Some Comments On Fraenkel's Horace

Professor Fraenkel, doctus sermones utriusque linguae in more than one respect, has written a big volume on the poetry of Horace1), which will long stand as a landmark in the history of Horatian scholarship. It is his desire ?to remove from the poems of Horace some of the crusts with which the industry of many centuries has overlaid them (p. VII). The following quotation may give an idea of his general approach to Horace, and of his attitude towards the venerable legion of viri Horatiani, past and present: ?a survey of the more recent discussion (sc. on C. 3, 5) might almost encourage the hope that some readers, and even some professional scholars, will in course of time again get used to the idea that Horace was primarily a poet. Again and again he protests against the tendency ,,to substitute for Orazio lirico an Orazio politico or Orazio moralista or both (p. 270 n. 1). Professor Fraenkel has read practically everything of any importance that has been written on Horace, and his footnotes abound in references. But in the text he is concerned with nothing but Horace and his poetry. A look at the table of contents suffices to show that the individual poems are continuously in the centre of his discussions. Even his brief and matter-of-fact survey of the life of Horace is presented in the form of a running commentary on the text of Suetonius' Vita 2). After that, Horace and his surroundings almost disappear into the background; the poems themselves are analysed as ?self-contained units?to use a favourite expression of the author. ?Those kind readers who feel tempted to supplement a Horatian poem by reading into it what in their opinion the poet

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