Horace is concerned that such a promising young cavalryman as Sybaris should be neglecting his trade because of a girl. Hear his complaint to her in Horace’s original Latin here.
In philosophical mood, Horace advises a friend whose lover has left him for a younger man not to dwell on his woes. Love is often unrequited, and that is the way that Venus, who has a sense of humour, likes it. Hear Horace’s Latin and follow in English here. In the illustration Narcissus, with whom the nymph Echo is in love, has fallen for his own reflection in the water.
In a compliment to the eminent general and politician L Munatius Plancus, Horace celebrates Tibur, which seems to have been his home, likens him flatteringly to the legendary hero Teucer, and reflects on the consolation available from wine in both mythical and contemporary times.
Hear Horace’s Latin and follow in English here.
An important part of Horace’s project in the odes was to use his poetic skills to celebrate Augustus, and to contribute to consolidating his standing in Roman society as an object of supreme veneration and deference. Hear an early example of a poem of fulsome praise for the first Emperor from the first book of Odes in Horace’s Latin and follow in English here.
The magnificent “Blacas” cameo, named after a previous possessor, was probably made soon after Augustus’s death and is in the collection of the British Museum.
Why does Horace couple (no pun intended) the name of Glycera with those of the goddess of love and the god of commerce? I think we can guess. Hear Horace’s Latin and follow in English here.
Horace is ribbing an acquaintance, Iccius, for abandoning philosophy in the hope of getting rich quick from military campaigning. Horace’s matter-of-fact acceptance of imperial ambition, slavery and military conquest is completely normal for him and his contemporaries, but highlights some of the less attractive aspects of the times and society in which he lived.
This boy with perfumed hair is Zeus’s favourite, Ganymede, from a 5th century BCE Attic ceramic.
Hear Horace’s Latin and follow in English here.
Horace pays reverence to the divine favour that (he says) he enjoys from the Muses, while asserting his poetic skill and gift for innovation in a small masterpiece which he presents as a floral garland for a dear Friend, Lamia.
Hear Horace’s original Latin and follow in English here.
In this Ode, a dramatic monologue, Horace’s protagonist is keeping the peace at a vaguely Greek drinking-party that threatens to degenerate into a brawl. He distracts his companions by ribbing one of the company about a current love-affair – with a woman who, in the speaker’s opinion at least, is a spectacularly bad choice.
Hear Horace’s Latin and follow in English here.
There is perhaps some friendly exaggeration in the contrast that Horace draws between his own wine-drinking opportunities and those of his eminent friend and patron, Maecenas, but he offers the best he has, along with his affection and a flattering memory of a great occasion. Hear Horace’s Latin and follow in English here.
The illustration, from Herculaneum, is an advertisement for a wine-bar, showing the prices of the vintages on offer.