horace ode 4.15 'to augustus' (not complete)

• Written in 13 BC
• Peace hinges on Augustus’ shoulder alike to Saturn in this way - the Golden Age is insecure and can be lost 
• “Phoebus” - god of music 
• Tyrrhenian Sea - part of the Mediterranean Sea, off the west coast of Italy.
• “Closed the gates of Janus’ temple” - Janus the god of doorways who protected Romans. Gates being closed means that there is a time of peace, which happened only twice before Augustus’ time
• “Tightened the rein on lawlessness” - refers to the leges iuliae perhaps
• Danube - river in Europe, separated the Romans from the Dacians, symbol of non-Roman people
• Getae - people from Bulgaria/Romania.
• Seres - people from China
• Don - a river in Russia
• Peace and prosperity 

  • Horace can no longer write about war in a time of such peace - “Phoebus condemned by verse when I tried to sing of war and conquered cities”
  • “Caesar this age has restored rich crops” -> glorifying agriculture (Marxist) to reinforce the status quo and keep the poor in appropriate roles
  • “Closed the gates of Janus’ temple”
  • “Freed at last from all war”
  • “No civil disturbance will banish the peace”
  • “No violence, no anger”
  • Ends with a scene of carefree festivity with a religious element
• Return to morality 

  • “Tightened the reins on lawlessness”
  • “Driven out crime”
  • “Summoned the ancient arts again”
• End of civil war

  • No more “mutual enemies”
  • “No civil disturbance will banish the peace”
  • “Laughter-loving Bacchus” bestows gifts to the Romans - implies he has been reborn from the division of civil war as he used to be Ant’s patron god
• Imperator 

  • Contrasts blessed state of peace with the wars that came before 
  • Augustus “brought back the standards” from “insolent Parthian pillars” “at last” “Janus’ temple” close because of this 
  • Encourages the idea that this is a military battle not a peaceful reconciliation 
  • Wars of expansion to happen - “Getae”, “Seres”, and “Persians” who are not part of the empire yet
  • Augustus continuing the “fame and majesty of our empire” 
  • “Caesar is “protecting the state”