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The Portents in Horace, Odes I. 2. 1–20

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

Margaret E. Hirst
Margaret E. Hirst
Affiliation:
University of Birmingham
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Extract

The ancient scholia and various modern editors interpret these lines as a description of the prodigies which followed the death of Caesar. It is bold to criticize a view so widely held, but its acceptance, to me, involves considerable difficulties. The first is the long interval between Caesar's death and the date of the Ode. About this date editors vary, but the general view is that it belongs either to the year 29 or 28 B.C.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 32 , Issue 1 , January 1938 , pp. 7 - 9
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1938

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References

page 7 note 1 Dio Cassius 55. 10. 10.

page 8 note 1 Snow and hail are not, I think, recorded as portents by Livy or Dio Cassius, although snow is a comparatively rare phenomenon in a Roman winter. Tiber floods are frequently mentioned. In 27 B.C., in the night after Octavian had received the title of Augustus, the Tiber rose, covering all the lower ground of Rome (Dio 53. 20). ‘From this sign the soothsayers prophesied that he would rise to great heights and hold the whole city [or state] under his sway.’ In 22 B.C. the flood was accompanied by thunderbolts on the Capitol (Dio 54. 1). 22 B.C. is, however, too late a date; for the Odes of the first three Books, and the omen in 27 B.C. was interpreted as favourable, though the ‘prophecy’ seems rather a statement of existing facts.

page 8 note 2 Contrast the flattering interpretation in 27 B.C. (Dio 53. 20 above).

page 9 note 1 So Dr. Gow in his edition of the Odes. He also makes the suggestion that Caesar's expressed intention to surrender his power to the Senate on Jan. 1 27 B.C. might give rise to the entreaties to complete his task, which are contained in the second part of the Ode.

page 9 note 2 For example, Odes I. 3, II. 13, III. 3. 4. 11. 27. 29.

page 9 note 3 For the interest of this early attempt at the deification of Augustus see Professor Gertrude Hirst's article on the Prologue to the Georgics, , Transactions of the American Philological Association LIX (1928) pp. 25–28Google Scholar.

page 9 note 4 C.A.H. X. p. 263, see also p. 255.