uncouth, and unmusical character which marks and mars very many of the prose translations of the Greek and the Latin classics. In my wish to bring out the true meaning and spirit of Horace's poems, I have not adhered to the closely literal style, but have taken the liberty of altering phrases and constructions to suit my main purpose, in such a way, however, that even a tiro may easily follow the connection, and make for himself a more literal version with the aid of the light thrown on the text. My desire has been to render Horace more enjoyable to the English reader, and with this object in view, to offer him a smooth and easy running version. How far I have succeeded in my attempt I leave to others to judge. I have studied once again the works of the best commentators-Orelli, Ritter, Dillenburger, Dacier, and others, among foreigners; and of British scholars, Bentley, Macleane, Wickham, Munro and King, and a few of less note. I have weighed the arguments of each of them in regard to doubtful interpretations, and have adopted that explanation which commended itself to my judgment, and which seemed most consistent with common sense. I have generally followed Mr Wickham's text, because he seems to me to have made, in most cases, a very judicious choice from among the various readings. His notes, too, show practical good sense and wise and scholarly discrimination. I have to express my best thanks to my friends, Mr John Clarke, M.A., Classical Master in the Aberdeen Grammar School; and Mr Hugh Campbell, LL.D., Rector of the High School, Falkirk, and Classical Examiner in the University of St Andrews, for the trouble they have taken in revising the proof sheets, and giving me many valuable suggestions. A. HAMILTON BRYCE. EDINBURGH, June 1896. LIFE OF HORACE. No ancient author has given in his writings more facts than Horace has done, from which a biographer can construct the story of his life. These notices are introduced incidentally and in no ostentatious manner. They come in quite naturally, and without offence to good taste. From them we learn that Horace's father was a libertinus, or freed slave, a member of the Horatia tribus in Apulia, as is supposed-hence the name. The future poet was born in 65 B.C. at Venusia, now Venosa, in Apulia, on the confines of Lucania, and so he says of himself "Lucanus an Appulus anceps." Why he was called Flaccus is not known. As his father gained his freedom before the boy's birth, young Horace was an ingenuus, or freeborn Roman citizen. His father was a coactor, that is, either a collector of taxes for the state, or one who took the payments at auction sales. Whatever his occupation may have been, he seems to have early laid past a little money, which enabled him to buy a small property at Venusia, and to give his son the education of a Roman gentleman.1 We know nothing of his mother individually. She had probably died when he was very young. At all events he makes no reference to her, except as one of his parents, with whom he was quite content, and whom he would not have changed for greater and richer ones if he had had the choice. She may have been to him the type of that Apulian woman whom he praises in Epode ii. 39, sqq. 1 On this point read the son's beautiful tribute to his father's good sense and kindly care in Sat., I. vi., lines 65 to 92. 2 See Sat., Bk. I. vi. 93, sqq. Horace's early education was conducted at Rome under Orbilius Pupillus of "thrashing notoriety," with whom he studied grammar and some of the old Latin authors. He also read Homer with the same master, and acquired with various teachers some of the "modern accomplishments" of those days, such as music and rhetoric. But Horace's father was not content that his son should finish his education under Orbilius. Athens was in those days the University of the world, and to Athens accordingly the lad was sent, when he was about twenty years of age, to study philosophy and literature, and to improve himself in Greek. There he met many young men belonging to the best families in Rome, pursuing their higher education as he was, and with some of them he formed a lifelong friendship. There, also, the tenor of his life was suddenly changed by the events that followed on the assassination of Julius Cæsar. Brutus and Cassius called at Athens on their way to the Eastern Provinces which had been assigned them, and while Cassius went on to Syria, Brutus loitered for a time in the city ostensibly to hear the lectures of some of the philosophers, but really, it would seem, to enlist on the republican side as many as possible of the "young bloods" of Rome then "in residence." It was here that Horace received his appointment as Military Tribune, for which he was by no means fit. But his soldier life was of short duration. The battle of Philippi took place in 42 B.C., and there he was obliged to run for his life, like others, and leave his shield behind, as he tells us in apparent soberness, though it may be a mere joke against himself. He is the only authority for the occurrence of the unsoldierly act. Before he was called off with Brutus to the war he is said to have visited many parts of Greece, to which he has made some passing references in his writings. When Brutus and Cassius were defeated by Octavianus and Antony, and the Republican party were thoroughly discredited, and the men of law and order came into power, an amnesty was proclaimed, and under its kindly leave Horace among many others returned to Rome. But he came back penniless and fatherless, as his property at Venusia |