ABSTRACT
Strange, if not inscrutable, assertions about the friend of Horace, addressed as Vergili at line 13, seem to be in vogue. One recent and fairly representative example may suffice: In Carm. 4. 12, Vergil is to be guest of honour at the symposium, and his attendance is of the utmost importance. By addressing the poem to Vergil, Horace has resurrected him, and by making his poetry the necessary contribution for the symposium to take place, he recalls 4.10 and invites his readers to reflect again on Vergil. To reconcile the genesis of the collection with the invitation of the famous poet colleague to a wine party is so difficult to accept that Richard Thomas and others have certainly chosen a safer ground by assuming that Horace has included a poem written before Vergil’s death in his collection.
