Vita Quinti Horatii Flacci

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Quintus Horatius Flaccus was born on December 8th, in 15 B.C. in Venusia, a Roman colony. His father was a freedman - a slave whose master had decided to grant him freedom. His father had acquired a small estate near Venusia, and through a public job had also gotten hold of enough money to get the best Roman education for Horace. In Rome, Horace studied Latin grammar and rhetoric, as well as Greek and the writings of Homer. When he was twenty he went to study in Athens, when he was able to learn from the chief literary and educational figures of his time.
He was a fellow student of Marcus Cicero, and many other distinguished figures. After the assasination of Caesar in 44 B.C. his studies were interrupted when he joined Brutus and Cassius against the triumvirate. Horace later accompanied Brutus into Asia to await Cassius' forces. When he returned to Macedonia in B.C. 42, he fought in the battle of Philippi. After that battle he returned home to Italy to find his father dead and his estate confiscated.
Over the next few years he sustained himself with money he earned as a clerk. He also became friends with Vergil and Varius, poets of that day. The first Ode of Horace that can be dated is dated to B.C. 30.