The History of Roman Literature / From the Earliest Period to the Death of Marcus Aurelius

by Charles Thomas Cruttwell

40. Examine the traces of a satiric tendency in Roman literature, independent of professed satire.

41. How far did the Augustan poets consciously modify the Greek metres they adopted?

42. Is it a sound criticism to call the Romans a nation of grammarians? Give a short account of the labours of any two of the great Roman grammarians, and estimate their value.

43. Cicero (De Leg. i. 2, 5) says: "Abest historia a literis nostris." Quintilian (x. i. 101) says: "Historia non cesserit Graecis." Criticise these statements.

44. "O dimidiate Menander." By whom said? Of whom said? Criticise.

45. Examine and classify the various uses of the participles in Virgil.

46. What are the chief peculiarities of the style of Tacitus?

47. "Roman history ended where it had begun, in biography." (Merivale). Account for the predominance of biography in Latin literature.

48. The Greek schools of rhetoric in the Roman period. Examine their influence on the literature of Rome, and on the intellectual progress of the Roman world.

49. In what sense can Ennius rightly be called the father of Latin literature?