Horace III.30

Latin Latin Poetry
1

I’m reading A.J. Woodman’s 2021 Green & Yellow commentary on Horace bk III, and I’m deeply puzzled by his take on the final poem, nr 30. In this ‘sphragis’ ode, Exegi monumentum aere perennius / regalique situ pyramidum altius, Woodman prints ‘aptius’ instead of ‘altius’, claiming aptius makes more logical sense.
He refers to a CCJ article which was still pending publication at the moment of the book’s printing, and that by now is of course behind a pay wall.


Anyway, his main argument seems to be that altius can’t be right because the books of poetry III.30 concludes are after all ‘ludi’ in Horace’s own words. ‘Invitations to sex and drinks’ in Woodman’s words. They’re not higher than the pyramid of Giza.
I say wow in the first place, and in the second place I would say that the real problem in line 2 is ‘situ’. What does it mean? Place? Grave? Ruin? It’s hard to get a good image here, and again, I don’t think emendation would be the answer.

As to the question whether H. could claim pyramid status for three books of poems about sex and drinks, I don’t see why not, especially since that’s not all the Odes are about.

Your views are welcomed.

2

To read it that literally is absurd, and a poor basis for changing altius to aptius. Does any manuscript have the latter?
Here’s an interesting article you may enjoy.
Sullivan, Michael B. “On Horace’s Pyramids (c. 3.30.1–2).” The Cambridge Classical Journal 60 (2014): 100–108. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26430497.

3

If any manuscript had aptius it would not be a conjecture. It’s ingenious, and Woodman is α truly excellent scholar. I find it hard to think that even he really believed it (more a case of “pour encourager les autres”?). But I wouldn’t be too quick to dismiss it, and how many of us on Textkit are competent to judge?