Since the palace of marble was discovered outside Rome almost a century ago the ancient poet Horace has been condemned as a liar and a hypocrite. His verse immortalised the greatness of the empire but he posed as a model of austerity who lived in a modest farmhouse.

The remains uncovered in Licenza, 25 miles north of Rome, were anything but humble. About 1,850 sq metres (20,000 sq ft) of luxury with the finest craftsmanship questioned Horace's veracity.

But now he seems vindicated. Archaeologists have dug beneath the palace and found a dwelling matching the poet's account.

A small atrium with a vegetable garden, later built upon by a wealthy developer, suggests Horace was indeed a humble man whose writings could be trusted.

Bernard Frischer, who is leading the dig, suspects that the real owner of the palace was none other than Emperor Vespasian. "If you see that much marble that far from the sea, it is almost by definition by imperial order," Mr Frischer told Italy Daily.

Horace, who died in 8BC, has been a key source for historians concerned with the social and military upheavals of the death of Rome's republic and the emergence of Julius Caesar and Emperor Augustus.

As the son of a freed slave, Horace moved up the hierarchy to become a friend of the emperor and was seen as a model of the era's social mobility. "Let him who has enough wish for nothing more," he wrote in his odes.

That image crumbled in 1914 when the archaeologist Angelo Pasqui, following up on digs in 1775 by Allan Ramsay, claimed the palace in Licenza was the supposed farmhouse.

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