He saw the disastrous day of Philippi, narrowly
escaped death by shipwreck, and on his return to Italy and Rome found
himself without father or fortune.
Nor was the return to Rome the end of his education. In the interval
which followed, Horace's mind, always of philosophic bent, was no doubt
busy with reflection upon the disparity between the ideals of the
liberators and the practical results of their actions, upon the
difference between the disorganized, anarchical Rome of the civil war
and the gradually knitting Rome of Augustus, and upon the futility of
presuming to judge the righteousness either of motives or means in a
world where men, to say nothing of understanding each other, could not
understand themselves. In the end, he accepted what was not to be
avoided. He went farther than acquiescence. The growing conviction among
thoughtful men that Augustus was the hope of Rome found lodgment also in
his mind. He gravitated from negative to positive. His value as an
educated man was recognized, and he found himself at twenty-four in
possession of the always coveted boon of the young Italian, a place in
the government employ.
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