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BIBLIOTECA
LATINA
ROMA
APULEIO
Apuleius
2 volumes
The
Loeb Classical Library edition of Apuleio is in two volumes.
In
“The Metamorphoses” of Apuleio, also known as “The Golden Ass”,
we have the only Latin novel which survives entire.
It
is truly enchanting: a delightful romance combining realism and magic.
The
hero, Lucio, eager to experience the sensations of a bird, resorts to
witchcraft but by an unfortunate pharmaceutical error finds himself transformed
into an ass.
Lucio
knows he can revert to his own body by eating rose-petals, but these prove
singularly elusive; and the bulk of the work describes his adventures as an
animal.
Lucio
also retails many stories that he overheard, the most charming being that of
Cupido and Psiche (beginning, in true fairy-tale fashion, “Erant in quadam
civitate rex et regina”).
Some
of Lucio’s stories are as indecent as they are witty, and two in the ninth book
were deemed by Boccaccio worthy of inclusion in the Decameron.
At
last the goddess Isis takes pity on Lucio.
In a
surprising denouement, Lucio is restored to human shape and, now spiritually
regenerated, is initiated into her mysteries.
The
author’s baroque Latin style nicely matches his fantastic narrative and is
guaranteed to hold a reader’s attention from beginning to end.
AGOSTINO
Augustine
10 volumes
Agostino
(354–430 CE), son of a pagan, Patricio of Tagaste in North Africa, and his
Christian wife Monica, while studying in Africa to become a rhetorician,
plunged into a turmoil of philosophical and psychological doubts in search of
truth, joining for a time the Manichaean society.
Agostino
became a teacher of grammar at Tagaste, and lived much under the influence of
his mother and his friend Alypius.
About
383 Agostino went to Rome and soon after to Milano as a teacher of rhetoric,
being now attracted by the philosophy of the Sceptics and of the Neo-Platonists.
Agostino’s
studies of Paul’s letters with Alypius and the preaching of Bishop Ambrose led
in 386 to his rejection of all sensual habits and to his famous conversion from
mixed beliefs to Christianity.
Agostino
returned to Tagaste and there founded a religious community.
In
395 or 396 Agostino became Bishop of Hippo, and was henceforth engrossed with
duties, writing and controversy.
Agostino
died at Hippo during the successful siege by the Vandals.
From
Agostino’s large output the Loeb Classical Library offers that great
autobiography the “Confessions” (in 2 volumes); “The City of God” (7 volumes),
which unfolds God’s action in the progress of the world’s history, and
propounds the superiority of Christian beliefs over pagan in adversity; and a
selection of “Letters” (1
volume) which are important for the study of ecclesiastical history and
Agostino’s relations with other theologians.
AUSONIO
Ausonius
two volumes
The
Loeb Classical Library edition
of Ausonius is in two volumes; the second
includes “Eucharisticus” (“Thanksgiving”) by Paulinus Pellaeus.
Decimo
Magno Ausonio, 310 circa–395 circa d.C., a doctor’s son,
was born at Burdigala.
After
a good education in grammar and rhetoric and a short period during which he was
an advocate, he took to teaching rhetoric in a school which he began in 334.
Among
his students was Paulino, who was afterwards Bishop of Nola; and he seems to
have become some sort of Christian himself.
Thirty
years later Ausonio was called by Emperor Valentiniano to be tutor to Graziano,
who subsequently as emperor conferred on him honours including a consulship in
379.
In 383,
after Graziano’s murder, Ausonio retired to Bordeaux.
Ausonio’s
surviving works, some with deep feeling, some composed it seems for fun, some
didactic, include much poetry: poems about himself and family, notably “The
Daily Round”; epitaphs on heroes in the Trojan War, memorials on Roman emperors,
and epigrams on various subjects; poems about famous cities and about friends
and colleagues.
“The
Moselle,” a description of that river, is among the most admired of his poems.
There
is also an address of thanks to Gratian for the consulship.
BEDA
Bede
2 volumes
The
Loeb Classical Library edition of Bede’s historical works is in two volumes.
Beda
“the Venerable,” English theologian and historian, was born in 672 or 673 CE in
the territory of the single monastery at Wearmouth and Jarrow.
Beda
was ordained deacon (691–2) and priest (702–3) of the monastery, where his
whole life was spent in devotion, choral singing, study, teaching, discussion,
and writing.
Besides
Latin Beda knew Greek and possibly Hebrew.
Beda’s
theological works were chiefly commentaries, mostly allegorical in method,
based with acknowledgment on Jerome, Agostino, Ambrose, Gregory, and others,
but bearing his own personality.
In
another class were works on grammar and one on natural phenomena; special
interest in the vexed question of Easter led him to write about the calendar
and chronology.
Here
a clear and simple style united with descriptive powers to produce an elegant
work, and the facts diligently collected from good sources make it a valuable
account.
Historical
also are his Lives of the Abbots of his monastery, the Letter to
Egbert (November 734), his pupil, so important for our knowledge about the
Church in Northumbria, and the less successful accounts (in verse and prose) of
Cuthbert.
BOEZIO
Boethius
Anicio
Manlio Severino BOEZIO —Roman statesman and philosopher (480 circa–524 d.C.),
was son of Flavio Manlio Boezio, after whose death he was looked after by several
men, especially Memmio Symmachus.
Boezio
married Symmachus’s daughter, Rusticiana, by whom he had two sons.
All
three men rose to high honours under Teodorico the Ostrogoth, but Boezio fell
from favour, was tried for treason, wrongly condemned, and imprisoned at Pavia,
where he wrote his renowned The Consolation of Philosophy.
Boezio
was put to death in 524, to the great remorse of Teodorico.
Boezio
was revered as if he were a saint and his bones were removed in 996 to the
Church of S. Pietro in Ciel d’Oro, and later to the Cathedral.
The
tower in Pavia where he was imprisoned is still venerated.
Boezio
is author of Latin translations of Aristotle, commentaries on various
philosophical works, original works on logic, five books on music, and other
works.
Boezio’s
“Consolation of Philosophy” is the last example of purely literary Latin
of ancient times — a mingling of alternate dialogue and poems.
His Theological
Tractates are also included in this volume.
Marco
Porcio CATONE -- Cato
M.
Porcio Catone il vecchio (234–149 a.C.) of Tusculum, statesman and soldier, was
the first important writer in Latin prose.
Catone’s
speeches, works on jurisprudence and the art of war, his precepts to his son on
various subjects, and his great historical work on Roma and Italia are lost.
But
we have Catone’s “De Agricultura”.
Terse,
severely wise, grimly humorous, “De agricultura” gives rules in various aspects
of a farmer’s economy, including even medical and cooking recipes, and reveals
interesting details of domestic life.
M.
Terenzio Varrone, 116–27 a.C, of Reate, renowned for his
vast learning, was an antiquarian, historian, philologist, student of science,
agriculturist, and poet.
Varrone
was a republican who was reconciled to Giulio Cesare and was marked out by him
to supervise an intended national library.
Of
Varrone’s more than seventy works involving hundreds of volumes we have only
one on agriculture and country affairs (Res Rustica or Rerum
Rusticarum) and part of his work on the Latin language (De Lingua Latina),
though we know much about his Satires.
Each
of the three books on country affairs begins with an effective mise en scène
and uses dialogue.
Book
I deals with agriculture and farm management. Book II deals with sheep and
oxen. Book III deals with poultry and the keeping of other animals large and
small, including bees and fishponds.
There
are lively interludes and a graphic background of political events.
CATULLO
Catullus
Gaio
Valerio Catullo (84–54 a.C.), of Verona, went early to Rome, where he associated
not only with other literary men from Cisalpine Gaul but also with Cicerone and
Ortensio.
Catullo’s
surviving poems consist of nearly sixty short lyrics, eight longer poems in
various metres, and almost fifty epigrams.
All
exemplify a strict technique of studied composition inherited from early Greek
lyric and the poets of Alexandria.
In
his work we can trace his unhappy love for a woman he calls Lesbia; the death
of his brother; his visits to Bithynia; and his emotional friendships and
enmities at Rome.
For
consummate poetic artistry coupled with intensity of feeling Catullo’s poems
have no rival in Latin literature.
Albio
Tibullo
(54 circa–19 a.C.), of equestrian rank and a friend of Orazio, enjoyed the
patronage of Marco Valerio Messalla Corvino, whom he several times
apostrophizes.
Three
books of elegies have come down to us under his name, of which only the first
two are authentic.
Book
1 mostly proclaims his love for “Delia,” Book 2 his passion for “Nemesis.” The
third book consists of a miscellany of poems from the archives of Messalla.
It
is very doubtful whether any come from the pen of Tibullo himself. But a
special interest attaches to a group of them which concern a girl called
Sulpicia: some of the poems are written by her lover Cerinto, while others
purport to be her own composition.
The
Pervigilium Veneris, a poem of not quite a hundred lines celebrating a
spring festival in honour of the goddess of love, is remarkable both for its
beauty and as the first clear note of romanticism which transformed classical
into medieval literature.
The
manuscripts give no clue to its author, but recent scholarship has made a
strong case for attributing it to the early fourth-century poet Tiberianus.
The
Loeb Classical Library edition of Celsus is in three volumes.
A.
Cornelius Celso was author, probably during the reign of
the Roman Emperor Tiberius (14–37 CE), of a general encyclopaedia of
agriculture, medicine, military arts, rhetoric, philosophy, and jurisprudence,
in that order of subjects. Of all this great work there survives only the 8
books on medicine (De Medicina or On Medicine).
Celso
was not a professional doctor of medicine or a surgeon, but a practical layman
whose On Medicine, written in a clear and neat style, for lay readers,
is partly a result of his medical treatment of his household (slaves included)
and partly a presentation of information gained from many Greek authorities.
From
no other source can we learn so much of the condition of medical science up to
his own time.
Book
1: after an excellent survey of Greek schools (Dogmatic, Methodic, Empiric) of
medicine come sensible dietetics or health preservation which will always be
applicable.
Book
2 deals with prognosis, diagnosis of symptoms (which he stresses strongly), and
general therapeutics.
Book
3: internal ailments: fevers and general diseases.
Book
4: local bodily diseases.
Next
come two pharmacological books, Book 5: treatment by drugs of general diseases;
and Book 6: of local diseases.
Books
7 and 8 deal with surgery; these books contain accounts of many operations,
including amputation.
The
Loeb Classical Library edition
of Attic Nights is in three volumes.
Aulo
Gellio (123 circa–170 d.C.) is known almost wholly from his Noctes
Atticae (Attic Nights), so called because it was begun during the nights of
an Attic winter.
The
work collects in twenty books (of Book VIII only the index is extant)
interesting notes covering philosophy, history, biography, all sorts of
antiquities, points of law, literary criticism, and lexicographic matters,
explanations of old words and questions of grammar.
The
work is valuable because of its many excerpts from other authors whose works
are lost; and because of its evidence for people’s manners and occupations.
Some at least of the dramatic settings may be genuine occasions.
The
Loeb Classical Library edition of Giulio Cesare is in three volumes.
C.
Giulio CESARE (102–44 a.C.), statesman and soldier, defied
the dictator Sulla; served in the Mithridatic wars and in Spain; pushed his way
in Roman politics as a ‘democrat’ against the senatorial government; was the
real leader of the coalition with Pompey and Crassus; conquered all Gaul for
Rome; attacked Britain twice; was forced into civil war; became master of the
Roman world; and achieved wide-reaching reforms until his murder.
We
have his books of Commentarii (notes): eight on his wars in Gaul, 58–52 a.C.,
including the two expeditions to Britain 55–54, and three on the civil war of
49–48.
They
are records of his own campaigns (with occasional digressions) in vigorous,
direct, clear, unemotional style and in the third person, the account of the
civil war being somewhat more impassioned.
Volume I is
his “Gallic War”. Volume II is his “Civil Wars”.The “Alexandrian War,
African War, and Spanish War”, commonly ascribed to Giulio Cesare
by our manuscripts but of uncertain authorship, are collected in Volume III.
The
Loeb Classical Library edition of Cicero is in 30 volumes.
Marco
Tullio Cicerone (106–43
a.C.), Roman lawyer, orator, politician and philosopher, of whom we know
more than of any other Roman, lived through the stirring era which saw the
rise, dictatorship, and death of Julius Caesar in a tottering republic.
In
Cicerone’s political speeches especially and in his correspondence we see the
excitement, tension and intrigue of politics and the part he played in the
turmoil of the time.
Of
about 106 speeches, delivered before the Roman people or the Senate if they
were political, before jurors if judicial, 58 survive (a few of them
incompletely).
In the
fourteenth century, Petrarca and other Italian humanists discovered manuscripts
containing more than 900 letters of which more than 800 were written by
Cicerone and nearly 100 by others to him.
These
afford a revelation of the man all the more striking because most were not
written for publication.
Six
rhetorical works survive and another in fragments.
Philosophical
works include seven extant major compositions and a number of others; and some
lost.
There
is also poetry, some original, some as translations from the Greek.
The Loeb Classical
Library edition of Claudian is in 2 volumes.
Claudio Claudiano,
Latin poet of great affairs, flourished during the joint reigns (394–5 d.C.
onwards) of the brothers Onorio (Emperor in the West) and Arcadio (in the
East).
Apparently a native of
Greek Alexandria in Egypt, Claudiano was, to judge by his name, of Roman
descent, though his first writings were in Greek, and his pure Latin may have
been learned by him as a foreign language.
About 395 d. C. Claudiano
moved to Italy (Milan and Rome) and though really a pagan, became a
professional court-poet composing for Christian rulers works which give us
important knowledge of Honorius’s time.
A panegyric on the
brothers Probinp and Olibrio (consuls together in 395) was followed during ten
years by other poems (mostly epics in hexameters): in praise of consulships of
Honorius (395, 398, 404 CE), against the Byzantine ministers Rufinus (396) and
Eutropius (399), in praise of the consulship (400) of Stilicho (Honorius’s guardian,
general, and minister), in praise of Stilicho’s wife Serena, mixed metres on
the marriage of Honorius to their daughter Maria, on the war with the rebel
Gildo in Africa (398), on the Getic or Gothic war (402), on Stilicho’s success
against the Goth Alarico (403), on the consulship of Manlio Theodoro (399), on
the wedding of Palladio and Celerina.
Less important are
non-official poems such as the three books of a mythological epic on the Rape
of Proserpina, unfinished as was also a Battle of Giants (in Greek).
Noteworthy are Phoenix,
Senex Veronensis, elegiac prefaces, and the epistles, epigrams, and idylls.
Through the patronage of
Stilicho or through Serena, Claudiano in 404 married well in Africa and was
granted a statue in Rome.
Nothing is known of him
after 404. In his poetry are true poetic as well as rhetorical skill, command
of language, polished style, diversity, vigour, satire, dignity, bombast,
artificiality, flattery, and other virtues and faults of the earlier “silver”
age in Latin.
Lucio
Giunio Moderato COLUMELLA of Gades lived in the reigns of the first emperors to
about 70 d.C.
Columella
moved early in life to Italia where he owned farms and lived near Rome.
It
is probable that Columella did military service in Syria and Cilicia and that
he died at Tarentum.
Columella’s
“De Re Rustica” is the most comprehensive, systematic and detailed of
Roman agricultural works.
Book
1 covers choice of farming site; water supply; buildings; staff. 2: Ploughing;
fertilizing; care of crops. 3, 4, 5: Cultivation, grafting and pruning of fruit
trees, vines, and olives. 6: Acquisition, breeding, and rearing of oxen,
horses, and mules; veterinary medicine. 7: Sheep, goats, pigs, and dogs. 8:
Poultry; fish ponds. 9: Bee-keeping. 10 (in hexameter poetry): Gardening. 11:
Duties of the overseer of a farm; calendar for farm work; more on gardening.
12: Duties of the overseer’s wife; manufacture of wines; pickling; preserving.
There
is also a separate treatise, On Trees (De Arboribus), on vines
and olives and various trees, perhaps part of an otherwise lost work written
before On Agriculture.
Quinto
CURZIO Rufo was apparently a rhetorician who lived in
the first century of the Roman empire and, early in the reign of Claudius
(41–54 CE), wrote a history of Alexander the Great in ten books in clear and
picturesque style for Latin readers.
The
first two books have not survived—our narrative begins with events in 333 a.C.—and
there is material missing from books 5, 6, and 10.
One
of Curzio’s main sources is Cleitarco who, about 300 a.C., had made Alexander’s
career a matter of marvelous adventure.
Curzio
is not a critical historian; and in his desire to entertain and to stress the
personality of Alexander, he elaborates effective scenes, omits much that is
important for history, and does not worry about chronology.
But
Curzio does not invent things, except speeches and letters inserted into the
narrative by traditional habit. “I copy more than I believe,” he says.
Three
features of Curzio’s story are narrative of exciting experiences, development
of a hero’s character, and a disposition to moralize.
Curzio’s
history is one of the five extant works on which we rely for the career of
Alexander the Great.
Gaio
Valerio Flacco, a Latin poet who flourished in the period
ca. 70–90 d.C., composed in smooth and sometimes obscure style an incomplete
epic “Argonautica” in eight books, on the quest for the Golden Fleece.
The
poem is typical of his age, being a free rehandling of the story already told
by Apollonio Rhodio, to whom he is superior in arrangement, vividness, and
description of character.
Valerio’s
poem shows much imitation of the language and thought of Virgilio, and much
learning.
The
chief interest of the epic lies in the relationship between Medea and GIASONE,
especially the growth of Medea’s love, where Valerio is at his best.
The
long series of adventures and various Roman allusions suggest that that FLACCO meant
to do honour to Vespasian (to whom the epic is dedicated) with special
reference to that emperor’s ships in waters around Britain.
Floro,
born apparently in Africa, lived in Spain and in Rome in Adriano’s time.
Floro
wrote, in brief pointed rhetorical style, a “Summary of Roman history”,
especially wars, in two books in order to show the greatness and decline of
Roman morals.
Floro’s
history is based chiefly on Livio.
Floro’s
history was perhaps planned to reach his own times, but the extant work ends
with Augusto’s reign (30 a.C.–14 d.C.).
This
Epitome is a useful rapid sketch of Roman military history.
Sesto
Giulio Frontino, 35 circa –103 d.C., was a capable Roman
civil officer and military commander.
Praetor
of ROMA in 70 and consul in 73 or 74, 98 and 100, Frontino was, about the year
76, sent to Britain as governor.
Frontino
quelled the Silures of Wales, and began to build a road through their
territory; his place was taken by Agricola in 78.
In
97 Frontino was given the highly esteemed office of Manager of Aqueducts at
Rome.
Frontino
is known to have been an augur, being succeeded by his friend Plinio il
Giovane.
The
two sides of Frontino’s public career are reflected in his two surviving works.
“Stratagemi”, written
after 84, gives examples of military stratagems from Greek and Roman history,
for the instruction of Roman officers, in three books; the fourth book is
concerned largely with military discipline.
De
Aquis urbis Romae (The Aqueducts of Rome), written in
97–98, gives some historical details and a description of the aqueducts for the
water supply of Rome, with laws relating to them.
Frontino
aimed at being useful and writes in a rather popular style which is both simple
and clear.
The
correspondence of Frontone (100 circa –176 d.C.) —a much admired orator
and rhetorician who was befriended by the emperor Antonino Pio and taught his
adopted sons Marc’Aurelio and Lucio Vero —offers an invaluable picture of
aristocratic life and literary culture in the second century.
Frontone’s
letters reveal his strong stylistic views and dislike of Stoicism as well as
his family joys and sorrows.
The
letters portray the successes and trials of a prominent figure in the palace,
literary salons, the Senate, and law courts, and they give a fascinating record
of the relationship between the foremost teacher of his time and his
illustrious student Marc’Aurelio, his chief correspondent.
Sofronio Eusebio Girolamo, 345
circa–420, of Stridon, Dalmatia, son of Christian parents, at Rome listened to
rhetoricians, legal advocates, and philosophers, and in 360 was baptized by
Pope Liberio.
Girolamo travelled widely in Gaul and in Asia Minor; and
turned in the years 373–379 to hermetic life in Syria.
Ordained presbyter at Antioch in 379 GIROLAMO went to
Constantinople, met Gregory of Nazianzus and advanced greatly in scholarship.
Girolamo was called to Rome in 382 to help Pope Damaso,
at whose suggestion he began his revision of the Latin translation of the Bible
(which came to form the core of the “Vulgata” version).
Meanwhile Girolamo taught scripture and Hebrew and
monastic living to Roman women.
Wrongly suspected of luxurious habits, Girolamo left Rome
(now under Pope Siricius) in 385, toured Palestine, visited Egypt, and then
settled in Bethlehem, presiding over a monastery and (with help) translating
the Old Testament from Hebrew.
About 394 he met Augustine.
Girolamo died on 30 September 420.
Girolamo’s letters constitute one of the most notable
collections in Latin literature.
Girolamo’s letters are an essential source for our
knowledge of Christian life in the fourth–fifth centuries; they also provide
insight into one of the most striking and complex personalities of the time.
Seven of the
eighteen letters in this selection deal with a primary interest of Jerome’s:
the morals and proper role of women.
The most famous letter here fervently extols virginity.
The
bite and wit of two of antiquity’s best satirists are captured here in a new
Loeb Classical Library edition, a vivid and vigorous translation facing the
Latin text.
Persio
(34–62 d.C.) and Giovenale (writing maybe 60 years later) were heirs to
the style of Latin verse satire developed by Lucilio and Orazio, a tradition
mined in the introduction and notes.
The notes
also give guidance to the literary and historical allusions that pepper
Persius’s and Juvenal’s satirical poems—which were clearly aimed at a
sophisticated urban audience.
Both
PERSIO and GIOVENALE adopt the mask of an angry man, and sharp criticism of the
society in which they live is combined with flashes of sardonic humor in their
satires.
Whether
targeting common and uncommon vices, the foolishness of prayers, the abuse of
power by emperors and the Roman elite, the folly and depravity of Roman wives,
or decadence, materialism, and corruption, their tone is generally one of
righteous indignation.
Giovenale
and Persio are seminal as well as stellar figures in the history of satirical
writing.
Giovenale
especially had a lasting influence on English writers of the Renaissance and
succeeding centuries.
The Scriptores
Historiae Augustae is a collection of biographies of Roman emperors, heirs,
and claimants from Adriano to Numeriano (117–284 CE).
The
work, which is modeled on Suetonius’s Lives of the
Caesars, purports to be written by six different
authors and quotes documents and public records extensively.
Since
we possess no continuous account of the emperors of the second and third
centuries, the Historia Augusta has naturally attracted keen attention.
In
the last century it has also generated the gravest suspicions.
Present
opinion holds that the whole is the work of a single author (who lived in the
time of Theodosius) and contains much that is plagiarism and even downright
forgery.
The
last volume includes a comprehensive index.
Tito
Livio, the great Roman historian, was born at or near Padova in 64 a. C. he may
have lived mostly in Rome but died at Padova, in 12 d.C.
Livio’s
only extant work is part of his history of Rome from the foundation of the city
to 9 a.C.
Of
its 142 books, we have just 35, and short summaries of all the rest except two.
The
whole work was, long after his death, divided into “decades” or series of ten.
Books
1–10 we have entire; books 11–20 are lost; and books –45 are entire, except
parts of 41 and 43–45.
Of
the rest only fragments and the summaries remain.
In
splendid style, Livy—a man of wide sympathies and proud of Rome’s
past—presented an uncritical but clear and living narrative of the rise of Rome
to greatness.
LUCANO -- Lucan
M.
Anneo Lucano (39–65 d.C.), son of wealthy M. Anneo Mela and nephew of Seneca,
was born at Corduba in Spain and was brought as a baby to Rome.
In
60 d.C. at a festival in Emperor Nero’s honour Lucano praised him in a
panegyric and was promoted to one or two minor offices.
But
having defeated Nero in a poetry contest, Lucano was interdicted from further
recitals or publication, so that three books of his epic The Civil War
were probably not issued in 61 when they were finished.
By
65, Lucano was composing the tenth book but then became involved in the unsuccessful
plot of Pisone against Nerone and, aged only twenty-six, by order took his own
life.
Quintilian
called Lucan a poet “full of fire and energy and a master of brilliant
phrases.”
Lucano’s
epic stood next after Virgil’s in the estimation of antiquity.
Giulio
Cesare looms as a sinister hero in his stormy chronicle in verse of the war
between Cesar and the Republic’s forces under Pompeo, and later under Catone in
Africa—a chronicle of dramatic events carrying us from Cesare’s fateful
crossing of the Rubicon, through the Battle of Pharsalus and death of Pompeo,
to Cesare victorious in Egypt.
The
poem is also called Pharsalia.
LUCREZIO -- Lucretius
Lucrezio
lived 99 circa–55 circa a.C., but the details of his career are unknown.
Lucrezio
is the author of the great didactic poem in hexameters, De Rerum Natura
(On the Nature of Things).
In
six books compounded of solid reasoning, brilliant imagination, and noble
poetry, Lucrezio expounds the scientific theories of the Greek philosopher Epicurus,
with the aim of dispelling fear of the gods and fear of death and so enabling
man to attain peace of mind and happiness.
In
Book 1 Lucrezio establishes the general principles of the atomic system,
refutes the views of rival physicists, and proves the infinity of the universe
and of its two ultimate constituents, matter and void.
In
Book 2 he explains atomic movement, the variety of atomic shapes, and argues
that the atoms lack colour, sensation, and other secondary qualities.
In
Book 3 he expounds the nature and composition of mind and spirit, proves their
mortality, and argues that there is nothing to fear in death.
Book
4 explains the nature of sensation and thought, and ends with an impressive
account of sexual love.
Book
5 describes the nature and formation of our world, astronomical phenomena, the
beginnings of life on earth, and the development of civilization.
In
Book 6 the poet explains various atmospheric and terrestrial phenomena,
including thunder, lightning, earthquakes, volcanoes, the magnet, and plagues.
The
work is distinguished by the fervor and poetry of the author.
MACROBIO
3 volumes
The Saturnalia,
Macrobius’s encyclopedic celebration of Roman culture written in the
early fifth century d.C., has been prized since the Renaissance as a treasure
trove of otherwise unattested lore.
Cast
in the form of a dialogue, the Saturnalia treats subjects as diverse as
the divinity of the Sun and the quirks of human digestion while showcasing
Virgilio as the master of all human knowledge from diction and rhetoric to
philosophy and religion.
The
new Latin text is based on a refined understanding of the medieval tradition
and improves on Willis’s standard edition in nearly 300 places.
The
accompanying translation—only the second in English and the only one now in
print—offers a clear and sprightly rendition of Macrobius’s ornate Latin and is
supplemented by ample annotation.
A full
introduction places the work in its cultural context and analyzes its
construction, while indexes of names, subjects, and ancient works cited in both
text and notes make the work more readily accessible than ever before.
MANILIO
Marco
Manilio, who lived in the reigns of Augustus and Tiberius, is
the author of the earliest treatise on astrology we possess.
Manilio’s
Astronomica, a Latin didactic poem in five books, begins with an account
of celestial phenomena, and then proceeds to treat of the signs of the zodiac
and the twelve temples; there follow instructions for calculating the
horoscoping degree, and details of chronocrators, decans, injurious degrees,
zodiacal geography, paranatellonta, and other technical matters.
Besides
exhibiting great virtuosity in rendering mathematical tables and diagrams in
verse form, the poet writes with some passion about his Stoic beliefs and shows
much wit and humour in his character sketches of persons born under particular
stars.
Perhaps
taking a lead from Virgil in his Georgics,
Manilio abandons the proportions of his last book to narrate the story of
Perseo and Andromeda at considerable
length.
In
spite of its undoubted elegance, the Astronomica is a difficult work,
and this edition provides in addition to the first English prose translation a
full guide to the poem, with copious explanatory notes and illustrative
figures.
MARCELLINO -- Marcellinus
3 volumes
Marcellino, 325–395
d.C., a Greek of Antioch, joined the army when still young and served under the
governor Ursicinus and the emperor of the East Constantius II, and later under
the emperor Julian, whom he admired and accompanied against the Alamanni and
the Persians.
Marcellino
subsequently settled in Roma, where he wrote in Latin a history of the Roman
empire in the period 96–378 d.C., entitled “Rerum Gestarum Libri XXXI”.
Of
these 31 books, only 14–31 (353–378 d.C.) survive, a remarkably accurate and
impartial record of his own times.
Soldier
though he was, Marcellino includes economic and social affairs.
Marcellino
was broad-minded towards non-Romans and towards Christianity.
We
get from him clear indications of causes of the fall of the Roman empire.
Marcellino’s
style indicates that his prose was intended for recitation.
It
was to celebrate the opening of the Roman Colosseum in 80 d.C. that Marziale
published his first book of poems, “On the Spectacles.”
Written
with satiric wit and a talent for the memorable phrase, the poems in this
collection record the broad spectacle of shows in the new arena.
The
great Latin epigrammist’s twelve subsequent books capture the spirit of Roman
life — both public and private — in vivid detail.
Fortune
hunters and busybodies, orators and lawyers, schoolmasters and street hawkers,
jugglers and acrobats, doctors and plagiarists, beautiful slaves, and generous
hosts are among the diverse characters who populate his verses.
Marziale
is a keen and sharp-tongued observer of Roman society.
His
pen brings into crisp relief a wide variety of scenes and events: the theater
and public games, life in the countryside, a rich debauchee’s banquet, lions in
the amphitheater, the eruption of Vesuvius.
The
epigrams are sometimes obscene, in the tradition of the genre, sometimes warmly
affectionate or amusing, and always pointed.
Like
his contemporary Stazio, though, Martial shamelessly flatters his patron
Domitian, one of Rome’s worst-reputed emperors.
The
Loeb now gives us, in three volumes, a reliable modern
translation of Martial’s often difficult Latin, eliminating many
misunderstandings in previous versions.
The
text is mainly that of his highly praised Teubner edition of 1990.
Massimo
compiled his handbook of notable deeds and sayings during the reign of Tiberio (14–37
d.C.).
The
collection was very popular in the Renaissance.
Massimo
arranges his instructive examples in short chapters, each focused on a
particular virtue, vice, religious practice, or traditional custom — including
omens, dreams, anger, cruelty, bravery, fidelity, gratitude, friendship, and
parental love.
The
moral undercurrent of this collection is readily apparent.
But Massimo
tells us that the book’s purpose is practical.
Massimo
decides to select worthwhile material from famous writers so that people
looking for illustrative examples might be spared the trouble of research.
Whatever
the author’s intention, his book is an interesting source of information on
Roman attitudes toward religion and moral values in the first century.
The 2-volume
anthology covers a period of four and a half centuries, beginning with the work
of the mime-writer Publilio Siro, who flourished ca. 45 a.C., and ending
with the graphic and charming poem of Rutilio Namatiano recording a sea
voyage from Rome to Gaul in 416 d.C..
A
wide variety of theme gives interest to the poems: hunting in a poem of Grattio;
an inquiry into the causes of volcanic activity by the author of Aetna;
pastoral poems by Calpurnio Siculo and by Nemesiano; fables by Aviano;
a collection of Dicta, moral sayings, as if by the elder Catone; eulogy
in Laus Pisonis; and the legend of the Phoenix, a poem of the
fourth century.
Other
poets complete the work.
Nepote was
born in Ostiglia, Cisalpine Gaul, but lived in Rome and was a friend of Cicerone,
Attico, and Catullo.
Most
of Nepote’s writings — which included poems, moral examples from history, a
chronological sketch of general history, a geographical work, and lives of Catone
the Elder and Cicerone and other biographies—are lost.
Extant
is a portion of his “De Viris Illustribus”: (i) part of his parallel
lives of Roman and non-Roman famous men, namely the portion containing lives of
non-Roman generals (all Greeks except three) and a chapter on kings; and (ii)
two lives from the class of historians.
The
lives are short popular biographies of various kinds, written in a usually
plain readable style, of value today because of Nepos’s use of many good
sources.
The
poetry of Orazio (born 65 a.C.) is richly varied, its focus moving
between public and private concerns, urban and rural settings, Stoic and
Epicurean thought.
Here
is a new Loeb Classical Library edition of the great Roman poet’s Odes
and Epodes, a fluid translation facing the Latin text.
Orazio
took pride in being the first Roman to write a body of lyric poetry.
For
models he turned to Greek lyric, especially to the poetry of Alcaeus, Sappho,
and Pindar.
But
his poems are set in a Roman context.
His
four books of “Odes” cover a wide range of moods and topics.
Some
are public poems, upholding the traditional values of courage, loyalty, and
piety; and there are hymns to the gods.
But
most of the odes are on private themes: chiding or advising friends; speaking
about love and amorous situations, often amusingly.
Orazio’s
seventeen “Epodes”, which he called iambi, were also an innovation for Roman
literature.
Like
the odes the epodes were inspired by a Greek model: the seventh-century iambic
poetry of Archilochus.
Love
and political concerns are frequent themes; here the tone is generally that of
satirical lampoons.
“In
his language he is triumphantly adventurous,” Quintilian said of Horace; this
new translation reflects his different voices.
OVIDIO (43 a.C.–17 d.C.), born at Sulmo,
studied rhetoric and law in Roma.
Later
Ovidio did considerable public service there, and otherwise devoted himself to
poetry and to society.
Famous
at first, Ovidio offended the emperor Augusto with his Ars Amatoria.
Ovidio
was banished because of this work and some other reason unknown to us, and dwelt
in the cold and primitive town of Tomis on the Black Sea.
Ovidio
continued writing poetry — a kindly man, leading a temperate life—and died in
exile.
Ovid’s
main surviving works are: the Metamorphoses, a
source of inspiration to artists and poets including Chaucer and Shakespeare, the
Heroides, fictitious love letters by legendary women to absent husbands
and lovers, the Amores, elegies ostensibly about the poet’s love affair
with his mistress Corinna, the Ars Amatoria, not moral, but clever—and
in parts, beautiful, the Fasti, a poetic treatment of the Roman year of
which Ovid finished only half, the dismal works written in exile: the Tristia,
appeals to persons including his wife and also the emperor; and the similar Epistulae
ex Ponto.
Poetry
came naturally to Ovid, who at his best is lively, graphic and lucid.
The
Metropolitan Museum has a painting, “Ovid among the Scythians”.
Patercolo lived
in the reigns of Augusto and Tiberio (30 a.C.–37 d.C.).
He served as a military
tribune in Thrace, Macedonia, Greece and Asia Minor, and later, from 4 CE to 12
or 13, as a cavalry officer and legatus
in Germany and Pannonia.
He was quaestor in 7 CE,
praetor in 15.
Patercolo’s “Compendium of Roman History”, in 2 books,
is a summary of Roman history from the fall of Troy to 29 d.C.
As he approached his own
times Patercolo becomes much fuller in his treatment, especially between the
death of Giulio Cesare in 44 a.C. and that of Augusto in 14 d.C..
His work has useful
concise essays on Roman colonies and provinces and some effective compressed
portrayals of characters.
In his 76th
year (13–14 d.C.), the emperor Augusto
wrote a dignified account of his public life and work, the “Res Gestae Divi Augusti”, of which
the best preserved copy was engraved on the walls of his temple.
The “Res Gestae Divi
Augusti” is a unique document giving short details of his public offices and
honours; his benefactions to the empire, to the people, and to the soldiers;
and his services as a soldier and as an administrator.
Petronio, who
is reasonably identified with the author of the famous satyric and satiric
novel Satyricon, was a man of pleasure and of good literary taste who
flourished in the times of Claudio (41–54 d.C.) and Nerone (54–68 d.C.).
As Tacito describes him, Petronio used to
sleep by day and attend to official duties or to his amusements by night.
At one time Petronio was governor of the
province of Bithynia in Asia Minor and was also a consul, showing himself a man
of vigour when this was required.
Later he lapsed into indulgence (or assumed
the mask of vice) and became a close friend of Nerone.
Accused by jealous Tigellino of disloyalty
and condemned, with self-opened veins he conversed lightly with friends, dined,
drowsed, sent to Nerone a survey of Nerone’s s sexual deeds, and so died, 66
d.C..
The
surviving parts of Petronio’s romance Satyricon mix philosophy and real
life, prose and verse, in a tale of the disreputable adventures of Encolpione
and two companions, Ascylto and Gitone.
In
the course of their wanderings the three attend a showy and wildly extravagant
dinner given by a rich freedman, Trimalchione, whose guests talk about
themselves and life in general.
Other
incidents are a shipwreck and somewhat lurid proceedings in South Italy.
The
work is written partly in pure Latin, but sometimes purposely in a more vulgar
style.
It parodies and otherwise attacks bad taste in
literature, pedantry and hollow society.
Apocolocyntosis (Pumpkinification)
(as opposed to deification), is probably by the wealthy philosopher and
courtier Seneca (ca. 4 BCE–65 CE).
It
is a medley of prose and verse and a political satire on the Emperor Claudius,
written soon after he died in 54 CE and was deified.
The
rollicking comedies of Plauto, who brilliantly adapted Greek plays for
Roman audiences c. 205–184 a.C., are the
earliest Latin works to survive complete and are cornerstones of the European
theatrical tradition from Shakespeare and Molière to modern times.
The Loeb
Classical Library edition of all twenty-one of Plautus’s extant comedies
presents Casina, Cistellaria, Curculio, Epidicus,
and Menaechmi with freshly edited texts, lively modern translations,
introductions, and ample explanatory notes.
Plinio
il vecchio (23–79 d.C.), tireless researcher and
writer, is author of the encyclopedic Natural History, in 37 books, an
unrivaled compendium of Roman knowledge.
The
contents of the books are as follows: Book 1: Table of contents of the others
and of authorities; Book 2: Mathematical and metrological survey of the
universe; Books 3–6: Geography and ethnography of the known world; Book 7:
Anthropology and the physiology of man; Books 8–11: Zoology; Books 12–19:
Botany, agriculture, and horticulture; Books 20–27: Plant products as used in
medicine; Books 28–32: Medical zoology; Books 33–37: Minerals (and medicine),
the fine arts, and gemstones.
Plinio il giovane
was born in 61 or 62 d.C., the son of Lucio Cecilio of Como and the sister of
Plinio il vecchio.
Plinio il giovane was
educated at home and then in Roma under Quintiliano.
Plinio il giovane was at
Misenum at the time of the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 (described in two famous
letters) when Plinio il vecchio died.
Plinio il giovane started
his career at the Roman bar at the age of eighteen.
He moved through the
regular offices in a senator’s career, held two treasury appointments and a
priesthood, and was consul in September and October 100.
On this occasion he delivered
the speech of thanks to the Emperor Traiano which he afterwards expanded and
published as the Panegyricus.
After his consulship he
returned to advocacy in the court and Senate, and was also president of the
Tiber Conservancy Board.
His hopes of retirement
were cut short when he was chosen by Trajan to go out to the province of
Bithynia and Pontus on a special commission as the Emperor’s direct
representative.
He is known to have been
there two years, and is presumed to have died there before the end of 113.
Book X of the Letters
contains his correspondence with Trajan during this period, and includes
letters about the early Christians.
Pliny’s Letters
are important as a social document of his times. They tell us about the man
himself and his wide interests, and about his many friends, including Tacitus,
Martial, and Suetonius. Pliny has a gift for description and a versatile prose
style, and more than any of his contemporaries he gives an unprejudiced picture
of Rome as he knew it.
PROPERZIO
The
passionate and dramatic elegies of Properzio gained him a reputation as
one of Rome’s finest love poets.
Here
Properzio portrays the exciting, uneven course of his love affair with Cintia and
tells us much about his contemporaries and the society in which he lives, while
in later poems he turns to mythological themes and the legends of early Rome.
Born
in Assisi about 50 a.C., Properzio moved to Roma, where he came into contact
with a coterie of poets, including Virgilio, Tibullo, Orazio, and Ovidio.
Publication
of his first book brought immediate recognition and the unwavering support of Mecenate,
the influential patron of the Augustan poets.
He
died perhaps in his mid-thirties, leaving us four books of elegies that have
attracted admirers throughout the ages.
In
this new edition of Properzio, we solve some longstanding questions of
interpretation and gives us a faithful and stylish prose translation.
The
explanatory notes and glossary, and index offer steady guidance and a wealth of
information.
PRUDENZIO
2
volumes
Aurelio
Prudenzio Clemente was born in 348 d.C., probably at Caesaraugusta (Saragossa),
and lived mostly in northeastern Spain, but visited Rome between 400 and 405.
Prudenzio’s
parents, presumably Christian, had him educated in literature and rhetoric.
Prudenzio
became a barrister and at least once later on an administrator; he afterwards
received some high honor from Emperor Theodosius.
Prudenzio
was a strong Christian who admired the old pagan literature and art, especially
the great Latin poets whose forms he used.
He
looked on the Roman achievement in history as a preparation for the coming of
Christ and the triumph of a spiritual empire.
The first
volume presents: Preface (Praefatio); The Daily Round (Liber
Cathemerinon); 12 literary and attractive hymns, parts of which have been
included in the Breviary and in modern hymnals; The Divinity of Christ (Apotheosis),
which maintains the Trinity and attacks those who denied the distinct personal
being of Christ; The Origin of Sin (Hamartigenia), attacking the
separation of the “strict” God of the Old Testament from the “good” God
revealed by Christ; Fight for Mansoul (Psychomachia), which
describes the struggle between (Christian) virtues and (pagan) vices; and the
first book of Against the Address of Symmachus (Contra Orationem
Symmachi), in which pagan gods are assailed.
The second volume
contains the second book of Against the Address of Symmachus, opposing a
petition for the replacement of an altar and statue of Victory; Crowns of
Martyrdom (Peristephanon Liber), 14 hymns to martyrs (mostly of
Spain); Lines To Be Inscribed under Scenes from History (Tituli
Historiarum), 49 four-line stanzas which are inscriptions for scenes from
the Bible depicted on the walls of a church; and an Epilogue.
QUINTILIANO
10
volumes
Quintiliano,
born in 35 d.C., became a widely known and highly successful teacher of
rhetoric in Roma.
The Institutio Oratoria,
a comprehensive training program in 12 books, draws on his own rich experience.
It is a work of enduring
importance, not only for its insights on oratory, but for the picture it paints
of education and social attitudes in the Roman world.
Quintilian offers both
general and specific advice.
He gives guidelines for
proper schooling (beginning with the young boy); analyzes the structure of
speeches; recommends devices that will engage listeners and appeal to their
emotions; reviews a wide range of Greek and Latin authors of use to the orator;
and counsels on memory, delivery, and gestures.
The Lesser Declamations, dating perhaps from the
second century d.C. and attributed to Quintiliano, might more accurately
be described as emanating from “the school of Quintilian.”
The
collection represents classroom materials for budding Roman lawyers.
The instructor who
composed these specimen speeches for fictitious court cases adds his comments
and suggestions concerning presentation and arguing tactics, thereby giving us
insight into Roman law and education.
A wide range of scenarios
is imagined. Some evoke the plots of ancient novels and comedies: pirates,
exiles, parents and children in conflict, adulterers, rapists, and wicked
stepmothers abound. Other cases deal with such matters as warfare between
neighboring cities, smuggling, historical (and quasi-historical) events,
tyrants and tyrannicides. Two gems are the speech opposing a proposal to
equalize wealth, and the case of a Cynic youth who has forsworn worldly goods
but sues his father for cutting off his allowance.
Of the original 388
sample cases in the collection, 145 survive. These are now added to the Loeb Library
in a 2-volume edition.
The
new 5-volume Loeb edition of The Orator’s Education provides a text and
facing translation fully up to date in light of current scholarship and well
tuned to today’s taste.
There are also rich explanatory notes, which enable full appreciation of this central work in the history of rhetoric.
SALLUSTIO
Gaio
Sallustio Crispo (86–35 a.C.), a Sabine from Amiternum, acted against Cicero
and Milo as tribune in 52, joined Caesar after being expelled from the Senate
in 50, was restored to the senate by Caesar and took part in his African
campaign as praetor in 46, and was then appointed governor of New Africa
(Numidia).
Upon
his return to Rome Sallustio narrowly escaped conviction for malfeasance in
office, retired from public life, and took up historiography.
Sallustio’s
two extant monographs take as their theme the moral and political decline of
Rome, one on the conspiracy of Catiline and the other on the war with Jugurtha.
Although
Sallustio is decidedly unsubtle and partisan in analyzing people and events,
his works are important and significantly influenced later historians, notably
Tacitus.
Taking
Tucidide as his model but building on Roman stylistic and rhetorical
traditions, Sallustio achieved a distinctive style, concentrated and arresting;
lively characterizations, especially in the speeches; and skill at using
particular episodes to illustrate large general themes.
For
this edition, the text and translation of the Catiline and Jugurtha
have been thoroughly revised in line with the most recent scholarship.
SENECA il retore – Seneca the Elder
2
volumes
Roman
education aimed principally at training future lawyers and politicians.
Under
the late Republic and the Empire, the main instrument was an import from
Greece: declamation, the making of practice speeches on imaginary subjects.
There
were two types of such speeches: controversiae on law-court themes, suasoriae
on deliberative topics.
On
both types a prime source of our knowledge is the work of Lucio AnSeneca,
from Cordoba, father of the distinguished philosopher.
Towards
the end of his long life (55 a.C.–40 d.C.) he collected together ten books
devoted to controversiae (some only preserved in excerpt) and at least
one (surviving) of suasoriae.
These
books contained his memories of the famous rhetorical teachers and practitioners
of his day: their lines of argument, their methods of approach, their
idiosyncrasies, and above all their epigrams.
The
extracts from the declaimers, though scrappy, throw invaluable light on the
influences that coloured the styles of most pagan (and many Christian) writers
of the Empire.
Unity
is provided by Seneca’s own contribution, the lively prefaces, engaging
anecdote about speakers, writers and politicians, and brisk criticism of
declamatory excess.
SENECA
10
volumes
Seneca,
born at Corduba, 4 circa a. C., of a prominent and wealthy family, spent an
ailing childhood in Roma in an aunt’s care.
Seneca became famous in
rhetoric, philosophy, money-making, and imperial service.
After some disgrace during
Claudio’s reign Seneca became tutor and then, in 54 d.C., advising minister to
Nerone, some of whose worst misdeeds he did not prevent.
Involved in a conspiracy,
Seneca killed himself by order in 65.
Wealthy, he preached
indifference to wealth; evader of pain and death, he preached scorn of both;
and there were other contrasts between practice and principle.
We have Seneca’s
philosophical or moral essays (ten of them traditionally called “Dialogues”)
— on providence, steadfastness, the happy life, anger, leisure, tranquility,
the brevity of life, gift-giving, forgiveness — and treatises on natural
phenomena.
Also extant are 124
epistles, in which he writes in a relaxed style about moral and ethical
questions, relating them to personal experiences; a skit on the official
deification of Claudius, Apocolocyntosis
(in Loeb no. 15).
Also extant are 9 tragedies on ancient mythological themes. Many epistles and all his speeches are lost.
Seneca’s moral essays are
collected in Volumes I–III; the 124 epistles in Volumes IV–VI; the tragedies in
Volumes VIII and IX; and the treatises on natural phenomena, Naturales
Quaestiones, in Volumes VII and X.
SIDONIO
2
volumes
Sidonio
Apollinaris, a Gallo-Roman, was born at Lugdunum about
430 d.C.
He
married Papianilla, daughter of the Emperor Avitus in whose honour he recited
at Rome on 1 January 456 a panegyric in verse.
Sidonius
later joined a rebellion, it seems, but was finally reconciled to the emperor
Majorian and delivered at Lyon in 458 a panegyric on him.
After
some years in his native land, in 467 he led a Gallo-Roman deputation to the
Emperor Anthemius, and on 1 January 468 recited at Rome his third panegyric.
He
returned to Gaul in 469 and became Bishop of Auvergne with seat at Clermont-Ferrand.
He
upheld his people in resisting the Visigoths. After Auvergne was ceded to them
in 475, he was imprisoned but soon resumed his bishopric. He was canonized
after his death.
The
first volume contains his poetry: the three long panegyrics as well as poems
addressed to or concerned with friends, apparently written in his youth. Volume
I also contains two of the nine books of letters (all dating from before his
episcopate).
Volume II
contains books 3–9. Sidonius’s writings shed valued light on Roman culture in
the fifth century.
Silius -- SILIO
2
volumes
Silio, 25–101 d.C., was consul in 68 and
governor of the province of Asia in 69.
Silio sought no further office but lived
thereafter on his estates as a literary man and collector.
Silio revered the work of Cicerone, whose
Tusculan villa he owned, and that of Virgilio, whose tomb at Napoli he likewise
owned and near which he lived.
His “Le guerre puniche” , on the war
with Carthage (218–202 a.C.), is based for facts largely on Livio’s account.
Conceived as a contrast between two great
nations (and their supporting gods), championed by the two great heroes Scipione
and Annibale, “Le guerre puniche” is written in pure Latin and smooth verse
filled throughout with echoes of Virgilio above all (and other poets); it
exploits with easy grace all the devices and techniques of traditional Latin
epic.
The Metropolitan Museum has an oil by
Joseph of Wright, showing Stazio reading Virgil in Virgil’s tomb.
STAZIO -- Statius
2
volumes
Stazio
published his Tebaide in the last decade of the first century.
This
epic, recounting the struggle between the two sons of Edipo for the kingship of
Tebe, is his masterpiece, a stirring exploration of the passions of civil war.
The
extant portion of his unfinished Achilleide is strikingly different in
tone: this second epic begins as a charming account of Achille’s life.
Stazio
was raised in the cultural milieu of the bay of Napoli, and his literary
education is reflected in his poetry.
The
political realities of Rome in the first century are also evident in the Tebaide,
in representations of authoritarian power and the drive for domination.
SVETONIO -- Suetonius
2
volumes
Svetonio (70 d.C.), son
of a military tribune, was at first an advocate and a teacher of rhetoric, but
later became the emperor Adriano’s private secretary, 119–121.
Svetonio dedicated
to C. Septicio Claro, prefect of the praetorian guard, his “Lives of the 12 Caesars”.
After the
dismissal of both men for some breach of court etiquette, Svetonio apparently
retired and probably continued his writing.
His other
works, many known by title, are now lost except for part of the “Lives of
Illustrious Men of letters”.
Friend of
Plinio il Giovane, Svetonio was a studious and careful collector of facts, so
that the extant lives of the emperors (including Giulio Cesare the dictator) to
Domiziano are invaluable.
His plan in Lives of the Caesars is: the
emperor’s family and early years; public and private life; death. We find many
anecdotes, much gossip of the imperial court, and various details of character
and personal appearance. Svetonio’s account of Nero’s death is justly famous.
Both volumes
were revised throughout in 1997–98, and a new Introduction added.
Vite dei dodici cesari
There is an
interesting series of engravings by Antonio Tempesta on each of the twelve
Caesars.
TACITO
5 volumes
Tacito was born in 55, 56, or 57 d.C. and
lived to about 120.
Tacito became an orator, married in 77
a daughter of Giulio Agricola before Agricola went to Britain, was quaestor in
81 or 82, a senator under the Flavian emperors, and a praetor in 88.
After four years’ absence Tacito
experienced the terrors of Emperor Domiziano’s last years and turned to
historical writing.
Tacito was a consul in 97. Close friend
of Plinio il giovane, with him he successfully prosecuted Mario Prisco.
Tacito’s works include (a) The Life
and Character of Agricola, written in 97–98, specially interesting because of
Agricola’s career in Britain;(b) the Germania
(98–99), an equally important description of the geography, anthropology,
products, institutions, and social life and the tribes of the Germans as known
to the Romans; (c) the Dialogue on Oratory (Dialogus), of unknown
date; a lively conversation about the decline of oratory and education., and
the Histories (in 3 volumes), probably issued in parts from 105 onwards.
A great work that originally consisted of at least 12 books covering the period
69–96 d.C., only Books I–IV and part of Book V survive, dealing in detail with
the dramatic years 69–70.
Annals (in Loeb volumes 249, 322, and 312), Tacitus’s
other great work, originally covering the period 14–68 CE (Emperors Tiberius,
Gaius, Claudius, Nero) and published between 115 and about 120. Of sixteen
books at least, there survive Books I–IV (covering the years 14–28); a bit of
Book V and all Book VI (31–37); part of Book XI (from 47); Books XII–XV and
part of Book XVI (to 66).
Tacitus is renowned for his development
of a pregnant concise style, character study, and psychological analysis, and
for the often terrible story which he brilliantly tells. As a historian of the
early Roman empire he is paramount.
TERENZIO
-- Terence
2 volumes
Terenzio
brought to the Roman stage a bright comic voice and a
refined sense of style.
Terenzio’s
6 comedies — first produced in the half dozen years before his premature death
in 159 a.C. — were imaginatively reformulated in Latin plays written by Greek
playwrights, especially Menander.
For
this new Loeb Classical Library edition of Terenzio, we give a faithful and lively translation with full
explanatory notes, facing a freshly edited Latin text.
Volume I
contains a substantial introduction and three plays: The Woman of Andros,
a romantic comedy; The Self-Tormentor, which looks at contrasting
father-son relationships; and The Eunuch, whose characters include the
most sympathetically drawn courtesan in Roman comedy.
In
Volume II are: Phormio, a comedy of intrigue with an engaging trickster;
The Mother-in-Law, unique among Terence’s plays in that the female
characters are the admirable ones; and The Brothers, which explores
contrasting approaches to parental education of sons.
The
Romans highly praised Terenzio—“whose speech can charm, whose every word
delights,” in Cicero’s words.
This
new edition of his plays, which replaces the now outdated Loeb translation by
John Sargeaunt (first published in 1912), succeeds in capturing his polished
style and appeal.
TERTULLIANO
-- Tertullian
Tertulliano
(ca. 150–222 a.C.) was born a soldier’s son at Carthage, educated in Roman
literature, philosophy, and medicine, studied law, and became a pleader,
remaining a clever and often tortuous arguer.
After
a visit to churches in Greece he returned to Carthage and in his writings there
founded a Christian Latin language and literature, toiling to fuse enthusiasm
with reason; to unite the demands of the Bible with the practice of the Church;
and to continue to vindicate the Church’s possession of the true doctrine in
the face of unbelievers, Jews, Gnostics, and others.
In
some of his many works he defended Christianity, in others he attacked
heretical people and beliefs; in others he dealt with morals. In this volume we
present Apologeticus and De Spectaculis.
Of Minuzio,
an early Christian writer of unknown date, we have only Ottavio, a
vigorous and readable debate between an unbeliever and a Christian friend of
Minucius, Ottavio Ianuarius, a lawyer sitting on the seashore at Ostia.
Minucius himself acts as presiding judge. Octavius wins the argument. The whole
work presents a picture of social and religious conditions in Rome, apparently
about the end of the second century.
VARRONE
VARRONE,
116–27 a.C, of Reate, renowned for his vast learning, was
an antiquarian, historian, philologist, student of science, agriculturist, and
poet.
He
was a republican who was reconciled to Giulio Cesare and was marked out by him
to supervise an intended national library.
Of
Varro’s more than 70 works involving hundreds of volumes we have only his
treatise On Agriculture (in
Loeb no. 283, under “C”, Catone, Cato) and part of his monumental achievement, “De
Lingua Latina”, a work typical of its author’s interest not only in
antiquarian matters but also in the collection of scientific facts.
Originally,
De lingua latina consisted of 25 books in 3 parts: etymology of Latin
words (1–7); their inflexions and other changes (8–13); and syntax (14–25).
Of
the whole work survive (somewhat imperfectly) books 5 to 10.
These
are from the section which applied etymology to words of time and place and to
poetic expressions (4–6); the section on analogy as it occurs in word formation
(7–9); and the section which applied analogy to word derivation (10–12).
Varro’s
work contains much that is of very great value to the study of the Latin
language.
VIRGILIO
Publio
Virgilio Maro was born in 70 BCE near Mantua and was educated at Cremona, Milan
and Rome.
Slow
in speech, shy in manner, thoughtful in mind, weak in health, he went back
north for a quiet life.
Influenced
by the group of poets there, he may have written some of the doubtful poems
included in our Virgilian manuscripts.
All
his undoubted extant work is written in his perfect hexameters.
Earliest
comes the collection of ten pleasingly artificial bucolic poems, the Eclogues,
which imitated freely Theocritus’s idylls.
They
deal with pastoral life and love. Before 29 BCE came one of the best of all
didactic works, the four books of Georgics on tillage, trees, cattle,
and bees.
Virgil’s
remaining years were spent in composing his great, not wholly finished, epic
the Aeneid, on the traditional theme of Rome’s origins through Aeneas of
Troy.
Inspired
by the Emperor Augustus’s rule, the poem is Homeric in metre and method but
influenced also by later Greek and Roman literature, philosophy, and learning,
and deeply Roman in spirit.
Virgil
died in 19 BCE at Brundisium on his way home from Greece, where he had intended
to round off the Aeneid.
He
had left in Rome a request that all its twelve books should be destroyed if he
were to die then, but they were published by the executors of his will.
VITRUVIO Pollione -- Vitruvius
2 volumes
Il
classico di Vitruvio e “Della archittetura”. He is famous for the “Uomo vitruviano”.
Marco
Vitruvio Pollione, Roman architect and engineer, studied philosophy and science
and gained experience in the course of professional work.
Vitruvio
was one of those appointed to be overseers of imperial artillery or military
engines, and was architect of at least one unit of buildings for Augusto in the
reconstruction of Roma.
Late
in life and in ill health he completed, sometime before 27 a.c., De
Architectura which, after its rediscovery in the fifteenth century, was
influential enough to be studied by architects from the early Renaissance to
recent times.
In On
Architecture, Vitruvius adds to the tradition of Greek theory and practice
the results of his own experience. The contents of this treatise in 10 books
are as follows: requirements for an architect; town planning; design, cities,
aspects; temples (1) materials and their treatment (2); Greek systems; Book 3:
Styles: forms of Greek temples: Ionic; Book 4: Styles: Doric, Corinthian;
Tuscan; altars; Book 5: Other public buildings (fora, basilicae, theatres,
colonnades, baths, harbours); Book 6: Sites and planning, especially of houses;
Book 7: Construction of pavements, roads, mosaic floors, vaults; decoration (stucco,
wall painting, colours); Book 8: Hydraulic engineering; water supply; aqueducts;
Book 9: Astronomy; Greek and Roman discoveries; signs of the zodiac, planets,
moon phases, constellations, astrology, gnomon, sundials and Book 10: Machines
for war and other purposes.
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