William Young Sellar (1825-1890) was a classical scholar who specialised in the study of Roman poetry. After graduating from Balliol College, Oxford, in 1843 he held assistant professorships in various universities before being appointed Professor of Humanities at Edinburgh University in 1863, a post which he held until his death. This volume, first published posthumously in 1891, discusses the forms and development of Roman poetry in the reign of Augustus (43 BCE-14 CE); it was intended as a companion to his 1877 book on Virgil, also reissued in this series. Sellar provides a detailed discussion of Horace's many literary styles in their historical context, discusses the development of Roman elegy from early Greek forms, and analyses the works of Ovid in detail. Sellar's meticulous interpretations led to this volume becoming the standard authority on the development of Roman poetry in the early Roman Empire.
