The works of Horace : with English notes, critical and ... - Cristo Raul

LIFE OF HOKACE. XIX
leader.' Liberty may be said to have deserted Horace rather than
Horace liberty ; and, happily for mankind, he felt that his calling
was to more peaceful pursuits.
Horace found his way back, it is uncertain in what manner, to
Rome.' But his estate was confiscated ; some new coactor was obllecthig
the price of his native fields, which his father had perhaps
acquired through former confiscations ; for Venusia was one of the
eighteen cities assigned by the victorious triumvirate to their soldiers.''
On bis return to Rome, nothing can have been well more dark or
hopeless than the condition of our poet. He was too obscure to be
marked by proscription, or may have found security in some general
act of amnesty to the inferior followers of Brutus. But the
friends which he bad already made were on the wrong side in poli-
tics ; he had no family connectioiis, no birth to gild his poverty. It
was probably at this period of his life that he purchased the place
of scribe in the quaestor's office ; but from what source he derived
the purchase money— ^the wreck of his fortunes, old debts, or the
liberality of his friends—we can only conjectture.'' On the profits of
this place he managed to live with the utmost frugality. His o