Constructing Literature in the Roman RepublicBecoming Roman Literature examines the problem of Rome's literary development by shifting attention from Rome's writers to its readers. The literature we traditionally call "early " is seen to be a product less of the mid-Republic, when poetic texts began to circulate, than of the late Republic, when they were systematically collected, canonized, and put to new social and artistic uses. Imposing on texts the name and function of literature was thus often a retrospective activity. This book explores the development of this literary sensibility from the Romans' early interest in epic and drama, through the invention of satire and the eventual enshrining of books in the public collections that became so important to Horace and Ovid. |
Contents
The Muse Arrives | 20 |
Constructing Literature | 52 |
Comedy at Work | 87 |
Didos Furies | 115 |
Enter Satire | 144 |
Roman Helicon | 178 |
Retrospective | 204 |
Bibliography | 213 |
Index of Passages Discussed | 241 |
| 244 | |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
Accius actors aediles Aelius Aeneas Aeneid Albucius allusion Andronicus Annales archaic aristocratic atque audiences Augustus Barchiesi Brut Caecilius canon carmina Cato Cato's Catullus Choerilus Cicero claim Clodius comedy comic contemporary context Courtney cultural didascaliae discussion drama echo Ennian Ennius epic Eunuchus Euripides eventually evidence example famous Fantham first-century Gell genre Goldberg Greek Gruen Homer Horace Horace's language late Republic later Latin Licinus literary history literature Livius Andronicus Lucilius Lucretius ludi Romani ludi scaenici mime Naevius neque original Ovid Ovid's Pacuvius Palatine palliata passage Pentheus performance Phormio Plautine Plautus plays poem poetic poetry poets Pro Caelio problematic Pseudolus quae quam Quinctius Quint quod quoted readers reading recall reference Republican Roman literary Rome Rome's Roscius satire scripts second century significant Skutsch social speech stage story style Suet Suetonius suggests Terence Terence's texts theater tradition tragedy tragic Tusc Varro Vergil's verse Zorzetti
Popular passages
Page 3 - Utinam exstarent ilia carmina, quae, multis saeculis ante suam aetatem, in epulis esse cantitata a singulis convivis de clarorum virorum laudibus, in Originibus scriptum reliquit Cato.
Page 13 - Praeterea ex eodem libro Catonis haec etiam sparsim et intercise commeminimus: «Vestiri — inquit — in foro honeste mos erat, domi quod satis erat. Equos carius quam coquos emebant. Poeticae artis honos non erat; si quis in ea re studebat aut sese ad convivia adplicabat, crassator vocabatur»4. [6] lila quoque ex eodem libro praeclarae veritatis sententia est: «Nam vita — inquit — humana prope uti ferrum est: si exerceas, conteritur; si non exerceas, tamen robigo interficit.
References to this book
Talking Books : Readings in Hellenistic and Roman Books of Poetry: Readings ... G. O. Hutchinson No preview available - 2008 |