Roman Literature

  • Roman Literature was written in the Latin language, but it was strongly influenced by and was a continuation of Ancient Greek Literature and Greek Mythology.
  • All educated Romans could speak and write in both Latin and Greek.

The Top Classics of Ancient Roman Literature

  1. Catullus (84-54 BCE) Anthology of Poems
  2. Ovid (43 BCE – 18 CE) Metamorphoses
  3. Horace (65-8 BCE) Odes
  4. Virgil (70-19 BCE) Aeneid
  5. Seneca the Younger (4 BCE – 65 CE) Thyestes
  6. Julius Caesar (100-44 BCE) Gallic Wars
  7. Cicero (106-43 BCE) Orations and Letters
  8. Tacitus (56-120 CE) Histories
  9. Livy (59 BCE-17 CE) The Rise of Rome
  10. Martial (40-104 CE ) Epigrams
  11. Pliny the Elder (23-79 CE) Natural History
  12. Plutarch (46 – ?) Parallel Lives and Moralia
  13. Petronius (27-66 CE) Satyricon

Top classics of Ancient Greek Literature

  1. Homer (8th century BCE) Iliad and Odyssey
  2. Euripides (c.532-c.406 BCE) Medea, Electra, Hippolytus
  3. Sophocles (c.497-c.405 BCE) The Oedipus Cycle: Oedipus Rex, Oedipus at Colonus, Antigone
  4. Aristophanes (446-386 BCE) Lysistrata, The Clouds
  5. Plato (c.428-c.347 BCE) The Five Dialogues, The Symposium, The Republic
  6. Aristotle (385-323 BCE) The Poetics, Metaphysics, Politics, The Nicomachean Ethics
  7. Sappho (610-580 BCE ) Poems and Fragments
  8. Aeschylus (523-456 BCE) The Orestia
  9. Herodotus (c.484-c.425 BCE) The Histories
  10. Xenophon (c.431-360 BCE) The Anabasis

Roman Classical Authors

  • All educated Romans could speak and write fluently in both Latin and Greek.
  • Roman Literature was written in the Latin language, but it was strongly influenced by and was a continuation of Ancient Greek Literature and Greek Mythology.
  • Cicero‘s speeches were copied down by his slave by using an early form of Shorthand.

The Four Periods of Roman Literature

Roman Novels

    • History of the Novel
      • Although the Novel developed in its current form during the 18th century CE, it started in the Ancient World.
    • Literary devices
      • Literature devices were used in literature by the Ancient Greeks and Romans.
    • The Five Greek Romance novels (written in Greece but during the Roman Empire)
      • Callirhoe by Chariton (1st century CE)
      • Leucippe and Clitophon by Achilles Tatius (2nd century CE)
      • Daphnis and Chloe by Longus. (2nd century CE) Narrated in the first person.
      • Ephesian Tale by Xenophon of Ephesus. (2nd century CE) The source of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.
      • Aethiopica by Heliodorus of Emesa (3rd century CE)
    • Satyricon by Petronius (c.50 CE)
      • A satirical novel in prose and verse.
    • True Story by Lucian (125-180 CE)
      • A satirical novel which is also an early work of science fiction.
    • The Golden Ass by Apuleius (c.150 CE)
    • The Alexander Romance (338 CE)
      • A fictional romance novel based on the life of Alexander the Great

Roman Jurists

Roman Satyres

Roman Playwrights and Plays

Roman Poets, Poems and Epics

  • Famous lines from poetry were frequently reduced to sets of initials which were instantly recognisable to the Romans. Sometimes these were placed on coins.

Roman Historians

Greco-Roman Geographers

Roman Agricultural Writers

Roman Engineering

Roman Critics

Roman Education

    • Roman children learnt from the poetry of Hesiod and Homer.

Roman Jokes

    • Philagrius: the ‘Philogelos’ meaning ‘The Laugh Addict’, a collection of 265 jokes.
    • Latin tongue twisters

Roman Proverbs

    • Publilius Syrus (85-43 BCE) ‘Sententiae’, a collection of Proverbs.

Roman Fables

    • Aesop's Fables oral tradition in Greek
    • Phaedrus (15 BCE-50 CE) first translation of Aesop into Latin.
    • Babrius (c.200 CE) wrote down Aesop’s Fables in Greek.
    • Avianus (c.400 CE) translated Babrius’ collection into Latin.

Roman Rhetoric

Ancient Greek Literature

Ancient Greek Playwrights, Poets and Songwriters

Hellenistic Philosophy

Byzantine Literature

    • The Suda
      • This is an Encyclopedic Lexicon written in Greek during the tenth century CE and containing 30,000 entries. It describes the Classical Mediterranean World.

Lost Works from Classical Literature

    • Avienus: Ora Maritima (The Sea Coasts of the Ancient World)
    • Aeschylus: 80 plays written of which only 7 have survived.
    • Sophocles: 120 plays written of which only 7 have survived.
    • Livy: ‘History of Rome’ – only one quarter has survived.
    • Euripides: 90 plays of which only 15 have survived.
    • Sappho: 9 books of lyric poems, most of which have been lost.
    • Ennius: ‘Annales’ an Epic Poem, most of which has been lost.
    • Aristophanes: 40 plays of which 11 have survived.
    • Pytheas: (c. 330 BCE) The Greek Explorer He wrote ‘On the Ocean’.

Other Ancient Texts

China

  • Twenty Four Histories or ‘Standard Histories’ (3,000 BCE-1,664 CE)
    • They are the official Chinese history books.
    • This is a collection of 3,213 volumes covering Chinese history from 3,000 BCE to the end of the Ming Dynasty.
  • The Art of War (c. 500 BCE)
    • Attributed to Sun Tzu (544-496 BCE) but dated by its style from the Warring States Period (475-221 BCE).
  • Seven Military Classics (5th century BCE)
    • Seven Books which included Sun Tzu’s ‘The Art of War’.
  • Shan Hai Jing meaning ‘The Classic of Mountains and Seas’ (4th century BCE)
    • This is a compilation of Chinese mythical geography and Legends. The ancient Chinese categorised it as a Geography.
    • The Book has 18 Sections, and describes 550 Mountains, 300 Channels, 450 Deities, 277 Animal species and 100 Countries that China had diplomatic relations with.
    • Although it originated in the fourth century BCE, it was first edited by Liu Xiang (77-6 BCE) during the Han Dynasty (206 BCE-220 CE). Liu Xiang also compiled a catalogue of the Han Imperial Library.
  • The Four Books and the Five Classics (c.300 BCE)
    • This collection of Works describes the beliefs of Confucianism
  • ‘The Romance of the Three Kingdoms’. (169 – 280 CE)
    • Luo Guanzhong (1330-1400 CE) wrote this historical novel describing the Rebellion which led to the establishment of the three separate Kingdoms, including the rise of Cao Cao. It Deals with the Period from 169 to 280 CE.

Egypt

Ethiopia

  • Kebra Nagast (950 BCE – 325 CE)
    • In Ge’ez, this means ‘The Glory of the Kings’.
    • The Work consists of 117 chapters written in the form of a debate by the 318 Bishops at the First Council of Nicae in 325 CE. It covers the history of the Ethiopian Emperors from 950 BCE until the conversion to Christianity around 325 CE.

Iran

  • The Avesta (c.1,323 BCE)
  • Shabuhragan (Book of Shapur) written in Persian.
    • Mani, the originator of Manichaeism, wrote the Shabuhragan, this describes Manichaeism in six volumes written in Syriac and one volume written in Persian, which was dedicated to Shapur I (215-272 CE), the Ruler of Persia.

Ireland

  • Lebor Gabala Erenn (c.1,500 BCE-1,000 CE)
    • The Book of Invasions: the Book of the taking of Ireland (c.1500 BCE up to the Medieval Period).

India

  • Vedas (1,500-1,000 BCE)

Israel

Sri Lanka

  • The Mahavamsa (5th ceentury CE)
    • A Poem, written in the Pali Language during the fifth century CE, describing the Royal Dynasties between 543 BCE and the Fifth century CE.

 

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