A01=Neil Coffee
aeneas
aeneid
ancient
aristocratic
aristocrats
Author_Neil Coffee
caesar
Category=DSBB
Category=DSC
classical
classics
commercialism
criticism
customs
elites
empire
epic writings
eq_bestseller
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
exchange
favors
forms of interaction
gifts
human interactions
humanity
latin
legends
literary works
literature
lucan
negotiation
payments
reciprocal
reciprocation
reciprocity
roman
rome
social order
society
statius
structures
thebaid
traditional values
virgil
war
Product details
- ISBN 9780226111872
- Weight: 624g
- Dimensions: 16 x 24mm
- Publication Date: 15 May 2009
- Publisher: The University of Chicago Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
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Latin epics such as Virgil's "Aeneid", Lucan's "Civil War", and Statius' "Thebaid" addressed Roman aristocrats whose dealings in gifts, favors, and payments defined their conceptions of social order. In "The Commerce of War", Neil Coffee argues that these exchanges play a central yet overlooked role in epic depictions of Roman society. Tracing the collapse of an aristocratic worldview across all three poems, Coffee highlights the distinction they draw between reciprocal gift giving among elites and the more problematic behaviors of buying and selling. In the "Aeneid", customary gift and favor exchanges are undermined by characters who view human interaction as short-term and commodity-driven. "Civil War" takes the next logical step, illuminating how Romans cope once commercial greed has supplanted traditional values. Concluding with the "Thebaid", which focuses on the problems of excessive consumption rather than exchange, Coffee closes his powerful case that these poems constitute far-reaching critiques of Roman society during its transition from republic to empire.
Neil Coffee is assistant professor of classics at the University at Buffalo.
