Suetonius the Biographer

Regular price €45.99
Quantity:
In stock with our UK publisher. 14-28 days
Delivery/Collection within 10-20 working days
14 days return policy Shipping & Delivery
Age Group_Uncategorized
Age Group_Uncategorized
automatic-update
B01=Roy K. Gibson
B01=Tristan Power
Category1=Non-Fiction
Category=DSBB
Category=DSK
Category=HBJD
Category=HBLA1
Category=NHC
Category=NHD
COP=United Kingdom
Delivery_Delivery within 10-20 working days
eq_bestseller
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
Language_English
PA=Available
Price_€20 to €50
PS=Active
softlaunch

Product details

  • ISBN 9780198822578
  • Weight: 440g
  • Dimensions: 141 x 216mm
  • Publication Date: 05 Apr 2018
  • Publisher: Oxford University Press
  • Publication City/Country: GB
  • Product Form: Paperback
  • Language: English
Secure checkout Fast Shipping Easy returns
The biographer Suetonius is one of the most fascinating writers of ancient Rome, but he is rarely afforded serious critical attention. This volume of new essays focuses on the various aspects of Suetonius' work, from his lost writing on Roman courtesans to his imperial portraits of the Caesars. Beginning with an introduction that assesses the originality of Suetonius as a writer and situates the essays within the context of debates and controversies over his biographical form, the collection addresses the issues surrounding his style, themes, and early influence on literature in three parts. The first part discusses formal features of Suetonian biography, such as his literary techniques, manners of citation and quotation, and devices of allusion and closure. The middle section is devoted to readings of the individual Lives, treating several topics - from Suetonius' decision to begin his collection with Julius Caesar, to fictional elements in his death scene of the emperor Caligula, to the theme of solitude in his Life of Domitian. The last part examines the ways in which Suetonius transgresses the boundaries of ancient biography by looking at his influence on epistolographers, antiquarians, commentators, and later biographers. This volume is essential reading for anyone who wants to know why Suetonius' Lives are such a unique and powerful medium for the stories of ancient Rome, and how they became the primary model for later biography.
Tristan Power is Lecturer in Classics at Columbia University. His publications include a chapter on Suetonius in K. De Temmerman and K. Demoen (eds.), Writing Biography in Greece and Rome: Narrative Technique and Fictionalization (2016). Roy Gibson is Professor of Latin at the University of Manchester. His publications include Ovid: Ars Amatoria Book 3 (2003) and (with R. Morello) Reading the Letters of Pliny the Younger: An Introduction (2012).