A collection of articles representing some of the finest writing on Horace's satires (Sermones) and epistles (Epistulae) over the past fifty years. Several have previously only been accessible in specialist journals, while five appear here for the first time in English translation.

This volume fulfills the need for a student edition of Horace's literary epistles, which have recently been the subject of renewed scholarly interest. Professor Rudd provides a clear introduction to each of the three poems: the Epistles to Augustus, to Florus, and to the Pisones (the so-called "Ars Poetica"). He sketches the historical context in which the poems were written and comments on their structure and purpose. He also discusses their literary preoccupations: the relations of poet and patron and the role of poetry in the state (Augustus), the problems of a professedly tiring poet (Florus), and the presentation of classical poetic theory ("Ars Poetica"). He notes Horace's influence on later criticism, drawing attention in one section to one of Alexander Pope's Imitations. He also addresses problems of grammar and style, focusing on linguistic difficulties and the subtle movement of the poet's thought.

The satires explored in this volume are some of the trickiest poems of ancient Rome's trickiest poet. Horace was an ironist, sneaky smart, and prone to hiding things under the surface. His Latin is dense and difficult. The challenges posed by these satires are especially acute because their voices, messages, and stylistic habits are many, and their themes range from the poet's anxieties about the limits of satiric free speech in the first poem to the ridiculous excesses of an outrageously overdone dinner party in the last. For students working at intermediate and advanced levels of Latin, this book makes the satires of Horace's second book of Sermones readable by explaining difficult issues of grammar, syntax, word-choice, genre, period, and style. For scholars who already know these poems well, it offers fresh insights into what satire is, and how these poems communicate as uniquely 'Horatian' expressions of the genre.

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. This book will be of value to anyone interested in Horace or in Augustan poetry more generally.

During the Roman transition from Republic to Empire in the first century B.C.E., the poet Horace found his own public success in the era of Emperor Augustus at odds with his desire for greater independence. In Horace between Freedom and Slavery, Stephanie McCarter offers new insights into Horace's complex presentation of freedom in the first book of his Epistles and connects it to his most enduring and celebrated moral exhortation, the golden mean. She argues that, although Horace commences the Epistles with an uncompromising insistence on freedom, he ultimately adopts a middle course. She shows how Horace explores in the poems the application of moderate freedom first to philosophy, then to friendship, poetry, and place. Rather than rejecting philosophical masters, Horace draws freely on them without swearing permanent allegiance to any—a model for compromise that allows him to enjoy poetic renown and friendships with the city's elite while maintaining a private sphere of freedom. This moderation and adaptability, McCarter contends, become the chief ethical lessons that Horace learns for himself and teaches to others. She reads Horace's reconfiguration of freedom as a political response to the transformations of the new imperial age.