{"id":24501,"date":"2021-06-21T09:34:21","date_gmt":"2021-06-21T13:34:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/?p=24501"},"modified":"2021-06-21T09:44:04","modified_gmt":"2021-06-21T13:44:04","slug":"horace-against-the-stoics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/?p=24501","title":{"rendered":"Horace against the Stoics"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Horace wrote his first book of Satires<\/em> (meaning “medley” rather than “satire” in the modern English sense) no later than 33 BCE. In a passage in the Third Satire, he criticizes the Stoic doctrine that justice has its basis in nature. He suggests that rules are conventions that allow us to prevent conflict with minimal cruelty. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nothing about his position is unique, but his language<\/a> is luxuriant: “cum prorepserunt primis animalia terris \/ mutum et turpe pecus, glandem atque cubilia propter \/ unguibus et pugnis …<\/em>” In my version …<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the animals crawled from the new* earth,\nThat mute and ugly herd fought for a nut \nOr a place to rest--with nail and fist, \nThen with clubs, then with tools they\u2019d designed for war,\nUntil they came upon words to mark out sounds \nAnd sense, and names. From then on, war waned. \nThey walled towns and wrote laws so that no one\nShould be a thief, a thug, or an adulterer.\nFor even before Helen, sex** was a vile \nCause of conflict, but those are forgotten \nWho died chasing it, like the bull in the herd, \nCut down by someone more fit than he is.\nYou have to admit, if you really search the files,\nThat laws were contrived in fear of injustice<\/em>, \nFor nature can\u2019t distinguish just from unjust\nAs she makes some things safe and others best to shun,\nNor can reason convince us it is just as bad--\nAnd bad in the same way--to step on someone\u2019s \nGarden plant as to steal a holy relic \nBy cover of night.*** Let there be a standard \nTo tell the right penalty, so the cruel lash \nIsn\u2019t used when a regular beating would suffice.\n\nHorace, Satires. 1.3.99-119, my translation<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
*Literally, “first earth.”  **Actually a vulgar, sexist word.  *** I’m surprised he doesn’t say: reason can’t convince us it is worse<\/em> to steal the sacred object.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
See also some thoughts on natural law<\/a>; “The Wedding of Peleus and Thetis<\/a>“; pragmatism and the problem of evil<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Horace wrote his first book of Satires (meaning “medley” rather than “satire” in the modern English sense) no later than 33 BCE. In a passage in the Third Satire, he criticizes the Stoic doctrine that justice has its basis in nature. He suggests that rules are conventions that allow us to prevent conflict with minimal […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","category-verse-and-worse"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24501"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24501\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24513,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24501\/revisions\/24513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}