Horace his third book of elegies. His "Epistles" provided them both with a model for their own verse letters and it also shaped Ovid's exile poetry. His influence had a perverse aspect. As mentioned before, the brilliance of his "Odes" may have discouraged imitation. Conversely, they may have created a vogue for the lyrics of the archaic Greek poet Pindar, due to the fact that Horace had neglected that style of lyric (see Pindar#Influence and legacy). The iambic genre seems almost to have disappeared after publication of Horace's "Epodes". Ovid's "Ibis" was a rare attempt at the form but it was
Authorship of the Pauline epistles similarities are seen as subtle enough to make imitation an unnecessary hypothesis. Udo Schnelle argued that 2 Thessalonians was significantly different in style from the undisputed epistles, characterizing it as whole and narrow, rather than as a lively and abrupt discussion on a range of issues. Moreover, Alfred Loisy argued that it reflected knowledge of the synoptic gospels, which, according to the current scholarly consensus, had not been written when Paul wrote his epistles. Bart D. Ehrman viewed the insistence of genuineness within the letter and the strong condemnation of forgery at its start as ploys commonly used by forgers.