Satires and Epistles

by Horace, John Davie, Robert Cowan

Overview

Exuberantly mocking the vices and pretensions of his Roman contemporaries, Horace's Satires are stuffed full of comic vignettes, moral insights, and his pervasive humanity. Boasting famous episodes such as the fable of the town mouse and the country mouse and the grotesque dinner party given by the nouveau-riche Nasidienus, these poems influenced not only contemporaries such as Juvenal, but also English satirists from Ben Jonson to W. H. Auden. In the Epistles, Horace used the form of letters to explore questions of philosophy and how to live a good life. Perhaps the best-known epistle, "The Art of Poetry" (Ars poetica), still influences the work of writers today. These new prose translations by John Davie perfectly capture the lively, scurrilous, and frequently hilarious style of the satires, and the warm and engaging persona of the more meditative epistles. Robert Cowan's introduction and notes take account of the latest scholarship, placing Horace's poems within the development of Roman satire, and exploring the themes of philosophy, morality, sex and gender, literary criticism, politics, and patronage.

About the Series: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the broadest spectrum of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, voluminous notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780199563289
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	03/22/2011
Series:	Oxford World's Classics Series
Pages:	240
Sales rank:	271,647
Product dimensions:	0.30(w) x 7.80(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

John Davie is former Head of Classics at St. Paul's School, in London. Robert Cowan is Fairfax Tutorial Fellow in Latin Literature at Balliol College, Oxford.

Table of Contents

General Introduction
 
Satires
Introduction to Book One
1. Don't go overboard
2. Adultery is childish
3. But no one asked you to sing
4. And when I have time, I put something down on paper
5. From Rome to Brindisi, with stops
6. I am only a freedman's son
7. King Rex: off with his head
8. A little Walpurgisnacht music
9. Bored to distraction
10. The fine art of criticism
 
Introduction to Book Two
1. To write or not to write? (A talk with my lawyer)
2. Plain living and high thinking
3. A Stoic sermon
4. Gourmet à la mode
5. How to recoup your losses
6. The town mouse and the country mouse
7. My slave is free to speak up for himself
8. Nasidienus has some friend in for dinner
 
Epistles
Introduction to Book One
1. To Maecenas (20 B.C.): Philosophy has clipped my wings
2. To Lollius Maximus (22 B.C.): Homer teaches us all how to live, but we have to do it ourselves
3. To Julius Florus, campaigning with Tiberius (20 B.C.): How are you out there with all those officers? What are you doing with your spare time?
4. To Albius Tibullus (24 B.C.): Don't be depressed, my friend. I'm not!
5. To Torquatus (22 B.C.): Come to dinner tonight, the twenty-second
6. To Numicius (no date): Nil admirari
7. To Maecenas (no date): I won't be coming to town this winter. Sorry!
8. To Celsus Albinovanus, campaigning with Tiberius (20 B.C.): I'm depressed. Hope you aren't
9. To Tiberius (20 B.C.): Recommending to you my friend Septimius
10. To Aristius Fuscus (21 B.C.): You can leave the city. I'll take the country
11. To Bullatius (no date): How was your trip?
12. To Iccius, in Sicily (20 B.C.): Hope you are doing well in your work for the Department of External Revenue. But do look up Pompeius Grosphus. Here's the latest news from Rome
13. To Vinius Asina (23 B.C.): Please give these does to Augustus, and watch what you're doing!
14. To the foreman on my farm (no date): You can have the city; I'll take the country
15. To Numonius Vala (22 B.C.): I'm planning to come south for the winter. What's it like down there?
16. To Quinctius (25 B.C.): Virtue is wisdom
17. To Scaeva (no date): How to win friends and influence patrons
18. To Lollius Maximus (20 B.C.): How to influence patrons: be yourself!
19. To Maecenas (20 B.C.): My lyric poetry is not derivative, it's contributive
20. To my first book of epistles (20 B.C.): I guess it's up to you to make your own way in the world
 
Introduction to Book Two
1. The Epistle to Augustus: The literary tradition, and the role of our Roman writers
2. To Julius Florus, still campaigning with Tiberius: Literary ambitions, and how to survive them
3. The art of poetry
 
Notes