The works of Horace : with English notes, critical and ... - Cristo Raul

EXPLANATORY NOTES. BOOK II., EPISTLE I. 609
art. The poet introduces his subject by confessing that the Boman people
had, with equal justice and wisdom, heaped divine honors on Augustus
while yet present among them ; but that, in matters of taste, they
were by no means so equitable, since they treated the living bard, however
high his merit, with contempt, and resei*ved their homage for those
whom they dignified with the name of ancients. He confutes one argument
by which this prepossession was supported : That the oldest Greels
writers, being incontestably superior to those of modem date, it followed
that the like preference should be given to the antiquated Koman masters.
Having obviated the popular and reigning prejudice against moderr
poets, be proceeds to conciliate the imperial favor in their behalf, by placing
their pretensions in a just light. This leads him to give a sketch of
the progress of Latin poetry, from its rude commencement in the service
of a barbarous superstition till his own time, and to point out the various
causes which had impeded the attainment of perfection,particularly in tho
theatrical department ; as the little attention paid to critical learning, the
love of lucre which had infected Koman genius, and the preference given
to illiberal sports and shows' over all the genuine beauties of the drama.
He at length appropriately concludes his interesting subject by applauding
Augustus for the judicious patronage which he had already a^orded
to meritorious poets, and showing the importance of still further extending
his protection to those who have the power of bestowing immortality
on princes. It is difficult to say what influence this epistle may have had
on the taste of the age. That it contributed to conciliate the favor of the
public &r the writers of the day seems highly probable ; but it does not
appear to have eradicated the predilection for the oldest class of poets,
which continued to be felt in full force as late asthereignofNero. DnrUop.
1-4. 1. Quum tot sustineas, &a. "While thou alone (and unaided}
art sustaining the weight of so many and so important aifairs." Solus.
From A.U.C. 727, when he was, by a public decree/ saluted with the title
of Augustus, an appellation which all were directed for the future to bestow
upon him, the distinguished individual here addressed may be said
to have reigned alone, having then received, in addition to the consulship,
the tribunitian power^and the guai'dianship of public morals and of the
laws. Moribus ornes. " Art adorning them with public morals." Augustus
was invested with oensorian power, repeatedly for five years, according
to Dio Cassius {liii-, 17), and, according to Suetonius, for life {Suet.,
Oct., 27), under the title of Prafectws Morum. It is to the exercise of the
duties connected with this office that the poet here alludes, and to his laws
for the suppression of adultery, the encouragement of marriage, &o.—4.
Longo sermone. Commentators are perplexed by this expression, since,
with the exception of the epistle to the Pisos, the present is actually one
of the longest that we have from the pen of Horace. Hurd takes sermone
to signify here not the body of the epistle, but the proem or introduction
only; Parr's explanation, however, appears to us the fairest: "As to
longo, the proper measure of it seems the length of the epistle itself compared
with the extent and magnitude of the subject." {Warb. Tr., p
171, ». 2.)
5-9. n. Romulus et Liier pater, &c. The subject now opens. Angus
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