Minor Latin Poets, Volume II: Florus. Hadrian. Nemesianus. Reposianus. Tiberianus. Dicta Catonis. Phoenix. Avianus. Rutilius Namatianus. Others

Latin poetry was never confined to the great epic poets. The second volume of Minor Latin Poets brings together voices as different as the emperor Hadrian, the pastoral poet Nemesianus and Avianus, whose fables turn animals into sharp observers of human behaviour. There are moral sayings in the Dicta Catonis, a poem about the phoenix and the journey of Rutilius Namatianus, who wrote of travelling from Rome towards Gaul in AD 416.

These works survived from different corners of Roman literary life, crossing the boundaries between verse, fable, instruction and travel. J. Wight Duff and Arnold M. Duff provide introductions and English translations facing the Latin originals.