Like the others of the republican army, he fled from the field of
Philippi, and found his military ardor thoroughly cooled. He
thenceforth devoted himself to letters. Returning to Rome, he attracted
notice by his verses, and became a friend of M?cenas and Virgil, the
former of whom bestowed upon him a farm sufficient to sustain him. His
life thereafter was passed in frequent interchange of town and country
residence, a circumstance which is reflected with charming grace in his
verses. His rural home is described in his epistles. It was not
extensive, but was pleasant, and he enjoyed it to the utmost. His
poetry is deficient in the highest properties of verse, but as the
fresh utterances of a man of the world who was possessed of quick
observation and strong common-sense, and who was honest and bold, they
have always charmed their readers. The Odes of Horace are unrivalled
for their grace and felicitous language, but express no great depth of
feeling. His Satires do not originate from moral indignation, but the
writer playfully shoots folly as it flies, and exhibits a wonderful
keenness of observation of the ways of men in the world. His Epistles
are his most perfect work, and are, indeed, among the most original and
polished forms of Roman verse.
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