Golden period of Roman literature.

Plan
• Virgil
• Horace
• Gaius Valerius Catullus
• Ovid
• Silver Age of Roman Poetry
• Marcus Tullius Cicero
• Lucius Annaeus Seneca
• Pliny the Elder
 Virgil
• One of these distinguished poets was Publius Vergilius Maro or Virgil
(70 – 19 BCE). Unlike many of the poets who followed him, Virgil
provided his audience with a more romanticized picture of Rome.
Hailing from Cisalpine Gaul and a family of modest farmers, many of
Virgil’s themes demonstrate his love of the rural life. His Eclogues,
written around 37 BCE, spoke of the loves and lives of shepherds,
while his Georgics, written around 29 BCE, praised Roman country
life: plowing, growing trees, tending cattle, and even keeping bees.
However, his most memorable work is the Aeneid, an epic telling of
the journeys of Aeneas after the fall of Troy through the founding of
Rome by Romulus and Remus to the age of Augustus. As Aeneas was
the ideal model for the Roman way of life, Augustus believed the
poem demonstrated a fulfillment of Rome’s destiny.
 Horace
• Quintus Horatius Flaccus, more commonly known as Horace (65
BCE – 8 BCE), was the son of a freedman. Although he fought on
the wrong side at the Battle of Philippi (against Augustus), he
endeared himself to the emperor partially because of his poetry but
also due to his friendship with Virgil. In keeping with his Epicurean
philosophy, Horace’s poems demonstrated a joy for life and a love
of nature. Among his many works are Satires, which was a criticism
of the vice that was rampant in Rome, Epodes, inspired by the Greek
author Archilochus, and Odes, a celebration of life in Rome during
the age of Augustus. In all of his works, Horace always
demonstrated a deep respect and admiration of the Greeks and
believed Rome had to acknowledge the Greek superiority in all
intellectual and cultural fields.
 Gaius Valerius Catullus
• This new age under the reign of Augustus also produced many young
poets who reacted differently to the changes in Roman politics and
society. The leader of these emerging poets, Gaius Valerius Catullus
(84 BCE – 54 BCE) is considered one of the greatest of all Roman
lyric poets. Avoiding any personal involvement in politics, he looked
to his neighbors to the east, such Greek authors as Sappho and
Callimachus, for inspiration. According to historian Rodgers, his
poetry mingled both passion and urbanity with an awareness of life’s
impermanence and he "raised colloquial Latin to new heights" (386).
Similarly, historian Norman Cantor in his Antiquity said that Catullus
recognized the mortality of man and exposed a different side of
Roman life. His poems revealed the existence of pessimism,
individualism, and deep feelings of self-indulgence within Roman
society:
 Ovid
• Probably the most famous or infamous poet of the era is Publius Ovidius Naro or
Ovid (42 BCE – 18 CE). After Ovid, Roman poetry would take a brief hiatus.
Rodgers wrote that with Ovid Latin poetry had finally attained an "elegance and
lyricism" to rival that of any Greek. To Ovid love was the only "game worth
playing." His Amores, published in 22 BCE, told in a very lighthearted style
about the misadventures of a young man and his love for an unobtainable young
girl.
• His Heroides was a series of 15 letters supposedly written by Greek and Roman
mythological female figures such as Penelope and Dido to their lovers who had
either mistreated or abandoned them. His Ars Amatoria mirrored Horace’s Ars
Poetica. However, his most famous work is the 15 books of mythology
Metamorphoses, an epic poem that spoke not only of humanity's interaction with
the gods but also of heroes and heroines. Unfortunately, Augustus did not look
upon his poetry with admiration and exiled him. Although not appreciated during
his lifetime, his works of poetry have influenced many of the great authors
throughout history including Chaucer, Milton, Dante, Shakespeare, and Goethe.
 Silver Age of Roman Poetry
• Two famous Roman poets linked to what has been called
the Silver Age of Roman poetry are Marcus Annaeus
Lucanus, better known as Lucan (39 – 65 CE), and
Publius Papinius Statius (45 – 96 CE). Lucan, born in
Spain, was the nephew of Seneca, the advisor of Emperor
Nero. He even studied Stoic philosophy in Athens;
however, his suspected involvement in the Piso conspiracy
would cost him his life. Pharsalia, his most famous work,
dealt with the Roman civil war of the 1st century BCE.
His lesser known contemporary Statius wrote the twelve
books of Thebaid concerning Oedipus’s curse on Thebes.
 Marcus Tullius Cicero
• One of the more memorable was Marcus Tullius Cicero (106 – 43 BCE),
not only a brilliant statesman and author but also an orator who, besides
his 911 letters, wrote on subjects ranging from art to education. In a
series of caustic letters, he spoke out against the corrupt ex-governor of
Sicily Verres forcing him into retirement, though the ex-governor would
later be set free by Caesar. He wrote political essays such as De re
publica (On the State) and De legibus (On the Laws) as well as five
books in Latin on ancient philosophy – De finibus bonorum et malorum.
His Epistulae ad familiares (Letters to family and friends) act as vivid
historical and cultural documents of the period and give an insight into
the inner workings of late Republic. Unfortunately, he had spoken out
against Julius Caesar, something that angered the dictator’s heir
Octavian (Augustus). Having been exiled once, Cicero could not save
himself and was executed before he could escape Rome.
 Pliny the Elder
• Pliny the Elder (23 – 79 CE) or Gaius Plinius Secundus was a
Roman administrator who wrote on the Germanic wars and
whose Natural History (Naturalis Historia) contained
information on the known universe as well as tracts on
animals, trees, and plants, all in 37 volumes. Volume III, for
example, describes the geography of Italy and the topography
of Rome:
• If one were further to take into account the height of the
buildings, a very fair estimate would be formed, that would
bring us to admit that there has been no city in the whole world
that could be compared to Rome in magnitude. (Pliny the
Elder, Natural History, Book III, 67)
 Lucius Annaeus Seneca
• Lucius Annaeus Seneca (4 BCE – 65 CE) was a
student of Stoic philosophy and tutor to Emperor
Nero. Not only an essayist, he wrote nine plays
based on such Greek legends as Oedipus,
Heracles, and Medea. He also authored 124
essays on subjects ranging from vegetarianism to
the humane treatment of slaves. After being
implicated in the Piso conspiracy, he was forced
to commit suicide by Nero.
 Lucius Apuleius
• Lucius Apuleius (c. 124 – c. 170) from North
Africa wrote a number of excellent works
including the amoral The Golden Ass which is
the only complete Roman novel to survive.
One of the eleven separate books included in
the novel spoke of the adventures of a young
man named Lucius who is transformed into an
ass. His other works include Apologia,
Florida, and De Deo Socratis.
• Decius Junius Juvenalis or Juvenal (c. 60 – c.
130 CE) is considered the greatest of the
Roman satirists. Unfortunately, he ran afoul of
Emperor Domitian who believed he had been
portrayed negatively in the writer’s Satires and
may have been exiled to Egypt; his place of
death is unknown
 Herodotus
• Herodotus, (born 484 BCE?, Halicarnassus, Asia Minor [now
Bodrum, Turkey]?—died c. 430–420), Greek author of the
first great narrative history produced in the ancient world, the
History of the Greco-Persian Wars. He is thought to have
resided in Athens and to have met Sophocles and then to have
left for Thurii, a new colony in southern Italy sponsored by
Athens. The latest event alluded to in his History belongs to
430, but how soon after or where he died is not known. There
is good reason to believe that he was in Athens, or at least in
central Greece, during the early years of the Peloponnesian
War, from 431, and that his work was published and known
there before 425.
 Herodotus was a wide traveler
• Herodotus was a wide traveler. His longer wandering
covered a large part of the Persian Empire: he went to
Egypt, at least as far south as Elephantine (Aswān), and
he also visited Libya, Syria, Babylonia, Susa in Elam,
Lydia, and Phrygia. He journeyed up the Hellespont
(now Dardanelles) to Byzantium, went to Thrace and
Macedonia, and traveled northward to beyond the
Danube and to Scythia eastward along the northern
shores of the Black Sea as far as the Don River and
some way inland. These travels would have taken many
years.
 Herodotus’s subject in his History
• Herodotus’s subject in his History is the wars between Greece and
Persia (499–479 BCE) and their preliminaries. As it has survived, the
History is divided into nine books (the division is not the author’s):
• Books I–V describe the background to the Greco-Persian Wars;
• Books VI–IX contain the history of the wars, culminating in an
account of the Persian king Xerxes’ invasion of Greece (Book VII) and
the great Greek victories at Salamis, Plataea, and Mycale in 480–479
BCE. There are two parts in the History,
• one being the systematic narrative of the war of 480–479 with its
preliminaries from 499 onward (including the Ionian revolt and the
Battle of Marathon in Book VI),
• the other being the story of the growth and organization of the Persian
Empire and a description of its geography, social structure, and history.
 Aristotle
• The Greek philosopher Aristotle (384-322 B.C.)
made significant and lasting contributions to nearly
every aspect of human knowledge, from logic to
biology to ethics and aesthetics. Though
overshadowed in classical times by the work of his
teacher Plato, from late antiquity through the
Enlightenment, Aristotle’s surviving writings were
incredibly influential. In Arabic philosophy, he was
known simply as “The First Teacher”; in the West,
he was “The Philosopher.”
 Aristotle’s Early Life

• Aristotle was born in 384 B.C. in Stagira in northern Greece.

Both of his parents were members of traditional medical
families, and his father, Nicomachus, served as court
physician to King Amyntus III of Macedonia. His parents
died while he was young, and he was likely raised at his
family’s home in Stagira. At age 17 he was sent to Athens to
enroll in Plato's Academy. He spent 20 years as a student and
teacher at the school, emerging with both a great respect and
a good deal of criticism for his teacher’s theories. Plato’s
own later writings, in which he softened some earlier
positions, likely bear the mark of repeated discussions with
his most gifted student.
• In 342 Aristotle was summoned to Macedonia by King Philip II to
tutor his son, the future Alexander the Great—a meeting of great
historical figures that, in the words of one modern commentator,
“made remarkably little impact on either of them.”
• Aristotle and the Lyceum
• Aristotle returned to Athens in 335 B.C. As an alien, he couldn’t own
property, so he rented space in the Lyceum, a former wrestling
school outside the city. Like Plato’s Academy, the Lyceum attracted
students from throughout the Greek world and developed a
curriculum centered on its founder’s teachings. In accordance with
Aristotle’s principle of surveying the writings of others as part of the
philosophical process, the Lyceum assembled a collection of
manuscripts that comprised one of the world’s first great libraries.
 Aristotle’s Works

• It was at the Lyceum that Aristotle probably composed most of

his approximately 200 works, of which only 31 survive. In style,
his known works are dense and almost jumbled, suggesting that
they were lecture notes for internal use at his school. The
surviving works of Aristotle are grouped into four categories.
The “Organon” is a set of writings that provide a logical toolkit
for use in any philosophical or scientific investigation. Next
come Aristotle’s theoretical works, most famously his treatises
on animals (“Parts of Animals,” “Movement of Animals,” etc.),
cosmology, the “Physics” (a basic inquiry about the nature of
matter and change) and the “Metaphysics” (a quasi-theological
investigation of existence itself).
 Metaphysics

• Aristotle’s “Metaphysics,” written quite literally

after his “Physics,” studies the nature of existence.
He called metaphysics the “first philosophy,” or
“wisdom.” His primary area of focus was “being
qua being,” which examined what can be said
about being based on what it is, not because of
any particular qualities it may have. In
“Metaphysics,” Aristotle also muses on causation,
form, matter and even a logic-based argument for
the existence of God.