HORACE ON HORACE ODES 4

Abstract

Horace’s fourth Book of Odes was published in 13 B.C.1 Ten years had passed since the publication of Odes 1-3. In Epistles 1.1.4 published 7 years before Odes 4 Horace already indicated that for him neither age nor mind was the same (non eadem est aetas, non mens, Epistles 1.1.17) and that a wise person (sanus) would turn the aging horse to pasture (solve senescentem mature sanus equum, Epistles 1.1.8). It is clear then that Horace would have needed some serious inducement to return from that pasture of retirement into the fray of committing himself to writing lyric poetry and especially odes again.