Ortwin KNORR  A Battle of Wits: Horace, Satire 1.5

Horace's "Journey to Brundisium" (Sat. 1.5) has been dismissed as a trivial "evening with slides" (Rudd) incongruously framed by two more substantial poems.  I argue that the satire constitutes a poetic discussion on the nature and superior quality of satirical wit that elaborates on the theme of Sat. 1.4 and introduces the themes of Sat. 1.6, the value of true friendship and the folly of false ambition.

The clue to the meaning of Sat. 1.5 lies in the battle of wits between Sarmentus and Messius right in its center (50-70).  Horace devotes more lines to this apparently irrelevant interlude than to any other stop on his journey.  In addition, the verbal contest between slaves and boatmen (11-13) and the "bucolic" singing contest between a sailor and a passenger (15-17) lead up to the central comic duel (50-70) as if to a climax.

The insults Messius and Sarmentus exchange in order to entertain the friends of Maecenas are characteristically different from each other.  Sarmentus' jokes about the physical appearance of his opponent (56-64) mark him as the scurra he in fact is (52; cf. Cic. De or. 2.246).

Messius, in contrast, displays subtle satirical wit by focusing on a typical target of Horatian satire, ambitio (1.4.26).  He mocks the servile origins of the self-important scriba Sarmentus and hints at the folly of his ambition (65-67).  The scurra's only weapon, invective directed at Messius' looks, is turned against himself when Messius skillfully combines mockery of the freedman's puny physique with another joke about his low birth (68-69).  Messius has the last laugh and demonstrates the superiority of a satirist's ridiculum over the scurrile, a leitmotif of Sermones I (cf. also Sat. 1.7; 10.14-15).

The distinction between ridiculum and scurrile links 1.5 to 1.4, where the satirist defends himself against the label scurra by pointing out the differences between these two kinds of humor.  At the same time, Sat. 1.5 introduces the themes of Sat. 1.6, false ambition, servile descent, and the value of friendship.  Like the pompous Aufidius in 1.5, Tillius in 1.6 is titled praetor, wears the latus clavus, and is mocked for his accoutrements (1.5.34-36; 6.24-25, 107-9).  Unlike his colleagues Aufidius and Sarmentus in 1.5, the scriba Horace in 1.6 values friendship over political advancement.  In sum, Sat. 1.5 is closely linked to both 1.4 and 1.6 and offers much more than a brief diversion from the serious content of these two satires.