Horace

Quintus Horatius Flaccus (65–8 BC) is rightly considered one of the three (along with Virgil and Ovid) great poets of the "golden age" of Roman literature. He was the son of a freed slave, participated in the civil war in his youth, and lost his family and home. Thanks to the patronage of the nobleman Maecenas, who recognized his talent, and later Emperor Augustus, Horace became famous, influencing both his contemporaries and word masters of future eras. His poems served as a model for imitation, as did his personal qualities—modesty, moderation, indifference to wealth and honors. Historian Mikhail Bondarenko meticulously reconstructs Horace's biography, depicting it against the broad backdrop of life in Rome during the rise of the empire.