Definitions

Horace

Horace

[hawr-is, hor-]
Pippin, Horace, 1888-1946, American primitive painter, b. West Chester, Pa. He worked as a porter, peddler, and warehouseman and never studied art. He was severely wounded in World War I. The naive fervor and bold design of his painting brought him recognition in the 1930s. Although his output amounted to less than 150 oils, drawings, and wood panels, he is one of the most widely acclaimed of America's "primitive" artists and was the subject of a major retrospective in 1994. Among his works in public collections are Self-Portrait (Albright-Knox Art Gall., Buffalo, N.Y.); Suppertime (Barnes Foundation, Merion, Pa.); and End of the War (Philadelphia Mus. of Art).
Mann, Horace, 1796-1859, American educator, b. Franklin, Mass. He received a sparse preliminary schooling, but succeeded in entering Brown in the sophomore class and graduated with honors in 1819. He studied law, was admitted (1823) to the Massachusetts bar, and practiced in Dedham, Mass., and in Boston. He entered the state legislature in 1827, became speaker of the senate (1835), and was made secretary of the newly created (1837) state board of education at a time when the public school system was in very bad condition. Within his 12-year period of service, public interest was aroused, a movement for better teaching and better-paid teachers was instigated, school problems and statistics were brought to light and discussed, training schools for teachers were established, and schoolhouses and equipment were immeasurably improved. In 1843, Mann studied educational conditions abroad, and in 1848 he was elected to Congress as an antislavery Whig. He ran unsuccessfully for governor of Massachusetts in 1852. In 1853 he became the first president of Antioch College, where he also taught philosophy and theology. He died there, having achieved considerable success in demonstrating the practicality of coeducation and in raising the academic standards of the college. His second wife was Mary T. Peabody, sister of Elizabeth Peabody.

Bibliography

See M. T. P. Mann et al., ed., The Life and Works of Horace Mann (5 vol., 1891); biographies by J. Messerli (1972) and R. B. Downs (1974); B. A. Hinsdale, Horace Mann and the Common School Revival in the United States (1937); Selective and Critical Bibliography of Horace Mann (comp. by the Federal Writers' Project of Massachusetts, 1937).

Walpole, Horace or Horatio, 4th earl of Orford, 1717-97, English author; youngest son of Sir Robert Walpole. Educated at Eton and Cambridge, he toured the Continent with his friend Thomas Gray from 1739 to 1741, when the two quarreled and parted. He was elected to Parliament in 1741 and served until 1767, confining himself largely to the role of spectator and defender of his father's memory. In 1747 he acquired a country house, Strawberry Hill, near Twickenham, where he built a pseudo-Gothic castle, which became the showplace of England. He was reconciled with Gray in 1745 and later published his friend's Pindaric odes, as well as many first editions of his own works from the private printing press he started at Strawberry Hill in 1757. Walpole's literary reputation rests primarily on his letters, which have great charm and polish and are invaluable pictures of Georgian England. More than 3,000 of his correspondences are extant and cover a period extending from 1732 to 1797. Among his more famous correspondents are Gray, Sir Horace Mann, Thomas Chatterton, and Mme Du Deffand. Walpole succeeded to the earldom of Orford in 1791. Besides his enthusiasm for medieval architecture and trappings, he anticipated the romanticism of the 19th cent. with his Gothic romance The Castle of Otranto (1765). His other important works include Historic Doubts on Richard III (1768), an attempt to rehabilitate the character of Richard; Anecdotes of Painting in England (4 vol., 1762-71); and posthumous works, Reminiscences (1798) and memoirs of the reigns of George II (1822) and George III (1845, 1859).

See Yale edition of the letters ed. by W. S. Lewis (vol. 1-48; 1937-83).

Greeley, Horace, 1811-72, American newspaper editor, founder of the New York Tribune, b. Amherst, N.H.

Early Life

His irregular schooling, ending at 15, was followed by a four-year apprenticeship (1826-30) on a country weekly at East Poultney, Vt. When the paper failed, he went briefly to Erie co., Pa., where his impoverished farming family had moved. In Aug., 1831, he went to New York City, worked as a newspaper compositor, and in Jan., 1833, opened a job printing office in partnership with another printer. Greeley's interest in public questions led him to found (1834), with a new partner, the New Yorker, a weekly journal "devoted to literature, the arts and sciences," which he edited ably but unprofitably for seven years. He supplemented his income by writing regularly for the Daily Whig and by editing Whig campaign sheets.

The Founding of the Tribune

His success in political journalism cemented Greeley's friendship with Whig leaders in New York state, and with their encouragement he issued the first number of the New York Tribune on Apr. 10, 1841. He edited this paper for over 30 years; during much of that time it was the greatest single journalistic influence in the country. From the first, Greeley's object was to provide for the poor a paper that was as cheap as those of his rivals but less sensational and more probing than the "penny press." Therefore, sensational police news and objectionable medical advertising were eliminated from the Tribune.

Greeley's chief editorial assistant for 15 years after 1846 was Charles A. Dana. Beginning in 1849, George Ripley conducted for 30 years the first regular literary and book review department in a U.S. newspaper. Other talented men joined Greeley's staff (he was the first editor to allow by-lines), but his own clear, timely, vigorous editorials were the feature that made the Tribune known throughout the nation.

Social Reformer

Although Greeley styled both himself and his paper Whig, they were conservative only in so far as they thundered for a protective tariff. Other causes that Greeley promoted were hardly Whig-inspired. He advocated the organization of labor and led the way by organizing Tribune printers; New York printers elected (1850) him the first president of their chapel, the first in the nation. He also believed that a successful business should share its profits and ownership with its employees; this practice was observed at the Tribune.

Among other social reforms advocated by Greeley were temperance, a homestead law, and women's rights. He opposed monopoly and disapproved of land grants to railroads, which he felt would lead to monopoly. He gave space in his paper to Fourierism when that movement was at its height and sponsored several experiments in cooperative living, including, later, the colony named for him at Greeley, Colo. Even Karl Marx contributed to the Tribune from London. "Greeley's isms," as scoffers contemptuously called his plans for social reform, annoyed many Tribune readers, but he never apologized for them, and the paper continued to grow.

After 1850 slavery overshadowed all other questions, and Greeley's antislavery views became more intense as the Civil War approached. Some of his best editorials were directed against the Kansas-Nebraska Act. In this period the circulation (which reached 200,000 by 1860) of the weekly edition of the Tribune became so extensive in the rural districts of the West that Bayard Taylor could declare that it "comes next to the Bible." Everyone had heard and thousands had acted on his advice, "Go West, young man, go West."

Republican Leader

One of the first members of the new Republican party, he was a delegate to the national organizing convention in Feb., 1856. Barred as a New York delegate to the 1860 Republican convention, because of strained relations with the state leaders, he attended as a representative of Oregon. He was a leader in the successful fight to prevent Seward's nomination; and although at first favoring Edward Bates, he eventually threw his support to Abraham Lincoln. Seward had his revenge later by helping to block Greeley's election to the U.S. Senate (Greeley had served in the House of Representatives from Dec., 1848, to Mar., 1849).

Greeley's course in the Civil War lost him many admirers. At first disposed to let the "erring sisters go in peace," he soon came around to vigorous support of the war. However, he persistently denounced Lincoln's policy of conciliating the border slave states. On Aug. 19, 1862, he published over his signature in the Tribune an open letter to the President, which he titled "The Prayer of Twenty Millions," demanding that Lincoln commit himself definitely to emancipation. Lincoln's reply (Aug. 22) "to an old friend, whose heart I have always supposed to be right" was masterly (see Emancipation Proclamation). Only reluctantly and belatedly did Greeley support Lincoln for reelection in 1864.

The editor's humanitarian hatred of war led him to advocate peace negotiations of any sort, often to the embarrassment of the administration. In 1864, Lincoln sent him on what turned out to be a futile mission to Canada to meet with Confederate emissaries. After the war Greeley favored black suffrage and advocated amnesty for all Southerners. He was one of those who signed the bail bond to release Jefferson Davis from prison, and this magnanimous act cost him half the subscriptions to the Weekly Tribune.

Presidential Candidate

Greeley supported Ulysses S. Grant during the first years of his administration but came to resent what he considered Grant's subservience to that wing of the Republican party in New York state dominated by Roscoe Conkling. In 1871 he began to encourage the movement that grew into the Liberal Republican party and avidly sought the nomination for President in 1872. Although the Democrats also endorsed him, many of them refused to support a man who had spent his life opposing the principles for which they had stood, especially that of a tariff for revenue only. During the campaign all Greeley's shortcomings were caricatured, and he was denounced as a traitor and a crank. Despite his strenuous campaign he was overwhelmingly defeated by Grant. His disappointment at the result and his sorrow at the death of his wife a few days before the election unbalanced his mind, and he died insane on Nov. 29, 1872.

Bibliography

Greeley wrote The American Conflict (1866), a history of the Civil War, and the autobiographic Recollections of a Busy Life (1868, repr. 1968). His other books were journalistic in character.

See also biographies by W. H. Hale (1950) and G. G. Van Deusen (1953, repr. 1964); D. C. Seitz, Horace Greeley, Founder of the New York Tribune (1926, repr. 1970); R. R. Fahrney, Horace Greeley and the Tribune in the Civil War (1936, repr. 1970); J. A. Isley, Horace Greeley and the Republican Party, 1853-1861: A Study of the New York Tribune (1947, repr. 1965).

Gregory, Horace, 1898-1982, American poet and critic, b. Milwaukee, Wis., grad. Univ. of Wisconsin, 1923. His poetry is noted for its dramatic structure and penetrating insights into the harshness of contemporary life. Among his volumes of poetry are Chelsea Rooming House (1930), Poems, 1930-1940 (1941), and Another Look (1976). As a critic, Gregory was the author of Pilgrim of the Apocalypse (1933), a study of D. H. Lawrence; The Shield of Achilles (1944), essays on poetry; A History of American Poetry, 1900-1940 (1946), written with his wife, the poet Marya Zaturenska; The Dying Gladiators (1961), essays; and Dorothy Richardson: An Adventure in Self-Discovery (1967). He also made translations of the poems of Catullus and of Ovid's Metamorphoses.

See his reminiscences (1971) and his collected essays (1973).

Porter, Horace, 1837-1921, American soldier and diplomat, b. Huntingdon, Pa. In the Civil War he saw varied service, mostly as an ordnance officer, before becoming (1864) aide-de-camp to Gen. U. S. Grant. After the war, Porter was briefly Assistant Secretary of War when Grant was Secretary of War. During Grant's presidency Porter served as one of his executive secretaries until 1872. He was ambassador to France (1897-1905), where, at his own personal expense, he recovered the body of John Paul Jones for reburial in the United States. As delegate to the Hague Conference of 1907, he amended the Drago Doctrine (see under Drago, Luis María) with his Porter Proposition, which provided that strong nations whose nationals had contract-debt claims against weaker nations should submit the claims to arbitration before trying to collect them by force. He wrote West Point Life (1866; verse) and Campaigning with Grant (1897).

See biography by his daughter, E. P. Mende, and H. G. Pearson (1927).

Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus), 65 B.C.-8 B.C., Latin poet, one of the greatest of lyric poets, b. Venusia, S Italy. He studied at Rome and Athens and, joining Brutus and the republicans, fought (42 B.C.) at Philippi. Returning to Rome, he was introduced by Vergil to Maecenas, who became (c.38 B.C.) his friend and constant benefactor. Maecenas gave him a farm in the Sabine Hills, where he lived thereafter except for lengthy visits to Rome. His first book of Satires appeared in 35 B.C., the Epodes c.30 B.C., the second book of Satires in 29 B.C., three books of Odes c.24 B.C., and the first book of Epistles c.20 B.C. The fourth book of Odes, the second book of Epistles, a hymn (the Carmen Saeculare), and the Ars Poetica, or Epistle to the Pisos, appeared c.13 B.C. Horace was an unrivaled lyric poet. His early poems show the influence of the Greek Archilochus, but his later verse displays complete and individualized adaption of Greek meters to Latin. As his genius matured, Horace's themes turned from personal vilification to more generalized satire and to literary criticism. He gives a vivid picture of contemporary Roman society and represents especially the spirit of the Augustan age of Rome—a time of peace, when the arts were cultivated earnestly without pretense. He had much influence on European poetry.

See Loeb translations by H. R. Fairclough (rev. ed. 1929) and C. E. Bennett (rev. ed. 1964); poetic translations by J. Michie (1965) and N. Rudd (1979, repr. 1981); biography by P. Levi (1998); studies by E. Fraenkel (1957), S. Commager (1962), L. P. Wilkinson (1951, repr. 1965), D. A. West (1967), and C. D. N. Costa, ed. (1973).

Bushnell, Horace, 1802-76, American Congregational minister, b. Bantam, Conn. Bushnell became (1833) pastor of the North Church, Hartford, Conn. He wrote Christian Nurture (1847) and God in Christ (1849). Because of certain views of the Trinity allegedly expressed in the latter, unsuccessful attempts were made to bring him to trial for heresy. Bushnell's dignified reply was made in Christ in Theology (1851). His repudiation of the austerity of Calvinism and his stress on the presence of the divine in humanity and nature had profound influence in shaping liberal Protestant thought. Ill health obliged him to retire from the active ministry in 1859, but he continued to write. His works include The Vicarious Sacrifice (1866), in which he developed the well-known "moral influence theory" of the atonement; Sermons on Living Subjects (1872); and Forgiveness and Law (1874).

See the Life and Letters, ed. by his daughter, Mrs. M. B. Cheney (1880, 1903; repr. 1969); biographies by T. T. Munger (1899) and W. R. Adamson (1966); studies by A. J. W. Myers (1937), B. M. Cross (1938), and William A. Johnson (1963).

Binney, Horace, 1780-1875, American lawyer, b. Philadelphia. A leading lawyer in Pennsylvania, Binney was appointed in 1808 a director of the First Bank of the United States. He served in Congress from 1833 to 1835 as an anti-Jacksonian. In 1844, opposing Daniel Webster, Binney argued successfully before the U.S. Supreme Court that a bequest of Stephen Girard to Philadelphia for philanthropic purposes was lawful. His argument had an important influence on the American law relating to charitable bequests. He wrote several biographies, as well as Leaders of the Old Bar of Philadelphia (1859).

See biographies by C. C. Binney (1903, repr. 1972) and H. L. Carson (1907).

Gray, Horace, 1828-1902, American jurist, Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1881-1902), b. Boston. At first a reporter (1854-61) to the Massachusetts supreme court, he later entered into law practice. Originally a member of the Free-Soil party, he became a Republican. After an unsuccessful attempt (1860) to secure the nomination for Massachusetts attorney general, he was appointed (1864) to the state supreme court and later (1873) became chief justice of the court. He was appointed by President Arthur to the U.S. Supreme Court, where he served the last 21 years of his life. As a lawyer and jurist, Gray was noted for using analytical case study as an approach to the historical development of legal principles and for his use of precedent in arguing and deciding cases.
orig. Horatio Walpole

Horace Walpole, detail of an oil painting by Sir Joshua Reynolds, 1757; in the City of Birmingham elipsis

(born Sept. 24, 1717, London, Eng.—died March 2, 1797, London) English writer, connoisseur, and collector. The son of prime minister Robert Walpole, he had an undistinguished career in Parliament. In 1747 he acquired a small villa at Twickenham that he transformed into a pseudo-Gothic showplace called Strawberry Hill; it was the stimulus for the Gothic Revival in English domestic architecture. His literary output was extremely varied. He became famous for his medieval horror tale The Castle of Otranto (1765), the first Gothic novel in English. He is especially remembered for his private correspondence of more than 3,000 letters, most addressed to Horace Mann, a British diplomat. Intended for posthumous publication, they constitute a survey of the history, manners, and taste of his age.

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(born Feb. 22, 1888, West Chester, Pa., U.S.—died July 6, 1946, West Chester) U.S. folk painter. Pippin served in the infantry in World War I, but he was wounded in 1918 and discharged with a partially paralyzed right arm. His first large canvas was an eloquent protest against war, End of the War: Starting Home (1931–34). His primary theme became the African American experience, as seen in his series enh1d Cabin in the Cotton (mid 1930s) and his paintings of episodes in the lives of the antislavery leader John Brown and Pres. Abraham Lincoln. After the art world discovered Pippin in 1937, he received wide acclaim as the greatest black painter of his time.

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Horace Mann

(born May 4, 1796, Franklin, Mass., U.S.—died Aug. 2, 1859, Yellow Springs, Ohio) U.S. educator, the first great American advocate of public education. Raised in poverty, Mann educated himself at the Franklin, Mass., town library and gained admission to Brown University. He later studied law and was elected to the state legislature. As state secretary of education he vigorously espoused educational reform, arguing that in a democratic society education should be free and universal, nonsectarian, and reliant on well-trained, professional teachers. In his later years he served in the U.S. Congress (1848–53) and as first president of Antioch College, (1853–59) and he worked resolutely to end slavery.

Learn more about Mann, Horace with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Feb. 22, 1888, West Chester, Pa., U.S.—died July 6, 1946, West Chester) U.S. folk painter. Pippin served in the infantry in World War I, but he was wounded in 1918 and discharged with a partially paralyzed right arm. His first large canvas was an eloquent protest against war, End of the War: Starting Home (1931–34). His primary theme became the African American experience, as seen in his series enh1d Cabin in the Cotton (mid 1930s) and his paintings of episodes in the lives of the antislavery leader John Brown and Pres. Abraham Lincoln. After the art world discovered Pippin in 1937, he received wide acclaim as the greatest black painter of his time.

Learn more about Pippin, Horace with a free trial on Britannica.com.

Horace Mann

(born May 4, 1796, Franklin, Mass., U.S.—died Aug. 2, 1859, Yellow Springs, Ohio) U.S. educator, the first great American advocate of public education. Raised in poverty, Mann educated himself at the Franklin, Mass., town library and gained admission to Brown University. He later studied law and was elected to the state legislature. As state secretary of education he vigorously espoused educational reform, arguing that in a democratic society education should be free and universal, nonsectarian, and reliant on well-trained, professional teachers. In his later years he served in the U.S. Congress (1848–53) and as first president of Antioch College, (1853–59) and he worked resolutely to end slavery.

Learn more about Mann, Horace with a free trial on Britannica.com.

Horace Greeley.

(born Feb. 3, 1811, Amherst, N.H., U.S.—died Nov. 29, 1872, New York, N.Y., U.S.) U.S. newspaper editor and political leader. Greeley was a printer's apprentice in Vermont before moving to New York City, where he edited a literary magazine and weeklies for the Whig Party. In 1841 he founded the highly influential New York Tribune, a daily paper dedicated to reforms, economic progress, and the elevation of the masses. He edited it for the rest of his life, becoming known especially for his articulation of antislavery sentiments in the 1850s. After the onset of the American Civil War in 1861, he pursued a politically erratic course. His unrealized lifelong ambitions for public office culminated in 1872 in an unsuccessful run for president on the Liberal Republican Party ticket.

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orig. Quintus Horatius Flaccus

(born December 65, Venusia—died Nov. 27, 8 BC, Rome) Latin lyric poet and satirist. The son of a former slave, he was educated in Rome. He fought in Brutus's army in the upheaval after Julius Caesar's murder but gained the favour of Octavian (later Augustus) and achieved virtually the status of poet laureate. His early works include books of Satires and Epodes, but his fame rests chiefly on his books of lyrical Odes and verse Epistles, including the treatise Ars poetica, which sets down rules for the composition of poetry. The Odes and Epistles, frequently on themes of love, friendship, and philosophy, significantly influenced Western poetry from the Renaissance through the 19th century.

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Horace Greeley.

(born Feb. 3, 1811, Amherst, N.H., U.S.—died Nov. 29, 1872, New York, N.Y., U.S.) U.S. newspaper editor and political leader. Greeley was a printer's apprentice in Vermont before moving to New York City, where he edited a literary magazine and weeklies for the Whig Party. In 1841 he founded the highly influential New York Tribune, a daily paper dedicated to reforms, economic progress, and the elevation of the masses. He edited it for the rest of his life, becoming known especially for his articulation of antislavery sentiments in the 1850s. After the onset of the American Civil War in 1861, he pursued a politically erratic course. His unrealized lifelong ambitions for public office culminated in 1872 in an unsuccessful run for president on the Liberal Republican Party ticket.

Learn more about Greeley, Horace with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Nov. 18, 1901, Jefferson, Iowa, U.S.—died July 26, 1984, Tschingel, Switz.) U.S. public-opinion statistician. He taught journalism at Drake University and Northwestern University until 1932, when a New York advertising firm hired him to conduct public-opinion surveys for its clients. He became a pioneer in the scientific sampling of public opinion, and his Gallup Poll, as well as other public-opinion polls, gained credibility after correctly forecasting the 1936 presidential victory of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Gallup founded the American Institute of Public Opinion (1935), the British Institute of Public Opinion (1936), and the Audience Research Institute (1939).

Learn more about Gallup, George (Horace) with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Nov. 18, 1901, Jefferson, Iowa, U.S.—died July 26, 1984, Tschingel, Switz.) U.S. public-opinion statistician. He taught journalism at Drake University and Northwestern University until 1932, when a New York advertising firm hired him to conduct public-opinion surveys for its clients. He became a pioneer in the scientific sampling of public opinion, and his Gallup Poll, as well as other public-opinion polls, gained credibility after correctly forecasting the 1936 presidential victory of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Gallup founded the American Institute of Public Opinion (1935), the British Institute of Public Opinion (1936), and the Audience Research Institute (1939).

Learn more about Gallup, George (Horace) with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Jan. 14, 1940, Nashville, Tenn., U.S.) U.S. politician and civil-rights leader. The son of prominent educators, Bond graduated from Morehouse College. In 1960 he helped create the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). In 1965 he was elected to the Georgia legislature, but his support of a SNCC statement accusing the U.S. of violating international law in the Vietnam War caused the legislature to deny him his seat. He was twice reelected and was twice more refused entry. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled his exclusion unconstitutional in December 1966, and he assumed his seat in January 1967. He later served in the state senate (1975–87). In 1998 he became chairman of the NAACP.

Learn more about Bond, (Horace) Julian with a free trial on Britannica.com.

Quintus Horatius Flaccus, (Venosa, December 8, 65 BC - Rome, November 27, 8 BC), known in the English-speaking world as Horace, was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus.

Life

Born in Venosa or Venusia, as it was called in his day, a small town in the border region between Apulia and Lucania, Horace was the son of a freedman, but he himself was born free. His father owned a small farm at Venusia, and later moved to Rome and worked as a coactor, a kind of middleman at auctions who would pay the purchase price to the seller and collect it later from the buyer and receive 1% of the purchase price from each of them for his services. The elder Horace was able to spend considerable money on his son's education, accompanying him first to Rome for his primary education, and then sending him to Athens to study Greek and philosophy. The poet later expressed his gratitude in a tribute to his father; in his own words:

If my character is flawed by a few minor faults, but is otherwise decent and moral, if you can point out only a few scattered blemishes on an otherwise immaculate surface, if no one can accuse me of greed, or of prurience, or of profligacy, if I live a virtuous life, free of defilement (pardon, for a moment, my self-praise), and if I am to my friends a good friend, my father deserves all the credit... As it is now, he deserves from me unstinting gratitude and praise. I could never be ashamed of such a father, nor do I feel any need, as many people do, to apologize for being a freedman's son. Satires 1.6.65-92

After the assassination of Julius Caesar, Horace joined the army, serving under the generalship of Brutus. He fought as a staff officer (tribunus militum) in the Battle of Philippi. Alluding to famous literary models, he later claimed that he saved himself by throwing away his shield and fleeing. When an amnesty was declared for those who had fought against the victorious Octavian (later Augustus), Horace returned to Italy, only to find his estate confiscated; his father had probably died by then. Horace claims that he was reduced to poverty. Nevertheless, he had the means to purchase a profitable life-time appointment as a scriba quaestorius, an official of the Treasury, which allowed him to get by comfortably and practice his poetic art.

Horace was a member of a literary circle that included Virgil and Lucius Varius Rufus, who introduced him to Maecenas, friend and confidant of Augustus. Maecenas became his patron and close friend, and presented Horace with an estate near Tibur in the Sabine Hills, contemporary Tivoli. He died in Rome a few months after the death of Maecenas, in 8 BC at age 57. Upon his death bed, having no heirs, Horace relinquished his farm to his friend and Emperor Augustus, to be used for Imperial needs. His farm is there today and is a spot of pilgrimage for the literary elite.

Works

Horace is generally considered by classicists to be one of the greatest Latin poets.

He coined many Latin phrases that remain in use (in Latin or in translation) including carpe diem ("seize the day"); Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori; and aurea mediocritas ("golden mean.").

His works (like those of all but the earliest Latin poets) are written in Greek metres, from the hexameter, which was relatively easy to adapt to Latin, to the more complex measures used in the Odes, like alcaics and sapphics, which were sometimes a difficult fit for Latin structure and syntax. Alphabetically, they are:

Some highlights from his surviving work include:

Odes (or Carmina)

4 books

Epodes

1 book

Satires

2 books

With the Epistles, these are his most personal works and perhaps the most accessible to contemporary readers since much of his social satire is just as applicable today.

Letters or Epistles

2 books

With the Satires, these are his most personal works, and perhaps the most accessible to contemporary readers.

One of the Epistles is often referred to as a separate work in itself, the Ars Poetica. In this work, Horace forwards a theory of poetry. His most important tenets are that poetry must be carefully and skillfully worked out on the semantic and formal levels, and that poetry should be wholesome as well as pleasant. This latter issue is often referred to as the dulce et utile, which is Latin for the sweet and useful. (This work was first translated into English by Queen Elizabeth I).

Carmen Saeculare

In later culture

English translators

  • Perhaps the finest English translator of Horace was John Dryden, who successfully adapted most of the Odes into verse for readers of his own age. These translations are favored by many scholars despite some textual variations. Others favor unrhymed translations.
  • In 1964 James Michie published a translation of the Odes—many of them fully rhymed—including a dozen of the poems in the original Sapphic and Alcaic metres.
  • Ars Poetica was first translated into English by Queen Elizabeth I.

References

External links

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