Which Roman poet influenced Shakespeare’s narrative poems?

The Roman poet who significantly influenced William Shakespeare’s narrative poems is Ovid.12

Shakespeare’s narrative poems, specifically Venus and Adonis (1593) and The Rape of Lucrece (1594), owe a great deal to Ovid’s works, which Shakespeare encountered repeatedly during his schooling. These poems are categorized as epyllia, or "little epics," a genre that flourished during the Elizabethan period and typically drew its mythological subject matter from Ovid’s Metamorphoses or Heroides.23

Beyond these specific narrative works, Ovid’s influence on Shakespeare was profound and enduring; he is recognized as one of the classical authors whose humanity, sensuous quality, and mythological richness left a lasting mark on Shakespeare’s broader literary output.1