Talk:Horace

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horace was a great poet and philosepher, how did he help rome in any way?

Hi. I'm still learning here so apologies if I'm not doing things right. The observation that Horace was derivative of the Greeks is true with respect to meter, but that's also true of all Latin poets. The comment could be interpreted as a negative comment on his originality, which I think is transparently unfair and so I deleted it. No Greek poet published an ars poetica like Horace's. With regard to satire, moreover, he took a largely indigenous form created (as best we can tell) by Lucilius, modified it significantly and made it his own. While Horace has many debts to the Greeks, the standard rap on Romans that they stole everything from the Greeks is unfair, and particularly unfair in Horace's case. Thanks for listening! MaggieTMaggieT 14:26, 15 February 2006 (UTC)


Maggie T is absolutely right; I edited some of the language to reflect that. I also deleted some inaccurate characterizations of the Odes and Epodes. Ron Kane 3/10/06.

[edit] carpe diem

Isn't carpe diem "pluck the day" or "savor the day"? I thought carpere means "to pluck" or "to savor", as we get the English word carp, to complain. I have a growing suspicion that "seize the day", although popular, is an incorrect translation. Chase 66.141.177.116 22:45, 22 January 2007 (UTC)