among other
drolleries, he often called him, "his most immaculate penis," and "his
charming little man," and loaded him from time to time with proofs of his
munificence. He admired his works so much, and was so convinced of their
enduring fame, that he directed him to compose the Secular Poem, as well
as that on the victory of his stepsons Tiberius and Drusus over the
Vindelici [969]; and for this purpose urged him to add, after a long
interval, a fourth book of Odes to the former three. After reading his
"Sermones," in which he found no mention of himself, he complained in
these terms: "You must know that I am very angry with you, because in
most of your works of this description you do not choose to address
yourself to me. Are you afraid that, in times to come, your reputation
will suffer; in case it should appear that you lived on terms of intimate
friendship with me?" And he wrung from him the eulogy which begins with,

Cum tot sustineas, et tanta negotia solus:
Res Italas armis tuteris, moribus ornes,
Legibus emendes: in publica commoda peccem,
Si longo sermone morer tua tempora, Caesar.--Epist. ii. i.

While you alone sustain the important weight
Of Rome's affairs, so various and so great;
While you the public weal with arms defend,
Adorn with morals, and with laws amend;
Shall not the tedious letter prove a crime,
That steals one moment of our Caesar's time.--Francis.

In person, Horace was short and fat, as he is described by himself in his
Satires [970], and by Augustus in the following letter: "Dionysius has
brought me your small volume, which, little as it is, not to blame you
for that, I shall judge favourably. You seem to me, however, to be
afraid lest your volumes should be bigger than yourself. But if you are
short in stature, you are corpulent enough. You may, therefore, (543) if
you will, write in a quart, when the size of your volume is as large
round as your paunch."

It is reported that he was immoderately addicted to venery. [For he is
said to have had obscene pictures so disposed in a bedchamber lined with
mirrors, that, whichever way he looked, lascivious images might present
themselves to his view.] [971] He lived for the most part in the
retirement of his farm [972], on the confines of the Sabine and Tiburtine
territories, and his house is shewn in the neighbourhood of a little wood
not far from Tibur. Some Elegies ascribed to him, and a pr