'Causa fuit pater his, qui macro pauper agello noluit in Flavi ludum me mittere, ... sed puerum est ausus Romam portare docendum artis quas doceat quivis eques atque senator semet prognatos. Vestem servosque sequentis, in magno ut populo, si qui vidisset, avita ex re praeberi sumptus mihi crederet illos. Ipse mihi custos incorruptissimus omnis circum doctores aderat.' He received instruction, both in Latin and Greek, from Orbilius,[52] a teacher of conservative tendencies. _Ep._ ii. 1, 69, 'Non equidem insector delendave carmina Livi esse reor, memini quae plagosum mihi parvo Orbilium dictare.' _Ep._ ii. 2, 41, 'Romae nutriri mihi contigit atque doceri iratus Graiis quantum nocuisset Achilles.' His education was continued at Athens. _Ep._ ii. 2, 43, 'Adiecere bonae paulo plus artis Athenae, scilicet ut vellem curvo dignoscere rectum atque inter silvas Academi quaerere verum.' His studies were interrupted by the civil war; he joined Brutus (who came to Athens in August, B.C. 44), was by him appointed _tribunus militum_, and took part in the battle of Philippi, B.C. 42. _Ep._ ii. 2, 46, 'Dura sed emovere loco me tempora grato civilisque rudem belli tulit aestus in arma Caesaris Augusti non responsura lacertis.' _Od._ ii. 7, 9, 'Philippos et celerem fugam sensi, relicta non bene parmula.' In _Sat._ i. 7 Horace relates a scene at Clazomenae before Brutus and his staff; and in _Ep._ i. 11 he speaks, as if with personal knowledge, of places in Asia Minor and the islands of the Aegean, which he probably visited then. He refers to the hardships of war in _Od._ ii. 6, 7; ii. 7, 1; iii. 4, 26. 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!"' _Sat._ i. 6, 54,