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

. 520 HORATIUS. HORATIUS.'
god of letters. Horace found his way back to the other the careless, abrupt, and somewhat
Italy, and as perhaps he was not sufficiently rich haughtily indifferent manner of the great man, still
or distinguished to dread proscription, or, according betrays no appearance of wounded pride, to be proto the life by Suetonius, having obtained his pardon, pitiated by humble apology. For nearly nine
he ventured at once to return to Rome. He had months Maecenas took no further notice of the poet;
lost all his hopes in life; his paternal estate had but at the end of that period he again sought his
been swept away in the general forfeiture. Ve- acquaintance, and mutual esteem grew up with the
nusia is one of the cities named by Appian (B. C. utmost rapidity. Probably the year following this
iv. 3) as confiscated. According to the life by Sue- commencement of friendship (B. c. 37), Horace
tonius, Horace bought a clerkship in the quaestor's accompanied his patron on that journey to Brundu-:office. But from what sources he was enabled to sium, so agreeably described in the fifth Satire,
obtain the purchase-money (in these uncertain book i. This friendship quickly ripened into intitimes such offices may have been sold at low macy; and between the appearance of the two
prices), whether from the wreck of kis fortunes, books of Satires, his earliest published works, Macold debts, or the liberality of friends, we have no cenas bestowed upon the poet a Sabine farm, sufficlue. On the profits of that place he managed to cient to maintain him in ease, comfort, and even in
live with the utmost frugality. His ordinary fare content (satis beatus unicis Sabinis), during the rest
was but a vegetable diet; his household stuff of the of his life. The situation of this Sabine farm was
meanest ware, and, unlike poets in general, he had in the valley of Ustica (Carm. i. 17. 11), within
a very delicate taste for pure water. How long he view of the mountain Lucretilis, part of what is
held this place does not appear; but the scribes now called Mount Gennaro, and near the Digentia,
seem to have thought that they had a right to his about fifteen miles from Tibur (Tivoli). The valleys
support of the interests of their corporation, after still bear names clearly resembling those which
he became possessed of his Sabine estate. (Sat. ii. occur in the Horatian poetry: the Digentia is now
7. 36.) Yet this period of the poet's life is the the Licenza; Mandela, Bardella; Ustica, Rustica.
most obscure, and his own allusions perplex and (Capmartin de Chaupy, Maison d'Horace, vol.
darken the subject. In more than one place he iii. Rome, 1767; Sir W. Gell, Rome and its Viciasserts that his poverty urged him to become a nity, vol. i. p. 315.)
poet. (Epist. ii. 2. 51.) For the description of the villa, its aspect, cliBut what was this poetry? Did he expect to mate, and scenery, see Epist. i. 10. 11, 23, and
make money or friends by it? or did he write Epist. i. 16. A site exactly answering to the villa
merely to disburthen himself of his resentment and of Horace, and on which were found ruins of
indignation at that period of depression and desti- buildings, was first discovered by the Abb6 Captution, and so to revenge himself upon the world martin de Chaupy, and has since been visited and
by an unsparing exposure of its vices? Poetry in illustrated by other travellers and antiquarians.
those times could scarcely have been a lucrative (Domenico di Sanctis, Dissertazione sopra la Villa
occupation. If, as is usually supposed, his earliest d'Orazio Flacco, Ravenna, 1784.) The site and
poetry was bitter satire, either in the Lucilian ruins of the Temple of Vacuna (Epist. i. 10. 49)
hexameter, or the sharp iambics of his Epodes, he seem to be ascertained. (Sebastiani, Vi'aggio a
could hardly hope to make friends; nor, however Tivoli.)
the force and power of such writings might com- The estate was not extensive; it produced corn,
mand admiration, were they likely to conciliate the olives, and vines; it was surrounded by pleasant
ardent esteem of the great poets of the time, of and shady woods, and with abundance of the purest
Varius or of Virgil, and to induce them to recom- water; it was superintended by a bailiff (villicus),
mend him to the friendship of Maecenas. But cultivated by five families of free coloni (Epist. i.
this assuredly was not his earliest poetic inspira- 14. 3); and Horace employed about eight slaves
tion. He had been tempted at Athenis to write (Sat. ii, 7. 118). Besides this estate, his admiraGreek verses: the genius of his country —the God tion of the beautiful scenery in the neighbourhood
Quirinus-had wisely interfered, and prevented of Tibur inclined him either to hire or to purchase
him from sinking into an indifferent Greek versi- a small cottage in that romantic town; and all the
fier, instead of becoming the most truly Roman later years of his life were passed between these
poet. (Sat. i. 10. 31, 35.) It seems most probable two country residences and Rome. (For Tibur, see
that some of the Odes (though collected and pub- Carm. i. 7. 10-14. ii. 6. 5-8, iii. 4. 21-24,
lished, and perhaps having received their last Epod. i. 29-30; Epist. i. 7.44-45, i. 8.12, Carm.
finish, at a later period of his life) had been written iv. 2. 27-32, iv. 3. 10-12.) In Rome, when the
and circulated among his friends. Some of his poet was compelled to reside there, either by busiamatory lyrics have the ardour and freshness of ness, which he hated (invisa negotia), or the soyouth, while in others he acknowledges the advance ciety which he loved, if he did not take up his
of age. When those friendly poets, Varius and abode, he was constantly welcome in some one of
Virgil, told Maecenas what Horace was (dixere the various mansions of his patron; and Maecenas
quid esserna), they must have been able to say more occasionally visited the quiet Sabine retreat of the
in his praise than that he had written one or two poet.
coarse satires, and perhaps' a few bitter iambics; From this time his life glided away in enjoyable
more especially if, according to the old scholiast, repose, occasionally threatened but not seriously
Maecenas himself had been the object of his satire. interrupted by those remote dangers which menaced
This interpretation, however, seems quite inconsis- or disturbed the peace of the empire, When Maetent with the particular account which the poet cenas was summoned to accompany Octavius in the
gives of his first interview with Maecenas (Sat. i. war againstAntony, Horace (Epod. i.) had offered to
6, 54, &c). On his own side there is at -first some attend him; but Maecenas himself either remained
shyness and timidity, afterwards a frank and simple at Rome, or returned to it without leaving Italy.
disclosure of his birth and of his circumstances: on From that time Maecenas himself resided constantly