Plautus, Seneca, Virgil: Key Figures in Roman Literature
Plautus (Archaic Period)
He is considered the most genuine comic writer of Roman literature. He also organized performances of great public success, despite the financial problems encountered. Noted for his adaptations of Greek New Comedy.
- Host: Jupiter is in love with Alcmene and makes her believe that her husband was returning from the war. The tone is familiar and everyday.
- The Comedy of the Pot: An old miser has found a pot of gold and does not trust anyone.
- Menaechmus: A character looking for his twin brother, who has not ever seen, lives many adventures, and this causes a host of comic situations.
- The Braggart Soldier: Chronicles the adventures of a braggart soldier and arrogant.
Other comedies are Pseudolus, Poenulus or Vidularia. All are characterized by the mess and finally solve everything with a happy ending. Philosophical reflections do not appear. His characters are flat stereotypes and respond to preset.
He picked up the concerns of Roman society of his time, in which large masses of slaves arrived in Rome after the outcome of the Second Punic War, so they charge high profile in his works, and changes in moral values of this historical time of change.
Plautus easily combined with all kinds of records of language, from formal language of religion and Roman law to the jargon of the slaves. For all this, Plautus is the best prototype of Roman comedy.
Seneca (Post-Classic Period)
Lucius Annaeus Seneca was born in Cordoba and was a philosopher, writer, and politician. During the principate of Claudius, he was exiled to Corsica, but in 49 Agrippina wanted him back and entrusted him with the education of her son Nero.
It is worth noting his philosophical dialogues in which their ideology exposes stoic. His dramas are inspired by Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides and uses arguments tragic reference to two issues: politics and philosophy. An important feature of his work are the elements bloody and pathetic. Some of their tragedies are: Phaedra, The Trojan Women, Medea, Agamemnon, etc., although it is likely that these never came to represent not simply be read.
In 65, he is discovered as part of the conspiracy of Piso. Seneca ended his days by slitting his wrists.
Virgil (Classical Era)
Publius Vergilius Maro was born in a village in northern Italy, in a middle-class family. He studied philosophy with the Epicurean Siron in Naples. His first important work is the Eclogues, which comprises ten Eclogues. They sing their complaints shepherds delight amorous and pastoral life with a lyrical and refined.
He entered in the circle of Maecenas, and thus meets Octavius and identifies with his new regime. Supported by Patrons, wrote the Georgias, and because of the success that they experienced, began production of his masterpiece: the Aeneid, which took him 10 years. A tour through Greece and Asia Minor and died before he finished his work. The Aeneid is the national epic of Rome, where Aeneas, a Trojan prince, accompanied by a group of survivors flees from Troy who has been sacked by the Achaeans. It is written in hexameters and divided into 12 books. Among the characters of the Aeneid include his son Ascanius, his father Anchises, his squire Achates, and outstanding character, Queen of Carthage, Dido, who gives vent to his jealousy and vows that there will always be enmity between the Romans and Carthaginians.
For many, Virgil is the highest summit of Latin poetry.