Roman Literary Culture

Elaine Fantham is Giger Professor Emerita of Latin at Princeton University and an honorary fellow at Trinity College, University of Toronto. She is former president of the American Philological Association and was awarded a Distinguished Service Medal by the association in 2009. She is a coauthor of Women in the Classical World: Image and Text.

• Preface to the Second EditionPreface to the First EditionIntroductionToward a Social History of Latin LiteratureAuthor, Audience, and MediumEnnius and Cato, Two Early WritersNew Genres of Literature, from Lucilius to ApuleiusGeneric PreoccupationsChapter OneStarting from ScratchDrama—The First Literary GenreComedy: Naevius, Plautus, and TerenceThe Tragic TraditionPatriotism and History in Poetry and ProseThe First Latin History: Cato's OriginesFrom the Gracchi to Sulla: Lucilian Satire and the New IndividualismCatullus and LucretiusChapter TwoRome at the End of the RepublicRoman Education, for Better or WorseLiterature and NationalismLiterature and the AmateurLiterary Studies and the Recreation of Literary HistoryLiterature and Scholarship: Cicero's Evidence for the Studies of Caesar and VarroChapter ThreeThe Coming of the Principate: "Augustan" Literary CultureThe Survivors: The New Poets Gallus and VirgilThe Roman Poetry Book, a New Literary FormPrivate and Public PatronageThe Emperor as Theme and PatronThe Best of Patrons, and the Patron's Greater FriendPerformance and ReadershipSpoken and Written Prose in Augustan Society: Rhetoric as Training and DisplayThe First Real HistoriesChapter FourUn-Augustan ActivitiesThe Literature of YouthLove and ElegyOvid the Scapegoat, and the Sorrows of AugustusInnocence and Power of the BookChapter FiveAn Inhibited Generation: Suppression and SurvivalPermissible Literature: ProseMoral Treatises and LettersDidactic and Descriptive PoetryThe Tastes and Prejudices of Augustus's Imperial SuccessorsThe Divergence of Theater and DramaChapter SixBetween Nero and Domitian: The Challenge to PoetryThe Neronian RevivalPoetry and Parody in a New SettingVicissitudes of the Epic MuseProfessional Poets in the Time of DomitianChapter SevenLiterature and the Governing Classes: From the Accession of Vespasian to the Death of TrajanEquestrian and Senatorial Writers: A Changing EliteChoices of Literary Career: Fame or Survival?Pliny's Letters and His Literary WorldThe Public World of the Senator and OratorThe World of the AuditoriumChapter EightLiterary Culture in Decline: The Antonine YearsHadrian, the PhilhelleneThe Traveling SophistsThe Provinces and Latin CultureMarcus Aurelius and His TeachersAulus Gellius, the Eternal Student in Rome and GreeceApuleius, the Ultimate Word ArtistChapter NineClassical Literary Culture and the Impact of ChristianityTertullian and His SuccessorsDiocletian and a Generation of Political ChangeAusoniusThe Controversy over the Altar of Victory: Symmachus and PrudentiusClaudianThe Maturity of Christian Prose: Jerome and AugustineMacrobius: The Last Celebrant of Secular Literary CultureNotesBibliographyIndex

Fantham offers a succinct but generous guide to recent scholarship in Latin literature. I heartily recommend her book to scholars of Latin literature, to instructors seeking a textbook for History of Latin Literature courses and to graduate students studying for exams. -- T. Keith Dix Sharp News