Models from the Past in Roman Culture: A World of Exempla

Synopsis

Historical Examples Played A Key Role In Ancient Roman Culture, And Matthew Roller's Book Presents A Coherent Model For Understanding The Rhetorical, Moral, And Historiographical Operations Of Roman Exemplarity. It Examines The Process Of Observing, Evaluating, And Commemorating Noteworthy Actors Or Deeds, And Then Holding Those Performances Up As A Norms By Which To Judge Subsequent Actors Or As Patterns For Them To Imitate. The Model Is Fleshed Out Via Detailed Case Studies Of Individual Exemplary Performers, The Monuments That Commemorate Them, And The Later Contexts--the Political Arguments And Social Debates--in Which These Figures Are Invoked To Support Particular Positions Or Agendas-- Introduction : The Work Of Examples -- Horatius Cocles : Commemorating And Imitating A Great Deed -- Cloelia : Timelessness And Gender -- Appius Claudius Caecus : Positive And Negative Exemplarity -- Gaius Duilius : Exemplarity And Innovation -- Fabius Cunctator : Competing Judgments And Moral Change -- Cornelia : An Exemplary Matrona Among The Gracchi -- Cicero's House And Aspiring To Kingship -- Conclusion : Exemplarity And Stoicism. Matthew B. Roller. Includes Bibliographical References (pages 290-312) And Indexes.