Q. Horatius Flaccus, Venusinus, patre ut ipse tradit libertino et exactionum
coactore (ut vero creditum est salsamentario, cum illi quidam in altercatione
exprobrasset: "Quotiens ego vidi patrem tuum brachio se emungentem!") bello
Philippensi excitus a Marco Bruto imperatore, tribunus militum meruit; victisque
partibus venia impetrata scriptum quaestorium comparavit. Ac primo Maecenati,
mox Augusto insinuatus non mediocrem in amborum amicitia locum tenuit. Maecenas
quantopere eum dilexerit satis testatur illo epigrammate:
"Ni te visceribus meis, Horati,
Plus iam diligo, tu tuum sodalem
Ninnio videas strigosiorem";
sed multo magis extremis iudiciis tali ad Augustum elogio: "Horati Flacci ut mei
esto memor".
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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 more strongly in
his last will and testament in this brief remark to
Augustus: "Be as mindful of Horatius Flaccus as of myself."
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Augustus epistolarum quoque ei officium optulit, ut hoc ad Maecenatem scripto
significat:
"Ante ipse sufficiebam scribendis epistulis amicorum, nunc
occupatissimus et infirmus Horatium nostrum a te cupio abducere. Veniet ergo ab
ista parasitica mensa ad hanc regiam, et nos in epistulis scribendis iuvabit."
Ac ne recusanti quidem aut suscensuit quicquam aut amicitiam suam ingerere
desiit. Exstant epistulae, e quibus argumenti gratia pauca subieci:
"Sume tibi
aliquid iuris apud me, tamquam si convictor mihi fueris; recte enim et non
temere feceris, quoniam id usus mihi tecum esse volui, si per valitudinem tuam
fieri possit."
Et rursus:
"Tui qualem habeam memoriam, poteris ex Septimio
quoque nostro audire; nam incidit ut illo coram fieret a me tui mentio. Neque
enim si tu superbus amicitiam nostram sprevisti, ideo nos quoque
anthuperephanoumen."
Praeterea saepe eum inter alios iocos "purissimum penem" et
"homuncionem lepidissimum" appellat, unaque et altera liberalitate locupletavit.
Scripta quidem eius usque adeo probavit mansuraque perpetuo opinatus est, ut non
modo Saeculare carmen componendum iniunxerit sed et Vindelicam victoriam Tiberii
Drusique, privignorum suorum, eumque coegerit propter hoc tribus Carminum libris
ex longo intervallo quartum addere; post Sermones vero quosdam lectos nullam sui
mentionem habitam ita sit questus:
"Irasci me tibi scito, quod non in plerisque
eius modi scriptis mecum potissimum loquaris; an vereris ne apud posteros infame
tibi sit, quod videaris familiaris nobis esse?"
Expressitque eclogam ad se,
cuius initium est:
"Cum tot sustineas et tanta negotia solus,
Res Italas armis tuteris, moribus ornes,
Legibus emendes: in publica commoda peccem,
Si longo sermone morer tua tempora, Caesar."
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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 will 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 that
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."
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Habitu corporis fuit brevis atque obesus, qualis et a semet ipso in saturis
describitur et ab Augusto hac epistula:
"Pertulit ad me Onysius libellum tuum,
quem ego ut excusantem, quantuluscumque est, boni consulo. Vereri autem mihi
videris ne maiores libelli tui sint, quam ipse es; sed tibi statura deest,
corpusculum non deest. Itaque licebit in sextariolo scribas, ut circuitus
voluminis tui sit ogkodestatos, sicut est ventriculi tui."
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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 belly."
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Ad res Venerias intemperantior traditur; nam speculato cubiculo scorta dicitur
habuisse disposita, ut quocumque respexisset ibi ei imago coitus referretur.
Vixit plurimum in secessu ruris sui Sabini aut Tiburtini, domusque eius
ostenditur circa Tiburni Iuculum. * * * * Venerunt in manus meas et elegi sub
titulo eius et epistula prosa oratione quasi commendantis se Maecenati, sed
utraque falsa puto; nam elegi vulgares, epistula etiam obscura, quo vitio minime
tenebatur.
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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.
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Natus est VI Idus Decembris L. Cotta et L. Torquato consulibus, decessit V Kl.
Decembris C. Marcio Censorino et C. Asinio Gallo consulibus post nonum et
quinquagesimum diem quam Maecenas obierat, aetatis agens septimum et
quinquagesimum annum, herede Augusto palam nuncupato, cum urgente vi valitudinis
non sufficeret ad obsignandas testamenti tabulas. Humatus et conditus est
extremis Esquiliis iuxta Maecenatis tumulum.
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He was born on the sixth day before the Ides of December
in the consulate of Lucius Cotta 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,
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.
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