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Latin literature includes the essays, histories, poems, plays, and other writings written in the Latin language. The beginning of formal Latin literature dates to 240 BC, when the first stage play in Latin was performed in Rome. Latin literature flourished for the next six centuries. The classical era of Latin literature can be roughly divided into several periods: early Latin literature, the golden age, the imperial period and Late Antiquity.
Latin was the language of the ancient Romans as well as being the lingua franca of Western and Central Europe throughout the Middle Ages. Latin literature features the work of Roman authors, such as Cicero, Virgil, Ovid and Horace, but also includes the work of European writers after the fall of the Empire, from religious writers like Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) to secular writers like Francis Bacon (1561–1626), Baruch Spinoza (1632–1677), and Isaac Newton (1642–1727).
Other epic poets followed Naevius. Quintus Ennius wrote an historical epic, the Annals (soon after 200 BC), describing Roman history from the founding of Rome to his own time. He adopted the Greek dactylic hexameter, which became the standard verse form for Roman epics. He became well known for his tragic dramas. Successors in this field include Marcus Pacuvius and Lucius Accius. These three writers rarely used episodes from Roman history, but they wrote Latin versions of tragic themes that the Greeks had already written about. Even when they copied the Greeks, their translations were not straightforward replicas of the original Greek works. Only fragments of their plays have survived.
Considerably more is known about early Latin comedy, as 26 Early Latin comedies are extant – 20 of which were written by Plautus; the remaining six were written by Terence.Shipley, Joseph Twadell. Dictionary of world literature: criticism, forms, technique. Taylor & Francis, 1964. p. 109. Web. 15 October 2011. These men modeled their comedies on Greek plays known as New Comedy, but treated the plots and wording of the originals freely. Plautus scattered songs throughout his plays and added to the humor with puns and wisecracks, as well as comic actions by the actors. Terence's plays were more austere in tone, dealing with domestic situations. His works provided the chief inspiration for French and English comedies of the 17th century AD.
The prose of the period is best known through On Agriculture (160 BC) by Cato the Elder. Cato wrote the first Latin history of Rome and of other Italian cities.Mehl, Andreas. Roman Historiography. Wiley-Blackwell, 2010. p 52. Web. 18 October 2011. He was the first Roman statesman to put his political speeches in writing as a means of influencing public opinion.
Early Latin literature ended with Gaius Lucilius, who created a new kind of poetry in his 30 books of Satires (2nd century BC). He wrote in an easy, conversational tone about books, food, friends, and current events.
Julius Caesar and Sallust were significant historical writers of Cicero's time. Caesar wrote commentaries on the Gallic and civil wars in a straightforward style to justify his actions as a general. He wrote descriptions of people and their motives.
The birth of lyric poetry in Latin occurred during the same period. The lyrics of Catullus, whom the writer Aulus Gellius called "the most elegant of poets", are noted for their emotional intensity. Contemporary with Catullus, Lucretius expounded the Epicurean philosophy in a long poem, De rerum natura.
One of the most prolific writers of the period was Marcus Terentius Varro. Referred to as "the most learned of the Romans" by Quintillian, he wrote about a remarkable variety of subjects, from religion to poetry, but only his writings on agriculture and the Latin language are extant in their complete form.
Virgil's friend Horace wrote Epodes, Odes, Satires, and Epistles. The perfection of the Odes in content, form, and style has charmed readers for hundreds of years. The Satires and Epistles discuss ethical and literary problems in an urbane, witty manner. Horace's Art of Poetry, probably published as a separate work, greatly influenced later poetic theories. It stated the basic rules of classical writing as the Romans understood and used them. After Virgil died, Horace was Rome's leading poet.Britannica Educational Publishing. Poetry and Drama: Literary Terms and Concepts. The Rosen Publishing Group, 2011. p. 39. Web. 18 October 2011.
The Latin elegy reached its highest development in the works of Tibullus, Propertius, and Ovid. Most of this poetry is concerned with love. Ovid wrote the Fasti, which describes Roman festivals and their legendary origins. Ovid's greatest work, the Metamorphoses, weaves various myths into a fast-paced, fascinating story. Ovid was a witty writer who excelled in creating lively and passionate characters. The Metamorphoses was the best-known source of Greek and Roman mythology throughout the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. It inspired many poets, painters, and composers.
One of the few female poets of ancient Rome whose work has survived is Sulpicia.
In prose, Livy produced a history of the Roman people in 142 books. Only 35 survived, but they are a major source of information on Rome.Cary, Max; Haarhoff, Theodore Johannes. Life and thought in the Greek and Roman world. Taylor & Francis, 1985. p. 268. Web. 15 October 2011.
Epic poems included the Argonautica of Gaius Valerius Flaccus, following the story of Jason and the Argonauts in their quest for the Golden Fleece, the Thebaid of Statius, following the conflict of Oedipus's sons and the Seven Against Thebes, and the Punica of Silius Italicus, following the Second Punic War and the invasions of Hannibal into Italy. At the hands of Martial, the epigram achieved the stinging quality still associated with it. Juvenal satirized vice.
The historian Tacitus painted an unforgettably dark picture of the early empire in his Histories and Annals, both written in the early 2nd century. His contemporary Suetonius wrote biographies of the 12 Roman rulers from Julius Caesar through Domitian. The letters of Pliny the Younger described Roman life of the period. Quintilian composed the most complete work on ancient education that we possess. Important works from the 2nd century include the Attic Nights of Aulus Gellius, a collection of anecdotes and reports of literary discussions among his friends; and the letters of the orator Marcus Cornelius Fronto to Marcus Aurelius. The most famous work of the period was Metamorphoses, also called The Golden Ass, by Apuleius. This novel concerns a young man who is accidentally changed into a donkey. The story is filled with tales of love and witchcraft.
Writers who laid the foundations of Christian Latin literature during the 4th century and 5th century included the church fathers Augustine of Hippo, Jerome, and Ambrose, and the first great Christian poet, Prudentius. Some Latin writing by Christian women also survives: the prison diary of the martyr Perpetua of Carthage, and an account of a Christian pilgrimage by the pilgrim Egeria.
During the Early Middle Ages, there was a noted literary activity in the Carolingian Empire, mostly in modern-day France, characterized as the Carolingian Renaissance, and some 80 Latin-language writers from this period have been covered in the Clavis Scriptorum Latinorum Medii Aevi published by Brepols. The High Middle Ages would be characterized by a renewal of Latin literature through the translation of the Toledo School of works from Al-Andalus, both original and translations from previous Greek texts, and with Scholasticism Latin would find a new philosophical expression.
During the Renaissance there was a return to the Latin of classical times, called for this reason Neo-Latin. This purified language continued to be used as the lingua franca among the learned throughout Europe, with the great works of Descartes, Francis Bacon, and Baruch Spinoza all being composed in Latin. Among the last important books written primarily in Latin prose were the works of Swedenborg (d. 1772), Carl Linnaeus (d. 1778), Leonhard Euler (d. 1783), Gauss (d. 1855), and Isaac Newton (d. 1727), and Latin remains a necessary skill for modern readers of great early modern works of linguistics, literature, and philosophy.
Several of the leading pre-modern English poets wrote in Latin as well as English. Milton's 1645 Poems are one example, but there were also Thomas Campion, George Herbert and Milton's colleague Andrew Marvell. Some indeed wrote chiefly in Latin and were valued for the elegance and Classicism of their style. Examples of these were Anthony Alsop and Vincent Bourne, who were noted for the ingenious way that they adapted their verse to describing details of life in the 18th century while never departing from the purity of Latin diction.D.K.Money, "The Latin Poetry of English Gentlemen", in Neo-Latin Poetry in the British Isles, London 2012, pp. 125ff One of the last to be noted for the quality of his Latin verse well into the 19th century was Walter Savage Landor.
Latin lacks the poetic vocabulary of Greek. Some earlier Roman poets tried to make up for this deficiency by creating new compound words, as the Greeks had done; nevertheless, Roman writers seldom invented words. Except in epic poetry, they tended to use familiar vocabulary, giving it poetic value by combinations of words and by rich sound effects. Rome's leading poets had great technical skill in the choice and arrangement of language. They had an intimate knowledge of the Greek poets, whose themes appear in almost all Roman literature.
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