Horace is a poet of surprising contradictions who lived through the most dramatic period of social and political revolution in Rome. From fighting on the losing side in the civil war, he became a confidant of his recent enemies. From humble beginnings as the son of a freedman, he rocketed to the very centre of the Roman establishment. Though he is often regarded as morally and politically conservative, his love poetry is played against the backdrop of a hedonistic, bisexual demi-monde. The strident voice of some of the nationalistic odes contrasts with the quieter melancholic tone of the...