Abstract

Scholars have often included Horace among the students of the Epicurean philosopher and poet Philodemus of Gadara. Around 70 B.C., Philodemus moved from Greece to the area of Naples, where he spent the rest of his life. Philodemus and Siro (Vergil' celebrated teacher) organized there an Epicurean school that attracted some of the most famous Romans of the day; some have assumed that Horace was one of them. Since Christian Jensen edited Philodemus' On Poems and Augusto Rostagni the Ars Poetica, many scholars have followed their suggestion that Philodemus was Horace's mentor. In this paper, however, I propose to show recent papyrological discoveries have left this hypothesis with support. Horace may well have met Philodemus in his lifetime, but now there is less evidence than ever that he ever spent any prolonged period with him as his student.