- the second of the four ages of humankind, inferior to the golden age but superior to the bronze age that followed: characterized by an increase of impiety and of human weakness.
- a period in Latin literature, a.d. c14–138, following the Augustan Age: the second phase of Classical Latin.
- (in Greek and Roman mythology) the second of the world's major epochs, inferior to the preceding golden age and characterized by opulence and irreligion
- the postclassical period of Latin literature, occupying the early part of the Roman imperial era, characterized by an overindulgence in elegance for its own sake and empty scholarly rhetoric
