BIBLIOTECA LATINA
ROMA
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.
But Beda’s most admired production is his Ecclesiastical History of the
English Nation.
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.
CELSO Celsus
3 volumes
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.
GELLIO Gellius
3 volumes
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.
Giulio CESARE -- Caesar
3 volumes
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.
CICERONE
30 volumes
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.
CLAUDIANO
two volumes
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.
COLUMELLA
3 volumes
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 -- Curtius
2 volumes
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.
VALERIO FLACCO – Flaccus
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 -- Florus
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.
Poetry by Floro is also available from the Loeb Classical Library in Minor
Latin Poets, Volume II.
FRONTINO -- Frontinus
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.
FRONTONE -- Fronto
2 volumes
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.
GEROLAMO -- Jerome
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.
GIOVENALE -- Juvenal
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.
Storia Augusta– Scriptores
3 volumes
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.
LIVIO
14 volumes
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.
MARZIALE -- Martial
3 volumes
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
2 volumes
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.
MINOR LATIN POETS
2 volumes
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
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.
ORAZIO -- Horace
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
6 volumes
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
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
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.
PLAUTO
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.
Gaio PLINIO Secondo -- Pliny
10 volumes
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 -- Pliny
2 volumes
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.
The second volume contains Books VIII–X of his Letters as well as the
Panegyricus.
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
Volume I: 1) Giulio Cesare, 2) Augusto, 3) Tiberio and 4) Caligola
Volume II: 5) Claudio 6) Nerone. 7) Galba, 8) Otone, 9) Vitellio 10)
Vespasiano. 11) Tito, 12) Domiziano. Followed by: Lives of Illustrious Men:
Grammarians and Rhetoricians. Poets (Terenzio, Virgilio, Orazio, Tibullo,
Persio, Lucano). Lives of Plinio il vecchio and Passienus Crispus
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
2 volumes
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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