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 in the Renaissance to refer to those authors deemed excellent (scriptores classici), though sometimes it refers, by virtue of selective survival, to all extant Latin literature up to the early Middle Ages.
The shift from Old Latin to Latin of the Late Republic was gradual. Authors such as Lucretius and Sallust show tendencies and used styles and spellings closer to the decades (or more) prior than the decades that follow. However, the two biggest literary figures of the era, Cicero and Caesar, represent a style so popular and so polished that a sharp division between the second and first centuries came to be recognized. For this site, Classical Latin begins essentially with the beginning of Cicero’s and Caesar’s career and ends when the last generation who might have known them had perished.
Determining the end of this period is more difficult. Because of the quality of Latin during the Augustan period, older scholars dubbed both periods the “Golden Age of Latin,” and contrasted it with the period immediately after, the “Silver Age.” It was a period of intense poetical activity, with Vergil, Horace, and Ovid writing masterpieces and redefining the limits of their genres. The poets were all dependent one way or another on the patronage of Augustus and his circle, who looms over their work and lies underneath it. Latin prose—less lauded during those years—saw the career of Livy, who collected together the entire history of Rome in 142 books (into what is often called the Ab Urbe Condita) from the founding of Rome until his present day. This history was still very much in the spirit of the Augustan Age poets. Thus, the death of Augustus provides a convenient stopping point.
The close connections between the late Republic and the Augustan era persuades this site to classify them together under the convenient label of “Classical Latin,” while still following old, established divisions. The period thereafter is labeled “Imperial Latin,” since the years following Augustus’ death in 14 CE eroded any hope of a return to Republican rule.
Further Reading
- Sander M. Goldberg. Constructing Literature in the Roman Republic: Poetry and Its Reception. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005.
- D. S. Levene, “The Late Republican/Triumviral Period: 90-40 BC,” in Stephen Harrison ed. A Companion to Latin Literature. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2008.
- T. P. Wiseman. Remembering the Roman People: Essays on Late-Republican Politics and Literature. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011.
- Joseph Farrell & Damien P. Nelis eds. Augustan Poetry and the Roman Republic. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013.
- Elaine Fantham. “Literature in the Roman Republic,” in Harriet I. Fowler ed. The Cambridge Companion to the Roman Republic. 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014.
