The Influences of Roman Politics, Philosophy and Rhetoric upon the Roman Literature

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Studies of Roman literature in Japan tend to be concentrated on two genres : epics based on mythical story and elegies from personal sentiments. This is a defect. Roman literature is under the influences of politics, philosophy (including natural sciences), and rhetoric. The relation between literature and these must be examined on each work in detail. Two important knowledges are gained among others : didactic poems cannot be isolated from epics in narrower sense, and prosopography is indispensable for the understanding the poems from the Republican age to the Augustan.