SOURCE: “Augustus and Horace” in Horace and His Art of Enjoyment, E. P. Dutton & Company, 1925, pp. 64-82.

THE SHAPING OF AN EMPIRE

The epoch in which Horace was to pass the remaining years of his life stands out like the Age of Pericles, the Florence of the Medici, the time of Louis Fourteenth, the Elizabethan Age, as a period of creative production that merited the name “Golden.” Unlike the last century of the Republic and the times of Cicero, it was not a period of tremendous political struggles, for after Actium, that third great duel between rival politicians for the leadership of the Roman world, Octavian was able gradually to establish a beneficent rule which, though it shared the labor of the state, assumed its direction and responsibility. So much of this age of reconstruction is reflected in Horace's works that it is necessary to review the progress of Octavian's ascent to power and his wide-sweeping reforms to understand why the youth who fought at Philippi and praised the noble suicide of Cato, the last of the republicans, became the poet of the Peace of Augustus.

The youthful student Octavian, the adopted nephew of Julius Cæsar, who after his grand-uncle's death surprised even the astute Cicero by the rapidity with which he made himself a factor to be reckoned with in the Roman world, had to fight through a decennium of wars before he could become the Apostle of Peace. Allied in the second triumvirate with Antony and Lepidus before Philippi, he had to stand with his colleagues after the battle in the ugly business of proscription and execution by which they subdued revolution, even to such abhorrent extremities as the sacrifice of a patriot like Cicero. And after proscriptions came more horrors of civil warfare, when Sextus Pompey, the dashing soldier of fortune, tried to dominate the Roman state by controlling the grain supply and when Antony, caught by the lure of the East and new dreams of world-power, was plotting with Cleopatra. Only in 29 b.c., after the battle of Actium, was the temple of Janus finally closed (so picturesquely did the Romans announce peace).

At the time of his triple triumph over Egypt, Pannonia and Dalmatia, Octavian offered to the Senate to resign all his extraordinary powers, if they believed that was the best course for the nation. The Senate, disarmed by such disinterestedness and hypnotized by his military exploits, refused this abdication. Having thus won what we might call a vote of confidence, Octavian proceeded to work out a new constitution which aimed at a compromise between monarchy and democracy. He did not assume a dictatorship or accept a permanent consulship, but little by little he was given the supreme military command, a casting vote in the courts, the tribunicia potestas for life (that is, supreme power over the plebeians and their officials), the title of princeps senatus, with the power of summoning and dismissing the Senate, and the right of making treaties. On the other hand, he shared with the Senate provincial administration, making a new plan by which the older and pacified provinces should be under the control of the Senate, but the frontier provinces needing military guards under Cæsar. By having the finances in the senatorial provinces in the hands of procurators directly responsible to the Emperor and by frequent tours of inspection Cæsar secured better government than the provincial had ever known, in spite of this dyarchy in administration.

No less important a part of the Pax Augusti was the foreign policy which he gradually developed. An extension of boundaries seems to have been at first included in his constructive ideas for Rome. Egypt was added to the list of provinces and because of the richness of the profits of the land and the feudal system in existence for cultivation, Cæsar assumed direct responsibility for its control. Then he spent several years out of Italy in Gaul, Spain, and the East, achieving the pacification of the western Roman world and securing by diplomacy the return of the Roman standards by the Parthians who had captured them from Crassus at Carrhæ, an old blot on the Roman scutcheon. While boundaries were pushed forward to the Elbe for a time, and in the northeast by subjugation of Alpine tribes and of Dalmatia, Augustus gradually adopted a policy of status quo against territorial expansion, for he exercised a sort of mandatory over Armenia instead of taking possession of it in the midst of its civil dissension, withdrew in Germany to the Rhine frontier, relinquished Numidia to a native prince, and never undertook the much heralded expedition to Britain for which Julius Cæsar's invasion had prepared the way. On sea as well as on land peace was established, a new harbor made at Lake Avernus, and naval bases maintained at Ravenna, the Julian Harbor, Misenum, and Forum Julii, and a small standing fleet organized.

The great army which served in the civil war had to be demobilized and this was effected by sending many soldiers back to the municipia, by placing many in colonies, and by putting many on the land. Then a standing army was organized with fixed terms of service, pay, and retiring allowance, financed from a new military treasury, and of this army Augustus was the commander-in-chief to whom all soldiers took the oath of allegiance. Only the Emperor and the imperial princes could now celebrate a triumph.

In Augustus' relation to Senate, Knights, and Plebs, he seems to have been a sincere experimenter toward a constitutional dyarchy. After three reforms of the Senate by which upstart members were removed and the opposition diminished, the power of decrees was left to it, as well as a share in the control of the provinces; more offices were opened to the senators; the question of the succession was always nominally in their hands; and the dignity of their position was constantly recognized. But in spite of the Senate's outward subservience to the Emperor, a kind of passive resistance was indicated by a growing reluctance to assume the senatorial position or to attend meetings, and in this difficulty of adjustment between centralized responsibility and a democratic parliament Augustus found the crux of his reign.

His relation to the Knights was a more unqualified success, for in this reconstruction period the great middle class had little to lose and much to gain. The numbers of the regular order were first much enlarged, and then the range of activities, in addition to the old privilege of serving in the courts, was greatly increased by the opening to them of a large field of civil service directly under the Emperor. Prestige was added to the order by the fact that Mæcenas, the Emperor's confidential diplomatist, always remained the “glory of the Knights,” and the imperial princes often held the primacy in their ranks, but far more than this did the opportunity for honorable and useful public service win the middle class to Augustus.

In his relation to the Plebs the Emperor made what seemed sincere attempts to give them a share in civic responsibility. The right of election was left them, though Augustus made lists of recommended candidates and presided at elections. The right of legislation still belonged in part to the popular assembly. Certain guilds of hand-workers and industrial co-operative societies were authorized by the Senate, though clubs in general were vigorously suppressed. Attempts to give the people some share in city government by office-holding in the wards, with fire control, inspection of weights and measures, and other tasks seem to have met doubtful success. And finally Augustus settled down to the policy of free distribution of grain and of spectacular amusement for the populace to prevent revolution. For his solution of the food supply, he adopted a tripartite policy: the encouragement of agriculture to secure production, the freedom of the sea to facilitate importation and colonization to relieve the over-crowding of Rome and Italy. The distribution of free grain was more carefully regulated, grain commissioners being appointed and the number of almoners largely decreased. The water supply, too, was a subject of imperial care.

Such public health problems of food and water supply were only a part of Augustus' civic measures. The financial problems were tackled by changes in the administration of funds: officials directly responsible to the Emperor were appointed for the treasury; a new treasury for the revenues from the imperial provinces was created and also a private imperial fund into which went extraordinary revenues like those of Egypt; and fourth, a military treasury was established. The sources of income for the state were increased by an inheritance tax and a tax on slaves. The system of collection of taxes was bettered, for all tax-collectors even in the imperial provinces, were held directly responsible to the Emperor. Apart from such reforms in financial administration, Augustus encouraged thrift by sumptuary laws regulating extravagant expenditure on dinners, festivals, weddings, and by his own personal example in the wearing of homespun, living in a modest dwelling and serving only three-course dinners. But encroaching Oriental luxury and after-war spending were hard to check.

More obvious and simple reconstruction work was the building of the age. Augustus' dying boast that having found Rome brick he left it marble seems justified, as his official autobiography, the Monumentum Ancyranum, rolls out sonorously the list of new buildings erected and old ones repaired. An analysis of the record shows the significance of the kinds of building: honor paid to public service by restoration of Senate-house and building of basilica or law court; renaissance of religion fostered by repair of eighty-two temples and erection of new shrines for certain favored cults, notably Mars Ultor and Apollo; amusement of the populace encouraged by restoration of one theater and construction of another and of amphitheater; public utilities cared for by repair of highways, essential for travel to the provinces and improved postal service, and by restoration of the aqueducts. Much of the public building was financed by the Emperor, but patriotic private citizens like Agrippa followed the example of his munificence. Horace would have his fellow-countrymen not erect private atria with stately columns to awaken envy, but decorate the temples of the gods with the new marble.

A more vital work of reconstruction than such administrative and practical reforms was also attempted by Augustus. This was along three lines, social morality, religious worship, and revived nationalism.

The recruiting of the population was one of Augustus' cares. Alarmed at the decrease in it caused by disease and wars and at the growing distaste for marriage, Augustus by laws and by exhortation tried to raise the birth-rate and establish standards for eugenics. It was a time when the Roman citizen's sense of duty about rearing a family had become greatly relaxed and the new freedom of woman, emancipated more or less from the control of her father or of her husband, tended to diminish the sense of responsibility for the race. With the lessened sense of duty to the state came increased celibacy and immorality, facilitated by a large slave population and foreign hetæræ. Augustus attempted to check the dangers to the state by rigid laws, penalizing adultery, enforcing marriage upon citizens, men and women alike, decreeing penalties for the unmarried and childless, and bestowing rewards and privileges on the fathers of families. His appeal against race suicide in the name of patriotism, his condemnation of immortality, his laudation of family life rang true. But marriage laws that were proposed by bachelors and that could be evaded by imperial grants were viewed ironically, and Augustus' proposed reforms were contrasted slyly with the corruption in the Emperor's family and the scandalous conduct of his beautiful daughter. Augustus' ideals were, however, sound, though he could do little toward maintaining or enforcing them.

His renaissance of religion seems almost as objective as the rebuilding of ruined temples. Roman religion was so largely a matter of ritual and formalism that the rebuilding of old temples, the revival of old ludi, the punctilious observation of sacred days, the restoration of the colleges of priests seem conventional measures adopted to restore the normal Roman life and to preserve the mos maiorum. Significant politically, however, was the worship of the Genius of Augustus which the Emperor allowed to grow up, and still more the pre-eminence which he gave to the worship of his patron god, Apollo, with the resultant prestige for himself of associations with oracle, Sibylline books, Actian shrine, new Palatine temple. When Cæsar finally became Pontifex Maximus on Lepidus' death, he consummated his policy of uniting indissolubly church and state, an object early foreshadowed in the semi-religious title, Augustus, which he had preferred to accept rather than the kingly Romulus first proposed.

The new nationalism was associated with the sanctity of religion, glorified by association with the traditions and history of the Roman race, and extended by visions of future greatness. To enhance the magnificence of so splendid a theme as eternal Rome, Augustus was fortunate enough to catch the imagination of the time and harness Pegasus to his triumphal car, so that great poetry popularized his ideas. Vergil par excellence celebrated the work of Augustus in his three great themes: the beauty of peace, the dignity of labor on the soil, the splendor of empire. And Tibullus and Propertius in lesser measure sounded the motifs of religious renaissance, nationalism, and imperialism, the peace of Augustus, the happiness of country life, but Horace more completely than any of the others is the true poet of the age of reconstruction and there is hardly one of Augustus' reform measures which does not echo in his poetry.

THE LAUREATE OF RECONSTRUCTION

A chronological study of Horace's writings shows how very gradual was the metamorphosis of the republican supporter of Brutus into the quasi-official laureate of the Empire. In his first published work, the first book of satires (35 b.c.) there is one slight reference to Cæsar as a patron of a second-rate singer with no praise involved except a possible tribute to his amiable indulgence. These satires tell the story of how Vergil and Various had introduced Horace to Mæcenas and how after nine months the great diplomatist had made the freedman's son his friend; they record the freedom and happiness of the literary circle in Mæcenas' palace on the Esquiline, and show the satisfactions of the poet in such patronage. The tone of the allusions to Mæcenas is somewhat formal, as is the dedication of the book to the new patron.

The second book of satires (30 b.c.) shows distinct development in Horace's relation to Mæcenas and in his attitude toward Octavian. The relation of Mæcenas the patron and Horace the poet has now passed into such intimacy that the two attend public festivals together, drive together, and dine together in Mæcenas' palace, with the result that Horace is pestered with requests to advance the interests of one person or another with his distinguished friend and is plagued with interrogations about Octavian's policies, all knowledge of which he disclaims:

“Come,” (someone exclaims) “is Cæsar going to give the soldiers their promised farms in Sicily or in Italy?” When I swear that I know nothing about it, they marvel at me as the only mortal who can verily preserve a profound and illustrious silence.

Horace could still deny the possesion of any private information about Cæsar's policies, but this book of satires and the epodes published about the same time show that his attitude toward Octavian has changed from opposition to admiration. Two reasons for this are easily inferred: one the battle of Actium in which Octavian had figured as the savior of the state against renewed civil warfare and the menace of Rome's subjection to an eastern civilization; the other the influence of two great patrons, Mæcenas and Trebatius. The ninth epode, addressed to Mæcenas, asks when they shall celebrate together the great victory of Cæsar, a leader greater than the Marius who conquered Jugurtha, greater than the Africanus who destroyed Carthage. And again in the fifth satire of Book Two there is a complimentary allusion to the youth descended from the famous æneas, so great on land and sea that Rome's old enemies, the Parthians, will shudder at his name. Then in the dedicatory satire of the book, which was written last, Horace, as we have seen, allows the old lawyer Trebatius to advise him not to continue writing satires that arouse the hostility of the great, but to sing the exploits of invincible Cæsar, and receive his patronage; and Horace, for all his apologia to the old lawyer about his using satire only as a weapon of defense or against evil-doers, promises finally not to fail himself when the proper time comes for his words to go to Cæsar's listening ears, and assures Trebatius with a light pun that he will write not bad poems which the laws condemn, but good poems which will be praised by Cæsar himself as his judge. Actium, Mæcenas, and Trebatius together had now won the poet of thirty-five to accept Octavian's rule and patronage.

A passage in Suetonius' life of Horace suggests another more cogent reason which perhaps affected Horace's expressed attitude toward the new régime. The poet was apparently making such a name for himself that patronage of him not only bestowed benefactions on the poet but conferred honor on the patron. Mæcenas had received the dedication of both books of satires and of epodes and in Epode One, before Actium, at the thought of Mæcenas' following Cæsar into the dangers of war, Horace had shown an ardent personal devotion to his great friend. In such distinction, apparently Cæsar wished to share; at least, in gentle rivalry he wrote to Mæcenas offering Horace the post of private secretary: “Formerly I was adequate myself to carry on my correspondence with my friends, now that I am overwhelmed with business and not strong, I wish to draw our friend Horace away from you. So he will come from that parasitic table of yours to this royal one and will aid me in writing letters.”

Horace, however, having once served as a scriba, was not to be coerced easily into another secretarial position and declined the honor on account of ill health, yet in such a way that Augustus bore no resentment, but urged him to enjoy all the privileges of his household as though he were a member of it.

At another time the Emperor (Suetonius says), after reading several satires, appealed directly to the poet for a place in his writings:

“‘Know that I am angry with you because in several works of this type you do not converse preferably with me. Is it that you fear lest in future generations it may be a disgrace to you that you seem to be intimate with us?’ So he won the eulogy on himself which begins: ‘When you alone are bearing the brunt of many great matters, when you protect Italy with weapons, adorn it with customs, correct it by laws, I should sin against the public weal, if I stole your time by a long conversation, Cæsar.’” So begins the formal dedication of the second book of epistles to the Emperor, and in that long official recognition of his work for the state, we may see the results of Augustus' own request, of Mæcenas' diplomatic influence and of Trebatius' judicious counsel.

That book of epistles, a new form of satire, was not, however, published until 20 b.c., and in the meantime Horace had paid greater and more spontaneous tribute to Augustus' work for the state in the collection of lyric poems, the first three books of odes, which appeared in 23. There is another magnificent poem about Egyptian matters, celebrating the death of Cleopatra (30 b.c.) as Epode Nine had commemorated the victory at Actium a year earlier. Then the next year probably produced several poems which show the doubts and adjustments necessary in the poet's own mind before he committed himself completely to the national theme. His serious solicitude for the ship of state in her new perils strikes a graver note, and in another stern ode he portrays the internal dangers of increasing wealth, of effeminized youth, and of corrupted family life, and breathes a prayer for some savior who, desiring to be called father of cities, will check civil dissensions and bridle license. Probably about this time he wrote the poem to Mæcenas in which he declares that themes of war are not for his gentle lyre and that Mæcenas himself will write better in his prose history of Cæsar's battles. Yet in rapt pæan he presently declares that he is full of a new theme before uncelebrated, great, immortal, worthy of no humble strain, and that he is planning to emblazon the eternal glory of illustrious Cæsar forever in the stars.

Perhaps this ode was a prelude to the great sequence of the six odes at the beginning of the third book, for in these Horace writes on a lofty national theme that is new to his stylus. The difficult questions of the relative dates of composition of the different odes and of the arrangement need not concern us here, for the important fact is that they were written in a few years after the final overthrow of Antony and Cleopatra around the year 27, when Octavian received the title of Augustus, and that they hold up to the youth of the state, virginibus puerisque, high ideals of civic virtue in a new world. The blessings of frugality and of the simple life are contrasted with the cares of office-holding and of elaborate homes. The hard military training and the valiant courage of the happy warrior are lauded and honor in word and deed extolled to heaven. The justice and firmness of the truly great hero are proclaimed the qualities by which Augustus has attained the starry citadels of gods and demigods, and it is prophesied that the Capitol will ever stand refulgent and Rome will ever be able to dictate laws to the East if she resists the curse of gold and the ambition to rebuild ancient Troy (perhaps the old Republic or the eastern kingdom projected by Julius Cæsar and by Antony). Cæsar's conflict with Antony is pictured as the battle between the gods and the giants, the powers of good and of evil, and his victiory over the lover who kissed away kingdoms is made the triumph of wisdom and of power under wise control. There is also a suggestion of early projects for expansion, since Horace writes that Augustus shall be considered a very present god when the Britons and the dangerous Parthians are brought under Roman sway and the loss of Crassus' standards retrieved. The uncompromising patriot, Regulus, with his quiet self-sacrifice, must be the model for our Romans. Then in the sixth ode, which was probably the earliest written, Horace strikes a solemn note of warning about the insidious dangers that are creeping into the state from the decay of religion and the deterioration of family life and urges that temples should be repaired and the moral purity of maids and lads upheld, as it was in the good old days in the country. Hardly one of Augustus' most vital reforms does not here find recognition, and the civic virtues are made beautiful and alluring by the nobility and dignity of the poetry which celebrates them. How far Horace had advanced from his opposition at Philippi is recognized by himself in C. III, 14, a gallant welcome home to the Emperor after his victories in Spain. Under the thin disguise of a rejected lover, Horace says that whitening hairs certainly calm the spirit and that he himself would not have borne all this in his hot youth when Plancus was consul and Philippi was fought.

This collection of odes is dedicated to Mæcenas and contains the warmest possible expressions of personal affection for him: urgent requests that he shall lay aside the cares of state and seek peace of mind with the poet in his retired Sabine vale, charming tribute to his beautiful wife, delicate compliment to Mæcenas' own literary ability and his learning, record of his popularity, seen in the applause that greeted his appearance in the theater after an illness, then assurances that life would not be dear to the poet without his friend, and that he will be with him even unto death. These odes are the fullest expression of Horace's personal devotion to his patron.

Three years later in the first book of epistles, that modified form of satire in which Horace genially abandoned the personal attacks and the stand-off attitude which Trebatius had condemned, the poet speaks of sending a volume of his poems (probably the odes) to Cæsar, refers to Augustus' exploits and to his building of the temple of Apollo and the library on the Palatine, mentions the Emperor's birthday as a festa for him, and celebrates his diplomatic triumph in the recovery of Crassus' standards from the Parthians; but the references are but incidental, and in the book Horace is more occupied with giving advice to younger friends than in singing the praises of his patrons. Indeed, Horace protests to Mæcenas against his wish to keep him at his old task of writing lyrics instead of studying philosophy, and in a frank letter tactfully but firmly refuses all control of his habits, declaring that he would relinquish all that he had received from his friend's hands, no matter how sorrowfully, if his life must be conditioned by patronage, and his liberty impaired. The letter stands as a greater tribute to the patron than the formal dedication of the volume.

This period of freedom for his own pleasure in writing was not to last. In 17 b.c., when Augustus was about to solemnize his reign by the revival of a great religious festival and pageant, the Ludi Sæculares, he invited Horace to write the formal hymn to the great gods to be sung by a chorus of boys and girls. Vergil, who would naturally have been selected for this task, had died two years before. The Emperor's invitation to Horace not only honored him but recognized him as the first poet of the day and as a quasi-laureate of the realm. In formal, stately ode, Horace hymned the deities honored in the three days and three nights of sacrifices, particularly Augustus' patron Apollo, prayed that the Emperor, the famous scion of Anchises and Venus, might obtain answer to his prayers, conquer enemies who attacked, be merciful to the vanquished, and maintain the peace and plenty which he had bestowed on the Roman world.

Suetonius records that Augustus not only invited Horace to write the Carmen Sæculare but appointed him to celebrate the victories of his stepsons, Tiberius and Drusus, so compelling him to write the fourth book of odes, and it is true that these poems have an official tone that seems absent from his previous encomiums of the Emperor. This is the first group of poems not dedicated to Mæcenas. Formal odes on the victories of Tiberius and Drusus over the Alpine tribes alternate with extravagant praises of the Emperor's own achievements. The note that rings truest in the collection is the praise of the peace of Augustus (Odes Five and Fifteen): the oxen again plowing in the fields, the sea safe for trade, the frontiers quiet, family life purified, the gods revered, the majesty of the Latin name and the Italian power known from west to east. These poems are too sincere to be merely made-to-order work. One ode in the Volumen (Eleven) shows that although Horace could not dedicate a collection so manifestly imperial to Mæcenas, his affection for him was unaltered. That is the last poem about his great friend.

The second volume of epistles gratified Cæsar's wish that Horace should converse with him in his sermones, for it begins with a long, formal, and laudatory dedication to the Emperor, and honors him as a literary patron who has had the courage to recognize against the critics' praise of only classical writers the merits of such contemporary poets as Vergil and Varius.

Such a review of Horace's relation to the career of Augustus shows how gradually he was reconciled to the new régime, how he came after Actium, under the influence of Mæcenas and Trebatius, to recognize the value of Augustus' work for the state, and how sincerely he was able to praise the Emperor's work for reconstruction and the blessings of the Peace of Augustus. The fact that he had to become at last virtually an imperial poet laureate does not diminish the sincerity of his poems about civic virtues, the joys of the farmer's life, and the gifts of peace.