How to Be Content : An Ancient Poet's Guide for an Age of Excess - Horace

How to Be Content

An Ancient Poet's Guide for an Age of Excess

By: Horace, Stephen Harrison

Hardcover | 4 January 2021

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What the Roman poet Horace can teach us about how to live a life of contentment

What are the secrets to a contented life? One of Rome's greatest and most influential poets, Horace (65-8 BCE) has been cherished by readers for more than two thousand years not only for his wit, style, and reflections on Roman society, but also for his wisdom about how to live a good life-above all else, a life of contentment in a world of materialistic excess and personal pressures. In How to Be Content, Stephen Harrison, a leading authority on the poet, provides fresh, contemporary translations of poems from across Horace's works that continue to offer important lessons about the good life, friendship, love, and death.

Living during the reign of Rome's first emperor, Horace drew on Greek and Roman philosophy, especially Stoicism and Epicureanism, to write poems that reflect on how to live a thoughtful and moderate life amid mindless over-consumption, how to achieve and maintain true love and friendship, and how to face disaster and death with patience and courage. From memorable counsel on the pointlessness of worrying about the future to valuable advice about living in the moment, these poems, by the man who famously advised us to carpe diem or "harvest the day," continue to provide brilliant meditations on perennial human problems.

Featuring translations of, and commentary on, complete poems from Horace's Odes, Satires, Epistles, and Epodes, and the original Latin, How to Be Content is both an ideal introduction to Horace and a compelling book of timeless wisdom.

Ancient Wisdom for Modern Readers

How to Give : An Ancient Guide to Giving and Receiving - Seneca
How to Be a Farmer : A Work of Many Hands
How to Innovate : An Ancient Guide to Creative Thinking - Aristotle
How to Tell a Joke : An Ancient Guide to the Art of Humor - Marcus Tullius Cicero
How to Die : An Ancient Guide to the End of Life - Seneca
How to Be a Leader : An Ancient Guide to Wise Leadership - Plutarch
How to Drink : A Classical Guide to the Art of Imbibing - Vincent Obsopoeus
How to Be Free : An Ancient Guide to the Stoic Life - Epictetus