19 Facts About Latin literature

Latin literature includes the essays, histories, poems, plays, and other writings written in the Latin language.

The classical era of Latin literature can be roughly divided into the following periods: Early Latin literature, The Golden Age, The Imperial Period and Late Antiquity.

Latin was the language of the ancient Romans, but it was the lingua franca of Western and Central Europe throughout the Middle Ages, so Latin literature includes not only Roman authors like Cicero, Virgil, Ovid and Horace, but includes European writers after the fall of the Empire, from religious writers like Aquinas, to secular writers like Francis Bacon, Baruch Spinoza, and Isaac Newton.

Andronicus translated Homer's Odyssey into Latin using a traditional Latin verse form called Saturnian meter.

Latin literature adopted Greek dactylic hexameter, which became the standard verse form for Roman epics.

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Latin literature's works provided the chief inspiration for French and English comedies of the 17th century AD, and even for modern American comedy.

Latin literature was the first Roman statesman to put his political speeches in writing as a means of influencing public opinion.

Early Latin literature ended with Gaius Lucilius, who created a new kind of poetry in his 30 books of Satires.

Latin literature wrote in an easy, conversational tone about books, food, friends, and current events.

Traditionally, the height of Latin literature has been assigned to the period from 81 BC to AD 17, although recent scholarship has questioned the assumptions that privileged the works of this period over both earlier and later works.

Latin literature's letters provide detailed information about an important period in Roman history and offer a vivid picture of the public and private life among the Roman governing class.

Latin literature's speeches inspired many European political leaders and the founders of the United States.

Latin literature elegy reached its highest development in the works of Tibullus, Propertius, and Ovid.

Pagan Latin literature showed a final burst of vitality from the late 3rd century till the 5th centuries.

Some indeed wrote chiefly in Latin literature and were valued for the elegance and Classicism of their style.

Much Latin literature writing reflects the Romans' interest in rhetoric, the art of speaking and persuading.

Latin literature is a highly inflected language, with many grammatical forms for various words.

Latin literature can be used with conciseness, as in the works of Sallust and Tacitus.

Some earlier Latin literature poets tried to make up for this deficiency by creating new compound words, as the Greeks had done.