POLITICAL CONTEXT OF ROMAN POETRY

Abstract

The focus of post-war Latin studies on the political context of Roman poetry has been largely on identifying in a poetic text either a statement supporting the ruler or some details subverting this statement. It is perhaps sensible to direct attention rather to the text as a complex description of the world, including some kind of implicit political philosophy, and to turn from generalizations to working with minute details of how the political aspect functions in each particular passage of Roman poetry.