Latin Literature - the literature of ancient Rome and of that written in Latin in later eras. Very little remains of the ritualistic songs and the native poetry of the Romans and Latins before the rise of a literature. The history of the Roman Empire is fundamental to the fabric of this literature: in the first three centuries of its development, the influence of captive Greece was all-pervasive. The Development of a Classical Style The close of the First Punic War (c.240 b.c.) marks the beginning of literary work in Rome with the plays of the slave
Livius Andronicus, adapted from the Greek. The epic poet Gnaeus
Naevius also wrote dramas, but he was far surpassed by the greatest of Roman dramatists,
Plautus, a master of comedy. In his SatiresEnnius introduced the hexameter into Latin;
Cato the Elder opposed the hellenizing group, to which Ennius belonged, and wrote his works in as rude a Latin as possible. However, his efforts had little effect and the works of
Terence, Greek in scene and origin, manifest the tremendous interchange of Greek and Latin writing. The 1st cent. b.c., the last era of the Roman republic, produced some of the greatest figures in Latin literature—the encyclopedist
Varro, the statesmen and prose masters
Cicero and Julius
Caesar, the poets
Lucretius and
Catullus, and the historian
Sallust.
Vergil, the greatest of Latin epic poets, exemplifies a new atmosphere in the Augustan age, with his celebration—and somber questioning—of the new empire. In his epodes, odes, and satires, the poet
Horace brought the Latin lyric to perfection, while the elegy was cultivated by
Tibullus,
Propertius, and
Ovid. The notable historian of the age was
Livy. Post-classical Literature During the first half of the 1st cent. a.d., Latin literature in its classical form was in decline. The works of
Seneca,
Lucan,
Persius, and
Statius typify a period in which the masters, both Latin and Greek, were imitated. Among the most original poets were
Martial and
Juvenal, celebrated for their satiric writings.
Petronius,
Frontinus,
Pliny the Elder, Pliny the Younger (see under
Pliny the Elder), and
Tacitus were the chief writers of prose;
Suetonius exemplified the richness of historical and biographical writing under the Principate, while
Quintilian brought classical literary criticism to its greatest development. In the 2d cent. Marcus
Fronto distinguished himself as an orator; his pupil
Marcus Aurelius gained fame both as a ruler and as one of the masters of the Latin essay. In the 3d and 4th cent. the writings of
Ausonius and Avienus extended beyond classical studies, developing traditional themes to deal with everyday life and the world of nature.
Claudian is considered the best of the late poets.
Ammianus Marcellinus was a noted historian. The philological scholars of the empire were numerous. These included Aulus
Gellius, Terentianus,
Macrobius, Martianus
Capella, and
Priscian. As the classical inspiration died, the tradition of Latin literature was borrowed from and carried forward in Christian writing.
Prudentius attempted to build a Christian style on classical models, but failed. The
Latin language became the standard language of the West and by far the greater bulk of medieval literature as well as records, documents, and letters was written in Latin (see
patristic literature;
Medieval Latin literature;
Roman law). The Renaissance The literature of the
Renaissance represents a conscious attempt to recapture the classical spirit. Most learned people cultivated Latin, and many of them succeeded in writing a Latin style that stands comparison with classical Latin models.
Petrarch,
Boccaccio,
Poggio Bracciolini,
Poliziano,
Pontano, and
Pius II were accomplished Latin writers.
Erasmus violently attacked the ubiquitous Ciceronianism of the time. Later Latin Literature Good Latin poets have been fewer since the Renaissance, but George
Buchanan and John
Milton are among the exceptions. Among the great scholars whose major works were written in Latin were Thomas
More, Baruch
Spinoza, Francis
Bacon, Gottfried Wilhelm von
Leibniz, and Isaac
Newton. Latin literature, as such, is nearly dead, for its cultivation is limited to the ever-narrowing circles of classicists and to the Roman Catholic Church, which adds new matter to the liturgy only rarely and confines use of extraliturgical Latin to official, nonliterary documents. Bibliography See J. W. Duff, A Literary History of Rome (3d ed., repr. 1979); E. J. Kenney, ed., Cambridge History of Classical Literature, Vol. II (1982); J. Sullivan, Literature and Politics in the Age of Nero (1985); B. Baldwin, ed., An Anthology of Later Latin Literature (1987). The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright© 2004, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products N.V. All rights reserved. | 
