Literature and history

history dot come.

Hello and welcome to literature and history or should I say? Oh, Hello and that by the literature of Rome.

And that, by the way, was my version of the garage band loop that Mike Duncan used in his

podcast The History of Rome.

Well, I'm back from time off, and this is Literature and History, episode 42, The Beginnings of Roman Literature.

This show is a high-level overview of the birth, development, and early evolutions of Roman literature

from the mid 300s, B.C. up to about 100 B.C.E.

This is our first program on Roman literature. In our podcast thus far, we've spent about

39 hours on ancient Greek literature, from Heseid to Apollonius of Rhodes.

Over the next 20 or so shows, I expect to produce an equal quantity of content on Roman literature.

Our podcast has many different kinds of listeners from relative newcomers to ancient history to experts on the subject,

and so I want to take a second to get us all on the same page by giving you the history of Rome in a single paragraph.

Roman history is usually divided up into four periods, the regal period during which Rome was

ruled by kings, the Republican period during which Rome was ruled by bodies of elected officials,

the Principate during which Rome was ruled by emperors but still retained features of its previous electoral system,

and the dominant during which powerful authoritarian emperors controlled Rome.

The Regal period, according to ancient Roman historians, is said to have begun

in 753, B.C. although archaeological evidence suggests Rome wasn't an urban center until the 600s or 500s b c.

Whatever the exact chronology of its inception, Rome was between its very beginning and the year 509 b.C.

ruled by kings.

Between 509 and 27 b.C.

...