A History of Roman Literature ─ From Livius Andronicus to Boethius : With Special Regard to Its Influence on World Literature

Translated from Albrecht's (classical philology, U. of Heidelberg) 1994 second edition of Geschichte der r÷ischen Literatur , changing bibliographic references to English editions and translations of ancient texts and translating the Latin quotations in the text. Considering literature in broad, antique sense that includes rhetoric, philosophy, and history, he describes the characteristics of literature in general and in the various genres of poetry and prose during the Republican and Augustan periods; and the early, middle, and late empire. He also explores the conditions for the rise of Roman literature and its transmission, and includes a chronology. The tome is divided into two volumes only for such practical matters as complying with AHA limits on how much a student is required to lift; they are paged continuously and indexed as one. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

Michael von Albrecht is emeritus Professor of Classical Philology at the University of Heidelberg. He studied in Tubingen and Paris and has held several guest professorships in the United States and the Netherlands. He is a specialist in Classical Latin poetry (Ovid, Vergil), in Latin high prose (Cicero), text syntax and style, narrative structure, the influence of the Classical tradition in modern literature and music. He is editor ofStudien ur Klassischen Philologie, and International Journal of Musicology. His publications includeM. Tullius Cicero, Sprache und Stil (1971), Meister Romischer Poesie (1971, English translation 1988),Rom: Spiegel Europas (1988), Ovid: Metamorphosen (1989).