The Victorians and Ancient Rome

Norman Vance has written the first full–length study of the impact on Victorian Britain of the history and literature of ancient Rome. His comprehensive account shows how not only scholars and poets but also engineers, soldiers, scientists and politicians, gained inspiration from the writing, theory and practice of their Roman predecessors.

Professor Vance provides a fascinating account of the sense of connection Victorian Britain felt for the Roman experience, a connection made the more complex because Britain had once been a Roman colony and because Christianity took hold and spread under the Roman empire.

Note on Translations and Texts.

Part I: Living Rome: Romantics and Revolution: .

1. The Persistence of Rome.

2. Rome and European Revolutions.

3. Rome and the Writing of History.

Part II: Roman Poets in the Nineteenth Century:.

4. Lucretius.

5. Catullus.

6. Virgil.

7. Ovid.

8. Horace.

Part III: Late Victorians and Later Rome:.

9. Fictions of Rome, or, Love, Death and Glory.

10. Rome and Imperial Debate.

11. Decadence, Degeneration and Decline.

Afterword.

Notes and References.

Index.