[Sidenote: The second book of Satires.] The second book of _Satires_, finished about 30 B. C., contains eight pieces, most of which are in the form of a dialogue between the poet and one other person. The most amusing is the fifth, a dialogue between Ulysses and Tiresias, in which Tiresias tells Ulysses how he can repair his fortunes by paying court to rich men and getting them to mention him in their wills. This _Satire_ is directed against a class of men only too numerous in Rome. Others treat of various subjects, such as the serious study bestowed upon dinners (viii, iv), certain Stoic doctrines (iii, vii), the criticisms of the earlier _Satires_ (i), or the joys of the farmer’s simple life (ii). In almost every case, the thoughts and theories expressed are put into the mouth of some one other than the poet, whereas in the first book of _Satires_ the poet expressed the opinions himself. Horace’s _Satires_ differ from those of Lucilius in being less bitter and less political, more carefully composed and written, and far more genial. The kindly, gentlemanly spirit of the man is everywhere visible. His “talks” are the witty, amusing conversation of a man of the world, often dealing with serious subjects, but always in a light and easy way. They are full of sententious remarks, which have been frequently quoted from Horace’s time to our own. Catullus and his contemporaries had imitated almost exclusively the poems of the Alexandrians, of the Greek poets, that is to say, who flourished after Greece had lost her independence. [Sidenote: The Odes.] Horace in his _Epodes_ went farther back and imitated Archilochus, and in his _Odes_, without altogether neglecting the Alexandrians, he follows for the most part in the footsteps of Alcæus, Sappho, and Anacreon. Among his odes are several which are in part translations of extant fragments of these poets, and it is certain that if the poems of the early Greek lyrists were not almost entirely lost, we could recognize many of them in Latin version in the _Odes_ of Horace. The _Odes_ contain also lines that remind one of similar passages in the poems of Euripides, Bacchylides, and other Greek poets, but in form as well as in contents they are for the most part imitations of the three great early lyrists. Most of the _Odes_ are divided into stanzas of four lines each, and in all such a division is possible, with perhaps one exception. The first three books of the _Odes_ were published in 23 B. C., but their composition belongs in part as early as 30 B. C. The first book contains thirty-eight poems, the second twenty, the third thirty. The first ode of Book I serves as a dedication to Mæcenas, and in the odes immediately following nearly all the metres employed in the three books are used one after the other. Throughout the three books variety of metre governs the arrangement. The second book opens with an ode addressed to Pollio, and at the beginning of the third book are six odes celebrating in various