After the civil war his paternal property was confiscated, probably in B.C. 41, and his poverty compelled him to seek the post of a clerk in the quaestor’s office, and, as he says, to write verses. (Some satires and epodes were then written.)
Sueton. vit. Hor., ‘Victis partibus, venia inpetrata, scriptum quaestorium comparavit.’
Sat. ii. 6, 36,
‘De re communi scribae magna atque nova te
orabant hodie meminisses, Quinte, reverti.’
Ep. ii. 2, 49,
‘Unde simul primum me dimisere Philippi,
decisis humilem pennis inopemque paterni
et laris et fundi paupertas inpulit, audax
ut versus facerem.’
In the spring of B.C. 38 Horace was introduced to Maecenas[53] by Varius and Virgil, and became intimate with him in the winter of B.C. 38-7.
Sueton. vit. Hor., ‘Primo Maecenati, mox Augusto insinuatus non mediocrem in amborum amicitia locum tenuit. Maecenas quanto opere eum dilexerit satis testatur illo epigrammate:
“Ni te visceribus meis, Horati,
plus iam diligo, tu tuum sodalem
Ninnio videas strigosiorem”:
sed multo magis extremis iudiciis tali ad Augustum elogio: “Horati Flacci ut mei esto memor!”’