Latin Literature

Question 1

Livius Andronicus

Answer 1

• founder of Latin lit.
• Greek from Tarentum
• Born 284 BC
• brought to Rome as a slave
• translated Homer’s the odyssey into Latin as poetry in Saturnian verse
• wrote fabulae palliatae, Latin comedies derived from Greek originals

Question 2

Gnaeus Naevius

Answer 2

• first native Roman writer of the note
• Born 270 BC
• best known for Bellum Punicum (epic on 1st Punic War in Saturnian verse)
• Invented fabulae praetextae (dramas based onRoman subjects named for the garment)
• wrote fabulae palliatae

Question 3

Quintus Ennius

Answer 3

• Born in Rudiae in Calabria in 239 BC
• Knew Latin, Oscan and Greek (3 hearts)
• most important work is Annales (Annals), an epic poem 18 books long in dactylic hexameter verse telling the story of Rome from the fallof Troy to his own time.
• First writer to adapt Greek hexameter verse into Latin

Question 4

Titus Maccus Plautus

Answer 4

• born 255 BC

* derived plays from Greek

Question 5

Amphitryon

Answer 5

(Plautus) Jupiter’s love for Alcmena, the wife of Amphitryon

Question 6

Aulularia

Answer 6

(Plautus) “The Pot of Gold”

Question 7

Captivi

Answer 7

(Plautus) “THe Captives”: a man, Hegio, searches for his lost sons; no female characters

Question 8

Epidicus

Answer 8

(Plautus) FAVORITE play of Plautus

Question 9

Menaechmi

Answer 9

(Plautus) “The Twin Menaechmi” one of most sucessful comedies; 2 separated brothers discover each other, reunited in Syracuse, the city of their births. Model for Shakespear’s A Comedy of Errors

Question 10

Miles Gloriosus

Answer 10

(Plautus) “THe Braggart Soldier”

Question 11

Mostellaria

Answer 11

(Plautus) “THe Haunted House”

Question 12

Poenulus

Answer 12

(Plautus) “THe Cartheginian” Hanno prevents his daughters from being sold into prostitution

Question 13

Pseudolus

Answer 13

(Plautus) title character helps his master obtain enough money to free a courtesan named Phoenicium from Simo the procurer and a Macedonian officer who almost buys her.

Question 14

Rudens

Answer 14

(Plautus) “Rope”

Question 15

Marcus Porcius Cato the Elder (Censor)

Answer 15

• Born in Tusculum in 234 BC
• Fought in 2nd Punic War
• ended all speeches with “Carthago delenda est”-“Carthage must be destroyed”
• died in 149 BC
• Rome’s 1st PROSE writer
• first to write Roman history in Latin

Question 16

Origines

Answer 16

(Cato the Elder) 7 books; the beginning of Italian civilization and early Roman History; first history written in Latin; only name mentioned is the name of Hannibal’s elephant that survived the trek over the Alps.

Question 17

De Agri Cultura

Answer 17

(Cato the Elder) handbook on agriculture; declares cabbage to be an excellent and versatile crop; first surviving Latin prose work

Question 18

Terence

Answer 18

• comic playwright
• born in Carthage in 195 BC
• taken to Rome as a slave by Terentius Lucanus who educated and freed him
• friends with Scipio Aemilianus
• Wrote six plays
• died during a trip to Greece in 159 BC