/lit/ - Literature

>>6304949

But anon, YOU are the romans...

>>6304949
Commence with the Chinese.

Well there's Republic era Lucretius.
There's Virgil, Ovid, Seneca, Pliny,

The Elegies of Propertius
Gaius Petronius' Satyricon
A whole buttload of historians. Is there a list? Would they be on a timeline? I only remember Lucretius' period

>>6304949
I wish Catullus had been a playwright, because then Romans might have some comedy that could hold a candle to Aristophanes. Plautus just isn't that good.

I'm being unfair, because the downfall if old comedy is mostly due to political reasons, but I can dream.

>>6304949

seneca for moral philosophy

cicero for moral, political and rhetorical theory

quintilian for rhetorical theory/the education of oration

of the roman playwrights not already mentioned, plautus and terence are worthwhile, as is geta and accius

then my favorites: horace and juvenal as satirists

catalus, petronius, lucan, lucretius, ammonius and theodorus rank among their poets

longinus and albinus round out some of their philosophy, while their historians include pictor, polybus, caesar, tacitus, livius, sallust, plutarch, appian, arrian, dio cassius, suetonius, priscis and eusebius

not to mention the impact of augustine, the new testament, marcus aurelius, etc.

when i think of more i'll post them. but yes, in general the romans are very much worth reading--this obviously doesn't obfuscate the necessity of reading the greeks, and it's probably a sound idea to read them first.

>>6304949
Op everyone knows you start with greece then rome and so on, the issue we have is people aren't starting with the greeks, now stop trying to start with the romans

>>6304949
Start with the Sumerians.

Grecco-Rome can often be "combined" into a single culture/civilization. Greece was more original and idealistic, but Rome was the pinnacle of practicality, growth, and virtuosity.

So when someone says start with the Greeks, you can immediately pivot into Rome once you're done.

Also start with the Chinese to knock it out first; since with the exception of Buddhist schisms, its vagueness allowed it to more or less stay the same since its beginning.

>>6305848
>that shamelessnorientalism

you'll go far kid

bump

To piggy back on this, what are some people's opinion on the wiki's starter guide for the Greeks?

What about Aristophanes or Aeschylus? Obviously I can read them regardless of what the list says, but I'm just looking for second opinions.

>>6307532
Aeschylus of course is great, simply less talked about than Euripides and Sophocles mostly because of trends in scholarship. Agamemnon, The Persians, and Alcestis are all worth your while.

Aristophanes is amazing and I can't believe that type of humor is what begins western comic tradition. Personal favorites are The Birds, The Acharnians, and Ecclesiazusae (Underrated as balls). From what I can tell many people also read the Clouds as a companion to Plato's apology, and Lysistrata is his most popular play.

>>6305223
Don't forget Boethius.

>>6308810
This. Boethius is imperative for when you move on to the medievalists.