Two Centuries of Roman Poetry

by E.C. Kennedy (Editor)

First
published by Macmillian in 1964, this volume is designed to introduce students to a wider range of Latin
poetry than they would encounter in a simple author prescription. The first
century BC is represented by Lucretius and Catullus, the Augustan era by
Virgil, Horace and Ovid, and the Silver age by Juvenal and Martial. Passages
are chosen for their own intrinsic interest - Ovid on Romulus and Remus,
Juvenal on the dangers of Rome at night, the sheild of Aeneas from Virgil
Aeneid VIII ; they cover a wide variety of genres and styles - both
Satires and Odes of Horace, elegiacs from the Fasti and hexameters from the
Metamorphoses of Ovid. There are extensive notes on language and content, an
introduction on metre and a full vocabulary.

Genres: Poetry, Classics

260 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1964

Reviews

[Ben · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very good anthology of selections of ancient Roman poetry. The selections are of a manageable length and the notes are genuinely very helpful (something which I can by no means say about every such Latin edition that I've come across), which make working through more like fun and less like work.

My only quibble is that there are so many other Roman poets than just Lucretius, Vergil, Ovid, Martial, Horace, and Juvenal but vanishingly few intermediate readers of this kind offer any of their work and so learners of Latin remain constrained with the same handful of works by the same handful of authors.

That complaint notwithstanding, I was very glad to have bought and read this book and I hope to return to it again and again in the future as I continue to refine my Latin reading abilities.