Editing Culture of ancient Rome (section)

===Literature===
{{See also|Roman literature|Augustan literature (ancient Rome)}}
Roman literature was from its very inception influenced heavily by Greek authors. Some of the earliest works currently discovered are of historical epics telling the early military history of Rome. As the [[Roman Republic]] expanded, authors began to produce poetry, comedy, history, and tragedy.

[[File:Choregos actors MAN Napoli Inv9986.jpg|thumb|Mosaic depicting a theatrical troupe preparing for a performance]]
The Greeks and Romans had a tradition of historical scholarship that continues to influence writers to this day. Cato the Elder was a Roman senator, as well as the first man to write history in Latin. Although theoretically opposed to Greek influence, [[Cato the Elder]] wrote the first Greek inspired rhetorical textbook in Latin (91), and combined strains of Greek and Roman history into a method combining both.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book|title=Roman Literature|last=Grant|first=Michael|publisher=University Press|year=1954|location=Cambridge England|pages=91–94}}</ref> One of Cato the Elder's great historical achievements was the ''[[Origines]]'', which chronicles the story of Rome from [[Aeneas]] to his own day, but this document is now lost. In the second and early first centuries BC an attempt was made, led by Cato the Elder, to use the records and traditions that were preserved, in order to reconstruct the entire past of Rome. The historians engaged in this task are often referred to as the "Annalists", implying that their writings more or less followed chronological order.<ref name=":2" />

In 123 BC, an official endeavor was made to provide a record of the whole of Roman history. This work filled eighty books and was known as the ''[[Annales maximi]]''. The composition recorded the official events of the State, such as elections and commands, civic, provincial and cult business, set out in formal arrangements year by year.<ref name=":2" /> During the reign of the early emperors of Rome there was a golden age of historical literature. Works such as the ''[[Histories (Tacitus)|Histories]]'' of [[Tacitus]], the ''[[Commentarii de Bello Gallico|Gallic Wars]]'' by [[Julius Caesar]] and ''[[Ab urbe condita (book)|History of Rome]]'' by [[Livy]] have been passed down through generations. Unfortunately, in the case of Livy, much of the script has been lost and it is left with a few specific areas: the founding of the city, the war with [[Hannibal]], and its aftermath.

In the ancient world, poetry usually played a far more important part of daily life than it does today. In general, educated Greeks and Romans thought of poetry as playing a much more fundamental part of life than in modern times. Initially in Rome poetry was not considered a suitable occupation for important citizens, but the attitude changed in the second and first centuries BC.<ref name=":4">{{Cite book|title=Roman Literature|last=Grant|first=Michael|publisher=University Press|year=1954|location=Cambridge England|pages=134}}</ref> In Rome poetry considerably preceded prose writing in date. As Aristotle pointed out, poetry was the first sort of literature to arouse people's interest in questions of style. The importance of poetry in the Roman Empire was so strong that [[Quintilian]], the greatest authority on education, wanted secondary schools to focus on the reading and teaching of poetry, leaving prose writings to what would now be referred to as the university stage.<ref name=":4" /> [[Virgil]] represents the pinnacle of Roman epic poetry. His ''[[Aeneid]]'' was produced at the request of [[Maecenas]] and tells the story of flight of Aeneas from [[Troy]] and his settlement of the city that would become Rome. [[Lucretius]], in his ''[[On the Nature of Things]]'', attempted to explicate [[science]] in an epic poem. Some of his science seems remarkably modern, but other ideas, especially his theory of light, are no longer accepted. Later [[Ovid]] produced his ''[[Metamorphoses (poem)|Metamorphoses]]'', written in [[dactylic hexameter]] verse, the meter of epic, attempting a complete mythology from the creation of the earth to his own time. He unifies his subject matter through the theme of metamorphosis. It was noted in classical times that Ovid's work lacked the ''[[gravitas]]'' possessed by traditional epic poetry.

[[Catullus]] and the associated group of [[Neoteric]] poets produced poetry following the Alexandrian model, which experimented with poetic forms challenging tradition. Catullus was also the first Roman poet to produce love poetry, seemingly autobiographical, which depicts an affair with a woman called Lesbia. Under the reign of the Emperor [[Augustus]], [[Horace]] continued the tradition of shorter poems, with his ''[[Odes (Horace)|Odes]]'' and ''[[Epodes (Horace)|Epodes]]''. [[Martial]], writing under the Emperor [[Domitian]], was a famed author of [[epigram]]s, poems which were often abusive and censured public figures.

[[File:Marek Tuliiusz Cyceron.jpg|thumb|left|upright|A bust of [[Cicero]], Capitoline Museums, Rome]]
Roman prose developed its sonority, dignity, and rhythm in [[persuasive speech]].<ref>{{Cite book|title=Life and Literature in the Roman Republic|last=Tenney|first=Frank|publisher=University of California Press|year=1930|location=Berkeley California|pages=132}}</ref> [[Rhetoric]] had already been key to many great achievements in Athens, so after studying the Greeks the Romans ranked [[Public speaking|oratory]] highly as a subject and a profession.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Life and Literature in the Roman Republic|last=Tenney|first=Frank|publisher=University of California Press|year=1930|location=Berkeley California|pages=35}}</ref> Written speeches were some of the first forms of prose writing in ancient Rome, and other forms of prose writing in the future were influenced by this. Sixteen books of [[Cicero]]'s letters have survived, all published after Cicero's death by his secretary, Tito. The letters provide a look at the social life in the days of the falling republic, providing pictures of the personalities of this epoch.<ref name=":3">{{Cite book|title=Roman Literature|last=Grant|first=Michael|publisher=University Press|year=1954|location=Cambridge England|pages=78–84}}</ref> The letters of Cicero are vast and varied, and provide pictures of the personalities of this epoch. Cicero's personality is most clearly revealed, emerging as a vain vacillating, snobbish man. Cicero's passion for the public life of the capital also emerges from his letters, most clearly when he was in exile and when he took on a provincial governorship in Asia Minor. The letters also contain much about Cicero's family life, and its political and financial complications.<ref name=":3" />

Roman philosophical treatises have had great influence on the world, but the original thinking came from the Greeks. Roman philosophical writings are rooted in four 'schools' from the age of the Hellenistic Greeks.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|title=Roman Literature|last=Grant|first=Michael|publisher=University Press|year=1954|location=Cambridge England|pages=30–45}}</ref> The four 'schools' were that of the [[Epicureanism|Epicureans]], [[Stoicism|Stoics]], [[Peripatetic school|Peripatetics]], and the [[Platonic Academy|Academy]].<ref name=":1" /> Epicureans believed in the guidance of the senses, and identified the supreme goal of life to be happiness, or the absence of pain. Stoicism was founded by Zeno of Citium, who taught that virtue was the supreme good, creating a new sense of ethical urgency. The Peripatetics were followers of Aristotle, guided by his science and philosophy. The Academy was founded by Plato and was based on the Sceptic Pyro's idea that real knowledge could be acquired. The Academy also presented criticisms of the Epicurean and Stoic schools of philosophy.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Roman Literature|last=Grant|first=Michael|publisher=University Press|year=1954|location=Cambridge England|pages=Notes}}</ref>

The genre of satire was traditionally regarded as a Roman innovation, and satires were written by, among others, [[Satires of Juvenal|Juvenal]] and [[Persius]]. Some of the most popular plays of the early Republic were comedies, especially those of [[Terence]], a freed Roman slave captured during the [[First Punic War]].

A great deal of the literary work produced by Roman authors in the early Republic was political or satirical in nature. The [[rhetoric]]al works of [[Cicero]], a self-distinguished linguist, translator, and philosopher, in particular, were popular. In addition, Cicero's personal letters are considered to be one of the best bodies of correspondence recorded in antiquity.