THE SERPENT IN THE AUGUSTAN GARDEN: HORACE’S FIRST EPODE AND THE ARA PACIS

The context for the simile of the serpent and the birds' nest in Horaces first Epode is political as well as personal and it has points of contact with Golden Age imagery found throughout Augustan poetry and on the Ara Pacis. The intrusion of a serpent into the great floral relief of the Ara Pacis should be read against this background as a reminder of the threats remaining for the new order and the precariousness of the imperial succession.