This collection is designed to reflect the main trends in scholarship on the Roman historian of the early empire, Tacitus, particularly as they have developed over the last century. Covering the whole of Tacitus' works, it begins with a comprehensive introduction which sets the selected scholarship and Roman author in context.

Throughout his narrative of Julio-Claudian Rome in the Annals, Tacitus includes numerous references to the gods, fate, fortune, astrology, omens, temples, priests, the emperor cult, and other religious material. Though scholars have long considered Tacitus' discussion of religion of minor importance, this volume demonstrates the significance of such references to an understanding of the work as a whole by analyzing them using cultural memory theory, which views religious ritual as a key component in any society's efforts to create a lived version of the past that helps define cultural identity in the present. Tacitus, who was not only an historian, but also a member of Rome's quindecimviral priesthood, shows a marked interest in even the most detailed rituals of Roman religious life, yet his portrayal of religious material also suggests that the system is under threat with the advent of the principate. Some traditional rituals are forgotten as the shape of the Roman state changes while, simultaneously, a new form of cultic commemoration develops as deceased emperors are deified and the living emperor and his family members are treated in increasingly worshipful ways by his subjects. This study traces the deployment of religious material throughout Tacitus' narrative in order to show how he views the development of this cultic "amnesia" over time, from the reign of the cryptic, autocratic, and oddly mystical Tiberius, through Claudius' failed attempts at reviving tradition, to the final sacrilegious disasters of the impious Nero. As the first book-length treatment of religion in the Annals, it reveals how these references are a key vehicle for his assessment of the principate as a system of government, the activities of individual emperors, and their impact on Roman society and cultural identity.

Cameos showcase Tiberius in private and Augustus in court, with Pompey the Great on campaign and Phaedrus himself struggling against prejudice and persecution, and tales feature all sorts - a toadying slave, wicked servant, vain musician, effeminate soldier, sexy poet, and rogue quack. These forgotten tales tell short and clear Roman parables of power and powerlessness. Humorous and acute, they explain, and protest at, the Caesars, and they sit perfectly among Aesop's sadistic lions, murderous wolves, and apes in purple."--Jacket.

This book considers the Roman historian Tacitus’ (c. 55 – c. 120 C.E.) use of the language and narrative techniques of the epic poets, in particular Virgil and Lucan, for his presentation of the Roman civil wars of 68–70 C.E. in the Histories.

The essays in this volume have been selected and arranged to provide students with an introduction to the historiographial study of the Roman historian Livy. All classics in their own right, the eighteen articles included here work together to present a picture of this creative and acutely observant historian writing during the Augustan principate. The editors have provided an introductory guide to previous Livian scholarship, which contextualizes each essay; each is also followed by an addendum providing further context and selected suggestions for further reading.

Literary Territories argues that the literature of Late Antiquity shared a defining aesthetic sensibility which treated the classical "inhabited world," the oikoumene, as a literary metaphor for the collection and organization of knowledge.

The Historiography of Late Republican Civil War is part of a burgeoning new trend that focuses on the great impact of stasis and civil war on Roman society. This volume specifically concentrates on the Late Republic, a transformative period marked by social and political violence, stasis, factional strife, and civil war. Its constitutive chapters closely study developments and discussions concerning the concept of civil war in the late republican and early imperial historiography of the late Republic, from L. Cornelius Sulla Felix to the Severan dynasty.