A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

a notorious detractor of Horace, who at first seems to have been well disposed towards him, for in one passage (Sat. 1.3. 129) he calls him optimus cantor et modulator (comp. Sat. 1.9. 25), whereas shortly afterwards (Sat. 1.10. 80) he speaks of him as an opponent and an enemy. The scholiasts of Horace attempt to give the reasons why Hermogenes disliked Horace; but there is no necessity for trusting to their inventions, for Horace himself gives us sufficient materials to account for it. Hermogenes appears to have been opposed to Satires altogether (Hor. Sat. 1.4. 24, &c., 2.1. 23); he was a man without talent, but yet had a foolish fancy for trying his hand at literature. (Sat. 1.10. 18.) He moved in the society of men without any pretensions, and is described as a singing-master in girls schools. (Sat. 1.10. 80, 90, &c.) Horace therefore throughout treats him with contempt. It is a very ingenious and highly probable conjecture that, under the fictitious name of Pantolabus (Sat. 1.8, 111, 2.1, 21), Horace alludes to Hermogenes, for the prosody of the two names is the same, so that one may be substituted for the other. (Comp. Weichert, Poet. Lat. Reliquiae, p. 297, &c.; Kirchner, Quaestion. Horatianae, p. 42, &c.

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