SUETONIUS - VITA HORATI
Q. Horatius Flaccus, Venusinus, patre ut ipse tradit libertino, et exactionem coactore (ut vero creditum est salsamentario, cum illi quidam in altercatione exprobrasset: "Quotiens ego vidi patrem tuum brachio se emungentem!") bello Philippensi excitus a Marco Bruto imperatore, tribunus militum meruit; victisque partibus venia impetrata scriptum quaetorium comparavit. Ac primo Maecenati, mox Augusto insinuatus non mediocrem in amborum amicitia locum tenuit. Maecenas quantopere eum dilexerit satis testatur illo epigrammate:
"Ni te visceribus meis, Horati,
Plus iam diligo, tu tuum sodalem
Hinno me videas strigosiorem";
sed multo magis extremis iudiciis tali ad Augustum elogio: "Horati Flacci ut mei esto memor"!
Augustus epistolarum quoque ei officium optulit, ut hoc ad Maecenatem scripto significat: "Ante ipse sufficiebam scribendis epistulis amicorum nunc occupatissimus et infirmus Horatium nostrum a te cupio abducere. Veniet ergo ab ista parasitica mensa ad hanc regiam, et nos in epistulis scribendis iuvabit." Ac ne recusanti quidem aut suscensuit quicquam aut amicitiam suam ingerere desiit. Exstant epistulae, e quibus argumenti gratia pauca subieci: "Sume tibi aliquid iuris apud me, tamquam si convictor mihi fueris; recte enim et non temere feceris, quoniam id usus mihi tecum esse volui, si per valitudinem tuam fieri possit." Et rursus: "Tui qualem habeam memoriam, poteris ex Septimio quoque nostro audire; nam incidit ut illo coram fieret a me tui mentio. Neque enim si tu superbus amicitiam nostram sprevisti, ideo nos quoque (Greek Compound Verb) purissimum penem" et "homuncionem lepidissimum" appellat, unaque et altera liberalitate
THE LIFE OF HORACE
The father of Quintus Horatius Flaccus, a freedman and a tax collector of Venusia, as he himself claims (but in truth he was believed to have been a dealer in salt fish for a certain person in a dispute had taunted him " How often I have seen your father wiping his nose with the arm!") In the war at Philippi, having been recruited by Marcus Brutus, the Commander in Chief, he served as a Military Tribune The parties having been vanquished he returned to Rome, and obtained a written pardon from the Quaestor. Gaining the goodwill at first of Maecenas and, by and by, of Augustus he held a not indifferent position in the friendship of both. To what extent he may have been esteemed by Maecenas is attested sufficiently by that epigram:
"Unless I love you, Horace, more than
My own flesh and blood, you may see your
Most intimate companion a barren mule."
But much more so in the final judgement with the following codicil to Augustus: "Be as mindful of Horatius Flaccus as of me!"
Augustus chose him for the position of secretary as he indicates in a letter to Maecenas: " Before this I was in a position to write letters to my friends, now of ill health and being made busy I desire to take away our Horace from you. He will therefore come from that parasitic table to this regimented existence, and will help to write our letters." And at refusal he showed neither anger nor indeed ceased to advance his friendship. By way of proof I have extracted a few examples from surviving letters: "Take it as something right for you to be near me, if as though you may have been one who lives there with me; for you will have accomplished, not by chance, the right thing, for that is the relationship I have wished to be from me with you, if it is possible to be done in your state of health." And again: "What kind of feelings I have of you, you will also be able to hear from Septimius, for it chanced that he made mention of you in my presence. For if you, so proud, have rejected our friendship, for that reason we will not also be haughty in return." Moreover, amongst other jokes, he often called him "an unadulterated penis" and "a most charming little man," and at one and the same time, by one kindness or another, he he made him rich.
locupletavit. Scripta quidem eius usque adeo probavit mansuraque perpetuo opinatus est, ut non modo Saeculare carmen componendum iniunxerit sed et Vindelicam victoriam Tiberii Drusique, privignorum suorum, eumque coegerit propter hoc tribus Carminum libris ex longo intervallo quarto addere; post Sermones vero quosdam lectos nullam sui mentionem habitam ita sit questus: "Irasci me tibi scito, quod non in plerisque eius modi scriptis mecum potissimum loquaris; an vereris ne apud posteros infame tibi sit, quod videaris familiaris nobis esse?" Expressitque eclogam ad se, cuius initium est:
"Cum tot sustineas et tanta negotia solus,
Res Italas armis tuteris, moribus ornes,
Legibus emendes: in publica commoda peccem,
Si longo sermone morer tua tempora, Caesar."
Habitu corporis fuit brevis atque obesus, qualis et a semet ipsum in saturis describitur et ab Augusto hac epistula: "Pertulit ad me Onysius libellum tuum, quem ego ut excusantem, quantuluscumque est, boni consulo. Vereri autem mihi videris ne maiores libelli tui sint, quam ipse es; sed tibi statura deest, corpusculum non deest. Itaque licebit in sextariolo scribas, ut circuitus voluminis tui sit (Greek Compound Verb), sicut est ventriculi tui."
Ad res Venerias intemperantior traditur; nam speculato cubiculo scorta dicitur habuisse disposita, ut quocumque respexisset ibi ei imago coitus referretur. Vixit plurimum in secessu ruris sui Sabini aut Tiburtini, domusque eius ostenditur circa Tiburni luculum. Venerunt in manus meas et elegi sub titulo eius et epistula prosa oratione quasi commendantis se Maecenati sed utraque falsa puto; nam elegi vulgares, epistula etiam obscura, quo vitio minime tenebatur.
Natus est VI Idus Decembris L. Cotta et L. Torquato consulibus. decessit V Kl. Decembris C. Marcio Censorino et C.
Indeed, he very much approved of his writings and what is more he was of the opinion that they would endure for ever, that he enjoined him to compose not only the Secular Hymn but also for the victory over the Vindelicans of his stepsons Tiberius and Drusus, and he next compelled him to add, after a long interval, a fourth to the three books of writings. After a perusal of the Epistles and Satires, moreover, he must have complained that there was no mention of himself therein: "Know anger to be with me, that in the majority of cases in your writings you do not speak with me, rather otherwise. Do you stand in fear lest in the future ill repute might be before you, because you may be seen to be a friend of us?" And he compelled [from Horace] the reference to himself of which the beginning is:
"Caesar, so many and so great the tasks you sustain alone,
Italy you protect with arms, provide with morals and with
Laws improve: I may commit a fault against public good if,
With long Epistles, I detain the attention of your time.
In bodily appearance he was short and also stout, and as he once described himself in a satire and Augustus in this letter: "Onysius has brought to me your little book, which I consider good and can excuse, however small it is. However you seem to me to fear lest your books may be greater than you yourself are: but with you it is concerning stature, it is not concerning too little body. Therefore it will be permitted to write on a small pot that the circumference of your roll of manuscript may be more bulky, as is the your stomach."
As regards matters relating to Venus he was given to intemperance; for he is said to have had a bedroom fitted with mirrors and harlots so arranged that whithersoever he might look in that place, images of coitus might be reflected. He lived mostly in retreat in the country on his Sabine or Tiburtine villa, it may be seen near the little grove of Tiburnus. Elegies and a letter in prose, under his inscription, purporting to be a commendation from Maecenas have come into my hand but I think both counterfeit; For the Elegies are ordinary and the letter likewise obscure which fault he kept to a minimum. He, being born the sixth day of the Ides of December in the consulate of Lucius Cotta and Lucius Torquatus, died on
Asinio Gallo consulibus post nonum et quinquagesimum diem quam Maecenas obierat, aetatis agens septimum et quinquagesimum annum, herede Augusto palam nuncupato, cum urgente vi valitudinis non sufficeret ad obsignandas testamenti tabulas. Humatus et conditus est extremis Esquiliis iuxta Maecenatis tumulum.
the fifth day of the Kalends of December in the consulate of Gaius Marcus Censurinus and Gaius Asinus Gallus, fifty–nine days after Maecenas had died, living to the fifty–seventh year. Naming Augustus heir publicly since the pressing force on his state of health caused him an inability to sign a last will and testament on a tablet, he was made ready for burial and interred at the far end of the Esquiline, near the tomb of Maecenas.
ANALYSIS & COMMENTARY
The opening lines of the Vita, 1 – 6, give us a sparse summary of the early years of Horace, facts on his birth place, his father, that, as a young man, he was caught up in the civil war that followed the assassination of Julius Caesar and served in the post of a military tribune, unfortunately on the losing side and that, according to conventional theory he apparently purchased a post in the civil service. It is possible, as Fraenkel and others have done, to fill in some of the gaps from Horace's own writings but these fall far short of continuity. Certainly he attended school in Rome rather than in Venusia and followed that schooling by attending university at Athens. While there he fell under the sway of Marcus Brutus, whether by conviction or by coercion, and in the second battle of Philippi he discarded his shield and fled with others. He eventually returned to Rome to find his inheritance confiscated and himself penniless. How exactly he found the money to purchase his civil service post is not revealed or even surmised at by Fraenkel and others. Beyond that, nothing; Suetonius takes us swiftly on towards his association with Augustus and Maecenas.
Q. Horatius Flaccus ... patre ... libertino ... exactionem coactore succinctly sets the scene 'the son of a freedman from Venusia who was a collector of auction monies'. By way of gentle debunking, this is followed, in parenthesis, by ut vero ... salsimentario ... brachio se emungentem! 'but it has been said his father was a salt fish dealer and wiped his nose on his arm'. This passage says as much about the class perceptions and divisions of Roman society as it does about the poet's origins, one is left with the impression that a salsimentario was the bottom of the heap while a coactore was not much of an improvement. Bello Philippensi excitus a Marco Bruto imperatore, tribunus militum meruit ' He was recruited by Marcus Brutus ... and served as a military tribune' Again this is succinct to the point of obscurity and raises more questions than it answers. From student at university to a military tribume in the field of battle hints either at desperation on the part of Brutus or a cavalier attitude to the exigencies of war. Had Horace any pretences to be a member of the establishment it would be understandable but for the son of a freedman to be thus exalted is puzzling. Again, a military tribune on the losing side in a civil war ought, in the inevitable postscriptions that followed, to have forfeited his life, whether he fled the field or not. Yet, victisque ... scriptum ... comparavit. has always been taken as saying that after the defeat he returned to Rome and obtained a post as quaestor's clerk. Is it possible that victisque partibus venia impetrata scriptum quaestorium comparavit can have an alternative meaning? Such as 'the parties having been vanquished and forgiveness having been obtained, he was pardoned by the Quaestor's office'. Fraenkel mentions that there is no other evidence that Horace obtained a civil service post since nowhere in his writings does he say so. Such an alternative reading explains much, negates no known fact and would seem to fit the circumstances of the time far more readily.
If so, we have Horace back in Rome in very straitened circumstances and Suetonius goes on with Ac primo Maecenati, mox Augusto insinuatus ... amicita ... tenuit 'Having gained the goodwill first of Maecenas, then of Augustus, he held the friendship of both.' Fraenkel comments on the use, by Suetonius, of the verb insinuo as being meant as a reprehensible act, presumably with connotations of homosexuality. He suggests that from one writing at the time of Hadrian this would have been a natural assumption and that it should be dismissed from consideration for that reason. Surely there can be no valid reason why such a consideration should not be admitted; it remains a probability that the Rome of that time, under the influence of an inherited Greek ethos, would countenance such behaviour. Certainly Horace himself leaves us in no doubt that he sought solace in homosexual as well as heterosexual liasions, as evidenced in his poetry. However, having admitted the fact as a possibility, it need not receive any undue emphasis.
Maecenas quantopere ... dilexerit ... illo epigrammate 'How much Maecenas esteemed Horace is shown by this epigram' followed by the epigram in question, Ni te visceribus, Horati ... hinno me videas strigosiorem, 'Unless I love you more than my own flesh and blood, Horace ... see me as a barren mule'. As epigrams go, this effort of Maecenas is not amongst the best but it can be made a little better by considering hinno me in place of a mythical Ninnio, as is usual. This allows us to connect visceribus, hinno and strigosiorem together to underline the epigram. The mule, genetically incapable of siring progeny, is used to point the affection of Maecenas for Horace in comparison with his own flesh and blood, presumably children. It is a revealing insight into the sort of affection implied, that of a father to a son, rather than to a lover and may serve to focus our attention away from the use of the verb insinuo used at the beginning of this section. If this reading is accepted it both elevates the status of the epigram and establishes an important point in a relationship. Sed multo ... extremis iudicis ... Augustum elogio: "Horati Flacci ut mei esto memor"! further underlines this paternal affection; 'Much more so in the final judgement ... to Augustus: "be as mindful of Horace as of myself"!' The words are surely more those of a father asking an executor to look after a son than someone bequeathing his lover to another man.
The next passage Augustus epistolarum ... "ante ipse ... abducere" shows us Augustus, by letter, exercising the prerogative of power by demanding that Maecenas release Horace from his service to serve Augustus as a personal secretary. One must surely ask at this point the question that if Horace was already employed as a clerk in the civil service, why would Augustus ask Maecenas for his services? Surely a mere transfer of employment within the Imperial administration would serve; Maecenas would have no say in the matter at all! Granted that in the early days of the Principate, Augustus was careful not to be seen in the use of dictatorial power, the transfer of a lowly clerk would not be seen as an undue usurpation of power. This is followed by Veniet ... ad hanc regiam ... scribendis iuvabit, a passage which, to quote Fraenkel, 'has time and again been made the object of apalling distortions'[p.18]. Certainly it would have raised Republican hackles if it had been given the sort of translation that considers regiam in the context of royalty but it is quite clearly written at a time when no sensible Roman would give it that connotation. Rome was then still theorectically more a republic than a monarchy when the thought of a regal dynasty was still an anathema. The term regiam could then be seen to have been used in opposition to parasitica and the meaning 'regular' or 'regimented' as opposed to 'irregular' or 'casual'. This could then be taken as a reference to the different households and lifestyles of Augustus and Maecenas, the one ordered by some form of protocol, the other by the casual nature of artistic acquaintance. The passage could therefore be considered as 'He will therefore come from that disorderly house to this well ordered existence and will help to write our letters.' This avoids any sinister references to regal power and the rather convoluted argument that Fraenkel submits to accept regiam in its regal sense. Even the use of the royal 'our' might well be seen as an emendation on Suetonius's part who, in the second century, could not envisage the Emperor using the first person in personal correspondence.
Thus, Ac ne ... suscensuit ... amicitiam suam ... desiit 'at his refusal he showed neither anger nor ceased to advance his friendship', becomes more understandable, the refusal of a request rather than a command. Certainly Augustus's reply, "Sume tibi ... convictor mihi fueris ... si per valitudinen ...possit" 'Take it as right for you to be near me, for that is all I intended, inasmuch as it is possible in your state of health', amplifies this while writing, tongue in cheek, of Horace's transparent excuse of ill health. Augustus's "Tui qualem ... ex Septimio ... nostro audire ... a me tui mentio. ... si tu superbus ... ideo nos quoque αnquperhjanoυµen" ' What kind of feelings I retain for you, learn from Septimius, ... that I shall not be haughty in return.', shows no ill feeling but one is struck, however, by the heavy humour of Augustus and the rather cumbersome Latin employed. If this was his normal written style, Augustus certainly did need the services of someone like Horace to act as amanuensis! As to the use of the Greek compound, ανquperhjanoυµen, Fraenkel is of the opinion that Augustus, like all educated Romans, used Greek loan words as a matter of course. The reason that this particular compound is not attested anywhere else, he suggests, is that Augustus 'coined it on the spur of the moment'. Such a facility, on the part of Augustus, is not the only interpretation of its use; a Greek slave, acting as amanuensis and taking dictation, might equally well have coined it in default of an exact Latin equivalent. The fact of a Greek slave being able to make use of double compound verbs need not surprise us. Those serving the higher levels of Roman society in a secretarial capacity would undoubtably have been well educated, a fact that might also explain the sometimes cumbersome Latin. Praeterea ... inter alios jocos ... "purissimum penem" et "homuncionem lepidissimum" appellat ... locupletavit, 'Among other jokes he called him "unadulterated penis" and "effeminate little man" but by kindness, made him rich.' It would seem implicit that Augustus would use such terms in speech only and then only in the company of men. Nor should any undue emphasis be placed on their having any homosexual connotation. Such jocularity amongst men is, and presumably has always been, commonplace. Horace would only need to be less adventurous in sexual encounters than was the norm to be the butt of such humour. Used as such they are indeed terms of affection and would be accepted as such.
Scripta quidem ... privignorum suorum, 'He thought so much of his writings that he commissioned the Secular Hymn and the victory of his stepsons, Tiberius and Drusus, over the Vindelicans', gives us an insight into Horace's middle years and output and, presumably, his blossoming in Roman society. Eumque coegerit ... Carminum libris ... quartum addere 'he compelled him, after a long interval, to add a fourth book of Odes.' and, post Sermones ... lectos nullam sui mentionem ... questus "Irasci ... scito ... videaris familiaris nobis esse?" ... Expressitique eclogam ad se ... 'After perusal of the Epistles and Satires he complained that there was no mention of himself, "are you afraid to be seen to be a friend of mine?" and he forced Horace to write an Epistle, [2, 1]. This passage that gives us an insight into the burst of activity in Horace's later years culminating in Ode IV, 15. This Ode, fullsome in its praise of Augustus, is almost too good to be true. When viewed dispassionately it can be seen as being as much intrinsic sarcasm as noble sentiment. Was Horace reacting to pressure by seeming to yield but secretly sending up Augustus.
The passage beginning Habitu corporis, to ògkwd<FFB1>suauoV, sicut est ventriculi tui", saying, in effect,'in bodily appearance he was short and stout and Augustus complained that his latest offering is as small as himself, so much so that it could have been written on a small pot.' is often dismissed as heavy humour on Augustus's part. Fraenkel is of the opinion that the reference to the small pot was to the habit of using broken pottery surfaces for writing purposes in default of papyrus. This, as a joking reference, seems almost too laboured, even for Augustus. It is equally likely that Augustus was referring not to the physical size of the manuscript but the actual contents. Not in fact to the length of the work but to what it has to say, presumably about himself; that, in effect, there was insufficient mention of himself in a favourable light. ... sed tibi statura deest, corpusculum non deest, can be interpreted as meaning 'but with you the length of the work is not important but the substance of the work is'. The reference to the small pot is therefore not about circumference but about capacity. It is idle to speculate but such sentiments could well have been occasioned by the same Ode IV, 15, mentioned above, with the corollary that Augustus could well have been aware of its true nature.
Ad res Venerias ... referretur is a passage delicately ignored by most commentators and Fraenkel dismisses it, rather, as 'filthy detail'. It succinctly states that it was maintained that Horace was in the habit of having mirrors in his bedroom so that he could see himself making love from all angles. Well, it would seem a natural enough indulgence if one has power, money and the inclination; it would be a saintly man indeed who has not entertained such fantasies himself. The only disturbing note is the use, in the plural sense, of scorta, 'prostitutes'. One is left with the vision of group sex, since it would be physically impossible for one man. There is a nagging remembrance of the later exploits of Tiberius, also related by Suetonius, and it would have the effect of turning an innocent fantasy into a voyeuristic interlude. In both cases Suetonius admits it as hearsay but while posterity has always credited Tiberius with such actions, it has tried to ignore similar actions attributed to Horace.
Vixit plurimum ... Tiburni luculum, 'he lived mostly in his villa at Tiburnum near the little grove of Tiburnus' merely echoes what Horace has to say in his poetry. Venerunt in manus ... elegi sub titulo eius ... quo vitio minime tenebatur 'I have to hand a number of works with his inscription but obviously counterfeit, not being of the quality of his work', is a passage, as Fraenkel comments, that has quite clearly been shorn of most of its substance. To make any sort of biographical sense it must have been preceded by a list of his acknowledged works. Natus est ..., decessit ... herede Augustus ... Humatus et conditus ... juxta Maecenatis tumulum, 'he was born on eighth of December 65 BC, dying suddenly on twenty–seventh of November 8 BC, leaving Augustus his heir. He was buried near the tomb of Maecenas' completes the life.