Editing Horace (section)

===Antiquity===
Horace's influence can be observed in the work of his near contemporaries, [[Ovid]] and [[Propertius]]. Ovid followed his example in creating a completely natural style of expression in hexameter verse, and Propertius cheekily mimicked him in his third book of elegies.<ref group="nb">Propertius published his third book of elegies within a year or two of Horace's Odes 1–3 and mimicked him, for example, in the opening lines, characterizing himself in terms borrowed from Odes 3.1.13 and 3.30.13–14, as a priest of the Muses and as an adaptor of Greek forms of poetry (R. Tarrant, ''Ancient receptions of Horace'', 227)</ref> His ''Epistles'' provided them both with a model for their own verse letters and it also shaped Ovid's exile poetry.<ref group="nb">Ovid for example probably borrowed from Horace's ''Epistle'' 1.20 the image of a poetry book as a slave boy eager to leave home, adapting it to the opening poems of ''Tristia'' 1 and 3 (R. Tarrant, ''Ancient receptions of Horace''), and ''Tristia'' 2 May be understood as a counterpart to Horace's ''Epistles'' 2.1, both being letters addressed to Augustus on literary themes (A. Barchiesi, ''Speaking Volumes'', 79–103)</ref>

His influence had a perverse aspect. As mentioned before, the brilliance of his ''Odes'' may have discouraged imitation. Conversely, they may have created a vogue for the lyrics of the archaic Greek poet [[Pindar]], due to the fact that Horace had neglected that style of lyric (see [[Pindar#Influence and legacy|Influence and Legacy of Pindar]]).<ref>R. Tarrant, Ancient receptions of Horace, 280</ref> The iambic genre seems almost to have disappeared after publication of Horace's ''Epodes''. Ovid's ''Ibis'' was a rare attempt at the form but it was inspired mainly by [[Callimachus]], and there are some iambic elements in [[Martial]] but the main influence there was [[Catullus]].<ref>R. Tarrant, ''Ancient receptions of Horace'', 278</ref> A revival of popular interest in the satires of Lucilius may have been inspired by Horace's criticism of his unpolished style. Both Horace and Lucilius were considered good role-models by [[Persius]], who critiqued his own satires as lacking both the acerbity of Lucillius and the gentler touch of Horace.<ref group="nb">The comment is in Persius 1.114–18, yet that same satire has been found to have nearly 80 reminiscences of Horace; see D. Hooley, ''The Knotted Thong'', 29</ref> [[Juvenal]]'s caustic satire was influenced mainly by Lucilius but Horace by then was a school classic and Juvenal could refer to him respectfully and in a round-about way as "''the Venusine lamp''".<ref group="nb">The allusion to ''Venusine'' comes via Horace's ''Sermones'' 2.1.35, while ''lamp'' signifies the lucubrations of a conscientious poet. According to Quintilian (93), however, many people in Flavian Rome preferred Lucilius not only to Horace but to all other Latin poets (R. Tarrant, ''Ancient receptions of Horace'', 279)</ref>

[[Statius]] paid homage to Horace by composing one poem in Sapphic and one in Alcaic meter (the verse forms most often associated with ''Odes''), which he included in his collection of occasional poems, ''Silvae''. Ancient scholars wrote commentaries on the lyric meters of the ''Odes'', including the scholarly poet [[Caesius Bassus]]. By a process called ''derivatio'', he varied established meters through the addition or omission of syllables, a technique borrowed by [[Seneca the Younger]] when adapting Horatian meters to the stage.<ref>R. Tarrant, ''Ancient receptions of Horace'', 280–81</ref>

Horace's poems continued to be school texts into late antiquity. Works attributed to [[Helenius Acro]] and [[Pomponius Porphyrio]] are the remnants of a much larger body of Horatian scholarship. Porphyrio arranged the poems in non-chronological order, beginning with the ''Odes'', because of their general popularity and their appeal to scholars (the ''Odes'' were to retain this privileged position in the medieval manuscript tradition and thus in modern editions also). Horace was often evoked by poets of the fourth century, such as [[Ausonius]] and [[Claudian]]. [[Prudentius]] presented himself as a Christian Horace, adapting Horatian meters to his own poetry and giving Horatian motifs a Christian tone.<ref group="nb">Prudentius sometimes alludesto the ''Odes'' in a negative context, as expressions of a secular life he is abandoning. Thus for example ''male pertinax'', employed in Prudentius's ''Praefatio'' to describe a willful desire for victory, is lifted from ''Odes'' 1.9.24, where it describes a girl's half-hearted resistance to seduction. Elsewhere he borrows ''dux bone'' from ''Odes'' 4.5.5 and 37, where it refers to Augustus, and applies it to Christ (R. Tarrant, ''Ancient receptions of Horace'', 282</ref> On the other hand, [[St Jerome]], modelled an uncompromising response to the pagan Horace, observing: "''What harmony can there be between Christ and the Devil? What has Horace to do with the Psalter?''"<ref group="nb">St Jerome, ''Epistles'' 22.29, incorporating a quote from ''2 Corinthians'' 6.14: ''qui consensus Christo et Belial? quid facit cum psalterio Horatius?'' (cited by K. Friis-Jensen, ''Horace in the Middle Ages'', 292)</ref> By the early sixth century, Horace and Prudentius were both part of a classical heritage that was struggling to survive the disorder of the times. [[Boethius]], the last major author of classical Latin literature, could still take inspiration from Horace, sometimes mediated by Senecan tragedy.<ref name="Tarrant">R. Tarrant, ''Ancient receptions of Horace'', 283</ref> It can be argued that Horace's influence extended beyond poetry to dignify core themes and values of the early Christian era, such as self-sufficiency, inner contentment and courage.<ref group="nb">''Odes'' 3.3.1–8 was especially influential in promoting the value of heroic calm in the face of danger, describing a man who could bear even the collapse of the world without fear (''si fractus illabatur orbis,/impavidum ferient ruinae''). Echoes are found in Seneca's ''Agamemnon'' 593–603, Prudentius's ''Peristephanon'' 4.5–12 and Boethius's ''Consolatio'' 1 metrum 4.(R. Tarrant, ''Ancient receptions of Horace'', 283–85)</ref>