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Horace: Poet on a Volcano

By (author) Peter Stothard

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normal price: R 732.95

Price: R 659.95

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A biography of Horace, one of the most popular poets from antiquity, revealing the little-known man behind his famous lines Â â€œPeter Stothard is a master of modern writing about ancient Rome, of vividly bringing to life its poetry and its poets.â€â€”Mary Beard Â Quintus Horatius Flaccus (65â€“8 BCE) wrote some of ancient Romeâ€™s greatest poetry, melding languages and cultures with youthful ideals and a realistâ€™s recognition of the dictatorial world around him. Horace is famed for his fine phrases, lyric sex, and guidance on how to live, but he was a poet maddened by war, and many of his most self-revealing poems have rarely been read. He could be sublime and obscene, amusing and abusive, a model of moderation and anything but. Â In this book, the first modern retelling of Horaceâ€™s life, Peter Stothard follows the poet from his birth as the son of a formerly enslaved father through his rise to the highest circles of Roman society. He shines a light on how shattering experiences in the war to save Romeâ€™s republic shaped the loyal servant and revolutionary artist he became. With astute scholarship and sympathy, Stothard follows Horaceâ€™s rise from humble beginnings to the social and political heights of the autocracy he had fought to prevent.