Writing Rome: Textual Approaches to the City

by Catharine Edwards

What did the city of Rome mean to ancient Romans? Roman writers, Cicero, Virgil, Juvenal and others, described their city in many different ways: they marveled at its beauty, they despaired of its dirt, they explored its history, they lamented its absence. Their writings have played a vital part in determining responses to the city both in their own time and in later centuries. This book explores a wide range of descriptions of the city from later periods as well as from antiquity.

146 pages, Paperback

First published November 13, 1996

About the author

Catharine Edwards is professor of classics and ancient history at Birkbeck College, University of London. She is the author of The Politics of Immorality in Ancient Rome and Writing Rome: Textual Approaches to the City.