Augustan Age

Augustan Age, the greatest period of Roman literature, adorned by the poets Virgil, Ovid, Horace, and Propertius. It is named after the reign (27 BCE–CE14) of the emperor Augustus, but many literary historians prefer to date the literary period from the death of Julius Caesar in 44 CE, thus including the early works of Virgil and Horace. In English literary history, the term is usually applied to the period from the accession of Queen Anne (1702) to the deaths of Pope and Swift (1744–5), although John Dryden, whose major translation of Virgil's works appeared in 1697, may also be regarded as part of the English phenomenon known as Augustanism. The Augustans, led by Pope and Swift, wrote in conscious emulation of the Romans, adopted their literary forms (notably the epistle and the satire), and aimed to create a similarly sophisticated urban literary milieu: a characteristic preference in Augustan literature, encouraged by the periodicals of Addison and Steele, was for writing devoted to the public affairs and coffee‐house gossip of the imperial capital, London. See also neoclassicism.

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Augustan age of Latin literature, a term applied to the period following the Ciceronian age, of which the empire of Augustus was the formative influence. It spans roughly the time from the assassination of Julius Caesar in 44 BC to the death of Ovid in AD 17 (Augustus died in AD 14); its great authors were Virgil, Horace, Tibullus, Propertius, Ovid, and Livy. It started with the turmoil, destructions, and slaughter of the civil war, saw the death of republican government after the battle of Actium in 31 BC, and ended after the restoration of tranquillity and order following nearly a century of revolution. Political activity as it existed under the republic came to an end with the institution of the empire (see AUGUSTUS); Augustus' ambition was to restore something of the spirit of the republic in its heyday, and to imbue the Italian people with the old Roman traditions and virtues. To some extent freedom of political and historical inquiry and expression were limited; hence perhaps the eclipse of oratory and prose literature in general. The support given to Augustus' policy by the poets and historians of the time gives to their literature its unique flavour. This support was deliberately enlisted by the emperor himself and by other patrons in high official positions, men such as Maecenas and Messalla. Their writings are serious and mature; their themes, often drawn from the moralizing tradition, come alive because the authors are themselves inspired by love of Italy and the traditional Roman values. Even Ovid and Propertius, who appear often to ignore contemporary politics, show the pleasure they feel in the Italian scene. The poetry in particular is characterized by an increasing technical refinement and, what is less obvious, by a subtle and enriching blend of Greek and Roman themes, which requires from its readers a more intellectual appreciation.