Introduction to Roman society and Literature

European Classical Literature refers to the literature of ancient Greece and Rome mainly and other older civilisations too.

The works of Homer, Aeschylus, Sophocles, Horace, Ovid comprise Classical European Literature/ Classical Literature.

In these ancient poems, plays, and other genres, Greek and Latin languages are used

There is a myth that Rome was founded by two brothers –Romulus and Remus, twin sons of Mars. Romulus killed his twin brother Remus and became the Emperor of Rome. Rome is named after him.

Rome was ruled by kings first and then there was a phase of republic.

 King Augustus (63 BC-14 AD)was one of the greatest rulers.

The city of ancient Rome was surrounded by seven hills—Aventine Hill, Caelian Hill, Capitoline Hill, Esquiline Hill, Palatine Hill, Quirinal Hill, and the Viminal Hill.

Rome was rich in theatres, gymnasiums, taverns.

Roman architecture developed from country houses, to villas, to palace like palatial mansions

The Greek Civilization was the older of the two, a lot of Greek/Hellenistic influence may be seen in ancient Rome on architecture, sculpture, writing, cuisine (cooking)

The family was the centre of Roman social structure. The male head of the family had power and was treated as the master.

 Slavery and slaves were an accepted part of the social order and the slave market and trade was very active.

The home was the learning centre and children were taught Roman laws, customs; boys were trained physically to be good citizens or for recruitment in army; the girls were taught sewing, weaving, spinning by their mothers.

Formal schooling began around 200 BC and children began going to school at the age of 6

At the age of 12 or 13, they were taught Latin, Greek, Grammar and Oratory(rhetoric, public speaking).

The native language of Romans was Latin and high Literature was in classical Latin

Latin spread throughout Europe and later evolved into Romance languages such as French, Spanish, Romanian, Italian and Portuguese.

English has its origin in Germanic tradition but it borrows heavily from Latin and Latin derived words.

The span of two centuries 100BCE and 100 CE (200 years) comprised the literary productivity of authors such as Cicero, Lucretius, Horace, Catullus, Propertius, Virgil, Livy, Ovid, Petronius, Statius and Seneca the Younger, Juvenal, Apuleius and Marcus Aurelius.

Long before Cicero came on the Roman literary scene, Rome witnessed literary activity with writers from Italian peninsula and even Greece. Plays in Latin such as comic, tragic, historical, and epical, burlesque, mimes were being staged during festivals in Rome about a century and a half before Cicero became a famous name.

Most of the early Latin Literature of before 100 BCE except some plays of Plautus and Terence was not preserved

Most of Latin Literature was written during republican phase  between 240 and 140 BCE.

In 240 BCE , a Greek play was translated into Latin and staged in Rome. The play was translated by Livius Andronicus who was a slave. He was a contemporary of Apollonius of Rhodes and known for his translation of Homer’s Odyssey into Latin.

After Livius Andronicus, Naevius came to literary world with adaptations of Greek comedies (fabulae palliatae. He wrote an epic Bellum Punicum

 

Quintus Ennius translated Greek plays and wrote a mythical history of Rome called the Annales.

Plautus and Terence were the next literary figures- great dramatists

Terence also adapted Greek New Comedy to the Roman stage. His famous play The Situation of The Brothers, staged in 160 BC deals with effective parenting and the question of how children should be raised.

 

Lucretius (95-53BCE)’s famous poem On the Nature of Things shows his sense of theology, science and ethics.

 

Marcus Tullius Cicero, the Roman orator and statesman(106BCE- 43BCE) wrote six books on rhetoric and eight books on philosophy.

 

Catullus (84-54 BCE) was a poet of love lyrics, serious poems celebrating marriage, violently threatening poems, legendary heroes, about human experiences(total 117 poems).

Propertius (50BCE-1BCE) wrote four books of poems (elegies; poems lamenting the dead, mournful, sad poems)

Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus) [65-8BCE] took keen interest in reading the Greek masterpieces. The Greek poets were also the inspiration and models for his Odes. Having completed his studies in Rome, Horace travelled to Athens, Greece at the age of 20 to broaden his perspectives on the studies of rhetoric and philosophy. He wrote two books of  Satires, a book of Epodes, 4 books of Odes, 3 books of Letters/Epistles and a Hymn. His Art of Poetry outlines a theory of poetry.

Virgil (Publius Vergilius Maro) was considered the national poet by the Romans. He  wrote Aeneid which is about king Augustan (once Octavian). This poem talks about his rule. His another work Eclogues is a collection of ten poems in which herdsmen tell stories to one another as they tend to their flocks and Georgics is a set of 4 poems on agriculture.