Satires

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The Satires of Horace offer a hodgepodge of genres and styles: philosophy and bawdry; fantastic tales and novelistic vignettes; portraits of the poet, his contemporaries, and his predecessors; jibes, dialogue, travelogue, rants, and recipes; and poetic effects in a variety of modes. For all their apparent lightheartedness, however, the poems both illuminate and bear the marks of a momentous event in world history, one in which Horace himself played an active role—the death of the Roman Republic and the birth of the Principate.

John Svarlien's lively blank-verse translation reflects the wide range of styles and tones deployed throughout Horace's eighteen sermones or "conversations," deftly reproducing their distinctive humor while tracking the poet's changing mannerisms and moods.

David Mankin's Introduction offers a brief account of the political upheavals in which Horace participated as well as the social setting in which his Satires were produced, and points up hallmarks of the poet’s distinctive brand of satire. His detailed commentary offers a behind-the-scenes look at Roman society and an often between-the-lines examination of a key work of one of Rome's sharpest observers.

Reviews:

"This work will be a welcome addition to course reading lists, as it does justice to Horace's misleadingly simple verse. Svarlien’s rhythmic lines go down lightly and easily—as he renders Horace's phrase, he 'writes like people talk,' yet it is a talk that jars and provokes. Mankin's concise and highly readable notes will be as useful to scholars as to new readers of Horace: they are packed with cultural background, stylistic commentary, useful cross-references, and appealing suggestions on interpretation."
     —Catherine Keane, Department of Classics, Washington University in St. Louis

"Svarlien's handling of blank verse is supple, vigorous, and melodic. He is able to devise a style of verse that is appropriately conversational and varied. Hard to imagine there will soon be a better translation of the Satires. Mankin's introduction is lucid and extremely informative, and his execution of the end-notes is brilliant."
     —W. R. Johnson, Professor of Classics and Comparative Literature, Emeritus, University of Chicago

"Clear, lively, readable, with fast-paced iambics creating a fluent blank verse. Useful apparatus too."
     —Rachel Hadas, Department of English, Rutgers University

About the Authors:

John Svarlien is Professor of Classics, Transylvania University.

David Mankin is Associate Professor of Classics, Cornell University.