Roman Manliness

Recent studies of ancient Roman masculinities have concentrated on the private aspects of the subject particularly sexuality and have drawn conclusions from a narrow field of reference usually rhetorical practice. In contrast this book examines the public and the most important aspect of Roman masculinity: Manliness as represented by the concept of virtus. Using traditional historical philological and archaeological analysis combined with socio-linguistics and gender studies it presents a comprehensive picture of how Roman manliness developed from the middle to the late Republic period.