In his later poetry, Horace himself spins a narrative about these controversial topics. Poetry can be 'useful', 'delightful', or both (Ars Poetica 333-4). It has 'useful' ethical functions (Epistles 2.1.126-31). Writing 'well' (technically and morally) requires 'wisdom' sourced from Socratic and Platonic philosophy (Ars Poetica 309-22): Socratic writings provide the poet’s basic material; life is like a drama, but different social roles have appropriately different 'duties', 'parts' and 'characters'. Here the poetic representation combines the 'is' and the 'ought', and traditional Peripatetic literary theory is overwritten by the moral relativism of the Stoic philosopher Panaetius (who greatly influenced late Republican Roman philosophy). 'Philosophy', both in its broadest sense and in the narrow sense of specific philosophies, informs Horace’s own poetry.

Epistles 2.2.57-60 itemises Horace’s range:

The Satires

Horace has written ‘lyric’, ‘iambics’ and ‘conversations’ (= ‘satires’). Why the emphasis on Bion, the largely Cynic (‘doggish’) philosopher?

The Satires parade numerous satiric predecessors, models and exemplars without naming Bion, but Horace here advertises his reading of Bion: ‘black salt’ refers both to the salt fish sold by Bion’s father and to Bion’s ‘abrasive’ wit. ‘Conversations’ glosses ‘diatribes’, or ‘informal philosophical talks’, a form associated with Bion The Roman satirist Lucilius ‘rubbed the city down with much salt’ (Satires 1.10.4) and was ‘of wiped [keen] nose’ (1.4.8), just as Bion’s father ‘wiped his nose with his elbow’ Lucilius is Horace’s ‘satirical father’.