Book 2

Book 2 of Horace’s odes features a lot of “advice” on how people should conduct themselves in their daily lives. In poem II he talks about greed: “you can rule a broader kingdom by subduing greed…” The passage is a reference to the plan that all of the wealthy landowners have to combine Libya and the Gades.  Horace is not in favor of this plan and neither are many others.  What Horace means by “broader kingdom” is that if landowners think beyond just what they want and consider other people, they will get more respect from others and be more influential.  Poem IV is a bit different in which Horace talks about relationships and love.  He talks about how it is okay to be in love with a slave.  Horace gives examples of different war heroes falling for slaves such as Achilles and Ajax.  However, he goes on to say that maybe these slaves had rich parents, which kind of contradicts his previous points.  He basically says that it doesn’t matter who you love, but in the end it seems like he doesn’t believe his own advice.   In poem III, however, he gives advice that I think he does believe.  Horace tells the reader to live life to the fullest.   Life is very short and whether you are rich or poor, happy or sad, Horace believes and wants his readers to believe that people should take advantage of live while they have it because eventually, we all die.  As evidenced in these poems Horace has a bit of a god complex, he thinks he knows how to live and makes sure that the reader knows exactly how he feels.  It is clear he has a holier than thou attitude, he doesn’t say things like: Oh maybe you could do this to help make your life better.  Instead, he says: do this, you need to do that, you must not do this etc.