Abstract

The premise of this dissertation is that the concept of decorum is never innocent. In any sphere , decorum enforces subordination: of parts to whole, woman to man, desire to reason, client to patron, citizen to fatherland. But decorum, along with the hierarchies it institutes, is always in the process of achieving dominion or on the verge of breaking down. This dissertation traces the disruptions at the borders of decorum as well as the darker implications of the ideal order it proposes. ;The first, introductory chapter, "Unruly Designs in the Ars Poetica," focuses on selected passages of Ars, exploring the implications of Horace's imagery and the significance of his omissions . Chapter 2, "Canidia, Canicula, and the Decorum of the Epodes," investigates the interrelations of decorum and misogyny. Chapter 3, "Split Ends: Decorum and Closure in the Odes," considers the implications of the ethics and aesthetics of decorum for Horatian closure, focusing on odes which stray beyond decorous limits. Chapter 4, "The Decorum of Patronage," which revolves around Epistles 1, is in two sections. The first takes up Horace's epistles to Maecenas, their antecedents in the Satires, and a selection of related epistles; the second explores the associations of patronage and eros, amicitia and amor, making forays into erotic elegy and into the Odes