Roman Writers 1 st known writer – Ennius – BC poet and teacher – only fragments remain Roman Comedy – 2 major writers Plautus BC – Pseudolus Terence – BC – wrote and produced plays – Adelphoe

Caesar – also a writer – wrote about his time in Gaul – Dē Bellō Gallicō Cicero – orator and writer – published his speeches – letters written and received give us a daily account of happenings in Rome – philosophical works on oratory and philosophy – Brutus; Dē Oratore Catullus – poet during Republic – born in 84 BC – disappears in 54 BC – wrote love poems, mostly to a woman he named Lesbia after the poet Sappho of Lesbos – also wrote short poems that mocked people like Caesar and Cicero

Catullus: Nulli se dicit mulier mea nubere malle quam mihi, non si se Iuppiter ipse petat. dicit: sed mulier cupido quod dicit amanti, in vento et rapida scribere oportet aqua.

Group of Writers under Maecenas Poets: Vergil, Horace, Propertius, and Ovid Historian: Livy Vergil: wrote The Aeneid – story of Aeneas, ancestor of Augustus – legendary founding story – epic poem to honor Rome and its leader – he died before it was finished – he wanted it destroyed – his friends saved it and published it. He also wrote poems about farming and being a shepherd.

Vergil: Arma virumque cano, Troiae qui primus ab oris Italiam, fato profugus, Laviniaque venit litora, multum ille et terris iactatus et alto vi superum saevae memorem Iunonis ob iram; multa quoque et bello passus, dum conderet urbem, inferretque deos Latio, genus unde Latinum, Albanique patres, atque altae moenia Romae.

Horace: Odes, Satires and Carmen Saeculare – The Carmen Saeculare was written for a festival in honor of Augustus The Satires were a series of poems that made fun of various things in society – he includes a story about traveling with Vergil and Octavian to Brundisium Odes – a very important series of poems – there were 4 books of Odes – some were about philosophy – many were about Roman ideals – some were about love

Ibam forte Viā Sacrā, sicut meus est mos, nescio quid meditāns nugārum, totus in illis: accurrit quidam notus mihi nomine tantum arreptāque manu 'quid agis, dulcissime rerum?' 'suaviter, ut nunc est,' inquam 'et cupio omnia quae vis.'

Ovid – wrote love poems, the Fasti and the Metamorphoses His love poems often got him into trouble with Augustus because they didn’t coincide with his morality and marriage laws – Ars Amatoria Fasti – about the calendar and the different festival days Metamorphoses – various mythological stories – some of which we only have because they are included here – Daphne and Apollo, Pyramis and Thisbe, Baucis and Philemon

Livy – a historian – he wrote 146 books about the history of Rome from Romulus up to his present time – Other historians were Sallust and Tacitus – Sallust’s work survives in fragments and Tacitus wrote under the reign of Trajan – concentrated on the Julio-Claudians after the death of Augustus –

Other imperial writers of note: Martial – (c AD) a poet who wrote epigrams – short poems where all thoughts converge to a sharp point – Epigrammata is his collection Juvenal (c AD) – a satirist – wrote 16 books of Satires – passionate, scornful and full of bitter invective Pliny the Younger ( AD) – most famous for his letters (written from AD), including ones about Vesuvius and ones to Trajan – he also wrote poems and speeches - Suetonius – a biographer who wrote under Hadrian Apuleius – Metamorphosis – like a novel or story book – first work like a modern story

Apuleius: Erant in quadam civitate rex et regina. hi tres numero filias forma conspicuas habuere, sed maiores quidem natu, quamvis gratissima specie, idonee tamen celebrari posse laudibus humanis credebantur, at vero puellae iunioris tam praecipua, tam praeclara pulchritudo nec exprimi ac ne sufficienter quidem laudari sermonis humani penuria poterat.