Books by Horace

The odes of Horace are the cornerstone of lyric poetry in the Western world. Now, for the first time, leading poets from America, England, andIreland have collaborated to bring all 103 odes into English in aseries of new translations that dazzle as poems while illuminating theimagination of one of literary history's towering figures.

The first substantial commentary on Odes II for a generation, essential for upper-level undergraduate and graduate students of Horace's highly popular work, as well as important for scholars of Latin literature and lyric poetry. New insights are offered into the poems' interpretation, and textual analysis proposes answers to long-standing questions.

Horace today is perhaps best remembered as the lyric poet of the Odes, as consequently as the inventor of the form named the Horatian Ode after him. But his achievement is more various than the Odes and Epodes suggest.

Horace saw the death of the Republic and the beginning of the Roman Empire, and was personally acquainted with the emperor Augustus and the poet Virgil.

This volume collects the entirety of Horace's lyric poetry, comprising all 103 odes, the "Carmen Saeculare" and the earlier epodes.

A. M. Juster's striking new translation relies on the tools and spirit of the English light verse tradition while taking care to render the original text as accurately as possible.

The Carmen Saeculare was composed and published in 17 BCE as Horace was returning to the genre of lyric which he had abandoned six years earlier; the fourth book of Odes is in part a response to this poem, the only commissioned poem we know from the period. The hardening of the political situation, with the Republic a thing of the past and the Augustan succession in the air, threw the problematic issue of praise into fresh relief, and at the same time provided an impulse towards the nostalgia represented by the poet's private world. Professor Thomas provides an introduction and commentary (the first full commentary in English since the nineteenth century) to each of the poems, exploring their status as separate lyric artefacts and their place in the larger web of the book. The edition is intended primarily for upper-level undergraduates and graduate students, but is also important for scholars.

The first book of odes is designed both to establish Horace's engagement with his Greek predecessors and to create a role for lyric poetry in contemporary Rome. This edition encourages students and scholars to appreciate Horace's achievement as a lyric poet.

Horace's first book of Satires is his debut work, a document of one man's self-fashioning on the cusp between republic and empire, and a pivotal text in the history of Roman satire. It wrestles with the problem of how to define and assimilate satire and justifies the poet's own position in a suspicious society. The commentary gives full weight to the dense texture of these poems while helping readers interpret their most cryptic aspects and appreciate their technical finesse. The introduction puts Horace in context as late-Republican newcomer and a vital figure in the development of satire, and discusses the structure and meaning of Satires I, literary and philosophical influences, style, metre, transmission and Horace's rich afterlife. Each poem is followed by an essay offering overall interpretation. This work is designed for upper-level students and scholars of classics but contains much of interest to specialists in later European literature.

Horace exposes the vices and follies of his Roman contemporaries in his Satires, and the Epistles include the famous Art of Poetry, whose advice on poetic style influenced many later writers and dramatists. John Davie's new prose translations perfectly capture the ribald style of the original.

This 1896 book contains the Latin text of the fourth and last book of Horace's famous Odes, as well as the famous Carmen Saeculare, commissioned by the emperor Augustus. It also includes a biography of the poet and commentaries on each of the 16 poems in the book.

Originally published in 1888, this book contains the Latin text of the first book of Horace's Epistulae. Distinguished classicist Shuckburgh includes a biography of the poet and commentaries on each of the 20 poems in the book, as well as a brief synopsis of each letter.

Originally published in 1895, this book contains the Latin text of the first book of Horace's famous Odes. Gow includes a biography of the poet and commentaries on each of the 38 poems in the book, as well as a guide to common metrical patterns used by Horace and other ancient poets.