of poetry whose function had been the affirmation of "friendship" in its community. It is doubtful whether he believed that his or anyone else's poetry could avert disaster. But he may have hoped that his iambi would somehow 'blame' his friends and fellow citizens into at least asking themselves quo ruitis [i.e. where are you careering to]?|D. Mankin<ref group="nb">Mankin's latin here refers to the opening to Epode 7, "Quo quo scelesti ruitis?</ref>}} A tale of two ditties The nature of iambus changed from one epoch to another, as becomes obvious if we compare two poems that are otherwise very similarHorace's Epode 10 (around 30 BC) and the "Strasbourg" papyrus, a fragment attributed either to Archilochus or Hipponax (seventh and sixth century respectively). The modern world became aware of the Greek poem only in 1899, when it was discovered by R. Reitzenstein among other papyri at the University Library of Strasbourg. He published it straight away, recognizing its significance and its resemblance to Horace's poem. This study however begins with Horace and it is based on comments by Eduard Fraenkel. Epode 10 Horace's poem is in couplets, where a line of iambic trimeter (six iambic feet) is followed by a line of iambic dimeter (four iambic feet). Here it is broken into four-line stanzas to bring out the intrinsic structure of the poem. The English translation has the same metrical couplets but the rhythm is accentual (the norm for English verse) rather than quantitative (the norm for classical Latin and Greek verse). It is not known who Mevius is nor what he is supposed to have done wrong. The name could be of a real person but it could also function like "John Doe" and thus it might be a stock figure with some special significance for the original audience. Some scholars identify him with the Maevius rubbished as a contemptible poet by Virgil in Eclogues 3.90 but there is no proof for such an identification. He could represent an imaginary scapegoat intended to avert the gods' anger from the poet's circle of 'friends', a device common in the archaic iambus of Hipponax and Archilochus: in this case, the "friends" may be understood to be Roman citizens at a time of social and political decay. A fictional Mevius would also be consistent with iambus as a mere literary topic, where Horace makes up for the lack of any real context by