Horace as outsider

Meer over het boek

Horace, a beloved poet, has been reshaped to fit the tastes of his admirers. What was it truly like for the talented son of a former slave striving for a career in a conservative Rome? He lost one patron at Philippi and, to gain favor with another, wrote verses he deemed trivial and even absurd. The death of the venerated Virgil left him heartbroken, as he felt he had lost half of his soul. In his later works, he established a foundation for a propaganda of enlightened despotism that would negatively impact Europe in the future. Two appendices explore the long-ago suggestion that Horace’s father may have been an Alexandrian Jew and examine Horace's reception by the outsider prince of Russian literature, Alexander Pushkin, who was also a subject of another Caesar—Tsar. The text delves into the complexities of Horace’s life and legacy, revealing the struggles of a poet caught between personal ambition and the expectations of a rigid society. Through this exploration, the annotation highlights the often-overlooked realities behind Horace's celebrated status and the implications of his work on subsequent generations.