Valerius Maximus & the rhetoric of the new nobility
By: W. Martin Bloomer.
Publisher: University of North Carolina Press
Published: 1992
Place of publication: Chapel Hill
Language: eng
Number of pages: 287
Subjects: Valerius Maximus.; Didactic literature, Latin -- History and criticism.; Authors and readers -- Rome.; Exempla in literature.; Rhetoric, Ancient.; Nobility -- Rome.; Rome -- History -- Republic, 265-30 B.C. -- Historiography.; Rome -- History -- Tiberius, 14-37 -- Historiography.
Other titles: Valerius Maximus and the rhetoric of the new nobility.
Description: Throughout the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, Valerius Maximus' Memorable Deeds and Sayings was the most widely read prose after the Bible, but the work's vision of ancient history and its author's literary style have since fallen into disrepute. Martin Bloomer revives the classic to examine how, why, and for whom Valerius Maximus composed this collection of rhetorical examples. Designed to influence the most esteemed of public art forms in Tiberian Rome - declamation - Valerius' work expresses the concerns and anxieties of literate first-century Romans. At the same time it creates paradigms for a new culture, according to Bloomer. While offering contemporaries a handbook of Roman speech, Valerius' work affords later scholars unique insights into the hierarchy of values, behavior, and ethics in Tiberian Rome. Bloomer addresses the peculiar qualities of Valerius' composition and systematically examines his use of sources such as Livy and Cicero. He also considers Valerius' handling of the most delicate and dangerous of all material for the imperial historian - the Roman civil wars and the ascendancy of the Caesars. Valerius emerges not as the beginning of the end of Latin letters but as a crucial and fascinating index to the declamatory culture of Tiberian Rome.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [261]-268) and indexes.