Friendship in the Classical World

This book is a history of friendship in Greece and Rome from the warrior society of the Homeric epics to the time of the Christian Roman Empire. It demonstrates how ancient friendship resembles modern conceptions and how it evolves in different social contexts. The book sheds new light on such questions as friendship and democracy the importance of friends in government and in philosophical communities women''s friendships and the transformation of friendship under the influence of Christian ideas of brotherhood.