This Life, is published with the lives of other poet, but is
not directly attributed to Suetonius.
QUINTUS HORATIUS FLACCUS of Venusia had for a father, as he himself
writes, a freedman who was a collector of money at auctions; but
it is believed that he was a dealer in salted provisions, for
a certain man in a quarrel thus taunted Horace: " How often
have I seen your father wiping his nose with his arm !" Horace
served as tribune of the soldiers in the war of Philippi, at the
instance of Marcus Brutus, one of the leaders in that war. When
his party was vanquished, he was pardoned and purchased the position
of a quaestor's clerk. Then contriving to win the favour, first
of Maecenas and later of Augustus, he held a prominent place among
the friends of both. How fond Maecenas was of him is evident enough
from the well known epigram:
If that I do not love you, my own Horace, more than life itself,
behold your comrade leaner than Ninnius.
But he expressed himself much more strongly in his last will and
testament in this brief remark to Augustus: "Be as mindful
of Horatius Flaccus as of myself." Augustus offered him the
post of secretary, as appears in this letter of his to Maecenas:
"Before this I was able to write my letters to my friends
with my own hand; now overwhelmed with work and in poor health,
I desire to take our friend Horace from you. He wil1 come then
from that parasitic table of yours to my imperial board, and help
me write my letters." Even when Horace declined, Augustus
showed no resentment at all, and did not cease his efforts to
gain his friendship. We have letters from which I append a few
extracts by way of proof: "Enjoy any privilege at my house,
as if you were making your home there; for it will be quite right
and proper for you to do so, inasmuch as that was the relation
which I wished to have with you, if your health had permitted."
And again, " How mindful I am of you our friend Septimius
can also tell you; for it chanced that I spoke of you in his presence.
Even if you were so proud as to scorn my friendship, I do not
therefore return your disdain." Besides this, among other
pleasantries, he often calls him "'a most immaculate libertine"
and "his charming little man," and he made him well
to do by more than one act of generosity. As to his writings,
Augustus rated them so high, and was so convinced that they would
be immortal that he not only appointed him to write the Secular
Hymn, but also bade him celebrate the victory of his stepsons
Tiberius and Drusus over the Vindelici, and so compelled him to
add a fourth to his three books of lyrics after a long silence.
Furthermore, after reading several of his " Talks",
the Emperor thus expressed his pique that no mention was made
of him: " You must know that I am not pleased with you, that
in your numerous writings of this kind you do not talk with me,
rather than with others. Are you afraid that your reputation with
posterity will suffer because it appears that you were my friend
? " In this way he forced from Horace the selection which
begins with these words:
" Seeing that single-handed thou dost bear the burden of
tasks so many and so great, protecting Italy's realm with arms,
providing it with morals, reforming it by laws, I should sin against
the public weal, Caesar, if I wasted thy time with long discourse."
In person he was short and fat, as he is described with his own
pen in his satires and by Augustus in the following letter: "Onysius
has brought me your little volume, and I accept it, small as it
is, in good part, as an apology. But you seem to me to be afraid
that your books may be bigger than you are yourself; but it is
only stature that you lack, not girth. So you may write on a pint
pot, that the circumference of your volume may be well rounded
out, like that of your own belly."
It is said that he was immoderately lustful; for it is reported
that in a room lined with mirrors he had harlots so arranged that
whichever way he looked, he saw a reflection of venery. He lived
for the most part in the country on his Sabine or Tiburtine estate,
and his house is pointed out near the little grove of Tiburnus.
I possess some elegies attributed to his pen and a letter in prose,
supposed to be a recommendation of himself to Maecenas, but I
think that both are spurious; for the elegies are commonplace
and the letter is besides obscure, which was by no means one of
his faults.
He was born on the sixth day before the Ides of December in the
consulate of Lucius Cotta [*Dec 8, 65 BCE] and Lucius Torquatus,
and died on the fifth day before the Kalends of the same month
in the consulship of Gaius Marcius Censorinus and Gaius Asinius
Gallus [nov. 27, 8 BCE], fifty-nine days after the death of Maecenas,
in his fifty-seventh year. He named Augustus as his heir by word
of mouth, since he could not make and sign a will because of the
sudden violence of his ailment. He was buried and laid to rest
near the tomb of Maecenas on the farther part of the Esquiline
Hill
END
Source.
From: [Loeb Translation, 1913]
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