(p.311)
13 Look your last on lyric: Horace, Odes 4.15
Source:
Classics in Progress
Author(s):
Jasper Griffin
Publisher:
British Academy
DOI:10.5871/bacad/9780197263235.003.0013
Quintus Horatius Flaccus brought his first three books of Odes before the public in 23 bc. They came with impressive sponsors, addressed to Maecenas, the second to the Princeps himself, the fourth to L. Sestius and M. Agrippa. Horace did not repeat, in books 1 to 3, the bold stroke of directly addressing the Princeps; that was reserved for book 4, odes 5 and 15. This chapter describes his relation to Augustus, and the relation of his poetry to the imperial propaganda. What is called ‘Augustan poetry’ is so intimately connected with the estimate of the crucial event in Roman history, the change from Republic to Empire, that both historians and literary scholars find the question fascinating.
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