Satires, Book 1

Horace's first book of Satires, published in about 35 BC, contains ten poems in hexameters, the earliest work of a poet then in his late twenties. He called them sermones, conversations, and they follow the example of the second-century satirist Lucilius, though Horace replaces Lucilius' open attacks on named public men with a relaxed, self-mocking moral commentary. The book also records his entry into the circle of Maecenas.

The first three satires are moral essays: on the discontent and greed that make no one satisfied with his lot, on the folly of running from one extreme to the other, especially in sexual matters, and on the need to forgive the faults of friends. In the fourth Horace defends satire and recalls how his father taught him morals by pointing out examples. The fifth describes a journey from Rome to Brundisium in the company of Maecenas, Vergil and other friends. The sixth tells how Horace, a freedman's son, was introduced to Maecenas and pays tribute to his father. The seventh is an anecdote about a lawsuit heard before Brutus in Asia, ending in a pun; in the eighth a wooden statue of Priapus scares off witches in a garden; in the ninth Horace is pestered by a social climber on the Sacred Way; and the tenth returns to Lucilius and the craft of writing.

The Satires are the best introduction to Horace's personality and to everyday life in Rome. The Latin is conversational and colloquial, which makes it lively but not always easy.