Horace: Index D-L
Index:
Dacian
Dacia was a region on the north-bank of the Danube.
BkIISatVI:40-58 The Dacians sided with Antony prior to Actium.
Dama
A slave name.
BkISatVI:1-44 Mentioned.
BkIISatV:89-110 An ironic name for a freed slave, and self-made man.
BkIISatVII:46-67 Horace disguises himself as Dama, a slave.
Damasippus
Junius Damasippus, an art and antiques dealer who appears in Cicero ’s Letters. (Ad Att. xii 29,33: Ad fam. vii. 23). A convert to Stoicism.
BkIISatIII:1-30 He criticises Horace for his indolence.
BkIISatIII:64-81 An example of one obsessed by business.
BkIISatIII:300-326 Horace is defeated by Damasippus’ long list of criticisms.
Davus (1)
A slave-character in Comedy.
BkISatX:31-49 Mentioned.
BkIISatV:89-110 His subservient stance.
AP:220-250 A stock character in low comedy.
Davus (2)
One of Horace’s slaves.
BkIISatVII:1-20 He is allowed to criticise his master.
BkIISatVII:46-67 He questions who is the true slave.
BkIISatVII:95-118 He finally exasperates Horace.
Decemvirs
The commission of ten men, for religious and public duties.
BkIIEpI:1-33 The Decemvirs drew up the Twelve Tables of the criminal code in 450BC.
Decius
Publius Decius Mus, first of his plebeian family to become a consul, sacrificed himself in the Latin War (Livy viii.9)
BkISatVI:1-44 His plebeian background.
Delphi
The site of the oracle of Apollo in Phocis, on the lower slopes of Parnassus overlooking the Pleistos valley. It continued as a shrine, diminishing in importance, until closed by Theodosius in 390AD.
AP:189-21 The obscure, oracular utterances of late and post-classical drama.
Demetrius (1)
A musician and trainer of actresses.
BkISatX:72-92 Horace has a low regard for his taste.
Demetrius (2)
A Greek slave.
BkIEpVII:46-98 A servant of Philippus.
Democritus
The Greek Eleatic philosopher (c460-370BC) born at Abdera in Thrace. He developed the first materialist theory of Nature. His atomism developed by Leucippus considered all matter as a combination of elementary particles, the atoms, which in turn accounted for all material properties. He wrote also on cosmology, biology, perception and music. His ethical theory foreshadowed Epicureanism in valuing spiritual calm and balance. His works survive as fragments. Traditionally, he was called the laughing philosopher.
BkIEpXII:1-29 Fabled to be able to ‘leave’ the body and investigate the universe in spirit.
BkIIEpI:182-213 The laughing philosopher himself would smile.
AP:295-332 Horace claims he thought talent preferable to technique.
Diana
Daughter of Jupiter and Latona (hence her epithet Latonia) and twin sister of Apollo. She was born on the island of Ortygia which is Delos (hence her epithet Ortygia). Goddess of the moon and the hunt. She carried a bow, quiver and arrows. She and her followers were virgins. She was worshipped as the triple goddess, as Hecate in the underworld, Luna the moon, in the heavens, and Diana the huntress on earth. (Skelton’s ‘Diana in the leaves green, Luna who so bright doth sheen, Persephone in hell’) Callisto is one of her followers (See Luca Penni’s – Diana Huntress – Louvre, Paris, and Jean Goujon’s sculpture (attributed) – Diana of Anet – Louvre, Paris.) She was worshipped at the sacred grove and lake of Nemi in Aricia, as Diana Nemorensis, and the rites practised there are the starting point for Frazer’s ‘The Golden Bough’ (see Chapter I et seq.) She hid Hippolytus, and set him down at Aricia (Nemi), as her consort Virbius. The Romans identified the original Sabine goddess Diana with the Greek Artemis and established her cult on the Aventine. Strabo mentions the connection of the cult of Aricia with the Tauric Chersonese (5.3.12, C.239)
AP:1-37 Her sacred grove and altar as a subject of poetry.
AP:438-476 Lunacy an effect of the moon, hence a curse of the moon-goddess.
Digentia, Licenza
The modern Licenza, in the Sabine country, a tributary of the Anio.
BkIEpXVIII:86-112 Horace drank from its stream.
Diomede
The son of Tydeus king of Argos, a Greek hero in the war against Troy. See Homer’s Iliad. He founded Arpi in southern Italy (Iapygia).
BkISatV:71-104 Horace suggests he founded Canusium also.
BkISatVII:1-35 Glaucus presented him with armour to avoid fighting him. See Homer’s Iliad VI.
AP:119-152 Meleager was his uncle, and therefore of a previous generation.
Dionysius
A slave name.
BkISatVI:1-44 Mentioned.
Dolichos, Docilis
A gladiator.
BkIEpXVIII:1-36 A dispute over his skills.
Dossenus
A stock character, a sly villain, in the Atellan Oscan farces.
BkIIEpI:156-181 Horace refers to Plautus’ use of low forms of humour, with a double entendre on Plautus’ own character.
Egeria
An Italian nymph, wife of Numa. Unconsoled at his death she was turned into a fountain, and its attendant streams (at Le Mole, by Nemi in Aricia). She was worshipped as a minor deity of childbirth at Aricia, and later in Rome . (Outside the Porta Capena: see Frazer’s ‘The Golden Bough’ Chapter I.)
BkISatII:111-134 An ideal woman.
Electra
Orestes’ loyal sister.
BkIISatIII:111-14 Abused by Orestes in his madness.
Empedocles
The Greek philosopher (c490-430BC) of Acragas (Agrigentum) in Sicily. He modified the teachings of Pythagoras and opposed Parmenides’ view of reality as one and unchanging, with his doctrine that the four elements, earth, air, fire and water, make up the world, and that love and strife (attraction and antipathy, Horace’s ‘harmonious discord’) govern their distribution in a four-stage cycle. He wrote an important work On Nature.
BkIEpXII:1-29 A philosophical theorist.
AP:438-476 Empedocles was fabled to have leapt into Etna, reflecting his affinity with the elements no doubt.
Ennius
The Roman epic poet (239-169BC) born at Rudiae in Calabria . Author of the Annales.
BkISatIV:26-62 AP:38-72 An example of a great poet.
BkISatX:50-71 Criticised by Lucilius.
BkIEpXIX:1-20 He said of himself that he was only a poet when drunk.
BkIIEpI:34-62 In the introduction to the Annales, He claimed to have fallen asleep on the Muses’ Mount and dreamed that Homer’s ghost expounded the theory of transmigration (as Pythagoras taught), and told him he possessed Homer’s soul. Horace says he no longer has to worry about the claim, as he is considered a second Homer. He was called sapiens, wise because of his philosophical poems, and fortis, brave, because he recounted in the Annales the fortia facta patrum, the brave deeds of our ancestors.
AP:251-274 Horace does not rate his metric skill.
Epicharmus
Writer of Sicilian comedies, mythological burlesques, working in the first quarter of the fifth century BC.
BkIIEpI:34-62 An influence on Plautus.
Epicurus
The Greek philosopher (341-270BC), and founder of the Epicurean School . In 306BC he began teaching in a garden in Athens. His atomic philosophy was expounded by Lucretius. He himself taught the virtues of friendsip and citizenship, following the maxim: ‘Live unseen and unknown.’ His teachings on the value of the good life, and the pursuit of enjoyment in the sense of enjoyment of life through virtue and goodness, including temperate physical and aesthetic enjoyment, were later perverted to imply that he held hedonistic and immoral principles.
BkIEpIV:1-16 Horace jokingly considers himself a follower of Epicurus in comparison with the Stoical and by all accounts melancholy Tibullus.
Epidaurus
A city in Argolis, sacred to Aesculapius. The pre-Greek god Maleas was later equated with Apollo, and he and his son Aesculapius were worshipped there. There were games in honour of the god every four years, and from 395BC a drama festival. The impressive ancient theatre has been restored and plays are performed there. From the end of the 5th century BC the cult of Asklepios spread widely through the ancient world reaching Athens in 420BC and Rome (as Aesculapius) in 293BC.
BkISatIII:25-54 The snakes sacred to Aesculapius as god of medicine were reputed to have keen sight.
Esquiline
One of the Seven Hills of Rome, where Propertius had a house. Maecenas laid out his Gardens there on the site of an old cemetery.
BkISatVIII:1-22 The setting for this satire. The cemetery lay outside the Agger, the Rampart or Mound of Servius, an embankment and ditch a mile long closing off the valley between the Esquiline and the Quirinal, supposedly made by Servius Tullius and enlarged by Tarquin Superbus, that was part of the old Servian Wall system, and had been a burial place for criminals and paupers, where witches practised their rites among the graves. Horace plays on the formula intended to preserve ground as a grave, H.M.H.N.S. or Hoc monumentum heredes non sequetur… ‘this memorial is not to be passed down to the heirs’, those laid to rest there being unlikely to have much to leave them!
BkIISatVI:1-39 Mournful because of the prior associations decribed above.
Etruscan
Etruria was a region in Central Italy . Its people were the Etrurians or Etruscans. Hence Tuscany in modern Italy.
BkISatVI:1-44 Maecenas’ family were Etruscan. Herodotus I.94 claims the Etruscans migrated from Lydia as a result of famine.
BkISatX:50-71 Cassius was an Etruscan.
BkIISatII:23-52 The Tiber rises in Etruria.
BkIISatIII:224-246 BkIIEpI:245-270 Tuscan Street, the Vicus Tuscus, ran from the Forum to the Velabrum, and was perhaps named from the Tuscan workmen who lived there. The street had a variety of shops and Horace in BkII Epistle I puns on the name, as the street where tus, incense, is sold, and imagines himself, and by analogy Augustus, being carried down to the Forum, and the street where remaindered works are used as wrapping paper in the shops, in a coffin along with the works of the worthless admirer.
BkIIEpI:182-213 The Tuscan Sea to the west and south-west of Italy . The modern Ligurian and Tyrrhenian Seas.
BkIIEpII:180-216 Etruscan figurines.
Eupolis
The late 5th century BC Greek dramatist of the Old Comedy, a rival of Aristophanes. His comedies satirised contemporary politicians and socialites. Only fragments of his work survive.
BkISatIV:1-25 Praised.
BkIISatIII:1-30 Horace has taken his writings along.
Eutrapelus
Publius Volumnius, a knight and friend of Mark Antony, Atticus and Cicero (See Ad fam. vii. 32, 33), given the nickname Eutrapelus, or ‘witty’.
BkIEpXVIII:1-36 His means of belittling his enemies.
Evander
The son of Carmentis, one of the Camenae, or prophetic nymphs. She first lived in Arcadia where she bore Evander, to Mercury. Evander founded Pallantium, and she came to Italy with him, where she changed the fifteen Greek letters of the alphabet he had brought with him into Roman letters. In reality perhaps an exiled Greek king of Arcadia who settled on the site of ancient Rome.
BkISatIII:76-98 Any cup touched by him would be sacred and antique and therefore precious.
Fabian
One of the thirty-five tribes of Roman citizens.
BkIEpVI:49-68 A powerful citizen in a tribe in turn exerted influence beyond it.
Fabius
A Roman eques, who expounded Stoic philosophy. Horace uses him as an example of a windbag in argument, and possibly an adulterer.
BkISatI:1-22 A chatterbox.
BkISatII:111-134 Adultery causes painful consequences which even a Stoic would have to accept.
Fabricius
Lucius Farbicius, curator viarum.
BkIISatIII:31-63 In 62 BC he built the Fabrician Bridge connecting the Insula Tiberina with the Campus Martius on the left bank of the Tiber.
Falernian
The Falernus district in Campania produced a strong, highly-prized wine, Falernian.
BkIISatII:1-22 BkIISatIV:24-39 The best of wines. See Macrobius, Saturn. vii 12, for a reference to the best mead made with Hymettian honey and Falernian wine.
BkIISatIII:111-14 BkIISatIV:1-23 BkIISatIV:40-69 BkIISatVIII:1-19
BkIEpXIV:31-44 Falernian wine.
Fannius
A minor poet.
BkISatIV:1-25 His extreme self-advertisement.
BkISatX:72-92 A worthless critic and sponge on Hermogenes.
Fauns
Demi -gods. Rural deities with horns and tails.
BkIEpXIX:1-20 Members of Bacchus’ crowd of followers.
AP:220-250 Characters in the Satyr plays.
Fausta
The daughter of Sulla, born in 86BC. She would have been about 47 years old at the time the Satires were written. Her name means lucky, or auspicious.
BkISatII:64-85 Her notorious adulterous affair with Villius.
Ferentinum
A quiet town in the Alban Region of Latium on the Via Latina, about forty-five miles south-east of Rome.
BkIEpXVII:1-32 A quiet country town.
Feronia
An Italian Goddess, the consort of Jupiter at Anxur.
BkISatV:1-33 Horace travels from Rome to Brindisi (and possibly Tarentum) in 38 or 37 BC.
Fescennine
From the town of Fescennium in Etruria. Ribald songs were sung at country marriage and harvest feasts. They were the remnants of the earliest form of Italian dramatic verse, named from the town. There may alternatively be a connection with the fascinum a phallic life symbol carried in procession to ward off the evil eye, and possibly derived from Greek ritual.
BkIIEpI:118-155 The development of Latin verse.
Fidenae
An ancient town six miles north of Rome.
BkIEpXI:1-30 Partly deserted, a ghost-town.
Flaccus, see Horace
BkIISatI:1-23 Horace’s cognomen. The name means flap-eared!
Flavius
Head of a school at Venusia.
BkISatVI:65-88 Horace’s father sent him to Rome instead.
Florus
Julius Florus a friend of Horace and Tiberius, a student of oratory and writer of satires according to Porphyrion.
BkIEpIII:1-36 The epistle addressed to him on campaign.
BkIIEpII:1-25 This epistle addressed to him.
Fonteius Capito
Consul suffectus in 30BC. A close ally of Mark Antony.
BkISatV:1-33 Horace travels with him from Rome to Brindisi (and possibly Tarentum) in 38 or 37 BC.
BkISatV:34-70 He provides food at Formiae.
Forum
The Roman Forum. The main thoroughfare. The marketplace. Maecenas as a magistrate had the right to set up a court of justice there. It was the centre of early Rome and a notoriously licentious area later.
BkISatVI:110-131 An area frequented by dubious characters.
BkIISatV:23-44 BkIEpVII:46-98 A place where legal disputes were decided.
BkIEpVI:1-27 The place where money is made, the trading centre.
BkIEpVI:49-68 The central market.
BkIEpVII:1-28 The business centre and its mundane affairs.
BkIEpXIX:1-20 A place of sobriety.
Forum Appi
The Market of Appius at the head of the canal to Feronia through the Pomptine Marshes.
BkISatV:1-33 Horace travels from Rome to Brindisi (and possibly Tarentum) in 38 or 37 BC.
Fufidius
Unknown.
BkISatII:1-22 A rich and miserly loan-shark.
Fufius
An actor.
BkIISatIII:31-63 Playing the part of Iliona, he was so drunk that even the combined efforts of the audience failed to waken him. He was playing the sleeping heroine of Pacuvius’ Ilione, and was supposed to be awakened by the ghost of her murdered son played by Catienus.
Fulvius
A well-known gladiator.
BkIISatVII:95-118 A wall-sketch for advertising purposes involving him.
Fundanius
A friend of Horace.
BkISatX:31-49 A writer of comedies in the style of Terence.
BkIISatVIII:1-19 He reports on a dinner-party he attended.
Fundi, Fondi
A town in Latium on the Appian Way.
BkISatV:34-70 Horace passed through on his journey to Brindisi.
Furies
The Furies, The Three Sisters, were Alecto, Tisiphone and Megaera, the daughters of Night and Uranus. They were the personified pangs of cruel conscience that pursued the guilty. (See Aeschylus – The Eumenides). Their abode was in Hades by the Styx.
BkISatVIII:23-50 The witches appeared like Furies.
BkIISatIII:111-14 They maddened Orestes, and drove him on to take revenge for his father’s death.
Furius
Marcus Furius Bibaculus of Cremona, whom Quintilian classes with Horace and Catullus, as a writer of iambics. He wrote an epic on Caesar’s Gallic wars and an Aethiopia where Memnon was slain by Achilles.
BkISatX:31-49 His bombastic style is criticised.
BkIISatV:23-44 His verses are adapted by Horace. Furius is sarcastically substituted for Jupiter in the second extract (Quintilian viii.6.17)
Furnius
A friend of Horace, a famous orator. Consul in 17BC.
BkISatX:72-92 Horace seeks his approval of his literary efforts.
Fuscus, see Aristius
Gabii
An ancient town of Latium fifteen miles east of Rome on the way to Praeneste.
BkIEpXI:1-30 Partly deserted, a ghost-town.
BkIEpXV:1-25 Its cold countryside.
BkIIEpI:1-33 Tarquinius Superbus made a treaty (late sixth century) with Gabii, written in archaic letters on bull’s hide. It was still in existence at the time of Dionysius of Halicarnassus, in the Augustan Age (Dion. Hal. iv. 58)
BkIIEpII:1-25 A trained house-slave from there.
Gaetulian
The Gaetuli were a people of North Africa, hence African.
BkIIEpII:180-216 A source of dyed cloth.
Galba
A member of the Sulpicii Galba family.
BkISatII:23-46 An adulterer and lawyer.
Galli
The priests of Cybele who ritually castrated themselves. See Catullus ‘Attis’.
BkISatII:111-134 Horace quotes the Greek philosopher Philodemus a client of Lucius Calpurnius Piso who was attacked by Cicero in In Pisonem.
Gauls
The inhabitants of the region now roughly modern France.
BkIISatI:1-23 There were campaigns against the Gauls in 36,35 and 34BC and victories were celebrated in the triumph of 29BC.
Gallina, see Thrace
Gallonius
A glutton satirized by Lucilius. A rich auctioneer.
BkIISatII:23-52 He served a huge sturgeon for dinner.
Garganus
A mountainous promontory on the coast of north-east Apulia, now Monte di S. Angelo.
BkIIEpI:182-213 The wind roaring in its forests.
Gargilius
Unknown. Perhaps a character from Lucilius’ satires.
BkIEpVI:49-68 His idea of hunting!
Gargonius
Unknown.
BkISatII:23-46 BkISatIV:86-106 He smelt of goat.
Genius
The spiritual counterpart of every man that watches over him, worshipped especially on the birthday. The personal guardian spirit.
BkIEpI:70-109 The marriage bed was dedicated to the family Genius.
BkIIEpI:118-155 Offerings of flowers and wine made to the spirit to ask for long life.
BkIIEpII:180-216 The Genius being a man’s own guardian spirit partakes of the nature of his natal stars. It shares his fate and character and dies with him.
AP:189-21 Drinking became customary during the offerings to the spirit.
Glaucus
A Lycian hero in Homer’s Iliad VI.
BkISatVII:1-35 He presented Diomed with armour instead of fighting him.
Glycon
A famous athlete.
BkIEpI:20-40 His excellent physique.
Gnatia, Egnatia
An Apulian town on the Adriatic coast, devoid of springs.
BkISatV:71-104 Horace travels through on his way to Brindisi.
Gracchus
Tiberius (d.133BC) and Gaius (d. 122BC), the Gracchi, were both orators.
BkIIEpII:87-125 Gaius was the more famous orator, and is probably intended here.
Grosphus
A Roman knight living in Sicily where he owned a large estate. (See Odes II.16)
BkIEpXII:1-29 Horace provides this letter of introduction for him, to Iccius.
Hadria, Adriatic
The long arm of the Mediterranean between Italy and Greece.
BkIEpXVIII:37-66 Actium was fought on its Eastern shore.
Hagne
Unknown.
BkISatIII:25-54 Her lover Balbinus was charmed by her defect.
Harpy
The ‘snatchers’, Aellopus and Ocypete, the fair-haired, loathsome, winged daughters of Thaumas and the ocean nymph Electra, who snatch up criminals for punishment by the Furies. They lived in a cave in Cretan Dicte. They plagued Phineus of Salmydessus, the blind prophet, and were chased away by the winged sons of Boreas. An alternative myth has Phineus drive them away to the Strophades where Ovid has Aeneas meet the harpy Aëllo, and Virgil, Celaeno. They are foul-bellied birds with girls’ faces, and clawed hands, and their faces are pale with hunger. (See Virgil Aeneid III:190-220)
BkIISatII:23-52 Ravenously hungry creatures.
Hebrus
The river in Thrace down which Orpheus’ head was washed to the sea.
BkIEpIII:1-36 A Thracian river, but Horace also hints at literary activity.
BkIEpXVI:1-24 Its cool, pure waters.
Hecate
The daughter of the Titans Perses and Asterie, Latona’s sister. A Thracian goddess of witches, her name is a feminine form of Apollo’s title ‘the far-darter’. She was a lunar goddess, with shining Titans for parents. In Hades she was Prytania of the dead, or the Invincible Queen. She gave riches, wisdom, and victory, and presided over flocks and navigation. She had three bodies and three heads, those of a lioness, a bitch, and a mare. Her ancient power was to give to or withhold from mortals any gift. She was sometimes merged with the lunar aspect of Diana-Artemis, and presided over purifications and expiations. She was the goddess of enchantments and magic charms, and sent demons to earth to torture mortals. At night she appeared with her retinue of infernal dogs, haunting crossroads (as Trivia), tombs and the scenes of crimes. At crossroads her columns or statues had three faces – the Triple Hecates – and offerings were made at the full moon to propitiate her.
BkISatVIII:23-50 The witches call on her.
Hector
The Trojan hero, eldest son of Priam and Hecuba.
BkISatVII:1-35 Slain by Achilles. See Homer’s Iliad.
Helena, Helen
The daughter of Leda and Jupiter (Tyndareus was her putative father), sister of Clytemnaestra, and the Dioscuri. The wife of Menelaüs. She was taken, by Paris, to Troy, her adultery instigating the Trojan War.
BkISatIII:99-119 She was not the first woman to cause trouble.
Helicon
The mountain in Boeotia near the Gulf of Corinth where the Muses lived. The sacred springs of Helicon were Aganippe and Hippocrene, both giving poetic inspiration.
BkIIEpI:214-244 AP:295-332 The place of poetic inspiration.
Heliodorus
Unknown, but possibly a reference to Apollodorus a teacher in Rome.
BkISatV:1-33 Horace travelled with him from Rome on his journey to Brindisi (and possibly Tarentum) in 38 or 37 BC.
Hellas
Unknown.
BkIISatIII:247-280 A mistress murdered by her lover.
Hellespont
The straits that link the Propontis with the Aegean Sea . Named after Helle, and close to the site of Troy.
BkIEpIII:1-36 The towers at Sestos and Abydos (of Hero and Leander fame) were on either side of the straits. Horace again gives a literary hint.
Hercules
The Greek Hero. He was set in the sky as the constellation Hercules between Lyra and Corona Borealis. The son of Jupiter and Alcmena, the wife of Amphitryon. Jupiter predicted at his birth that a scion of Perseus would be born, greater than all other descendants. Juno delayed Hercules birth and hastened that of Eurystheus, grandson of Perseus, making Hercules subservient to him. Hercules was set twelve labours by Eurystheus at Juno’s instigation:
1. The killing of the Nemean lion.
2. The destruction of the Lernean Hydra.
3. The capture of the stag with golden antlers.
4. The capture of the Erymanthian Boar.
5. The cleansing of the stables of Augeas king of Elis.
6. The killing of the birds of the Stymphalian Lake in Arcadia.
7. The capture of the Cretan wild bull.
8. The capture of the mares of Diomede that ate human flesh.
9. The taking of the girdle of Hippolyte, Queen of the Amazons.
10. The killing of Geryon and the capture of his oxen.
11. The securing of the apples from the Garden of the Hesperides.
12. The bringing of the dog Cerberus from Hades to the upper world.
BkIISatVI:1-39 Hercules was regarded as a god who brought good fortune, due to his connections with the founding of Rome . See Virgil’s Aeneid.
BkIISatVII:68-94 By Hercules! A conventional oath.
BkIEpI:1-19 The retired gladiator hangs up his weapons on the door of the Temple of Hercules, according to Porphyrion that at Fundi in Latium.
BkIIEpI:1-33 He killed the Lernean Hydra but was brought to his death by the revenge of Nessus the Centaur whom he had killed, and who had envied him for his love of Deianira. Hercules was deified.
Hermogenes Tigellius
A musician. Not apparently the same person as Tigellius the Sardinian.
BkISatIII:120-142 BkISatIX:1-34 Mentioned.
BkISatIV:63-85 BkISatX:1-30 Mentioned satirically.
BkISatX:72-92 Fannius sponges off him. Worthless as a critic.
Herod
Herod the Great, King of Judaea (reigned 39-34BC).
BkIIEpII:180-216 He possessed famous groves of date-palms near Jericho.
Homer
The Greek epic poet, (fl. c. 8th century BC? born Chios or Smyrna ?), supposed main author of the Iliad and Odyssey.
BkISatX:50-71 His works attracted a vast critical commentary.
BkIEpII:1-31 Horace is re-reading the Iliad.
BkIEpXIX:1-20 His praise of wine. (See Iliad vi. 261 etc)
BkIIEpI:34-62 Ennius was considered a second Homer.
AP:73-118 AP:366-407 Master of the epic metre.
AP:333-365 Even Homer sometimes nods.
Horace, Horatius
Quintus Horatius Flaccus, the poet (65-8BC). He was born at Venusia in Apulia the son of a freedman, who had his son educated at Rome and Athens. Horace supported Brutus and fought at Philippi in 42BC. On his return to Rome, after the defeat, his father was dead and his property confiscated, but he found work in the Treasury. Virgil introduced him to Maecenas in 38, who befriended him and granted him his beloved Sabine farm. After 30 Horace assisted Augustus and when Virgil died in 19, he celebrated Imperial affairs in his poetry. He refused to becaome Augustus’ private secretary and died a few months after Maecenas.
BkISatVI:45-64 Horace was a tribune in Brutus’ ill-fated army.
BkISatVI:65-88 His tribute to his father.
BkIISatVI:1-39 Horace describes his business life in Rome late in 31BC. He was a member of the guild of clerks, the scribae, and had worked in the Treasury. He had been a member of the quaestor’s staff.
BkIEpXIV:1-30 He names himself in the text.
BkIEpXX:1-28 He was born on the 8th December 65BC.
BkIIEpII:26-54 After the defeat at Philippi, Horace who had fought on the side of Brutus, withdrew from the Republican cause, unlike Pompeius Varus and other friends who fought on under Sextus Pompeius. Horace’s family estate at Venusia was confiscated.
Hydaspes
An Indian slave, named from the River Hydaspes, now Djelun.
BkIISatVIII:1-19 Acts as wine-bearer.
Hydra
The many-headed water-serpent, born of Typhon and Echidna, that lived at Lerna, near Argos. Its destruction was the Second Labour of Hercules (Heracles).
BkIIEpI:1-33 Hercules killed this creature in his second labour.
Hymettus
A mountain in Attica south of Athens. It was famous for its wild-flower pasture for bees (See Pausanias I 32 i.) and therefore its honey.
BkIISatII:1-22 The best honey came from Hymettus . See Macrobius, Saturn. vii 12, for a reference to the best mead made with Hymettian honey and Falernian wine.
Hypsaea
A blind woman also named Plotia or Plautia.
BkISatII:86-110 Noted for her blindness.
Ianus, Janus
The Roman two-headed god of doorways and beginnings, equivalent to the Hindu elephant god Ganesh. The Janus mask is often depicted with one melancholy and one smiling face. The first month of the year in the Julian calendar was named for him, January (Ianuarius). His temple, said to have been built by Numa, stood in the Argiletum north of the Forum. It was opened in time of war, closed in peacetime.
BkIISatIII:1-30 BkIEpI:41-69 Certain arches in the Forum took the name Janus and were the centre of the Roman banking business.
BkIISatVI:1-39 Horace invokes him as the god of beginnings, and therefore of dawn in the country, and the commencement of this satire.
BkIEpXVI:46-79 Invoked by the trader and merchant at the beginning of business undertakings.
BkIEpXX:1-28 The booksellers stalls in the Forum and Argiletum.
BkIIEpI:245-270 In times of peace the iron gates of the Temple of Janus were closed. This happened three times in Augustus’ reign.
Iarbitas
A rhetorician.
BkIEpXIX:1-20 His failed attempt to rival Timagenes.
Iccius
A friend of Horace, procurator of Agrippa’s estates in Sicily.
BkIEpXII:1-29 This letter addressed to him.
Ides
The middle of the Roman month. The fifteenth of March, May, July and October. The thirteenth of the other months.
BkISatVI:65-88 School fees were paid on the Ides.
Ilerda, Lerida
A Spanish town on the River Ebro.
BkIEpXX:1-28 Provincial but a part of the extended Empire.
Ilia
Silvia, the daughter of Aeneas (Greek myth) or Numitor (Roman version), the Vestal who bore Romulus and Remus, to the god Mars. She and her sons were claimed as descendants through Aeneas, of Ilus, the founder of Troy.
BkISatII:111-134 An ideal woman.
Iliona, Ilione
The heroine of a play by Pacuvius.
BkIISatIII:31-63 See the entry for Fufius.
India
The Indian sub-continent.
BkIEpI:41-69 A source of trade.
BkIEpVI:1-27 A source of pearls and gemstones.
Ino
The daughter of Cadmus, wife of Athamas, and sister of Semele and Agave. She fostered the infant Bacchus. She incurred the hatred of Juno, and maddened by Tisiphone, and the death of her son Learchus, at the hand of his father, she leapt into the sea, and was changed to the sea-goddess Leucothoë by Neptune, at Venus’ request.
AP:119-152 Horace suggests how she should be portrayed.
Io
Daughter of Inachus a river-god of Argolis, she was chased and raped by Jupiter. Changed to a heifer by Jupiter and conceded as a gift to Juno, she was guarded by hundred-eyed Argus. After Mercury killed Argus, driven by Juno’s fury, Io reached the Nile, and was returned to human form. She was subsequently worshipepd as an incarnation of Isis (Hathor)
AP:119-152 Horace suggests how she should be portrayed.
Italy
The country conquered by the Romans, and ruled from Rome its and their Capital.
BkIEpXII:1-29 Its prosperity and power under Augustus.
BkIEpXVIII:37-66 Augustus added to Italy ’s military cudos.
Ithaca
The island home of Ulysses-Odysseus, off the coast of Greece, in the Ionian Sea (to the west of mainland Greece, traditionally accepted as the modern Thiaki).
BkIISatV:1-22 The home Ulysses longs to return to.
BkIEpVI:49-68 His crew disobeyed orders and slaughtered the Cattle of the Sun.
BkIEpVII:29-45 Telemachus considered it unfit for horses.
Iulius
Unknown. Possibly a freedman of the Julian House.
BkISatVIII:23-50 Mentioned.
Iuno, Juno
The daughter of Rhea and Saturn, wife of Jupiter, and the queen of the gods. A representation of the pre-Hellenic Great Goddess. (See the Metope ofTemple E at Selinus – The Marriage of Hera and Zeus – Palermo, National Museum .)
BkISatIII:1-24 A reference to the basket-bearers in religious processions.
Iupitter, Jupiter, Jove
The sky-god, son of Saturn and Rhea, born on Mount Lycaeum in Arcadia and nurtured on Mount Ida in Crete . The oak was his sacred tree. His emblems of power were the sceptre and lightning-bolt. His wife and sister was Juno (Iuno). (See the sculpted bust (copy) by Brassides, the Jupiter of Otricoli, Vatican )
BkISatI:1-22 BkIISatI:24-46 The all-powerful god of justice, identified with Augustus.
BkISatII:1-22 His name used as an exclamation of surprise.
BkIISatIII:281-299 Prayed to in sickness. His fast days, adhered to by the Jews, were on dies Iovis, the day corresponding to our Thursday.
BkIEpI:70-109 The wise man is second only to Jove.
BkIEpXII:1-29 BkIEpXVIII:86-112 Jove is the supreme power.
BkIEpXVI:25-45 Rome and Augustus are under his protection.
BkIEpXVII:33-62 Touching his throne is achieving an ultimate ambition.
BkIEpXIX:21-49 Horace’s poems said to be reserved for Jove’s ear, perhaps an allusion to Augustus.
BkIIEpI:63-89 The ultimate judge.
Ixion
King of the Lapithae, father of Pirithoüs, and of the Centaurs. Punished in Hades for attempting to seduce Juno, he was fastened to a continually turning wheel.
AP:119-152 Horace suggests how he should be portrayed.
Kalends
The first day of each month.
BkISatIII:76-98 The days on which payments fell due.
Labeo
Possibly Marcus Antistius Labeo, an amateur expert on law.
BkISatIII:76-98 Noted for his crazy judgements.
Laberius
Decimus Laberius (c115-43BC), a Roman knight who wrote mimes, and was compelled to act in them by Julius Caesar. He revived archaisms, coined words and was often obscene. His work is lost.
BkISatX:1-30 His verse comedies.
Laelius
Gaiuls Laelius Sapiens a friend of Scipio and Terence. He was respected for his sagacity and oratory.
BkIISatI:47-86 Attacked by Lucilius.
Laertiades, see Ulysses
BkIISatV:45-69 Ulysses was the son of Laertes of Ithaca, son of Arceisius.
Laevinus
Publius Valerius Laevinus. A descendant of Publius Valerius Publicola colleague of Brutus in the consulship of 509BC.
BkISatVI:1-44 Of high birth but poor character according to Horace.
Lamia (1)
A Greek witch that preyed on children, a vampire.
AP:333-365 An example of what not to show on stage.
Lamia (2)
Lucius Aelius Lamia, a friend of Horace. One of the Aelii Lamia, a distinguished family from Formiae in South Latium . Perhaps consul in 3AD. His brother was probably Quintus Aelius Lamia, commissioner of the mint around 20BC. (See Odes iii.17.i)
BkIEpXIV:1-30 He is grieving for his brother.
Lares
Beneficent spirits watching over the household, fields, public areas etc. They were the public gods of the crossroads, the Lares Compitales, or Praestites, enshrined in pairs, providing protection, deriving from Etruscan and Sabine deities, as the single family Lar provided household protection. Each house had a Lararium where the image of the Lar was kept. The Lar is usually coupled with the Penates the gods of the larder. The yearly festival of the public Lares was the Compitalia.
BkISatV:34-70 Sarmentus’ slave chain suggested as an offering to the Lares.
BkIISatIII:142-167 They protect a man from foolish excesses, and should be granted offerings to acknowledge their propitious powers.
BkIISatV:1-22 First fruits were offered to the Lar.
BkIISatVI:59-76 Offerings were made to the Lar before the mensa secunda with its wine-drinking.
Latium
A country in Central Italy, containing Rome. The modern Lazio region. It originally designated the small area between the mouth of the Tiber and the Alban Hills. With the Roman conquest it was extended south-east to the Gulf of Gaeta, and west to the mountains of Abruzzo, forming the so-calledLatium novum or adiectum.
BkIEpXIX:21-49 Horace is writing for its audience.
BkIIEpI:156-181 The Romans adopted Greek models in literature.
BkIIEpII:87-125 AP:275-294 The heartland of the Latin language.
Laurentum
The marshy district between Ardea and Ostia.
BkIISatIV:40-69 The source of inferior wild boar.
Laverna
The goddess of thieves and imposters.
BkIEpXVI:46-79 Secretly invoked by the devious man.
Lebedus
A small coastal town fifteen miles west of Colophon.
BkIEpXI:1-30 The point of the often misunderstood lines here is that Horace with heavy irony suggests Bullatius might as well go the whole hog and choose deserted Lebedus as a place to live. The vellem is an ironic ‘if I were you I’d choose’.
Leo
The constellation and zodiacal sign of the Lion. It contains the star Regulus ‘the heart of the lion’, one of the four guardians of the heavens in Babylonian astronomy, which lies nearly on the ecliptic. (The others are Aldebaran in Taurus, Antares in Scorpius, and Fomalhaut ‘the Fish’s Eye’ in Piscis Austrinus. All four are at roughly ninety degrees to one another). The constellation represents the lion killed by Hercules as the first of his twelve labours.
BkIEpX:1-25 The sun is in Leo in August, and the sun’s rays therefore pierce it and prompt the lion to charge in rage.
Lepidus
Quintus Aemilius Lepidus was elected consul in 21BC, as Lollius’ colleague after Augustus had refused the place left vacant.
BkIEpXX:1-28 Horace was born on the 8th December 65BC.
Lepos
A well-known male mime and dancer, supposedly admired by Augustus.
BkIISatVI:59-76 Mentioned.
Lesbos
The island in the eastern Aegean . Among its cities were Mytilene and Methymna. Famous as the home of Sappho the poetess, whose love of women gave rise to the term lesbian.
BkIEpXI:1-30 A famous island.
Liber, see Bacchus
BkISatIV:86-106 The god of wine, and ‘in vino veritas.’
BkIEpXIX:1-20 The god of wine.
BkIIEpI:1-33 Deified.
Libitina
An ancient Italian goddess sometimes identified with Proserpina. She presided over funerals. Funeral equipment was stored in her temple in Rome.
BkIISatVI:1-39 The autumn carries off the sick and weak.
BkIIEpI:34-62 Dead poets.
Libo
He set up a tribunal at the Puteal, or Libo’s Wall.
BkIISatVI:1-39 His wall (around a well) was the site of the Roman Exchange and bore his name.
BkIEpXIX:1-20 A place of sobriety (ironically appropriate being a well-head)
Libya
A desert region of North Africa.
BkIISatIII:82-110 An incident there involving Aristippus.
BkIEpX:1-25 Numidian marble used for mosaics etc.
Licinus
A barber.
AP:295-332 Mentioned.
Livius
Livius Andronicus of Tarentum, earliest of Latin writers. He produced two plays a tragedy and a comedy in 240BC. He also translated the Odyssey. He died 204BC.
BkIIEpI:34-62 BkIIEpI:63-89 The earliest Roman writer.
Lollius (1)
Marcus Lollius consul in 21BC.
BkIEpXX:1-28 Later in the year Quintus Aemilius Lepidus was elected as Lollius’ colleage after Augustus had refused the place left vacant. Horace was born on the 8th December 65BC.
Lollius (2)
Probably a relative of Marcus Lollius, Maximus served under Augustus in the Cantabrian campaign in Spain in 26/25BC.
BkIEpII:1-31 The epistle is addressed to him. He is practising rhetoric in Rome.
BkIEpXVIII:1-36 This epistle also addressed to him, with advice on how to treat a patron.
Longarenus
Unknown.
BkISatII:64-85 A lover of Fausta.
Lucania
A district of lower Italy.
BkIISatI:24-46 Venusia is near its border.
BkIISatIII:224-246 BkIISatVIII:1-19 Good boar-hunting territory.
BkIEpXV:1-25 The girls of the region.
BkIIEpII:155-179 Pasture land there.
Lucilius
Gaius Lucilius, the friend of Cicero, and writer of satires (c180-102BC). He was a wealthy knight from Suessa Aurunca on the borders of Campania andLatium . A large number of fragments of his work survive. He attacked prominent contemporaries by name, and so provided a Roman equivalent to Aristophanes and the Old Comedy.
BkISatIV:1-25 Horace praises and also criticises him.
BkISatIV:26-62 An example of a great Satirist.
BkISatX:1-30 Horace’s criticism of his style.
BkISatX:50-71 Lucilius’ own criticism of others.
BkIISatI:1-23 He wrote about Scipio Africanus.
BkIISatI:24-46 Horace considers Lucilius a better man than himself.
BkIISatI:47-86 Lucilius’ satires were tolerated.
Lucrine Lake
The Lucrine Lake near Cumae on the coast of Campania.
BkIISatIV:24-39 Its large mussel, peloris.
Lucullus
Lucius Licinius Lucullus fought as a general in the war (74-67BC) against Mithridates king of Pontus, and was noted for his wealth, and luxurious style of living.
BkIEpVI:28-48 A story regarding his wealth.
BkIIEpII:26-54 A story regarding on of his soldiers (and with a financial slant.)
Lupus
Lucius Cornelius Lentulus Lupus, Consul in 156 BC. Censor in 147BC, and leader of the Senate from 130BC. An opponent of Scipio.
BkIISatI:47-86 Attacked by Lucilius.
Lycambes
The father of Neobule who was promised to Archilochus.
BkIEpXIX:21-49 He broke faith, and was pilloried by Archilochus in verse.
Lycia
A country in Asia Minor, south of Caria, bordering the Mediterranean.
BkISatVII:1-35 Glaucus was a Lycian.
Lydia
A country in Asia Minor, containing Ephesus, with its temple of Artemis-Diana, and Smyrna . Famous for its wealth.
BkISatVI:1-44 Maecenas’ ancestors were Etruscans and therefore of Lydian ancestry.
Lynceus
One of the Argonauts, the son of Aphareus and brother of Ida. He was also present at the Calydonian Boar Hunt.
BkISatII:86-110 BkIEpI:20-40 Famous for his keen (lynx-eyed) sight.
Lysippus
The famous Greek sculptor from Sicyon (fourth century BC.) He worked in bronze and was noted for portraiture, and a new system of proportion for naturalistic human figures.
BkIIEpI:214-244 Court sculptor to Alexander the Great.