In “Odes,” Horace wanted to apply the old way of Roman life to the Age of Augustus and Julius Caesar. Horace tried to tackle different kinds of human emotions within the poem, stating that death takes everyone. No one can be freed from death’s grip, so you should seek tranquility in this life. He accepted Stoicism and Epicureanism as acceptable ways of thought. 

The poet warned readers not to be too aggressive or too cautious. He said since death is inevitable, fortune and luck do not really exist, their only existence is the devil playing games with men. Horace wrote that both good times and bad times will come and go, adding that there is no such thing as personal sovereignty and that ethics is the leader of most decisions. 

In 35 BC, Horace wrote a series of poems in a book called “Satires,” a satirical book about Greek and Roman philosophy and the gods. According to “Satires,” people who say they are discontented with their lot are not ready to swap conditions with the more fortunate. Horace also said that money doesn’t buy happiness and he did not understand man’s quest for wealth. Horace warned to not equate yourself with your wealth, because it is a path to destruction. 

Five years after the first “Satires” book, Horace released a second part which included many more poems. Horace advised people against being overcritical, and wrote that readers should regard other’s faults as lightly or as harshly as they would regard their own faults. Moreover, “Satires” revealed that punishments should not be too harsh, and should only be as punitive as the crime committed. 

In the second half of Ovid’s book “Metamorphoses,” he stated that the worst curse someone can have is eternal life. The gods are cursed with this, which may be the cause of their cruelty. To punish humans, the gods burdened them with the uncontrollable emotion of sexual passion. Jupiter was continuously unfaithful to his wife and was a rapist, causing him to lose favor with the other gods. Apollo also taunted Cupid because he had no real power. 

Ovid wrote that at the beginning of time there was a set hierarchy: that gods would always be over men. Two women rebelled against this hierarchy, which caused the gods to place negative sanctions on mankind. These sanctions shaped nature and the gods were changed into a fixed, inhuman nature. 

Ovid claimed that man has total pride against the gods and that the fall of man will be because of his pride. The gods, especially Apollo, will punish man ruthlessly for this. Men are under the gods’ authority, since nature is seen as reflecting the sovereignty of the gods. Some will rebel and will be crushed. 

Aeneas was made a god, as were Romulus and his wife. The gods later made Julius and Augustus Caesar divine, as a reward for making the empire strong. Julius and Augustus would become gods after their death because of their fame and fortune. Ovid was confident that his poem “Metamorphoses” would live on as long as Rome survived. He concluded that gods turn people into natural objects and turn great men into gods.