Sicily

Reading notes

• The Art of Poetry §453-476 Sicilian

  Of Sicily; 'the Sicilian poet' is Empedocles of Acragas.

• The Odes §2.12 Sicilian

  The sea 'purpled with Punic blood' in the wars with Carthage.

• The Odes §2.16 Sicilian

  Grosphus' Sicilian herds, the wealth set against Horace's small farm.

• The Odes §3.1 Sicilian

  Byword for tyrant-luxury; 'Sicilian feasts' cannot sweeten a guilty man's fear (the sword of Damocles).

• The Odes §4.4 Sicilian

  The 'Sicilian waves' through which the East wind rides, image of Hannibal's onset.

• The Epistles §1.12 Sicilian

  The 'three-cornered' island; the question is whether Caesar will settle his veterans on Sicilian land or in Italy — the confiscations of the day.

• The Satires §2.6 lands in Sicily

  The 'three-cornered land'; the question is whether Caesar will settle discharged soldiers on Sicilian or Italian ground — the land-confiscations of the era.