Il leccio e l’idra: nota all’ode IV 4 di Orazio

Abstract

This paper deals with the second section of Horace’s Ode iv 4, composed as a celebration of Drusus’ successful campaign against the Raeti and the Vindelici. The section exalts the merits of the gens Claudia by evoking the victory of C. Claudius Nero against Hasdrubal at the Metaurus, and by developing the theme of Rome’s resilience. The analysis is focused on two similes, in which Rome is compared firstly to an ilex which gains strength from its wounds, and then to the Hydra, whose heads had the ability to regenerate after being chopped off. These two similes seem to be inspired by specific historiographical themes, which had broad resonance in Livy’s Ab urbe condita libri just a few years before Horace published the book iv of the Odes. Livy’s model, thus, might have played an important role in the composition of the historical excursus of ode iv 4. The comparison to the Hydra, moreover, helps to understand a famous episode of Hannibal’s propaganda, whose interpretation has been debated by critics.