Amazon.com description: Product Description: In this volume, we are offered a new perspective on Roman literature, based on the conviction that our present appreciation for it should be informed and influenced by how it was originally perceived. From the beginning of the Roman Empire to the end of the classical era, this book focuses on the "receivers" of Roman literature-the readers, spectators, and audiences who first witnessed the works. Six contributors map out the lively and provocative surveys, covering the kinds of literature that have shaped Western culture--epic, lyric, tragedy, comedy, history, philosophy, elegy, satire, biography, and panegyric.