Epitome

Vitruvius was a Roman architect active in the first century BCE. Life Little is known about Vitruvius apart from what he says about himself in his writings. His praenomen is unknown,…

Life Decimus Iunius Iuvenalis (in English as Juvenal) was the last great Roman satirist. Almost nothing of his life is known. There are thirteen medieval biographies of him attached to…

Life Most of what we know about Marcus Valerius Martialis (Eng: Martial) comes from his very generous autobiographical statements, although as with any author, conflating the author with their literary…

Life Caecilius Statius is an early second-century writer of fabulae palliatae, though beyond that, there are some problems concerning the traditions of his life. The fourth century chronicler Jerome says he…

Life Titus Livius, known to the English-speaking world as Livy, was born in Patavium (modern Padua) in 59 BCE. Very little of his early life is known. From his own…

Publius Vergilius Maro (simply Vergil or less accurately Virgil in English) was the greatest Latin poet of the Augustan Age, and has been compared to Homer for his masterpiece epic,…

Life and Identity The identity of Petronius is an unsettled debate within scholarship. The name on the manuscripts is Petronius Arbiter. Some scholars connect this name to a certain Petronius whom Tacitus,…

Quintus Horatius Flaccus (just Horace in English) was one of the leading poets of the Augustan Age. He is considered not only the finest of Latin lyric, but, along with…

The Astronomica is a Latin didactic poem on astrology composed in five books. It was published in the early first century CE. Authorship Its author is unknown, but the name Marcus…

Marcus Tullius Cicero was Rome's most celebrated statesman and one of its most important literary figures. No other Roman has made a larger impact on the Roman and Western literary…