Quintus Horatius Flaccus.

London: Gulielmus Pickering, 1824. Rare second Pickering Diamond edition, large paper issue, with an additional engraved title page. 12 mo, bound in full morocco, gilt titles to the front panel, raised bands, marbled endpapers. In very good condition. Housed in a custom chemise and half morocco slipcase. Quintus Horatius Flaccus known in the English-speaking world as Horace, was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus. The rhetorician Quintilian regarded his Odes as just about the only Latin lyrics worth reading: "He can be lofty sometimes, yet he is also full of charm and grace, versatile in his figures, and felicitously daring in his choice of words." Horace also crafted elegant hexameter verses (Satires and Epistles) and caustic iambic poetry (Epodes). The hexameters are amusing yet serious works, friendly in tone, leading the ancient satirist Persius to comment: "as his friend laughs, Horace slyly puts his finger on his every fault; once let in, he plays about the heartstrings.