It is 24 BCE, and Horace calls on Augustus’s family, and Rome in general, to welcome him on return from campaigning in Spain. The first half of the poem refers to one reason to be particularly glad: Augustus had been ill, and rumours were even circulating that he might actually have died. A further reason, pictured in the second half, is more personal to Horace. He is free to celebrate at home with wine and female company, free from the fear and the risk of renewed civil strife that might have followed Augustus’s death. The poem ends with an oblique reference, which no Roman would have missed, to the battle of Philippi. Hear Horace’s Latin and follow in English here.
Augustus’s welcome home
