Roman Letters: An Anthology

Roman Letters offers a diverse and rich selection of original translations of ancient Roman letters spanning from the 1 st century BCE to the 2 nd century CE. The wide range of selections includes translations of prose and verse letters, letters sent and received, canonical epistolary authors such as Cicero, Ovid, Pliny the Younger, and less familiar texts including papyrus letters from Oxyrhynchus, Egypt, and wood leaf tablets from the Vindolanda fort in Britain. In addition, the volume contains representative New Testament letters and some illustrative excerpts from ancient epistolary theorists. This unique range of authors and texts illustrates the breadth, depth and diversity of the epistolary genre; letters are arranged chronologically, grouped according to author or collection, and have been carefully selected to reflect various themes and topics, such as death and consolation, literary production, entertainment, dining, politics, and philosophy. A valuable introduction includes discussion of the letter as a genre, as well as the practical issues of letter–writing materials and letter delivery in the ancient world, and includes maps to help readers visualize the distance many letters traveled, and an index of authors and topics. An accompanying website offers additional, complementary letters.

List of Figures ix Preface x Acknowledgments xiii A Note on Translation xv List of Abbreviations xvii Maps xix 1 Letters and Letter–Writing in Ancient Rome 1 2 The Roman Republic (70 bce–27 bce) 21 1–49 Cicero 21 50 Catiline 61 51–53 Catullus 62 3 The Augustan Age (27 bce–14 ce) 66 54–58 Augustus 66 59–69 Horace 68 70–71 Propertius 79 72–83 Ovid 81 4 The Roman Empire (14 ce–third century ce) 96 84 Emperor Tiberius (14–37 ce) 96 85 Emperor Claudius (41–54 ce) 97 86–95 Seneca the Younger 99 96 Paul the Apostle 112 97 Jude 114 98–101 Martial 115 102–105 Statius 117 106–164 Pliny the Younger 122 165–166 John the Elder 154 167–194 Fronto 156 195–203 Letters from Vindolanda 169 204–214 Papyri 173 5 Epistolary Theorists 183 215 (Pseudo–)Demetrius 183 216 Pseudo–Libanius 184 General Index 187 Concordance of Texts 193

Noelle K. Zeiner–Carmichael is Associate Professor of Classics at the College of Charleston, where she teaches courses in Latin, Greek, Roman culture, and literature in translation. She is the author of Nothing Ordinary Here: Statius as Creator of Distinction in the Silvae (2005).