Roman Literature and Society

From the plays of Plautus and Cicero's criminal cases in the 2nd century B.C. to the satires of Juvenal and the histories of Suetonius in the 2nd century A.D., this introductory survey of Roman literature places the major Latin works surviving today against the background of the society in which they were written. For the uninitiated, Professor Ogilvie assumes no knowledge of the Latin language, but explains to the student and general reader alike where the works of the lyric poets like Catullus and Horace, historians like Sallust and Livy, dramatic orators like Cicero and even self-propagandists like Caesar, belonged within the context of Rome's developing society.