A History of Latin Literature From its Beginnings to the Age of Augustus

Readable new history of the explosion of Latin literature from relatively humble beginnings to global status.

Laurel Fulkerson (Author), Jeffrey Tatum (Author)

9781108723244, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 21 November 2024

406 pages
22.8 x 15.1 x 2.2 cm, 0.58 kg

'… this volume will be a valuable resource primarily for the wealth of information it provides. It is also written in clear and elegant English, which makes it highly accessible.' Wolfgang Bernard, GNOMON

Latin literature exploded onto the scene from relatively humble beginnings in the third century BCE. In an astonishingly short time the Romans adopted and adapted nearly all the genres of literature known to them and not only were they well aware of their large-scale appropriation but even, curiously, boasted of it. This readable new history of Latin literature covers the full span of the Roman republic, concluding with the age of Augustus, whose great poets engaged with the enormous political and cultural changes of their time and laid the foundations for the literature of the Imperial period. All the major writers are covered but attention is also paid to more fragmentary but still key authors such as Ennius, Cato, Lucilius, and Varro. Readers are given the essential historical, cultural, and literary background as well as close readings of specific passages, which reveal the charm and complexity which animate Latin literature.

1. Romanized Muses: the birth of Latin literature
2. All the world's a stage: Roman republican drama and theatrical traditions
3. A good man skilled in speaking: oratory and rhetoric in Rome
4. Song of myself: the personal voice in republican literature
5. To educate and to entertain: didactic and the arrangement of knowledge
6. What's past is prologue: history and biography
7. Moments of Glad Grace: Augustan Love Poetry
8. Gods, monsters, and heroes: Augustan epic
9. Further voices: Augustan personal poetry.

Subject Areas: Classical history / classical civilisation [HBLA1]