Horace

Fifth Horace Flaccus  (Venusia, now Venosa, Basilicata, December 8, 65 BC-Rome, November 27, 8 BC.), known as Horacio, was the main lyric and satirical poet in the Latin language.

He was a reflective poet, who expressed what he wanted with almost absolute perfection. The main themes he dealt with in his poetry are the praise of a retired life ("beatus ille") and the invitation to enjoy youth ("carpe diem"), themes taken up by Spanish poets such as Garcilaso de la Vega and Fray Luis de León. He also wrote epistles (letters), the last of which, addressed "A los Pisones", is known as Poetic Art.^{[citation required]}

Horace also created elegant hexametric verses (Satires and Epistles) and caustic iambic poetry (Epodos). The hexameters are playful but serious works, friendly in tone, prompting the ancient satirist Persius to comment: ".

His career coincided with Rome's momentous change from republic to empire. An officer in the republican army defeated at the Battle of Philippi in 42 BC, he befriended Octavian's right-hand man in civil affairs, Maecenas, and became a spokesman for the new regime. For some commentators, his association with the regime was a delicate balance in which he maintained a strong dose of independence (he was "a master of the elegant sidestep") but for others it was, in John Dryden's phrase, "a well-bred court slave".

Biography

Horacio Flacci Sermonum (1577)

Horace can be considered the world's first autobiographer. In his writings, he tells us much more about himself, his character, his development, and his way of life, than any other great poet of antiquity. Part of the biographical material contained in his work can be supplemented from the brief but valuable & # 34; Life of Horacio & # 34; by Suetonius (in his Lives of the Poets).

Childhood

He was born on December 8, 65 BC in the Samnite South of Italy. His hometown, Venosa, was on a trade route in the border region between Apulia and Lucania (Basilicata). Several Italic dialects were spoken in the area, which perhaps enriched his linguistic sensitivity. He may have been familiar with Greek words even as a child and later scoffed at the mixed Greek and Oscan slang spoken in the neighboring Canusium. One of the works he probably studied at school was the Odyssia by Livio Andrónico, taught by teachers such as the 'Orbilius' mentioned in one of his poems. Army veterans may have settled there at the expense of local families uprooted by Rome as punishment for their participation in the Social War (91-88 BC). Such state-sponsored migration must have added even more linguistic variety to the zone. According to a local tradition related by Horace, a colony of Romans or Latins had settled in Venusia after the Samnites had been expelled at the beginning of the 3rd century. In that case, the young Horace may have considered himself a Roman, although there are also indications that he considered himself a Samnite or Sabellian by birth. Italians, both modern and ancient, have always been devoted to their hometowns, even after they had triumphed in the rest of the world, and Horace was no different. Images of his childhood and references to her appear throughout his poems.

Horacio's father was probably a Venetian taken captive by the Romans in the Social War, or possibly descended from a Sabine captured in the Samnite wars. In any case, he was a slave for at least part of his life. However, he was evidently a man of great abilities and succeeded in obtaining his freedom and improving his social standing. Thus, Horace claimed to be the freeborn son of a prosperous 'coactor'. The term "coactor" could denote various functions, such as tax collector, but its use by Horace was explained by the scholia as a reference to "coactor argentareus", that is, an auctioneer with some of the functions of a banker, who paid the seller with his own funds and later recovered the sum with interest from the buyer.

He was the son of a freed slave, although he was born when his father was already free. His father, though poor, invested a lot of money in his son's education, accompanying him to Rome where he began his grammar studies with Orbilius and, probably, rhetoric with Heliodorus. At the age of 20 he moved to Athens to study Greek and Philosophy at the Academy with Theomnestus, where he first came into contact with Epicureanism. Horacio always recognized the care and the great sacrifice that his father made for him, his relationship is one of the most beautiful episodes of filial love that survive from the classical period.

The poet later paid tribute to him in a poem that one modern scholar considers a son's greatest monument to his father. The poem includes this passage:

If my character is corrupted by some minor faults, but otherwise it is decent and moral, if you can only point out some stains scattered on a surface otherwise immaculate, if no one can accuse me of greed, or of mojigatry, or of waste, if I live a virtuous life, free of manifold (perdona, for a moment, my autoelogio), and I am a good friend, my father. As it is now, it deserves from me gratitude and unreserved praise. I could never be ashamed of such a father, nor do I feel any need, like many people, to apologize for being a son of a liberty.

He never mentioned his mother in his verse and may not have known much about her. Perhaps she too had been a slave.

After the assassination of Julius Caesar, he joined the republican party, forming part of the army that Marco Junio Brutus was preparing in Greece to oppose the triumvirs Octavio, Lepido and Marco Antonio, being appointed military tribune. The republican army was defeated in the double battle of Philippi (42 BC), in which, given his poor military skills, he had to escape to save his life. When Octavio decreed an amnesty in favor of those who had fought against him, Horace decided to return to Rome. He then learned the news of the death of his father and the confiscation of his property. Poverty, he nonetheless got a job as a quaestor's clerk, a position that allowed him to practice his poetic art.

Over time, Horace gained the respect and admiration of Roman literary circles, to which Virgil and Lucius Varius Rufus belonged, who introduced him to Gaius Maecenas (38 BC), a friend and advisor to Caesar Augustus. The emperor gave him his protection, even offering him a position as personal secretary, although Horace declined due to his Epicurean principles. Maecenas became his protector and personal friend, and gave Horace a farm in Tiber , in the Sabine mountains (33 BC), where the poet retired to write the works of him Their friendship was such that they were buried next to each other.

Work

His poetic work was not reduced to the lyric subgenre, but also touched on other aspects of knowledge. Critics propose two periods of his production.

A first period in which he composed Satires, a poetry where he gives a version of human culture and a vision of the beginning of humanity, and which presents abundant autobiographical elements that pursue a moral end. He also composed the Epodos , compositions of a lyrical nature in which social criticism is not absent either. The epod is a composition of Greek origin intended for insult and insult. Some of Horace's epodes retain this character, but others are eminently lyrical in nature. He highlights the one whose beginning, Beatus ille , has given its name to a literary theme, the praise of life in the countryside.

In the second period he would write the Odes and the Epistles. The odes are compositions of a lyrical nature that constitute the masterpiece of Latin poetry. There are four books with a total of 104 odes. In them he boasts of having been the first to transplant Aeolian lyric as a whole into Latin, imitating Greek lyrical themes and metres, especially those of Alceo, Sappho and Anacreon. Horacio is aware that his odes are the best of his work and affirms that they will be more durable than bronze.

In the Odes the fundamental component is the lyrical. We can group the odes into several thematic groups: praise of Augustus, praise of friendship, philosophical and moral theme, love, and finally the countryside and nature. The poet exposes his philosophy of life: one must know how to make use of wealth and be generous; one must not let oneself be overwhelmed by adversity and one must enjoy present goods, which are precarious; the best way to be happy is the «golden meanness» («aurea mediocritas»). There is an invitation to enjoy the present moment, since tomorrow is uncertain: «carpe diem». This theme will have great fortune in universal literature.

The Epistles are the poetry of moral and philosophical reflection. Among the latter, Epistula ad Pisones stands out, better known as Poetic Art, in which he establishes mandatory literary principles that have survived for centuries in our culture.

Influence

Horatio Statue in Venosa.

The themes and topics created by Horacio will enjoy universal support throughout the literature after his death. Essentially starting from the Renaissance it is difficult not to find a single composition influenced by topics or Horatian forms. Thus, poets such as Ronsard, Petrarca or Garcilaso stand out, who were involved by the sweetness and Horatian reflections. In Spain we can find great Horatian influences in Fray Luis de León, who practically paraphrases him in some of his poetry, José Cadalso or Leandro Fernández de Moratín; and even other authors who will follow the path paved by the Roman poet. Some English poets will also be influenced by Horace, such as John Keats or John Milton.

Later on, in the Generation of '27, we will also find Horacian influences in poets such as Jorge Guillén from Valladolid. His figure is still associated today with the clichés to which the Middle Ages associated him, and which can now be considered almost more medieval than fully Roman: the "aurea mediocritas", the "carpe diem" and the "beatus ille". Nevertheless, Horace's vitality, despite a certain anachronism in his perspective that reveals the XXI century, is still active as one of the most extraordinary Latin classics, along with others such as Cicero, Virgil, Ovid and other immortal artists.

Timeline

Carpe diem.

• Year 65 B.C. Horatio.
• 63. Eighteen. Catilin conjuration.
• 60. Constitution of the so-called First Triumvirate (Julio César, Pompeyo and Craso).
• 53. Defeat of Crasus in Carras for births.
• 49. Julio César passes the Rubicon River. Civil war between Julius Caesar and Pompey.
• 48. Julius Caesar's victory in Farsalia.
• 45. Horatio arrives in Athens.
• 44. Julius Caesar murder.
• 43. Modena war. Constitution of the Second Triumvirate (Octavio, Marco Antonio and Lépido). Proscriptions and death of Marco Tulio Cicero. Birth of Ovid.
• 42. Victory of the Cessians in Philippi. Horatio among the defeated.
• 39. Presentation of Horatio to Mecenas.
• 37. Travel to Brindisi on the occasion of the Tarento conference.
• 36. Defeat of Sexto Pompeyo in Nauloco.
• 35. Publication of the first book Sátiras.
• 31. Octavian victory in Accio over Marco Antonio and Cleopatra.
• 30. Publication of book II Sátiras and the book of the Epo-.
• 27. End of revolutionary illegality. Octavian gets the title of Augustus.
• 23. Publication of the first three books Odas.
• 20. Publication of the first book Epistles.
• 19. Die Virgilio and Tibulo.
• 17. Celebration of the Secular Games. Secular song.
• 15. Publication of book II Epistles.
• 13. Publication of book IV of the Odas.
• 8 a. C. Die Mecenas. Die Horacio.