A Commentary on Horace: Odes Book III

• Presents fresh ideas on text and interpretation
• Discriminates between helpful and unhelpful modern critical approaches
• Explores Horace's ironic self-presentation and relates this to his role as a court poet

Readership: Scholars and students of Latin literature.

R. G. M. Nisbet, formerly Corpus Christi Professor of Latin Language and Literature, University of Oxford, and Niall Rudd, formerly Professor of Latin, Bristol University

"Latinists have been waiting for this for almost thirty years ... Anyone who loves Latin will relish A Commentary on Horace: Odes Book III. It has, after all, been worth the wait." - Denis Feeney, Times Literary Supplement

"The strengths of Nisbet and Rudd's new commentary are very great, and are a function of the extraordinary attention to detail throughout. Its sheer utility value is very high. This volume will be a stimulus for thought and a treasure-house to plunder for as far ahead as one can imagine Latin being studied in universities." - Denis Feeney, Times Literary Supplement

"Even if we must face the fact that we will never have a commentary on the fourth book from Nisbet's hand, we shall be forever grateful that Rudd was able to make possible the appearance of this volume, a cap to their distinguished careers, and a monument that will endure beside the other two." - Denis Feeney, Times Literary Supplement

General Introduction
1: Horace's early life
2: The date of Odes I-III
3: The `Roman Odes'
4: Horace and Augustus
5: Maecenas and the other addressees
6: Horace's `love-poems'
7: Religion in Horace
8: The meaning of the author
9: Ambiguity
10: Person and persona
11: Genre
12: Style
13: Structure
14: The arrangement of the book
15: The text
16: The ancient commentators
17: Metre
18: Bibliography
Commentary
Indexes