CLAS257 Midterm

Augustan Marriage Legislation

18BCE and 9CE, Heavily promoted marriage and children (benefits given to those who did these), very anti-adultery, applied to both men and women

Didactic Poetry

literature that teaches something, written in poetry, Vergil’s Georgics

Lyric Poetry

originally sung poetry accompanied by the lyre, tied to specific performance occasions, Themes of: wine, love (both hetero- and homoerotic), marriage, religious practice, war, myth, history, old age, athletic competition,

Horace

65-8BCE, Freedman father, fought on Brutus’s side at Phillipi, Patron Maceneas, Order of texts, Epodes → Satires → Odes → Epistles → Carmen Saculare

Vergil

17-19BCE, Order of texts Eclogues → Georgics → Aeneid, subject of much scholarship, Patron of Maecenas

Augustus

Victory at Actium allowed him to take absolute political power, reign from 31 BCE to 14 CE, wrote Res Gestae

epic

type of poetry written in dactylic hexameter, narrative on the deeds of gods and heroes, told my an omniscient inspired narrator, top of ancient genre heirarchy, starts w translation of homer

Epicurianism

philisophical tradition followed by horace, characterized by seclusion from political/public life, pleasure/removal of pain as object of human life

epistolography

The writing of letters, particularly seen in the context of classical literature.

historiography

prose writing abt historical events and history, can be annalistic or monographic

Livy

Born at Patavium, 59BCE-17CE, roman historiographer, wrote a history of rome dating from founding to imperial period

Maecenas

patron of the arts, was the patron to vergil and horace, close with augustus, represented octavian at brundisium and tarentum

Messalla

a patron of the arts, uncle to sulpicia, patron to tibullus and ovid, served on campaign

Ovid

43BCE -17CE, educated in Rome, leaves public life, banished, writes works of many genres, banished in 8BCE

Propertius

born to a significant family, lost land in augustan confiscations, writes love elegy, 50BCE-2CE ishhh

roman elegy

written in elegiac couplets, love/erotic poetry, male amatour and female domina, themes of slavery of love and military service of love + escapism

Sallust

86-35 BCE, held multiple senatorial offices then expelled from senate, charged w corruption, began writing historiography, 3 major works incl catalines conspiracy

Satire

poetic but low on heirarchy of genres, humorous and mocking/social critique, characterized as blunt free speech but has limits, specifically roman, speaker takes on different roles

Sulpicia

mid-late 1st century, neice of Messalla, 6 short elegies, only extant poems by woman in classical era

Tibullus

50-19BCE, won military awards and equestrian rank, circle of messalla, 3 books, love elegy