Catullus, Cicero, and a Society of Patrons
The Generation of the Text

This book studies the distinctly 'late Republican' socio-textual culture recorded by this period's two most influential authors, Catullus and Cicero.

Sarah Culpepper Stroup (Author)

9780521513906, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 29 April 2010

322 pages
23.5 x 15.8 x 2.1 cm, 0.66 kg

'Stroup's general argument is worth following. It leads, in the second half of the book, to an ambitious presentation of a shared 'text' of intellectual life, in which literary genres, modes of expression and creative achievements were extraordinarily elevated in cultivated society. Just as importantly, these provided some of the crucial foundations and principles on which the great writers of the next generation, Horace, Virgil and Ovid, were to build.' The Times Literary Supplement

This is a study of the emergence, development, and florescence of a distinctly 'late Republican' socio-textual culture as recorded in the writings of this period's two most influential authors, Catullus and Cicero. It reveals a multi-faceted textual - rather than more traditionally defined 'literary' - world that both defines the intellectual life of the late Republic, and lays the foundations for those authors of the Principate and Empire who identified this period as their literary source and inspiration. By first questioning, and then rejecting, the traditional polarisation of Catullus and Cicero, and by broadening the scope of late Republican socio-literary studies to include intersections of language, social practice, and textual materiality, this book presents a fresh picture of both the socio-textual world of the late Republic and the primary authors through whom this world would gain renown.

Introduction
Part I. How to Write about Writing: 1. When? Otium as 'time to write'
2. What? Munus as the 'gift of duty'
3. Where? Libellus: polished and published
Part II. The Textualization of Display: 4. The problem with liberal performance
5. From public display to textual display
6. The poetics of literary obligation
Part III. The Materialization of the Text: 7. An object of Catullan affection
8. Brutus: the dialogic personification of the Republican voice
Epilogue
Appendix: what 'society of patrons?' A prosopography of the players.

Subject Areas: Classical history / classical civilisation [HBLA1], Literary studies: classical, early & medieval [DSBB]