Epitome

Life L. Calpurnius Piso Frugi was born around 180 BCE into an influential Roman family, although the precise relationship Piso had to other Calpurnii Pisones is unclear, and the options…

Life Terpander was an ancient Greek poet who, like Olympus and Linus, straddles the line between myth and history. He was said to be born in Lesbos, with the later…

Life The dates for Eumelus' floruit all point to the eighth century BCE. Eusebius placed him both in the first year of the fifth (760/759) and ninth (744/743) Olympiads, while Cyril…

Herodotus (Greek: Ἡρόδοτος, Hērodotos) is one of Greece's first historians. His major work was the Histories, which chronicled the rise of the Persian Empire and its subsequent clash with Greece…

Introduction For this site, Old Latin is the name given to Latin from its first literary production with Livius Andronicus in c. 240 until the career of Cicero begins in 80…

Imperial Latin is defined as the literary output from the reign of Tiberius through the reign of Marcus Aurelius, the last of the so-called “Five Good Emperors,” after which point…

Introduction to the Classical Period Any classification of Latin (or any language!) into periods is arbitrary, but it is especially so in defining Classical Latin (Latina classica). The term originally was coined…

Life Very little is known of Grattius. He is referred to as a contemporary by Ovid, but he is otherwise not mentioned in any extant sources. Despite the lack of biographical…

The Appendix (or Corpus) Tibulliana contains various elegies that were transmitted under Tibullus' name in the manuscripts, but in fact differ in authorship. Two of the authors are directly named (Lygdamus and Sulpicia)…

Life Tiberius Catius Asconius Silius Italicus (the name Asconius is uncertain) was likely born around 30 CE. His place of birth or early life is unknown (he is generally assumed…