Artemisia Abrotonum, or Southernwood, a wild plant whose common
name in
BkIIEpI:90-117 Its use required knowledge of the plant and the disease.
Plato established his school, the Academy, c385BC, in a park named after the ancient Athenian hero Academus, on the outskirts of Athens.
BkIIEpII:26-54
Horace studied in
Lucius Accius, the tragic poet (170-c85BC). He adapted many Greek tragedies for the Roman stage. His remaining fragments show a rhetorical style open to parody.
BkISatX:50-71 Criticised by Lucilius.
BkIIEpI:34-62 Considered by many to have a noble style.
AP:251-274 His failure to use pure iambic trimeters, with six iambic feet, in three pairs each called a metrum.
BkIEpII:1-31 They suffered for their leaders’ follies.
BkIIEpI:1-33 They oiled themselves for wrestling. Horace perhaps uses the term in a derogatory sense also.
The Greek hero of the Trojan War. The son of Peleus, king of
BkISatVII:1-35 He killed Hector.
BkIISatIII:187-223 Ajax was second only to Achilles as a warrior.
BkIEpII:1-31 The son of Peleus. He quarrelled with Agamemnon at
BkIIEpII:26-54 The anger of Achilles, and his quarrel with Agamemnon, is the theme of the Iliad.
AP:119-152 In Book IX of the Iliad, Achilles is honoured. Horace suggests how he should be portrayed.
The promontory in
BkIEpXVIII:37-66 Re-enacted in mock naval engagements.
The
BkIEpXI:1-30
Bullatius crossed it to reach
Lepidus Aemilius.
AP:1-37 His gladiatorial school, near which artists worked.
A Trojan prince, the son of Venus and Anchises, and the hero of Virgil’s Aeneid. From him the Roman race and the Caesars in particular descended, according to the myth elaborated by Virgil and others.
BkIISatV:45-69 The ancestor of Augustus.
The Greek Tragic Dramatist (c525-456BC). He wrote over eighty plays of which seven survive including the Oresteia trilogy. He introduced a second actor, and innovations in costume and scenery.
BkIIEpI:156-181 A model for Roman playwrights.
AP:275-294 His introduction of masks, fine robes, and the wooden stage, sonorous speech and the tragic buskin, or high-soled boot.
A famous actor and friend of
BkIISatIII:224-246 He left a forune to a spendthrift son.
BkIIEpI:63-89 An actor of the ancient dramas.
The volcanic mountain in Sicily.
AP:438-476Empedocles fabled to have leapt into the volcano.
The region in central
BkIEpXVIII:37-66 The scene of the Calydonian boar hunt, hence a literary reference to the hero Meleager.
A writer (born c.150BC) of comedies with a Roman setting, known as togatae as distinct from the palliatae with a Greek setting such as Plautus and Terence produced.
BkIIEpI:34-62 Deemed to have received Menander’s mantle.
The Roman
BkIISatIII:82-110 Its
imported corn, predominantly from
BkIISatIV:40-69 African snails prized by epicures.
BkIISatVIII:79-95 Snakes
from
The king of
BkIISatIII:187-223 His sacrifice of his daughter to gain favourable winds.
BkIEpII:1-31 The son of Atreus. He quarrelled with Achilles
at
A daughter of Cadmus, who married Echion, King of Thebes, and was the mother of Pentheus. A Maenad, she destroyed her son Pentheus, not recognising him in the madness of the sacred Bacchic mysteries.
BkIISatIII:300-326 She tore Pentheus’ head from his shoulders and carried the head along with her in the Maenads’ mad rush.
Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa (64/63-12BC), son-in-law and friend of Octavian/Augustus, and aedile in 33BC when he used his wealth liberally in Octavian’s cause. As Augustus’ general and admiral he was largely responsible for his naval victories in the wars against Lucius Antonius, Sextus Pompeius and Mark Antony. He married Augustus’ daughter Julia in 21BC.
BkIISatIII:168-186 His fame.
BkIEpVI:1-27 His fashionable Portico near the Pantheon opened in 25BC.
BkIEpXII:1-29 Iccius was his procurator in Sicily. He conquered the Cantabrians in 19BC.
A hero of the Trojan War, the son of Telamon and grandson of Aeacus.
BkIISatIII:187-223 Defeated by Ulysses/Odysseus in his claim for Achilles’ arms, he decided to murder Agamemnon, Ulysses, and Menelaus. Minerva/Athene drove him mad and he slaughtered a flock of sheep instead. He then committed suicide, and Agamamenon and Menelaus ordered his body lie unburied.
From
the Alban Hills thirteen miles south-east of
BkIISatIV:70-95 Grapes from there.
BkIISatVIII:1-19 Alban wine.
BkIEpVII:1-28 Their winter snow-cover.
BkIIEpI:1-33 The Alban Mount, now Monte Cavo, an ancient sanctuary.
Unknown. Possibly a money-lender.
AP:295-332 His son.
A man with expensive tastes. Possibly the father of Albius Tibullus the poet to whom Epistle I iv may be dedicated.
BkISatIV:26-62 His taste for bronze-wares.
BkISatIV:107-143 He has run through his inheritance.
Unknown. Mentioned by Lucilius.
BkIISatI:47-86 BkIISatII:53-69 Mentioned.
Poet of Lesbos, born c620BC.
BkIEpXIX:21-49 A major influence on Horace, both in Horace’s use of the Alcaic stanza and in his themes, including love, wine, death and politics.
BkIIEpII:87-125 The other poet, probably Propertius is intended, dubs Horace, Alcaeus.
The king of the Phaeacians, and son of Nausithous, husband of Arete, and father of Nausicaa. He provided hospitality to Ulysses, the unknown stranger.
BkIEpII:1-31 The young men of his palace, noted for their looks, dancing etc (See Odyssey 7 and 8).
A Greek slave.
BkIISatVIII:1-19 Acts as a wine-waitor.
Alexander
III of Macedon (356-323BC) who between 334 and his death conquered
most of the civilised world. He was a pupil of Aristotle. He defeated Darius
III of
BkIIEpI:214-244Choerilus was a court poet of his. His instructions regarding artistic likenesses of himself.
A barber. Sometimes identified with Alfenus Varus the jurist.
BkISatIII:120-142 Mentioned.
A Samnian town known for its pottery.
BkIISatVIII:20-41 Its earthenware.
The highest European mountain
chain running 800 miles in an arc through
BkIISatV:23-44 The place where Jupiter makes permanent snow fall.
The musician, son of Jupiter and Antiope, and brother of Zethus the huntsman. They built the walls of Thebes together, but their different tastes lef to a quarrel.
BkIEpXVIII:37-66 The story was told in Euripides’ Antiope, and Pacuvius’ Antiopa.
AP:366-407 The power of his lyre.
Ancus Marcius the fourth King of
BkIEpVI:1-27 One of the famous dead.
A Trojan prince.
BkIEpII:1-31 He proposed
returning Helen to
A town in Phocia on the gulf of Corinth.
BkIISatIII:82-110 BkIISatIII:142-167 Famous for its hellebore used to treat the mad by reducing black bile. The effects included convulsions and vomiting. Hellebore was a name given in ancient times to various poisonous plants. Gerard’s Herbal (1633: chap 378) mentions Dioscorides’ comments about the black hellebore of Anticyra, and identifies it with a plant Gerard calls astrantia nigra. There is a modern garden hellebore known as the Christmas Rose.
AP:295-332 Three Anticyras couldn’t provided a sufficient dose to clear the poet’s madness.
The chief of the Laestrygonians, a cannibal race, who attacked Odysseus’ men.
AP:119-152 See Odyssey Book X:103.
Antony, the Roman general, and
triumvir, who seized the inheritance at Julius Caesar’s
death, despite his will, and who was defeated by Octavian
at Mutina in Cisalpine Gaul, and Octavian’s naval commander, Vispanius Agrippa,
at the naval battle of Actium in 31BC. Lover of Cleopatra, Queen of
BkISatV:1-33 Fonteius Capito a close ally.
A freedman physician who cured Augustus of an illness in 23BC by a treatment involving cold baths and drinks.
BkIEpXV:1-25 Horace is supposedly taking his advice.
On the west coast of
BkISatV:1-33 Horace travels from Rome to Brindisi (and possibly Tarentum) in 38 or 37 BC.
The Athenian who laid capital charges against Socrates.
BkIISatIV:1-23 Socrates, mentioned as a famous philosopher.
A Jewish freedman.
BkISatV:71-104 There was a large Jewish population in Rome under Augustus, noted for their proselytising and superstitions.
The
painter of Cos and
BkIIEpI:214-244 Court painter to Alexander.
Son of Jupiter and Latona (Leto), brother
of Diana (Artemis), born on
BkISatIX:35-78 The patron of poets, so the god who saves Horace.
BkIEpIII:1-36 BkIIEpI:214-244 BkIIEpII:87-125 The Palatine Library was established in
28BC by Augustus
in the
BkIEpXVI:46-79 Invoked as a god of the arts.
AP:366-407 The god of music and song.
The
BkISatV:1-33 Horace travels from Rome to Brindisi (and possibly Tarentum) in 38 or 37 BC.
BkIEpVI:1-27 A fashionable place to be seen.
BkIEpXVIII:1-36 A route to Brundisium.
BkISatVI:1-44 Perhaps Appius Claudius Pulcher, cemsor in 50BC.
BkISatV:71-104 Horace travels through on his way to Brindisi.
BkIISatI:24-46 Venusia is in
The constellation of the Water-Bearer, one of the original Babylonian star configurations, and one of the four fixed signs. In Greek myth it represents Ganymede, the shepherd boy carried off by Zeus, to become wine-bearer to the gods.
BkISatI:23-60 The sun is in Aquarius in the winter (Jan-Feb)
The north wind. As a god he is Boreas.
BkIIEpII:180-216 Favourable northerly winds
The home town of
BkIEpX:26-50 A lichen found there produced a purple dye similar to be but inferior to Sidonian purple.
The country.
BkIEpVI:1-27 A source of spices, gifts of the earth.
BkIEpVII:29-45 Its riches.
An actress, a mima, celebrated in
BkISatX:72-92 Her scorn for the groundlings.
A furniture maker.
BkIEpV:1-31 His small unpretentious couches
Archilochus of Paros a writer of abusive iambic verse (fl c.650BC).
BkIISatIII:1-30 Horace has taken his writings along with him.
BkIEpXIX:21-49 Horace used his iambic metre for the Epodes. Traditionally when Lycambes refused to allow his daughter Neobule to marry Archilochus, the poet wrote a savage poem accusing Lycambes or cheating and his daughters of immorality. The girls supposedly hanged themselves as a result of the public ignominy.
AP:73-118 A writer of early elegiacs lamenting friends lost at sea.
Unknown. A wealthy man.
BkIISatVI:77-115 Mentioned.
The capital of the
BkIISatIII:111-14 The region of Clytemnestra’s murder with Aegisthus of her husband Agamemnon, and of her son Orestes’ revenge. He killed both her and Aegisthus.
BkIIEpII:126-154 The tale of
a deluded inhabitant of
AP:73-118 The setting for the Oresteia of Aeschylus.
About fifteen miles south-east of Rome. Famous for its worship of Diana, see Frazer’s ‘The Golden Bough’ Chapter I.
BkISatV:1-33 Horace travels from
BkIIEpII:155-179 Farmland there.
The
Homeric
scholar of
AP:438-476 The proverbial keen critic.
A pupil of Socrates and founder (c435-c356BC) of the Cyrenaic school of hedonistic philosophy. His school saw pleasure as the highest good and equated virtue with the rational pursuit of enjoyment.
BkIISatIII:82-110 An incident showing his supposed rationality.
BkIEpI:1-19 Horace follows his precepts (sometimes!).
BkIEpXVII:1-32 Horace uses the conversation between Aristippus and Diogenes the Cynic found in Diogenes Laertius (ii.8.68)
A friend of Horace. Possibly a schoolteacher.
BkISatIX:35-78 They meet.
BkISatX:72-92 Horace seeks his approval of his literary efforts.
BkIEpX:1-25 BkIEpX:26-50 This letter addressed to him.
The Greek Comic Dramatist (c450-c385BC). Eleven of his plays survive. His plots were satirical fantasies on literature, social manners and Athenian involvment in war. He was unsuccessfully prosecuted by Cleon for his criticism.
BkISatIV:1-25 Mentioned. A key dramatist of the Old Comedy.
The province in Asia Minor.
BkIEpXII:1-29Tiberius installed Tigranes on the throne unopposed in 20BC, though it was commemorated as a military victory.
Qintus Arrius.
BkIISatIII:82-110 He entertained thousands at an extravagant funeral feast for his father (Cicero, In Vatin.30ff).
BkIISatIII:224-246 His sons were also extravagant.
The
province of
BkIEpIII:1-36Tiberius campaigned there.
BkIEpXIII:1-19 See Vinius.
The
Assyrians dominated the area of modern
AP:73-118 Examples of oriental types.
The chief city of
BkISatI:61-91 Horace quotes the example of an Athenian miser.
BkIISatVII:1-20 BkIIEpII:56-86 A city noted for its learning, where young Roman noblemen went to study. (Note Ovid’s visit there)
BkIISatVIII:1-19 Attic
girls carried Ceres’ sacred emblems to
BkIIEpI:182-213 A common location in Greek Comedy.
BkIIEpII:26-54 Horace studied there, or at least studied the works of the great Athenians.
King of Mycenae, the son of Pelops, and the father of the Atridae, Agamemnon and Menelaüs.
BkIISatIII:187-223 BkIEpII:1-31 The father of the Atridae.
BkIEpVII:29-45 The father of Menelaus.
AP:153-188 He murdered the sons of his brother Thyestes and served their flesh to their father at a banquet.
A Roman writer (died 77BC). He composed togatae of which eleven survive in an archaic style. The name Atta was claimed to mean ‘with a lively step’. One play Matertera involved lists of flowers.
BkIIEpI:63-89 Horace suggests his plays were stumbling and heavy-footed!
The name of a number of kings of
BkIEpXI:1-30
Famous cities indicating
Marcus Aufidius Lurco who according to Pliny (Natural History X 20.45) fattened peacocks for sale (c.67BC)
BkIISatIV:24-39 An epicure.
The chief official at Fundi, an aedile but with the airs of a praetor. He had once been a scriba, a clerk.
BkISatV:34-70 He wears the purple-fringed toga, a broad-striped tunic, and burning charcoal is carried in front of him in case of ceremonial sacrifice. Horace mocks his status.
A river in Apulia near Horace’s birthplace of Venusia. Now the Ofanto.
Julius Caesar’s grand-nephew, whom he adopted and declared as his heir, Octavius Caesar (Octavian). (The honorary title Augustus was bestowed by the Senate 16th Jan 27BC). His wife was Livia.
BkISatIII:1-24 Mentioned.
BkIISatI:1-23 Horace is advised to write about him.
BkIISatVI:40-58 After Actium, Octavian promised his soldiers land.
BkIEpIII:1-36 He was the step-father of Tiberius who conducted a campaign for him in the East, to place Tigranes on the Armenian throne which he did in 20BC.
BkIEpV:1-31 Augustus’ birthday was
the 23rd September, one of the warmest months in
BkIEpXII:1-29 The successful campaigns in Spain, Armenia and Parthia of 20/19BC.
BkIEpXIII:1-19 Horace oversees delivery of his books, probably the Odes Books I-III, published in 23BC, to Augustus. Alternatively these Epistles are intended, of 20BC, when Augustus was in the East.
BkIEpXVI:25-45 It was customary to flatter Augustus in this way. The verses are claimed to come from Varius’ ‘Panegyric on Augustus.’
BkIIEpI:1-33 This epistle, a defence of modern poetry, is addressed to Augustus. Suetonius claims that it was written because Augustus complained he had not been addressed previously.
BkIIEpII:26-54 His victory at Philippi.
The Boeotian harbour where the Greek fleet massed prior to setting out for Troy and where Iphigenia was sacrificed. The area was a rich fishing-ground.
BkIISatIII:187-223 Iphigenia was sacrificed there to gain favourable winds.
Son of Oppidius.
BkIISatIII:168-186 A potential spendthrift.
The south wind.
BkIISatII:23-52 Capable of causing food to spoil.
BkIIEpII:180-216 A hostile southerly.
One of the
BkIIEpII:56-86 Distant from the Quirinal.
An unknown miser.
BkIISatII:53-69 His mean style of living.
A famous gladiator, matched with Bithus. They eventually killed each other.
BkISatVII:1-35 Mentioned.
The god Dionysus, the
‘twice-born’, the god of the vine. The son of Jupiter and Semele. His worship was
celebrated with orgiastic rites borrowed from
BkISatIII:1-24 ‘Io Bacche’ the chorus of a drinking song.
BkIIEpII:56-86 The choir of poets are his followers.
The modern Baia, opposite
BkIISatIV:24-39 Its inferior mussels.
BkIEpI:70-109 Rich men built their seaside villas there.
BkIEpXV:1-25 Its hot sulphur baths were famous, and it was a spa town where Romans went for the cure.
Unknown.
BkISatIV:107-143 His poverty, having run through an inheritance.
Servilius Balatro a hanger-on to Maecenas.
BkIISatVIII:20-41BkIISatVIII:42-78BkIISatVIII:79-95 Present at a dinner party Horace hears of.
Unknown.
BkISatIII:25-54 He is charmed by his lover’s defect.
Barium,
The modern capital and a major
BkISatV:71-104 Horace travels through on his way to Brindisi.
Unknown.
BkISatVI:1-44 A vain fop.
Unknown.
BkISatVII:1-35 A foul-mouthed person.
An Italian war goddess, the sister of Mars. Her followers were fanatics who indulged in self-mutilation.
BkIISatIII:187-223 The ambitious court this blood-stained goddess.
A Samnian town, now
BkISatV:71-104 Horace travels through on his way to Brindisi.
A reformed wastrel.
BkIEpXV:26-46 A ‘poacher turned gamekeeper’.
Lucius
Calpurnius Bibulus, stepson of Brutus. He supported
BkISatX:72-92 Horace seeks his approval of his literary efforts.
A
philosopher (c325-c255BC) of Athens, from Borysthenes in
BkIIEpII:56-86 He developed the popular diatribe or sermon, the equivalent of Horace’s Satires, as the Epodes exemplify iambics, and the Odes lyric poetry.
Unknown.
BkISatIV:63-85 Deemed guilty of theft.
A famous gladiator, matched with Bacchius. They eventually killed each other.
BkISatVII:1-35 Mentioned.
The
province in
BkIEpVI:28-48 A
centre for
A country in mid-Greece containing Thebes.
BkIIEpI:214-244The
Boeotians were proverbially dull, the Athenians
sharp-witted, contrasted like the moist Boeotian lowlands and the clear skies
of
Unknown.
BkISatIX:1-34 Renowned for a quick temper.
Brundisium,
The famous
BkISatV:71-104 Horace’s destination.
BkIEpXVII:33-62 A distant destination.
BkIEpXVIII:1-36 A dispute
over the best route there from
Marcus Junius Brutus was one of
the leaders of the conspiracy to assassinate Julius
Caesar. He was propraetor of
BkISatVII:1-35 Judge in the case. An earlier Brutus drove out the Tarquins, Kings of Rome.
A friend of Horace.
BkIEpXI:1-30
He is travelling in
A friend of Horace and Torquatus.
BkIEpV:1-31 To be invited to dinner.
The modern
BkIISatIV:40-69 The brine-salt the imported fish were packed in, was highly prized.
The public executioner.
BkISatVI:1-44 Criminals were executed by being hurled from the Tarpeian Rock on the Capitol.
The
son of the Phoenician king Agenor who searched for his sister Europa stolen by Jupiter.
The founder of Thebes. Cadmus and Harmonia his wife were turned
into serpents. There is a tradition that this happened in a cave on the coast
of
AP:153-188 The transformation of Cadmus not to be seen on stage.
The Roman comic poet, an older
contemporary of Terence. he
arrived in
BkIIEpI:34-62 Considered a dignified poet.
AP:38-72 An example of a great earlier writer who coined new words and phrases.
A fine Italian wine from Caecubum in Southern Latium.
BkIISatVIII:1-19 Served for Maecenas.
Unknown.
BkISatIV:63-85 Deemed guilty of theft.
An ancient town in southern Etruria.
BkIEpVI:49-68 According to Livy the citizens were disenfranchised
as a punishment for rebellion against
Gaius Julius Caesar, Roman General, Consul and Dictator from 49 to 44 BC when he was assassinated by Brutus, Cassius and the other conspirators. He married Cornelia, the daughter of Cinna, and had a daughter Julia.
BkISatIX:1-34 His Gardens on the
right bank of the
Caesar, Augustus, see Augustus
The
relatively poor area in the heel of
BkIEpVII:1-28 The pears might be expected to be hard and sour!
BkIIEpII:155-179 Pasture land there.
The Hellenistic poet of
BkISatII:86-110 Horace translates one of his epigrams (Anthologia Palatina xii. 102). Horace does not refer to Callimachus by name in the text.
BkIIEpII:87-125 Probably Propertius is intended, the elegiac writer who called himself ‘the Roman Callimachus’.
Gaius Licinius Calvus, the orator and poet, friend of Catullus and Propertius and a member of the Alexandrian School. His works are lost. He wrote poems addressed to a girl he called Quintilia.
BkISatX:1-30 His use of Greek words mingled with Latin for effect.
The water-nymphs whose spring ran through the sacred grove outside the Porta Capena. They became identified with the Muses. Egeria was one of them.
BkISatX:31-49 Mentioned.
BkIEpI:1-19 Horace’s personal Muse.
BkIEpXIX:1-20 Poetic inspiration akin to drunkenness.
AP:275-294 The Muse of Tragedy.
Camillus captured the Etruscan
oupost of Veii around 396BC, and freed
BkIEpI:41-69 An example of Roman virtue.
The Italian coastal and inland
region south-east of Latium and Rome, containing
BkISatV:34-70 Horace passed
through on his journey to Brindisi, stopping by the
BkISatVI:110-131 BkIISatIII:142-167 Its plain everyday pottery.
BkIISatVIII:42-78 The dust blown from its fields by the northerlies.
The great recreation ground of
ancient Rome, the Field of Mars, just outside the ancient city to
the north-west along the Tiber.
Originally it was open pasture outside the city boundary (pomerium) in
the bend of the
BkISatI:61-91 Used for excercising and racing horses.
BkISatVI:110-131 BkIISatVI:40-58 BkIEpVII:46-98 Ball games were played there including trigo, a game for three players.
BkIEpXI:1-30
An attractive part of ancient
BkIEpXVIII:37-66 AP:366-407 Crowds would watch the sports and military exercises.
AP:153-188 A place where young men went to enjoy themselves.
A witch.
BkISatVIII:23-50 She carries out magical rites.
BkIISatI:47-86 BkIISatVIII:79-95 A poisoner.
The Cantabri were a tribe of
BkIEpXII:1-29 BkIEpXVIII:37-66 They were defeated by Agrippa in 19BC. He had campaigned there previously. Lollius had been on the campaign.
A town in
BkISatV:71-104 Horace travels through on his way to Brindisi.
BkISatX:1-30 Their mixed language.
BkIISatIII:168-186 Oppidius a landowner there.
Capitolinus, see Petillius
The
eastern region of Asia
Minor. It was conquered by the Persians (584BC) but became an
independent kingdom in the 3rd century BC. It had a poro-Roman ruling dynasty, became
strategically important, and was a
BkIEpVI:28-48
The king here is probably Ariobarzanes III (d.42BC) whose financial
problems due to Roman exploitation are mentioned by
A satirist or informer.
BkISatIV:63-85 He pursued those deemed guilty of theft.
The town in Campania.
BkISatV:34-70 Horace passed through on his way to Brindisi.
BkIEpXI:1-30 On the road to
A fashionable area on the southern tip of the Esquiline, about a quarter of a mile from the Forum.
BkIEpVII:46-98 A good walk from the Forum for an elderly man.
The Phoenician city in
BkIISatI:47-86 Scipio took his name Africanus after the victory.
BkIIEpI:156-181 The Punic Wars
were the three wars between
An
eminent lawyer (born c.104BC), contemporary with
AP:366-407 His legal skills.
An unknown Etruscan poet, perhaps identical with Parmensis (2).
BkISatX:50-71 His funeral pyre was reputed to have consisted of his own books.
An elegiac poet. He was part of the conspiracy to assassinate Julius Caesar, as was the better known Cassius Longinus. He fought on Antony’s side at Actium and was later executed on Octavian’s orders.
BkIEpIV:1-16 His opuscula, pieces, probably elegies.
The son of Tyndareus of
BkIISatI:24-46 Castor’s skill with horses, Pollux’s at boxing.
BkIIEpI:1-33 Deified.
A gladiator.
BkIEpXVIII:1-36 A dispute over his skill.
A noted adulteress.
BkISatII:86-110 Her shameless style of dress.
An actor.
BkIISatIII:31-63 See the entry for Fufius.
An epicure, possibly an Epicurean.
BkIISatIV:1-23 His summary for Horace of a lecture on the culinary arts.
BkIISatIV:70-95 Horace begs to attend the next lecture with him.
Marcus Portius Cato (234-194BC), famed for his strict morality.
BkISatII:23-46 His words to a young man leaving a brothel.
BkIIEpII:87-125 AP:38-72 The Censor had the power to remove unworthy senators from the Senate. Horace treats Cato as a guardian of the ancient language.
Cato, of
Marcus Portius Cato (95-46BC)
great-grandson of Cato the Censor. A famous Stoic. He committed suicide at
BkIEpXIX:1-20 His austere manner and style.
Gaius Valerius Catullus (c84-c54AD), the Roman lyric poet, friend of Calvus and Propertius. He wrote poems addressed to a girl he called Lesbia (most probably Clodia Metelli).
BkISatX:1-30 His use of Greek words mingled with Latin for effect.
A Samnite town at the head of the famous Samnite Forks.
BkISatV:34-70 Horace passed through on his way to Brindisi.
Albinovanus Celsus, secretary on Tiberius’ staff.
BkIEpIII:1-36 A friend of Horace, on campaign with Tiberius.
BkIEpVIII:1-17 This epistle addressed to him.
The Corn Goddess. The daughter of Saturn and Rhea, and Jupiter’s sister. As Demeter she was represented in the sky by the constellation and zodiacal sign of Virgo, holding an ear of wheat, the star Spica. It contains the brightest quasar, 3C 273. (The constellation alternatively depicts Astraea.) The worship of her and her daughter Persephone, as the Mother and the Maiden, was central to the Eleusinian mysteries, where the ritual of the rebirth of the world from winter was enacted. Ceres was there a representation of the Great Goddess of Neolithic times, and her daughter her incarnation, in the underworld and on earth.
BkIISatII:112-136 Goddess of the harvest.
BkIISatVIII:1-19 Horace alludes to the festival in her honour.
Unknown. Possibly a notorious adulterer.
BkISatII:64-85 Mentioned, though the text is disputed.
An unknown informer.
BkIISatI:47-86 Mentioned.
A neighbour.
BkIISatVI:77-115 A teller of tales.
Marcus Cornelius Cethegus, consul in 204BC.
BkIIEpII:87-125 A famous orator of the old Republic.
AP:38-72 The Cethegi, the ancient family, who would have worn the cinctus, a loin-cloth or kilt rather than the toga.
The whirlpool between
AP:119-152 See Odyssey Book XII:36 et al.
The island in the north-eastern
BkIISatIII:111-14 BkIISatVIII:42-78 Chian wine.
BkIEpXI:1-30 A famous island.
An
epic poet from Iasos in
BkIIEpI:214-244 He was paid in gold for the (few) lines Alexander considered worthy.
AP:333-365 Horace’s example of a poet with a few golden lines amongst the dross.
The character of an old man in
Comedy. He appears in the
BkISatX:31-49 A typical character in Comedy.
AP:73-118 A scene where he storms about in anger, using tragic tones.
The Stoic philosopher of Soli in
BkISatIII:120-142 The Sixth
Stoic paradox according to
BkIISatIII:31-63 The Stoic
school met in the Painted Porch in
BkIISatIII:281-299 He classed most men as mad.
BkIEpII:1-31 A teacher of the good life.
BkIIEpI:34-62 Chrysippus asked the logical riddle as to when a heap of beans piled on a table ceases to be a heap, as one removes a bean at a time.
A town in southern
BkIEpVI:28-48 A trading centre.
His name means ‘game-cock’. He is
an Oscan from
BkISatV:34-70 He is ridiculed for his scars caused by removing warts, the Campanian disease.
A moneylender, and miser.
BkIISatIII:64-81 One who takes foolish risks on a debtor who will be unable to repay.
BkIISatIII:168-186 His miserliness.
Horace’s ex-lover.
BkIEpVII:1-28 Her flight from him. Her name is mentioned in the Odes.
BkIEpXIV:31-44 He calls her greedy, for gifts.
The sea-nymph, daughter of Sol
and Perse, and the granddaughter of Oceanus. (Kirke or Circe means a small
falcon.) She was famed for her beauty and magic arts and lived on the ‘island’
of Aeaea, which is the promontory of Circeii. (Cape
Circeo between Anzio and Gaeta, on the west coast of Italy, now part of the
magnificent Parco Nazionale del Circeo extending to Capo Portiere in the
north, and providing a reminder of the ancient
BkIEpII:1-31 She seduced Ulysses and transformed Ulysses’ men into beasts (Odyssey 10.135).
Circe the
sea-nymph in the Odyssey, lived on the ‘island’ of Aeaea, which is the
promontory of Circeii, Cape Circeo, between Anzio and Gaeta, on the west coast
of Italy, about fifty miles south-east of Rome, and now part of the magnificent
Parco Nazionale del Circeo extending to Capo Portiere in the north, and
providing a reminder of the ancient Pontine Marshes before they were drained,
rich in wildfowl and varied tree species.
BkIISatIV:24-39 A source of
oysters eaten in
The huge circus in Rome between the
BkISatVI:110-131 The stalls in the outer wall were used by con-men and fortune tellers.
BkIISatIII:168-186 A place to show off, for the famous.
The Emperor, Tiberius Claudius Nero (42BC-37AD), the elder son of Livia, by her first husband. Augustus adopted the boy and appointed him as his successor after the early deaths of other candidates. He was also Augustus’s ‘stepson’ through his marriage to the elder Julia, Augustus’s daughter by Scribonia.
BkIEpIII:1-36 He campaigned for Augustus on many fronts, here in Asia Minor to set Tigranes on the throne of Armenia in 20BC.
BkIEpVIII:1-17 Celsus is on his staff.
BkIEpIX:1-13 A letter of introduction to him, probably written in 20BC as Tiberius set out on his Eastern Campaign.
BkIEpXII:1-29 His successful conclusion of the Armenian campaign.
BkIIEpII:1-25 Florus was on his staff.
A town in
BkISatVII:1-35 Persius’ home town.
The
modern Chiusi in Etruria about eighty-five miles north-west of
BkIEpXV:1-25 Its cold water springs.
Lucius Cocceius Nerva. He negotiated the Treaty of Brundisium in 40BC that divided the world between the triumvirs, Antony, Octavian and Lepidus.
BkISatV:1-33 Horace travels with him from Rome to Brindisi (and possibly Tarentum) in 38 or 37 BC.
BkISatV:34-70 His villa at Caudium provides a staging post.
A
country in
AP:73-118 Noted for its fierce warriors.
An Ionian city on the Lydian coast.
BkIEpXI:1-30 A famous port.
A minor official who has become a public clerk, like Horace, and acquired wealth.
BkIISatV:45-69 He defeats the wiles of Nasica a fortune-hunter.
The
city on the Isthmus between
BkIEpXVII:33-62
Horace adapts a Greek proverb regarding the cost of entertaining Lais and other
courtesans at
BkIIEpI:182-213 Famous for its bronze-work. After the destruction of the city, Romans searched for antique bronzes in the ruins.
A
mountain on the coast of
BkIISatIV:40-69 Its imported saffron.
The
BkISatII:86-110 The semi-transparent silk dresses made from the silk.
BkIISatIV:24-39 BkIISatVIII:1-19 Its white wine.
A leading philosopher (c340-275BC) of the Academy.
BkIEpII:1-31 A teacher of the good life.
A well known physician mentioned
in
BkIISatIII:142-167 A type of the respected medical man.
A Greek dramatist of the 5th Century BC.
BkISatIV:1-25 Mentioned as a dramatist of the Old Comedy.
BkIEpXIX:1-20 His reputation for drunkenness was enhanced by his own reference to himself in his play the Tankard.
Acording to the scholiasts, an aretalogus, a speaker on Stoic virtue. He wrote verses.
BkISatI:92-121 A wordy writer.
BkISatIII:120-142 Horace considers him absurd.
BkISatIV:1-25 Made fun of again as a garrulous writer.
BkIISatVII:21-45 Even his doorkeeper acquires knowledge he passes on!
The last king of Lydia (reigned c560-c546BC, died c546BC), famed for his wealth. He conquered the Greek cities on the coast of Asia Minor but was defeated by the Persian king Cyrus II, the Great, in 546. According to legend he was saved by Apollo from execution by Cyrus and became his counsellor.
BkIEpXI:1-30Sardis was his royal capital city.
The
site of a famous oracle of Apollo, and its prophetess, the Sibyl. A legendary
entrance to the underworld. Daedalus rested there after his flight from
BkIEpXV:1-25 On the road to Baiae.
Gaius Cupiennius Libo of
BkISatII:23-46 Horace accuses him of adultery.
Marcus Curius Dentatus, consul 290BC, a hero of the Samnite and Pyrrhic Wars.
BkIEpI:41-69 An example of Roman virtue.
Unknown. A chef or gourmet.
BkIISatVIII:42-78 Mentioned.
A race of giants living on the coast of Sicily of whom Polyphemus was one. They had a single eye in the centre of their foreheads. They forged Jupiter’s lightning-bolts. See Homer’s Odyssey Book IX et al.
BkISatV:34-70 BkIIEpII:87-125 Their rustic shepherd’s dances, an object of ridicule to the sophisticated.
AP:119-152 Polyphemus.
Diogenes of Sinope (active early 3rd century BC) and his followers, the Cynics. They were unconventional and outspoken critics of accepted social values, deriving their attitudes from the teachings of Antisthenes, a pupil of Socrates, and moral philosopher. The name Cynic is from the Greek term for a dog, kunos, used as a derogatory nickname.
BkIEpXVII:1-32 Horace contrasts Diogenes attitude to society with that of Aristippus. The Cynics wore a doubled cloak without an undergarment.