ABSTRACT
The poet Quintus Horatius Flaccus (Horace) was born in Venusia in southern Italy on 8 December 65 BC. Nisbet points out that Horace seems to have considered himself to be ‘a Sabellus or Samnite’. Horace writes that, once he had completed his education in Rome, his father sent him to Athens to further his education in philosophy and rhetoric like any son of the upper classes. Horace joined the cause and was given promotion to tribunus militum, in spite of his total lack of military experience, a major step-up for one of his background. Horace himself writes that he was deprived of the family home and farm. There has been much discussion by scholars in recent years about the relationship of Horace and Gaius Maecenas. A. La Penna argues that Horace’s entrance into Maecenas’ circle of poets did not mean that he became a mouthpiece of Octavian.
