Chapter 1 - Cicero and the Poets

Summary

An overview of Cicero’s engagment with Latin poetry with discussion of Cicero’s preferential interest in certain poets over others. Discussion of Cicero’s quotation of different Latin poets (Ennius, Pacuvius, Accius, Terence, Lucilius) and different genres of Latin poetry (epic, tragedy, comedy, satire), including Cicero’s aversion to the quotation of contemporary poets and neoterics. Discussion of Cicero’s own poetic compositions and practices of self-citation. An overview of Cicero’s quotation of Greek poets (Homer, Euripides, Sophocles, Leonidas of Tarentum, Aeschylus, Callimachus, Hesiod, Menander, Pindar, Archilochus, Stesichorus) and proverbs. Discussion of Cicero’s Latin translations of Greek poets (Aratus, Euripides, Homer, Aeschylus, Sophocles). Discussion of Cicero’s quotations of poetry from memory versus from a book.