Michèle Lowrie

Barbara Vinken

However shared the Roman inheritance may be, it hardly unifies. Which Rome is the model, the Republic or the Empire? The Rome of imperial conquest or of civil war? By whom is it ruled? By the glorious conqueror who extended universal peace, the rule of law, and infrastructure – roads and aqueducts – or by the detested tyrant who imposed domination? Or worse, the corruptor of republican liberty and source of putrefying decadence? Rome always returns, but which Rome? France presents itself as a privileged locus for Rome’s return since the beginnings of its history. The perennial recourse to ancient Rome – as model or anti-model – binds together a cohesive tradition. The logic of this gesture asserts a unity beyond modern identity politics, which depend on defining a “them” against “us,” to resist nativist assumptions about national character, French, German, Italian, American, etc. All share the same polysemous inheritance, for good or ill. All are Roman and all resist Rome without needing to agree on what exactly is shared. The unity underlying the discourse, however, no longer depends on defining Rome as an origin. Instead, Rome’s figuration persists discursively, as a translation: to be translated time and time again.

Paris, a New Rome

The Roman tradition represents civil war as a political matter that cuts to the heart of family, sexuality, and society.

The Roman Tradition at the Heart of the Modern

Civil War and the Collapse of the Social Bond

Michele Lowrie

This book analyzes the different use of lyric and narrative in Horace's Odes. On the formal level, numerous odes contain narration. Together they tell a larger story about the aesthetic and political demands on the poet's development as a lyrist. At issue is whether Horace can ever truly become a poet of praise.

Horace's Narrative Odes

A collection of recent articles representing some of the best recent writing on Horace's Odes and Epodes. Several classic studies in French, German, and Italian appear in English for the first time, while the Introduction surveys the state of current scholarship and offers guidance on the interpretation of Horatian lyric today.

Horace: Odes and Epodes

An exploration of the relationship between poetry, song, and authority in Augustan Rome. Michele Lowrie argues that the medium of writing, as opposed to song, could offer an escape from current social and political demands by shifting the focus toward the readership of posterity.

Michèle Lowrie

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