Shifting Aesthetic Values. Roman readers were, from an early period, captivated by Greek literary models. For all readers of Greek poetry, of course — whether Greek or otherwise — this meant, above all, Homer. Homeric epic (by which is meant the Iliad and Odyssey) is vast in conception, grand in execution, and massive in size. Among the Greek literati of several centuries after Homer, however, aesthetic sensibilities changed, and what was once seen as grand and admirable came to be regarded as too big, ungainly, ugly. "A big book is a big evil," one of them said, and the new fashion was to write poetry that was characterized by leptosune —delicacy. In practical terms, this new preference meant smaller poems, where each line of verse — indeed each word — was carefully chosen and placed. Key aesthetic values in this poetic trend, besides...