Horace

Introduction
Life
Influences, personality, and impact

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Horace, bronze medal, 4th century; in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris

At a Glance

Horace summary

Quizzes

Illustration of "The Lamb" from "Songs of Innocence" by William Blake, 1879. poem; poetry

A Study of Poetry

4:043 Dickinson, Emily: A Life of Letters, This is my letter to the world/That never wrote to me; I'll tell you how the Sun Rose/A Ribbon at a time; Hope is the thing with feathers/That perches in the soul

Famous Poets and Poetic Form

Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) only confirmed photograph of Emily Dickinson. 1978 scan of a Daguerreotype. ca. 1847; in the Amherst College Archives. American poet. See Notes:

Poetry: First Lines

Related Questions

How did Gaius Maecenas become Horace’s patron and friend?
How did Horace adapt Greek lyric poetry for Roman readers in the Odes?
How did Horace combine everyday Roman life with Greek mythology in the Odes?
How did Horace use iambic verse in the Epodes?
How did Horace use opening lines from Alcaeus and Archilochus as poetic mottoes?
How did Horace’s father gain his freedom and support his son’s education?
How did Horace’s poetry influence the development of the Horatian ode?
How did Horace’s satires differ from the harsher satire of Lucilius?
How did Horace’s style differ from the style of Pindar’s odes?
How did Maecenas’s gift of a Sabine farm affect Horace’s life?
How did the Epistles differ in tone from Horace’s earlier Satires?
How did the Renaissance renew interest in Horace’s Odes and Ars poetica?
How did the Roman civil wars shape the political themes in Horace’s poetry?
How did the Secular Hymn support Augustus’s religious and moral reforms?
What kind of literary work are Horace’s Epistles?
When and where was the Roman poet Horace born?
When did Horace die, and where was he buried?
When did Horace write Ars poetica, also called the Epistle to the Pisos?
When was the first book of Horace’s Satires published?
When were the first three books of Horace’s Odes published?
Where did Horace study after receiving his education in Rome?
Where was Horace’s Sabine farm located?
Which advice about literary genres did Horace give in Ars poetica?
Which job did Horace hold in Rome after returning from the civil war?
Which later poets were influenced by Horace’s poetic style?
Which major works did Horace write during the Augustan Age?
Which military position did Horace hold in Brutus’s army?
Which public anxieties did Horace describe in the political Epodes?
Which topics appear most often in Horace’s Odes?
Who was Orbilius, and how did he influence Horace’s early education?
Who were the intended readers of Horace’s Ars poetica?
Why did Horace address many of his Odes to male friends?
Why did Horace decline Augustus’s offer to become his private secretary?
Why did Horace often make himself the target of mockery in his Satires?
Why did Horace value a quiet life away from political ambition?
Why did Horace write the Secular Hymn for Augustus in 17 BCE?
Why have translators found Horace’s Odes difficult to translate?
Why was Horace’s family farm at Venusia confiscated after Philippi?
Why were Horace’s Satires and Epistles read more often than his Odes during the Middle Ages?
Who was St. Ambrose?
What was Seneca’s family like?
What did Seneca write?
What were Seneca’s political accomplishments?
How did Seneca die?
What was Grotius’s role in Dutch politics?
Why is Lord Byron significant?
What was Lord Byron’s disability?
Why did Lord Byron leave England in 1816?
What is a Byronic hero?

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External Websites

Classical Literature - Horace ï¿½ Ancient Rome ï¿½ Classical Literature
Encyclopaedia Romana - The Life of Horace
Ancient History Encyclopedia - Biography of Horace
Poetry Foundation - Biography of Horace
Poets.org - Biography of Horace

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Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students.

Horace - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)

Horace

Roman poet

Also known as: Quintus Horatius Flaccus

Written by

Michael Grant

President and Vice-Chancellor, Queen's University of Belfast, Northern Ireland, 1959–66. Author of History of Rome and others; editor of Latin Literature and others.

Michael Grant

Fact-checked by

Britannica Editors

Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....

Britannica Editors

History

Horace (born December 65 bc, Venusia, Italy—died Nov. 27, 8 bc, Rome) was an outstanding Latin lyric poet and satirist under the emperor Augustus. The most frequent themes of his Odes and verse Epistles are love, friendship, philosophy, and the art of poetry. Horace was probably of the Sabellian hillman stock of Italy’s central highlands. His father had once been a slave but gained freedom before Horace’s birth and became an auctioneer’s assistant. He also...

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