CC 302/347 INTRO TO ANCIENT ROME Outline for Lecture 24: Literature (iii). Overview; Petronius Stages of Roman Literature (with representative authors) i) Early Roman Literature Livius Andronicus (ca. 284-204 BCE); Ennius (239-169 BCE) Plautus (254-184 BCE) Terrence (ca. 185-159 BCE) ii) Golden Age Cicero (106-43 BCE; prose writer) Caesar (100-44 BCE; prose writer) Vergil (70-19 BCE; poetry, esp. Aeneid) Horace (65-8 BCE; poetry) Ovid (43 BC-CE 17; poetry, esp. Metamorphoses) iii) Silver Age Seneca (4 BC-CE 65; tragedian and prose writer) Petronius (writing c. 60 CE; novelist) Apuleius (ca 124-175 CE; novelist) Petronius - the "Arbiter of Elegance" at Nero's court - wrote Satyricon, a comic, picaresque novel (which survives only in fragments) - protagonists are a disreputable trio: Encolpius, the narrator Ascyltos, his friend Giton, a boy - the most complete section is Trimalchio's Dinner - Satyricon is full of allusions to the Aeneid and other epic (esp. Odyssey) - major aspect of epic parody: the theme of divine wrath (Priapus, god of fertility) - Encolpius travels around the Mediterranean trying to resolve problem of "divine wrath" [impotence] Previous Outline Next Outline Course Index Syllabus