Man and Animal in Severan Rome - The Literary Imagination of Claudius Aelianus

This book argues that Aelian's highly influential compilation, De natura animalium, offers a sophisticated literary critique of Severan Rome.

List of contents

Introduction. Approaching the De natura animalium; 1. The independent intellectual; 2. Animals and agroikoi in Aelian's Rustic Letters; 3. The hazards of variety; 4. The Hellenized Roman; 5. Stoicism; 6. Animals, divinity, and myth; 7. Egypt and India; 8. The sexual animal; 9. Bees, lions, eagles: Aelian and kingship; 10. After animals: the women of the Varia Historia; Conclusion. 'Nature produces animals with many voices and many sounds, you might say ...'; Appendix: reconstructing Aelian's Katêgoria tou Gunnidos.

About the author

Steven D. Smith is Associate Professor of Classics and Comparative Literature at Hofstra University, New York. He is the author of Greek Identity and the Athenian Past in Chariton: The Romance of Empire (2007).

Summary

This book argues that Aelian's important work on animals, the De natura animalium, represents a sophisticated literary critique of Severan Rome. His fascination with animals reflects the cultural issues of his day: philosophy, religion, the exoticism of Egypt and India, sex, gender, and imperial politics.

Product details

• Authors: Steven Smith, Steven D. Smith, Steven D. (Hofstra University Smith, Smith Steven D.
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press ELT
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 30.04.2017
• EAN: 9781108401937
• ISBN: 978-1-108-40193-7
• No. of pages: 320
• Series: Greek Culture in the Roman Wor; Greek Culture in the Roman World
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History > Regional and national histories; European History, HISTORY / Ancient / General, Ancient Greece, Literary studies: classical, early & medieval, Ancient Rome, Ancient History, Classical history / classical civilisation, BCE to c 500 CE, BCE period – Protohistory