Three important tragedies deal with the history of the Roman Republic: Coriolanus, Julius Caesar, and Antony and Cleopatra.

From the tragedies of Seneca, Shakespeare took the theme of evil in the ruler: as in Richard III and Macbeth. The Comedies of Plautus lie behind the early play The Comedy of Errors. From Ovid, Shakespeare took nearly all his Greek mythology, as in the miniature epic Venus and Adonis.

Shakespeare knew Latin very well, and introduced some 600 new Latin-based words into English.