Horace Book II

Book II has many themes, most of them having to do with the progression of life and aging.
Poems:

1. war
   
2. greed
   
3. aging
   
4. love, war
   
5. love, aging
   
6. aging
   
7. war, friendship
   
8. seduction with no love
   
9. love, aging
   
10. preparation for adversity
    
11. aging
    
12. war
    
13. death
    
14. aging
    
15. modesty
    
16. modesty
    
17. death
    
18. modesty
    
19. wine
    
20. death
    

The themes help show the progression of a person's life. For the most part, the themes go in order from the beginning to the middle, to the end of a person's life. In the beginning is love and friendship, modesty and aging are after that, and finally there is death. Love and friendship are more commonly associated with young people, since the strongest friendships are formed when you are young. Love and attraction are most commonly associated with young people as well, since physical attraction deteriorates as you get older, once you have become an adult, and that attraction is a large part of love. The rest of life involves war, aging, and modesty. Horace says modesty is important for someone to live a happy life. He glorifies the life as a common person living humbly on a farm. War is a large part of life in general, men fight to protect their families and this is one of the most common causes of death in Greek society at this time. The men die in battle and the families die in slavery or pillaging after a loss. Aging occurs throughout life, but is seen easiest in the elderly, since they have aged the most and are closest to their death from natural causes. They are the most common to reflect on the ways they have aged, since the deterioration from aging in young or middle age people is much less noticeable.