HORATIUS Flaccus, Ο. one of the most celebrated of the Roman lyric poets, who was born on the 8th of December, b. c. 65, and died at the age of fifty-seven, b. c. 8. He was the son of a freedman of Venusia, a small village on the confines of Apulia and Lucania. His father’s employment seems to have been that of an auctioneer (Sat. i. 6, 86); but he possessed also a small landed property, which, however, he soon abandoned to proceed to Rome, where he had a better opportunity of attending to the education of his son. The studies of the young poet were directed by the most eminent scholars of which Rome could then boast, and amongst others by Orbillius Pupillus, a celebrated philosopher. Towards his twentieth year Horace followed the custom which was then prevalent amongst the young Romans, and proceeded to Athens with the view of studying under the philosophers which that city still produced. He seems first to have directed his attention to the doctrines of the Academic School, though he was afterwards captivated by the more congenial philosophy of the Epicureans; and the general complexion of his life seems to have been influenced by this predilection, though, towards its close, he seems to have leaned a little towards the sterner and nobler creed of the Porch. He does not, however, acknowledge himself as the partisan of any peculiar system (Epist. i. 1, 13), but, like most of the eminent Romans of his time, was of the Eclectic School, which pretended to be a selection of the more reasonable doctrines of all the others. The murder of Caesar, and the disturbances which ensued (b. c. 43), interrupted the philosophical studies of Horace. His feelings led him to support the cause of freedom, and he became a tribune in the army of Brutus; but his conduct at the battle of Philippi, which he has himself characterised with equal candour and naïveté, showed that he was not qualified to distinguish himself in the career of arms. He took advantage of the amnesty which the conqueror found it politic to grant after this unsuccessful attempt at resistance, and returned to his native country, where he found little cause of satisfaction either in the political aspect of the times, or in the events which had taken place in his own family. The death of his father had left him to his own resources, and his small patrimony had been confiscated in consequence of the part which he had taken in public affairs. It was about this time that he seems first to have attracted notice by his poetical genius, and to have become acquainted with the poets Virgil and Varius. Through their interest he was introduced to Maecenas and Augustus, who not only admitted him to their intimate friendship, but presented the poet with a small property in the country of the Sabines, where he spent the greater part of his life in the quiet enjoyment of rural happiness. Here he composed most of those works which have immortalized his name.

The works of Horace are of two kinds; lyric and didactic. To the first class belong the Odes, and in the latter we reckon the Satires and Epistles, which are often distinguished by the general name of Sermones or Eclogae. (See Bentley, Prafat. ed. Horat.} Though Horace was only pursuing the path in which he had been preceded by Lucilius, still we must consider the appearance of his Satires as constituting a new era in this particular species of composition. The overthrow of the Roman republic, and the consequent check given to freedom of speech, the change which had taken place in political affairs, and the personal connection of the poet with Augustus, Maecenas, and the other distinguished men of the emperor’s court, may well be supposed to have been little calculated to produce a satire of the peculiar character and freedom of Lucilius. Satire of such a kind was not only impracticable, but would have been without interest and without effect from the change which had taken place in the modes of thinking amongst the Romans. Such a change could not escape the notice of a man so clear headed and well acquainted with the world as the poet; the acts of men around him seemed to him to be the result of folly, and in this ridiculous light he presents them before us in his Satires. The object which he had in view was not so much to lash with all the power of indignant virtue the crimes of mankind, and thereby to procure their amendment, as, by the employment of the most delicate irony, and by laughter and ridicule, to draw them to the path of virtue. It was in this way alone that he could hope to improve the character of his contemporaries. The Satires of Horace supply in some degree the absence of all pure Roman comedy, representative of their actual life and manners. They may be considered as a mirror, in which the details of private life, and the every-day transactions of the times, are faithfully reflected. The Epistles resemble the Satires in character, except that they teach more directly lessons of virtue and morality.

Horace was a poet in his philosophy, and a philosopher in his poetry. He viewed the one through the medium of the imagination, and attempered the other with the sober spirit of truth. His observation is intuitive and unerring, his ridicule keen but not envenomed; he laughs at human follies without attempting to depreciate or degrade human nature; his sarcasms, though cutting, are felt to be just as well as polished; and we recognise in him the Democritus of poetry, who employed ridicule as an instrument of correction, not of malice. Hence his writings, with which we are familiar from boyhood, carry with them attractions which are felt in every period of life, and in almost every rank of society. They charm alike by the harmony of the numbers, the purity of the diction, the correctness of the imagery, and the justness of the sentiments. They exhilarate the gay, and interest the serious, according to the nature of the subject upon which the poet exercises his power. Professing neither the precision of analysis, nor the copiousness of system, they possess advantages which analysis and system rarely attain. They exhibit human imperfections as these really are, and human excellence as it practically ought to be; they develope every principle of virtue in morals, and point out every modification of decorum in manners; they please without the glare of ornament, and instruct without the formality of precept. These exquisite compositions are the productions of a mind enlightened by study, and invigorated by observation; they are comprehensive, but not visionary; delicate, but not fastidious; in them sagacity is unwarped by prejudice, and generosity uncramped by suspicion. They are distinguished by diction always adapted to the sentiment, and by efforts nicely proportioned to the occasion. They exhibit elegance without affectation, sublimity without bombast, satire without buffoonery, philosophy without mysticism. Hence it is that the writings of Horace are more extensively read, more clearly understood, and more acutely relished, than those of almost any other ancient author; they are perfect models of their kind, and will pass down to the most distant posterity as among the most finished and faultless productions of the classic muse.

Numerous editions have been published of his works, but the best are those by Gesner, Lips. 1752, 1772; Bentley, Cantab. 17] 1; Doring, Lips. 1803; Fea, Rom. 1811; to which may be added the more recent editions of Wakefield, Hunter, and Mitscherlich. The first four books of the Odes have been translated into English verse by ‘Wrangham (Lond. 1820), and the Satires and Epistles by Dunster (1712).