Satires (Horace) Satires (Horace) The Satires ( or "Sermones") is a collection of satirical poems written by the Roman poet, Horace. Composed in dactylic hexameters, the "Satires" explore the secrets of human happiness and literary perfection. Published probably in 35 BCE and at the latest, by 33 BCE, the first book of "Satires" represents Horace's first published work. It established him as one of the great poetic talents of the Augustan Age. The second book was published in 30 BCE as a sequel. In his "Sermones" (Latin for "conversations") or "Satires" (Latin for "miscellaneous poems"), Horace combines Epicurean, that is, originally Greek
Carmen Possum Carmen Possum Carmen Possum is a popular 80-line macaronic poem written in a mix of Latin and English. Its author is unknown, but the poem's theme and language enable one to surmise that he or she was from the United States of America and was either a teacher or at least a student of Latin. The poem's title represents a multilingual play on words: "Possum" is Latin for "I can"/"I am able to" and colloquial English for "opossum." While "carmen possum" sounds like a well-formed Latin phrase to untrained ears, its meaning in context reveals that at least this instance