THE LIBERTINI-ROMAN FEELINGS AS TO COMMERCE-BIRTH AND INFANCY OF HORACEHIS EARLY EDUCATION AT ROME-HIS MILITARY CAREER-HE RETURNS TO ROME-IS INTRODUCED ΤΟ MECENAS-COMMENCES THE SATIRES-MAECENAS GIVES HIM HIS SABINE FARM-HIS COUNTRY LIFE THE EPODES-EPISTLES-CARMEN SECULAREILLNESS AND DEATH. Q. HORATIUS FLACCUS (BORN B. C. 65). Died RC S LYRIC poetry is the most subjective of all poetry, and the musician of the Roman lyre' was the most subjective of all Latin poets: hence a complete sketch of his life and delineation of his character may be deduced from his works. They contain the elements of an autobiography; and, whilst they constitute the most authentic source of information, convey the particulars in the most lively and engaging form. At the period of Horace's birth the Libertini, or freedmen, were rapidly rising in wealth, and, therefore, in position. The Roman constitution excluded the senatorial order from commercial pursuits, and would not even permit them to own vessels of any considerable burden, lest they should be made use of in trade. The old Roman feeling was even more exclusive than the law. There were certain trades in which not only none who had any pretensions to the rank of a gentleman, but even no one who was free-born could engage without degradation. Cicero considers that money lending, manufactures, retail trade, especially in delicacies which minister to the appetite, are all sordid and illiberal. He does not even allow that the professions of medicine and architecture are honorable, except to such as are of suitable rank. Agriculture is the only method of money-making which he pronounces to be without any doubt worthy of free-born men.. Devoted to the duties of public life either as soldiers or citizens, the Romans did not comprehend the dignity of labor. High-minded and unselfish as it may appear to think meanly of ■ Od. IV. iii. 23. 2 De Off. i. 42. employments undertaken simply for the sake of profit and lucre, the political result of this pride was unmixed evil. Commerce was thus thrown into the hands of those whose fathers had been slaves, and who themselves inherited and possessed the usual vices of a slavish disposition. The middle classes were impoverished, and, as the unavoidable consequence of a system in which social position depended upon. property, were rapidly sinking into the lowest ranks of the popuÎation. Here then was a gap to be filled up-the question was by what means? Had Roman feeling permitted the free-born citizen to devote his energies to labor and the creation of capital, he would have risen in the social scale, would have occupied the place left vacant, and would have brought with him those sentiments of chivalrous freedom which there can be no doubt distinguished Rome in earlier times, and advanced her in the scale of nations. Thus the circulation would have been complete and healthy, and the national system would have received fresh life and vigor in its most important part. Instead of this, however, slaves and the sons of slaves rose to wealth: not such slaves as those who, well educated and occupying a high or, at least, a respectable position in the conquered Greek states, were appreciated by their conquerors, became their friends and intimates, because of their worth and intellectual acquirements, imbued their masters with their own refinement and taste, and were intrusted with the education of their children, but slaves who had formed the masses of degraded nations. These were driven in hordes to Rome. They swarmed in all the states of Italy and Sicily. Many of them were not deficient in ability and energy, and therefore they rose; but they had little or no moral principle. Their children intermarried with the lower classes of the citizens; their blood infected that of the higher European races which flowed in their veins; and thus the masses of Rome became a mixed race, but not mixed for the better. The character changed; but it changed because the old race had perished, and a new race with new characteristics occupied its place. Under such circumstances, the Libertini became a powerful and important class, both socially and politically: they were the bankers, merchants, and tradesmen of Rome. Of this class, the father of Horace was one of the most respect able. His business was that of a coactor, or agent who collected the money from purchasers of goods at public auctions. He was a man of strict integrity, content with his position, and would not have thought himself disgraced if his son had followed his EARLY DAYS OF HORACE. 233 own calling. He had made by his industry a small fortune, sufficient to purchase an estate near Venusia (Venosa), on the confines of Lucania and Apulia, but not sufficient to free him from the appellation of "a poor man.' 112 Here, on the 8th of December (vito id. Decembr.), B. c 65, Q. Horatius Flaccus was born; and on the banks of the obstreperous Aufidus, the roar of whose waters could be heard far off,' Horace passed his infant years, and played and wandered in that picturesque neighborhood. The natural beauties amidst which he was nursed, probably did much to form and foster his poetic tastes. He himself relates, in one of his finest odes," an adventure which befell him in his childhood, and which reminds the reader of the beautiful nursery ballad of the Children in the Wood: Me fabulosa Vulture in Appulo Fronde nova puerum palumbes Texere (mirum quod foret omnibus, Ut tuto ab atris corpore viperis Non sine Dîs animosus infans. Fatigued with sleep and youthful toil of play, The fabled woodland doves a verdant foliage spread; Matter, be sure, of wonder most profound To all the gazing habitants around, Who dwell in Acherontia's airy glades, Amid the Bantian woods, or low Ferentum's meads. By snakes of poison black and beasts of prey, Francis. - He remained amongst his native mountains until his eleventh or twelfth year, when his father, wisely wishing to secure for him. the benefits of a liberal education, which the neighboring village Sat. I. vi. 86. 4 Ibid. IV. ix. 2. 2 Ibid. I. vi. 71. 5 Od. III. iv. 9. 3 Od. III. xxx. 10. school of Flavius did not furnish, removed with him to Rome.' Thus he quitted Venusia for ever, of which place many passages in his works prove that he retained very vivid recollections." At Rome, he was placed under the instruction of Orbilius Pupillus, a grammarian, who had been formerly in the army, and had migrated from Beneventum to the capital. He was celebrated as a schoolmaster, but still more for his severity, for he commonly called the flogging Orbilius (Plagosus Orbilius). With him young Horace read in his own language the poems of Livius Andronicus and Ennius, and in the Greek, the Iliad of Homer, whose divine poetry he soon learnt to enjoy. Whilst his father took this care of his intellectual education, he enabled him, by dress and a retinue of slaves to associate on terms of equality with boys far above him in rank and station;" and, what was still more important, he kept him under his own roof, and thus secured for his son the benefits of home influences, sage and prudent advice, and the watchful care of the parental eye. For his father's liberality, good example, and constant attention, Horace expresses the deepest gratitude, and to him he acknowledges himself indebted for all the good points of his character. The practical nature of this indulgent and devoted father's instruction, how he delighted to teach by example rather than by precept, is simply told by Horace himself" in one of his satires. Before he arrived at man's estate, it is probable that he lost his wise adviser, for he never mentions his father except in connection with the years of his boyhood. Perhaps this is the reason why, in his earlier poetry, his genial freedom so often degenerated into licentiousness, and his love of pleasure tempted him to adopt the dissolute manners of a corrupt age. His moral sense was accurate and just he could see what was useful, and approve it; he could censure the vices of his contemporaries, but he had lost that wise counsel which had hitherto preserved him pure. Athens was at that period the university of Rome. Thither the Roman youth resorted to learn language, art, science, and philosophy: Inter sylvas Academi quærere verum.9 Horace commenced his residence there at a great political crisis, and the politics of Rome created a vivid interest in the young Sat. I. vi. 71. 2 See ex. gr. Ep. II. 41; Od. III. vi. 37; Sat. II. ii. 112. 5 Sat. I. vi. 76. 8 Ibid. iv. 103. MILITARY CAREER OF HORACE. 235 students at Athens. He had not lived there long, when Julius Cæsar was assassinated; and many of his fellow students, as was natural to youthful and ardent minds, zealously embraced the republican party. Horace, now twenty-two years of age, joined the army of Brutus, and served under him until the battle of Philippi in the rank of a military tribune.' He must have already become distinguished, since nothing but merit could have recommended the son of a freedman to Brutus for so high a military command. But the event proved that he had sadly mistaken his vocation, for he was totally unfit for the position either of an officer or a soldier. With the rest of the vanquished he fled from the field of Philippi; and in a beautiful and affectionate ode to Pompeius Varus, he confesses that he even threw away his shield; nor was he one of those who rallied, although his friend was carried back again into the bloody conflict by the tide of war. So at any rate he himself tells the story. It may have been, however, that his vanity prompted him to pretend a resemblance in this respect to his favorite Alcæus, or perhaps he wished to address a piece of courtly flattery to the conqueror. Varus was one of his earliest friends: together they had spent days of study and of festivity; and when troublous times had separated them, nothing can exceed the wild and tumultuous joy with which Horace looks forward to a reunion with his friend. On his return to Rome he found that his father was dead, and his patrimony confiscated. In order to obtain a livelihood, he purchased a clerk's place under the quæstor. For its duties he must have been totally unfit, for he hated business' and loved pleasure and literary ease. But on the income of this office, and the kindness of his friends, he lived a life of frugality and poverty. It is possible that even then he gained some profit from his poems, for he says," "Audacious poverty drove me to write verses." Perhaps when he became more prosperous, he resigned his place, for he does not mention it in the account he gives to Mæcenas of the usual daily avocations of his careless and sauntering life. and Soon, however, his fortunes began to brighten. His talents recommended him, when about twenty-four years of age, to Virgil and Varius. They were then the leading poets at Rome; Mæcenas, the polished but somewhat effeminate friend of Augustus, was the powerful patron of genius and the head of literary |