What question did this study set out to answer?

To explore how Romans perceived translation and transformation of Greek literature into their own cultural expression.

June 3, 2026Open Access

Roman Literature: Translation, Metaphor & Empire

Key Points

To explore how Romans perceived translation and transformation of Greek literature into their own cultural expression.
Analyzed the Roman term 'translatio' in both literal and metaphorical contexts.
Investigated Cicero's perspectives on translation and literary transformation.
Examined the cultural implications of Greek influences on Roman literature.
Roman literature reflects a complex relationship with Greek texts, emphasizing transformation.
Cicero believed translated Latin texts should overshadow Greek originals.
Roman anxieties about effeminacy influenced their literary expressions and translation practices.

Abstract

The Romans understood that translation entails transformation. The Roman term "translatio" stood not only literally for a carrying-across (as by boat) of material from one country to another, but also (metaphorically) for both linguistic translation and metaphorical transformation. These shared usages provide a lens on Roman anxieties about their relationship to Greece, from which they both transferred and translated a literature to call their own. Despite the problematic association of the Greeks with pleasure, rhetoric, and poetic language, the Roman elite argued for the possibility of translation and transformation of Greek texts into a distinctly Roman and authoritative mode of expression. Cicero's hope was that eventually translated Latin texts would replace the Greek originals altogether. In the end, however, the Romans seem to have felt that effeminacy had the last laugh.

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