d. He now resolved to devote himself to more peaceful pursuits;
and, having obtained his pardon, he ventured at once to return to Rome.
He had lost all his hopes in life; his paternal estate had been swept
away in the general forfeiture; but he was enabled to obtain sufficient
money to purchase a clerkship in the Quaestor's office, and on the
profits of that place he managed, with the utmost frugality, to live.
Meantime some of his poems attracted the notice of Varius and Virgil,
who introduced him to Maecenas (B.C. 39). Horace soon became the friend
of Maecenas, and this friendship quickly ripened into intimacy. In a year
or two after the commencement of their friendship (B.C. 37) Horace
accompanied his patron on the journey to Brundusium already alluded to.
About the year B.C. 34 Maecenas bestowed upon the poet a Sabine farm,
sufficient to maintain him in ease, comfort, and even in content, during
the rest of his life. The situation of this farm was in the valley of
Ustica, within view of the mountain Lucretilis, and near the Digentia,
about 15 miles from Tibur (_Tivoli_). A site exactly answering to the
villa of Horace, and on which were found ruins of buildings, has been
discovered in modern times. Besides this estate, his admiration of the
beautiful scenery in the neighborhood of Tibur inclined him either to
hire or to purchase a small cottage in that romantic town; and all the
later years of his life were passed between the metropolis and these two
country residences. He died, B.C. 8, in his 57th year. He was buried on
the slope of the Esquiline Hill, close to his friend and patron Maecenas,
who had died before him in the same year. Horace has described his own
person. He was of short stature, with dark eyes and dark hair, but early
tinged with gray. In his youth he was tolerably robust, but suffered
from a complaint in his eyes. In more advanced life he grew fat, and
Augustus jested about his protuberant belly. His health was not always
good, and he seems to have inclined to be a valetudinarian. In dress he
was rather careless. His habits, even after he became richer, were
generally frugal and abstemious; though on occasions, both in youth and
maturer age, he seems to have indulged in conviviality. He liked choice
wine, and in the society of friends scrupled not to enjoy the luxuries
of his time. He was never married. The _Odes_ of Horace want the higher
inspirations of lyric verse. His amatory verses are exquisitel