Author: Frank Frost Abbott
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Rome
Languages : en
Pages : 294

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Author: Thomas N. Habinek
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400822513
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 245

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Book Description
This is the first book to describe the intimate relationship between Latin literature and the politics of ancient Rome. Until now, most scholars have viewed classical Latin literature as a product of aesthetic concerns. Thomas Habinek shows, however, that literature was also a cultural practice that emerged from and intervened in the political and social struggles at the heart of the Roman world. Habinek considers major works by such authors as Cato, Cicero, Horace, Ovid, and Seneca. He shows that, from its beginnings in the late third century b.c. to its eclipse by Christian literature six hundred years later, classical literature served the evolving interests of Roman and, more particularly, aristocratic power. It fostered a prestige dialect, for example; it appropriated the cultural resources of dominated and colonized communities; and it helped to defuse potentially explosive challenges to prevailing values and authority. Literature also drew upon and enhanced other forms of social authority, such as patriarchy, religious ritual, cultural identity, and the aristocratic procedure of self-scrutiny, or existimatio. Habinek's analysis of the relationship between language and power in classical Rome breaks from the long Romantic tradition of viewing Roman authors as world-weary figures, aloof from mundane political concerns--a view, he shows, that usually reflects how scholars have seen themselves. The Politics of Latin Literature will stimulate new interest in the historical context of Latin literature and help to integrate classical studies into ongoing debates about the sociology of writing.

Author: Edward J. Watts
Publisher: Basic Books
ISBN: 0465093825
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 355

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Book Description
Learn why the Roman Republic collapsed -- and how it could have continued to thrive -- with this insightful history from an award-winning author. In Mortal Republic, prize-winning historian Edward J. Watts offers a new history of the fall of the Roman Republic that explains why Rome exchanged freedom for autocracy. For centuries, even as Rome grew into the Mediterranean's premier military and political power, its governing institutions, parliamentary rules, and political customs successfully fostered negotiation and compromise. By the 130s BC, however, Rome's leaders increasingly used these same tools to cynically pursue individual gain and obstruct their opponents. As the center decayed and dysfunction grew, arguments between politicians gave way to political violence in the streets. The stage was set for destructive civil wars -- and ultimately the imperial reign of Augustus. The death of Rome's Republic was not inevitable. In Mortal Republic, Watts shows it died because it was allowed to, from thousands of small wounds inflicted by Romans who assumed that it would last forever.

Author: Antoine Lilti
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1509508759
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
Frequently perceived as a characteristic of modern culture, the phenomenon of celebrity has much older roots. In this book Antoine Lilti shows that the mechanisms of celebrity were developed in Europe during the Enlightenment, well before films, yellow journalism, and television, and then flourished during the Romantic period on both sides of the Atlantic. Figures from across the arts like Voltaire, Garrick, and Liszt were all veritable celebrities in their time, arousing curiosity and passionate loyalty from their “fans.” The rise of the press, new advertising techniques, and the marketing of leisure brought a profound transformation in the visibility of celebrities: private lives were now very much on public show. Nor was politics spared this cultural upheaval: Marie-Antoinette, George Washington, and Napoleon all experienced a political world transformed by the new demands of celebrity. And when the people suddenly appeared on the revolutionary scene, it was no longer enough to be legitimate; it was crucial to be popular too. Lilti retraces the profound social upheaval precipitated by the rise of celebrity and explores the ambivalence felt toward this new phenomenon. Both sought after and denounced, celebrity evolved as the modern form of personal prestige, assuming the role that glory played in the aristocratic world in a new age of democracy and evolving forms of media. While uncovering the birth of celebrity in the eighteenth century, Lilti's perceptive history at the same time shines light on the continuing importance of this phenomenon in today’s world.

Author: Gregory S. Aldrete
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
ISBN: 9780801877315
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Life in Rome was relentlessly public, and oratory was at its heart. Orations were dramatic spectacles in which the speaker deployed an arsenal of rhetorical tricks and strategies aimed at arousing the emotions of the audience, and spectators responded vigorously and vocally with massed chants of praise or condemnation. Unfortunately, many aspects of these performances have been lost. In the first in-depth study of oratorical gestures and crowd acclamations as methods of communication at public spectacles, Gregory Aldrete sets out to recreate these vital missing components and to recapture the original context of ancient spectacles as interactive, dramatic, and contentious public performances. At the most basic level, this work is a study of communication—how Roman speakers communicated with their audiences, and how audiences in turn were able to reply and convey their reactions to the speakers. Aldrete begins by investigating how orators employed an extraordinarily sophisticated system of hand and body gestures in order to enhance the persuasive power of their speeches. He then turns to the target of these orations—the audience—and examines how they responded through the mechanism of acclamations, that is, rhythmically shouted comments. Aldrete finds much in these ancient spectacles that is relevant to modern questions of political propaganda, manipulation of public image, crowd behavior, and speechmaking. Readers with an interest in rhetoric, urban culture, or communications in any period will find the book informative, as will those working in art history, archaeology, history, and philology.

Author: Christopher S. Mackay
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521809184
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 476

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Author: Matthew Dillon
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317391349
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 853

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Book Description
This textbook provides comprehensive coverage of the political, military, and social history of ancient Rome from the earliest days of the Republic to its collapse and the subsequent foundations of the empire established by Augustus prior to his death in AD 14. Interspersed through the discussion of the political history of the period are crucial chapters on all aspects of Roman culture, including women, religion, slavery and manumission, overseas conquests and their impact, and life in the city of Rome, giving students a full understanding of republican society, culture, and politics. With over 130 maps, illustrations, and photographs, The Ancient Romans is lavishly illustrated, with a particular emphasis on coins as a valuable historical resource. It also closely references the authors’ sourcebook, Ancient Rome: Social and Historical Documents from the Early Republic to the Death of Augustus, second edition, allowing students to engage with the documentary evidence and written sources in a deep and meaningful way. The Ancient Romans: History and Society from the Early Republic to the Death of Augustus is an indispensable resource for undergraduate students of the Roman Republic and its society and culture, as well as offering a comprehensive and compelling introduction for the interested reader.

Author: Anonymous
Publisher: Good Press
ISBN:
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 48

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Book Description
This book presents the legislation that formed the basis of Roman law - The Laws of the Twelve Tables. These laws, formally promulgated in 449 BC, consolidated earlier traditions and established enduring rights and duties of Roman citizens. The Tables were created in response to agitation by the plebeian class, who had previously been excluded from the higher benefits of the Republic. Despite previously being unwritten and exclusively interpreted by upper-class priests, the Tables became highly regarded and formed the basis of Roman law for a thousand years. This comprehensive sequence of definitions of private rights and procedures, although highly specific and diverse, provided a foundation for the enduring legal system of the Roman Empire.

Author: John E. Stambaugh
Publisher: JHU Press
ISBN: 9780801836923
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 420

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Book Description
A synthesis of recent work in archaeology and social history, drawing on physical, literary, and documentary sources.

Author: Amy Russell
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107040493
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 247

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Book Description
This book explores how public space in Republican Rome was an unstable category marked, experienced, and defined by multiple actors and audiences.