To browse Academia. Satire as a distinct genre of writing was first developed by the Romans in the second century bce. Regarded by them as uniquely "their own," satire held a special place in the Roman imagination as the one genre that could address the problems of city life from the perspective of a "real Roman.
Besides addressing basic questions of authors, content, and form, the volume looks to the question of what satire "does" within the world of Greco-Roman social exchanges, and goes on to treat the genre's further development, reception, and translation in Elizabethan England and beyond. Included are studies of the prosimetric, "Menippean" satires that would become the models for Rabelais, Erasmus, More, and narrative satire's crowning jewel Swift.
The period of Rome's imperial expansion, the late republic and earlier empire, saw transformations of its society, culture and identity. Drawing equally on archaeological and literary evidence, this book offers an original and provocative interpretation of these changes. Moving from recent debates about colonialism and cultural identity, both in the Roman world and more broadly, and challenging the traditional picture of 'romanisation' and 'hellenisation' , it offers instead a model of overlapping cultural identities in dialogue with one another.
It attributes a central role to cultural change in the process of redefinition of Roman identity, represented politically by the crisis of the republican system and the establishment of the new Augustan order. Romans are shown using Greek culture creatively to create new systems of knowledge which render the old ruling class powerless, and give authority to the new imperial system.
The discussion follows a number of principal themes, including the cultural transformations of Italy, the role of Vitruvius' treatise on architecture in building a new Roman identity, the role of antiquarian writers in transforming the idea of Roman tradition, the transformation by Augustus of ways of knowing and controlling the city of Rome and, above all, the growth of luxury, the Roman debate on the issue, and the archaeological evidence for transformations of Roman material culture.
