Transcript Litterae Latinae

Litterae Latinae
Survey of Roman Literature
Adapted from Wheelock’s Latin
Chronological Outline of
Latin Literature
I. Early Period (down to ca. 80 BC)
II. Golden Age (80 BC-14 AD)
A.
B.
III.
IV.
V.
VI.
Ciceronian Period (80-43 BC)
Augustan Period (43 BC-14 AD)
Silver Age (14-ca. 138 AD)
Patristic Period (late 2nd-5th cent.AD)
Medieval Period (6th-14th cent. AD)
Renaissance (ca. 15th cent) to Present
The Early Period (down
to 80 BC)
• Greek civilization reached its high
point in 5th/4th century BC
• At the same time Roman literature
was barely existent!
• Romans discovered Greek literature
in 3rd Century BC and started
borrowing
• Modeled after Greek New Comedy:
comedies of Plautus and Terence
Titus Maccius Plautus
• Ca. 250-184 BC
• Wrote comedies modeled on Greek
plays
• 20 out of 130
• Adaptation, not Translation
• Aulularia, Miles Gloriosus
• “Quem di diligunt adulescens
moritur. - He whom the gods prefer
dies a young man.”
Terence (Publius
Terentius Afer)
• Ca. 183-159 BC – was a slave
from Carthage
• Wrote comedies adapted from
Menander
• 6 plays: Andria, Phormio,
Adelphoe
• “Fortes Fortuna adiuvat. –
Fortune favors the brave.” Phormio
The Golden Age (80 BC14 AD)
• “Golden” because Latin literature
reached its height here
• Ciceronian period (80-43 BC):
Last years of Roman Republic
• Lucretius, Catullus, Cicero,
Caesar, Nepos, Publilius Syrus
Titus Lucretius Carus
• Ca. 98-55 BC
• Poet/Philosopher (Epicurean)
• 1 work: De Rerum Natura – long poem
in epic form about Epicurean
philosophy
• “De nihilo nihil - Nothing comes from
nothing. “
Gaius Valerius Catullus
• Ca. 84-54 BC, from Verona (in Gallic
part of Northern Italy)
• Lyric poet – mostly love poems in the
Neoteric style
• Affair with Lesbia (Clodia) subject of
his poetry
• 116 poems – only one manuscript
survived into the 14th century, during
which it was rediscovered.
• “Odi et amo. – I hate and I love.”
Marcus Tullius Cicero
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106-43 BC, from Arpinum
Greatest Roman Orator
Essays: De Amicitia, De Senectute
Letters: Epistulae ad Familiares
Orations: Philippics, In Catalinam,
Pro Caelio
• Poems: De Consulatu suo
• “Salus populi suprema lex. ~ The
safety of the people is the
highest law.”
Gaius Julius Caesar
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100-44 BC
Known for military memoirs
De Bello Gallico, De Bello Civile
“Libenter homines id quod volunt
credunt. ~ Men gladly believe that
which they wish for.”
Cornelius Nepos
• 99-24 BC, friend of Catullus, also
from Cisalpine Gaul
• Biographer: De Viris Illustribus
• 1 of 16 books survives – lives of
foreign generals
• “Sui cuique fingunt fortunam. Character fashions fate.”
Publilius Syrus
• 1st century BC, a slave famous
for his mimes
• Lines from his plays survive as a
collection of proverbial sayings
• “Amare et sapere vix deo
conceditur - Even a god finds it
hard to love and be wise at the
same time “
Golden Age: Augustan
Period
• Augustan Period: 43 BC-14 AD (from death
of Julius Caesar to death of Augustus
Caesar)
• Augustus encouraged literature in the
service of the state: PATRONAGE
• Assisted by friend Maecenas, his
unofficial prime minister, in patronage
• Virgil, Horace, Livy, Propertius, Ovid
Publius Vergilius Maro
(Virgil)
• 70-19 BC, from Mantua in Cisalpine
Gaul
• Poet: Epic, Pastoral, Didactic
• Eclogues, Georgics, Aeneid
• “Arma virumque cano. – I sing of
arms and the man.”
Quintus Horatius Flaccus
(Horace)
• 65-8 BC, from south Italy, son of a
freedman
• Poet Laureate (along with Virgil) under
Augustus
• Satires, lyric poetry
• Epodes, Satires, Odes, Carmen Saeculare,
Epistles
• “Auream mediocritatem - Golden mean”
Titus Livius (Livy)
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59 BC-17 AD, from Padua (NE Italy)
Friend of Augustus but Republican
Historian: about 35 of 142 books
Ab Urbe Condita, epic history of
Rome
• “Caeca invidia est - Envy is blind”
Sextus Propertius
• Ca 50 BC-2 AD, from Umbria
• Romantic elegiac poetry to mistress
Cynthia (Hostia)
• 4 books of elegies
• “Expertus dico, nemo est in amore
fidelis (Elegiae, II.34.3) - I say as an
expert, no one is faithful in love”
Publius Ovidius Naso
(Ovid)
• 43BC-17AD, from Sulmo
• Exiled to Tomi by Augustus for
indecency of his poetry
• Metamorphoses, Amores, Tristia,
Fasti
• “carmen et error” cause of his exile
– a poem (Ars Amatoria) and a
mistake (Julia?)
The Silver Age (14-138
AD)
• Not quite as good as Golden age;
more artificiality
• Seneca, Petronius, Quintilian,
Martial, Pliny, Tacitus, Juvenal,
Aulus Gellius
Lucius Annaeus Seneca
• 4BC-65AD, from Spain
• Stoic philosopher; tutor of Nero
• Moral essays, tragedies, satire
(“Apocolocyntosis”, or “Pumpkinification”,
on the deification of Claudius)
• De Ira; Medea; Agamemnon
• “Otium sine litteris mors est – Leisure
without literature is death”
Titus Petronius Arbiter
• d. AD 65
• Satires; associate of Nero,
Nero
“elegantiae arbiter”
• Satyricon – picaresque novel – prose
mixed with verse. Includes Cena
Trimalchionis
• “Cito fit quod dii volunt - What the
gods want happens soon”
Marcus Valerius
Martialis (Martial)
• 45-104 AD, from Spain
• Poetry: epigrams
• More than 1500 poems in the
Epigrams
• “Si post fata venit gloria, non
propero. - If glory comes after
death, I am in no hurry.”
Gaius Plinius Caecilius
Secundus (Pliny the
Younger)
• Ca. 62-113 AD
• Roman administrator known by his 10 books
of letters to people including Tacitus and
Trajan: Epistulae
• Best known letters discuss Vesuvius & the
odd practices of Christians
• “Difficile est tenere quae acceperis nisi
exerceas - It is difficult to retain what
you may have learned unless you should
practice it”
Publius Cornelius Tacitus
• 55-117 AD, from Narbonese Gaul
• Historian
• Annals and Histories – Reigns of
Tiberius through Domitian
• “Ubi solitudinem faciunt pacem
appellant -When they make a
desolation they call it peace”
Decimus Iunius Iuvenalis
(Juvenal)
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Early 2nd century AD
Satirist of the evils of his time
Satires
“Mens sana in corpore sano – A
sound mind in a sound body”
Patristic Period (Late 2nd
Cen. – 5th Cen. AD)
• Most of the important literature
was the work of Christian leaders,
or fathers (patres)
• Intent – to reach the common
people with Christian message –
therefore Vulgar Latin emerges in
the literature
• Tertullian, Cyprian, Lactantius,
Jerome, Ambrose, Augustine
St. Jerome (Eusebius
Hieronymus)
• Ca. 347-420, from north Italy
• Church Father and classical scholar
• Translated Hebrew/Greek/Aramaic
Scriptures into Latin Vulgate
• “Noli equi dentes inspicere donati.Do not look a gift horse in the
mouth.”
St. Augustine (Aurelius
Augustinus)
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354-430, from Hippo in Roman Africa
Pagan father & Catholic mother
Loved the Latin poets; served as bishop in Hippo
93 books, letters, sermons – formative influence
on Western theology until Christian philosophers
rediscovered Aristotle in 13th century
• Confessions; De Civitate Dei
• “Inquietum est cor nostrum, donec requiescat in
te. - Our heart is anxious until it finds peace
in you.”
Medieval Period (6th-14th
Centuries)
• Vulgar Latin in 6th-8th centuries was
changing into Romance languages
• Latin continued as language of Church and
the intellectual world
• Medieval Latin is not “Roman” but
“European”
• Hildegard von Bingen, “Carmina Burana”,
“Gesta Romanorum”, Petrarch, Dante
Hildegard von Bingen
• 1098-1179
• abbess of Benedictine convent in
Germany; poet, mystic, composer,
scholar, and herbalist
• Treatises, songs, at least one play,
The Virtues
goliards
• Poor wandering students who composed the
“Carmina Burana”, disposed to conviviality, license,
and the making of ribald and satirical Latin songs.
• Songs from 12th-13th centuries
• Rhyming Latin!
• Robert Frost:
• “singing but Dione in the wood
And ver aspergit terram floribus
They slowly led old Latin verse to rhyme
And to forget the ancient length of time,
And so began the modern world for us.”
“Gesta Romanorum”
• Author unknown – 14th century, from
England
• A collection of stories, some drawn from
ancient sources
• Shakespeare borrowed from these stories
• “Si finis bonus est, totum bonum erit If the end be well, all is well.”
Petrarch
• 1304-1374, Italian
• “First modern man” – inspired the
Renaissance by reviving interest in the
classics, especially Cicero
• Love poems to “Laura”
• 1341 – Poet Laureate in Rome
• De Viris Illustribus; Epistula M. Tullio
Ciceroni; Secretum
• Vos vestros servate, meos mihi linquite
mores. ~ You cling to your own ways and
leave mine to me
Dante Alighieri
• 1265-1321, Florence, Italy
• Poet
• Commedia Divina (Inferno, Purgatorio,
Paradiso) in Italian
• In Latin: De Vulgari Eloquentia to justify
use of vernacular in literature; De
Monarchia political treatise
• “Before me things create were none,
save things
Eternal, and eternal I endure.
All hope abandon, ye who enter here”
Thomas à Kempis
• 1380-1471, Germany (Cologne)
• Monk – belonged to school of mystics
along the Rhine
• De imitatione Christi
• “De duobus malis, minus est semper
eligendum -Of two evils, the lesser
must always be chosen”
Renaissance (15th Cen.) to
Present Day (Neo-Latin)
• Renaissance preferred Classical (Ciceronian) Latin
over Medieval (Vulgar) Latin
• Ergo, language was more imitative, not as
spontaneous and lively as in Middle Ages
• Modern: Ecclesiastical Latin still used
• Latin Literature has continued unbroken from 3rd
century BC to the 21st century AD! That’s a lot to
read! 
• Erasmus, Sir Thomas More, Milton, Bacon,
Newton
Desiderius Erasmus
• 1466-1536, from Rotterdam, Holland
• Humanist and Roman Catholic priest; his
works are satirical and critical; he also
edited editions of Greek/Roman Classics
• Adagia; Moriae Encomium; Colloquia; Latin
edition of the New Testament
• "When I get a little money I buy books;
and if any is left I buy food and clothes."
• “Dulce bellum inexpertis.-War is lovely
for those who know nothing of it.”
Sir Thomas More
• 1478-1535, London
• Close friend of Erasmus
• “a man for all seasons”--Whittington and
Erasmus about Thomas More, 1520 and
1521
• Utopia; Epigrammata
• “I die the king’s good servant, and God’s
first.”
--On the scaffold, July 6, 1535
Sir Isaac Newton
• 1642-1727, England
• Math & Science: law of gravity, calculus,
white light composed of colors of
spectrum
• Philosophiae Naturalis Principia
Mathematica (the Principia)
• Numero pondere et mensura Deus omnia
condidit - God created everything by
number, weight and measure
Sir Francis Bacon
• 1561-1626, London
• Embraced Renaissance Humanism &
Pioneered Scientific Method
• Novum Organum
• “Ipsa scientia potestas est
Knowledge itself is power”