Satires (Horace) say that Lucilius' verses hobble along"), functions as an epilogue to the book. Here Horace clarifies his criticism of his predecessor Lucilius, jokingly explains his choice of the genre ("nothing else was available") in a way that groups him and his "Satires" among the foremost poets of Rome, and lists Maecenas and his circle as his desired audience. Both in antiquity and in the Middle Ages, Horace was much better known for his "Satires" and the thematically-related "Epistles" than for his lyric poetry. In the century after his death, he finds immediate successors in Persius and Juvenal, and even Dante
Horace themes throughout his poetic career, including politics, love, philosophy and ethics, his own social role, as well as poetry itself. His "Epodes" and "Satires" are forms of 'blame poetry' and both have a natural affinity with the moralising and diatribes of Cynicism. This often takes the form of allusions to the work and philosophy of Bion of Borysthenes but it is as much a literary game as a philosophical alignment. By the time he composed his "Epistles", he was a critic of Cynicism along with all impractical and "high-falutin" philosophy in general. The "Satires" also include a strong element of