Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus, 65-8 BCE) was born at Venusia,
son of a freedman clerk who had him well educated at Rome and
Athens. Horace supported the ill-fated killers of Caesar, lost his
property, became a secretary in the Treasury, and began to write
poetry. Maecenas, lover of literature, to whom Virgil and Varius
introduced Horace in 39, became his friend and made him largely
independent by giving him a farm. After 30 Horace knew and aided
with his pen the emperor Augustus, who after Virgil's death in 19
engaged him to celebrate imperial affairs in poetry. Horace refused
to become Augustus's private secretary and died a few months after
Maecenas. Both lyric (in various metres) and other work (in
hexameters) was spread over the period 40-10 or 9 BCE. It is Roman
in spirit, Greek in technique.
In the two books of "Satires" Horace is a moderate social
critic and commentator; the two books of "Epistles" are more
intimate and polished, the second book being literary criticism as
is also the "Ars Poetica." The "Epodes" in various (mostly iambic)
metres are akin to the 'discourses' (as Horace called his satires
and epistles) but also look towards the famous "Odes," in four
books, in the old Greek lyric metres used with much skill. Some are
national odes about public affairs; some are pleasant poems of love
and wine; some are moral letters; all have a rare perfection. The
Loeb Classical Library edition of the "Odes" and "Epodes" is in
volume number 33.
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