Overview

Histories of Latin literature have often treated the period from the second to the seventh centuries as an epilogue to the main action – and yet the period includes such towering figures as Apuleius, Claudian, Prudentius, Augustine, Jerome, Boethius, and Isidore. The Cambridge History of Later Latin Literature, with fifty chapters by forty-one scholars, is the first book to treat the immensely diverse literature of these six centuries together in such generous detail. The book shows authors responding to momentous changes, and sometimes shaping or resisting them: the rise of Christianity, the introduction of the codex book, and the end of the western Roman Empire. The contributors' accounts of late antique Latin literature do not shy away from controversy, but are always clear, succinct, and authoritative. Students and scholars wanting to explore unfamiliar areas of Late Antiquity will find their starting point here.

Full Product Details

Author:   Gavin Kelly (University of Edinburgh) ,  Aaron Pelttari (University of Edinburgh)
Publisher:   Cambridge University Press
Imprint:   Cambridge University Press
Weight:   0.500kg
ISBN:  

9781108476379

ISBN 10:   1108476376
Pages:   890
Publication Date:   12 February 2026
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand  
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Table of Contents

1. Histories of later Latin literature Gavin Kelly and Aaron Pelttari; I. Later Latin Literature in its Social and Linguistic Contexts: 2. The book in the later Roman world Justin Stover; 3. Teaching and learning W. Martin Bloomer; 4. Latin prose rhythm Gavin Kelly; 5. Latin metre Franca Ela Consolino; 6 Greek and Latin in the Roman world Bruno Rochette; 7. Geographical space and Roman world image Sigrid Mratschek; 8. Patronage David Ungvary; II. From the Age of Trajan to the Age of Constantine: 9. Literary culture in the second century James Uden; 10. Latin sophists and rhetors Neil Bernstein; 11. Latin poetry of the high empire Bruce Gibson; 12. The beginnings of Christian latin literature Éric Rebillard; 13. Literary culture in the new empire of Diocletian and Constantine Catherine Ware; III. The Empire after Constantine: 14. Literature and government in the post-Constantinian empire John Weisweiler; 15. Literature and the church in the post-Constantinian empire Mark Vessey; 16. Augustine Catherine Conybeare; 17. Looking back from late antiquity: perspectives on the Roman past in the fourth and fifth centuries Christopher Kelly; 18. Poetry in the fourth century Roger Green; 19. Claudian and his influence Isabella Gualandri; IV. Models and Trends: 20. The survival and reception of earlier Latin literature in the later empire Gavin Kelly; 21. Vergil in late antiquity Scott McGill; 22. Scripture in Latin Aaron Pelttari; 23. Secular and Christian commentaries Ilaria Ramelli; 24. Paratexts Aaron Pelttari; 25. The autobiographical turn Catherine Conybeare; 26. Invective Richard Flower; 27. Late antique literary aesthetics Isabella Gualandri; V. Generic Change and Continuity: 28. Generic innovation and diversity Ilaria Ramelli; 29. Rhetoric in theory and practice Diederik Burgersdijk; 30. Panegyric Roger Rees.

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Author Information

GAVIN KELLY is Professor of Latin Literature and Roman History at the University of Edinburgh. His books include Ammianus Marcellinus: The Allusive Historian (Cambridge, 2008), Two Romes, edited with Lucy Grig (2012), and the Edinburgh Companion to Sidonius Apollinaris (2020). AARON PELTTARI is a Senior Lecturer in Classics at the University of Edinburgh. He is the author of The Space That Remains: Reading Latin Poetry in Late Antiquity (2014) and The Psychomachia of Prudentius (2019).

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