This book explores how Horace's poems construct the literary and social authority of their author. Bridging the traditional distinction between 'persona' and 'author', Ellen Oliensis considers Horace's poetry as one dimension of his 'face' - the projected self-image that is the basic currency of social interactions. She reads Horace's poems not only as works of art but also as social acts of face-saving, face-making and self-effacement. These acts are responsive, she suggests, to the pressure of several audiences: Horace shapes his poetry to promote his authority and to pay deference to his patrons while taking account of the envy of contemporaries and the judgement of posterity. Drawing on the insights of sociolinguistics, deconstruction and new historicism Dr Oliensis charts the poet's shifting strategies of authority and deference across his entire literary career.

McNeill argues, any sense that readers have of the "real" Horace is clearly deceptive; Horace offers us no unguarded self-portrait but rather a number of consciously developed characterizations to suit diverse audiences, whether patron, peers, or the public.".

Traditional views of Horace seek to present the poet as a consistent, vivid personality who stands behind and orchestrates the diverse "Horatian" writings that have come down to us. In recent years, however, an alternate tradition suggests that there may be many Horaces, that his work is more productively read as the constant invention of rhetorical techniques sensitively attuned to the requirements of different situations and audiences. As Randall L. B. McNeill argues, any sense that readers have of the "real" Horace is clearly deceptive; Horace offers us no unguarded self-portrait, but rather a number of consciously developed characterizations to suit diverse audiences, whether patron, peers, or the public. Horace: Image, Identity, and Audience provides a wide-ranging analysis of Horace's use of self-presentation in his poetry: in his portrayal of his relationships with his patron Maecenas and with his larger readership as a whole; in his discussion of the craft of poetry and his own identity as a poet; and in his handling of contemporary Roman political events in the light of his assumed role as critic of his own society. McNeill uncovers the techniques Horace uses to depict the intricacies of his personal existence; in the book's conclusion, he explores how similar techniques were adapted by later poets such as Ovid. This volume will interest scholars of Horace, Latin poetry, rhetoric, as well as those interested in the cultural studies aspect of persona and identity.

This book explores the whole range of the output of an exceptionally versatile and innovative poet, from the Epodes to the literary-critical Epistles. Distinguished scholars of diverse background and interests introduce readers to a variety of critical approaches to Horace and to Latin poetry. Close attention is paid throughout to the actual text of Horace, with many of the chapters focusing on reading a single poem. These close readings are then situated in a number of different political, philosophical and historical contexts. The book sheds light not only on Horace but on the general problems confronting Latinists in the study of Augustan poetry, and it will be of value to a wide range of upper-level Latin students and scholars.

In The Construction of Authority in Ancient Rome and Byzantium, Sarolta Takács examines the role of the Roman emperor, who was the single most important law-giving authority in Roman society. Emperors had to embody the qualities or virtues espoused by Rome's ruling classes. Political rhetoric shaped the ancients' reality and played a part in the upkeep of their political structures. Takács isolates a reoccurring cultural pattern, a conscious appropriation of symbols and signs (verbal and visual) belonging to the Roman Empire. She shows that many contemporary concepts of "empire" have Roman precedents, which are reactivations or reuses of well-established ancient patterns. Showing the dialectical interactivity between the constructed past and present, Takács also focuses on the issue of classical legacy through these virtues, which are not simply repeated or adapted cultural patterns, but are tools for the legitimization of political power, authority, and even domination of one nation over another.

"Notes and bibliography": p. 173-176.

In these roles the satirist conducts penetrating analyses of Rome's definitive social practices "from the inside." Satire's reputation as the quintessential Roman genre is thus even more justified than previously recognized."--BOOK JACKET.