Roman Authors & Works Overview

Vocabulary flashcards summarizing key Roman authors, their genres, and principal works or achievements for exam review.

Gnaeus Accius

Roman tragic playwright; drew on myth and history and is considered a precursor to Seneca.

Marcus Terentius Varro

Scholar-polymath; author of De Lingua Latina, De Re Rustica, and Antiquitates Rerum Humanarum et Divinarum.

Lygdamus

Elegiac poet associated with Sulpicia; verses center on themes of love.

Sulpicia

Rare female Roman poet; Corpus Sulpicianum offers personal insights into love and romance.

Gaius Helvius Cinna

Late-Republic poet; wrote the erotic-mythic epic Zmyrna.

Lucilius

First major Roman satirist and model for later satirists.

Gaius Caelius

Statesman and friend of Scipio Africanus; credited in these notes with the dialogue De Amicitia.

Fabius Pictor

Earliest Roman historian; composed a now-lost Greek history of Rome.

Phaedrus

Freedman fabulist; adapted Aesop’s tales into five books of iambic senarii verse.

Gaius Valerius Flaccus

Flavian poet; left the unfinished eight-book epic Argonautica on Jason’s voyage.

Marcus Manilius

Poet-astrologer; authored the didactic epic Astronomica on celestial lore.

Gaius Cornelius Gallus

One of the first Latin elegists; love poetry and experiences as prefect of Egypt.

Quintus Aurelius Symmachus

Late Roman orator and letter-writer; speeches defend traditional paganism.

Asconius Pedianus

Grammarian known for detailed commentaries on Cicero’s orations.

Lucius Annaeus Florus

Historian whose Epitome of Roman History surveys Rome from the founding to Hadrian.

Aulus Hirtius

Caesarian general; continued Caesar’s De Bello Gallico after Book 8.

Asinius Pollio

Statesman, historian, founder of Rome’s first public library; chronicled the civil wars.

Marcus Pacuvius

Leading tragedian, nephew of Ennius; tragedies (e.g., Iphigenia) adapt Greek myth.

Cornelius Nepos

Biographer; De Viris Illustribus sketches famous Greek and Roman lives.

Lucius Afranius

Comic playwright of fabulae togatae; 44 surviving titles such as Simulans and Incendium; admired Menander and Terence.

Gaius Acilius

2nd-century BC historian and Senate interpreter for Carneades, Diogenes, and Critolaus; wrote an annalistic Roman history.

Aulus Postumus Albinus

Patrician consul (151 BC); composed Roman history in Greek and apologized for his language, drawing Cato’s scorn.

Gaius Velleius Paterculus

Historian loyal to Tiberius; two-book Historiae (to AD 29) dedicated to Marcus Vinicius.

Verrius Flaccus

Grammarian; authored De Verborum Significatu, the first alphabetical Latin lexicon, and compiled the Fasti Praenestini.

Silius Italicus

Flavian epic poet; Punica narrates the Second Punic War in 17 books.

Apicius

Name attached to De Re Coquinaria, the ten-book imperial Roman cookbook.

Lucius Africanus

Mid-2nd-century BC writer/traveler mentioned in the notes; details largely obscure.

Titinius

Early writer of fabulae togatae (Roman-costume comedies).

Lucius Cincius Alimentus

Plebeian praetor (210 BC); Second Punic War veteran; wrote an objective Greek annalistic history of Rome.

Pompeius Trogus

Augustan historian; Historiae Philippicae (44 books) is a universal history centered on Macedonia, epitomized by Justin.

Gaius Julius Hyginus

Spanish freedman, head of Augustus’ Palatine library; wrote mythology (Fabulae), agricultural, and scholarly works.

Aulus Cornelius Celsus

Author of Artes; surviving eight-book medical treatise is the earliest extant Latin medical work.

Pomponius Mela

Spanish geographer; De Chorographia (3 books) is the earliest surviving Latin survey of the world.

Quintus Curtius Rufus

Wrote a dramatic 10-book History of Alexander the Great; first two books lost.

Lucius Junius Moderatus Columella

Agronomist; De Re Rustica (12 books) and De Arboribus are major agricultural manuals.

Lucius Annaeus Cornutus

1st-century AD Stoic philosopher; teacher of Persius; authored Summary of Traditions allegorizing Greek myth; exiled 63 AD.

Marcus Aurelius

Roman emperor-philosopher; Meditations (12 books, Greek) reflect his Stoic thought.

Marcus Cornelius Fronto

African orator and tutor to Marcus Aurelius; letters on style advocate ‘New Speech’; works include Praise of Smoke and Dust.