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Horace -65 - -8 (57)
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selected odes
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Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus, December 8, 65 BC – November 27, 8 BC) was a leading Roman, famous for his book with lyric poems “Odes”, his elegant hexameter verses (Sermones and Epistles) and his caustic poetry (Epodes).
Horace paid tribute to his father in a poem that is considered by many as the best memorial by a son to his father. Here is a passage from that poem:
“If my character is flawed by a few minor faults, but is otherwise decent and moral, if you can point out only a few scattered blemishes on an otherwise immaculate surface, if no one can accuse me of greed, or of prurience, or of profligacy, if I live a virtuous life, free of defilement (pardon, for a moment, my self-praise), and if I am to my friends a good friend, my father deserves all the credit... As it is now, he deserves from me unstinting gratitude and praise. I could never be ashamed of such a father, nor do I feel any need, as many people do, to apologize for being a freedman's son”.
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