Life and works of Quintus Horatius Flaccus
Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus) was born on December 8, 65 B.C. He was the son of Freedman of Venusia on the Aufidus in S. Italy, a Latin Colony which had joined the rebellion in 90 B.C. and then been granted the citizenship. It has been conjectured and the name of Horatins was taken by his father from the Horatian tribe, in which Venusia was included. His father was a collector of payment at auctions, and had acquired a small estate. He gave his son the best education obtainable, first at Rome under Orbillus and later at Athens. The civil war broke out while Horace was in Greece. He received a commission as a tribune in the army of Brutus and fought (and he says ran away) at Philippi (42 B.C.) Thereafter he returned to Italy and made submission. He obtained a clerical post in the civil service (he was one of quaestor’s clerks) but his estate was forfeited and poverty drove him to write verses.
About 38 B.C. he was introduced by Virgil and Varius Rufus to Maecenas who after some delay took him under his protection. He admitted him to the circle of Augustan poets, and in about 33 B.C. gave him the Sabine Farm (near Tibur, in the valley of the Digentia, Now the Licenza) which was to be the source of much happiness to Horace and the inspiratory of some beautiful passages in his writings. About 35 B.C. he had issued the first book of his satires. It was followed about 30 B.C., after Actium, by the second book of the Satires and the Epodes (which include some of his earliest poems). The first three books of the Odes, composer gradually in the course of some ten years, and reflecting the political events of 33-23 B.C., were published in 23 ,the first book of the Epistles about 20. The Carmen Saeculare appeared in 17 B.C., Book IV of the Odes in about 15 B.C. There remains three literary essays, two of which from Book II of the ‘Epistles’, ‘to the Pisos’ or more usually as the ‘Ars Poetry’. These are generally assigned to the last years of the poet’s life but the question of their date is undecided. The second epistle of Book II and the ‘Ars Poetica’ are placed by some authorities as early as 19 B.C. Horace died in 8 B.C., a few months after Maecenas, with whom he had maintained a friendship of thirty years. He was never married.
About 38 B.C. he was introduced by Virgil and Varius Rufus to Maecenas who after some delay took him under his protection. He admitted him to the circle of Augustan poets, and in about 33 B.C. gave him the Sabine Farm (near Tibur, in the valley of the Digentia, Now the Licenza) which was to be the source of much happiness to Horace and the inspiratory of some beautiful passages in his writings. About 35 B.C. he had issued the first book of his satires. It was followed about 30 B.C., after Actium, by the second book of the Satires and the Epodes (which include some of his earliest poems). The first three books of the Odes, composer gradually in the course of some ten years, and reflecting the political events of 33-23 B.C., were published in 23 ,the first book of the Epistles about 20. The Carmen Saeculare appeared in 17 B.C., Book IV of the Odes in about 15 B.C. There remains three literary essays, two of which from Book II of the ‘Epistles’, ‘to the Pisos’ or more usually as the ‘Ars Poetry’. These are generally assigned to the last years of the poet’s life but the question of their date is undecided. The second epistle of Book II and the ‘Ars Poetica’ are placed by some authorities as early as 19 B.C. Horace died in 8 B.C., a few months after Maecenas, with whom he had maintained a friendship of thirty years. He was never married.
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