The Romans


Roman literature remains an enduring legacy of the culture of ancient Rome. Some of the earliest extant works are historical epics telling of the early military history of Rome, followed (as the Republic expanded) by poetry, comedies, histories, and tragedies.

Latin literature drew heavily on the traditions of other cultures, particularly the more mature literary tradition of Greece, and the strong influence of earlier Greek authors is readily apparent. Few works remain of Early and Old Latin, although a few of the plays of Plautus and Terence have come down to us.

The "Golden Age of Roman Literature" is usually considered to cover the period from about the start of the 1st century BCE up to the mid-1st century CE.

Catullus pioneered the naturalization of Greek lyric verse forms into Latin in his very personal (sometimes erotic, sometimes playful, and frequently abusive) poetry.

The Hellenizing tendencies of Golden Age Latin reached their apex in the epic poetry of Virgil, the odes and satires of Horace and the elegiac couplets of Ovid.

The "Silver Age of Roman Literature" extends into the 2nd century CE, a period during which the eloquent, sometimes bombastic, poetry of Seneca the Younger and Lucan gave way to the more restrained, classicized style of the letters of Pliny the Younger and the powerful satires of Juvenal.

Brief mention should also be made here of a lesser-known genre, that of the ancient novel or prose fiction. Two such Ancient Roman novels have come down to us, the Satyricon of Gaius Petronius (1st century CE) and The Golden Ass (or Metamorphoses) of Lucius Apuleius (2nd century CE).

Roman literature written after the mid-2nd century CE is often disparaged and largely ignored, and Medieval Latin was usually dismissed as "Dog-Latin." However, long after the Roman Empire had fallen, the Latin language continued to play a central role in Western European civilization.

Main Authors: