II.

Ancient Literary Latin

The Latin literary language may be divided into four periods, corresponding in general to the periods of Latin literature.

A.

The Early Period

(240-70 bc). This period includes the writings of Ennius, Plautus, and Terence.

B.

The Golden Age

(70 bc-ad 14). This period is famed for the prose works of Julius Caesar, Cicero, and Livy and for the poetry of Catullus, Lucretius, Virgil, Horace, and Ovid. During this period, in both prose and poetry, the Latin language developed into a highly artistic medium of expression and attained its greatest richness and flexibility.

C.

The Silver Age

(14-130). This period is characterized by a striving both for rhetorical elaboration and ornament and for concise and epigrammatic expression, the latter qualities being found especially in the works of the philosopher and dramatist Seneca and in those of the historian Tacitus.

D.

The Late Latin Period

Extending from the 2nd century to the 6th century ad (c. 636), this period includes the Patristic Latin of the Fathers of the Church. During the Late Latin period invading barbarian tribes brought into the language numerous foreign forms and idioms; this corrupted Latin was termed the lingua Romana and was distinguished from the lingua Latina, the classical tongue cultivated by the learned.