Transcript Slide 1


literature reflected
newfound peace under
Augustus
› worldly, intellectual,
celebrated humanity & its
achievements

Big 3 of Roman Lit:
› Virgil
› Ovid
› Horace

Virgil
› 70 – 19 BCE
› Georgics: 4 books of
agricultural poetry
“Look, the bull, shining under the rough
plough, falls to the ground
and vomits from his mouth blood mixed
with foam and releases his dying groan.
Sadly moves the ploughman, unharnessing
the young steer grieving for the death of
his brother
and leaves in the middle of the job the
plough stuck fast.”

The Aeneid
› Latin equivalent of
Iliad/Odyssey
› epic poem about the
founding of Rome

Aeneas = Trojan hero who
escaped to Italy from falling
Troy
› Dido = Aeneas’ lover, queen
of Carthage
› destiny calls Aeneas to found
Rome, leaves Dido
 Roman ideal  putting good
of state over individual desires
 Dido commits suicide
(mythical cause of Punic Wars)
43 BCE – 17/18 CE
 important because:

› good source of info
on Roman mythology
› major influence on
later European art,
literature

Metamorphoses:
narrative poem
about history of the
world
› creation  Julius
Caesar
65 – 8 BCE
 lyric poet from Augustus’
era
 2 big ideas:

› beatus ille (“an evaluation of
the simple life”)
› carpe diem (“sieze the day”)

major influence on later
writers (Dante, Petrarch)

intended to impress, display Roman
power (along with functional purpose)
› largely based on arches, domes
used with advances in bricks/concrete 
bridges, aqueducts
 Aqueduct of Segovia (Spain)

allowed for arched ceilings
 Hadrian’s Pantheon (Rome)
