The Roman Poets of the Republic, 3rd edition

Greek models and Roman public life provide the setting for W. Y. Sellar's critical study of Latin poetry under the Republic. He considers early verse, epic, tragedy, comedy and satire, moving from ritual hymns and the Saturnian metre to writers such as Ennius, Plautus and Terence. The prefaces explain revisions to chapters on Roman comedy, Lucretius and Catullus, and describe the translations accompanying passages discussed in the book.

The section on Lucilius shows Sellar working with fragments to recover a poet's methods and personality. Letters, dialogue, fables, travel accounts and comments on grammar reveal the varied materials of early Roman satire. Sellar connects these forms with political criticism, moral argument and the poet's relationship with his reader. Readers interested in literary history can follow how particular passages support larger judgments about Roman originality, Greek influence and the social uses of poetry.