Augustan literature is a period of

Latin literature Latin literature includes the essays, histories, poems, plays, and other writings written in the Latin language. The beginning of formal Latin literature dates to 240 BC, when the first stage play in Latin was performed in Rome. Latin literatur ...

written during the reign of

Augustus Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian (), was the founder of the Roman Empire, who reigned as the first Roman emperor from 27 BC until his death in A ...

(27 BC–AD 14), the first Roman emperor. In literary histories of the first part of the 20th century and earlier, Augustan literature was regarded along with that of the Late Republic as constituting the Golden Age of Latin literature, a period of stylistic

classicism Classicism, in the arts, refers generally to a high regard for a classical period, classical antiquity in the Western tradition, as setting standards for taste which the classicists seek to emulate. In its purest form, classicism is an aesthe ...

. Fergus Millar, "Ovid and the Domus Augusta: Rome Seen from Tomoi," ''Journal of Roman Studies'' 83 (1993), p. 6. Most of the literature periodized as "Augustan" was in fact written by men— Vergil,

Horace Quintus Horatius Flaccus (; 8 December 65 BC – 27 November 8 BC), Suetonius, Life of Horace commonly known in the English-speaking world as Horace (), was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus (also known as Octavian). Th ...

, Propertius,

Livy Titus Livius (; 59 BC – AD 17), known in English as Livy ( ), was a Roman historian. He wrote a monumental history of Rome and the Roman people, titled , covering the period from the earliest legends of Rome before the traditional founding i ...

—whose careers were established during the triumviral years, before Octavian assumed the title ''

''. Strictly speaking,

Ovid Publius Ovidius Naso (; 20 March 43 BC – AD 17/18), known in English as Ovid ( ), was a Augustan literature (ancient Rome), Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a younger contemporary of Virgil and Horace, with whom he i ...

is the poet whose work is most thoroughly embedded in the Augustan regime.

Impact and style

Augustan literature produced the most widely read, influential, and enduring of Rome's poets. The Republican poets Catullus and

Lucretius Titus Lucretius Carus ( ; ; – October 15, 55 BC) was a Roman poet and philosopher. His only known work is the philosophical poem '' De rerum natura'', a didactic work about the tenets and philosophy of Epicureanism, which usually is t ...

are their immediate predecessors; Lucan,

Martial Marcus Valerius Martialis (known in English as Martial ; March, between 38 and 41 AD – between 102 and 104 AD) was a Roman and Celtiberian poet born in Bilbilis, Hispania (modern Spain) best known for his twelve books of '' Epigrams'', pu ...

Juvenal Decimus Junius Juvenalis (), known in English as Juvenal ( ; 55–128), was a Roman poet. He is the author of the '' Satires'', a collection of satirical poems. The details of Juvenal's life are unclear, but references in his works to people f ...

and Statius are their so-called "Silver Age" heirs. Although Vergil has sometimes been considered a "court poet", his ''

Aeneid The ''Aeneid'' ( ; or ) is a Latin Epic poetry, epic poem that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Troy, Trojan who fled the Trojan War#Sack of Troy, fall of Troy and travelled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Ancient Rome ...

'', the most important of the Latin epics, also permits complex readings on the source and meaning of Rome's power and the responsibilities of a good leader.Joseph Farrell, "The Augustan Period: 40 BC–AD 14," in ''A Companion to Latin Literature'' (Blackwell, 2005), pp. 44–57. Ovid's works were wildly popular, but the poet was exiled by Augustus in one of literary history's great mysteries; ''carmen et error'' ("a poem" or "poetry" and "a mistake") is Ovid's own oblique explanation. Among prose works, the monumental history of

is preeminent for both its scope and stylistic achievement. The multi-volume work ''

De architectura (''On architecture'', published as ''Ten Books on Architecture'') is a treatise on architecture written by the Ancient Rome, Roman architect and military engineer Vitruvius, Marcus Vitruvius Pollio and dedicated to his patron, the emperor Caesa ...

'' by

Vitruvius Vitruvius ( ; ; –70 BC – after ) was a Roman architect and engineer during the 1st century BC, known for his multi-volume work titled . As the only treatise on architecture to survive from antiquity, it has been regarded since the Renaissan ...

also remains of great informational interest. Questions pertaining to tone, or the writer's attitude toward his subject matter, are acute among the preoccupations of scholars who study the period. In particular, Augustan works are analyzed in an effort to understand the extent to which they advance, support, criticize or undermine social and political attitudes promulgated by the regime, official forms of which were often expressed in aesthetic media.Christopher Pelling, "The Triumviral Period," in ''The Cambridge Ancient History: The Augustan Empire, 43 B.C.–A.D. 69'' (Cambridge University Press, 1996), p. 7
online.
See also Farrell, "The Augustan Period."

List of Augustan writers

Publius Vergilius Maro Publius Vergilius Maro (; 15 October 70 BC21 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He composed three of the most famous poems in Latin literature: the ''Eclogues'' ...

(Virgil, spelled also as Vergil) (70 – 19 BC), * Quintus Horatius Flaccus (Horace) (65 – 8 BC), known for lyric poetry and satires * Sextus Aurelius Propertius (50 – 15 BC), poet * Albius Tibullus (54 – 19 BC), elegiac poet * Titus Livius (Livy) (64 BC – 12 AD), historian * Publius Ovidius Naso (Ovid) (43 BC – 18 AD), poet * Grattius Faliscus (a contemporary of Ovid), poet * Marcus Manilius (1st century BC & AD), astrologer, poet * Gaius Julius Hyginus (64 BC – 17 AD), librarian, poet, mythographer * Marcus Verrius Flaccus (55 BC – 20 AD), grammarian, philologist, calendarist * Marcus Vitruvius Pollio (80 70 BC – after 15 BC), engineer, architect *

Marcus Antistius Labeo Marcus Antistius Labeo (died 10 or 11 AD) was a Roman jurist. Marcus Antistius Labeo was the son of Pacuvius Labeo, a jurist who caused himself to be slain after the defeat of his party at Philippi. Since his name was different from his father's ...

(d. 10 or 11 AD), jurist, philologist * Lucius Cestius Pius (1st century BC & AD), Latin educator * Gnaeus Pompeius Trogus (1st century BC), historian, naturalist * Marcus Porcius Latro (1st century BC), rhetorician * Gaius Valgius Rufus (consul 12 BC), poet * Sulpicia, elegiac poet

Impact and style

List of Augustan writers

References

Further reading