Epistles (Horace)

The Epistles (or Letters) of Horace were published in two books, in 20 BCE and 14 BCE, respectively.

As one commentator has put it: "Horace's Epistles may be said to be a continuation of his Satires in the form of letters... But few of the epistles are [actually] letters except in form..." They do indeed contain an excellent specimen of a letter of introduction (I.9); a piece of playful banter (I.14); pieces of friendly correspondence (I.3, I.4 and I.5); while the last, Epistle I.20, is inscribed 'To His Book," and forms a sort of epilogue to the Epistles he had already written. However, as a rule, the Epistles "are compositions like those which Pope, following the manner of Horace, has made familiar to us as Moral Essays."

The Epistles were published about four years after the first three books of Odes, and were introduced by a special address to his patron Maecenas, as his Odes, Epodes, and Satires had been. The form of composition may have been suggested by some of the satires of Lucilius, which were composed as letters to his personal friends... "From the Epistles... we gather that [Horace] had gradually adopted a more retired and meditative life, and had become fonder of the country and of study, and that while owing allegiance to no school or sect of philosophy, he was framing for himself a scheme of life, was endeavoring to conform to it, and was bent on inculcating it in others."

"In both his Satires and Epistles, Horace shows himself a genuine moralist, a subtle observer and true painter of life, and an admirable writer." But in spirit the Epistles are more philosophic, more ethical and meditative. Like the Odes they exhibit the twofold aspects of Horace's philosophy, that of temperate Epicureanism and that of more serious and elevated conviction.

Book 1 contains 20 Epistles.

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