Details of the life and career of Quintus Horatius Flaccus (known in the English-speaking world as Horace) emerge from references in his own works and a biographical sketch probably written 100 years after Horace’s death as part of Suetonius’
De Viris Illustribus(
Famous Men). Thanks to these sources we know more about Horace’s life than we do about any other poet of the late Republican and early Imperial periods.
Horace was born in the Calabrian town of Venusia on December 8, 65 BCE and died on November 27, 8 BCE. His father was a freedman (libertus) who worked as a “money collector” (the term Horace uses is coactor, Satires 1.6.86). The Suetonian biography explains it as a collector of taxes (exactionum coactor), although some editors emended this to auctionum coactor (a
2509 words
Citation: Lee-Stecum, Parshia. "Horace". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 07 May 2010 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=2207, accessed 25 November 2024.]
