Oberlin Classics

[1] credis… possunt: Horace opens with a simple, a.k.a. particular, condition (A&G 515).
Prisco...Cratino: Cratinus or Κρατῖνος was an Athenian writer of Old Comedy (hence prisco), and a contemporary of Aristophanes (see Pax 701-5). Both Horace and the Suda accuse him of heavy drinking, from where he apparently claimed to get his inspiration (see S.1.4.1 for Horace’s previous mention of Cratinus). Cratinus’ Wine Flask (Pytine) is the source of the proverbial statement “no water-drinker can produce anything clever” (ὕδωρ δὲ πίνων οὐδὲν ἄν τέκοις σοφόν, fr. 213) in response to the criticism of Aristophanes. See Rusten 2011: 203-7 for English translations of the fragments of this play.
Maecenas docte: Vocative address of Maecenas. The fact that Horace calls Maecenas “learned” (docte) here would suggest that he expects Maecenas to be an able critic of poetry in his own right and would know of Cratinus (cf. C. 3.8.5).

[2] diu: Take with both placere and vivere.
placere… vivere: Often the contrast between momentary popularity and everlasting fame is evoked (think of Thucydides’ history, a “possession for all time,” 1.22), but Horace connects the two strands here.

[3] quae: The antecedent is nulla...carmina.
aquae potoribus: “water drinkers”, a dative of agent (A&G 375). Horace would probably consider himself a mix of the two - sober enough to exhibit his ars, but still inspired at times with suitable ingenium. He does speak about water quality in the Epistles (cf. Ep. 1.10 and 1.15), but he is famously concerned with wine in the Odes and Epodes (see Putnam 1969 and Commager 1957) and his “Bacchic Poetics” can be discerned (Schiesaro 2009). It will be shown that part of the problem is that the imitatores drink to excess, produce questionable poetry, and say they are following Horace’s lead. As Fantham writes, “he is showing how such declarations will lead the third rate into imitating the vices rather than the skills of poets” (2013: 413). Horace’s poetic vision in the Epistles is more rational and level-headed than might be expected from Bacchus-inspired behavior.
ut: “ever since” (OLD 27).
male sanos...poetas: Poetic inspiration (e.g. C. 3.19.18: insanire iuvat) is paralleled with drunkenness. See the humorous lines about these insanos poetas at AP 295-301.

[4] adscripsit: He has “enrolled” ecstatic poets among his entourage, almost like a general with his troops (so Porphyrio in his commentary). Ancient representations of Dionysus’ triumph can be found in sculpture, mosaic, and Horace’s own poetry (C. 2.19.1-4) and we should probably keep such triumphs in mind with additional imagery (see note below on line 24).
Liber: Liber was an old Italian deity of fertility and harvest, who came to be associated with Dionysus and Bacchus through syncretism. Liber/Dionysus here creates a bridge between Athenian old comedy and Roman poetry (Ennius had made the Fauns prophetic poets in his Annales, cf. Cic. Brut. 71.7, Hor. AP 295). Horace may be encouraging wordplay with Liber meaning “free” or “book” (which is exploited in the following Epistle).
Satyris Faunisque: Satyrs and fauns are both the hybrid goat/man followers of Dionysus/Liber with fauns the Roman equivalent of the Greek satyrs (AP 244). The blending of Greek and Roman followers may foreshadow Horace’s own original blending of Greek lyric into Latin.

[5] fere: “regularly”
dulces… Camenae: “The sweet muses,” the Muses take on the characteristics of the wine (cf. C. 3.13.2: dulci mero, Epod. 9.38) and the hoped-for poems: “it is not enough for poems to be beautiful, let them also be sweet (non satis est pulchra esse poemata; dulcia sunto, AP 99).
oluerunt: olere = “To have a bad smell/stink” (OLD 1c) - they stink of wine (vina).
mane: Adverb, “in the morning”. Poets who follow the Bacchic example of Cratinus stink of wine when the rest of the world is sober.

[6] laudibus...vini: laudibus is an Ablative of Means (A&G 409). Homer’s epics regularly call wine “honey-sweet” (μελιηδής) or “sweet to drink” (ἡδύποτος) and in the Certamen Homeri et Hesiodi ("The Contest of Homer and Hesiod"), Hesiod details a contest of wit at Euboea between himself and Homer, during which Hesiod asks Homer what is most delightsome to men, to which he quotes Od. 9.6-11, the description of a feast with wine.
arguitur: “is revealed (to be)” (OLD 1) with vinosus as the predicate nominative. Note the positioning of vini vinosus and the etymological play (cf. Ep. 1.18.5: vitio vitium, AP 133: verbo verbum).

[7] Ennius’ position as the father of Roman epic (to parallel Homer) would have been further strengthened by the idea, which Ennius promulgated in his historical epic Annales, that he was Homer reincarnated (cf. Hor. Ep. 2.1.50-52). In addition to the Annales, Ennius also wrote tragedies and satires. Ennius is also deemed pater by Propertius (3.3.6). It is notable that Ennius was recognized by Ovid as being greatest in ingenium, but lacking in ars (Ennius ingenio maximus, arte rudis, Tr. 2.423-24). His propensity for drunken “inspiration” would fit such a sentiment.
nisi potus: “except when drunk”. The biographical fallacy is on display in the depiction of Ennius and Homer and it is to be assumed as part of the imitatores' problem in regard to Horace's praises of wine.
ad arma: Take with dicenda as a gerundive of purpose (A&G 506), but Horace is playing with the syntax as prosilire can take ad = “to rush or spring (to a course of action)” so it would appear that Ennius is rushing to arms/battle, when in actuality he is rushing to write about battles (the Second Punic War was the primary topic of the Annales).

[8]‘Forum: Horace is speaking this decree and denotes the Forum (the center of governmental and commercial business) as a place for sober decision-making and teetotalers (i.e. siccis). This is the sort of pronouncement that would lead to his followers' drunken behavior.
puteal...Libonis: This well in the Forum is a place where money-lenders hung out (S. 2.6.38). We should recall the capitalist message that the people learned and parroted at Ep. 1.1.53-55.

[9] mandabo: “to hand over, to entrust”. The future tenses make Horace into a quasi-magistrate.
adimam: This verb meaning “to deprive” can take a complementary infinitive (OLD 2b). Horace’s decree is that serious and sober men should not try to write poetry.

[10] simul: “as soon as”. The fact that we do not have any poetry of Horace that actually decrees this has led some editors to conjecture edixit in the following line and make this a proclamation of Ennius. See Cucchiarelli 2010: 306.
cessavere: Syncopated perfect that takes a complementary infinitive (here, two infinitives).
poetae: Nom. plural.

[11] nocturno...mero: Ablative of means with certare, see C. 4.1.31: nec certare iuvat mero and the extensive note of Thomas 2011: ad loc.
certare: This is the sort of competition that they are involved in - drinking contests like during a Greek symposium (see Smith 1984). The competitive nature of the poetic arena is brought out at the close of this poem (cf. certamen, 48).
putere: “to stink”. There is nothing “sweet” about the way these “poets” smell (cf. line 5). There may be bait-and-switch with the verb putare - these bards are busy drinking so they have no time to think/contemplate/write poetry.
diurno: Supply mero to indicate day-drinking. Horace revisits this when describing the proper behavior of poets: exemplaria Graeca / nocturna versate manu, versate diurna (AP 268-9). A notable intertext between these two works, pointing out how far short these writers fall from the ideal.

[12] quid?: A nice epistolary touch that emphasizes the communication and possible questions of Maecenas about the topic at hand. Horace gets to the point about imitation - externals are easy to copy, but say nothing about the true character of a person/poem.
voltu torvo...pede nudo...textore: Ablatives of means - the ways in which they imitate Cato the Younger, who was a notoriously fierce proponent of Stoicism. Cato’s ascetic lifestyle (bare feet and tunic vs. flowing toga) and staunch Republicanism made a powerful impression on his own and subsequent generations (for Seneca, he is the model of the Stoic sage). Cato’s own emulation of his father (Cato the Elder) makes this exemplum even more appropriate and Tutrone 2019 points out how imitatio and aemulatio in general often are figured as being likenesses much like the imagines of the elite.

[13] simulet: Subjunctive in the protasis of a future less vivid condition (A&G 516).
textore: “With the help of a weaver of a threadbare toga” - the “costume” of Cato and one may think of him as a theatrical character of sorts, acting out or “simulating” a persona.
exiguae...togae: Genitive - take with textore. The tightly drawn or scanty toga (Ep. 1.18.30) contrasts with the flowing toga that was the style of the more lavish Augustan and Imperial eras and was the external sign of certain philosophers and those that preached a simple lifestyle.

[14] repraesentet: “would he revive” (OLD 6). There is almost the sense that the imitator hopes to bring Cato (and his virtues) back from the dead, which is impossible. Repraesentare can also mean “to portray/imitate” (OLD 7) and Horace is showing how far the imitation falls from the original.
Catonis: with the line-end repetitions of Catonem (13) and Catonis, Horace seems to be emphasizing the man, not his persona, while the different grammatical cases hint that there will never be an exact replication of him.

[15] rupit: The plosive sound help to indicate the meaning. While nothing is known of Iarbitas, it would seem his desire to imitate Timagenes led to his destruction.
Timagenis: An objective genitive with aemula - “A tongue aiming to rival Timagenes…”. Timagenes of Alexandria was a famously outspoken rhetorician and historian, who enjoyed the patronage of Augustus until he was too free-spoken. Subsequently he resided in the home of C. Asinius Pollio.
aemula lingua: For additional “dangerous” emulation, see C. 4.2 for the risks involved in emulating the poetry of Pindar.

[16] studet...tendit: Both take the complementary infinitive haberi. Iarbitas was striving to be as witty and erudite as Timagenes. For studere in such emulative contexts, see C. 4.2.1, Ep. 1.3.13.
urbanus...disertus: predicate nominatives with haberi. haberi = “to be considered/held”. Both disertus and urbanus (cf. Ep. 1.5.19, 1.15.27) speak to the clever stylishness of the writer.

[17] decipit: Literary models are deceptive. One believes they will be easily imitated, but Horace intimates that it is the faults (vitiis) that usually are enticing and, ultimately, imitated (see Sen. Ep. 114.17: "These faults are made popular by a single speaker who dominates oratory in his time and the others imitate him and also influence one another"haec vitia unus aliquis inducit, sub quo tunc eloquentia est, ceteri imitantur, et alter alteri tradit).
exemplar: For literary exemplaria in Horace, see Ep. 2.1.58 and AP 268. Ulysses is a “useful model” in Ep. 1.2.18 (utile...exemplar).
vitiis: Ablative of respect with imitabile.

[18] pallerem casu… biberent: Present contrary to fact condition (A&G 517). The use of casu “by chance” shows how imitators will seize upon random (and meaningless) aspects to mimic.
exsangue: modifies cuminum, even though it describes the effect on the drinker, rather than the drink itself. Jeera waterhttps://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life-style/health-fitness/weight-loss/how-to-have-jeera-water-cumin-water-to-lose-weight/photostory/69252080.cms (a drink made with cumin) is common in Indian health regimens.

[19] O imitatores: Hiatus (A&G 612) here as often with O before a word beginning with a vowel.
servum pecus: “servile herd” - note how pecus is used of drone bees by Vergil (G. 4.168 ~ repeated at Aen. 1.435) and the metapoetic associations with bees are strengthened in the following lines (and had been mentioned at Ep. 1.3.21-22).
saepe...saepe: The repetition of saepe illustrates Horace’s exasperation.

[20] bilem...iocum: Horace’s own anger or mocking laughter at others (esp. poets). These are accusative direct objects of movere. For iocum think of Ep. 2.2.106: ridentur mala qui componunt carmina. The end of this poem shows the shoe on the other foot (line 43).
vestri...tumultus: Nom. plural. Their “commotion/confusion” (tumultus) about literary issues suggests bluster that is not able to achieve a goal.
movere: Syncopated 3rd pl. Perf. Act. Indicative.

[21] libera...vestigia: One should think back to Liber and contrast Horace with the servum. Horace asserts his freedom and independence. The use of footsteps as a metaliterary device to indicate poetic succession (see Nelson) is also found in Horace at Ep. 2.2.80, AP 286, and the idea of doing it in free land (per vacuum) looks back to Lucretius 1.925-26: avia Pieridum peragro loca, nullius ante / trita solo (and Horace will reuse it at C. 4.9.3). Morrison 2007 (and Ferri 2007) believe that Horace is strongly refashioning Epicureanism to look to ethics vs. the concentration on physics in Lucretius. As Morrison writes “The Epistles, I think, sets up ‘Horace’/itself as Socrates to Lucretius’ (pre-Socratic) Empedocles, urging a greater attention to ethics as opposed to the physics which concerns the De Rerum Natura” (2007: 116).
princeps: Would the Roman reader connect princeps with Augustus at this time? This is strong language and recalls what he said at C. 3.30.13 about his originality. Cf. the use of primus (23). If he is the princeps of poetry, perhaps it is natural that the princeps is his primary reader? See lines 42-45 below.

[22] aliena: Another poet’s “ground” or “property”.
meo pede: Also puns on the metrical foot that Horace uses.
qui sibi fidet: Fidet takes the dative sibi. Self-confidence and self-reliance are intermingled here. This sententia can apply to more than just poetry.

[23] dux reget examen: Horace as “king bee” (the ancients did not know the gender of the queen bee) over the swarm of other bee/poets. See Verg. G. 4.67 and 4.187 for dux applied to the king bee.
dux: predicate noun, “as leader”.
Parios...iambos: This refers to the writings of Archilochus of Paros (fl. 7th C. BCE), whom Horace “followed” in his Epodes - which he called Iambi (see AP 79 and Epod. 14.7 for iambos). Archilochus was the earliest poet to write iambic verse and exhibits a strong personal voice in his poetry. A famous story about Archilochus concerns his attempts to marry Neobule, one of the daughters of Lycambes. When rebuffed by Lycambes, he wrote vituperative poems that slandered the daughters to such an extent that they committed suicide. Here, Horace paints himself as a gentle Archilochus. Morrison 2006 argues that iambic flourishes enrich the Epistles (as a development from his Satires).

[24] Latio: In pointed contrast to Parios in the previous line and showing the way that Horace has introduced novel Greek material to Italy. Cf. Ep. 2.1.156-57.
numeros: Horace’s meters in the Epodes followed the iambic models in Archilochus. Horace also discusses meter in similar terms at S. 1.4.6-8.
animos: “spirit”, and also indicative of the haughtiness of Archilochus’ persona.
secutus: Freudenburg 2002 makes the nice observation, “In claiming to have ‘shown’ foreign iambs to Latium, the poet puts himself back in his old role of triumphator [cf. C. 3.30] displaying conquered troops and goods to the crowds at Rome. But that puts quite a different spin on his ‘following’ Archilochus at the line’s end...But the image reminds us that following is precisely what conquering generals do: they come last in the procession, driving the conquered ahead of them, with never a hint of their becoming any less than godlike in their following. Thus the poet makes a (hard to make) case for leading by following…” (135).

[25] res: In the sense of subject-matter of poetry also at AP 89. Horace’s originality is stressed in his avoidance of the subjects that Archilochus focused on although it must be said that Horace, like Archilochus, claimed to have thrown his shield away in battle (C. 2.7), and also has a number of invective poems in his Epodes that also feature ferocious personal invective (e.g. Epod. 4, 12).
agentia verba Lycamben: Mayer 1994 ad loc. encourages one to take agentia as agitantia “stirring up/troubling” with Lycamben as the direct object. See Epod. 6 and Horace’s use of agam there (Epod. 6.7) and at Epod. 5.89 for this verb as a verb of attack.

[26] ne...ornes: Negative purpose clause (A&G 531).
foliis...brevioribus: The laurel crown that a poet wears (see S. 1.10.49, C. 2.7). Horace believes he deserves equal plaudits, even if he is not completely novel and follows the rhythm and craftsmanship of Archilochus’ poetry.

[27] quod: Causal (A&G 540).
timeo: + infinitive = “to be afraid to do something” (OLD 4). There is an interesting admission that Horace feared to be too innovative in his Epodes, but this too is grounded in the practice of previous (Greek) writers, such as Sappho and Alcaeus. It is no shock that these writers then were the foundation of Horace’s lyric project.
modos et carminis artem: The meter and technique of this poetry should not be changed in Horace’s estimation. For Horace ars is strongly associated with the learned craft of poetry.

[28] Horace claims his relationship to Archilochus is the same as that of Alcaeus and Sappho. Archilochus becomes the father of lyric poetry more generally, even if few poems of Alcaeus and Sappho have survived which ape his meters.
temperat: Take as “regulate/tune” with musam. Tempero is also used of blending (OLD 7) so there might be a sense that the wine/water dichotomy presented earlier in the poem could be tempered and a middle-ground found between such stark contrasts.
Archilochi...pede: pes for the metrical foot of Archilochus’ poetry, but recalling Horace’s own foot at line 22. Horace himself uses Archilochean meters at C. 1.4, 4.7, and Epod. 11.
mascula Sappho: This adjective probably refers to her success in a traditional male-dominated field, but may also evoke her love of women (cf. C. 2.13.34-35).

[29] temperat Alcaeus: The repetition of temperat in the same place in the line emphasizes that both Alcaeus and Sappho did what Horace is doing metrically. Horace, ergo, should be able to do so as well.
rebus et ordine dispar: Once again, the novelty lies in the subject matter (res, cf. 25 above) and organization (ordo).

[30] socerum quaerit: Alcaeus did not attack any potential father-in-law like Archilochus’ invective against Lycambes (socerum) and his daughter (the sponsae of the next line). That being said, according to Horace, Alcaeus could be fierce in his poetry (C. 4.9.7-8: Alcaei minaces...Camenae).
versibus...atris: Ablative of means by which he sullied the reputation of Lycambes. ater in the sense of “spiteful”, see Epod. 6.15.

[31] laqueum...nectit: Neobole was said to have hung herself because of the defamation.
famoso carmine: “abusive song” - the poetry makes the person attacked famosus (“notorious, of ill repute”, cf. S. 2.1.68). Paralleling the versibus...atris in the previous line.

[32] Hunc: i.e. Alcaeus.
non alio dictum prius ore: Alcaeus’ poetry had not previously been imitated by a Latin poet. There may be an echo the first of his Roman odes, where he sings carmina non prius / audita (C. 3.1.2-3), and this would indicate the civic concerns underpinning some of Alcaeus’ odes.
Latinus: Horace focuses on his primary contribution, which is rendering this verse into Latin. This makes Horace, humbly, into a sort of translator of Alcaeus, when in truth his project was much more ambitious and original, cf. C. 1.32.3-4: age dic Latinum / barbite, carmen.

[33] volgavi: A similar claim is found at C. 4.9.3-4. For the verb applied to poetry, see Verg. G. 3.3-4: cetera quae vacuas tenuissent carmine mentes / omnia iam vulgata.
fidicen: Nom. “lyre-player”. He will repeat this self-identification at C. 4.3.17-24 at line 23 (Romanae fidicen lyrae). For more on the lyre in antiquity, see Smith and to hear how it may have sounded, see the albums by Levy.
iuvat: Supply me (with ferentem).
immemorata: “novelties”, unmentioned previously. Horace coins a new word for these novelties (it is not used elsewhere in Latin).

[34] ingenuis: Distribute with both eyes (oculis) and hands (manibus). This is the sort of reader that Horace desires (i.e. one who shows the characteristics common to the free-born, “liberal” or “honorable”) in contrast with the ventosa plebs below (37). For the focus on the reader here, see S. 1.10.73: neque te ut miretur turba labores / contentus paucis lectoribus (and S. 1.10.81-87), but the question of Horace’s audience (readers or audience at a recitation) is alive in this poem, where public recitations seem to be spirited affairs indeed. McNeill 2001 remarks on this passage “the echo here of his early emphasis in Satires 1.6 on the importance of ingenuitas in Maecenas’s circle reintroduces us to the inner ring of Horace’s core readership”. For the question of revisions and adhering to the advice of readers in Horace, see Gurd 2012: 77-103.

[35] Horace tells Maecenas that certain readers disparage him because he refuses to play the “game” of seeking popularity through gifts.
opuscula: self-deprecating here, but see note on Ep. 1.4.3.
ingratus...lector: This type of reader is “unappreciative” of the novelty and hard work that Horace puts into his verse.

[36] laudet amet: Subjunctive in an indirect question (A&G 574). This reader enjoys Horace in the comfort of his own home, but voices his displeasure in public.
domi: Locative. For the form, see A&G 427.
premat: “disparage” (OLD 23), see AP 262 and Verg. A. 11.402: premere arma Latini.
extra limen: i.e. when in public.

[37] non ego: Emphatic and repeated at line 39. Horace will not act like a politician on the campaign trail.
ventosae plebis: Horace applied ventosus to himself earlier in the collection (Ep. 1.8.12).
suffragia venor: Horace does not hunt the votes of such a fickle public. In Ep. 2.2: 102-105, Horace mentions how at public recitations he often makes a lot of concessions to appease the genus irritabile vatum, only to revise at peace when he returns home and can do so without any fuss (impune). AP 419-37 details how poets can buy praise and false friends (as with the dinners and clothes in the following line).

[38] impensis cenarum: impensa is “cost, expenditure” and can take a genitive of the thing paid for (OLD 1a). impensis, like munere, is an ablative of means.
tritae munere vestis: The idea that one can give hand-me-down clothes to the people to curry their favor “suggests that securing the people’s favour is hardly difficult” (Mayer 1994: ad loc.). There may be some punning with tritae (a perfect passive participle from terere) also possibly indicating third-string, third tone in scale, related to the lyre in Ancient Greek music.

[39] Horace only has time for the best poets; he both listens to them and defends their works.
nobilium scriptorum: Genitive plural - take with both auditor and ultor. Elsewhere Horace writes about the contemporary poets whose works he admires such as Varius and Vergil, see S. 1.5.40, S. 1.10.81. From the Epistles one can see that Tibullus (Ep. 1.4) and some of the younger poets around Tiberius (Ep. 1.3) would also be poets whom Horace respects.
ultor: While this word may appear surprising, it is fitting in this poem in which Horace implies he does not have enough defenders of his own poetry. Those he might expect to champion good poetry, namely the grammatici, have to be bought (if we believe line 40).

[40] grammaticas...tribus: tribus-us (f.) continues the political analogy. Horace humorously identifies the large number of grammarians with the tribes of Roman citizens. The grammatici were critics and teachers of literature, who often taught from pulpita (speaker platforms) and, at this period, were often slaves and freedmen. See Kaster 1988 for an exhaustive treatment of grammatici.
ambire: “to solicit/canvass”. It can also mean embrace, adding an incongruous/outlandish connotation that further indicates his disapproval of courting favor from readers.
dignor: Take with non in the previous line and it takes ambire as complementary infinitive.

[41] hinc illae lacrimae: Idiomatic statement from Ter. Andr. 126 = “That’s where the problem/trouble lies”. Because he does not buy the “votes” of the grammarians, he suffers from bad “publicity”.
‘Spissis...theatris: Ablative with indigna (A&G 418b). Horace hypothetically defends his writing/recitation practice. He claims he does not have suitable material for the theater or public hall (one does not need to think of a huge theater such as the Theater of Pompey, but it could be used for a smaller odeon (like that at Pompeii), cf. S. 1.10.37-39.
indigna: with scripta on the next line, the direct object of recitare. indigna plays off dignor in the previous line.

[42] pudet: impersonal (supply me, the accusative of the person affected). See A&G 354 for construction with accusative and infinitive.
nugis addere pondus: There is once again a sort of self-depreciation on display here. nugae was used by Catullus (1.4) to denote his poetry and Horace does not produce epic or tragedy, the “weightiest” genres (Ov. Tr. 2.381: omne genus scripti gravitate tragoedia vincit).

[43] ‘rides’: The interlocutor responds and finds fault with Horace’s rationale. This is an important point and highlights Horace’s relationship with Augustus (see Ep. 1.13 for more on this). The use of ridere evokes the opening Epistle and points to the importance of laughter (here translate, “you are kidding me”) in the collection.
Iovis = Augustus. Is Horace himself reciting the works to Augustus (hence auribus)? See the famous story of Vergil reciting with the help of Maecenas the Georgics to Augustus (Suet. Vita Vergili).
ista: While it can simply mean “those works of yours” usually iste carries negative connotations, so one can see how Horace displays the imaginary critic’s displeasure with Horace’s work.

[44] fidis like fidet above, but here governing the accusative + infinitive, “you are confident that…”..
poetica mella: related in theme to line 23, “he who has faith in himself will rule the swarm (of bees)” and continues the identification of poets with bees.
manare: “to make flow”, the active sense is rare with this verb. A feature of the Isles of the Blessed in Epode 16 is mella cava manant ex ilico (47).

[45] tibi pulcher: “glorious in your opinion/to you”? This may harken back to Ep. 1.2.30: cui pulchrum fuit with tibi the dative of person judging (A&G 378).
naribus: Ablative with uti “To turn up my nose”.
uti: complementary infinitive with formido.

[46] formido: Horace fears to react too emphatically against his distractors and would rather simply escape the fray.
luctantis: Genitive of possession (A&G 343) with acuto...ungui. The literary argument now becomes a physical struggle and may evoke the gladiatorial analogy in Ep. 1.2-6. The mention of diludia in the following line is an allusion to the days off between gladiatorial contests. In this sort of contest one sees the reification of the poetic impulse of emulation now made into a reductio ad absurdum about two poets fighting one another in real life with sharpened fingernails.
acuto ne secer ungui: The ablative of means (acuto...ungui) helps to form a word picture with the sharp nails surrounding Horace, afraid to be cut. It is notable that fingernails also appear when Horace writes about judging poetry at AP 294 (and see Brink 1971: ad loc. for an exhaustive note). Although formido grammatically takes uti, the fearing leads as well to the fear clause introduced by ne (A&G 564).Elsewhere Horace refers to the almost violent nature of poetic recitations at Ep. 2.2.95-105 (at 102 he refers to “the easily provoked race of poets” genus inritabile vatum), and Smith 1984 stresses that this sort of violence would occur at particularly heavy-drinking symposia, thus tying into the pronouncements in the first 20 lines of the poem.

[47] iste locus: A place for recitation like the theater mentioned in line 41.
diludia posco: I seek a time-out.

[48] ludus - this “game” would be the poetic recitation itself (and Horace plays on diludia with this word). One should think back to the various connotations of ludus present in Ep. 1.1 (see note on line 3 and Moles 2002). Horace may evoke theatrical games (ludi) with the mention of the theater earlier. This leads to notable ring-composition with the opening poem, as does the mention of ira with Ep. 1.2.13, 25, 62-63.
genuit: The so-called “gnomic” perfect (A&G 475) - translate as present and it gives the statement a sententia-like status. See Ep. 1.2.47 for a similar use in this collection.
trepidum certamen: An “agitated” (OLD 3) contest springs from such a game. The trembling that could come from fear (formido), now is the paroxysm of incipient anger.

[49] Supply genuit again with ira now the subject. The repetition of iram/ira shows how anger, once manifested, leads to further problems including the dissolution of friendship (a major theme of the Epistles) and even war (which may evoke the civil strife of the 1st C. BCE in Rome more generally). Horace dissociates himself from such contests, much like his initial letter to Maecenas claimed a desire to stop such ludicra (Ep. 1.1.10), and he shows in the final lines of this poem how and why he distances himself from these aspects of public poetry in Rome. However, as Freudenburg points out, there are some problems with his stance, “Instead of fighting, he cuts away from the argument, from the poem, from Maecenas, and from us in the last lines of Epist. 1.19, by comparing himself to a wrestler forced to call for a diludia (‘break in the ludi’) because the terms of the match are not to his liking...And so, with that slippery sidestep, we are left holding the bag, still pondering the question his interlocutor has posed. Thus it becomes our problem to solve; or better, to leave dangling. We ask, are his Carmina really as disengaged and ambition-free as the poet claims they are? If so, how? Can poems penned for Augustus’ hearing ever really be just that?” (140).
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