Horace carm. 4, 15, 4 names the Augustan Age, defining a bounded period of history by reference to Augustus ' lifespan (« aetas »).
By contrast, poetry 's command of immortality gives the poet, not the princeps, ultimate control of the meaning of « aetas Augusta ».
But Horace undermines the suggestion that his own poetry will forever represent the Augustan Age. Carm. 4, 15 in fact projects the « Aeneid » as the Roman people 's everlasting hymn in praise of Augustus (25-32).
This gesture of demurral is anticipated in the poem 's opening recusatio of a Vergilian-style epic.
