The editors: Kathryn Welch, Senior Lecturer in Ancient History
at the University of Sydney, has co-edited two previous works with
Anton Powell for the Classical Press of Wales, Julius Caesar as
Artful Reporter (1998) and Sextus Pompeius (2002), and has published
numerous articles on late Republican and Triumviral history. T.W.
Hillard, Senior Lecturer in Ancient History at Macquarie University,
has published widely on late Republican history, Roman constructions
of sexuality and gender, and has co-edited Ancient History in a
Modern University (1998).
Eleven new essays, from an international cast, trace the development
of political culture in the Roman Republic. Themes include the flourishing
of civic society, as with the introduction of the Roman Games, and
the emergence of a theory of politeness. How was a Roman aristocrat
formed? How did the term 'Optimates' develop from the middle Republic
onwards? And how, especially, did the rhetoric of Cicero reflect
and adapt to the pressures of civil war in the Republic's climactic
and dying years?
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