Plutarch's pragmatic biographies : lessons for statesmen and generals in The parallel lives /
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In Plutarch's Pragmatic Biographies , Susan Jacobs argues for a major revision in how we interpret the Parallel Lives. She integrates the existing focus on moral issues into the much broader paradigm of effective leadership found in Plutarch's Moralia. There, in addition to moral virtue, the successful leader needed good critical judgment, persuasiveness and facility in managing alliances and rivalries. The analysis of six sets of Lives shows how Plutarch carefully portrayed Greek and Roman leaders of the past assessing situations and solving problems that paralleled those faced by his politically-active audience. By linking victories and defeats to specific strategic insights and practical skills, Plutarch created "pragmatic biographies" that could instruct statesmen and generals of every era.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004276611 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Ovid in exile : power and poetic redress in the Tristia and Epistulae ex Ponto /
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In response to being exiled to the Black Sea by the Roman emperor Augustus in 8 AD, Ovid began to compose the Tristia and Epistulae ex Ponto and to create for himself a place of intellectual refuge. From there he was able to reflect out loud on how and why his own art had been legally banned and left for dead on the margins of the empire. As the last of the Augustan poets, Ovid was in a unique position to take stock of his own standing and of the place of poetry itself in a culture deeply restructured during the lengthy rule of Rome's first emperor. This study considers exile in the Tristia and Epistulae ex Ponto as a place of genuine suffering and a metaphor for poetry's marginalization from the imperial city. It analyzes, in particular, Ovid's representation of himself and the emperor Augustus against the background of Roman religion, law, and poetry.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [217]-231) and indexes. :
9789047424079 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Reconfiguring the Imperial Past: Narrative Patterns and Historical Interpretation in Herodian's History of the Empire /
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In the process of recording the history of the Roman Empire, from the death of Marcus Aurelius to the accession of Gordian III, Herodian makes his characters respond to the same situations in similar or different ways. This book shows that each reign in Herodian's History is creatively mapped onto ever-recurring narrative patterns. It argues that patterning is not simply decorative in Herodian's work but constitutes a crucial conceptual and methodological tool for writing interpretative history. Herodian deserves credit as an original and independent author. A careful consideration of the formulaic nature of his historiography indicates that there is more artistry in his composition than had previously been discerned.
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This book argues that Herodian uses an orderly and coherent historiographical form to reconfigure and explicate a most chaotic period of Roman history. Through patterning he offers a distinctive interpretative framework in which successive reigns and individual emperors need to be read in a dovetailed way. :
1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004516922
9789004516892