Ilias Latina
Encyclopedia
The Ilias Latina is a short Latin hexameter
version of the Iliad
of Homer
that gained popularity in Antiquity and remained popular through the Middle Ages
. It was very widely studied and read in Medieval schools as part of the standard Latin educational curriculum. According to Ernest Robert Curtius, it is a "crude condensation", into 1070 lines. It is attributed to Publius Baebius Italicus, said to be a Roman Senator, and to the decade 60 CE - 70 CE. It includes at least two acrostic
elements: the first lines spell out ITALICUS, while the last lines spell SCRIPSIT, taken together translating "Italicus wrote (it)."
Hexameter
Hexameter is a metrical line of verse consisting of six feet. It was the standard epic metre in classical Greek and Latin literature, such as in the Iliad and Aeneid. Its use in other genres of composition include Horace's satires, and Ovid's Metamorphoses. According to Greek mythology, hexameter...
version of the Iliad
Iliad
The Iliad is an epic poem in dactylic hexameters, traditionally attributed to Homer. Set during the Trojan War, the ten-year siege of the city of Troy by a coalition of Greek states, it tells of the battles and events during the weeks of a quarrel between King Agamemnon and the warrior Achilles...
of Homer
Homer
In the Western classical tradition Homer , is the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, and is revered as the greatest ancient Greek epic poet. These epics lie at the beginning of the Western canon of literature, and have had an enormous influence on the history of literature.When he lived is...
that gained popularity in Antiquity and remained popular through the Middle Ages
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
. It was very widely studied and read in Medieval schools as part of the standard Latin educational curriculum. According to Ernest Robert Curtius, it is a "crude condensation", into 1070 lines. It is attributed to Publius Baebius Italicus, said to be a Roman Senator, and to the decade 60 CE - 70 CE. It includes at least two acrostic
Acrostic
An acrostic is a poem or other form of writing in which the first letter, syllable or word of each line, paragraph or other recurring feature in the text spells out a word or a message. As a form of constrained writing, an acrostic can be used as a mnemonic device to aid memory retrieval. A famous...
elements: the first lines spell out ITALICUS, while the last lines spell SCRIPSIT, taken together translating "Italicus wrote (it)."
Further reading
- Marco Scaffai, Baebii Italici Ilias Latina (Bologna, 1982)
- George A. KennedyGeorge A. KennedyGeorge Alexander Kennedy is a contemporary scholar of classical rhetoric and literature.Kennedy received his Ph.D. in classics from Harvard University in 1954 with a dissertation entitled "PROLEGOMENA AND COMMENTARY TO QUINTILIAN VIII "...
, The Latin Iliad. Introduction, Text, Translation, and Notes