Ancient Rome Literature

Roman literature produced works that have shaped Western civilization for 2,000 years. Virgil's Aeneid (19 BCE) — the epic of Aeneas's journey from Troy to found Rome — was the Roman answer to Homer and became the defining text of Roman identity. Ovid's Metamorphoses (8 CE) retold Greek myths in 15 books of dazzling verse, becoming the most-referenced classical text in Renaissance art. Cicero's speeches and philosophical works formed the model for European rhetoric and political thought. Latin literature also includes Caesar's Gallic Wars (military history), Livy's history of Rome, Tacitus's chronicles of imperial corruption, Seneca's Stoic philosophy, Juvenal's satires, and the comic plays of Plautus — which directly influenced Shakespeare. Latin remained the language of European scholarship until the 17th century.