Roman Literature and Society

by Robert Maxwell Ogilvie

From the plays of Plautus and Cicero's criminal cases in the 2nd century B.C. to the satires of Juvenal and the histories of Suetonius in the 2nd century A.D., this introductory survey of Roman literature places the major Latin works surviving today against the background of the society in which they were written. For the uninitiated, Professor Ogilvie assumes no knowledge of the Latin language, but explains to the student and general reader alike where the works of the lyric poets like Catullus and Horace, historians like Sallust and Livy, dramatic orators like Cicero and even self-propagandists like Caesar, belonged within the context of Rome's developing society.

Genres: History

304 pages, Paperback

First published July 31, 1980

Reviews

[pero]

It was a nice compilation of Roman literature analysis. Ogilvie always found something about an author to remind the reader that they were as messy as the authors nowadays. He talked about how the political changes in Roman Empire impacted the literature in it.

[Mark Adderley]

In many ways, this is a useful survey of Roman literature. Its main weakness is betrayed by its title--Ogilvie seems to define the quality of an author by how faithfully that author analyzes his society. THus, authors who aren't really interested in social concerns are labeled inferior. Still, once you've decoded Ogilvie's philosophical stance, you can learn a lot from this book.