Scholars of ancient literature have often focused on the works and lives of major authors rather than on such questions as how these works were produced and who read them. In Roman Literary Culture, Elaine Fantham fills that void by examining the changing social and historical context of literary production in ancient Rome and its empire. Fantham’s first edition discussed the habits of Roman readers and developments in their means of access to literature, from booksellers and copyists to pirated publications and libraries. She examines the issues of patronage and the utility of literature and shows how the constraints of the physical object itself―the ancient "book"―influenced the practice of both reading and writing. She also explores the ways in which ancient criticism and critical attitudes reflected cultural assumptions of the time.In this second edition, Fantham expands the scope of her study. In the new first chapter, she examines the beginning of Roman literature―more than a century before the critical studies of Cicero and Varro. She discusses broader entertainment culture, which consisted of live performances of comedy and tragedy as well as oral presentations of the epic. A new final chapter looks at Pagan and Christian literature from the third to fifth centuries, showing how this period in Roman literature reflected its foundations in the literary culture of the late republic and Augustan age. This edition also includes a new preface and an updated bibliography.

Product Description: For the Roman writers "Fighting for Rome" became not the expansive imperialism of the all-conquering Republic, but a collapse into horror and un-Roman autocracy brought about by the Caesars' fighting for control of Rome. The essays in this volume range across the literary forms--history and satire, lyric and epic--working closely with particular texts...read more

Product Description: World Literature and Its Times helps students and researchers make connections between political/social climate during which books were written and the works themselves. Each volume focuses on major fiction, poetry and nonfiction from a particular country and region, representing approximately 50 works...read more

Product Description: This book seizes on one of the eternal objects of widespread attention in Ancient History and turns the tables on the scholarship that has shaped and dominated the field. Instead of scrutinising the documents in order to reconstruct the biography and assess the historical significance, Diana Spencer traces the deployment and development of the mythical figure of Alexander...read more

"This is a book that needed to be written in answer to a deep gap in our resources on Latin literature... we owe Fantham much gratitude for having the energy and wisdom to undertake this demanding and original project. Every Latinist should study her book." -- William S. Anderson, American Journal of PhilologyScholars of ancient literature have often focused on the works and lives of major authors rather than on such questions as how these works were produced and who read them. In Roman Literary Culture, Elaine Fantham fills that void by examining the changing social and historical context of literary production in ancient Rome and its empire. Fantham discusses the habits of Roman readers and developments in their means of access to literature, from booksellers and copyists to pirated publications and libraries. She examines the issues of patronage and the utility of literature. She shows how the constraints of the physical object itself -- the ancient "book" -- influenced the practice of both reading and writing. And she explores the ways in which ancient criticism and critical attitudes reflected cultural assumptions of the time."The book remains thoroughly absorbing from the account of late republican literary culture through the imperial, and especially the Neronian, periods, and continues to instruct and delight concerning cultural decline in the age of the Antonines." -- Robert P. Sonkowsky, Phi Beta Kappa Key Reporter" Roman Literary Culture is an important work, full of learning, which serves simultaneously to deepen our appreciation of Latin literature in its social context, to provoke further exploration of the questions the author raises, and to continue debate concerning certain of the answers." -- Jeri Blair DeBrohun, New England Classical Journal (view table of contents)

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Product Description: In this interpretative approach to the Roman epic, the reader is invited to study a choice of typical texts, from the beginnings to the end of antiquity. Famous poets are given the attention they deserve, but also some minor authors are discovered as precious "missing links" between the ages...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

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Product Description: In this sequel to Historiography And Imagination (UEP 1994), Professor Wiseman explores the question of how the Romans understood their own past and the role of early drama in generating and transmitting legends. The first six of the book's twelve essays are concerned with stories and scenarios in the surviving literature which are best explained as having been first created for the stage...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Product Description: For the Roman writers "Fighting for Rome" became not the expansive imperialism of the all-conquering Republic, but a collapse into horror and un-Roman autocracy brought about by the Caesars' fighting for control of Rome. The essays in this volume range across the literary forms--history and satire, lyric and epic--working closely with particular texts...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Product Description: Book by Santini, Carlos