Ciceronian periodArticle Free Pass Ciceronian period, first
great age of Latin literature, from approximately 70 to 43 bc;
together with the following Augustan Age, it forms the Golden
Age of Latin literature. The political and literary scene was
dominated by Cicero, a statesman, orator, poet, critic, and
philosopher who perfected the Latin language as a literary
medium, expressing abstract and complicated thoughts with
clarity and creating the important quantitative prose rhythm.
Cicero’s influence on Latin prose was so great that subsequent
prose, not only in Latin but in later vernacular languages up to
the 19th century, was either a reaction against or a return to
his style. Other outstanding figures of the Ciceronian period
are Julius Caesar, notable for political oratory and vivid
military narratives; Marcus Terentius Varro, who wrote on topics
as varied as farming and the Latin language; and Sallust, who
opposed Cicero’s style and espoused one later imitated by
Seneca, Tacitus, and Juvenal. Among Cicer