Latin epics such as Virgil's "Aeneid", Lucan's "Civil War", and Statius' "Thebaid" addressed Roman aristocrats whose dealings in gifts, favors, and payments defined their conceptions of social order. In "The Commerce of War", Neil Coffee argues that these exchanges play a central yet overlooked role in epic depictions of Roman society. Tracing the collapse of an aristocratic worldview across all three poems, Coffee highlights the distinction they draw between reciprocal gift giving among elites and the more problematic behaviors of buying and selling. In the "Aeneid", customary gift and favor exchanges are undermined by characters who view human interaction as short-term and commodity-driven. "Civil War" takes the next logical step, illuminating how Romans cope once commercial greed has supplanted traditional values. Concluding with the "Thebaid", which focuses on the problems of excessive consumption rather than exchange, Coffee closes his powerful case that these poems constitute far-reaching critiques of Roman society during its transition from republic to empire.
具体描述
读后感
用户评价
相关图书
本站所有内容均为互联网搜索引擎提供的公开搜索信息，本站不存储任何数据与内容，任何内容与数据均与本站无关，如有需要请联系相关搜索引擎包括但不限于百度，google,bing,sogou 等
© 2025 onlinetoolsland.com All Rights Reserved. 本本书屋 版权所有