Roman Readings: Latin Poetry from Lucretius to Ovid

This volume collects seventeen pieces on the classical Latin poetry of the late Republican and Augustan period written and published since 2000. They share a common interest in the close reading of poems, with a particular focus on the issues of genre, intertextuality, poetic unity, political allusion, imagery and literary history.

Topics treated include the proem to Lucretius I and its relation to Ennian models, issues of unity and interpretation in five poems of Catullus. On Vergil there are two studies of the similes of the Aeneid, one of Aeneas’ narrative in Aeneid 2, one of Aeneid 6 as a journey into the epic past, one of Sibylline elements in the Aeneid and one of the language used by the Aeneid’s gods, plus a new contribution to the old issue of the identity of the child in Eclogue 4. On Propertius, there are accounts of 4.9 and its contemporary political significance, and of how some other elegies in Book 4 function as expanded epigrams. The chapter on Ovid looks at the chronology and shape of his literary career.

Taken together, these pieces seek to present these central texts of Roman poetry for modern literary study by scholars and advanced students.