Maybe ten years after the publication of his great three first books of Odes in 2023 BCE, Horace finds himself unexpectedly, and perhaps unwillingly, returning to the genre. He has been invited by Augustus to do so as a contribution to the glory of the new, but now very well established, imperial system, and invitations from that quarter are hard to refuse. The purpose of the second Ode in Horace’s new, fourth, book is primarily to celebrate Augustus by looking forward to a victory over a troublesome German tribe, the Sygambri, but he also takes the opportunity to put on record his critical appreciation of another great poet, Pindar. That, rather than dutifully fulsome praise of the Emperor, is what primarily makes this an attractive poem to a modern readership. Nevertheless, it is a good example of how the imperial regime approached establishing and augmenting its prestige through the arts, and the metre, singing and dancing along in Sapphics, make the piece attractive to listen to throughout. The triumph in the illustration is Caesar’s, one of a series painted by the Renaissance master, Mantegna. now in the royal collection at Hampton Court.
Hear Horace’s Latin and follow in English here.
