Roman Classics (Cliffs Notes)

The poets, playwrights, philosophers, and kings of ancient Rome left a legacy of literature that is the bedrock of modern western life. From our morals to our entertainment, everything that can be said was said thousands of years ago, and eloquently, by this warring, thinking, creative society. Cliffs Notes on Roman Classics is the reference book you need to understand the values and ideas inherent in Latin literature and Roman civilization. It is a must for students of: the Humanities English Literature World Literature Law Classical Literature and Languages Political Science History Theatre and Drama Religion Speech Communications Use this invaluable reference book to: * Give you concise overviews of Roman poets, playwrights, orators, satirists, philosophers, historians, and their works. * Locate topics for term papers and essays. * Check facts, dates, spelling, and pronunciation. * Identify the five major divisions of Latin literature, including the Golden Age and the Silver Age. * Discover the genesis of biography, the encyclopedia, and the art of satire. * Recognize literary allusions to people and events such as Little Boots, the Queen of the Nile, the Good Emperors, the Roman Homer, crossing the Rubicon, the eruption of Vesuvius, the Battle of Actium, and the decline and fall of the Roman Empire. * Comprehend, through example, such terms as Philippics, persona non grata, a sound mind in a sound body, the law of three children, plebes, and equites, lightning war, divide and conquer, the sublime, toga virilis, triumvirate, the die is cast, de rerum natura, apologia, veni vidi vici, arms and the man, et tu Brute, Pax Romana, Cumaean Sybil, Ides of March, bread and circuses, pontifex maximus, and the Vulgate Bible. * Place Roman authors in historical context and chronological relationship to one another. * Review the accomplishments of Roman civilization under its various forms of government. * Recognize the roots of Western poetic themes and genres in such Latin writers as Ovid, Virgil, and Catullus. * Discover the importance of Christian thought as Rome evolved into the center of the Catholic world. * Understand the great influence of major Greek ideas, such as Epicureanism, Platonism, Aristotilianism, and the Golden Mean. "Summaries and concise commentaries about the major works of classic Greek writers, including Homer, Hesiod, Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes, Menander, Lysias, Demosthenes, Aesop, Sappho, Pindar, Herodotus, Thuycydides, Plato, Aristotle, and others." Summaries and concise commentaries about the major works of classic Roman writers.