"Horace", or "Quintus Horatius Flaccus", was the leading romantic lyric poet during the time of Augustus. The rhetorician Qunitillian regarded his Odes as just about the only Latin lyrics worth reading: "He can be lofty sometimes, yet he is also full of charm and grace, versatile in his figures, and felicitously daring in his choice of words." His poetry became "the common currency of civilization", and he still retains a devoted following
His career coincided with Rome's momentous change from Republic to Empire. Horace was an officer in the Republican army defeated at the battle of Philippi in 42BC, but he prospered in the new regime, ending up as a popular spokesman for the Emperor Augustus.
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