Ancient Letters : Classical and Late Antique Epistolography.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Morello, Ruth.

Contributor:

Oxford Scholarship Online.

Morrison, A. D.

Oxford University Press.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Latin letters--History and criticism.

Latin letters.

Letter writing, Latin--History.

Letter writing, Latin.

Authors, Latin--Correspondence--History and criticism.

Authors, Latin.

Authors, Latin--Correspondence.

Statesmen--Rome--Correspondence--History and criticism.

Statesmen.

History.

Literature.

Rome (Empire).

Local Subjects:

Literature.

Genre:

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

History.

Records and correspondence.

Personal correspondence.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (392 pages)

monochrome

Place of Publication:

Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2007.

System Details:

text file

Summary:

The surviving body of ancient letters offers the reader a stunning variety of material, ranging from the everyday letters preserved among the Oxyrhynchus papyri to imperial rescripts, New Testament Epistles, fictional or pseudepigraphical letters and a wealth of missives on almost every conceivable subject. They offer us a unique insight into ancient practices in the fields of politics, literature, philosophy, medicine, and many other areas. This collection presents a series of case studies in ancient letters, asking how each letter writer manipulates the epistolary tradition, why he chose the letter form over any other, and what effect the publication of volumes of collected letters might have had upon a reader's engagement with epistolary works. This volume brings together both well-established and new scholars currently working in the fields of ancient literature, history, philosophy, and medicine to engage in a shared debate about this most adaptable and 'interdisciplinary' of genres.

Contents:

List of Abbreviations; List of Contributors; Introduction: What is a Letter?; 1. Down among the Documents: Criticism and Papyrus Letters; 2. ' ... when who should walk into the room but ... ': Epistoliterarity in Cicero, Ad Qfr. 3.1; 3. Cicero's 'Stomach': Political Indignation and the Use of Repeated Allusive Expressions in Cicero's Correspondence; 4. Didacticism and Epistolarity in Horace's Epistles 1; 5. The Importance of Form in Seneca's Philosophical Letters; 6. Letters of Recommendation and the Rhetoric of Praise; 7. Confidence, Inuidia, and Pliny's Epistolary Curriculum.

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

OCLC:

271577540

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license.