Select Guide Rating About the Author David West is Professor Emeritus of Latin at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne & Leverhulme Emeritus Fellow. Quintus Horatius Flaccus (Horace) was born in late 65 BC at Venusia in Apulia. He served on the staff of Brutus' army until the defeat at Philippi in 42 BC. On returning to Rome he found his father dead and his property confiscated but obtained a secretarial post in the treasury. His poetry impressed Virgil, who introduced him to the great patron Maecenas in 38 BC. From now on Horace had no financial worries and moved freely among the leading poets and statesmen of Rome; after Virgil's death in 19 BC he was virtually Poet Laureate.