The opening of LIFE OF HORACE
The materials for Horace's life are derived almost entirely from his own works. A few additional facts are obtained from a short memoir, attributed to Suetonius.
He was born on the 8th of December, A.U.C. 689 (B.C. 65), at or near Venusia[1] (Venosa), in the Apennines, on the borders of Lucania and Apulia. His father was a freedman,[2] having, as his name proves, been the slave of some person of the Horatia gens. As Horace implies that he himself was ingenuus,[3] his father must have obtained his freedom before his birth. He afterwards followed the calling of a coactor,[4] a collector of money in some way or other, it is not known in what. He made, in this capacity, enough to purchase an estate, probably a small one, near the above town, where the poet was born.