Epitome

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…

Life Albius Tibullus entered the Roman literary scene under the patronage of Marcus Valerius Messalla Corvinus. He, like Horace and Vergil, had his lands confiscated by Augustus, though he did…

Life Sextus Propertius was one of the four great Roman elegists in the Augustan age, the other three including Gallus, Tibullus, and Ovid. He was born around the middle of…

Life Publius Ovidius Naso, known in English as Ovid, was an eminent Latin poet, especially regarded by both ancient and modern critics alike for his many elegies on love and…

Life Quintus Ennius was born in 239 BCE at Rudiae (now Rugge) in Calabria (now Apulia). Growing up in a region heavily mixed with both Greek and Italian cultures, Ennius…

Life Gaius Cornelius Gallus, son of Gnaeus Cornelius Gallus, was a Roman equestrian born in 69 BCE at the Forum Iulii (modern Fréjus) in Gallia Narbonensis. Marcus Cicero refers to…

Life Marcus Porcius Cato, born in 234 BCE, was a prominent Roman politician during the Punic Wars, and is often referred to as Censorinus (the Censor) or Maior (the elder),…

Life Unlike most other minor authors of the period, Velleius Paterculus relates a bit about his own life.  He does not say much about his early life, but he came…