He, who supreme in judgment, as in wit,
Might boldly censure, as he boldly writ,
Yet judged with coolness, though he sung with fire;
His precepts teach but what his works inspire.
Our critics take a contrary extreme,
They judge with fury, but they write with phlegm:
Nor suffers Horace more in wrong translations
By wits, than critics in as wrong quotations.
While Byron has embalmed, in the poetic amber of the following stanza, both his schoolboy impressions of our poet, and the corrected estimate alike of the Horatian wit and wisdom to which the wayward "Childe” had been trained by the experience of maturer life :—
Then farewell, Horace; whom I hated so,
Not for thy faults, but mine; it is a curse
To understand, not feel thy lyric flow,
To comprehend, but never love thy verse,
Although no deeper Moralist rehearse
Our little life, nor Bard prescribe his art,
Nor livelier Satirist the conscience pierce,
Awakening without wounding the touch'd heart,
Yet fare thee well-upon Soracte's ridge we part.
L. Aurelius Cotta. L. Man- Q. Horatius Flaccus born.
lius Torquatus.
Cn. Domitius Calvinus. M. During this year, or the previous one,
Valerius Messalla.
Horace appears to have come to
Rome.
C. Julius Caesar IV. Dic- Horace goes to Athens to prosecute
tator.
his studies.
C. Julius Caesar V. M. Caesar is murdered on the Ides of
Antonius.
Consuls-elect, -C. Jul.
Caesar Octavianus. Q.
Pedius.
March. Brutus and Cassius leave
Rome, and retire into Greece.
Brutus brings Horace from Athens
to his camp.
C. Vibius Pansa. A. Hir- C. Caesar Octavianus, M. Antonius,
tius.
M. Lepidus, are appointed Trium-
virs for five years to establish a
constitution, and partition the pro-
vinces among them. They prepare
war against Brutus. Horace as
military tribune commands a legion
in the camp of Brutus. Birth of
Ovid; Propertius born a short time
previous, and Tibullus apparently
in the year 695.
M. Aemilius Lepidus II.
L. Munatius Plancus.
L. Antonius Pietas. P.
Servilius Vatia Isauricus
II.
Two battles are fought at Philippi.
Cassius and Brutus commit suicide.
Tiberius Claudius Nero born.
Horace having obtained a pardon, re-
turns to Rome and retires from
military life. Some believe that he
was almost lost in his homeward
voyage near the promontory of Pa-
linurus, but the matter is doubtful.
Cn. Domitius Calvinus. C. The siege of Perusia. Peace restored
Asinius Pollio.
Consuls-elect,-L.Corne
lius Balbus. P. Canidius.
between Octavianus and Antony at
Brundisium.
L. Marcius Censorinus. C. Asinius Pollio sent by Antony against
Calvisius Sabinus.
the Parthians. Pollio celebrates a
triumph over them. Horace com-
mended by Virgil and Varius to
Maecenas.
Appius Claudius Pulcher.
C. Norbanus Flaccus.
M. Vipsanius Agrippa.
Caninius Gallus.
Horace gains the friendship of Mae
Horace goes to Brundisium with Mae-
cenas, Virgil, Varius, and others;
his journey described in Sat. I. 5.
L. Gellius Poplicola. M. Octavianus on his return to Rome
Cocceius Nerva.
after the defeat of Sextus Pompey,
is received with great honour.
L. Cornificius, Sext. Pom- Phraates, king of the Parthians, is
peius, fil
banished from his kingdom on ac-
count of his cruelty, and is suc-
ceeded by Tiridates. Horace seems
to have published his First Book of
Satires.
Lepidus. C. Memmius
Picens. M. Herennius.
Caesar Octavianus II. L.
Volcatius Tullus.
Consuls-elect, -P. Au-
tronius Laetus. L. Fla-
vius. C. Fonteius Capito.
M. Acilius Aviola. L.
Vinicius. L. Laronius.
Cn. Domitius Ahenobar-
bus. C. Sosius.
Consuls-elect,-L. Cor-
nelius. M. Valerius.
Caesar Octavianus III. M.
Valerius Messalla.
Consuls-elect, - M. Ti-
tius. Cn. Pompeius.
35 Caesar Octavianus IV. M.
Licinius Crassus.
Consuls-elect,-C. Antis-
tius Vetus. M. Tullius
Cicero. L. Caelius Bal-
binus.
It is certain that before this year Horace received the Sabine farm as a gift from Maecenas.
Munatius Plancus deserts the party of Antony and espouses the cause of Caesar. Great preparations for
Horace declares himself ready to ac-
company Maecenas to battle. Battle
of Actium, 2d Sept. Epod. 9, Carm.
I. 37.
Egypt reduced to the condition of a
province. Horace seems to have
published his other Book of Satires,
and in the same year his Book of
Epodes.
Caesar Octavianus V. Sex-The temple of Janus shut.
tus Appuleius.
Caesar Octavianus Aug.
VII. M. Vipsanius. A-
grippa III.
Caesar Octavianus Aug.
VIII. T. Statilius Tau-
rus II.
Caesar Octavianus Aug. X.
C. Norbanus Flaccus.
Caesar Octavianus dedicated the
Temple of Apollo on the Palatine
Hill; to this Horace's Ode I. 31
refers.
Caesar appointed Emperor and called
Augustus, after he twice thought
of resigning his power. An expedi-
tion against the Arabs is prepared,
to which Ode I. 29 refers.
Sext. Appuleius obtains a triumph
from his victories in Spain; but the
Cantabri and Astures renew the
Caesar Octavianus Aug. IX. Expedition of Augustus against the
M. Junius Silanus.
Cantabri. Expedition of Aelius
Gallus against the Arabs.
cellus marries Julia.
Phraates expels Tiridates, who flees to
Augustus. Augustus overcomes
the Cantabri, returns to Rome, and
shuts the temple of Janus, Ode
III. 14. Quintilius, the friend of
Horace and Virgil, dies, Ode I. 24.
Horace seems to have published
three books of Odes this year, or
the beginning of next.
Marcellus, the husband of Julia,
dies. Augustus restores his son to
Phraates, and retains Tiridates at
Rome.
Caesar Octavianus Aug.
XI. A. Terentius Varro
Murena.
Consuls-elect,-L. Sex-
tius. Cn. Calpurnius Piso.
Claudius Marcellus
Aeserninus. L. Arrun-
tius.
Licinius Varro Murena and Fannius Caepio, the brothers of Proculeius, and Terentia, the wife of Maecenas, enter into a conspiracy against Augustus. Augustus goes to Sicily on his route to Asia.
Q. Aemilius Augustus journeys to Greece, thence to Samos; winters in Samos.
M. Appuleius. P. Silius Augustus in Asia. Phraates, under
the influence of fear, sends back of his own accord the standards which had been formerly taken from Crassus. Tigranes is restored to his kingdom in Armenia by Tiberius Nero, Epist. I. 12 and 18.
C. Sentius Saturninus. Q. Virgil sets out for Greece; dies at
to have been shut for the third
time; but it is uncertain.
It is
said that Epist. II. 1, was written
this year.
C. Marcius Censorinus. C. Horace dies 27th November, a few
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