Horace’s Epistles 1 is a collection of twenty stylized letters written in dactylic hexameter verse. The poems vary from thirteen lines (Epistle 9) to one hundred and twelve lines (Epistle 18) in length. Based on a reference to the age of the poet in the final poem, the collection was published in or near 21 BCE. Epistles 1 is the earliest surviving collection of verse letters from Greco-Roman antiquity. While several earlier poems, including Horace’s own Satires 1 and 2 (published in the late 30s BCE), resemble letters in address and form, it is probable that the publication of a complete collection of poetic epistles was an innovation on Horace’s part.
Prior to the publication of Epistles 1, the best known published letters were prose works dealing with philosophical themes and attributed – in most...
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Citation: Lee-Stecum, Parshia. "Epistles I". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 16 January 2014 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=13376, accessed 07 December 2025.]
