Did romans ever read the iliad in latin? Do we know if it was translated? When they read it in greek, did they read it in contemporary greek or homeric? Are there any mentions of people knowing it by memory?
You could literally just Google this question.
Educated Romans read it in the original Greek. Uneducated Romans couldn't read.
Eventually there were Latin translations.
>>7789636
I did google it, i guess my google skills arent that good, or i didnt look hard enough. Could you, or anyone else point me to some good essays about the role /influence of the iliad in the culture of the romans, etc? Their interactions with it, etc. Example, can we estimate when did they first read it? (Yes i know, after contsct with the greeks etc). The first mention of it in a roman text?
>>7789863
The Roman empire was built on the foundation of Greek culture. They probably had homer right from the start.
They had different values though and thought that aenas (Trojans) was the Roman ancestors (hence Virgil's aeneid).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Livius_Andronicus
He translated some Homer, but it doesn't survive AFAIK.
In the 3rd and especially 2nd century CE Rome become increasingly philhellenic as her wealth and interactions with the Eastern Mediterranean increased, especially later on via direct conquest.
I think it was slightly later in this period that it became the absolute norm for wealthy/educated Romans to be raised Greek-speaking Philhellenes. In the 2nd century BC you have PLENTY of Greek teachers coming to Rome, Greek diplomatic hostages (Polybius was famously one), and Greek slaves (owned by Roman families as teachers/tutors for Roman youths). By then and increasingly afterward I imagine Latin translations would be niche things or abridgments for adaptation to the theatre or something. There is this for example:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilias_Latina
But it is late and minor I think.
>When they read it in greek, did they read it in contemporary greek or homeric?
As far as I know the main recorded versions of Homer have never been normalised for contemporary Greek? At least not in Antiquity. Homeric Greek isn't that hard to learn or understand if you know Greek, and Attic had developed into Koine by the last few centuries BC anyway.
>Are there any mentions of people knowing it by memory?
Lots. Singers are mentioned as commonplace in Plato (In Ion I think?). Plenty of references in Antiquity to other people boasting that they've memorised parts of it, probably plenty who memorised it for fun or to brag but can't say for sure. "Homer" is actually originally a bardic tradition, where singers would know the plot / story segments and lots of stock formulae they were used to interchanging on the fly, and then they would change it up with every recitation. Its recorded from is pretty late by comparison. Whether or not the "bards" who sung it in Plato's time were still doing the old style even when it was being read as a fixed poem, not sure, especially because it took moderns a long time to figure out what it was, so it probably isn't explicitly mentioned in Plato.
>>7789943
Thank you for this, thats the sort of response I wanted. Id love to read more about that stuff.
You might be interested in the novel "the file on H" by ismail kadare.
>>7789199
Gustave Moreau?
Name of painting plz
I don't know much about this, as I've never even read the Aeneid, but I remember reading somewhere that the Romans detested Odysseus and painted him as a despicable villain. At the same time, they adored Diomedes and glorified him as the most noble heroes
