"Horace's Epodes reflect as no other work of Latin poetry does the crisis afflicting Rome in the 40s and 30s BC, as it passed from a republican to an imperial system. In the seventeen poems various bogeys which were perceived as instrumental to societal breakdown are outspokenly attacked: the brutal carnage of the civil wars, widespread agricultural disruption, perversion of traditional Roman values, dissolution of social hierarchies, the rampant and highly noxious weed of black magic, and female sexual aggression."

"This is by far the most detailed commentary yet on the Epodes. The line-by-line commentary on each epode is prefaced by a substantial interpretative essay which offers a reading of that poem and synthesizes existing scholarship. These essays, the first of their kind, will provide essential critical orientation to undergraduates approaching the Epode-book for the first time. Moreover, the scale and density of the commentary will make it an invaluable resource for scholars of Latin poetry. A particular feature is the first in-depth treatment of the lengthy magical Epodes 5 and 17.

The author draws extensively on ancient magical texts preserved on papyrus and lead, as well as the recent flood of publications on Greek and Roman magic, to cast light on countless details in these epodes which reveal a marked familiarity on Horace's part with authentic magical belief and practice."--Jacket.