ENG 215 & HIS 215: Classical Western Mythology

Inspired by the achievements of the ancient Greeks, the Romans made their city the centre of an empire unsurpassed in size and influence for more than a thousand years. Its rich legacy shaped the medieval world and continues to amaze us today. Life, Myth, and Art in Ancient Rome celebrates the many achievements of Roman culture and delves into its fascinating dark side.

This classic book brings to life imperial Rome as it was during the second century A.D., the time of Trajan and Hadrian, Marcus Aurelius, and Commodus. It was a period marked by lavish displays of wealth, a dazzling cultural mix, and the advent of Christianity. The splendor and squalor of the city, the spectacles, and the day’s routines are reconstructed from an immense fund of archaeological evidence and from vivid descriptions by ancient poets, satirists, letter-writers, and novelists--from Petronius to Pliny the Younger.

The Romans: An Introduction is a concise, readable, and comprehensive survey of the civilization of ancient Rome. It covers more than 1200 years of political and military history, including many of the famous, and infamous, personalities who featured in them. Further, it describes the religions, society, and daily life of the Romans, and their literature, art, architecture, and technology, illustrated by extracts in new translations from Latin and Greek authors of the times.

The Roman Republic was one of the most civilized societies in the ancient world, ruled by elected officials whose power was checked by a constitution so well crafted that it inspired the founding fathers of the United States of America. Here Philip Matyszak describes fifty-seven of the foremost Romans of the Republic, spanning the centuries from its birth to its bloody death and including the best and the worst of the Roman elite.

This series of essays by prominent academics and practitioners investigates in detail the history of performance in the classical Greek and Roman world. Beginning with the earliest examples of 'dramatic' presentation in the epic cycles and reaching through to the latter days of the Roman Empire and beyond, this 2007 Companion covers many aspects of these broad presentational societies.

Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC) was a poet, philosopher, writer, scholar, barrister, statesman, patriot, and the linguist who helped make Latin into a universal language. His many influences in rhetoric, politics, literature, and ideas are seen throughout Western civilization. Cicero, Classicism, and Popular Culture explores the fascinating man behind the eloquence and his monumental effect on language, morality, and popularity of Western culture.

The key development of the republican period was Rome's rise from a small city to a wealthy metropolis and international capital of an extensive Mediterranean empire. These centuries produced the classic republican political system and the growth of a world empire. They also witnessed the disintegration of this system under the pressure of internal dissension and boundless ambition of its leading politicians. In this Companion volume, distinguished European and American scholars present a variety of lively approaches to understanding the political, military, and social aspects of Roman history, as well as its literary and visual culture.

This book provides a detailed analysis of the conventions and techniques of performance characteristic of the Greek theatre of Menander and the subsequent Roman theatre of Plautus and Terence. Drawing on literary and archaeological sources, and on scientific treatises, David Wiles identifies the mask as crucial to the actor's art, and shows how sophisticated the art of the mask-maker became. He also examines the other main elements which the audience learned to decode: costume, voice, movement, etc.