Latin Literature- Roman Centred

Latin literature, body written in Latin, was primarily produced during the Roman Republic when Latin was a spoken language. Even when Rome fell, Latin remained as the literary language until it was superseded by the modern language or other modern languages.

Literature in Latin started as a result of translation from Greek, and this is why the progress of the literature continued. Latin authors used earlier writers as sources of stock themes and at their best used their relationship to tradition to produce a new species of originality. However, they were more distinguished as verbal artists than thinkers. Their noblest ideal was humanity, a blend of culture and kindliness, approximating the quality of being “civilized.”

Ancient Latin literature may be divided into four stages: early writers, to 70 BC; Golden Age, 70 BC–AD 18; Silver Age, AD 18–133; and later writers.

There are various genres in ancient Latin literature like comedy, tragedy, epic and epilliyon, didactic poetry, satire, Islam and elegy.

Besides these conventional and common genres there were also other forms of Latin literature. The first one is rhetoric and oratory. Speaking in the forum and law courts was the essence of a public career at Rome and hence of educational practice. After a certain time, Greek oratory started influencing Latin literature. History is also an important piece of Latin literature.

The first historical information was written during the second Punic war. The third genre in this is Biography and letters. The idea of comparing Romans with foreigners was taken up by Cornelius Nepos, a friend of Cicero and Catullus. Philosophical and learned writings hold a special importance of their own.

However, Roman mind produced no original philosopher. Apart from Lucretius the only name that demands consideration is Cicero’s. Literary criticism was another unique genre where there was general type of criticism. The last one is fiction. Although fiction genre does not have a huge collection, but the one or two available are really great pieces of work.

Thus Latin literature is really rich and should always be cherished and preserved.