The Works of HoraceMachine readable text


The Works of Horace
By Quintus Horatius Flaccus
Translated by: C. Smart
New York Harper & Brothers 1863


Perseus Documents Collection Table of Contents


   That all, but especially the covetous, think their own condition the hardest.
   Bad men, when they avoid certain vices, fall into their opposite extremes.
   We ought to connive at the faults of our friends, and all offenses are not to be ranked in the catalogue of crimes.
   He apologizes for the liberties taken by satiric poets in general, and particularly by himself
   He describes a certain journey of his from Rome to Brundusium with great pleasantry.
   Of true nobility.
   He humorously describes a squabble betwixt Rupilius and Persius.
   Priapus complains that the Esquilian mount is infested with the incantations of sorceresses.
   He describes his sufferings from the loquacity of an impertinent fellow.
   He supports the judgment which he had before given of Lucilius, and intersperses some excellent precepts for the writing of Satire.
   He supposes himself to consult with Trebatius, whether he should desist from writing satires, or not.
   On Frugality.
   Damasippus, in a conversation with Horace, proves this paradox of the Stoic philosophy, that most men are actually mad.
   He ridicules the absurdity of one Catius, who placed the summit of human felicity in the culinary art.
   In a humorous dialogue between Ulysses and Tiresias, he exposes those arts which the fortune hunters make use of, in order to be appointed the heirs of rich old men.
   He sets the conveniences of a country retirement in opposition to the troubles of a life in town.
   One of Horace's slaves, making use of that freedom which was allowed them at the Saturnalia,206 rates his master in a droll and severe manner.
   A smart description of a miser ridiculously acting the extravagant.

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Poem 9

He describes his sufferings from the loquacity of an impertinent fellow.

I was accidentally going along the Via Sacra, meditating on some trifle or other, as is my custom, and totally intent upon it. A certain person, known to me by name only, runs up; and, having seized my hand, "How do you do, my dearest fellow?"

"Tolerably well," say I, "as times go; and I wish you every thing you can desire."

When he still followed me; "Would you any thing?"93 said I to him.

But, "You know me," says he: "I am a man of learning."

"Upon that account," says I: "you will have more of my esteem." Wanting sadly to get away from him, sometimes I walked on apace, now and then I stopped, and I whispered something to my boy. When the sweat ran down to the bottom of my ankles. 0, said I to myself, Bolanus,94 how happy were you in a headpiece!

Meanwhile he kept prating on any thing that came uppermost, praised the streets, the city; and, when I made him no answer; "You want terribly," said he "to get away; I perceived it long ago; but you effect nothing. I shall still stick close to you; I shall follow you hence: where are you at present bound for?"

"There is no need for your being carried so much about: I want to see a person, who is unknown to you: he lives a great way off across the Tiber, just by Caesar's gardens."

"I have nothing to do, and I am not lazy; I will attend you thither." I hang down my ears like an ass of surly disposition, when a heavier load than ordinary is put upon his back.

He begins again: "If I am tolerably acquainted with myself, you will not esteem Viscus or Varius as a friend, more than me; for who can write more verses, or in a shorter time than I? Who can move his limbs with softer grace [in the dance]? And then I sing, so that even Hermogenes may envy."

Here there was an opportunity of interrupting him. "Have you a mother, [or any] relations that are interested in your welfare?"

"Not one have I; I have buried them all."

"Happy they! now I remain. Dispatch me: for the fatal moment is at hand, which an old Sabine sorceress, having shaken her divining urn,95 foretold when I was a boy; This child, neither shall cruel poison, nor the hostile sword, nor pleurisy, nor cough, nor the crippling gout destroy: a babbler shall one day demolish him; if he be wise, let him avoid talkative people, as soon as he comes to man's estate."