Valerius Maximus stands alone as an extant prose author of the early principate who devoted specific interest to the Romans' attitude to religion. In eight chapters he presents a variety of material selected from earlier authors, such as Cicero, Livy, and Varro, to illustrate central areas of Roman religious thought and practice: augury, omens, dreams, and miracles. Valerius has not been translated into English since 1678 and there has never been a detailed commentary on his work in any language. With the growing interest in the non-Judaeo-Christian religions of the Mediterranean world and scholars recognizing that Roman religion should not be approached with Judaeo-Christian presuppositions or through the filter of the Christian Fathers, Valerius Maximus gives us an opportunity to see an unexceptional pagan speaking about his religion.

Popular in its day both as a sourcebook for writers and orators and as a guidebook for living a moral life, this remarkably rich document serves as an engaging introduction to the cultural and moral history of ancient Rome. Valerius' "thousand tales" are arranged thematically in ninety-one chapters that cover nearly every aspect of life in the ancient world, including such wide-ranging topics as military discipline, child rearing, and women lawyers. As a whole, the work gives the reader fascinating insights into what it felt like to be an ancient Roman, what the ancient Romans really believed, what their private world was like, how they related to one another, and what they did when nobody was watching.

Valerius Maximus and the Rhetoric of the New Nobility

This monograph sheds new light on the Renaissance reception of Valerius Maximus, whose collection of Memorable Deeds and Sayings - nowadays little studied - was once considered "the most important book next to the Bible." Offering a close study of all the Latin commentaries on Valerius Maximus printed between 1470 and 1600, the present volume explores how his exempla were read in different times and places and in different intellectual milieus, while also enhancing our general understanding of humanist commentary - which is now, more than ever, a thriving subject of research. (Series: Scientia universalis. Division I: Studies on the History of Pre-Modern Science, Vol. 2 / Abteilung I: Studien zur Wissenschaftsgeschichte der Vormoderne) [Subject: History, Literary Criticism, Renaissance Studies]Ã?Â?

Amoral, cunning, ruthless, and instructive, this multi-million-copy New York Times bestseller is the definitive manual for anyone interested in gaining, observing, or defending against ultimate control – from the author of The Laws of Human Nature. In the book that People magazine proclaimed “beguiling” and “fascinating,” Robert Greene and Joost Elffers have distilled three thousand years of the history of power into 48 essential laws by drawing from the philosophies of Machiavelli, Sun Tzu, and Carl Von Clausewitz and also from the lives of figures ranging from Henry Kissinger to P.T. Barnum. Some laws teach the need for prudence (“Law 1: Never Outshine the Master”), others teach the value of confidence (“Law 28: Enter Action with Boldness”), and many recommend absolute self-preservation (“Law 15: Crush Your Enemy Totally”). Every law, though, has one thing in common: an interest in total domination. In a bold and arresting two-color package, The 48 Laws of Power is ideal whether your aim is conquest, self-defense, or simply to understand the rules of the game.

After a decade apart, childhood sweethearts reconnect by chance in New York Times bestselling author Christina Lauren’s touching, romantic novel Love and Other Words…how many words will it take for them to figure out where it all went wrong? The story of the heart can never be unwritten. Macy Sorensen is settling into an ambitious if emotionally tepid routine: work hard as a new pediatrics resident, plan her wedding to an older, financially secure man, keep her head down and heart tucked away. But when she runs into Elliot Petropoulos—the first and only love of her life—the careful bubble she’s constructed begins to dissolve. Once upon a time, Elliot was Macy’s entire world—growing from her gangly bookish friend into the man who coaxed her heart open again after the loss of her mother...only to break it on the very night he declared his love for her. Told in alternating timelines between Then and Now, teenage Elliot and Macy grow from friends to much more—spending weekends and lazy summers together in a house outside of San Francisco devouring books, sharing favorite words, and talking through their growing pains and triumphs. As adults, they have become strangers to one another until their chance reunion. Although their memories are obscured by the agony of what happened that night so many years ago, Elliot will come to understand the truth behind Macy’s decade-long silence, and will have to overcome the past and himself to revive her faith in the possibility of an all-consuming love.