HORACE 



2835 



HORIZON 



HORACE, hor'as, or QUINTUS HORATIUS 

 FLACCUS (65-8 B.C.), one of the greatest and 

 the last of the Latin poets, was born at Venusia, 

 in Southern Italy. At an early age he was 

 taken to Rome, where he began his education; 

 later he removed to Athens and took up the 

 study of philosophy. After the assassination 

 of Julius Caesar in 44 B.C., Brutus visited 

 Athens to secure recruits for his opposition to 

 the powers in Rome. Horace, although without 

 military experience, joined the army, was made 

 a staff officer and served in the Philippi cam- 

 paign. On the defeat and suicide of Brutus, 

 Horace returned to Rome, found employment 

 as a clerk and began to write verse. 



Through his friend, the poet Virgil, he met 

 Maecenas, the patron of Roman art and letters, 

 who showed his appreciation of Horace by pre- 

 senting him with an estate in the Sabine Hills 

 and sufficient income to maintain him. There 

 the poet lived in seclusion and devoted himself 

 to literature. His works consist of two books 

 of Epistles, the last of which, The Art of 

 Poetry, was left unfinished; four books of 

 Odes, one book of Epodes, or short poems, and 

 a secular hymn written at the request of the 

 Emperor Augustus. Horace is said to have 

 been not only the first but practically the only 

 lyric poet of Rome. His writings are distin- 

 guished for their genial satire and stateliness 

 and dignity of expression. As an important 

 branch of the classics, they are read by ad- 

 vanced college students in their Latin courses. 



HORATIUS, hora'shius, a legendary hero 

 whose defense of the bridge across the Tiber 

 River is immortalized in Macaulay's Lays of 

 Ancient Rome. The invading Etruscan army, 

 so the story runs, had almost reached Rome 

 before the citizens realized their danger. To 

 destroy the bridge before the arrival of the 

 enemy seemed impossible till Horatius with 

 two others volunteered to guard its approaches : 

 "And straight against that great array 



Forth went the dauntless Three, 

 For Romans in Rome's quarrel 

 Spared neither land nor gold, 

 Nor son nor wife, nor limb nor life, 

 In the brave days of old." 



The ancient custom, by which the champions 

 of each army met in single combat before the 

 clash of the hosts, made it possible for the 

 three Romans to hold back the Etruscans until 

 the citizens, rich and poor together, had 

 chopped the supports of the bridge. Horatius, 

 though heavily armed and wounded, swam the 

 rushing Tiber to safety. The date 508 B.C. is 

 given to Horatius' exploit by those who believe 

 the legend to have an historical basis. Some 

 authorities consider the story to be merely a 

 good piece of imaginative writing. 



HORE' HOUND, the popular name of sev- 

 eral plants of the mint family. The common, 

 or white, horehound grows in waste places and 

 by roadsides, is found throughout Europe and 

 Northern Asia and is naturalized in America. 

 The plant is from one to one and one-half feet 

 high and has a whitish appearance, due to the 

 cottony white hairs with which it is covered. 

 The flowers are small and almost white. The 

 odor is aromatic, and the taste is bitter. It is 

 prepared for use as a medicine, principally for 

 the relief of coughs and throat troubles, and 

 for mild cases in the favorite form of hore- 

 hound candy. The black, or fetid, horehound, 

 is an English variety, which closely resembles 

 the white species in taste and possesses similar 

 medicinal properties. 



HORIZON, hori'zun, a word from the Greek 

 horos, meaning boundary, which in popular lan- 

 guage is applied to the circular line where the 

 earth and sky, or sea and sky, seem to meet. 

 Because of the curvature of the earth's surface 

 the horizon line appears nearer to the eye when 

 the observer is close to the ground than when 

 he is on a height. For instance, a person on a 

 mountain one mile high can see ninety-six 

 miles, but if he should gaze out over the ocean 

 with his eyes only about four feet higher than 

 the water, his horizon would be only two and 

 one-half miles distant. 



In the accompanying diagram the dotted lines 

 show the lines of vision for an obsarver stand- 

 ing at a and at b; a on the dotted line shows 

 his horizon when he is at the point a, and b 

 when he is at the point b. 



THE HORIZON 

 The details of the illustration are explained in the text. 



