The Fragmentary Latin Poets

Book excerpt: To understand fully the development of Latin poetry, one has to consider not only the prominent figures whose works survive entire but also the writers known to us only in fragments, usually small, from quotations. The fragments of the non-dramatic poets have been collected by Baehrens, Morel,and Buchner, but only a few have ever received a commentary. This book revises the texts, taking advantage of much earlier work now largely forgotten, and provides the necessary interpretative and illustrative material. By building up, wherever possible, a picture of each writer, Professor Courtneyplaces them in relation to the development of Latin poetry and thus gathers together information at present widely scattered and not easy to locate. While omitting some material which does not contribute to the focus of the book, he adds some writers not usually included in this corpus -particularly Tiberianus, the so-called De Bello Actiaco and the minor works of Ennius.