Philip Hardie is a Senior Research Fellow at Trinity College, Cambridge, and Honorary Professor of Latin Literature in the University of Cambridge. He is one of the leading critics of Latin literature, with strong interests in the reception of classical literature, and is the author of Virgil's Aeneid: Cosmos and Imperium (1986), The Epic Successors of Virgil (1993), Ovid's Poetics of Illusion (2002) and Lucretian Receptions (2009), the editor of The Cambridge Companion to Ovid (2002) and co-editor of The Cambridge Companion to Lucretius (2007). He is currently co-editing the Renaissance volume of The Oxford History of Classical Reception in English Literature. He is a Fellow of the British Academy.

• 1. Introduction; 2. Hesiod and Homer: Virgilian beginnings; 3. Virgil's Fama; 4. Fame and defamation in the Aeneid; 5. Ovid: Metamorphoses; 6. Later epic: Lucan, Statius, Valerius Flaccus, Nonnus; 7. Roman historiography I: Livy; 8. Roman historiography II: Tacitus; 9. Fama and Amor; 10. Fame and blame: Spenser; 11. Christian conversions of Fama; 12. Petrarch: Trionfi, Africa; 13. Fama and power in early modern England: Shakespeare, Ben Jonson; 14. Milton: Samson Agonistes; 15. Plots of fame: Chaucer, Alexander Pope; 16. Visual representations of Fama.

'… [a] magnum opus, a magisterial work of learning that aims to offer a comprehensive picture of the ever-changing Fama, the personified Rumor, from its Greek origins through Virgil, Ovid, and beyond … Without exaggeration, this is a must-read book, and what I hope to offer here is but a glimpse of its rich, stimulating, and highly rewarding contents … Beyond doubt, this volume is the result of many years of research; the production is handsome and flawless. It has already taken a special place on my bookshelf, and as I am sure, on the shelves of many readers and students of Latin literature and its reception.' Antony Augoustakis, Bryn Mawr Classical Review