The Roman mistress

Description

"From Latin love poetry's dominating and enslaving beloveds, to modern popular culture's infamous Cleopatras and Messalinas, representations of the Roman mistress (or the mistress of Romans) have brought into question both ancient and modern genders and political systems. The Roman Mistress explores representations of transgressive women in Latin love poetry and British television drama, in Roman historiography and nineteenth-century Italian anthropology, on classical coinage and college websites, as poetic metaphor and in the Hollywood star system. In an accessible style, the book makes a contribution to feminist scholarship on antiquity, the classical tradition, and cultural studies."--Jacket.

First Sentence

A pressing and persistent problem confronts work on the women of ancient Rome: a need to determine the relation between the realities of women's lives and their representation in Latin literature.

Subjects

Links

• Table of contents

Other Editions

• The Roman mistress: ancient and modern representationsOxford University Press2002-01-01
• The Roman MistressPaperbackOxford University Press, USA2007-10-29