We learn from the passage that Horace's job as a bureaucrat……….. .

By his own account, Quintus Horatius Flaccus was a terrible soldier. He fought for the losing side in civil wars. When the order came to "Attack!", he dropped his shield and ran in the wrong direction. Back in Rome, he got a job as a petty bureaucrat. It was not a very good job, but it left him plenty of time to write. And his writing is what the poet whom we know as Horace is still remembered for to this day. Maybe it is a good thing that he dropped his shield and ran. Who remembers the ones who died, or their cause? This is, perhaps, the proof that the pen really is mightier than the sword!