6.) Horace Epistles 1.11: Intro
1 Leave a comment on paragraph 1 0 A travelogue of sites and cities in Eastern Greece and Asia Minor begins this letter to Bullatius, an individual unknown elsewhere in Latin literature. Bullatius may travel through many famous and illustrious places, but are these better than Rome? This leads Horace to question our perspective when we travel, especially when we have difficult travel experiences. It is ultimately a question of one’s mindset/ratio and not the environment that determines how happy or blessed we truly are. Fortune may smile or frown on us, we may reside in Rome or a backwater town, but our attitude is our own. That being said, Horace urges his friend Bullatius to stay in Rome (probably to be closer to Horace), and to keep the correct mental and ethical state. If you have that mindset, you will be able “to live well” (bene vivere, 1.11.29), a major concern throughout the book. This develops some of the ideas found in the previous Epistle about one’s perspective about location (city vs. country), but shows that ultimately it does not matter where you are, it matters who you are.
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3 Leave a comment on paragraph 3 0 Here is a map of the primary places mentioned in these opening lines.
