Cicero in letters : epistolary relations of the late republic /
This book is a guide to the first large letter collection that survives from the Greco-Roman world. The correspondence of Cicero consists of nearly 950 letters and embraces almost every major political figure of the Late Republic. Chapters 1 through 3 of this study describe external constraints affe...
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | eBook |
| Language: | English |
| Language Notes: | English. |
| Published: |
New York :
Oxford University Press,
2010.
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | Connect to the full text of this electronic book |
| Summary: | This book is a guide to the first large letter collection that survives from the Greco-Roman world. The correspondence of Cicero consists of nearly 950 letters and embraces almost every major political figure of the Late Republic. Chapters 1 through 3 of this study describe external constraints affecting the letters that have come down to us. Some were the result of Roman conventions regarding social interaction, while others reflect logistical difficulties of long-distance communication. Another series of constraints on the way letters were written arose from generic expectations about epistolary form. In addition, an editor helped to shape the published collection by imposing criteria of selection and arrangement that favored certain categories of subject matter and correspondent over others. Chapters 4 through 6 turn from the context of the letters to their content, and discuss three of Cicero's most characteristic epistolary preoccupations. It shows how, in a time of deepening crisis, he and his correspondents drew on a common literary background, on the habit of exchanging advice, and on a rhetoric of leadership in an effort to improve cooperation and to maintain the political culture which they shared. |
|---|---|
| Physical Description: | 1 online resource (xii, 235 pages) |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references and indexes. |
| ISBN: | 9780199750573 0199750572 9780199866717 0199866716 1282698346 9781282698345 9786612698347 6612698349 |