Ilias Latina

The Ilias Latina (Latin Iliad ), also called " Homer Latinus " (Latin Homer ), is an epic poem from the time of the Roman emperor Nero, completed in 68 AD The author has come up with an acrostic in the first letter of the first and last eight verses immortalized ITALICUS Scripsit ( Italicus wrote it ). Today it is assumed that it could be either Publius Baebius Italicus.

The poem shortened the contents of the 24 books of the Iliad on all 1070 verses. The first five books still take this one the most space. In such a reduction, the work is of course much more superficial than its original. Reading it, one easily recovers the impression that it is primarily a collection of bloody battles as possible. Indeed, the author shows but quite literary ambitions. Interestingly, the poem is as reception historical phenomenon. The author describes the events of the Iliad from the Roman point of view, with emphasis on Roman values. As a tribute to the Trojan Aeneas Nero is emphasized.

For the reception history of the Homeric works, the Iliad Latina is of high importance. In Western Europe in the Middle Ages, the Homeric text was unknown, so the Ilias Latina, which is also used as a textbook, represented the most important textual witnesses to the classical topos. The first mention of it is in a letter from the Bishop of Passau Ermenrich Ellwangen ( 866-874 ). By the High Middle Ages in Western Europe was considered Homer as the author of the Iliad Latina, since the Homeric text was unknown. This changed in the 14th century by the translation of Homer Leonzio Pilatos.