Around 75 BC, a specific form of Latin emerged from the chaotic mix of Old Latin dialects. Writers in the late Roman Republic began treating this new standard as proper or good Latin. They distinguished it sharply from the common vernacular known as Vulgar Latin. This distinction created two registers: sermo vulgaris for daily speech and Latinitas for high literature. Cicero and his contemporaries used these terms to separate themselves from other languages like Greek. The word Latin now defaults to mean Classical Latin in modern textbooks. By the third century AD, this form evolved into Late Latin. Later periods viewed the earlier version as correct while seeing the later forms as debased or corrupted.
Philological Constructs
Roman grammarians devised lists called indices or ordines modeled after Greek pinakes. These lists identified authors considered exemplary models of the language. Marcus Cornelius Fronto used the term scriptores classici to describe reliable first-class writers in the second century AD. The word classicus originally referred to members of the prima classis, the highest property-owning social group. It also translated the Greek concept of approved ones selected by property rank. Quintilian drew up canonical lists that included figures like Plautus who wrote in Old Latin. Aulus Gellius noted that Ennius served as the Latin equivalent of Homer. Interest in these select writers declined during the medieval period when inferior medieval Latin took over. Thomas Sébillet applied the term classical to French poets in 1548. David Ruhnken secularized the concept by applying canon to rhetorical lists in 1768.Ages Of Literature
Wilhelm Sigismund Teuffel published Geschichte der Römischen Literatur in 1870 to define Classical Latin through historical periods. He dated the Golden Age from 83 BC to 14 AD based on political events rather than style alone. This timeframe spanned the dictatorship of Sulla Felix and the death of Augustus. Charles Thomas Cruttwell produced an English translation in 1873 that gained immediate success. Cruttwell focused heavily on stylistic analysis while Teuffel prioritized history. They divided the era into a Ciceronian Age ending with Cicero's death in 43 BC. The subsequent Augustan Epoch ran from 42 BC until 14 AD. Cruttwell admitted difficulty naming the first phase, calling it from Livius to Sulla. He described the language as marked by immaturity and vigorous but ill-disciplined imitation of Greek models. Some abstracts regarding these phases hold little meaning for those not well-versed in Latin literature.