border:1px solid black">
ellauri141.html on line 109: Quintus Horatius Flaccus (8th of December, Ab Urbe Condita 689, B. C. 65 - 27th of November, B. C. 8) was born at or near Venusia (Venosa), in the Apennines, on the borders of Lucania and Apulia. His father was a freedman, having, as his name proves, been the slave of some person of the Horatia gens. As Horace implies that he himself was ingenuus, his father must have obtained his freedom before his birth. He afterwards followed the calling of a coactor, a collector of money in some way or other, it is not known in what. He made, in this capacity, enough to purchase an estate, probably a small one, near the above town, where the poet was born. We hear nothing of his mother, except that Horace speaks of both his parents with affection. His father, probably seeing signs of talent in him as a child, was not content to have him educated at a provincial school, but took him (at what age he does not say, but probably about twelve) to Rome, where he became a pupil of Orbilius Pupillus, who had a school of much note, attended by boys of good family, and whom Horace remembered all his life as an irritable teacher, given unnecessarily to the use of the rod. With him he learnt grammar, the earlier Latin authors, and Homer. He attended other masters (of rhetoric, poetry, and music perhaps), as Roman boys were wont, and had the advantage (to which he afterwards looked back with gratitude) of his father’s care and moral training during this part of his education. It was usual for young men of birth and ability to be sent to Athens, to finish their education by the study of Greek literature and philosophy under native teachers; and Horace went there too, at what age is not known, but probably when he was about twenty. Whether his father was alive at that time, or dead, is uncertain. If he went to Athens at twenty, it was in B. C. 45, the year before Julius Cæsar was assassinated. After that event, Brutus and Cassius left Rome and went to Greece. Foreseeing the struggle that was before them, they got round them many of the young men at that time studying at Athens, and Horace was appointed tribune in the army of Brutus, a high command, for which he was not qualified. He went with Brutus into Asia Minor, and finally shared his defeat at Philippi, B. C. 42. He makes humorous allusion to this defeat in his Ode to Pompeius Varus (ii. 7). After the battle he came to Italy, having obtained permission to do so, like many others who were willing to give up a desperate cause and settle quietly at home. His patrimony, however, was forfeited, and he seems to have had no means of subsistence, which induced him to employ himself in writing verses, with the view, perhaps, of bringing himself into notice, rather than for the purpose of making money by their sale. By some means he managed to get a place as scriba in the Quæstor’s office, whether by purchase or interest does not appear. In either case, we must suppose he contrived soon to make friends, though he could not do so by the course he pursued, without also making many enemies. His Satires are full of allusions to the enmity his verses had raised up for him on all hands. He became acquainted, among other literary persons, with Virgil and Varius, who, about three years after his return (B. C. 39), introduced him to Mæcenas, who was careful of receiving into his circle a tribune of Brutus, and one whose writings were of a kind that was new and unpopular. He accordingly saw nothing of Horace for nine months after his introduction to him. He then sent for him (B. C. 38), and from that time continued to be his patron and warmest friend.
ellauri142.html on line 57:
ellauri142.html on line 204:
ellauri142.html on line 301: