Orazio, Serm. 1.4: le credenziali del Satirico

Abstract

Maecenas appears to be conspicuously absent from Horace’s serm. 1.4. This satire was prob­ably written in early 37 BC, after Virgil and Varius introduced the poet to his patron to be, but before his official admission to the so-called ‘circle of Maecenas’. If this is the case, 1.4 func­tions as the ‘literary’ version of 1.6.60 (quod eram narro), a kind of curriculum vitae attached to what in modern terms might be called an ‘application for admission’. It is a sort of  an ‘en­gagement pact’, pledging a reformation of satire suited to the new political climate and under­writing, as it were, a ‘confidentiality agreement’, as made clear at 1.4.78-103. Apparently, prior to his formal admission to the circle, Horace is not yet entitled to associate Maecenas’ name with his own.