This volume covers the first three-quarters of the first century BC; an age which had enduring consequences for the subsequent history of Latin literature. The

This volume analyses the process of creative adaptation which shaped the beginnings of Latin literature.

This volume covers a relatively short span of time, rather less than the first three-quarters of the first century BC; but it was an age of profoundly important

Didactic Epic was enormously popular in the ancient world. It was used to teach Greeks and Romans technical and scientific subjects, but in verse. Epic Lessons