My introduction to the Roman poet Horace happened in Latin II class in high school. As a foreign language elective, Latin was down to two classes – introductory Latin I and Latin II. As I recall, the class did a group translation in class, which likely meant the Latin teacher did most of the heavy lifting. And then in college, in a class on Western civilization, we read a few of his odes.
Other than that, I’ll confess to a general ignorance of the poet’s body of work.
Quintus Horatius Flaccus (65-8 B.C.), better known to us as Horace, lived through one of the most tumultuous periods of Western history. The son of an ex-slave, he came of age during the rapid decline of the Roman Republic, the assassination of Julius Caesar, the civil wars that followed as competing factions battled (literally) for power, and the final triumph by Octavian, soon called Augustus Caesar.
When death from warfare, suicide, forced suicide, and murder was all too common, Horace was able to thread his way through the politics of power in Roman society. And he did something that few of peers accomplished – he died in his bed from natural causes. That by itself was an achievement, given the deadly nature of Roman politics, especially in the upper tier of society.
British journalist and author Peter Stothard tells Horace’s story in Horace: Poet on a Volcano. But he does do in an intriguing way – he uses Horace’s famed odes as the biographical reference.
Some Tuesday Readings
A Video Reading of the Poem ‘The Loons of Colby Lake’ – Michael Pietrack at Society of Classical Poets.
Found in Translation: Gently May It Sing – L.L. Barkat at Twetspeak Poetry.
“Leda and the Swan,” poem by William Butler Yeats – Joseph Bottum at Poems Ancient and Modern.
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