Horace, the Misunderstood Soldier turned Poet and Creator of “Carpe Diem”
The literary works of Quintus Horatius Flaccus (65 - 68 BC), or Horace, spans an extraordinarily wide range, making him one of the central authors in Latin literature. Horace seemed to be just as comfortable writing about love and wine as he was about philosophy and literary criticism. However, the phrase that both best encapsulates Horace’s moral stance and saves him from oblivion, is the phrase ‘carpe diem’ (Odes 1.11.8), which endures well to the modern ages as a slogan on T-shirts and the name of a trendy line of leather goods.
Horace, portrayed by Giacomo Di Chirico (1880s) (Public Domain)
More than a poet, Horace was also a key literary figure in the regime of the Emperor Augustus. Rhetorician Quintilian described Horace’s versatility as being: “… lofty sometimes, yet he is also full of charm and grace, versatile in his figures, and felicitously daring in his choice of words.” This very versatility may have been his saving grace as his career coincided with Rome's momentous change from a republic to an empire - a change which would have demanded him to maintain a delicate balance between his old republican friends and his association with the new emperor. This earned him praise by some, yet for others he was described as nothing more than: “a well-mannered court slave”.
