Cinna the Poet

This book examines the life and works of Catullus’ friend and fellow poet Gaius Helvius Cinna (d. 44 BCE) within the context of Rome’s expansion. Far from being a learned imitation of remote foreign sources, Cinna’s poetry engaged profoundly with the political contingencies of his time. Close readings of four nodes in Cinna’s corpus illustrate how Late Republican poetry contributed to the making of Rome into an empire. Appropriated lands, people and objects were converted into sources of literary capital, while the expanded literary repertoire provided a framework for further appropriation. Literature was anchored in conquest, and conquest in literature.