Constructing Literature In The Roman Republic: Poetry And Its Reception

CONSTRUCTING LITERATURE IN THE ROMAN REPUBLIC How the Romans came to have a literature, how that literature reflected native and foreign impulses, and how it formed a legacy for subsequent generations have become central questions in the cultural history of the Republic. Constructing Literature in the Roman Republic examines the problem of Rome’s literary development by shifting attention from Rome’s writers to its readers. The literature we traditionally call “early” is seen to be a product less of the mid-Republic, when poetic texts began to circulate, than of the late Republic, when they were systematically collected, canonized, and put to new social and artistic uses. Imposing on texts the name and function of literature was thus often a retrospective activity. This book explores the development of this literary sensibility from the Romans’ early interest in epic and drama, through the invention of satire and the eventual enshrining of books in the public collections that became so important to Horace and Ovid. Sander M. Goldberg is Professor of Classics at the University of California, Los Angeles. The author of The Making of Menander’s Comedy, Understanding Terence, and Epic in Republican Rome, he has held fellowships from the American Council of Learned Societies, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Fulbright-Hays Commission. He is a past editor of the Transactions of the American Philological Association. Constructing Literature in the Roman Republic POETRY AND ITS RECEPTION SANDER M. GOLDBERG University of California, Los Angeles cambridge university press Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, S˜ao Paulo Cambridge University Press 40 West 20th Street, New York, ny 10011-4211, usa www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521854610
C Cambridge University Press 2005 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 2005 Printed in the United States of America A catalog record for this publication is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Goldberg, Sander M. Constructing literature in the Roman Republic : poetry and its reception / Sander M. Goldberg. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references. isbn 0-521-85461-x (hardcover) 1. Latin poetry – History and criticism. 2. Rome – History – Republic, 510–265 b.c. 3. Nationalism and literature – Rome. 4. Poetry – Appreciation – Rome. 5. Authors and readers – Rome. 6. Books and reading – Rome. 7. Rome – In literature. I. Title. pa6047.g65 2005 871 .0109358 – dc22 2005013006 isbn-13 978-0-521-85461-0 hardback isbn-10 0-521-85461-x hardback Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of urls for external or third-party Internet Web sites referred to in this publication and does not guarantee that any content on such Web sites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. Erich Gruen amico collegae magistroque semper CONTENTS Preface page