The work of the great Roman poet, who lived and worked in the first century B.C., has influenced poets in the Western world since the Elizabethan era. He has been sporadically translated and even imitated, but here, for the first time, the works of Horace are translated complete by a single hand, unrhymed and in the meters of the originals. The noted translator Charles E. Passage has accomplished a monumental task brilliantly.

The translator has aimed to present Horace in his own terms, as a man of his own time. Every effort has been made to avoid having him sound like an English Romantic or Victorian, like T.S. Eliot or a Beat poet.

Horace still speaks to us from ancient Rome about everyday realities. It may surprise some readers to recognize eternal problems amid "the grandeur that was Rome." How can we not smile to read about them in Horace's voice—traffic jams in the Forum, noisy theatre crowds, the hazards of street construction work, the mischief of teenagers, the persistence of election candidates handshaking through the crowds, and of lovers meeting at nightfall.

Besides his poetry, it is the personalty of Horace himself—immensely likeable and levelheaded—that has accounted for his lasting popularity. There are no obscure profundities in Horace or his work. He is accessible to modern readers.

Each poem in the volume is followed by factual notes for its interpretation. The notes also cross-reference the poems thematically. Horace's Greek models are cited and translated whenever possible.

The appendix includes a translation of the ancient "Life of Horace" by Suetonius.

For any student of world literature, this complete English edition of the works of Horace will prove invaluable.