Horace

Today, more is known about the life and work of the great Latin poet Horace than any other writer of antiquity. In this new study of Horace, one of the formative influences on modern European literature, historian V. G. Kiernan examines the distinctive personality and poetry of the poet as well as the economic and social conditions of the Italy in which he lived. Horace's works, including the Satires, Epodes, Odes, and Epistles, are discussed at length, as are the themes found in them such as the public panoply of government, war, religion, empire, and the private realm of friendship, wine, love, and nature. Kiernan also looks at the similarities between Horace's age and our own, both in conflicts over class and race and in widespread religious doubts and shifts.