The Roman Mistress

From Latin love poetry''s dominating and enslaving beloveds to modern popular culture''s infamous Cleopatras and Messalinas representations of the Roman mistress (or the mistress of Romans) have brought into question both ancient and modern genders and political systems. The Roman Mistress explores representations of transgressive women in Latin love poetry and British television drama in Roman historiography and nineteenth-century Italian anthropology on classical coinage and college websites as poetic metaphor and in the Hollywood star system. In a highly accessible style the book makes an important and original contribution simultaneously to feminist scholarship on antiquity the classical tradition and cultural studies.