The methods of assessing a writer's spirit vary in usefulness according to his genre. If he is a satirist much may often be learned through an examination of his names. This is certainly true of Horace, and one might have thought that in recent years a fair amount of attention would have been paid to this aspect of his work. Yet to the best of my knowledge no special study has been published in the present century. Certain points have been (...) well noted by scholars like Vogel, Becher, and Marouzeau, and a few editions contain summaries of the material. The last detailed discussion, however, was that of Cartault, and one must admit that it was not wholly unbiased. So it seems reasonable to review the evidence again, making use of the work done by Marx, Cichorius, Münzer, and others. We do not have to inquire about all the characters in the Sermones; only satirical references need be considered, and even here there is room for selection, because some of the figures are so obscure that nothing helpful can be said about them. (shrink)

In examining what Horace says about the style of Lucilius I would like to leave aside for a moment the controversial question regarding poetae in v. 1, and go straight to vv. 8–13. Here everything is clear and explicit: Lucilius was witty and keen-scented, but he was harsh in his versification, partly out of carelessness, partly owing to his enormous productivity. It has been suggested that these lines were simply ‘a chance remark’ which Horace ‘happened to make in the course (...) of his argument’. (shrink)

In examining what Horace says about the style of Lucilius I would like to leave aside for a moment the controversial question regarding poetae in v. 1, and go straight to vv. 8–13. Here everything is clear and explicit: Lucilius was witty and keen-scented, but he was harsh in his versification, partly out of carelessness, partly owing to his enormous productivity. It has been suggested that these lines were simply ‘a chance remark’ which Horace ‘happened to make in the course (...) of his argument’. (shrink)