note in
Roman literature, but under the latter came a slight reawakening of
literary productivity. Seneca (4 B. C.-65 A. D.), a Spaniard from Corduba,
Nero's tutor, minister and victim, is best known as the exponent of the
practical Stoic religion and the only Roman tragedian whose works have
survived. His nephew Lucan (39-65 A. D.) portrayed in his epic, the
_Pharsalia_, the struggle of the republicans against Julius Caesar. His
work shows a reawakening of a vain republican idealism and is the
counterpart to the Stoic opposition in the senate. Petronius (d. 66
A. D.), the arbiter of the refinements of luxury at Nero's court,
displayed his originality by giving, in the form of a novel, a skilful and
lively picture of the society of the freedmen in the Greek municipalities
of South Italy.

*The Flavian era.* Under the Flavians, Pliny the Elder (23-79 A. D.), a
native of Cisalpine Gaul, compiled his _Natural History_, which he aimed
to make an encyclopaedia of information on the whole world of nature. It
is a work of monumental industry but displays a lack of critical acumen
and scientific training. At about the same time there taught in Rome the
Spaniard Quintilian (d. 95 A. D.), who wrote on the theory and practice of
rhetoric, expressing in charming prose the Ciceronian ideal of life and
education. His countryman Martial (d. 102 A. D.) gave in satiric epigrams
glimpses of the meaner aspects of contemporary life.

*Tacitus and his contemporaries.* The freer atmosphere of the government
of Nerva and Trajan allowed the senatorial aristocracy to voice feelings
carefully suppressed under the terror of Domitian. Their spokesman was
Tacitus (55-116 A. D.), a man of true genius, who ranks next to Thucydides
as the representative of artistic historical writing in ancient times. His
_Treatise on the Orators_, his _Life of Agricola_, and his descriptive
account of the German peoples (_Germania_) were preludes to two great
historical works, the _Annals_ and the _Histories_, which together covered
the period from 14-96 A. D. His attitude is strongly influenced by the
persecutions of senators under Domitian, and is the expression of his
personal animosity and that of the descendants of the older republican
nobility towards the principate in general. A friend of Tacitus, the
younger Pliny (62-113 A. D.), imitated Cicero in collecting and publishing
his letters. This correspondence is valuable as an illustration of the
life and liter