valle in that high elevation might indeed be pleaded against the probable culture of the vine: and still it could not palpably be made out, that the cornfield, the meadow, and the wood with its wild fruits, really constituted the whole income of our Poet's estate. But from the definite object on which the great pains were taken, the improvement and extension of his arable land, 1 E. xiv. 3, 4. Certemus, spinas animone ego fortius, an tu Jampridem non tacta ligonibus arva, bovemque And here may we not remark, that the ilex of 1 E. XVI. 9. and the borem disjunctum of 1 E. XIV. 27, 8, both clearly in the Sabine valley, and answering to the fessis romere tauris and ilicem of the ode to Bandusia, 3 C. XIII. 11, 14. incidentally corroborate the truth of the locality assigned in these pages to that fountain? From a detail of facts like these, we may well conclude, that the Poet's answer to Quintius might have briefly stood thus. ARVO pascit herum. For though it is true, that the meadow would on all accounts possess its natural value, 29, 30. Addit opus pigro rivus, si decidit imber, Multa mole docendus aprico parcere prato. unquestionably, however, the ground in tillage formed the most profitable scurce of revenue and nearly the whole of it. 3 C. XVI. 29-32. Puræ rivus aquæ, silvaque jugerum Paucorum, et SEGETIS certa fides meæ, Fallit sorte beatior. Let thus much then suffice to show the clear and indisputable connexion betwixt the localities of Horace and the right understanding of many other most important points in his writings or in his character. PART III. LIFE AND CHARACTER. A SKETCH of the principal facts and circumstances in the early life of Horace, especially where that tends to illustrate the formation of his character as afterwards seen in his writings, shall next be attempted. The father of Horace, after having gained his freedom in the family from which that distinguished name was derived to his son, was doubtless for many years afterwards in the laborious and profitable office (1 S. vi. 86.) of a Coactor at sales by auction; and had gathered together a considerable property by success in that employment. At this period of the Roman Commonwealth, the condition of the Libertini was fast rising to that importance on account of its wealth, which afterwards excited so much indignation in the Ingenui, whose poverty was embittered by their pride: an indignation, be it observed, neither merited nor reasonable. Whoever now reads in Tully (Offices. L. 1. C. 42.) Jam de artificiis et quæstibus qui liberales habendi, qui sordidi sint, &c., will in a moment discern, that so many lucrative and not necessarily disgraceful employments, given up entirely to men of servile origin, must have lowered and lessened the class of old citizens without raising a class of new to occupy their rank and their influence in the state: the vacuum in fact was very imperfectly and very unhappily filled up. The topic here started is full of matter for curious and interesting investigation: whether on the one hand we suppose that several ingenious arts, being already introduced into Rome in the persons of slaves, would only very slowly be admitted as objects of liberal pursuit; or reflect, on the other hand, that the system of clientela, however well it might work in an earlier stage of the commonwealth, at a later period could only tend to keep the clientes too proud to gain what we should call an honest and reputable livelihood, so long as they were able barely to live on the allowance made by the patroni. Hence the pride of caste was maintained, but at the cost of all manly independence: and in the client whom Juvenal describes thus subsisting as the poor gentleman of his day, we see the miserable wreck of Roman freedom, and of all the higher virtues by which it was once adorned. Sat. 1. 117-120. Sed cum summus honor finito computet anno, Quid facient comites, quibus hinc toga, calceus hinc est, Among the Libertini upon record it might be difficult to point out any one person entitled to a higher degree of respect than Horace the elder. And in the year в. c. 66, (when the Mithridatic war was committed to Pompey by the Manilian law,) we may probably enough fix that worthy man's marriage and establishment in the neighbourhood of Venusia upon the Lar et Fundus (2 E. 11. 52.), in which he had invested the whole of his honest acquisitions. On that estate then, not far from the town of Venusia, apparently very near to the river Aufidus, 4 C. IX. 2. Longe sonantem natus ad Aufidum, Vito Idus Decembres. Dec. 8. B. c. 65, the great Roman Poet, Quintus Horatius Flaccus, was born; who more than once in his writings, while he distinctly marks the place of his birth, records it as inauspicious for any chance of poetic fame to the native of a spot so rude and obscure. 3 C. xxx. 10-14. Dicar, quâ violens obstrepit Aufidus, Princeps Æolium carmen ad Italos Deduxisse modos. Of course, potens here is interpreted of Horace in that higher sense which the words, Virtus et favor et lingua potentium | Vatum. 4. C. VIII. 26, 7. so aptly convey, and which sense of potency Horace in fact claims to himself in the very next ode, vv. 30, 1, when he thus addresses Lollius;-non ego te meis | Chartis inornatum silebo, &c. Ne forte credas interitura, quæ Longe sonantem natus ad Aufidum Non ante vulgatas per artes 4 C. Ix. 1-4. Verba loquor socianda chordis. We find him, however, in a passage to which the emendation Argivæ (vid. R. B. in loc.) gives the required distinction and contrast, combine even with an epithet of his local origin, a designation of proud eminence as the lyric poet of Rome. 4 C. VI. 25. Doctor Argivæ fidicen Thalia Phœbe, qui Xantho lavis omne crines, In B. c. 63. (the year famous for the Consulship of Tully and the Plot of Catiline) there came to Rome where he taught, "majore famâ quam emolumento!" a very celebrated Schoolmaster; Orbilius Pupillus Beneventanus, better known as the Plagosus Orbilius (2 E. 1. 70, 1.) under whose chastising hand Horace, on being carried from his native place to that city, was destined first to smart and to learn. No idea is here entertained of hitting the exact year for that extraordinary incident which marked the childhood of Horace but some aid may be given to memory, if в. c. : 60. be assumed for it, the year of the first triumvirate, that betwixt Pompey, Crassus, and Cæsar. "In sooth," almost from his cradle, young 66 Horace was no vulgar boy;" if we may credit his own story, with the interpretation of it by the neighbours attached to circumstances of so surprising and delightful a nature. In the spring therefore, в. c. 60. (in the spring, for it was nova fronde) when Horace was a few months beyond his fourth year complete, that danger and deliverance befel him in his adventurous wanderings, which no pen should describe but his own. 3 C. IV. 9-20. Me fabulosa Volture in Appulo, Ludo fatigatumque somno, Fronde novâ puerum palumbes Pingue tenent humilis Ferenti; Ut tuto ab atris corpore viperis Dormirem et ursis; ut premerer sacrâ Lauroque, collatâque myrto, Non sine Dîs animosus infans. How beautifully after this follows, how triumphantly indeed! Vester, Camœnæ, vester in arduos An accident, which at a much later period of life befel him in agro Sabino, may yet without impropriety be noticed here; inasmuch as he gratefully attributes his protection from that danger also to the favour of divine agency. The event alluded to produced at the time an ode, itself no mean specimen of the triumph of poetry, (2 C. XIII.) if we trace the progress of fine reflection and splendid imagery from its opening, to its close Ille et nefasto te posuit die, Nec curat Orion leones, Aut timidos agitare lyncas. |