HORACE
[65 B.C—8 B.C]—Additional materials for research scholars
S. Sreekumar
Introduction
Horace
lived in the glorious Augustan Age, named after Octavian Augustus, the first
emperor of Rome. The emperor patronized the artists and to this age belong the
greatest of the Roman writers—Virgil, Tibullus, Propertius, Ovid and Livy.
While in poetry, he ranks next only to Virgil, in criticism he alone is the
ruling god. At the Renaissance he was classed equal to Aristotle.
Works of Horace
Two
books of Satires, Four books of Odes, Ars Poetica
Ars
Poetica was originally known as Epistle to the
Pisos. It was Quintilian who gave it the
title, Ars Poetica. This is Horace’s
chief critical work. It is a letter in verse offering advice on literary
matters to a father and two sons of the name of Piso. The book follows no
method or plan. It is very brief in keeping with its epistolary form, covering
no more than sixteen pages and less than five hundred lines of verse in the
original Latin. Its main topics of discussion are poetry, poetic style, and
drama.
