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Horace, Epistles 1. 19. 37–40

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

C. D. Gilbert
C. D. Gilbert
Affiliation:
27 Mason Road, Kidderminster
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Extract

The explanation of the vexed phrase ‘auditor et ultor’ (39) given by Professor E. Fraenkel on p. 349 of his Horace marks a great improvement on previous interpretations. Auditor he translates as ‘pupil’ and ultor he explains as ‘rescuer’ (i.e. from oblivion). However I very much doubt whether ultor can in fact bear this meaning. Whatever may be the case with vindex and vindico, I have found no instance of ultor meaning anything but ‘avenger’ or ‘punisher’. Fraenkel takes ‘nobilium scriptorum’ as the Greek poets ‘whose form and spirit he attempted to renew in a different tongue’ 2.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 26 , Issue 1 , May 1976 , pp. 109
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1976

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References

1 See Fraenkel, 348, n. 4, for a discussion of these.

2 Fraenkel, 348.

3 Cf. Q. Cicero (?), Comm. Pet. 7, where it is implied that eximia gloria and dignitas need no suffragatio.

4 The two are often confused in manuscripts. See e.g. Juv. 3. 322, Ter. H.T. 872.

5 See e.g. Cic. Mur. 8 and 76, Mil. 68; Pliny, N.H. 8. 23. 2, Suet. D.J. 23.

6 For scriptorum as the gen. of scripta cf. Sat. 2. 3. 2 ‘scriptorum quaeque retexens’. The undoubted ambiguity in Ep. 1. 19. 39 is eased by scripta in line 42.

7 Its ‘mock-heroic’ tone is in keeping with that of 45–9 with their sustained wrestling metaphor and exaggerated language. See West, D.A., Reading Horace, 49–51.Google Scholar