Roman Literature: Theater, Poetry, History, and Epigrams
Theater
The sense of play and imitation is characteristic of all beings. In Greece, there was the national theater festival in honor of the god Bacchus. In Italy, camouflage was included in many religious rites and festivals of the goddess of agriculture, which included many dances, songs, and imitations. A story is played, but the music, imitating the dance and Latinos, formed a whole. The Romans started to imitate the Greeks and Etruscans, inheriting masks, actors, etc.
The Play
Plautus
Moved to Rome when he was young and triumphed in the theater. He was the king of the scene, where he took arguments of the Greek works of his time, using stereotypical characters, like the prodigal son, the bawd, etc. He presented typical Roman scenes with a wealth of vocabulary, slang that was spontaneous, fresh, and imaginative. As for the plot, it always had a happy ending. He wrote many works, among which are: *The Braggart Soldier*, *The Cheat*, and *Captives*. At the beginning of the play, an actor went out to the public to explain the plot.
Terence
An old slave of African origin who received a good education thanks to his owner. He was in contact with the cream of society. He was sensitive, refined, and thoughtful. His speech was elegant and careful. He built his comedies with more skill; the characters had exemplary behavior, and the fund had a moralizing intention. Among his works are *The Andria* and *The Mother*. He died very young.
The Tragedy
The Roman tragedy differed from the Greek. Seneca highlighted works like *Oedipus*, *Agamemnon*, and *Medea*. Seneca’s theater influenced the development of later authors, and his works focused on the soul. His works give the feeling that they were written more for reading than for representation. Parliaments are long and fast, and show pathos.
Satirical Poetry
Satirical poetry is one that censures or ridicules people or things. This often acerbic literary genre is more characteristic of Latin. It mixes social criticism and humor with sarcasm. The satire was an ironic verse mixed with prose and coarse humor. Although it is Roman, Greek influences are recognized in it:
- The Cynic philosophers who improvised conversations with epigrams, parodies, etc.
- Greek comedy
The most important authors are Horace and Juvenal.
Horace
The son of a freedman, he studied in Rome since his father wanted him to get a good education, and then only in Greece. There, he joined the army and returned to Rome ruined, and dedicated himself to writing.
Juvenal
Born in Campania, he spent half his life in the reading room until the year 100 when he began writing satires because he could not make the effort to speak in public. He wrote 16 humorous skits and preachings of the commonplaces of morality. He wrote against the evils and vices of the times, using characters already dead. He criticizes the cosmopolitanism of the society of his time. His style is very clear, calling things by their name. It is realistic, raw, imaginative, and his ideology is very reactionary. He was against women and homosexuals; nevertheless, he wrote texts with great vividness, clarity, and readability.
Lyric Poetry
Lyric poetry is writing about subjective feelings. It references the ancient custom to recite in Greek, accompanied by the lyre. It is a Greek literary source cultivated by great authors like Sappho. In Rome, relations with Greece intensified, and youth loved Hellenizing fashions. Some *Poetae Novi* began to write love poems like the Greeks called Alexandrians, with a worshipful, refined, and confusing style. Authors highlighted as Catullus and Horace.
Catullus
Born in Verona, he is the most representative of the *Poetae Novi*. Thanks to his economic position, he could devote himself entirely to literature. These young men did not want the world to move forward and lacked social ideals. The most important part of his life was his love for Clodia, who helped him in inspiring his creation of literature with verses full of love. These poems are very different; then, he starts to show his grief and despair.
Horace, at the time of the empire, was the author of several satirical and lyrical works, including his *Odes*. These are small compositions with different themes. His style was perfect, where he left nothing to chance, everything in a perfect structure with unparalleled plastic beauty and an ironic entity of life. Among his odes, we find *Carpe Diem*.
Historiography
Latin historiography always had a moralistic and political purpose. In the rule, these features will be noted where there will be writers who love the new regime or enemies of it. The censorship established by the emperors would destroy the works of the most critical. The best historians of the period after Livy and Tacitus are not supporters of the imperial regime. Livy wrote his works during the reign of Augustus, which gives a very idealized picture of that period. Tacitus wrote in the epoch of the Antonines, a period of peace and prosperity but in which the memory of the abuses and excesses of the previous era was still alive. Tacitus’s vision was more pessimistic.
Livy
Born into a Republican family, he wrote 142 books in his history of Rome, *Ab Urbe Condita*. In his works, we find the defense of values such as virtue, morality, and patriotism. His style includes dense and symmetrical periods, old expressions, metaphors, comparisons, and descriptions of rich imagination. But he is accused of including fabulous events that are often not questioned, without recourse to authentic documents.
Tacitus
He wrote his work during the golden age of the empire. He is the best Roman historian; his style was terse, vigorous, and used very archaic constructions. He often used the imperial archives; however, a shortcoming is that he put discourses constructed by him into the mouths of his characters. His works reflect a lively portrait of the time, describing a logical study of the characters. Among his works are: *Dialogue of the Speakers*, where he compares poetry and oratory; *History*, from the period of the death of Nero; and finally, *Annals*, from the death of Augustus to Nero.
Epigrams
Epigrams are short inscriptions in verse to be engraved in stone tombs, statues, or monuments. There were praises for heroes or the dead. There were two features: great extension and concision and wit. With the Romans, the epigram acquired a third characteristic: sarcastic irony. It was cultivated by many poets in Rome: Catullus and Martial. The Roman epigram had the three features named above, and its language was bold, spicy, and rude, even including personal insults.
Martial
He was born in the first century AD to a humble family. He arrived in Rome at a time when the depraved emperors of the moment imposed a reign of terror in the city. He had no friends and lived at the expense of others without paying them any attention. He was smart and became a poet. His first book was *Liber Spectaculorum*. His life began to improve, but he was still not happy and became increasingly depressed and violent. He returned to his hometown from a friend’s house but still got no happiness; he was becoming more depressed until he died. Martial’s work is a mirror of his life, using false names, corrupt characters, and smelly people, but he was sensitive when he defended the weak. Another of his works was the book *Epigrams*, with crude language and a lively style.