Persians, Medes and Parthians in Horace’s "Carmina"

Bibliogr. s. 185-187. Streszcz. ang.

The kingdom of Parthia which came into being in the 3rd century BC in the eastern frontiers of the Seleucid monarchy became the great power in the course of time. In the 1st century BC the Parthians met on their way the Romans expanding East. In the next three hundred years those empires were fghting each other in the great competition on Imperium Orientis. The Roman men of letters made a lot of references to this conflict, especially in the Augustan Age. In my paper, I would like to analyze references to the Iranian world which appear in Horace’s Carmina. Horace (65-8 BC), the greatest Latin lyric poet, supported the reforms carried out by emperor Augustus and his politics. It refers also to the relations with Parthia. In spite of the fact that Horace did not focus on the Iranian matters, he treated them in an original way drawing both from the Greek tradition and from the current political relations between Rome and Arsacid monarchy.