A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

HORAT1US. HORATIUS. 519
He appears'to have cherished an attachment to the assures us, not only kept him free from vice, but
romantic scenes of his infancy; he alludes more even the suspicion of it. Of his father Horace
than once to the shores of the sounding Aufidus, always writes with becoming gratitude, bordering
near which river he was born (Carm. iii. 30. 10, on reverence. (Sat. i. 4. 105.) One of these
iv. 9. 2), and in a sweet description of an adven- schools was kept by Orbilius, a retired military
tare ill his childhood (Carm. iii. 4. 9, 20), he man, whose floggingpropensities have been immorintroduces a very distinct and graphic view of the talised by his pupil. (Epist. xi. 1. 7].) He was
whole region, now part of the Basilicata. (Comp. instructed in the Greek and Latin languages: the
A. Lombardi, lV1onumenete della Basilicata, in Bullet. poets were the usual school books - Homer in the
della Instit. Arch]aeol. di Romna, vol. i. Dec. 19, Greek, the old tragic writer, Livius Andronicus
1829.) (who had likewise translated the Odyssey into
The father of Horace was a libertinus: he had Saturnian verse), in the Latin.
received his manumission before the birth of the But at this time a good Roman education was not
poet, who was of ingenuous birth, but-did not alto- complete without a residence at Athens, the great
gether escape the taunt, which adhered to persons school of philosophy, perhaps of theoretic oratory.
even of remote servile origin. (Sat. i. 6. 46.) Of The father of Horace was probably dead before his
his mother nothing is known: from the silence of son set out for Athens; if alive, he did not hesitate
the poet, it is probable that she died during his to incur this further expense. In his 18th year the
early youth. It has been the natural and received young Horace proceeded to that seat of learning.
opinion that the father derived his name from Theomnestus the Academic, Cratippus the Peripasome one of the great family of the Horatii, which, tetic, and Philodemus the Epicurean, were then at the
however, does not appear to have maintained its head of the different schools of philosophy. Horace
distinction in the later days of the republic. But seems chiefly to have attached himself to the
there seems fair ground for the recent opinion, that opinions which he heard in the groves of Acahe may have been a freedman of the colony of demus, though later in life he inclined to those of
Venusia, which was inscribed in the Horatian Epicurus. (Eiist. ii. 2. 45.) Of his companions
tribe. (G. F. Grotefend, in Ersch and Gruber's we know nothing certain; but Quintus Cicero the
Encycloplidie, and E. L. Grotefend, in the Literary younger was among the youth then studying at
Transactions of Darmstadt.) We know no reason what we may call this university of antiquity. The
for his having the praenomen Quintus, or the more civil wars which followed the death of Julius
remarkable agnomen Flaccus: this name is not Caesar interrupted the young Horace in his peaceknown to have been borne by any of the Horatian ful and studious retirement. Brutus came to
family. Athens; and in that city it would have been
His father's occupation was that of collector wonderful if most of. the Roman youth had not
(coactor), either of the indirect taxes farmed by thrown themselves with headlong ardour into the
the publicans, or at sales by auction (exactionum ranks of republican liberty. Brutus, it is probable,
or exauctionum); the latter no doubt a profitable must have found great difficulty in providing Rooffice, in the great and frequent changes and con- man officers for his new-raised troops. Either
fiscations in property during the civil wars. With from his personal character, or from the strong
the profits of his office he had purchased a small recommendation of his friends, Horace, though by
farm in the neighbourhood of Venusia, where the no means of robust constitution, and altogether
poet was born. The father, either in his parental inexperienced in war, was advanced at once to the
fondness for his only son, or discerning some hope- rank:of a military tribune, and the command of a
fill promise in the boy (who, if much of the ro- legion: his promotion, as he was of ignoble birth,
manltic adventure alluded to above be not mere made him an object of some jealousy. It is propoetry, had likewise attracted some attention in bable that he followed Brutus into Asia; some of
the neighbourhood "as not unfavoured by the his allusions to the cities in Asia Minor appear too
gods "), determined to devote his whole time and distinct for borrowed or conventional description
fortune to the education of the future poet. Though and the somewhat coarse and dull fun of the story
by no means rich, and with an unproductive farm, which forms the subject of the seventh satire seems
he declined to send the young Horace to the to imply that Horace was present when the advencommon school, kept in Venusia by one Flavius, ture occurred in Clazomenae. If indeed he has
to which the children of the rural aristocracy, not poetically heightened his hard service in these
chiefly retired military officers (the consequential wars, he was more than once in situations of diffisons of consequential centurions), resorted, with culty and danger. (Carm. ii. 7. 1.) But the battle
their satchels and tablets, and their monthly pay- of Philippi put an end to the military career of
ments. (Sat. i. 71. 5.) Probably about his twelfth Horace; and though he cannot be charged with a
year, the father carried the young Horace to Rome, cowardly abandonment of his republican principles,
to receive the usual education of a knight's or he seems, happily for mankind, to have felt that his
senator's son. He took care that the youth should calling was to more peaceful pursuits. The playful
not be depressed with the feeling of inferiority, and allusion of the poet to his flight, his throwing away
provided him with dress and with the attendance his shield, and his acknowledgment of his fears
of slaves, befitting the higher class with which he (Carm. ii. 7. 9, Epist. ii. 2, 46, &c.) have given
mingled. The honest parent judged that even if rise to much grave censure amid as grave defence.
his son should be compelled to follow his own (Lessing, Rettungen des Horaz. Werke, vol. iv. p.
humble calling, he would derive great advantages 5, ed. 1838; Wieland, Notes on Eopist. ii. 2.) It
from a good education, But he did not expose the could be no impeachment of his courage that he
boy unguarded to the dangers and temptations of fled with the rest, after the total discomfiture of
a dissolute capital: the father accompanied him to the army; and that he withdrew at once from what
the different schools of instruction, watched over his sagacity perceived to be a desperate cause. His
his morals with gentle severity, and, as the poet poetical piety attributes his escape to Mercury, the
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