Intro to Roman Literature

Question 1

Phases of Roman Literature

Answer 1

1) Initial Period (Middle Republic)
2) Golden Age (Late Republic and Early Empire 100 BC-14 AD)
3) Silver Age (Post Augustan)
‘Second Sophistic’ 2nd C AD
4) Later Latin Literature (180-476 AD)

Question 2

Genres

Answer 2

Eg. Epic, history, comedy, philosophy, tragedy, lyric and oratory
+ satire (new genre conceived by Romans)

• Explicit rules about content and presentation, if you don’t follow it you’ll be ridiculed by your peers
• Standard themes: love poems = lyrics, gods and hero’s = tragedy/history
• Establish credibility and trustworthiness to be able to write in a particular genre

Question 3

fides

Answer 3

Writers must have Trustworthiness!

• Sometimes done by life experiences (there in the war your recounting?)
  
  • Appealing to a god (gods know all-enlightenment)
  • Ovid calls upon a divine source to explain to him why the cult is set up as it is
  • When Romans first start writing they wrote laws, etc. there were libraries and storage areas of information people could turn to

Question 4

Elite members training

Answer 4

Rhetoric: art of persuasion, manipulating stats to prove their points

Persona: a mask (might not be what they believe)

Question 5

Who wrote Roman Literature?

Answer 5

-Elite, expensive to get good Roman education
-Small group could write and read
-Sample of the education who of adults have enough free time to write – leisure time otium (young men are farmers, apprentices, military, etc. = work time known as negotium)
OR
-People who were taken under the wing of a wealthy person - amicitia - patron, client relationship: bias

Question 6

Who read Roman Literature?

Answer 6

All written in Latin
Education not attainable for all
-We do know literature was read publicly

• We see graffiti/military records on walls and know there was some degree of literacy
• Basic understanding

Question 7

Roman Drama

Answer 7

• Adapted from other peoples according to Roman needs
• First performances were from Etruscan origin, introduced to meet specific religious need
• Literature that survived and got written down are Greek:

Drama in Latin under Greek influence
-Manuscript in Latin

Question 8

Development of Roman Drama

Answer 8

280 BC Tarentum (Greek City) gets into a war with Romans
-Romans win and Tarentum becomes part of the territory
-When Tarentum is captured, its people are enslaved
240 BC Greek freedman from Tarentum introduces Greek style drama in Latin to the Roman populace

Question 9

3 Themes of Greek Drama

Answer 9

1. Greek Tragedy: mythological context, serious, ending in tragedy
2. Greek Old Comedy (5th C BC Athens- free state at this time): Political themes ex. Lysistrata, Birds
3. Greek New Comedy (under Hellenistic Kings): Domestic themes
   * No longer appropriate for people to be picking fun at the kings so they switch to domestic

-Romans adapt New Comedy from Greeks because it’s safe, not making fun of the elites who have control

Question 10

Common Themes in New Comedy (Rome)

Answer 10

• > Temporary inversion of societal norms
• dim witted father/patron
• cunning slave outwitting a dim master
• > Overcoming hardships
• long lost children
• young man pining over inappropriate girl
• > Reversal of circumstance (peripeteia)
• reveal: door knocking, running slave – plot twist
• > Final reconciliation -reestablishment of Concordia in family
• Usually everyone is seen going off to a party at the end

Question 11

fabulae palliatae

Answer 11

“plays in a Greek cloak”

-Roman dramas were presented in Latin, but a way to separate plays from society they used Greek names, cities, areas, etc but their gods, values, etc.

Question 12

Characters in New Comedy (Rome)

Answer 12

Plautus (3rd C)
Terence (2nd C)
STOCK:
-Young man in trouble
-Paterfamilias
-Cunning slave
SUPPORTING:
-Boastful soldier
-Friend
-Mistresses