SOURCE: “Literary Criticism” in Horace and His Age: A Study in Historical Background, Longmans, Green and Co., 1917, pp. 250-91.

In the following essay, D’Alton examines Horace as a critic—judging his abilities and considering his influence, theories, standards, and models—and explains how his opinions sometimes differed from those of his contemporaries.

Horace entered early into the arena of literary criticism. When he returned from Philippi, and was compelled by poverty to take to literature, he essayed a species of poetry, that was invested with an element of danger for a young man aspiring to win an honourable place in Roman Letters. In his Satires, he offended the susceptibilities of certain of his contemporaries by his freedom of attack, and he incurred the wrath of the admirers of Lucilius by his strictures on their favourite poet. He was placed on his defence, and had to justify the...