lost, or were they never written?  And so on …

another lament: literary criticism and me

… don't get on too well with each other, going back to my German Lit. teacher in high school.

I'm having a bad case of criticismophobia right now, reading all these essays on Ovid, and two separate introductions to the Metamorphoses.  'foregrounded,' 'closurally,' and 'gendered' are bad enough, but what about this?

"… In particular, a return to Kristeva's notion of intertextuality as a way of 'orienting the text to its sociohistorical signification' via the ideologeme, i.e. 'the communal function that attaches a concrete structure (like the novel) to other structures (like the discourse of science) in an intertextual space' would seem a healthy antidote to the enervated concept of intertexuality as a kind of glamorous but non­-political version of literary history that prevails in Latin literary studies."  (Thomas Habinek, Part III of "Context and History," chapter "Ovid and empire" in The Cambridge Companion to Ovid.)