the Emperor, and gave him a fine country seat near Tivoli, among the
Sabine Mountains. He died the same year as his patron, and was buried
beside him at the Esquiline Gate.

The poems of Horace give us a picture of refined and educated life in
the Rome of his time. They are unsurpassed in gracefulness and
felicity of thought. Filled with truisms, they were for centuries read
and quoted more than those of any other ancient writer.

OVID (43 B. C.-18 A. D.), a native of Sulmo, is far inferior to Virgil
and Horace as a poet, but ranks high on account of his great gift for
narration.

"Of the Latin poets he stands perhaps nearest to modern civilization,
partly on account of his fresh and vivid sense of the beauties of
nature, and partly because his subject is love. His representations of
this passion are graceful, and strikingly true. He also excelled other
poets in the perfect elegance of his form, especially in the character
and rhythm of his verses." He spent his last days in exile, banished
by Augustus for some reason now unknown. Some of his most pleasing
verses were written during this period.

One of the most noted men of the Augustan age was MAECÉNAS, the warm
friend and adviser of Augustus. He was a constant patron of the
literature and art of his generation. He was very wealthy, and his
magnificent house was the centre of literary society in Rome, He
helped both Virgil and Horace in a substantial manner, and the latter
is constantly referring to him in his poetry. He died (8 B. C.)
childless, and left his fortune to Augustus.