[970] See Epist. i. iv. xv.

Me pinguem et nitidum bene curata cute vises.

[971] It is satisfactory to find that the best commentators consider the
words between brackets as an interpolation in the work of Suetonius.
Some, including Bentley, reject the preceding sentence also.

[972] The works of Horace abound with references to his Sabine farm
which must be familiar to many readers. Some remains are still shewn,
consisting of a ruined wall and a tesselated pavement in a vineyard,
about eight miles from Tivoli, which are supposed, with reason, to mark
its site. At least, the features of the neighbouring country, as often
sketched by the poet--and they are very beautiful--cannot be mistaken.

[973] Aurelius Cotta and L. Manlius Torquatus were consuls A.U.C. 688.
The genial Horace, in speaking of his old wine, agrees with Suetonius in
fixing the date of his own birth:

O nata mecum consule Manlio
Testa.--Ode iii. 21.
And again,

Tu vina, Torquato, move
Consule pressa meo.--Epod. xiii. 8.

[974] A.U.C. 745. So that Horace was in his fifty-seventh, not his
fifty-ninth year, at the time of his death.