Studies in the Poetry of Italy, Part I. Roman

A concise scholarly survey traces Roman poetry through its principal forms—drama, satire, and epic—from Greek-influenced origins to native adaptation. The drama section examines early and later tragedy and Roman comedy; the satire section treats early satirists and major voices such as Horace, Persius, and Juvenal; the epic section follows the emergence of a Roman national epic through Nævius, Ennius, and Vergil. The study emphasizes how Roman poets absorbed Greek models while asserting a practical, didactic temperament, explores thematic and formal developments, and uses representative authors and surviving fragments to illustrate chronological progress and characteristic national tendencies.