Orazio al confine del mare. Tra biografia, poesia e allegoria politica

Horace treats the sea as a natural border that requires respect. According to this fundamental concept, in Horace's work the sea is the center of a number of poetical and linguistic inventions, such as metaphors and allegories. The focus of this paper is on three texts (carm. I 14; III 24; epist. I 11), where some particularly difficult questions of interpretation and textual criticism are strictly connected to the theme of the sea as an enormous natural power, as well as a limit to man's action, and, at least in one case, as the most fascinating and terrific spectacle. The ship-allegory of carm. I 14 is analyzed in detail, in order to define its meaning in the complex context of the political age from the battle of Philippi to the establishment of Octavian's power.