""In this splendid collection, leading scholars of Roman history, literature, art, and law examine urgent questions about civil war as refracted through ancient Roman experience. The essays illuminate an enormous range of thinking and expression by Romans regarding their recurrent civil wars: that such conflict represents a defect in the civic community, or is constitutive of that community; that it marks a breakdown of the governmental system, or is integral to that system; that spells disaster for politicians, writers, artists, and everyday people, or that it furnishes political, social, and creative opportunities. This volume, the first major investigation of this difficult and evolving topic in more than a generation, will offer rich reading for a wide range of Roman scholars, and also for anyone interested in the complexities of civil war in any time and place."M︣atthew Roller, Johns Hopkins University."
"Civil wars, more than other wars, sear themselves into the memory of societies that suffer them. This is particularly true at Rome, where in a period of 150 years the Romans fought four epochal wars against themselves. This volume brings together exciting new perspectives on the subject by an international group of distinguished contributors. The basis of the investigation is broad encompassing literary texts, documentary texts, and material culture, spanning the Geek and Roman worlds. Not only is attention devoted to Rome's four major conflicts from the period between the 80's BC and AD 69, but the frame extends to engage conflicts both previous and much later, as well as post-classical constructions of the theme of civil war at Rome. The book is divided into four sections. The first ("Beginnings, Endings") addresses the basic questions of when civil war began in Rome and when it ended. "Cycles" is concerned with civil war as a recurrent phenomenon without end. "Aftermath" focuses on attempts to put civil war in the past, or, inversely, to claim the legacy of past civil wars, for better or worse. Finally, "Afterlife" provides views of Rome's civil wars from more distant perspectives, from those found in Augustan lyric and elegy to those in much later postclassical literary responses. As a whole, the collection sheds new light on the ways in which the Roman civil wars were perceived, experienced, and represented across a variety of media and historical periods." "Brian W. Breed is Associate Professor of Classics at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst." "Cynthia Damon is Professor of Classical Studies at the University of Pennsylvania." "Andreola Rossi has taught at various institutions, including Princeton University, Harvard University and Amherst College."--Jacket.
