Horace

Peter Stothard is a classicist, journalist, and critic. He is a former editor of The Times of London and of the Times Literary Supplement. His books include The Last Assassin: The Hunt for the Killers of Julius Caesar; Crassus: The First Tycoon; and Palatine: An Alternative History of the Caesars.

“[A] gory, gripping story of an ex-slave’s son who became a war poet in the twilight of the Roman Republic and a courtier in the empire of Augustus.”—Dominic Green, Wall Street Journal“Stothard knows his source material backwards—and has fun with it.”—Rachel Cunliffe, Times (UK)A New Statesman Book of the Year 2025“Vibrant and enthralling . . . [and] relevant today. . . . A compelling portrait of a man and his times that will entrance.”—Jim Kelly, Air Mail“Vivid, informative and probing.”—William Fitzgerald, Times Literary Supplement“The author brings the classical world to life vividly and with wit, stretching out a scholarly hand to those with little knowledge of antiquity.”—Matthew D’Ancona, New European“[Stothard] writes with novelistic flair. . . . Substantial and well researched.”—Harry Eyres, The Tablet“A fascinating account and a story told well.”—Glynn Young, Tweetspeak“Highly readable.”—Jonathan Bate, New Statesman“Peter Stothard is a master of modern writing about ancient Rome, of vividly bringing to life its poetry and its poets.”—Mary Beard“A fascinating biography of an extraordinary life. Sexual abuse and the madness of war beyond the better-known moral lectures, wine, and rose petals. A brilliant and compelling study that brings Horace to life for a new generation.”—Simon Sebag Montefiore, author of The World: A Family History of Humanity“In this lively biography of Horace and his times, Stothard shows how a poet is not only born, but made. From humble beginnings (the son of a slave), through education, application, and luck, even after finding himself on the losing side of a civil war, Horace finds himself rubbing shoulders with Rome’s elite. Stothard wears his considerable learning with gossamer lightness, keeping a weather eye on the poems (there is something here for the Latinist as well as the layman) even as he tells Horace’s story. Coming of age in an uncertain era of strong men jostling for dominance, as dreams of restoring the Republic faded and the world order was upended, Horace is a poet not only for all time, but for our times. Should poets be speaking truth, albeit slant, to autocratic power, or distract themselves with love, friendship and song? In Horace’s modern poems, technical feats of meter and mosaics of word order, he shows the way of the Roman road, ‘straight where it can be, sinuous where it has to be.’ No one knows what’s coming. Seize the moment.”—A. E. Stallings, author of Frieze Frame