This volume covers the first three-quarters of the first century BC; an age which had enduring consequences for the subsequent history of Latin literature. The

This volume analyses the process of creative adaptation which shaped the beginnings of Latin literature.

In the two centuries covered by this volume, from about AD 250 to 450, the Roman Empire suffered a period of chaos followed by drastic administrative and milita

The sixty years between 43 BC, when Cicero was assassinated, and AD 17, when Ovid died in exile and disgrace, saw an unexampled explosion of literary creativity