Editing Roman Empire (section)

=== Literature ===
{{Main|Latin literature}}
{{See also|Latin poetry}}
[[File:Ovidiu03.jpg|thumb|upright|Statue in [[Constanța]], Romania (the ancient colony Tomis), commemorating [[Exile of Ovid|Ovid's exile]]]]
[[Augustan literature (ancient Rome)|Literature under Augustus]], along with that of the Republic, has been viewed as the "Golden Age" of Latin literature, embodying [[classicism|classical ideals]].{{Sfnp|Roberts|1989|p=3}} The three most influential Classical Latin poets—[[Virgil]], [[Horace]], and [[Ovid]]—belong to this period. Virgil's ''[[Aeneid]]'' was a national epic in the manner of the [[Homeric epics]] of Greece. Horace perfected the use of [[Greek lyric]] [[Metre (poetry)|metres]] in Latin verse. Ovid's erotic poetry was enormously popular, but ran afoul of Augustan morality, contributing to his exile. Ovid's ''[[Metamorphoses]]'' wove together [[Greco-Roman mythology]]; his versions of [[Greek mythology|Greek myths]] became a primary source of later [[classical mythology]], and his work was hugely influential on [[medieval literature]].<ref>''Aetas Ovidiana''; {{Cite book |first=Charles |last=McNelis |chapter=Ovidian Strategies in Early Imperial Literature |title=A Companion to Ovid |publisher=Blackwell |date=2007 |page=397}}</ref> The early [[Principate]] produced [[Satire|satirists]] such as [[Persius]] and [[Juvenal]].

The mid-1st through mid-2nd century has conventionally been called the "[[Classical Latin#Authors of the Silver Age|Silver Age]]" of Latin literature. The three leading writers—[[Seneca the Younger|Seneca]], [[Lucan]], and [[Petronius]]—committed suicide after incurring [[Nero]]'s displeasure. [[Epigram]]matist and social observer [[Martial]] and the epic poet [[Statius]], whose poetry collection ''[[Silvae]]'' influenced [[Renaissance literature]],<ref>{{Cite book |last=van Dam |first=Harm-Jan |chapter=Wandering Woods Again: From Poliziano to Grotius |date=2008 |title=The Poetry of Statius |publisher=Brill |pages=45ff}}</ref> wrote during the reign of [[Domitian]]. Other authors of the Silver Age included [[Pliny the Elder]], author of the encyclopedic ''[[Natural History (Pliny)|Natural History]]''; his nephew, [[Pliny the Younger]]; and the historian [[Tacitus]].

The principal Latin prose author of the [[Augustan literature (ancient Rome)|Augustan age]] is the [[Roman historiography|historian]] [[Livy]], whose account of [[founding of Rome|Rome's founding]] became the most familiar version in modern-era literature. ''[[The Twelve Caesars]]'' by [[Suetonius]] is a primary source for imperial biography. Among Imperial historians who wrote in Greek are [[Dionysius of Halicarnassus]], [[Josephus]], and [[Cassius Dio]]. Other major Greek authors of the Empire include the biographer [[Plutarch]], the geographer [[Strabo]], and the rhetorician and satirist [[Lucian]].

From the 2nd to the 4th centuries, Christian authors were in active dialogue with the [[classical tradition]]. [[Tertullian]] was one of the earliest prose authors with a distinctly Christian voice. After the [[conversion of Constantine]], Latin literature is dominated by the Christian perspective.{{Sfnp|Albrecht|1997|p=1294}} In the late 4th century, [[Jerome]] produced the Latin translation of the Bible that became authoritative as the [[Vulgate]]. Around that same time, [[Augustine of Hippo|Augustine]] wrote ''[[The City of God against the Pagans]]'', considered "a masterpiece of Western culture".<ref>{{Cite web |title=The City of God {{!}} Summary, Significance, & Facts {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-City-of-God |access-date=2024-08-04 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}</ref>

In contrast to the unity of Classical Latin, the literary esthetic of late antiquity has a [[Tessellation|tessellated]] quality.{{Sfnp|Roberts|1989|p=70}} A continuing interest in the religious traditions of Rome prior to Christian dominion is found into the 5th century, with the ''Saturnalia'' of [[Macrobius]] and ''[[The Marriage of Philology and Mercury]]'' of [[Martianus Capella]]. Latin poets of late antiquity include [[Ausonius]], [[Prudentius]], [[Claudian]], and [[Sidonius Apollinaris]].