Horace in Roman Biography

Horace, hor'ass, [Lat. Hora'tius; Fr. Horace, o'rJUs'; Or. Horaz, bo-rits'; It. Orazio, o-rat'se-o,]or, more fully, Quin'tus Hora'tius Flac'cus, an excellent and popular Latin poet, born at Venusia, (now Venosa,) in Italy, in December, 65 B.C. His father was a freednian, who gained a competence as a coactor, (collector of indirect taxes or of the proceeds of auctions,) and purchased a farm near Venusia, on the bank of the Aufidus, (Ofanto.) At an early age he was sent to Koine, and became a pupil of the noted teacher Orbilius Pupillus, with whom he learned grammar and the Greek language About his eighteenth year, he went to prosecute his studies in the groves of the Academy at Athens,-then the principal seat of learning and philosophy,-where he remained until the death of Julius Cassar (in 44 B.C.) involved the empire in a civil war. As Brutus passed through Athens, Horace, with patriotic ardour, joined his army, was made a military tribune, took command of a legion, and witnessed the fatal defeat of the cause at Philippi, where he threw away his shield. (Carmina, ii. 7.) 1 lis estate having been confiscated, he went to Rome, where he supported himself a short time by acting as clerk in the treasury. His early poems having excited the interest of Virgil and Varius, they recommended him to Maecenas, in whom he found a liberal patron and intimate friend. Thenceforth his life was eminently prosperous, and serenely passed in congenial studies and patrician society. Preferring independence to the tempting prizes of ambition, he refused the office of private secretary to Augustus, who treated him with particular favour. He had a true relish for rural pleasures and the charms of nature, which he often enjoyed at his Sabine farm or his villa in Tibur. Died in November, 8 B.C. He was never married. He was of short stature, and had dark eyes and hair. His character, as deduced from his writings, is well balanced, and unites in a high degree good sense, good nature, urbanity, and elegant taste. His poems, consisting of odes, satires, and epistles, may all be contained in one small volume. His chief merits are a calm philosophy, a graceful diction, an admirable sense of propriety, and a keen insight into human nature, which have attracted an admiration growing from age to age, and have rendered him, next to Virgil, the most illustrious poet of ancient Rome. " It is mainly," says " Blackwood's Magazine" for April, 1868, "to this large and many-sided nature of the man himself that Horace owes his unrivalled popularity,-a popularity which has indeed both widened and deepened in its degree in proportion to the increase of modern civilization." His " Epistles" are among the few poems which represent the most perfect and original form of Latin verse. There is no very good English translation of Horace's entire works : that of Francis (4 vols., 1747) is perhaps the best. Lord Lytton's translation of the Odes (1869) is highly praised. See Suetonius, "Vita Horatii ;" Masson, "Vita Horatii," 1708; Henky H. Milman, " Life of Q. Horatius Flaccus," 1854: Van Ommkkn, "Horni als Mensch und Biirger von Rom," 1802; C. Fkancke, " Fasti Horatianl," 1839; Wai.ckenaer, "Histone de la Vie et des Poesies d'Horace," 2 vols., 1840; J. Murray. "Original Views of the Passages in the Life and Writings of Horace," 1851 ; J. (or F.) Jacob, " Horaz und seine Freunde," 1852; Ersch undGRUBER, " Allgemeine Encyklopaedie ;" see, also, the excellent article on Horatius in Smith's "Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography," by the late Dean H. H. Milman, (author of the "Life of Q. Horatius Flaccus;") "Horace and his Translators," in the " London Quarterly Review" for October, 185S : " Horace and Tasso," in the " Edinburgh Review" for October, 1850.