The Fragmentary Latin Poets

In order to understand fully the development of Latin poetry, this work revises the surviving fragments of quotations from writers and provides the necessary interpretative and illustrative material. Some writers not usually included in this corpus are here covered, such as the minor works of Ennius.

To understand fully the development of Latin poetry, one has to consider not only the prominent figures whose works survive entire but also the writers known to us only in fragments, usually small, from quotations. The fragments of the non-dramatic poets have been collected by Baehrens, Morel, and Büchner, but only a few have ever received a commentary. This book revises the texts, taking advantage of much earlier work now largely forgotten, and provides the necessary interpretative and illustrative material. By building up, wherever possible, a picture of each writer, Professor Courtney places them in relation to the development of Latin poetry and thus gathers together information at present widely scattered and not easy to locate. While omitting some material which does not contribute to the focus of the book, he adds some writers not usually included in this corpus - particularly Tiberianus, the so-called De Bello Actiaco and the minor works of Ennius.