VIRO REVERENDO JOHANNI WOOLL, D. D. (SCHOLA RUGBIENSIS PRÆSIDI) BONARUM LITERARUM FAUTORI LIBERALISSIMO ET, QUOD LONGE PRÆCLARIUS EST, QUI JUSTITIAM ERGA HOMINES, ET PIETATEM ERGA DEUM ASSIDUE COLUIT; INSUPER, QUI MAXIMA BENEVOLENTIA ET ADMINISTRATIONE NON SOLUM DILIGENTISSIMA, SED ETIAM BENIGNISSIMA, JUVENTUTEM CURATIONI SUÆ COMMISSAM, NUNQUAM NON TRACTAVIT, HUNC HORATII DE ARTE POETICA LIBRUM VARIIS AMPLIFICATIONIBUS ILLUSTRATUM, D. D. D. QUONDAM DISCIPULUS T. B. AYLMER. THE LIFE OF HORACE. QUINTUS HORATIUS FLACCUS was born at Venusium, a city of Apulia or Lucania; A. U. C. six-hundred-and eighty-eight, in the consulship of Aurelius Cotta, and Manlius Torquatus", about sixty-three years before the birth of our Saviour, and three before the famous conspiracy of Catiline. His father was a freedman and tax-gathererd, and according to Suetonius, he sold salt fish. But however low in rank he might have been, much credit is due to him for the liberal education he gave his son; as he not a The poet himself has left this point undecided. Vid. Lib. ii. Sat. i. 34. -Lucanus an Appulus anceps. b Vid. Lib. iii. Od. xxi. 1. O nata mecum, consule Manlio. and again in Epod. xiii. 6. he says, Tu vina Torquato move consule pressa meo. which consule meo, says the scholiast, means no more than, Quo ipse natus sum. B c Vid. Lib. i. Sat. vi. 45. Nec timuit, sibi ne vitio quis verteret olim e Ut vero creditum est, salsamentario. SUET. in vit. Hor. Salsamentarium is what the Greeks call ἀλλαντοπώλην, one who sells puddings, sausages, &c. DACIER. only allowed him the best masters in Rome to teach him the sciences, but also had him perpetually under his own eyes, that he might form his morals. By being educated at the same schools with the sons of senators and noblemen, he acquired that dignity of mind, that ease and freedom of expression, which every where shews itself in his harmonious numbers. It was not till his eighteenth or nineteenth year that he was allowed to go to Athens", his father being unwilling to lose sight of him, till his habits and inclinations were so firmly established, that they could not be corrupted by the pernicious examples of a luxurious city. It was at this time that Brutus, wishing to make one last effort for the liberty of his country, was collecting forces while on his road to Macedonia. Here, then, our poet, with many other illustrious youths, joined the army, and was made a military tribune. But he seems to have had no taste for war; for at the battle of Philippi, instead of being an example to the soldiers, as was the duty of his station, he threw down his shield and fled.' After this he returned to Rome; but dreading the rage of Augustus, he kept himself in concealment for some |