(Work in progress!)
In these pages I am collecting texts and other useful materials for the study and teaching of popular Latin literature. The selection of texts is growing, as is the availability of translations in English and Italian.
1. Theatre
- Difficult Audiences: Terence, Hec. 33-36
- Seating in the Theatre: Livy 34.54.4-8
- Ancient Comedy: Plautus, Casina (prologue)
- Repression of Theatrical Immorality and Indiscretion: Tacitus, Ann. 4.14.3; Svetonius, Cal. 27.4
- Philosophical Mimes: Seneca, Tranq. 11.8; Seneca, Epist. 8.8.10; Seneca, Epist. 108.8; Laberius, fr. 50a Panayotakis (90-97 Bonaria)
- Mimes and Mythology: Tertullian, Apol. 15.1-3; Macrobius, Sat. 2.7.10-19
2. Popular culture and epigraphical texts. Colloquial Latin
- Rhetoric for All: Apuleius, Flor. 9.1-8; Cicero, De Or. 3.198 and Orat. 168
- Epigraphic Poetry: CLE 934-935 (Tiburtinus); CLE 950
- Epigraphic Prose: ILS 8393 (Laudatio Turiae); ILS 5795 (Nonius Datus)
- Colloquial Latin: Cicero, Fam. 9.21.1; CLE 1559 (Epitaph for Bassa)
3. Reading for Pleasure and Playful Instruction
- Milesian Tales and Discredited Narrative: Historia Augusta, Alb. 12.5-12; Macrobius, Somn. 1.2.8; Plutarch, Crass. 32.3-6
- Narrative in Schools: Apuleius, Metamorphoses, subscriptio to Book 9
- Mirabilia: Gellius 9.4.1-5; Servius, on Verg. Ge. 1.30
- Aniles fabellae: Apuleius, Met. 4.27.8 ff.; 6.25.1 (Cupid and Psyche); Seneca, Ben. 1.3.8-9; 1.4.5-6
- A Story of Magic: Apuleius, Met. 1.5-19 (story of Aristomenes)
- A Snow White-Myth : Ovid, Met. 11.291-345
- Horror Stories: Pliny the Younger, Epistle 7.27.5-11; Petronius 61-63
- The Story of the Two Mice: Horace, Sat. 2.6.77 ff.
- The Saturnalia and Book-Gifts: Martial, 14.183-196
- Playful Didascalic Literature: Ovid, Tristia 2.471-492; Plautus, Persa 392; Stichus 400
4. Edifying and Christian narratives
- Records of Miraculous Healings: Passio SS. Quattuor Coronatorum 22; Augustine, Civ. 22.8.21-22
- Miracles and Prodigies: Acta Petri 28 ff.