Horace

Quintus Horatius Flaccus, known as Horace in English, Oraziano in Italian was born in 65 b.c.e., living until 8 b.c.e. He was a poet during the reign of Caesar Augustus, Octavia. He’s known in particular for hexameter verses which were satirical, humorous poems and caustic iambic poetry, which were more episodic in nature.

The regular postage stamps on this album page commemorate the two-thousand anniversary of Horace. They depict scenes or characters from his writings. The air mail stamps on this page are also in commemoration of Horace, although they show images of planes used to deliver mail at the time.

These stamps were issued during the time that the king and the fascists were building the Italian empire – albeit a short lived empire. Horace was a poet of Rome during the time that Augustus was transforming Rome from a republic to an empire. This seems to be a reoccurring theme at the time, of issuing stamps to remind the Italian people that they had an empire once and can do it again.

Note

These stamps have the look and feel of 1930s stamps, similar to the ones from the U.S. and other countries at the time: they’re printed in light colors with open space, or depicting pastoral scenes and airplanes similar to Charles Lindberg’s Spirit of St. Louis. I don’t particularly like the style of this period, but I’m reminded that this is around the time when my mother was born: the style of her infancy. That’s vaguely comforting to me.

Contains 13 spots: own 13 – 13 unused, 0 used.
Page is finished.
Album or Web Page Last changed Oct 28, 2022

Stamp Details

The table below lists information about the stamps shown on this page of Lighthouse’s stamp album. For more details about a particular stamp, click on its description. That will take you to the related web page of Colnect.

spot

own

catalog

subject

description

comment

Horace

1.1	✓	398	Flock of Sheep Fertile for Crops & Livestock	10c (jul 1936) comm., green
1.2	✓	399	Blossomed Tree Snow Returns to Tree-Covered Fields.	20c (jul 1936) comm., pink
2.1	✓	400	Vitality Hero Fall will Strike Fearlessly	30c (jul 1936) comm., sepia
2.2	✓	402	Campidoglio Capitol Stood Shining	75c (jul 1936) comm., carmine
2.3	✓	401	Horace Medallion Not Everything Dies	50c (jul 1936) comm., purple

Horace: Semi-Postal

3.1	✓	403	Blossomed Tree Snow Returns to Tree-Covered Fields.	1.25+1₤ (jul 1936) semi-postal, sky blue
3.2	✓	404	Fauna Playing a Syringe Ivy’s Learned Brow Reward	1.75+1₤ (jul 1936) semi-postal, red
3.3	✓	405	Death of the Warrior It’s Sweet and Glorious to Die for Fatherland	2.55+1₤ (jul 1936) semi-postal, grey

Horace: Air Mail

4.1	✓	A95	Seaplane Daedalus made Trial of Empty Air on Wings Not Meant for Men	25c (jul 1936) air mail, green
4.2	✓	A96	Plane over Aniene Valley Here in a Narrow Valley	50c (jul 1936) air mail, brown
4.3	✓	A97	Oak Tree & Eagle Hard as Holly	60c (jul 1936) air mail, red
5.1	✓	A98	Plane over Aniene Valley Here in a Narrow Valley	1+1₤ (jul 1936) air mail, purple
5.2	✓	A99	Monuments of Rome Visit Rome in the Sun	5+2₤ (jul 1936) air mail, blue grey

Footnotes

Spot refers to the postion of the stamp on the album page (e.g., 3.2 indicates row 3, position 2).
Amt. is an abbreviation for the face amount of the stamp.
Own indicates the stamp status: ✓ for unused; ✗ for used or canceled; ⭑ signifies I ordered one; ; ✨ indicates it was bought recently; ✠ means an auction bid is pending; and ◎ is used, and it costs too much for unused.
To search by catalog number, go to the search box and enter it in the catalog number box. However, it’s a bit broken; I need to fix it.