Literature and History

Juvenal’s Satires, produced some time in the decades around 100 CE, mercilessly mock some of the more colorful aspects of Roman life. Episode 72 Quiz: http://literatureandhistory.com/index.php/episode-72-quiz Episode 72 Transcription: http://literatureandhistory.com/index.php/episode-072-bread-and-circuses Bonus Content: http://literatureandhistory.com/index.php/bonus-content Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/literatureandhistory

Statius’ Thebaid, Books 7-12. Six hundred years after Aeschylus, Statius once again brought the Theban epic to a thunderous conclusion.

Statius’ Thebaid, Books 1-6. This epic is hardly ever read or taught these days, but in 100 CE, it was as famous as anything in the Roman world. Episode 70 Quiz: http://literatureandhistory.com/index.php/episode-70-quiz Episode 70 Transcription: http://literatureandhistory.com/index.php/episode-070-romes-forgotten-epic Bonus Content: http://literatureandhistory.com/index.php/bonus-content Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/literatureandhistory

Petronius’ Satyricon is a contender for history’s first novel, a picaresque filled with sex, misadventures, and details about daily life. Episode 69 Quiz: http://literatureandhistory.com/index.php/episode-69-quiz Episode 69 Transcription: http://literatureandhistory.com/index.php/episode-069-romes-comic-novel Bonus Content: http://literatureandhistory.com/index.php/bonus-content Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/literatureandhistory

Seneca’s Phaedra (c. 50s CE) is the story of an illicit passion, a stoic cautionary tale and simultaneously vivid character study. Episode 68 Quiz: http://literatureandhistory.com/index.php/episode-68-quiz Episode 68 Transcription: http://literatureandhistory.com/index.php/episode-068-love-means-sin Bonus Content: http://literatureandhistory.com/index.php/bonus-content Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/literatureandhistory

Seneca’s Thyestes, probably written around the 50s CE, is one of the most horrifying and influential plays ever written. Episode 67 Quiz: http://literatureandhistory.com/index.php/episode-67-quiz Episode 67 Transcription: http://literatureandhistory.com/index.php/episode-067-jaws-dripping-blood Bonus Content: http://literatureandhistory.com/index.php/bonus-content Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/literatureandhistory

Stoicism, starting with Zeno in 300 BCE, was a popular philosophy by the lifetime of Seneca, perhaps even making its way into the New Testament. Episode 66 Quiz: http://literatureandhistory.com/index.php/episode-66-quiz Episode 66 Transcription: http://literatureandhistory.com/index.php/episode-066-seneca-stoicism-st-paul Bonus Content: http://literatureandhistory.com/index.php/bonus-content Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/literatureandhistory

Seneca the Younger (c 1 BCE-65 CE) practiced the philosophy of stoicism over the course of several volatile, and very different imperial reigns. Episode 65 Quiz: http://literatureandhistory.com/index.php/episode-65-quiz Episode 65 Transcription: http://literatureandhistory.com/index.php/episode-065-seneca-and-the-julio-claudians Bonus Content: http://literatureandhistory.com/index.php/bonus-content Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/literatureandhistory

For mysterious reasons, in 8 CE, Ovid was exiled from Rome. Ovid’s last works were composed an ocean away from Italy, on the western shore of the Black Sea. Episode 64 Quiz: http://literatureandhistory.com/index.php/episode-64-quiz Episode 64 Transcription: http://literatureandhistory.com/index.php/episode-064-ovids-exile Bonus Content: http://literatureandhistory.com/index.php/bonus-content Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/literatureandhistory

Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Books 11-15. The vast Metamorphoses draws to a resonant conclusion as Ovid brings his great poem to Rome itself. Episode 63 Quiz: http://literatureandhistory.com/index.php/episode-63-quiz Episode 63 Transcription: http://literatureandhistory.com/index.php/episode-063-all-is-in-flux Bonus Content: http://literatureandhistory.com/index.php/bonus-content Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/literatureandhistory

Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Books 6-10. In the middle portion of Ovid’s great poem, psychological transformations become as gripping as physical ones. Episode 62 Quiz: http://literatureandhistory.com/index.php/episode-62-quiz Episode 62 Transcription: http://literatureandhistory.com/index.php/episode-062-a-curious-passion Bonus Content: http://literatureandhistory.com/index.php/bonus-content Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/literatureandhistory

Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Books 1-5. This book influenced thousands of years of later literature, and remains one of our best source texts on classical mythology. Episode 61 Quiz: http://literatureandhistory.com/index.php/episode-61-quiz Episode 61 Transcription: http://literatureandhistory.com/index.php/episode-061-changes-of-shape Bonus Content: http://literatureandhistory.com/index.php/bonus-content Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/literatureandhistory

Ovid’s Art of Love is ancient Rome’s manual of seduction – a record of the steamier side of the Augustan Age. Episode 60 Quiz: http://literatureandhistory.com/index.php/episode-60-quiz Episode 60 Transcription: http://literatureandhistory.com/index.php/episode-060-how-to-make-love-to-a-roman Bonus Content: http://literatureandhistory.com/index.php/bonus-content Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/literatureandhistory

The love poetry of Ovid (43 BCE-17 CE) was standard Latin curriculum for hundreds of years, but it was also the product of a very specific historical moment. Episode 59 Quiz: http://literatureandhistory.com/index.php/episode-59-quiz Episode 59 Transcription: http://literatureandhistory.com/index.php/episode-059-early-ovid Bonus Content: http://literatureandhistory.com/index.php/bonus-content Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/literatureandhistory

Propertius (c. 50-1 BCE) took the Latin elegiac form to new heights of complexity and passion, even weaving subtle satire throughout his work. Episode 58 Quiz: http://literatureandhistory.com/index.php/episode-58-quiz Episode 58 Transcription: http://literatureandhistory.com/index.php/episode-058-she-caught-me-with-her-eyes Bonus Content: http://literatureandhistory.com/index.php/bonus-content Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/literatureandhistory

Virgil’s Aeneid, Books 10-12. The end of Rome’s great epic is about something Romans of Virgil’s generation knew very well indeed. War. Episode 57 Quiz: http://literatureandhistory.com/index.php/episode-57-quiz Episode 57 Transcription: http://literatureandhistory.com/index.php/episode-057-the-world-grows-dim-and-black Bonus Content: http://literatureandhistory.com/index.php/bonus-content Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/literatureandhistory

Virgil’s Aeneid, Books 7-9. Aeneas’ arrival in Italy begins auspiciously enough, but soon things take a turn for the worse. Episode 56 Quiz: http://literatureandhistory.com/index.php/episode-56-quiz Episode 56 Transcription: http://literatureandhistory.com/index.php/episode-056-i-shall-release-hell Bonus Content: http://literatureandhistory.com/index.php/bonus-content Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/literatureandhistory

Virgil’s Aeneid, Books 4-6. The story of Dido and Aeneas, and his subsequent journey to the underworld, is the heart of Rome’s most famous poem. Episode 55 Quiz: http://literatureandhistory.com/index.php/episode-55-quiz Episode 55 Transcription: http://literatureandhistory.com/index.php/episode-055-among-the-shades Bonus Content: http://literatureandhistory.com/index.php/bonus-content Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/literatureandhistory

Virgil’s Aeneid, Books 1-3. The Aeneid is Rome’s great epic. Learn the story of its first three books, and when and why Virgil began writing it. Episode 54 Quiz: http://literatureandhistory.com/index.php/episode-54-quiz Episode 54 Transcription: http://literatureandhistory.com/index.php/episode-054-out-of-troy Episode 54 Song: "The Epic Cycle Waltz" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcJgKUMS8k8 Bonus...

Virgil’s Georgics (c. 29 BCE), or agriculture poems, show the poet reaching his full strength as a writer, and using an old form to analyze the history around him. Episode 53 Quiz: http://literatureandhistory.com/index.php/episode-53-quiz Episode 53 Transcription: http://literatureandhistory.com/index.php/episode-053-then-came-hard-iron Episode 53 Song: "The Ancient Republican" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzNAutei6wA Bonus...