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SOCRATES’ HOUSE: A NOTE ON HORACE, ODES 1.29
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 November 2018
Extract
Odes (= Carm.) 1.29, while perhaps ‘not an important poem’ (so Commager), is a jocular address to Horace's philosophically inclined friend Iccius, who is considering joining a military expedition to Arabia; the poet remonstrates playfully with him about seeking wealth while leaving behind his philosophical studies. It ends as follows (vv. 10–16):
- quis neget arduis
- pronos relabi posse riuos
- montibus et Tiberim reuerti
- cum tu coemptos undique nobilis
- libros Panaeti Socraticam et domum
- mutare loricis Hiberis,
- pollicitus meliora, tendis?
- Type
- Shorter Notes
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- Copyright
- Copyright © The Classical Association 2018
References
1 Goar, R.J., ‘Horace and the betrayal of philosophy: Odes 1.29’, CJ 68 (1973), 116–18Google Scholar takes it as ‘hard-hitting’ with ‘indignant questions’.
2 The ancient commentators may mean ‘Socratic school’, which is historically mistaken; see n. 4 below. For the meaning ‘school’, see Peerlkamp, P.H., Q. Horatii Flacci Carmina (Amsterdam, 1862 2), 93Google Scholar, Orelli, J.G., Q. Horatius Flaccus (Berlin, 1886 4), 170Google Scholar, Nisbet, R.G.M. and Hubbard, M., A Commentary on Horace Odes Book I (Oxford, 1970), 342Google Scholar, Syndikus, H.P., Die Lyrik des Horaz: Eine Interpretation der Oden (Darmstadt, 2001 3), 1.267Google Scholar n. 1 and Mayer, R., Horace Odes Book 1 (Cambridge, 2012), 191Google Scholar; all of them take it to mean ‘school of philosophy (generally)’ uel sim. Schütz, H., Q. Horatius Flaccus: Oden und Epoden (Berlin, 1889 3), 106Google Scholar takes it to mean ‘secta, διδασκαλία’, then ‘Philosophie überhaupt’. Connor, P., Horace's Lyric Poetry: The Force of Humour (Berwick, 1987), 152Google Scholar translates as ‘Socratic house’, but does not comment on the precise meaning, and Friedrich, G., Q. Horatius Flaccus: Philologische Untersuchungen (Leipzig, 1894), 156Google Scholar argues for ‘philosophical’, i.e. simple ‘house’, and compares Cic. QFr. 3.1.5, esp. uilla … philosopha; this is on the right track, but does not give full force to the choice of Socraticam.
3 So Ritter, F., Horatii Carmina et Epodi (Leipzig, 1856), 111Google Scholar, Kießling, A. and Heinze, R., Q. Horatius Flaccus: Oden und Epoden (Berlin, 1908 5), 143Google Scholar and Page, T.E., Q. Horatii Flacci Carminum Libri IV, Epodon Liber (London, 1959), 201Google Scholar.
4 On the non-existence of any ‘Socratic School’ in the sense of ‘a group of philosophers dedicated to Socrates’ own viewpoints’, see Guthrie, W.K.C., Socrates (Cambridge, 1971), 165–87, esp. 165–6CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
5 A related anecdote, mentioning Xanthippe going out for the Dionysia (probably ‘to see the procession’ rather than ‘to see the plays’), is found in P.Hibeh 182 after the anecdote previously discussed.
6 Even if the relevance of this particular anecdote is denied, I still hold that the phrase Socraticam domum should be understood as a reference to Socrates’ rather ascetic lifestyle, which was commonly thought appropriate to philosophers generally, rather than to a school of philosophers. Another mismatch between Stoic philosophical pretensions and actual lifestyle can be found at Epode 8.
7 The gens Stertinia was ancient, but this Stertinius, a Stoic philosopher, is unknown outside of Horace. Pseudo-Acro, in his note on the passage in Epistles 1, reports a huge philosophical production (220 volumes), not a trace of which is left anywhere. See Muecke, F., Horace Satires Book II (Warminster, 1993)Google Scholar, on Sat. 2.3.33.