What is Horace?
[[File:Quintus Horatius Flaccus.jpg|thumb|No photographs or paintings exist from when Horace was alive. This is how [[Anton von Werner]] imagined he would look.]] '''Quintus Horatius Flaccus''' (December 8, 65 BC - November 27, [[8 BC]]), known to [[English language|English]] speakers as '''Horace''', was a famous [[poet]] in the [[Roman Empire]]. == Life == Horace was born in the small [[Italy|Italian]] town of [[Venusia]]. His father used to be a slave, but was known as a [[freedman]] because his master had freed him. They moved to Rome a short time later. Horace's father had a job taking items from the seller to the buyer. He received money from these sales. His father became richer and was able to send Horace to the best schools in [[Rome]]. He was also able to send him to [[Athens, Greece|Athens]] ([[Greece]]) to study the [[Greek language]] and [[philosophy]]. Horace's native language was [[Latin language|Latin]]. Horace was incredibly proud of his father, and said he felt no shame in being the son of a freedman. In his early adult life, [[Julius Caesar]], the Roman [[dictator]], was killed. War was declared against the people who killed him. Horace joined the army. When the war was over, Horace returned to Italy to find that other people were living in his apartment. His father was also gone. Horace became very poor. Eventually, he found a job in the [[treasury]]. This involved sorting the country's money. His friends, [[Lucius Varius Rufus]] and [[Virgil]], who were also writers, introduced him to [[Maecenas]]. Maecenas was a close friend of [[Augustus]], the [[emperor]] of Rome. Horace lived in Tivoli, an area of Rome. When he died, he gave the land he owned to Augustus, to increase the land the state owned. Today, other writers visit the land to remember him. == Quotes == Horace wrote many famous quotes in his poems. These lines are still spoken today, by speakers of every language, in the original Latin. * ''Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori'' - It is sweet and fitting to die for one's country.