Called the “Roman Homer,” but crude and inartistic. Publius VERGILIUS MARO | VIRGIL lived 70-19 B.C. _AENEID_ (epic of Aeneas, legendary founder of Roman people). Copies _Odyssey_ in first six books (wanderings), and _Iliad_ in last six (battles); borrows images and incidents from all Greek writers. But more descriptive, philosophical, and fastidious of expression. The basis for subsequent epics. Utilized by Dante, Ariosto, Tasso, etc., in Italy. Model for the French epic, _e.g._, Voltaire’s _Henriade_. Translated by Gawain Douglas (1513), Dryden, etc. Very important for Milton’s _Paradise Lost_, Spenser’s _Faerie Queene_, and to all modern poets of classical training. See Tennyson’s poem, “To Virgil.” Marcus Annaeus LUCANUS | LUCAN lived A.D. 39-65 _Pharsalia_ (epic of civil wars between Caesar and Pompey). Departing further from Greek directness. Cleverness in rhetoric, epigram, description, satire, etc., aimed at. Fondness for details of horror. Publius Papinius STATIUS | STATIUS (“Stace” in Chaucer) fl. A.D. 70 _Thebaid_ (epic of Thebes and its heroes). Clever and facile verse: elegant simile, etc., of more importance than the matter. Two favourite writers in the early middle ages. Statius affected by Dante and Boccaccio (who founds his _Teseide_ upon him). Lucan and “Stace” were among the chief Latin reading of Chaucer’s day. [_The Knight’s Tale_ (of Palamon and Arcite, modernized by Dryden) is from the _Thebaid_.] Comparatively little read in modern times. Addison’s _Campaign_ has clear traces of Lucan; so has Drayton’s _Barons’ Wars_. Lyric Verse Gaius Valerius CATULLUS | CATULLUS lived 84-54 B.C. POEMS (odes, epigrams, and occasional pieces—especially love-poems to “Lesbia”). Imitates metre and style of Greek lyrists (Sappho, etc.) and Alexandrian elegists (Callimachus, etc.). Most Greek of all Romans in his simplicity and spontaneity. His works lost during Middle Ages, and always less read than Horace. Quintus HORATIUS Flaccus | HORACE lived 65-8 B.C. _ODES AND EPODES_ (love, politics, _vers de société_, moralizings). Avowed imitation of Sappho, Alcaeus, Pindar, Anacreon. Adapts Greek lyrical metres. Deft but unimpassioned. The model for lyrists and writers of social verse in France and Italy. These combined are the type for all such English odes and short pieces as are addressed to “Lesbia,” “Delia,” “Celia,” etc. (Ben Jonson). Horace in particular was imitated by the