Horace
Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus)was born on 8 December 65 BC in Venusia in Apulia (mod. Venosa) and died on 27 November 8 BC (Epistulae 1. 20. 26–7; Life). Thanks to the almost complete preservation of Suetonius' Life (Vita Horatii) and numerous biographical allusions in the poetry, we are relatively well informed about his life. His father was a freedman (Satirae 1. 6. 6, 45–6), though this need not mean, as some have supposed, that he had come as a slave from the east. Even an Italian could have been enslaved as a result of the Social War of 91–89 BC (see Rome (history), §1.5), in which Venusia was captured by Rome. Horace presents himself as brought up in the old Italian style (cf. Satirae 1. 4. 105–29 with Terence Adelphoe 414–19) and his father may well have come from Italy itself. The father had a fairly small landholding...
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