Over the course of his life (550-460 BC), the Greek poet Simonides produced poetic work of every kind then extant. Unfortunately, Simonides' corpus has survived only in fragments, though classical scholars have been studying his work for generations. The 1992 discovery of the Oxyrhynchus Papyri revolutionized the study of Simonides, casting particular light on the epic of Plataea. This edited volume gathers the best of the recent research on Simonides' newly expanded oeuvre into a single collection that will be an important reference for scholars of Greek poetry.

In this volume, first published in 1945, Mr Wilkinson writes primarily for students of the classics who are not Horatian specialists. His book falls easily within the scope of those who can read any Latin at all - and even of those who cannot, for most passages quoted are also translated. Horace - for Mr Wilkinson - is the poet of the Odes and the Epodes - the incomparable genius of the lyric form, and a sympathetic and engaging character into the bargain. He is especially concerned with Horace as the poetic craftsman. Like most Roman poets, Horace was not inventive in subject-matter: he generally wrote about what we now recognize as the eternal platitudes. But Mr Wilkinson focuses on the mastery of form, rhythm and cadence that have charmed readers for centuries.

Book 3 of the Odes completes the lyric trilogy which Horace, who rivals Virgil as the greatest of all Latin poets, published in 23 BC. Arguably his most famous book, it opens with the six so-called 'Roman Odes', those defining texts of the Augustan Age, and concludes with the statement of his achievement: he has produced for his Roman readers a body of lyric poetry to rival the great lyric poets of Greece, a monument which will last as long as Rome itself. The present volume aims to place Horace's Odes in their literary and historical context, to explain his Latin, to articulate his thought, and to attempt to elucidate his brilliance. It presents a new text and adopts an approach independent of that of earlier commentators.