§ Characteristics of Ancient Roman

Literature
§ Periods of Roman Literature
§ Roman Mythology
§ Important Figures of Ancient Roman
Literature
§ The Aeneid by Virgil
§ Latin literature includes the essays, histories, poems,
plays, and other writings written in the Latin
language.
§ It began around the 3rd century BC and took two
centuries to become a dominant literature of ancient
Rome.
§ The literature gained dominancy with many
educated Romans still reading and writing in
Ancient Greek, as late as Marcus Aurelius (121–180
AD).
§ Latin literature was in many ways a continuation of
Greek literature, using many of the same forms.
§ Latin was the language of the ancient Romans, but it
was also the lingua franca of Europe throughout the
Middle Ages.
§ Latin literature includes not only Roman authors
like Cicero, Vergil, Ovid and Horace, but also
includes European writers after the fall of the
Empire, from religious writers like Aquinas (1225–
1274), to secular writers like Francis Bacon (1561–
1626) and Baruch Spinoza (1632–1677).
―Come what may, all bad fortune is to be conquered by
endurance ‖
―The world cares very little about what a man or woman knows;
it is what a man or woman is able to do that counts..‖
Virgil
§ Formal Latin literature began in 240 BC, when a Roman audience saw a
Latin version of a Greek play.
§ The adaptor was Livius Andronicus, a Greek who had been brought to
Rome as a prisoner of war in 272 BC.
§ Andronicus also translated Homer's Greek epic the Odyssey into an old
type of Latin verse called Saturnian.
§ The first Latin poet to write on a Roman theme was Gnaeus Naevius
during the 3rd century BC.
§ He composed an epic poem about the first Punic War, in which he had
fought.
§ Naevius's dramas were mainly re-workings of Greek originals, but he
also created tragedies based on Roman myths and history.
§ Other epic poets followed Naevius. Quintus Ennius wrote a historical
epic, the Annals (soon after 200 BC), describing Roman history from the
founding of Rome to his own time.
§ He also became famous for his tragic dramas.
§ In this field, his most distinguished successors were Marcus Pacuvius
and Lucius Accius.
§ These three writers rarely used episodes from Roman history. Instead,
they wrote Latin versions of tragic themes that the Greeks had already
handled.
§ But even when they copied the Greeks, they did not translate slavishly.
§ Represents the highest excellence in prose and
poetry.
§ The prose era came first, and is signalized by the
names of Cicero, Sallust and Caesar.
§ The celebrated writers were now mostly men of action
and high position in the state.
§ The principles of the language had become fixed; its
grammatical construction was thoroughly
understood, and its peculiar genius wisely adapted to
those forms of composition in which it was naturally
capable of excelling.
§ The perfection of poetry was not attained until the
time of Augustus.
§ In this period the writers as a rule are not public men,
but belong to what we should call the literary class.
§ They wrote not for the public but for the select circle
of educated men whose rank were gradually
narrowing their limits to the great injury of literature.
§ From the death of Augustus in A D 14 until about 200,
Roman authors emphasized style and tried new and
startling ways of expression.
§ During the reign of Nero from 54 to 68, the Stoic
philosopher Seneca wrote a number of dialogues and
letters on such moral themes as mercy and generosity.
§ Seneca's tragedies greatly influenced the growth of
tragic drama in Europe.
§ The Satyricon by Petronius was the first Latin novel.
§ Only fragments of the complete work survive.
§ It describes the adventures of various low-class
characters in absurd, extravagant, and dangerous
situations, often in the world of petty crime.
§ Epic poems included the Argonautica of Gaius Valerius
Flaccus, the Thebaid of Statius, and the Punica of Silius
Italicus.
§ The historian Tacitus painted an unforgettably dark
picture of the early empire in his Histories.
§ Is the body of traditional stories pertaining to ancient
Rome's legendary origins and religious system, as
represented in the literature and visual arts of the Romans.
§ The Romans usually treated their traditional narratives as
historical, even when these have miraculous or supernatural
elements.
§ The stories are often concerned with politics and morality,
and how an individual's personal integrity relates to his or
her responsibility to the community or Roman state.
§ Heroism is an important theme.
§ The Romans were curiously eager to identify their own gods
with those of the Greeks and to reinterpret stories about
Greek deities under the names of their Roman counterparts.
§ Rome's early myths and legends also have a dynamic
relationship with Etruscan religion.
§ While Roman mythology may lack a body of divine
narratives as extensive as that found in Greek literature,
Romulus and Remus suckling the she-wolf is as famous as
any image from Greek mythology except for the Trojan
Horse.
Some Important
Roman Gods and
Goddesses
▣ Often referred to as the ―Father of
Gods and men.‖
▣ Is the sky and thunder god in
ancient Greek religion, who ruled
as king of the gods in Pantheon.
▣ Known as Zeus in Greek
mythology.
▣ By using his shield, the Aegis,
Jupiter could create all natural
phenomena related to the air and
the sky, such as storms, tempests,
and intense darkness.
▣ At his command, mighty thunders
would flash and lightnings would
roll, wreaking havoc; or the skies
would open to rejuvenate the earth
with life-giving water.
▣ Is the goddess of women and
marriage in Greek mythology and
religion.
▣ She is the daughter of the Titans
Cronus and Rhea.
▣ Juno is married to her brother
Jupiter and is titled as the Queen of
Heaven.
▣ One of her characteristics is her
jealous and vengeful nature
against Jupiter's other lovers and
offspring and against the mortals
who cross her.
▣ Juno is commonly seen with the
animals she considers sacred
including the cow, lion and the
peacock.
▣ Is the god of the sea and protector of
all aquatic features.
▣ Brother of Jupiter and Pluto, after the
overthrow of their father, Saturn, he
drew lots with them to share the
universe.
▣ He ended up becoming lord of the
sea.
▣ He was widely worshipped by
seamen.
▣ His weapon was a trident, with
which he could make the earth
shake, causing earthquakes, and
shatter any object.
▣ He was second to Jupiter in power
amongst the gods.
▣ Is the Greek goddess of love,
beauty, pleasure, and procreation.
▣ She is identified with the planet
Venus and known as the goddess
Afrodite in Greek mythology.
▣ Because of her beauty, other gods
feared that their rivalry for her
favours might lead to conflict and
war.
▣ Jupiter married her to Vulcan,
who, because of his ugliness and
deformity, was not seen as a threat.
▣ Venus had many lovers—both
gods, such as Mars, and men, such
as Anchises.
▣ Is one of the most important and
complex of the Olympian deities
and Greek and Roman mythology.
▣ Apollo was the son of Jupiter and
Leto, twin brother of Diana.
▣ He was the god of music, and he is
often depicted playing a golden
lyre.
▣ He was also known as the Archer,
far shooting with a silver bow; the
god of healing, giving the science
of medicine to man; the god of
light; and the god of truth.
▣ Was one of the most widely
worshipped of the Ancient Roman
religion.
▣ Her Greek equivalent is Artemis.
▣ Diana was the goddess of chastity,
virginity, the hunt, the moon, and
the natural environment.
▣ She was the daughter of Jupiter
and Leto, twin sister of Apollo.
▣ She was the protector of nature
and the hunt.
▣ Both wild and tame animals were
under her protection.
▣ She also protected the agriculture
and animal herding.
▣ Is the Roman god of war and also
agricultural guardian in ancient
Roman religion.
▣ He is the son of Jupiter and Juno.
▣ In Roman literature, he often
represents the physical or violent
and untamed aspect of war.
▣ He was disliked by both his
parents.
▣ Whenever Mars appeared in a
myth, he was depicted as a violent
personality, who faced humiliation
through his defeats more than
once.
▣ Is the goddess of reason, intelligent
activity, arts and literature in ancient
Roman religion and mythology.
▣ Minerva is the Roman goddess
identified with Athena in ancient
Greek mythology.
▣ Minerva is known for her calm
temperament, as she moves slowly to
anger.
▣ She was the daughter of Jupiter; her
birth is unique in that she did not have
a mother.
▣ She was Jupiter’s favourite child and
was allowed to use his weapons
including his thunderbolt.
▣ Her holy tree was the olive tree and
she was often symbolised as an owl.
▣ is the Roman god of blacksmiths,
craftsmen, artisans, sculptors,
metals, metallurgy, fire and
volcanoes.
▣ Vulcan’s Greek equivalent is
Hephaestus.
▣ In Roman mythology, Vulcan was
the son of Jupiter and Juno.
▣ He is symbolised with a hammer,
an anvil and a pair of tongs.
▣ As a smithing god, Vulcan makes
armour and weapons forged under
volcanoes.
▣ Is the god of fertility and wine,
later considered a patron of the
arts.
▣ He created wine and spread the art
of viticulture.
▣ He had a dual nature; on one hand,
he brought joy and divine ecstasy;
or he would bring brutal and
blinding rage.
▣ Known as Dionysus in Greek
mythology, Bachhus was the son of
Jupiter and Semele.
▣ He was the only god with a mortal
parent.
▣ Pluto was the Roman god of the
underworld and the judge of the
dead.
▣ Pluto is an alternative name for the
Greek god Hades, but was more
often used in Roman mythology in
their presentation of the god of the
underworld.
▣ He abducted Proserpina, and her
mother Ceres who then caused
winter in her grief.
▣ He was siblings with Jupiter and
Neptune.
 Important
Literary Figures
▣ Titus Maccius Plautus (254 – 184 BC)
▣ A Roman playwright of the Old Latin
period.
▣ His comedies are the earliest Latin
literary works to have survived in
their entirety.
▣ He wrote Palliata comoedia.
▣ Plautus's comedies are mostly adapted
from Greek models for a Roman
audience, and are often based directly
on the works of the Greek
playwrights.
▣ (99 - 55 B.C.)
▣ A Roman poet and philosopher.
▣ His only known work is the didactic
philosophical poem De rerum natura
about the tenets and philosophy of
Epicureanism, and which is usually
translated into English as On the
Nature of Things.
▣ De rerum natura was a considerable
influence on the Augustan poets,
particularly Virgil.
▣ The work virtually disappeared
during the Middle Ages but was
rediscovered in 1417 in a monastery in
Germany by Poggio Bracciolini
▣ A Roman politician, general, and
notable author of Latin prose.
▣ He played a critical role in the events
that led to the demise of the Roman
Republic and the rise of the Roman
Empire.
▣ In 60 BC, Caesar, Crassus, and
Pompey formed a political alliance
that dominated Roman politics for
several years.
▣ Caesar's victories in the Gallic Wars,
completed by 51 BC, extended Rome's
territory to the English Channel and
the Rhine.
▣ Caesar became the first Roman
general to cross both the Channel and
the Rhine
▣ Pablius Vergilius Maro
▣ Was an ancient Roman poet of the
Augustan period.
▣ He wrote three of the most famous
poems in Latin literature, the Eclogues
(or Bucolics), the Georgics, and the
epic Aeneid.
▣ Virgil is traditionally ranked as one of
Rome's greatest poets.
▣ His Aeneid has been considered the
national epic of ancient Rome from the
time of its composition to the present
day.
▣ Virgil's work has had wide and deep
influence on Western literature, most
notably Dante's Divine Comedy.
▣ Publius Ovidius Naso
▣ Was a Roman poet who lived during
the reign of Augustus.
▣ He was a contemporary of the older
Virgil and Horace, with whom he is
often ranked as one of the three
canonical poets of Latin literature.
▣ The Imperial scholar Quintilian
considered him the last of the Latin
love elegists.
▣ The first major Roman poet to begin
his career during the reign of
Augustus.
▣ Ovid is today best known for the
Metamorphoses, a 15-book continuous
mythological narrative written in the
meter of epic.
▣ Quintus Horatius Flaccus
▣ Was the leading Roman lyric poet
during the time of Augustus.
▣ His career coincided with Rome's
momentous change from a republic to
an empire.
▣ In 29 B.C. he published the Epodes, in
23 B.C. the first three book of Odes,
and in 20 B.C. his first book of Epistles.
▣ Horace is best known today for his
Odes, which often celebrate common
events.
▣ Along with Virgil, Horace is the most
celebrated of the Augustan poets.
▣ Marcus Tullius Cicero
▣ Was a Roman philosopher, politician,
lawyer, orator, political theorist,
consul, and constitutionalist.
▣ He came from a wealthy municipal
family of the Roman equestrian order,
and is considered one of Rome's
greatest orators and prose stylists.
▣ His influence on the Latin language
was so immense that the subsequent
history of prose in, not only Latin but
European languages up to the 19th
century.
▣ Lucius Annaeus Seneca
▣ Was a Roman Stoic philosopher,
statesman, dramatist, and in one work
humorist, of the Silver Age of Latin
literature.
▣ As a tragedian, he is best-known for
works such as Medea and Thyestes.
▣ He was a tutor and later advisor to
emperor Nero.
▣ His tragedies (essentially the only
surviving specimens of Latin tragic
drama) had a profound influence on
the development of the tragic form in
later times, particularly in the age of
Racine and Shakespeare
▣ Gaius Sallustius Crispus, generally
known as Sallust.
▣ Was a Roman historian, politician, and
novus homo from an Italian plebeian
family.
▣ Sallust was born at Amiternum in the
country of the Sabines and was a
popularis, an opponent of the old
Roman aristocracy, throughout his
career, and later a partisan of Julius
Caesar.
▣ Sallust is the earliest known Roman
historian with surviving works to his
name.
▣ Was a Roman historian who wrote a
monumental history of Rome and the
Roman people.
▣ Livy was known to give recitations to
small audiences, but he was not heard
of to engage in declamation, which
was a common pastime.
▣ He was familiar with the emperor
Augustus, formerly Octavian, and the
imperial family.
▣ Livy’s most famous work was his
history of Rome.
▣ In it he explains the complete history
of the city of Rome, from its
foundation to the death of Augustus.
▣ Gaius Cornelius Tacitus
▣ Was a senator and an historian of the
Roman Empire.
▣ The surviving portions of his two
major works—the Annals and the
Histories—examine the reigns of the
Roman emperors Tiberius, Claudius
and Nero.
▣ Tacitus is considered to be one of the
greatest Roman historians.
▣ He lived in what has been called the
Silver Age of Latin literature, and is
known for the brevity and
compactness of his Latin prose,
 Aeneid
By Virgil
▣ Is a Latin epic poem, written by Virgil
between 29 and 19 BC, that tells the legendary
story of Aeneas, a Trojan who travelled to
Italy, where he became the ancestor of the
Romans.
▣ It comprises 9,896 lines in dactylic hexameter.
▣ The first six of the poem's twelve books tell
the story of Aeneas's wanderings from Troy
to Italy, and the poem's second half tells of
the Trojans' ultimately victorious war upon
the Latins, under whose name Aeneas and his
Trojan followers are destined to be subsumed.
▣ The hero Aeneas was already known to
Greco-Roman legend and myth, having been
a character in the Iliad.
▣ The Aeneid is widely regarded as Virgil's
masterpiece and one of the greatest works of
Latin literature.
Aeneas
▣ The protagonist of the Aeneid.
▣ Aeneas is a survivor of the siege of Troy.
▣ His defining characteristic is piety, a respect for the
will of the gods.
▣ He is a fearsome warrior and a leader able to
motivate his men in the face of adversity.
▣ His destiny is to found the Roman race in Italy and
he subordinates all other concerns to this mission.
Dido
▣ The queen of Carthage, a city in northern Africa, in
today’s Tunisia.
▣ She is also the lover of Aeneas.
▣ Dido left the land of Tyre when her husband was
murdered by Pygmalion, her brother.
▣ Her love for Aeneas proves to be her downfall.
▣ After he abandons her, she constructs a funeral
pyre and stabs herself upon it with Aeneas’s sword
Turnus
▣ The ruler of the Rutulians in Italy.
▣ Turnus is Aeneas’s major antagonist among
mortals.
▣ He is Lavinia’s leading suitor until Aeneas arrives.
▣ This rivalry incites him to wage war against the
Trojans, despite Latinus’s willingness to allow the
Trojans to settle in Latium.
▣ He is brash and fearless, a capable soldier who
values his honor over his life.
Ascanius
▣ Aeneas’s young son by his first wife, Creusa.
▣ Ascanius is most important as a symbol of
Aeneas’s destiny—his future founding of the
Roman race.
▣ Though still a child, Ascanius has several
opportunities over the course of the epic to display
his bravery and leadership.
▣ He helps to defend the Trojan camp from Turnus’s
attack while his father is away.
Anchises
▣ Aeneas’s father, and a symbol of Aeneas’s Trojan
heritage.
Latinus
▣ The king of the Latins, the people of what is now
central Italy, around the Tiber River.
Lavinia
▣ Latinus’s daughter and a symbol of Latium in
general.
▣ Lavinia’s character is not developed in the poem;
she is important only as the object of the Trojan-
Latin struggle.
Pallas
▣ Evander’s son and entrusted to the care and
tutelage of Aeneas.
▣ He eventually dies in battle at the hands of Turnus.
▣ To avenge Pallas’s death, Aeneas finally slays
Turnus, dismissing an initial impulse to spare him
▣ The protagonist of the Aeneid.
▣ Aeneas is a survivor of the siege of Troy.
▣ His defining characteristic is piety, a respect for the will of
the gods.
▣ As the son of the Trojan mortal Anchises and Venus, the
goddess of beauty, Aeneas enjoys a special divine
protection.
▣ He is chosen to survive the siege of Troy and to lay the
foundations in Italy for the glory of the Roman Empire.
▣ His ability to accept his destined path despite his
unhappiness in doing so makes him a graceful hero and a
worthy recipient of the honor and favor the gods bestow
upon him.
▣ His compassion for the sufferings of others, even in
conjunction with a single-minded devotion to his duty, is
another aspect of his heroism.
▣ Sympathetic to the weariness of others on the journey, he
delivers speeches to his fleet to keep the men’s spirits high.
▣ Aeneas became the object of exceptional veneration by the
Romans, the embodiment of all of the virtues that they
prized most: steadfastness, courage, patience, obedience to
the will of the gods, and reverence for ancestors.
▣ The queen of Carthage, a city in northern Africa, in today’s
Tunisia.
▣ She is resolute in her determination not to marry again and to
preserve the memory of her dead husband, Sychaeus, whose
murder at the hands of Pygmalion, her brother, caused her to
flee her native Tyre.
▣ Despite this turmoil, she maintains her focus on her political
responsibilities.
▣ Virgil depicts the suddenness of the change that love provokes
in the queen with the image of Dido as the victim of Cupid’s
arrow, which strikes her almost like madness or a disease.
▣ Dido tells her sister that a flame has been reignited within her.
▣ Dido risks everything by falling for Aeneas, and when this love
fails, she finds herself unable to reassume her dignified
position.
▣ By taking Aeneas as a lover, she compromises her previously
untainted loyalty to her dead husband’s memory.
▣ She loses the support of Carthage’s citizens, who have seen
their queen indulge an amorous obsession at the expense of her
civic responsibilities.
▣ Further, by dallying with another foreigner, Dido alienates the
local African chieftains who had approached her as suitors and
now pose a military threat.
▣ Her irrational obsession drives her to a frenzied suicide, out of
the tragedy of her situation and the pain of lost love, but also
out of a sense of diminished possibilities for the future.
▣ The ruler of the Rutulians in Italy.
▣ Turnus is Aeneas’s major antagonist among mortals.
▣ He is Lavinia’s leading suitor until Aeneas arrives.
▣ This rivalry incites him to wage war against the Trojans, despite
Latinus’s willingness to allow the Trojans to settle in Latium.
▣ He is famous for courage and skill in battle, and justly so: he
has all the elements of a hero.
▣ Turnus is the only male human character in the Aeneid whose
stature is comparable to Aeneas's.
▣ However, unlike the Trojan hero, who always tries to act for the
good of his people, Turnus is motivated by intense pride and a
desire for personal fame.
▣ His doomed future, sealed by fate, signifies the triumph of the
ideal of civic virtue embodied by Aeneas.
▣ Though Turnus may appear to us a Latin version of Achilles,
the raging hero of the Iliad, Turnus’s powers as a warrior are
not enough to guarantee him victory.
▣ Jupiter has decreed another destiny for Turnus, an outcome
Turnus refuses to accept.
▣ Turnus’s interpretation of signs and omens is similarly
stubborn. He interprets them to his own advantage rather than
seeking their true meaning, as Aeneas does.
Ascanius
▣ Aeneas’s young son by his first wife, Creusa.
▣ Ascanius is most important as a symbol of Aeneas’s
destiny—his future founding of the Roman race.
▣ Though still a child, Ascanius has several
opportunities over the course of the epic to display his
bravery and leadership.
▣ He helps to defend the Trojan camp from Turnus’s
attack while his father is away.
Anchises
▣ Aeneas’s father, and a symbol of Aeneas’s Trojan
heritage.
Latinus
▣ The king of the Latins, the people of what is now
central Italy, around the Tiber River.
Lavinia
▣ Latinus’s daughter and a symbol of Latium in general.
▣ Lavinia’s character is not developed in the poem; she
is important only as the object of the Trojan-Latin
struggle.
Pallas
▣ Evander’s son and entrusted to the care and
tutelage of Aeneas.
▣ He eventually dies in battle at the hands of Turnus.
▣ To avenge Pallas’s death, Aeneas finally slays
Turnus, dismissing an initial impulse to spare him.
Creusa
▣ Aeneas’s wife at Troy, and the mother of Ascanius.
Creusa is lost and killed as her family attempts to
flee the city, but tells Aeneas he will find a new
wife at his new home.
Sinon
▣ The Greek youth who pretends to have been left
behind at the end of the Trojan War.
▣ Sinon persuades the Trojans to take in the wooden
horse as an offering to Minerva, then lets out the
warriors trapped inside the horse’s belly.