We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 September 2009
In every human life there are two days of special significance – birthday and deathday. The first is marked with a rubric in the diary, while the second lurks unknown among all the leaves of the year. In Rome birthdays were noted and celebrated throughout life and sometimes afterwards, but deathdays were less liable to leave a permanent mark, unless the deceased was an emperor or a Christian saint. Cases where an individual's precise dates are recorded are rare, and of all Latin authors up to the fifth century ad only five – apart from Caesars and saints with literary pretensions – appear to qualify. Horace is one of the few, and it seems worthwhile to review the evidence for his lifespan and to examine what he himself had to say about his beginning and his end.
THE TRADITION
The dates commonly quoted in modern biographical notices are derived from the Vita which is ascribed with plausibility to Suetonius and which ends with the following passage (unamended):
Natus est VI Idus Decembris L. Cotta et L. Torquato consulibus [8.12.65], decessit V Kal. Decembris C. Marcio Censorino et C. Asinio Gallo consulibus [27.11.8] post nonum et quinquagesimum annum herede Augusto palam nuncupato, cum urgente ui ualetudinis non sufficeret ad obsignandas testamenti tabulas. humatus et conditus est extremis Esquiliis iuxta Maecenatis tumulum.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.
