[Sidenote: The first period of Roman literature.] The date of the beginning of Roman literature can be fixed almost to a year, for there was no Roman literature before Livius Andronicus. At that time Latin imitations of Greek works were introduced to add to the attractions of public entertainments and to make the young acquainted with the history of the past. As the republic grew in power, literature, still in imitation of the Greek, but expressing more and more completely the Roman character, developed in all directions, but especially in prose. The orators cultivated perfection in speech that they might move the judges, the senate, or the people; historians hoped that the records of the past would have a practical effect upon the deeds of the future, or they aimed, like Cæsar in his _Commentaries_, to further their own immediate ends; and Cicero adapted Greek philosophy to Roman readers in order that the republic might have wise and good citizens. The practical purpose of the lyric poetry of Catullus and his contemporary poets is less evident, though even lyric verse may serve political ends, and yet there seems to have been in the careful imitation of learned Alexandrian works a deliberate educational purpose. Certainly in all branches of literature except lyric poetry throughout the republican period a practical purpose, and usually a political purpose, is almost invariably to be found. Literature as developed by the Greeks seemed to the Romans to possess practical utility, and the great works of the republican period were created by practical men to aid in the attainment of their ends. [Sidenote: The Augustan period.] In the Augustan period the practical purpose of literature is even more evident than in the earlier years. In the transition from the republic to the monarchy it was desirable that the minds of men should not be too much occupied with politics, and literature was naturally encouraged by Augustus as an outlet for intellectual energy which might otherwise have turned to political matters. It was also desirable that the Julian family be connected as closely as possible with the beginnings of Rome, and how could that be done better than by such a poem as the _Æneid_? The immediate practical purpose of Virgil’s _Georgics_ is evident. The poems of Horace, too, are in part openly intended to increase the popular prestige of the imperial house, and the mere fact that the poet was known to be the friend of the emperor would add as much to the glory of the one as of the other. The greatness of poetry in this period is due directly to the encouragement of Augustus, and his encouragement had a practical purpose. That prose, especially oratory, declined at this time is due to the fact that the orator was no longer the great power in the state.