One of Horace’s most famous poems, this celebrates the final victory of Octavian, the future Emperor Augustus, at the battle of Actium in 31 BCE. Neither Antony nor Cleopatra, who lost, is mentioned by name, but Cleopatra comes in for lively abuse and Antony and his supporters get a hefty sideswipe. The wording of the initial call for celebration seems contorted, but the poem was no doubt a sincere reaction to the end of a dire threat to Rome. There is a neat double meaning in the third stanza: not only was Cleopatra powerless (impotens)to achieve her aims, she was also out of her mind (impotens)to try. The mood changes abruptly at the end as bile against Cleopatra gives way to grudging respect for her courage.
The opening is a direct echo of a celebration poem written five hundred years earlier by Alcaeus, one of Horace’s Greek idols, and the poem uses the same metre. The Salians were priests of Mars and were known for a jumping dance, so they fit well both with the warlike subject and the dancing rhythm of the poem. Caecuban and Mareotic are wines: Mareotic was from Egypt, so the vines saw a lot of sun and the wine would have been especially alcoholic. the Liburni were a detachment of Octavian’s naval forces with a reputation for speed and deadliness.
Metre: Alcaic