The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Roman Empire (30 page)

Latin literature had been brewing and distilling under the pressure of civil war and strife for half a century, and creative energy strained against the effects of chaos and disruption. The settlement of Rome under Augustus created stability and took the lid off the cauldron. An explosion in Latin literature erupted, fueled in part by a healthy dose of patronage and especially of those poets who celebrated and advanced Augustan ideals. This second half of the Golden Age is called the “Augustan Period” or “Augustan Age.” It begins with the death of Caesar in 44
B
.
C
.
E
. and lasts to the death of the emperor Augustus in
C
.
E
. 14.

The primary patrons during this period were Gaius Maecenus, Augustus's chief advisor and friend; Augustus himself (usually with Maecenus as an intermediary); and Marcus Messala, an old Roman aristocrat who had fought with the Republicans but made his peace with the new regime. Augustan poets were urban writers, but some tended to romanticize and promote the easy and carefree country life of the hardy Roman peasant. Virgil and Horace had country villas given to them where they could play the role of the gentleman farmer.

 
Roamin' the Romans
When in Rome, take a day trip outside of the city to the remains of Horace's Sabine Farm. It's only 50 km away, near the medieval town of Licenza. Horace loved this place, and it features in many of his poems. The American Academy in Rome and Italian Ministry of Culture have teamed up to preserve this, the only identifiable home of an Augustan writer.

Here are the primary writers of the Augustan Age.

Publius Virgilius Maro (70–19
B
.
C
.
E
.), or Virgil, was born at Mantua (Mantova) and was the preeminent poet of this age. Patronized by Maecenas and Augustus, Virgil wrote pastoral poems (the
Eclogues
) that celebrated the Italian countryside, and poetry (the
Georgics
) that celebrated the rustic ideals and skills of Roman farmers. His greatest achievement, however, was the Roman epic
Aeneid,
which tells about the hero Aeneas's voyage from Troy to Italy. (In case you forgot the myth, it was Aeneas's descendants who founded Rome.) Virgil labored for nine years on this work, and willed that it be burned upon his death because it was not perfected. Thankfully, Augustus countermanded the order and preserved one of the West's greatest and most influential pieces of literature.

One of Virgil's pieces spoke of a golden age that would be ushered in by the coming of a divine son. Some early Christians, such as Augustine, took this to be a pagan prophesy of Christ. It was not (the poem concerned Augustus's heir apparent Marcellus), but it allowed Virgil's work a special place for Christian readers; Dante features the poet (and his work) as a guide through
Inferno
and
Purgatorio
in the
Divine Comedy.

Quintus Horatius Flaccus (65–8
B
.
C
.
E
.), or Horace, was born in Venusia in southeast Italy. He was well-educated and fought on Brutus's side at Philippi, but came home to make peace with the new regime, got a job as a clerk, and began writing poetry.

Virgil and a friend introduced Horace and his work to Maecenas. Things began to look up from there, and in about 33
B
.
C
.
E
., Maecenas gave him the Sabine farm that was his joy. Horace composed some of the most finely crafted and beautiful Latin poetry, bar none. He was Augustus's poet laureate for his “Secular Games” in 17
B
.
C
.
E
. and composed its famous hymn, the
Carmen Saeculare.
He published four books of lyric poetry (
Odes
), two books of Satires (
Saturae
) and Epistles (
Epistulae
), a work of poetic literary theory (the
Art of Poetry
or
Ars Poetica
), and other works.

 
Great Caesar's Ghost!
Ever read a story called something like “The City Mouse and the Country Mouse” about two mice who visit each other only to discover that their own haunts are really the best of all places? That's Horace's story and a parable about the romantic ideals that urban and rural dwellers have of each other.

Sextus Propertius (ca 56–16
B
.
C
.
E
.) was a poet from Umbria. He came to the attention of Maecenas, who asked him to write an epic about Augustus's deeds. Propertius declined to do so in a poem (2.1), but continued to be patronized by Maecenas and Augustus. Four books of intense elegiac poetry survive.

Albius Tibullus (48–19
B
.
C
.
E
.) was a member of Valerius Massala's literary circle. He knew both Propertius and Horace, who addresses him in
Epistle 1.4.
Tibullus's poetry celebrates a romantic vision of the countryside (much like Virgil's) but also contains urbane renditions that put the lover in the position of being enslaved to his beloved. Tibullus (or his literary persona, at least) seems to have liked it that way. He published two books of poetry before his death; two more posthumous books were published, only a part of which may contain his work. Some of the later works may be by Sulpicia, the niece of Massala, who was a member of Tibullus's literary circle.

Titius Livius (59
B
.
C
.
E
.–
C
.
E
. 17), or Livy, was from Patavium (Padua) in northern Italy. If you've ever had a class on Roman history, you've read his work. Livy romanticized
the Republic and the heroes of Roman history who created it. Augustus, in fact, teasingly called him “My Little Pompeian” (after the party of Pompey the Great). Nevertheless, Livy's nostalgic and patriotic vision of heroes, old time values, stability, and discipline were in concert with Augustus's aims. Augustus patronized Livy's life and work, including setting him up as a tutor for the future emperor Claudius.

Livy's monumental task was compiling a complete and unabridged history of the Roman people. He called this work
ab Urbe Condita
(no, that's not a song by Iron Butterfly), “From the Founding of the City.” Published in installments from about 27 to 8
B
.
C
.
E
., it eventually reached
142
books. It brought Livy instant fame, but like all huge books (such as
War and Peace, Gone with the Wind, or
the
Iliad
) people didn't have the time, money, or inclination to actually
read
the whole thing. Within a few years, you could buy
epitomes
(condensed versions) of the volumes. (I wonder if there was a
Libellus ad ab Urbe Condita Intellegendum pro Stultissimis—The Complete Idiot's Guide to Understanding ab Urbe Condita?
) Most of these survive, and only the most popular sections (ancient Rome, the Wars with Carthage and Macedonia) survive in original form.

Publius Ovidius Naso (43
B
.
C
.
E
.–
C
.
E
. 17), or Ovid, was from Sulmona (Sulmo) in central Italy. Ovid, like many of these writers, needed a book of his own. His father sent him to Rome to be a lawyer, but Ovid tells us that no matter what he tried to write, it just came out in verse. His witty, urbane, tongue-in-cheek, passionate, and irreverent work made him an instant success as an author.

 
Roamin' the Romans
As you have read, few of the Golden or Augustan Age writers came from Rome itself. Especially if you have a car in Italy, you can have a wonderful time touring their home towns such as Mantova (Virgil), Padua (Livy), Sulmona (Ovid), and Verona (Catullus). If you happen to be in Romania and visit Constanta on the Black Sea (ancient Tomis), say hello or blow a kiss to Ovid's ghost.

The preeminent Roman poet of love and seduction, Ovid first published the
Amores,
vignettes from lovers' lives, in which he pokes as much fun at the literary tradition of love poetry as love itself. His
Ars Amatoria
(The Art of Love) brought him great fame, and eventually was published in three books. The first two might be entitled “How to Score with Women,” and the third “How to Wring the Most out of the Guy Trying to Score with You.” The
Remedium Amoris
(Remedies for Love) followed soon after; it could be titled something like “How to Get Over It.”

Other works include the
Heroides
(imaginary letters from famous heroines to their lovers),
Fasti
(six books on Roman festivals and holidays), and the
Metamorphoses
(15 books of verse that tell the principle myths of Greece and Rome). If you have read and loved Greek and Roman mythology, chances are that you have read a version told by Ovid.

Ovid was briefly patronized by Messala, but his popularity gave him independent standing and income. He ran afoul, however, of the Augustan program and perhaps even of Augustus himself. He was exiled in
C
.
E
. 8 by the Princeps to Tomis, on the Black Sea, for what Ovid says was a “poem” (the
Ars Amatoria?
) and “an error.” Tradition has it that this error was connected with Augustus's problem daughter, Julia, but we will never know. Being exiled to Tomis was like a Parisian being exiled to a fishing village for life. No city, no Latin, no culture. He wrote some poignant works and letters from exile, and died without ever seeing his beloved city again.

• Rome literature didn't begin until the third century
  B
  .
  C
  .
  E
  . when Rome conquered the Mediterranean.
  
• Latin literature, with the exception of satire, evolved from Greek and Latin writers experimenting with and developing Greek forms.
  
• It was only in the first century
  B
  .
  C
  .
  E
  . that Latin literature really came into its own.
  
• Patronage, wealth, and stability in the Augustan Age helped Latin literature achieve its zenith under such authors as Virgil, Horace, Livy, and Ovid.