ABSTRACT
The poet Horace occupies an ambiguous and thus interesting position with regard to social status in Roman society of the early Augustan era. At the heart of Horace's position in society is an innate contradiction: while the poet often appears to adopt an elitist stance, both with regard to his literary ideals and his position in society, at the same time he likes to remind his readers often, and repeatedly in Satire 1.6, that he is the son of a freedman father: libertino patre natus. Literary prejudice aside, the satire in which Horace seems to deal most directly with issues of social class and his own position in society is Satire 1.6. This satire, which has been identified as one of the three 'autobiographical' satires which succeed the first three 'diatribes' of Horace's liber sermonum, is placed between two relatively shorter satires which both have a strong political background or focus.
