Carmen Saeculāre
An ode written by Horace at the request of the emperor Augustus, to be sung at the
celebration of the Ludi Saeculares, B.C. 17. (See
Ludi.) It is composed in nineteen stanzas (seventy-six lines), in the Sapphic and
Adonic metre, which were divided between two choruses, one composed of boys
and the other of girls, who sang now responsively and now in chorus. The arrangement of the
stauzas between the two bands has been a subject of dispute among various editors; but all are
agreed upon this much: that the first two stanzas were sung by the joint chorus, the second by
the girls, the third by the boys, the ninth half by boys and half by girls, while the last
stanza was again sung by the united bands.
Like most verses written to order, the
Carmen Saeculare has little poetical
merit, though rhetorically excellent. See
Horatius.