Horace begins his first book of Epistles by answering the question that many in his audience were asking. It has been put to him by Maecenas concerning the long dry spell that has passed since the publication of Odes Books 1–3. ‘Will there be a curtain call?’ Maecenas has asked. ‘When can we expect the sequel to those spectacular carmina of three years past?’ To which Horace replies: ‘I am retired now, like old Veianius who dedicated his arms to Hercules after so many battles in the arena’ (Epist. 1.1.4–6). Hidden away in his country estate, he says, he is glad to be rid of the ring, the notoriety, and the noise. His answer is the standard ‘no’ or ‘not now’ of an Augustan poet backing away from a big, laborious project. But here the refusal has a not-so-standard edge, aggressive and cynical, that derives from an uncharacteristic deployment of two ancient metaphors for the poet's high epic pursuits. The chariot race had been used as a symbol of martial epic and epinician since the days of Choerilus and Pindar, and the metaphor figuring such high-flying projects as a kind of warfare and/or Olympic agon was equally ancient and well worn. But here the figures have passed from their original Greek setting into a Roman one, and with that transfer they have picked up an alien and indelible tarnish. For the chariot-driver of Hor. Epist. 1.1.7–9 is no Olympian aristocrat, well born and godlike in his moment of victory.