Carole E. Newlands

Statius' Silvae, written late in the reign of Domitian (AD 81–96), are a new kind of poetry that confronts the challenge of imperial majesty or private wealth by new poetic strategies and forms. As poems of praise, they delight in poetic excess whether they honour the emperor or the poet's friends. Yet extravagant speech is also capacious speech. It functions as a strategy for conveying the wealth and grandeur of villas, statues and precious works of art as well as the complex emotions aroused by the material and political culture of empire. The Silvae are the product of a divided, self-fashioning voice. Statius was born in Naples of non-aristocratic parents. His position as outsider to the culture he celebrates gives him a unique perspective on it. The Silvae are poems of anxiety as well as praise, expressive of the tensions within the later period of Domitian's reign.

Statius' Silvae and the Poetics of Empire

William J. Dominik

Kyle Gervais

In Brill’s Companion to Statius, thirty-four newly commissioned chapters from internationally recognized experts provide a comprehensive overview of various approaches to arguably the most important poet of the Flavian period in Rome.

Brill's Companion to Statius

John F. Miller

A Handbook to the Reception of Ovid presents more than 30original essays written by leading scholars revealing the richdiversity of critical engagement with Ovid’s poetry thatspans the Western tradition from antiquity to the presentday. Offers innovative perspectives on Ovid’s poetry and itsreception from antiquity to the present day Features contributions from more than 30 leading scholars inthe Humanities. Introduces familiar and unfamiliar figures in the history ofOvidian reception. Demonstrates the enduring and transformative power ofOvid’s poetry into modern times.

A Handbook to the Reception of Ovid

Virgil, Horace and Ovid are often cited as the three great canonical poets of classical Roman literature. And of the three, arguably it is Ovid (43 BCE-CE 17/18) who has the most enduring legacy. Carole Newlands introduces her subject as an ancient author with a vital place in the modern cultural canon: and also as the inspiration behind figures as diverse as Chaucer, Titian, Dryden and Ted Hughes. She views Ovid as a Latin writer who is uniquely suitable for times of change: he appeals to postmodern sensibilities because of his interest in psychology, his fascination with cultural hybridity and his challenge to the conventional divide between animal and human. This book explores the connection between the historical poet and the works he produced: love elegies, the Metamorphoses and the Fasti. It shows that unlike Virgil - who wrote early in Augustus' reign, anticipating a golden age of peace and prosperity - Ovid was a product of the late Augustan age: one of hardening autocracy and the greater influence of Tiberius behind the scenes. His elegies and erotic myths must therefore be understood as the result of complex, shifting political circumstances.

Carole E. Newlands

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