Latin literature includes the essays, histories, poems, plays, and other writings written in the Latin language. The beginning of formal Latin literature dates to 240 BC, when the first stage play in Latin was performed in Rome. Latin literature flourished for the next six centuries. The classical era of Latin literature can be roughly divided into several periods: early Latin literature, the golden age, the imperial period and Late Antiquity.

Latin was the language of the ancient Romans as well as being the lingua franca of Western and Central Europe throughout the Middle Ages. Latin literature features the work of Roman authors, such as Cicero, Virgil, Ovid and Horace, but also includes the work of European writers after the fall of the Empire, from religious writers like Aquinas (1225–1274) to secular writers like Francis Bacon (1561–1626), Baruch Spinoza (1632–1677), and Isaac Newton (1642–1727).

Although literature in Latin followed a continual development over several centuries, the beginnings of formal Latin literature started with the regular performance of comedies and tragedies in Rome in 240 BC, one year after the conclusion of the First Punic War. These initial comedies and tragedies were adapted from Greek drama by Livius Andronicus, a Greek prisoner of war who had been brought to Rome as a slave in 272 BC. Andronicus translated Homer's Odyssey into Latin using a traditional Latin verse form called Saturnian meter. In 235 BC, Gnaeus Naevius, a Roman citizen, continued this tradition of producing dramas that were reworkings of Greek originals, or fabula palliata, and he expanded on this by producing a new type of drama, fabula praetexta, or tragedies based on Roman myths and history, starting in 222 BC. Later in life, Naevius composed an epic poem in Saturnian meter on the first Punic War, in which he had fought.

Other epic poets followed Naevius. Quintus Ennius wrote an historical epic, the Annals (soon after 200 BC), describing Roman history from the founding of Rome to his own time. He adopted the Greek dactylic hexameter, which became the standard verse form for Roman epics. He became well known for his tragic dramas. Successors in this field include Marcus Pacuvius and Lucius Accius. These three writers rarely used episodes from Roman history, but they wrote Latin versions of tragic themes that the Greeks had already written about. Even when they copied the Greeks, their translations were not straightforward replicas of the original Greek works. Only fragments of their plays have survived.

Considerably more is known about early Latin comedy, as 26 Early Latin comedies are extant – 20 of which were written by Plautus; the remaining six were written by Terence. These men modeled their comedies on Greek plays known as New Comedy, but treated the plots and wording of the originals freely. Plautus scattered songs throughout his plays and added to the humor with puns and wisecracks, as well as comic actions by the actors. Terence's plays were more austere in tone, dealing with domestic situations. His works provided the chief inspiration for French and English comedies of the 17th century AD.

The prose of the period is best known through On Agriculture (160 BC) by Cato the Elder. Cato wrote the first Latin history of Rome and of other Italian cities. He was the first Roman statesman to put his political speeches in writing as a means of influencing public opinion.

Early Latin literature ended with Gaius Lucilius, who created a new kind of poetry in his 30 books of Satires (2nd century BC). He wrote in an easy, conversational tone about books, food, friends, and current events.

Traditionally, the height of Latin literature has been assigned to the period from 81 BC to AD 17, although recent scholarship has questioned the assumptions that privileged the works of this period over both earlier and later works. This period is usually said to have begun with the first known speech of Cicero and ended with the death of Ovid.