1. QUÆRITUR de Pisonibus quibus honorem in Arte Poetica habuit Horatius. Dacerius et Sanadonus forte fidem apud te, Gibbone, Vir Doctissime, inventuri erant facilius, si auctorem sententiæ suæ laudassent, sine quo ea levis, et hariolationi similis, videri potest, et quæ argumento etiam non nimis valido everti queat. Jam vero est illa Porphyrionis antiqui hominis, qui eam forte debet anti quiori, liberty I have taken in writing to you. I have the honour to be, with much consideration, Yours, &c. EDWARD GIBBON. Mr. GESNER to Mr. GIBBON. 1. You inquire who were the Pisos, of whom Horace speaks in such honourable terms in his Art of Poetry. Dacier and Sanadon would probably, most learned Sir, have obtained more credit with you, had they cited the authority on which their opinion rests; and independently of which, it seems no better than a guess, which a slight argument is sufficient to overturn. This authority is that of Porphyrio, an ancient writer, who treats of the names mentioned quiori, qui de nominibus Horatianis scripsit. Hic ergo Porphyrio, ut est ex optimis libris editus, Hunc librum, inquit, qui inscribitur de Arte Poetica ad L. Pisonem, qui postea urbis custos fuit, misit. Nam et ipse Piso poeta fuit, et studiorum liberalium antistes. At ætas non convenit! Immo pulchre. Mortuus est ille Piso, Tacito teste, (An. 1. vi. c. 10.) octogenarius A. U. 785. Gessit præfecturam urbis annis XX.; suscepit ergo A. U. 765. Antequam illud munus susciperet, debet scripta esse epistola de Arte Poetica (quam ego suspicor fuisse aliquando secundi libri tertiam :) quia Porphyrio dicit, qui postea urbis custos fuit. Ponamus natum esse Pisoni majorem filiorum anno ætatis XXX. eumque filium annos XVI. habuisse, cum ad illum ista scriberet Horatius (366) O major juvenum, &c. Scripta erit Ars Poetica anno ætatis Horatii LII. mentioned in Horace, and who here perhaps copies from some author more ancient than himself. In his corrected edition Porphyrio says, "Horace's work, intitled the Art of Poetry, is addressed to L. Piso, who was afterwards governor of Rome; for Piso was himself a poet, and a patron of literary pursuits." But chronology, you say, does not warrant this explanation. It does; for Tacitus tells us, in his Annals, (lib. vi. c. 10.) that Piso died U. C. 785, at the age of eighty. He held his office twenty years; and therefore entered on it U. C. 765; before which period Horace must have sent to him the Art of Poetry, (which I suspect once stood as the third epistle of the second book,) because Porphyrio says, "who was afterwards governor of Rome." Let us suppose that Piso's son was born when the father was thirty years old; and that the son was sixteen when Horace addressed him, O major juvenum; the Art of Poetry will then have been LII. quod pulchre convenit cum Bentleianis rationibus, quas ego, cum ante hos fere annos Horatium ederem, comperi hactenus certe justas esse, ut diligenter licet attendenti, nihil occurrerit, quod illis repugnet. Si putemus in adolescentem XVI annorum, non convenire laudem, quam illi tribuit Horatius (quod mihi quidem contra videtur) prius natum possumus V vel X adeo annis dicere. At Virgilius vivebat adhuc cum Artem Poeticam scriberet Horatius, qui mortuus est A. U. 735, cum vir XXX annorum esset Piso, nec filium habere posset X vel XII ad summum annis majorem. Primo nec ipsum hoc forte absurdum putarint quidam, juvenem hic vocari præcocis ingenii et doctrinæ puerum decennem. Hac quidem ætate poetas fuisse Hugonem Grotium aliosque novimus: et liberalius, credo, utebantur aulici homines juvenis appellatione, postquam nequiter adeo Ciceroni expetiverat puerum quod vocasset Octavium. Sed, written in the fifty-second year of Horace's age; which well agrees with Bentley's computation; a subject which I remember to have examined and approved when about the same time of life I published my edition of Horace. If we think sixteen years too young for the praises bestowed by the poet, we may add to them five, or even ten years more. But to this mode of reckoning it is objected, that Virgil was alive when Horace wrote his Art of Poetry; and as the latter died in the year of Rome seven hundred and thirty-five, Piso, who was then but thirty years old himself, could not have a son above ten or twelve at the utmost. some critics do not disapprove of the application of juvenis to a boy of ten years, and of a forward genius: Grotius and others were poets at that age; and the Roman courtiers would naturally, I think, be prodigal in using the term juvenis, after Cicero gave so much offence by applying the term puer to Augustus. But But Sed, quod pace tua dixerim, Vir Humanissime, nihil causæ video cur in vivis adhuc fuisse, statuendum sit Virgilium, scribente Artem Horatio. Neque enim simpliciter eo loco vivi poetæ mortuis opponuntur, sed antiqui novis: non sola Libitina sacrare poetam potest; sed annos jam plures mortuus sit, secundum istos judices, oportet: Est vetus atque probus, centum qui perficit annos. Vide, quæso, epistolam libri secundi primam. 2. De Horatii ode libri tertii tertia, sententiam dixi in meis ad illum observationibus, quas tibi visas non puto, quare hic repetam et explicabo. Lusit Augustus cœnas Deorum nonnunquam. Notum est ex Suetonio (1. ii. c. 70.), male audisse aliquando cœnam illius dwdená Dewv, h. e. duodecim illorum Deorum, quibus pulvinaria, seu lecti sternebantur in But I see not any convincing argument to prove that Virgil was alive when the Art of Poetry was written. For, in the passage alluded to, Horace does not contrast living poets with those that were dead, but ancient poets with the modern; and, according to the critics whom he mentions, not death alone, but the being dead a certain number of years, was necessary for the attainment of poetical fame. Est vetus atque probus, centum qui perficit annos. See the first epistle of the second book. 2. Concerning the third ode of the third book, I formerly gave my opinion in the observations accompanying my edition, which, as you have not seen them, I shall here repeat and explain. Augustus sometimes represented in sport the suppers of the gods. We know from Suetonius, lib. ii. c. 70. that he was blamed for his imitation of the supper of the twelve gods, which used to take place in the Capitol, where pallets were spread for them; of which we in Capitolio (e. g. Liv. xxii. 10.) Quid si Horatius jussus vel injussus scripsit versus tali dramati aptos? Quid si, cum male audirent id genus ludi, voluit, hoc velut specimine proposito, persuadere hominibus, esse illos innocentes, civiles, Romani populi studiis conformes? Voluit eadem ode blandiri genti Juliæ, quæ origines Trojanos ab Ænea, et Iulo dudum adoptaverat. Aditum sibi parat ad eam rem pulcherrimum poeta. Fortitudo cum justitia homines ad Deos perducit. Inter hos jam est nostra admiratione et prædicatione, Augustus, et (ut eodem circiter tempore cecinit, Od. iii. c. 5. §2.) presens dicus habebitur. Nempe non minus meritorum ac juris habet Augustus quam habuit olim cum Baccho Romulus: qui tamen non sine difficultate receptus est, donec gratum elocuta est Juno Diis consiliantibus. Hujus oratio ejusdem plane argu menti we see an example in Livy, lib. xxii. c. 10. Is it not possible that Horace, either with or without the orders of Augustus, might think proper to write verses adapted to such a representa tion? Might he not endeavour to remove the blame attached to it, by exhibiting an example in which it was not only innocent, but conformable with the institutions and inclinations of the Romans? At the same time his ode would be a compliment to the Julian family, which had long boasted its descent from .Eneas and Iülus. For entering on this subject, the poet ingeniously prepares the way, by showing that men had attained divinity through justice and fortitude. Augustus is entitled to our admiration and praise; and, as he sung in another ode, written nearly about the same time, presens divus habebitur, being not less worthy of divinity than Bacchus and Romulus; the latter of whom was not without difficulty admitted to that honour," till Juno made her most pleasing and acceptable speech in the council of the gods." This speech |