Penguin Classics: Latin Literature: An Anthology

'Nero had come to the conclusion that wherever his mother Agrippina was she was intolerable. He decided to kill her'

This essential introduction to the best of Latin literature gives a brilliant and broad overview of Roman civilization, from Caesar's description of invading Britain and Pliny's eye-witness account of Vesuvius' eruption to Cicero's speeches and the poetry of Virgil and Ovid. Tracing the Roman genius across six centuries, from the Republic to the fall of the Empire, this anthology includes introductions to each author. Many of the translations, by writers such as Milton, Pope, Swift, Byron and Graves, have become famous in their own right.