ABSTRACT
Little attention has been paid to the form which Horace adopted when he laid down his Roman lyre and resumed the writing of hexameter poetry. Romans of the generation before Horace were great letter-writers, and the influence of some of the letters in Cicero's collection on Horaces verse letters can surely be discerned. Epicurus letter to Menoeceus expounds his moral philosophy; it seems unlikely that Horace, despite his inclinations, was indebted to it. In the post-classical period the main exponents of the verse letter are Ausonius and Sidonius. Twenty-five of Ausonius letters are preserved, some of them showing prose and verse, Greek and Latin interspersed in the poets learned manner. The macaronic had been used by Lucilius, but was carefully avoided by Horace and is not found in extant Golden Age poetry. There are many of Horace's letters which are concerned to a greater or lesser degree with literary criticism.
