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Horace's Epistle to Torquatus (Ep. 1.5)*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

J. S. C. Eidinow
J. S. C. Eidinow
Affiliation:
Merton College, Oxford and Lincoln's Inn, London
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Extract

Horace addresses Torquatus again in Carm. 4.7. There the poet distinguishes three cardinal qualities: Torquatus's genus, his facundia, and hispietas. Since Horace distinguishes them they were no doubt qualities on which Torquatus prided himself, but they are, in any case, the key by which Torquatus slips into Horace's lyric. I suggest that we can use the same key to open up the Epistle, and that by taking up these qualities we have ready access to the wit of the poem, carefully predicated upon its addressee.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 45 , Issue 1 , May 1995 , pp. 191 - 199
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1995

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References

1 Nisbet, R. G. M., CQ 9 (1959), 73–6Google Scholar.

2 Feeney, D. C., ‘History and Revelation in Virgil's Underworld’, PCPS 32 (1986), 1–24, at 5Google Scholar.

3 Val. Max. 5.4.3, under the heading ‘de Pietate erga Parentes et Fratres et Patriam’.

4 Ps-Acro ad loc. ex Porph.; Ps-Acronis Scholia in Horatium Vetustiora, Keller, O., (ed.), (Leipzig, 1904), vol. II p. 230Google Scholar.

5 See esp., as on the Epistle as a whole, Kilpatrick, R. S.The Poetry of Friendship (Alberta, 1986), 61–5 (and the notes to those pages)Google Scholar, to which, as will be obvious, I owe a particular debt. Kilpatrick notes briefly (sometimes without comment) much of the legal language in the poem: I have tried to comment more specifically and to draw out the implications of such usage.

6 Although the previous Epistle (ad Albium) does, of course, end with the famous lines me pinguem et nitidum bene curata cute vises / cum ridere voles Epicuri de grege porcum.

7 Syme, Sir Ronald, The Augustan Aristocracy (Oxford, 1986), pp. 393, 396Google Scholar.

8 Cic, . de Fin. 1.7.24Google Scholar.

9 Bourgery, A., RPh 9 (1935), 130–31Google Scholar. Briefly noted and dismissed by Préeaux, J.ad he. (Presses Universitaires de France, 1969)Google Scholar. Revived by R. S. Kilpatrick (supra, note 5), at 62.

10 Nepos, Cornelius, Vit. Pelop. 3.1–3Google Scholar.

11 Cf. Livy 8.7.15; Val. Max. 2.7.6, 5.8.3; Cic. supra at note 8.

12 Cic, . de Fin. 2.7.22Google Scholar. ‘Patella’ here means a sacred offering·dish.

13 ‘mundos, elegantes, optimis cocis, pistoribus, piscatu, aucupio, venatione… hos ergo asotos bene quidem vivere aut beate numquam dixerim. ex quo efficitur non ut voluptas ne sit voluptas, sed ut voluptas non sit summum bonum’: Cic, . de Fin. 2.8.23–4Google Scholar.

14 ‘O lapathe, ut iactare nec es satis cognitus qui sis!

in quo Laelius clamores σοϕός ille solebat edere.

compellans gumias ex ordine nostros.

Praeclare Laelius et recteσοϕός…’ (Cic. ibid.)

15 Hier, Cf.. adv. Iovin. 2.11:‘Google Scholar Epicurus voluptatis assertor omnes libros suos replevit holeribus et pomis, et vilibus cibis dicit esse vivendum…’ Cic, . Tusc. 5.89Google Scholar.

16 Cf. Mayer, R., PCPS 31 (1985), 39–40Google Scholar.

17 I am grateful to Professor Nisbet for prompting me to look for this reference.