latin texts

Catullus

• 84-54

• Not much evidence about his life

• Contemporary of Cicero, Pompey and Caesar

• Talks about a woman called Lesbia in many poems, probably a false name for Clodia

• 4 thematic groups- friends, erotic, invectives, condolences

• NO POLITICS

Cicero

• 106-43

• Wrote rhetoric, orations, philosophical treatises, political treatises, and letters

• Quaestor, praetor, consul, governor

• Exiled 58-57

• Tried to uphold traditional republican values through decline of Republic

• Indecisive in civil war, eventually took Pompey’s side and pardoned after

• Not involved in Caesar’s assassination

• Killed in Octavian’s proscriptions

• Pro Caelio- speech given in 56 in defence of ex-pupil Marcus Caelius Rufus against charges of vis (political violence), assault, attempted murder, etc.

  • He was acquitted

Horace

• 65-8

• Fought in civil war under Brutus- losing side in Battle of Philippi, claims he fled from the battle

• Wrote Epodes, Satires, Epistles, Odes, Carmina, and Carmen Saeculares

• Phonocentric focus (belief that spoken language is superior to written)

• Songs about symposia and eroticism

• Odes- lyric poems written after Augustus’ rise to power, describe his personal experiences and show his everyday life

  • Themes of love, friendship, wine, religion, nature, peace, and moderation

• Epodes- 17 iambic poems published in 30 showing his anxieties after Philippi

  • Metre traditionally used for invective but attacking society rather than individuals

  • Themes of Epicureanism

Lucretius

• 99-55

• Very little known about his life

• Followed Epicureanism

• Client of Gaius Memmius, dedicated De Rerum Natura to him

• De Rerum Natura- ‘About the Nature of Things’, 6 book hexameter poem about Epicureanism in epic metre

  • Discusses atoms, death, senses, sex, origins of the world, nature, art, knowledge, philosophy, phenomena, and the great plague of Athens

Martial

• 38-102

• From Hispania (province in Spain)

• Epigrams- 12 books of satirical takes on topics like friendship, social behaviour, greed, sexuality, etc.

  • Book 10 was published immediately after Domitian’s assassination and the rescinded and redone, mostly focused on funeral themes and epitaph

Ovid

• 43BCE-18CE

• First entirely Augustan poet

• Battle of Actium (when he was 12) ended decades of civil war and began the period of peace

• Studied rhetoric in Rome for a career in politics but found he wanted to write poetry instead

• Exiled by Augustus in 8CE for unknown reasons

• Amores- 3 books of love elegy published around 20BCE

  • His first published work

• Heroides- elegy in the form of letters written from the perspective of mistreated mythological heroines

  • Gave a voice to traditionally voiceless or overlooked female characters

• Metamorphoses- epic history of the world from its creation up until the deification of Caesar

• Tristia- letters of elegiac couplets written during his exile to Augustus and Ovid’s family and friends describing his misery and asking to come back to Rome

  • Still not known why he was exiled

Petronius

• Courtier during reign of Nero (37-68)

• May have lived in Massalia

• Satyricon- satirical work from 63-65 attacking stereotypes and cultural trends

  • Menippean satire (attacks mindsets rather than individuals)

Plautus

• 254-184

• Very early Latin literature

  • Derives heavily from Greek New Comedy (Menander)

  • Uses a lot of stock plots and characters

• Influenced by Punic Wars (264-146)

• Poenulus- ‘Little Carthaginian’, comedy

  • Dramatic irony and situational humour- sex work, racism, incest, violence, slapstick

Tacitus

• 56-120

• Historian

• Very little known about his personal life

  • Equestrian family

  • Studied rhetoric in Rome and married Julia Agricola

• Praetor, legionary, consul

• Lived through Domitian’s reign (81-86), left him with a fear and hatred of tyranny

• Agricola- account of his father in law Gnaeus Julius Agricola’s life, published in 91

  • Also covers the geography and ethnography of Britain

  • Contrasts the liberty of the Britons with the tyranny and corruption of the Empire

• Annals- historical account from Augustus’ death in 14CE to the end of Nero’s reign in 68CE

  • His final work

  • At least 16 books

Virgil

• 70-19

• Spent early life in Italy before being educated in Rome

• Regarded as Rome’s greatest poet