can so rapidly have endeared him to his brother poets. When Virgil and Varius told Mæcenas "what he was," they must have spoken of him as a writer of verses, not merely of great promise, but of some performance. But were the two or three Satires, which we may suppose to have been written before his introduction to Mæcenas, sufficient to found this poetic reputation? That some of the Epodes belong to this early part of his poetical career, I have no doubt; the whole adventure with Canidia (that one of his poetical intrigues which has a groundwork at least of reality) belongs to a period of his life, when he was loose, as it were, upon the world, without an ascertained position in society, unsettled in habits, and to a certain degree in opinions. Nor does there appear to me any difficulty in the supposition that some of the Odes, which bear the expression of youthful feelings and passions, however collected afterwards, and published in books, may have been among the compositions which were communicated to his friends, and opened to him the society of men of letters, and the patronage of the great.(2)

(42) The chronology of the Epodes will be considered hereafter. The most untenable part of the Bentleian Chronology, which, however, as far as the publication of the separate books, is no doubt true, is his peremptory assertion, that Horace employed himself only on one kind of poetry at a time; that he first wrote all the Satires, then the Epodes, then three books of Odes. Dr. Tate, the faithful and unshaken disciple of Bentley, quoting the lines,

66

Neque, si quis scribat, uti nos,
Sermoni propiora, putes hunc esse poëtam,"

does not scruple to assert that Horace, Sat. I. iv., "says, as plainly as a man can say it, that he had not then written any

Nine months elapsed between the first cold reception of Horace by Maecenas, and his advances to nearer friendship.

Mæcenas, though still engaged in public affairs, and though he had not yet built his splendid palace on the Esquiline, had nevertheless begun to collect around him all the men, either eminent, or who promised to become eminent, in arts and letters. The friendship with Horace grew up rapidly into close intimacy. In the following year Horace accompanied him on his journey to Brundusium; to which Mæcenas proceeded, though on a political negociation of the utmost importance (the reconciliation of Antony and Octavius), as on a party of pleasure, environed by the wits and poets who had begun to form his ordinary circle.

The mutual amity of all the great men of letters, in this period, gives a singularly pleasing picture of the society, which was harmonised and kept together by the example and influence of Mæcenas. Between Virgil, Plotius, Varius, and Horace, between Horace and Tibullus there was not merely no vulgar jealousy, no jarring rivalry, but the most frank mutual admiration. If an epigram of Martial be not a mere fancy of the poet, Virgil carried his delicacy so far, that he would not trespass on the poetic provinces which seemed to belong to his friends. Though he might have surpassed Varius in tragedy, and Horace in lyric

thing which could entitle him to the name of a poet;" therefore, no single Ode. But Horace," as has been well observed, "uses language much like this in his Epistles (Epist. II. i. 250, &c.), written after all his Odes."-Dyer, in Classical Museum, No. v. p. 215, &c.

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poetry, he would not attempt either, lest he should
obscure their fame.(43)

In the enjoyment of this society Horace com-
pleted the earliest of his works which has reached
posterity (if indeed we have not his whole published
works), the first book of Satires. (43)

(43) "Si tua, Cirini, promas Epigrammata vulgo,
Vel mecum possis, vel prior ipse legi;
Sed tibi tantus inest veteris respectus amici,
Carior ut mea sit, quam tua fama tibi.
Sic Maro nec Calabri tentavit carmina Flacci,
Pindaricos nosset cum superare modos;
Et Vario cessit Romani laude cothurni

Cum posset tragico fortius ore loqui.

Aurum et opes et rura frequens donabit amicus,
Qui velit ingenio cedere, rarus erit."

Mart., Epigram viii. 18.

(4) Even on the publication of the Satires, Odes, and Epistles, in separate books, there are more difficulties than at first sight appear in the chronology of Bentley. Several of the Satires in the first book, but especially the fourth, show that Horace had already made enemies by his satiric poetry. Horace was averse to the fashion of reciting poems in public which had been introduced by Asinius Pollio, and complains that his own were read by few:

"Cum mea nemo

Scripta legat, vulgo recitare timentis.”

Compare line 73 et seqq. Some recited their works in the
forum—some in the public baths.

No doubt he is in jest in this comparison between his
poems and those of his rivals Crispinus and Fannius; but it
seems to imply that his poems were already, some way or other,
exposed to popular approbation, or neglect. Our notion of
publication, the striking off at once a whole edition, probably
misleads us. Before the invention of printing, each poem must
have been copied and re-copied separately; perhaps they may
not have been exposed for sale till made up in books. See for
the chronology of the poems the "Fasti Horatiani."

SATIRIC POETRY-ITS ORIGIN-THE COMEDY OF ROME-STATE

tions.

BOOKS OF SATIRES-EPODES-DATE OF COMPOSITION-
OF COMPLETION.

HE satiric style of poetry was
admirably suited to this way of
living. It was the highest order
of the poetry of society. It
will bear the same definition
as the best conversation-good
sense and wit in equal propor-

Like good conversation, it dwells enough on one topic to allow us to bear something away; while