Horace

Quintus Horatius Flaccus (65–8 BC), known in English as Horace, was the leading lyric poet of Rome under Augustus. The son of a freed slave from Venusia, he was educated in Rome and Athens, fought on the losing republican side at Philippi, and was later introduced to Maecenas, who gave him a farm in the Sabine hills. His Satires and Epistles discuss life and literature in a relaxed, conversational voice, while his Odes adapt Greek lyric meters to Latin on love, friendship, wine and the brevity of life. His Art of Poetry shaped European criticism for centuries.