Odes, Book IV
Subtitle: and, Carmen saeculare
By: Horace ; edited by Richard F. Thomas
Contributors: Thomas, Richard F., 1950-
Series: Cambridge Greek and Latin classics
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2011
Place of publication: Cambridge [England]; New York
Language: lat; eng; grc
Number of pages: 297
ISBN-13: 9780521582797; 9780521587662
Subjects: Criticism and interpretation; Poetry
Work titles: Carmina. Liber 4.
Description: "The 'Carmen Saeculare' was composed and published in 17 BCE as Horace was returning to the genre of lyric which he had abandoned six years earlier; the fourth book of 'Odes' is in part a response to this poem, the only commissioned poem we know from the period. The hardening of the political situation, with the Republic a thing of the past and the Augustan succession in the air, threw the problematic issue of praise into fresh relief, and at the same time provided an impulse towards the nostalgia represented by the poet's private world. Professor Thomas provides an introduction and commentary (the first full commentary in English since the nineteenth century) to each of the poems, exploring their status as separate lyric artefacts and their place in the larger web of the book. The edition is intended primarily for upper-level undergraduates and graduate students, but is also important for scholars"--Publisher's description, back cover.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 279-287) and indexes.

Text of the Odes and the Carmen in Latin; introduction and commentary in English.