Horace

Broschiertes Buch

Horace Odes II

Vatis Amici

Herausgeber: West, David

Beschreibung

In these odes Horace creates lyric poetry in Latin which stands comparison with anything written by his brilliant predecessors in Greek. Of the three books published together in 23 BC the second is in many ways the most rewarding. The first ode, for instance, looks back at the civil wars fought by Caesar and Pompey, and by Octavian and Antony, from the point of view of Horace and his friend Pollio who both took part in them. There are also poems of friendship which give insight into the social and intellectual tone of the age of the first Roman emperor Augustus, and Horace's unique, elusive sense of humour is in evidence throughout. This book contains the Latin text (from the Oxford Classical Text), a translation which attempts to be close to the Latin while catching as much as possible of the flavour of the original, and a commentary which tries to suggest how these poems work as poetry.

Autor

Quintus Horatius Flaccus (8 December 65 BC - 27 November 8 BC), known in the English-speaking world as Horace, was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus. His career coincided with Rome's momentous change from a republic to an empire. An officer in the republican army defeated at the Battle of Philippi in 42 BC, he was befriended by Octavian's right-hand man in civil affairs, Maecenas, and became a spokesman for the new regime. Horace is often regarded as the world's first autobiographer. His writings tell far more about himself, his character, his development, and his way of life, than any other great poet of antiquity. Horace left Rome, possibly after his father's death, and continued his formal education in Athens, a great centre of learning in the ancient world, where he arrived at nineteen years of age, enrolling in The Academy. Founded by Plato, The Academy was now dominated by Epicureans and Stoics, whose theories and practises made a deep impression on the young man from Venusia. Meanwhile, he mixed and lounged about with the elite of Roman youth, such as Marcus, the idle son of Cicero, and the Pompeius to whom he later addressed a poem. It was in Athens too that he probably acquired deep familiarity with the ancient tradition of Greek lyric poetry, at that time largely the preserve of grammarians and academic specialists (access to such material was easier in Athens than in Rome, where the public libraries had yet to be built by Asinius Pollio and Augustus).

Produktdetails

• Verlag: OUP Oxford
• Seitenzahl: 184
• Erscheinungstermin: 19. November 1998
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 216mm x 140mm x 10mm
• Gewicht: 240g
• ISBN-13: 9780198721635
• ISBN-10: 0198721633
• Artikelnr.: 22090047