Post #1508412
2026-03-30 18:48 UTC
@Virginicus I don't think Roman storytellers were "not creative" honestly. I'd rather say Roman and Greek cultures got intertwined really soon, before Rome was a significant power. Italy began to trade with Greece before Rome even existed...
Also, Latin literature began with a translation of the Odyssey. I wonder if writing might have been less central in early Latin culture than in Greece with more emphasis on oral tradition.
Replies (1)
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@hist_myth@mastodon.top 2026-03-30 18:56
@Virginicus So it might be that literature felt like "a Greek thing" to the Roman. The first Latin authors (around 200 BC) wrote Greek stories, or they wrote Roman stories but as the Greek would have told them. Greek-speaking cities and kingdoms were dominant powers at the time and Greek prestige was *enormous* (Carthage was also heavily influenced by Greece). Besides, in Antiquity the connection between state, nation, culture, language... was in some ways looser than now...