In the field of literature, Late Antiquity is known for the declining use of classical Greek and Latin, and the rise of literary cultures in Syriac, Armenian, Georgian, Ethiopic, Arabic, and Coptic. It also marks a shift in literary style, with a preference for encyclopedic works in a dense and allusive style, consisting of summaries of earlier works (anthologies, epitomes) often dressed up in elaborate allegorical garb (e.g., "De nuptiis Mercurii et Philologiae" [The Marriage of Mercury and Philology] of Martianus Capella and the "De arithmetica", "De musica", and "De consolatione philosophiae" of Boethius—both later key works in medieval education).
Literature
Late antiquity
Late antiquity | Literature
Known for the declining use of classical Greek and Latin, and the rise of literary cultures in Syriac, Armenian, etc and marks a shift in literary style. "De arithmetica",  "De musica" and "De consolatione philosophiae". Yes - Boethius'   'De arithmetica', 'De musica', and 'De consolatione philosophiae' "De arithmetica", "De musica", and "De consolatione philosophiae" of Boethius
what is hydrus?
user
Small constellation in the deep southern sky.
assistant
what are its characteristics?
user
Irregular in shape and its tail has been shortened to make space for this last constellation he had drawn up.
assistant
name a few stars in the constellation?
user
Beta Hydri, Alpha Hydri, etc.
assistant
where did the second star get its name from?
user
Chinese system
assistant
who decribed the constellation for the first time?
user
Goes back to prehistory.
assistant
what does deep sky objects mean in the context of the constellation?
user
Sorry. I cannot find the answer based on the context.
assistant
name a few mordern constellations?
user
Sorry. I cannot find the answer based on the context.
assistant
where did the terminology for the term constellation get?
user
Late Latin term
assistant
what does late latin mean?
user
Scholarly name for the written Latin of late antiquity.
assistant
is there any literature in the late antiquity?
user
In the field of literature, Late Antiquity is known for the declining use of classical Greek and Latin, and the rise of literary cultures in Syriac, Armenian, Georgian, Ethiopic, Arabic, and Coptic. It also marks a shift in literary style, with a preference for encyclopedic works in a dense and allusive style, consisting of summaries of earlier works (anthologies, epitomes) often dressed up in elaborate allegorical garb (e.g., "De nuptiis Mercurii et Philologiae" [The Marriage of Mercury and Philology] of Martianus Capella and the "De arithmetica", "De musica", and "De consolatione philosophiae" of Boethius—both later key works in medieval education).
Late antiquity | Literature
Late Latin is the administrative and literary language of Late Antiquity in the late Roman empire and states that succeeded the Western Roman Empire over the same range. By its broadest definition it is dated from about 200 AD to about 900 AD when it was replaced by written Romance languages. Opinion concerning whether it should be considered classical is divided. The authors of the period looked back to a classical period they believed should be imitated and yet their styles were often classical. According to the narrowest definitions, Late Latin did not exist and the authors of the times are to be considered medieval.
History of Latin | Late Latin
Much of the cultural heritage of classical antiquity was lost as a consequence of the loss of books in late antiquity, which in the west was the period from the late third to late sixth century CE. A major part of antique Greek and Latin literature was lost during this period, and only a small number of works remained extant to the Early Modern Age. Most of these works are available in Medieval copies, while very few original documents of antiquity were known preserved, until recent discoveries of papyri and parchments. Discoveries of palimpsest copies of significant classical texts have also been particularly studied since the 19th century.
Loss of books in late antiquity | Introduction
Late Latin () is the scholarly name for the written Latin of late antiquity. English dictionary definitions of Late Latin date this period from the 3rd to the 6th centuries AD, and continuing into the 7th century in the Iberian Peninsula. This somewhat ambiguously defined version of Latin was used between the eras of Classical Latin and Medieval Latin. There is no scholarly consensus about exactly when Classical Latin should end or Medieval Latin should begin. However, Late Latin is characterized (with variations and disputes) by an identifiable style. Being a written language, Late Latin is not the same as Vulgar Latin.
Late Latin | Introduction
Greek poets of the Late Antique period included Antoninus Liberalis, Quintus Smyrnaeus, Nonnus, Romanus the Melodist and Paul the Silentiary. Latin poets included Ausonius, Paulinus of Nola, Claudian, Rutilius Namatianus, Orientius, Sidonius Apollinaris, Corippus and Arator. Jewish poets included Yannai, Eleazar ben Killir and Yose ben Yose.
Late antiquity | Poetry
Neither Late Latin nor Late Antiquity are modern terms or concepts; neither are they ancient; their origin remains obscure. A notice in "Harper's New Monthly Magazine" of the publication of Andrews' "Freund's Lexicon of the Latin Language" in 1850 mentions that the dictionary divides Latin into ante-classic, quite classic, Ciceronian, Augustan, post-Augustan and post-classic or late Latin, which indicates the term already was in professional use by English classicists in the early 19th century. Instances of English vernacular use of the term may also be found from the 18th century. The term Late Antiquity meaning post-classical and pre-medieval had currency in English well before then.
Late Latin | Late and post-classical Latin
Wilhelm Sigismund Teuffel's first edition (1870) of "History of Roman Literature" defined an early period, the Golden Age, the Silver Age and then goes on to define other ages first by dynasty and then by century (see under Classical Latin). In subsequent editions he subsumed all periods under three headings: the First Period (Old Latin), the Second Period (the Golden Age) and the Third Period, "the Imperial Age", subdivided into the Silver Age, the 2nd century, and Centuries 3–6 together, which was a recognition of Late Latin, as he sometimes refers to the writings of those times as "late." Imperial Latin went on into English literature; Fowler's "History of Roman Literature" mentions it in 1903.
Late Latin | Imperial Latin
The 4th and 5th centuries also saw an explosion of Christian literature, of which Greek writers such as Eusebius of Caesarea, Basil of Caesarea, Gregory of Nazianzus and John Chrysostom and Latin writers such as Ambrose of Milan, Jerome and Augustine of Hippo are only among the most renowned representatives. On the other hand, authors such as Ammianus Marcellinus (4th century) and Procopius of Caesarea (6th century) were able to keep the tradition of classical Hellenistic historiography alive in the Byzantine empire.
Late antiquity | Literature
Among the causes of the loss of books in late antiquity, there is evidence for systematic annihilation of Christian scriptures in the persecution of Christians, as well as pagan scriptures in the course of the Christianization of the Roman Empire. Changes in the media were a further barrier to the transmission of classical texts. The tradition of works came to an end when they were not transcribed onto the new media, and were thus dropped out of the canon. In the Latin West, an elite of the wealthy and educated preserved a subset of the literary heritage of antiquity. This circle included Cassiodorus, who founded the monastic book production of the Middle Ages with Vivarium.
Loss of books in late antiquity | Introduction
The latter served as ancestor of the Romance languages. Although Late Latin reflects an upsurge of the use of Vulgar Latin vocabulary and constructs, it remains largely classical in its overall features, depending on the author who uses it. Some Late Latin writings are more literary and classical, but others are more inclined to the vernacular. Also, Late Latin is not identical to Christian patristic Latin, used in the theological writings of the early Christian fathers. While Christian writings used a subset of Late Latin, pagans also wrote extensively in Late Latin, especially in the early part of the period.
Late Latin | Introduction
270).
Late antiquity | Laity vs clergy
(see Rûm and Romaioi.) The classical scholarship and culture that was still preserved in Constantinople were brought by refugees fleeing its conquest in 1453 and helped to spark the Renaissance (see Greek scholars in the Renaissance).
Classical antiquity | Late antiquity (4th to 6th centuries AD)
The term "late antiquity", implying wider horizons, is finding more use in the academic community, especially when transformations of classical culture common throughout the post-Roman West are examined; it is less successfully applied to Britain at the time. The period may also be considered as part of the early Middle Ages, if continuity with the following periods is stressed. Popular (and some academic) works use a range of more dramatic names for the period: the Dark Ages, the Brythonic Age, the Age of Tyrants, or the Age of Arthur.
Sub-Roman Britain | Meaning of terms
Pagan Latin literature showed a final burst of vitality from the late 3rd century till the 5th centuries. Ammianus Marcellinus in history, Quintus Aurelius Symmachus in oratory, and Ausonius and Rutilius Claudius Namatianus in poetry. The "Mosella" by Ausonius demonstrated a modernism of feeling that indicates the end of classical literature as such. At the same time, other men laid the foundations of Christian Latin literature during the 4th century and 5th century. They included the church fathers Augustine of Hippo, Jerome, and Ambrose, and the first great Christian poet, Prudentius. During the Renaissance there was a return to the Latin of classical times, called for this reason Neo-Latin.
Latin literature | Latin in the Middle Ages, Renaissance, and Early Modernity
Notable examples of Late Greek writers include Clement of Alexandria (died c. 215), Galen (died c. 216), Origen (died c. 254), Diophantus (died c. 290), Porphyry (died c. 305), Zosimos of Panopolis (died c. 325), and many others. See the article Byzantine literature for more. The term Late Latin covers very roughly the same time period in the Latin language.
Late Greek | Introduction
The Christian writers were not interested in the elegant speech of the best or classical Latin, which belonged to their aristocratic pagan opponents. Instead they preferred a humbler style lower in correctness, so that they might better deliver the gospel to the "vulgus" or "common people."
Late Latin | Low Latin
The term "Spätantike", literally "late antiquity", has been used by German-speaking historians since its popularization by Alois Riegl in the early 20th century. It was given currency in English partly by the writings of Peter Brown, whose survey "The World of Late Antiquity" (1971) revised the Gibbon view of a stale and ossified Classical culture, in favour of a vibrant time of renewals and beginnings, and whose "The Making of Late Antiquity" offered a new paradigm of understanding the changes in Western culture of the time in order to confront Sir Richard Southern's "The Making of the Middle Ages". The continuities between the later Roman Empire, as it was reorganized by Diocletian (r.
Late antiquity | Terminology
The earliest surviving Latin authors, writing in Old Latin, include the playwrights Plautus and Terence. Much of the best known and most highly thought of Latin literature comes from the classical period, with poets such as Virgil, Horace, and Ovid; historians such as Julius Caesar and Tacitus; orators such as Cicero; and philosophers such as Seneca the Younger and Lucretius. Late Latin authors include many Christian writers such as Lactantius, Tertullian and Ambrose; non-Christian authors, such as the historian Ammianus Marcellinus, are also preserved.
Classics | Literature
There are, however, insoluble problems with the beginning and end of Imperial Latin. Politically the excluded Augustan Period is the paradigm of imperiality, and yet the style cannot be bundled with either the Silver Age or with Late Latin. Moreover, in 6th century Italy, the Roman Empire no longer existed; the rule of Gothic kings prevailed. Subsequently, the term Imperial Latin was dropped by historians of Latin literature, although it may be seen in marginal works. The Silver Age was extended a century and the final four centuries represent Late Latin.
Late Latin | Imperial Latin
The "media" is securely connected to Medieval Latin by Cange's own terminology expounded in the "Praefatio", such as "scriptores mediae aetatis", "writers of the middle age." Cange's "Glossary" takes words from authors ranging from the Christian period (Late Latin) to the Renaissance, dipping into the classical period if a word originated there. Either "media et infima Latinitas" refers to one age, which must be the middle age covering the entire post-classical range, or it refers to two consecutive periods, "infima Latinitas" and "media Latinitas". Both interpretations have their adherents. In the former case the "infimae" appears extraneous; it recognizes the "corruptio" of the "corrupta Latinitas" Cange said his "Glossary" covered.
Late Latin | Low Latin
The spread of vernacular literature eventually reached as far as Bohemia, and the Baltic, Slavic and Byzantine worlds.
Late Middle Ages | Literature
The general decline of population, technological knowledge and standards of living in Europe during this period became the archetypal example of societal collapse for writers from the Renaissance. As a result of this decline, and the relative scarcity of historical records from Europe in particular, the period from roughly the early fifth century until the Carolingian Renaissance (or later still) was referred to as the "Dark Ages". This term has mostly been abandoned as a name for a historiographical epoch, being replaced by "Late Antiquity" in the periodization of the late West Roman Empire, the early Byzantine empire and the Early Middle Ages.
Late antiquity | Terminology
8th century BCE 7th century BCE 6th century BCE
Ancient literature | Classical Antiquity
Juvenal satirized vice. The historian Tacitus painted an unforgettably dark picture of the early empire in his "Histories" and "Annals", both written in the early 2nd century. His contemporary Suetonius wrote biographies of the 12 Roman rulers from Julius Caesar through Domitian. The letters of Pliny the Younger described Roman life of the period. Quintilian composed the most complete work on ancient education that we possess. Important works from the 2nd century include the "Attic Nights" of Aulus Gellius, a collection of anecdotes and reports of literary discussions among his friends; and the letters of the orator Marcus Cornelius Fronto to Marcus Aurelius.
Latin literature | The Imperial Period
During the Late Antiquity and Middle Ages periods, there was no Rome of the kind that ruled the Mediterranean for centuries and spawned the culture that produced twenty-eight public libraries in the "urbs Roma". The empire had been divided then later re-united again under Constantine the Great who moved the capital of the Roman Empire in 330 AD to the city of Byzantium which was renamed Constantinople. The Roman intellectual culture that flourished in ancient times was undergoing a transformation as the academic world moved from laymen to Christian clergy. As the West crumbled, books and libraries flourished and flowed east toward the Byzantine Empire.
History of libraries | Late Antiquity
The term Late Antiquity is the transitional centuries from Classical Antiquity to the Middle Ages in both mainland Europe and the Mediterranean world: generally from the end of the Roman Empire's Crisis of the 3rd century (c. 284) to the Islamic conquests and the re-organization of the Byzantine Empire under Heraclius that occurred in the seventh century. The beginning of the post-classical age (known as the Middle Ages for Europe) following the fall of the Western Roman Empire spanning roughly from A.D 500 to 1500. Aspects of continuity with the earlier classical period are discussed in greater detail under the heading "Late Antiquity".
Ancient history | End of the period
The two-period case postulates a second unity of style, "infima Latinitas", translated into English as "Low Latin" (which in the one-period case would be identical to "media Latinitas"). Cange in the glossarial part of his "Glossary" identifies some words as being used by "purioris Latinitatis scriptores", such as Cicero (of the Golden Age). He has already said in the Preface that he rejects the ages scheme used by some: Golden Age, Silver Age, Brass Age, Iron Age. A second category are the "inferioris Latinitatis scriptores", such as Apuleius (Silver Age). The third and main category are the "infimae Latinitatis scriptores", who must be post-classical; that is, Late Latin, unless they are also medieval.
Late Latin | Low Latin
The time is too early to identify a direction of change toward any specific Romance language, as none had appeared yet. This variability, however, preceded the appearance of the first French, Italian, Spanish, Romanian, etc. After those languages developed, the scholastics gradually restored classical Latin as a means of scholarly communication. Jordanes refers to himself as "agrammaticus" before his conversion. This obscure statement is sometimes taken to refer to his Latin. Variability, however, characterizes all Late Latin, and besides, the author was not writing just after his conversion (for the meaning of the latter, see under Jordanes), but a whole career later, after associating with many Latin speakers and having read many Latin books.
Getica | The Late Latin of Jordanes
The generic name "Lates" derives from the Latin "latēre" (to be hidden).
Lates | Etymology
284–305), and the Early Middle Ages are stressed by writers who wish to emphasize that the seeds of medieval culture were already developing in the Christianized empire, and that they continued to do so in the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantine Empire at least until the coming of Islam. Concurrently, some migrating Germanic tribes such as the Ostrogoths and Visigoths saw themselves as perpetuating the "Roman" tradition. While the usage "Late Antiquity" suggests that the social and cultural priorities of Classical Antiquity endured throughout Europe into the Middle Ages, the usage of "Early Middle Ages" or "Early Byzantine" emphasizes a break with the classical past, and the term "Migration Period" tends to de-emphasize the disruptions in the former Western Roman Empire caused by the creation of Germanic kingdoms within her borders beginning with the "foedus" with the Goths in Aquitania in 418.
Late antiquity | Terminology
Vulgar Latin was the colloquial form spoken during the same time and attested in inscriptions and the works of comic playwrights like Plautus and Terence and author Petronius. Late Latin is the written language from the 3rd century; its colloquial form Vulgar Latin developed in the 6th to 9th centuries into the Romance languages, such as Italian, Sardinian, Venetian, Neapolitan, Sicilian, Piedmontese, Lombard, French, Franco-Provençal, Occitan, Corsican, Ladin, Friulan, Romansh, Catalan/Valencian, Aragonese, Spanish, Asturian, Galician, and Portuguese. Medieval Latin was used as a literary language from the 9th century to the Renaissance which used Renaissance Latin. Later, Early Modern Latin and New Latin evolved.
Latin | Introduction
The bulk of literature in Classical Sanskrit dates to the Early Medieval period, but in most cases cannot be dated to a specific century. The vocalized Masoretic Text of the Hebrew Bible developed during the 7th to 10th centuries. The Old English "Beowulf" is dated to anywhere between the 8th and early 11th centuries.
Early medieval literature | Undated
Late antiquity is a periodization used by historians to describe the time of transition from classical antiquity to the Middle Ages in mainland Europe, the Mediterranean world, and the Near East. The popularization of this periodization in English has generally been credited to historian Peter Brown, after the publication of his seminal work "The World of Late Antiquity" (1971). Precise boundaries for the period are a continuing matter of debate, but Brown proposes a period between the 3rd and 8th centuries AD. Generally, it can be thought of as from the end of the Roman Empire's Crisis of the Third Century (235–284) to the early Muslim conquests in the mid-7th century East, or as roughly contemporary with the Sasanian Empire (224–651).
Late antiquity | Introduction
These successive invasions removed almost all traces of Romanisation.
Valence, Drôme | Late antiquity
His failure to state which authors are low leaves the issue unresolved. He does however give some idea of the source of his "infima", which is a classical word, "lowest", of which the comparative degree is "inferior", "lower." In the Preface he opposes the style of the "scriptores aevi inferioris" (Silver Age) to the "elegantes sermones", "elegant speech", the high and low styles of "Latinitas" defined by the classical authors. Apparently Cange was basing his low style on "sermo humilis", the simplified speech devised by Late Latin Christian writers to address the ordinary people. "Humilis" (humble, humility) means "low", "of the ground".
Late Latin | Low Latin
The language of ancient Rome was Latin, a member of the Italic family of languages. The earliest surviving inscription in Latin comes from the 7th century BC, on a brooch from Palestrina. Latin from between this point and the early 1st century BC is known as Old Latin. Most surviving Latin literature is Classical Latin, from the 1st century BC to the 2nd century AD. Latin then evolved into Late Latin, in use during the late antique period. Late Latin survived long after the end of classical antiquity, and was finally replaced by written Romance languages around the 9th century AD.
Classics | Language
These helped to spread culture, and prepared the ground in which the new vernacular literature developed. Classical traditions did not disappear, and affection for the memory of Rome, a preoccupation with politics, and a preference for practice over theory combined to influence the development of Italian literature.
Italian literature | Early medieval Latin literature
The Journal of Late Antiquity is an academic journal and the first international English-language journal devoted to the Late Antiquity. The journal was founded in 2008 and is published twice a year by the Johns Hopkins University Press. The journal covers methodological, geographical, and chronological facets of Late Antiquity, from the late and post-classical world up to the Carolingian period, and including the late Roman, western European, Byzantine, Sassanid, and Islamic worlds, ca. AD 250-800. The editor in chief is Andrew Cain of University of Colorado at Boulder.
Journal of Late Antiquity | Introduction
The early printed editions began for the most part in the 16th century. At that time, scholarly books were expected to be in Latin, today's New Latin. As almost no manuscripts were in Latin, the editors of the early printed works translated from the Greek or Arabic to Latin. The Greek and Latin were typically juxtaposed, but only the Greek is original, or else was restored by the editor to what he thought was original. Critical apparatuses were in Latin. The ancient commentaries, however, were in ancient or medieval Greek. Only in the 18th and 19th centuries did modern languages begin to appear.
Apollonius of Perga | Early printed editions
Classical Latin was the literary register used in writing from 75 BC to the 3rd century AD, while Vulgar Latin was the common, spoken variety used across the Roman Empire. The Latin brought by Roman soldiers to Gaul, Iberia, or Dacia was not identical to the Latin of Cicero, and differed from it in vocabulary, syntax, and grammar. Some literary works with low-register language from the Classical Latin period give a glimpse into the world of early Vulgar Latin. The works of Plautus and Terence, being comedies with many characters who were slaves, preserve some early basilectal Latin features, as does the recorded speech of the freedmen in the "Cena Trimalchionis" by Petronius Arbiter.
Literary language | Latin
Late Greek means writings in the Greek language in Late Antiquity and the Early Byzantine period; and in other words, from about the late 2nd century AD until about the late 7th century AD. The intellectual center of Late Greek was Alexandria in Egypt. Alexandria came under Arabic rule starting in the 640s AD, which is sometimes taken as the ending-point of the Late Greek period. In terms purely of linguistics and language style, writings in Late Greek were conservative, whereas style began to change during the 8th century to some extent, and hence the ending-point of Late Greek is sometimes put at the beginning of the 8th century.
Late Greek | Introduction
Old Latin, also known as Early Latin or Archaic Latin, was the Latin language in the period before 75 BC, i.e. before the age of Classical Latin. (In New and Contemporary Latin, this language is called prisca Latinitas ("ancient Latin") rather than "vetus Latina" ("old Latin"), as "vetus Latina" is used to refer to a set of Biblical texts written in Late Latin.) It is ultimately descended from the Proto-Italic language. The use of "old", "early" and "archaic" has been standard in publications of Old Latin writings since at least the 18th century. The definition is not arbitrary, but the terms refer to writings with spelling conventions and word forms not generally found in works written under the Roman Empire.
Old Latin | Introduction
The Oxford Dictionary of Late Antiquity (ODLA) is the first comprehensive, multi-disciplinary reference work covering culture, history, religion, and life in Late Antiquity. This was the period in Europe, the Mediterranean, and the Near East from about AD 250 to 750. Written by more than 400 contributors and edited by Oliver Nicholson, the "Oxford Dictionary of Late Antiquity" was published in 2018. It connects the period in history between those covered in the "Oxford Classical Dictionary" and "The Oxford Dictionary of the Middle Ages".
The Oxford Dictionary of Late Antiquity | Introduction
Old Hindi, Old French, Arabic, Germanic, Celtic, Turkic, etc.).
Early medieval literature | Introduction
The rolls of papyrus used in classical antiquity (the "biblia" or " librī") in Late Antiquity were gradually replaced by the "codex". Reed pens were replaced by quill pens. Isidore of Seville explained the then-current relation between codex, "liber" ("book") and "volumen" ("scroll") in his "Etymologiae" (): A tradition of biblical manuscripts in "codex" form goes back to the 2nd century (Codex Vaticanus), and from about the 5th century, two distinct styles of writing known as uncial and half-uncial (from the Latin "uncia," or "inch") developed from various Roman bookhands.
Western calligraphy | Late Antiquity
Old Latin (also called Early Latin or Archaic Latin) refers to the period of Latin texts before the age of Classical Latin, extending from textual fragments that probably originated in the Roman monarchy to the written language of the late Roman republic about 75 BC. Almost all the writing of its earlier phases is inscriptional. Some phonological characteristics of older Latin are the case endings "-os" and "-om" (later Latin "-us" and "-um"). In many locations, classical Latin turned intervocalic /s/ into /r/. This had implications for declension: early classical Latin, "honos", "honosis"; Classical "honor", "honoris" ("honor"). Some Latin texts preserve /s/ in this position, such as the "Carmen Arvale"'s "lases" for "lares".
History of Latin | Old Latin
This purified language continued to be used as the "lingua franca" among the learned throughout Europe, with the great works of Descartes, Francis Bacon, and Baruch Spinoza all being composed in Latin. Among the last important books written primarily in Latin prose were the works of Swedenborg (d. 1772), Linnaeus (d. 1778), Euler (d. 1783), Gauss (d. 1855), and Isaac Newton (d. 1727), and Latin remains a necessary skill for modern readers of great early modern works of linguistics, literature, and philosophy.
Latin literature | Latin in the Middle Ages, Renaissance, and Early Modernity
The most important development of late medieval literature was the ascendancy of the vernacular languages. The vernacular had been in use in England since the 8th century and France since the 11th century, where the most popular genres had been the chanson de geste, troubadour lyrics and romantic epics, or the romance. Though Italy was later in evolving a native literature in the vernacular language, it was here that the most important developments of the period were to come. Dante Alighieri's "Divine Comedy", written in the early 14th century, merged a medieval world view with classical ideals. Another promoter of the Italian language was Boccaccio with his "Decameron".
Late Middle Ages | Literature
"See also:" Ancient literature, 10th century in literature, list of years in literature. This article presents a list of the historical events and publications of literature during the 6th through 9th Centuries. The list is chronological, and does not include epigraphy or poetry. For poetry, see: 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th century in poetry. For early epigraphy, see List of languages by first written accounts. During this period, a number of classical languages inherited from earlier epochs remain in active use (Chinese, Sanskrit, Latin, Greek, Persian, Hebrew). The same period also sees the rise of newly written vernaculars, partly replacing earlier literary languages (e.g.
Early medieval literature | Introduction
Late Antiquity is a historiographical term for the historical period from c. 200 AD to c. 700 AD, which marks the transition from Classical Antiquity to the Middle Ages. Precise boundaries for the period are a matter of debate, but historian Peter Brown proposed a period between the 2nd and 8th centuries. While generally, it can be thought of as from the end of the Roman Empire's Crisis of the Third Century (c. 235 – 284) to the re-organization of the Eastern Roman Empire under Heraclius and the Muslim conquests in the mid-7th century, for the purposes of this page it will be considered the period 200 to 700 AD.
List of states during Late Antiquity | Introduction
Low Latin is a vague and often pejorative term that might refer to any post-classical Latin from Late Latin through Renaissance Latin depending on the author. Its origins are obscure but the Latin expression "media et infima Latinitas" sprang into public notice in 1678 in the title of a "Glossary" (by today's standards a dictionary) by Charles du Fresne, sieur du Cange. The multi-volume set had many editions and expansions by other authors subsequently. The title varies somewhat; most commonly used was "Glossarium Mediae et Infimae Latinitatis". It has been translated by expressions of widely different meanings. The uncertainty is understanding what "media", "middle", and "infima", "low", mean in this context.
Late Latin | Low Latin
This period of Greek literature stretches from Homer until the fourth century BC and the rise of Alexander the Great. The earliest known Greek writings are Mycenaean, written in the Linear B syllabary on clay tablets. These documents contain prosaic records largely concerned with trade (lists, inventories, receipts, etc.); no real literature has been discovered. Michael Ventris and John Chadwick, the original decipherers of Linear B, state that literature almost certainly existed in Mycenaean Greece, but it was either not written down or, if it was, it was on parchment or wooden tablets, which did not survive the destruction of the Mycenaean palaces in the twelfth century BC.
Ancient Greek literature | Pre-classical and classical antiquity
Historical novels such as "Fabiola" and "Quo Vadis" have been interpreted as comparing the treatment of the popes by the newly formed Kingdom of Italy to the persecution of early Christians in the Roman Empire.
Roman Question | Literature
The period of "Late Manuscript Culture" dates from roughly the mid-fourteenth century to the fifteenth century, preceding and existing alongside the printing press. While embodying all of the ideals and adhering to the regulations observable in the Devotio Moderna, there are many clear characteristics of Late Manuscript Culture. For instance, careful attention was paid to the punctuation and layout of texts, with readability and specifically reading aloud taking preeminence. Meaning had to be clear in every sentence, with as little room left to interpretation as possible (compared to the lack of spaces in text and any markings for the purpose of aiding in enunciation), due to preachings' rise in popularity after the Fourth Lateran Council.
Manuscript culture | Characteristics
"Good Latin" in philology is known as "classical" Latin literature. The term refers to the canonical relevance of literary works written in Latin in the late Roman Republic, and early to middle Roman Empire. "[T]hat is to say, that of belonging to an exclusive group of authors (or works) that were considered to be emblematic of a certain genre." The term "classicus" (masculine plural "classici") was devised by the Romans to translate Greek ἐγκριθέντες (encrithentes), and "select" which refers to authors who wrote in a form of Greek that was considered model. Before then, the term "classis", in addition to being a naval fleet, was a social class in one of the diachronic divisions of Roman society in accordance with property ownership under the Roman constitution.
Classical Latin | Classical
As the Western Roman Empire declined, the Latin tradition was kept alive by writers such as Cassiodorus, Boethius, and Symmachus. The liberal arts flourished at Ravenna under Theodoric, and the Gothic kings surrounded themselves with masters of rhetoric and of grammar. Some lay schools remained in Italy, and noted scholars included Magnus Felix Ennodius, Arator, Venantius Fortunatus, Felix the Grammarian, Peter of Pisa, Paulinus of Aquileia, and many others. Italians who were interested in theology gravitated towards Paris. Those who remained were typically attracted by the study of Roman law. This furthered the later establishment of the medieval universities of Bologna, Padua, Vicenza, Naples, Salerno, Modena and Parma.
Italian literature | Early medieval Latin literature
Connections between Menorca and North Africa (which existed during Roman times) continued after the Roman period and they were even intensified by the trade routes. From the last phase of the Roman Empire and Late Antiquity archaeological investigations have revealed different buildings:
Sanisera | Late Antiquity
This period is almost unrecorded, except in the Chronicles of Giovanni della Grossa (1388-1464), which were written much later and are heavily infused with legends.
Ancient Corsica | Late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages (AD 300 - 650)
The "OLD", when used on its own, rarely meets their needs, since it was decided early in the "OLD"'s planning that the work would not encompass works written later than AD 200. A few exceptions were made for especially important texts from the late classical period, such as Augustine's "De Civitate Dei", but for periods later than that the "OLD" is considerably less useful. The "Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources" supplements the "OLD" for medieval usage of Latin words. In cases where Lewis and Short do not answer a medieval usage question, J. F. Niermeyer's "Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus" often supplies an answer.
A Latin Dictionary | Comparison with other dictionaries
Epistles in prose and verse were a major genre of literature among the Greeks and particularly the Romans. The letters of Cicero are one of the most important sources on the history of the late Roman Republic and preserve features of colloquial Latin not always in evidence in his speeches and treatises. The letters of Pliny the Younger likewise are studied as both examples of Latin prose with self-conscious literary qualities and sources for historical information. Ovid produced three collections of verse epistles, composed in elegiac couplets: the "Heroides", letters written in the person of legendary women to their absent lovers; and the "Tristia" and "Ex Ponto", written in first person during the poet's exile.
Epistle | Ancient Greece and Rome
Latin literature includes the essays, histories, poems, plays, and other writings written in the Latin language. The beginning of Latin literature dates to 240 BC, when the first stage play was performed in Rome. Latin literature would flourish for the next six centuries. The classical era of Latin literature can be roughly divided into the following periods: Early Latin literature, The Golden Age, The Imperial Period and Late Antiquity. Latin was the language of the ancient Romans, but it was also the "lingua franca" of Western Europe throughout the Middle Ages, so Latin literature includes not only Roman authors like Cicero, Vergil, Ovid and Horace, but also includes European writers after the fall of the Empire, from religious writers like Aquinas (1225–1274), to secular writers like Francis Bacon (1561–1626), Baruch Spinoza (1632–1677), and Isaac Newton (1642–1727).
Latin literature | Introduction
Thus a seventeenth-century edition of the Ignatian epistles, in Mar Saba, had copied onto its last pages, probably in the early eighteenth century, a passage allegedly from the letters of Clement of Alexandria". Old manuscripts were also used to bind new books because of the costs associated with paper and also because of the scarcity of new paper. In Byzantium, much of this work devoted to preserving Hellenistic thought in codex form was performed in scriptoriums by monks. While monastic library scriptoriums flourished throughout the East and West, the rules governing them were generally the same. Barren and sun-lit rooms (because candles were a source of fire) were major features of the scriptorium that was both a model of production and monastic piety.
History of libraries | Late Antiquity
There is no real consensus on the exact boundary where Late Latin ends and Medieval Latin begins. Some scholarly surveys begin with the rise of early Ecclesiastical Latin in the middle of the 4th century, others around 500, and still others with the replacement of written Late Latin by written Romance languages starting around the year 900. The terms "Medieval Latin" and "Ecclesiastical Latin" are often used synonymously, though some scholars draw distinctions. "Ecclesiastical Latin" refers specifically to the form that has been used by the Roman Catholic Church, whereas "Medieval Latin" refers more broadly to all of the (written) forms of Latin used in the Middle Ages.
Medieval Latin | Introduction
Bede's Lament", in addition to the Body and Soul poem. In the 19th and early 20th centuries the focus was on the Germanic and pagan roots that scholars thought they could detect in Old English literature. Later, on account of the work of Bernard F. Huppé, the influence of Augustinian exegesis was emphasised. Today, along with a focus upon paleography and the physical manuscripts themselves more generally, scholars debate such issues as dating, place of origin, authorship, and the connections between Anglo-Saxon culture and the rest of Europe in the Middle Ages, and literary merits.
Old English literature | Scholarship
Traditionally, the height of Latin literature has been assigned to the period from 81 BC to AD 17, although recent scholarship has questioned the assumptions that privileged the works of this period over both earlier and later works. This period is usually said to have begun with the first known speech of Cicero and ended with the death of Ovid.
Latin literature | The Golden Age
Iron Age texts predating Classical Antiquity: 12th to 8th centuries BCE
Ancient literature | Iron Age
There, four different types of libraries were established: imperial, patriarchal, monastic, and private. Each had its own purpose and, as a result, their survival varied. Christianity was a new force in Europe and many of the faithful saw Hellenistic culture as pagan. As such, many classical Greek works, written on scrolls, were left to decay as only Christian texts were thought fit for preservation in a codex, the progenitor of the modern book. In the East, however, this was not the case as many of these classical Greek and Roman texts were copied. "[F]ormerly paper was rare and expensive, so every spare page of available books was pressed into use.
History of libraries | Late Antiquity
Albans Psalter, written probably at St Albans, England, in the second or third decade of the twelfth century. This provenance is indicative of the fact that many of the most important early texts were composed in Anglo-Norman dialect.
Medieval French literature | Early texts
The corpus of medieval Latin literature encompasses a wide range of texts, including such diverse works as sermons, hymns, hagiographical texts, travel literature, histories, epics, and lyric poetry. The first half of the 5th century saw the literary activities of the great Christian authors Jerome (c. 347–420) and Augustine of Hippo (354–430), whose texts had an enormous influence on theological thought of the Middle Ages, and of the latter's disciple Prosper of Aquitaine (c. 390-455). Of the later 5th century and early 6th century, Sidonius Apollinaris (c. 430 – after 489) and Ennodius (474–521), both from Gaul, are well known for their poems, as is Venantius Fortunatus (c.
Medieval Latin | Medieval Latin literature
The works of several hundred ancient authors who wrote in Latin have survived in whole or in part, in substantial works or in fragments to be analyzed in philology. They are in part the subject matter of the field of classics. Their works were published in manuscript form before the invention of printing and are now published in carefully annotated printed editions, such as the Loeb Classical Library, published by Harvard University Press, or the Oxford Classical Texts, published by Oxford University Press. Latin translations of modern literature such as "The Hobbit", "Treasure Island", "Robinson Crusoe", "Paddington Bear", "Winnie the Pooh", "The Adventures of Tintin", "Asterix", "Harry Potter", , "Max and Moritz", "How the Grinch Stole Christmas!", "The Cat in the Hat", and a book of fairy tales, "", are intended to garner popular interest in the language.
Latin | Literature
The more recent formulation of a historical period characterized as "Late Antiquity" emphasizes the transformations of ancient to medieval worlds within a cultural continuity. In recent decades archaeologically-based argument even extends the continuity in material culture and in patterns of settlement as late as the eleventh century. Observing the political reality of lost control (and the attendant fragmentation of commerce, culture, and language), but also the cultural and archaeological continuities, the process has been described as a complex cultural transformation, rather than a fall.
Fall of the Western Roman Empire | Alternative descriptions and labels
The imagery of Prometheus and the creation of man used for the purposes of the representation of the creation of Adam in biblical symbolism is also a recurrent theme in the artistic expression of late Roman antiquity. Of the relatively rare expressions found of the creation of Adam in those centuries of late Roman antiquity, one can single out the so-called "Dogma sarcophagus" of the Lateran Museum where three figures are seen (in representation of the theological trinity) in making a benediction to the new man. Another example is found where the prototype of Prometheus is also recognisable in the early Christian era of late Roman antiquity.
Prometheus | Late Roman antiquity
At this time the library of Tarsus held 200,000 books, including a huge collection of scientific works.
Tarsus, Mersin | Early antiquity, Greece and Persia
An additional floor might house a scriptorium.
Christian library | The Later Middle Ages
If Lucretius's poem were to be definitely placed at the Villa of the Papyri, it would suggest that it was studied by the Neapolitan Epicurean school. Copies of the poem were preserved in a number of medieval libraries, with the earliest extant manuscripts dating to the ninth century. The oldestand, according to David Butterfield, most famousof these is the Codex Oblongus, often called O. This copy has been dated to the early ninth century and was produced by a Carolingian scriptorium (likely a monastery connected to the court of Charlemagne). O is currently housed at Leiden University. The second of these ninth-century manuscripts is the Codex Quadratus, often called Q.
De rerum natura | Classical antiquity to the Middle Ages
Some texts, however, that survive as fragments in the works of classical authors, had to have been composed earlier than the republic, in the time of the monarchy. These are listed below.
Old Latin | Corpus
Although much had been lost to the ravages of time (and to catastrophe, as in the burning of the Library of Alexandria), many Greek works remained extant: they were preserved and copied carefully by Muslim scribes. In Europe, hagiographies, or "lives of the saints", are frequent among early medieval texts. The writings of Bede—"Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum"—and others continue the faith-based historical tradition begun by Eusebius in the early 4th century. Playwriting essentially ceased, except for the mystery plays and the passion plays that focused heavily on conveying Christian belief to the common people. Around 400 AD the "Prudenti Psychomachia" began the tradition of allegorical tales.
History of literature | Europe
Despite the importance of antiquarian writing in the literature of ancient Rome, some scholars view antiquarianism as emerging only in the Middle Ages (see History of archaeology). Medieval antiquarians sometimes made collections of inscriptions or records of monuments, but the Varro-inspired concept of "antiquitates" among the Romans as the "systematic collections of all the relics of the past" faded. Antiquarianism's wider flowering is more generally associated with the Renaissance, and with the critical assessment and questioning of classical texts undertaken in that period by humanist scholars. Textual criticism soon broadened into an awareness of the supplementary perspectives on the past which could be offered by the study of coins, inscriptions and other archaeological remains, as well as documents from medieval periods.
Antiquarian | Medieval and early modern antiquarianism
In Late Antiquity, Hermetism emerged in parallel with early Christianity, Gnosticism, Neoplatonism, the Chaldaean Oracles, and late Orphic and Pythagorean literature. These doctrines were "characterized by a resistance to the dominance of either pure rationality or doctrinal faith." The texts now known as the "Corpus Hermeticum" are dated by modern translators and most scholars as beginning of 2nd century or earlier. These texts dwell upon the oneness and goodness of God, urge purification of the soul, and expand on the relationship between mind and spirit. Their predominant literary form is the dialogue: Hermes Trismegistus instructs a perplexed disciple upon various teachings of the hidden wisdom.
Hermeticism | Late Antiquity
In the cities the strained economies of Roman over-expansion arrested growth. Almost all new public building in Late Antiquity came directly or indirectly from the emperors or imperial officials. Attempts were made to maintain what was already there. The supply of free grain and oil to 20% of the population of Rome remained intact the last decades of the 5th century. It was once thought that the elite and rich had withdrawn to the private luxuries of their numerous villas and town houses. Scholarly opinion has revised this. They monopolized the higher offices in the imperial administration, but they were removed from military command by the late 3rd century.
Late antiquity | Public building
The date used as the end of the ancient era is arbitrary. The transition period from Classical Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages is known as Late Antiquity. Late Antiquity is a periodization used by historians to describe the transitional centuries from Classical Antiquity to the Middle Ages, in both mainland Europe and the Mediterranean world: generally from the end of the Roman Empire's Crisis of the Third Century (c. AD 284) to the Islamic conquests and the re-organization of the Byzantine Empire under Heraclius. The Early Middle Ages are a period in the history of Europe following the fall of the Western Roman Empire spanning roughly five centuries from AD 500 to 1000.
Timeline of ancient history | End of ancient history in Europe
referring to the time after the foundation of the Order of Saint Benedict and/or the fall of the Western Roman Empire . The Latin adjective was adopted in Middle French, as "moderne", by the 15th century, and hence, in the early Tudor period, into Early Modern English. The early modern word meant "now existing", or "pertaining to the present times", not necessarily with a positive connotation. Shakespeare uses "modern" in the sense of "every-day, ordinary, commonplace". The word entered wide usage in the context of the late 17th-century quarrel of the Ancients and the Moderns within the Académie française, debating the question of "Is Modern culture superior to Classical (Græco–Roman) culture?" In the context of this debate, the "ancients" ("anciens") and "moderns" ("modernes") were proponents of opposing views, the former believing that contemporary writers could do no better than imitate the genius of classical antiquity, while the latter, first with Charles Perrault (1687), proposed that more than a mere "Renaissance" of ancient achievements, the "Age of Reason" had gone beyond what had been possible in the classical period.
Modernity | Etymology
The World of Late Antiquity is a 1971 book by historian Peter Brown. The book was one of the first in the anglophone world to consider late antiquity as a distinct historical era. In 2014, the Folio Society republished an illustrated edition, with an introduction by historian Christopher Kelly.
The World of Late Antiquity | Introduction
The overthrow of Maurice by his mutinying Danube army under Phocas resulted in the Slavic invasion of the Balkans and the decline of Balkan and Greek urban culture (leading to the flight of Balkan Latin speakers to the mountains, see Origin of the Romanians), and also provoked the Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628 in which all the great eastern cities except Constantinople were lost. The resulting turmoil did not end until the Muslim conquests of the 7th century finalized the irreversible loss of all the largest Eastern Roman imperial cities besides the capital itself. The emperor Heraclius in Constantinople, who emerged during this period, conducted his court in Greek, not Latin, though Greek had always been an administrative language of the eastern Roman regions.
Classical antiquity | Late antiquity (4th to 6th centuries AD)
Christianity was by no means confined to the Roman Empire during late antiquity.
Christianity in late antiquity | Outside the Roman Empire
Humanist scholars searched monastic libraries for ancient manuscripts and recovered Tacitus and other Latin authors. The rediscovery of Vitruvius meant that the architectural principles of Antiquity could be observed once more, and Renaissance artists were encouraged, in the atmosphere of humanist optimism, to excel the achievements of the Ancients, like Apelles, of whom they read.
Italian Renaissance | Northern and Central Italy in the Late Middle Ages
There are however debates about the source of some data recorded in the ', and it seems clear that some of its own sources are earlier than others. It is interesting to compare this with the list of military territories under the "duces", in charge of border garrisons on so-called "limites", and the higher ranking ', with more mobile forces, and the later, even higher "magistri militum".
Roman province | Late Antiquity
Early Roman literature was influenced heavily by Greek authors. From the mid-Republic, Roman authors followed Greek models, to produce free-verse and verse-form plays and other in Latin; for example, Livius Andronicus wrote tragedies and comedies. The earliest Latin works to have survived intact are the comedies of Plautus, written during the mid-Republic. Works of well-known, popular playwrights were sometimes commissioned for performance at religious festivals; many of these were Satyr plays, based on Greek models and Greek myths. The poet Naevius may be said to have written the first Roman epic poem, although Ennius was the first Roman poet to write an epic in an adapted Latin hexameter.
Roman Republic | Literature
In his second book "The World of Late Antiquity" (1971), Brown offered a radically new interpretation of the entire period between the second and eighth centuries AD. The traditional interpretation of this period was centred around the idea of decadence from a 'golden age', classical civilisation, after the famous work of Edward Gibbon "The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" (1779). On the contrary, Brown proposed to look at this period in positive terms, arguing that Late Antiquity was a period of immense cultural innovation.
Peter Brown (historian) | "The World of Late Antiquity" (1971)
Early Bronze Age: 3rd millennium BCE (approximate dates shown). The earliest written literature dates from about 2600 BCE (classical Sumerian). The earliest literary author known by name is Enheduanna, a Sumerian priestess and public figure dating to ca. the 24th century BCE. Certain literary texts are difficult to date, such as the "Egyptian Book of the Dead", which was recorded in the "Papyrus of Ani" around 1240 BCE, but other versions of the book probably date from about the 18th century BCE. Middle Bronze Age: ca. 2000 to 1600 BCE (approximate dates shown) Late Bronze Age: ca. 1600 to 1200 BCE (approximate dates shown)
Ancient literature | Bronze Age
It included elements from Latin literature and Arab-influenced Spain and North Africa. Later its influence spread to several cultures in Western Europe, notably in Portugal and the Minnesänger in Germany. Provençal literature also reached Sicily and Northern Italy laying the foundation of the "sweet new style" of Dante and later Petrarca. Indeed, the most important poem of the Late Middle Ages, the allegorical "Divine Comedy," is to a large degree a product of both the theology of Thomas Aquinas and the largely secular Occitan literature.
High Middle Ages | Literature
These Muslim conquests, of Syria (637), Egypt (639), Cyprus (654), North Africa (665), Hispania (718), Southern Gaul (720), Crete (820), and Sicily (827), Malta (870) (and the sieges of the Eastern Roman capital, First Arab Siege of Constantinople (674–78) and Second Arab Siege of Constantinople (717–18)) severed the economic, cultural, and political links that had traditionally united the classical cultures around the Mediterranean, ending antiquity (see Pirenne Thesis). The original Roman Senate continued to express decrees into the late 6th century, and the last Eastern Roman emperor to use Latin as the language of his court in Constantinople was emperor Maurice, who reigned until 602.
Classical antiquity | Late antiquity (4th to 6th centuries AD)
(later "locum", "place"). Early "du" becomes later "b": "duenos" > "duonos" > "bonus" "good"; "duis" > "bis" "twice"; "duellom" > "bellum" "war".
Old Latin | Consonants
On the historical development of prose, Richard Graff notes that "[In the case of ancient Greece] recent scholarship has emphasized the fact that formal prose was a comparatively late development, an "invention" properly associated with the classical period".
Literature | Prose
Literary production was few throughout the Middle Ages: some hagiographic texts, in Latin, in prose and poetry, often extensively reworked in later centuries, have come down to us. Some of them have very ancient origins, perhaps dating back to the monastery and religious literature that was created in Cagliari around the figure of St. Fulgence of Ruspe at the time of his exile during the reign vandal Thrasamund. In this period were written in Cagliari some of the most precious and ancient codes of the time, like maybe the Codex Lausianus, containing one or perhaps the oldest one edition of the Acts of the Apostles, has come down and now preserved in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, and the Codex Basilianus, containing some of the works of St.
Sardinian literature | The Middle Ages
Formal Latin literature began in 240 BC, when a Roman audience saw a Latin version of a Greek play. The adaptor was Livius Andronicus, a Greek who had been brought to Rome as a prisoner of war in 272 BC. Andronicus also translated Homer's Greek epic the "Odyssey" into an old type of Latin verse called "Saturnian". The first Latin poet to write on a Roman theme was Gnaeus Naevius during the 3rd century BC. He composed an epic poem about the first Punic War, in which he had fought. Naevius's dramas were mainly reworkings of Greek originals, but he also created tragedies based on Roman myths and history.
Latin literature | Early Latin literature
Migrations of Germanic, Hunnic, and Slavic tribes disrupted Roman rule from the late 4th century onwards, culminating first in the Sack of Rome by the Visigoths in 410 and subsequent Sack of Rome by the Vandals in 455, part of the eventual collapse of the Empire in the West itself by 476. The Western Empire was replaced by the so-called barbarian kingdoms, with the Arian Christian Ostrogothic Kingdom ruling Rome from Ravenna. The resultant cultural fusion of Greco-Roman, Germanic, and Christian traditions formed the foundations of the subsequent culture of Europe.
Late antiquity | Introduction
Scholars have argued that the late plays deal with faith and redemption, and are variations on themes of rewarding virtue over vice.
Shakespeare's late romances | Introduction
The linguistic diversity of the islands in the medieval period contributed to a rich variety of artistic production, and made British literature distinctive and innovative. Some works were still written in Latin; these include Gerald of Wales's late-12th-century book on his beloved Wales, "Itinerarium Cambriae". After the Norman Conquest of 1066, Anglo-Norman literature developed, introducing literary trends from Continental Europe, such as the "chanson de geste". However, the indigenous development of Anglo-Norman literature was precocious in comparison to continental Oïl literature. Geoffrey of Monmouth (c. 1100 – c. 1155) was one of the major figures in the development of British history and of the popularity of the tales of King Arthur.
British literature | Late medieval literature: 1066–1485
And one text, the "Asclepius", lost in Greek but partially preserved in Latin, contained a bloody prophecy of the end of Roman rule in Egypt and the resurgence of pagan Egyptian power. Thus, it would be fair to assess the "Corpus Hermeticum" as intellectually eclectic.
Hermetica | Character and antiquity