Horace on Poetry: Epistles Book II: The Letters to Augustus and Florus

Originally published in 1982, this is the culminating volume in Professor Brink’s great study of Horace’s critical writings. The book contains a full edition of the Letters to Augustus and Florus, presented on the same lines as that of the Ars Poetica in the preceding volume. The edition is followed by a very detailed commentary which seeks to justify his text of the poems, and on this basis leads to an assessment of style and subject matter in the two epistles. In the second half an attempt is made to unravel the complexities of Horace’s mode of composition and to determine the scope of the critical epistles against the background of Augustan poetry. The complete three-volume commentary constitutes one of the fullest scholarly commentaries on Horace’s critical writing. It will continue to be of great value to all with an interest in this much-debated subject.