How does Rome's silver age of literature differ from its golden age?

Answer 1

Silver age of classical Latin literature is a term coined by a Teuffel, a 19th century classical scholar. To him in this period the language used by writers was unnatural because it lacked spontaneity due to loss of freedom of speech. This freedom vanished under Tiberius. Authors who displeased the emperor could be executed or exiled. As a result, 'Mannerism supplanted style.' By this he meant that writing became about being brilliant, dazzling. It became bombastic, rhetorical, declamatory and exaggerating. In this way writing became unnatural and 'utter unreality.' Natural writing was seen as insipid, however, its unnaturalness made this mannerism frigid. This unnaturalness was created by both loss of freedom of speech and the need to please emperors.

By contrast, the golden age, the writing of the Augustan period which produced the canonical classical Latin writers, Virgil, Horace and Ovid, was an age of brilliance in style and spontaneity. This is because these writers were allowed freedom of speech and expression.