The Loeb classical library ... [Latin authors]

Prudentius (born 348 CE) used allegory and classical Latin verse forms in the service of Christianity. His works include the Psychomachia, an allegorical description of the struggle between (Christian) virtues and (pagan) vices; lyric poetry; and--a valuable source on Christian iconography--poetic inscriptions for biblical scenes on the walls of a church.

Text in German

VALERIUS FLACCUS, Gaius, Latin poet who flourished in the period c. A.D. 70-90, composed during the course of the decade 70-80, in smooth monotonous correct and sometimes obscure style, an incomplete epic 'Argonautica' in eight books on the Quest for the Golden Fleece. The poem is typical of his age, being a free re-handling of the story already told by Apollonius Rhodius (LCL No. 1) to whom he is superior in arrangement, vividness, and description of character. He shows much imitation of the language and thought of Virgil, and much learning, rhetoric, and ornamentation. The chief interest of the epic lies in the relations between Medea and Jason, especially the growth of Medea's love where Valerius is at his best. The long series of adventures and various 'Roman' allusions suggest that the poet meant to do honour to Vespasian (to whom the epic is dedicated) with special reference to that emperor's ships in waters round Britain.

Varro (M. Terentius), 116-27 BC, of Reate, renowned for his vast learning, was an antiquarian, historian, philologist, student of science, agriculturist, and poet. He was a republican who was reconciled to Julius Caesar and was marked out by him to supervise an intended national library. Of Varro's seventy works involving hundreds of volumes we have only his treatise On Agriculture and part of his monumental achievement De Liingua Latina, On the Latin Language, a work typical of its author's interest not only in antiquarian matters but also in the collection of scientific facts. Originally it consisted of twenty-five books in three parts: etymology of Latin words (books 1-7); their inflexions and other changes (books 8-13); and syntax (books 14-25). Of the work survive (somewhat imperfectly) books 5 to 10. These are from the section (books 4-6) which applied etymology to words of time and place and to poetic expressions; the section (books 7-9) on analogy as it occurs in word formation; and the section (books 10-12) which applied analogy to word derivation. Varro's work contains much that is of very great value to the study of the Latin language. -- Jacket.