assigned to them by the Senate. Cassius hurried on to his post in
Syria, but Brutus lingered behind, ostensibly absorbed in the
philosophical studies of the schools, but at the same time recruiting
a staff of officers for his army from among the young Romans of wealth
and family whom it was important he should attach to his party, and
who were all eagerness to make his cause their own. Horace, infected
by the general enthusiasm, joined his standard; and, though then only
twenty-two, without experience, and with no special aptitude, physical
or mental, for a military life, he was intrusted by Brutus with the
command of a legion. There is no reason to suppose that he owed a
command of such importance to any dearth of men of good family
qualified to act as officers. It is, therefore, only reasonable to
conclude, that even at this early period he was recognised in the
brilliant society around him as a man of mark; and that Brutus, before
selecting him, had thoroughly satisfied himself that he possessed
qualities which justified so great a deviation from ordinary rules, as
the commission of so responsible a charge to a freedman's son. That
Horace gave his commander satisfaction we know from himself. The line
(Epistles, I. xx. 23), "_Me primis urbis belli placuisse
domique_,"--

"At home, as in the field, I made my way,
And kept it, with the first men of the day,"--

can be read in no other sense. But while Horace had, beyond all doubt,
made himself a strong party of friends who could appreciate his genius
and attractive qualities, his appointment as military tribune excited
jealousy among some of his brother officers, who considered that the
command of a Roman legion should have been reserved for men of nobler
blood--a jealousy at which he said, with his usual modesty, many years