Horace’s full name is Quintus (Sat. ii. 6, 37) Horatius (Od. iv. 6, 44) Flaccus (Sat. ii. 1, 18). He was born 8th December, B.C. 65, at Venusia in Apulia, on the frontier of Lucania.
Sueton. vit. Hor., ‘Natus est vi. Id. Decembr. L. Cotta et L. Torquato coss.’
Ep. i. 20, 26-8,
‘Forte meum siquis te percontabitur aevum,
me quater undenos sciat inplevisse Decembris
collegam Lepidum quo duxit Lollius anno.’
Sat. i. 1, 34,
‘Lucanus an Appulus anceps:
nam Venusinus arat finem sub utrumque colonus.’
There are a great many references to Apulia in Horace. So Od. iii. 4, 9 sqq.,
‘Me fabulosae Volture in Appulo
nutricis extra limina Pulliae’ (his nurse’s name), etc.
All Roman virtues are attributed to the Apulians, as in Od. i. 22, 13; iii. 5, 9; Epod. ii. 39-42.
Horace, though free-born (Sat. i. 6, 7) was the son of a freedman, who was by profession a collector of debts, or, according to others, a fishmonger. To this last story Horace probably refers with proud humility in Ep. ii. 2, 60,