1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910974527403321

Autore

Wilcox Amanda

Titolo

The gift of correspondence in classical Rome : friendship in Cicero's Ad familiares and Seneca's Moral epistles / / Amanda Wilcox

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Madison, : University of Wisconsin Press, c2012

ISBN

9780299288334

0299288331

9781283692199

1283692198

Edizione

[1st ed.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (244 p.)

Collana

Wisconsin studies in classics

Disciplina

876/.01

Soggetti

Authors, Latin

Latin letters - History and criticism

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Intro -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- Part One: Cicero - The Social Life of Letters -- 1. Euphemism and Its Limits -- 2. Consolation and Competition -- 3. Absence and Increase -- 4. Recommendation -- Part Two: Seneca - Commercium Epistularum: The Gift Refigured -- 5. From Practice to Metaphor -- 6. Rehabilitating Friendship -- 7. Redefining Identity: Persons, Letters, Friends -- 8. Consolation and Community -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index -- Index Locorum.

Sommario/riassunto

Amanda Wilcox offers an innovative approach to two major collections of Roman letters-Cicero's Ad Familiares and Seneca's Moral Epistles -informed by modern cross-cultural theories of gift-giving. By viewing letters and the practice of correspondence as a species of gift exchange, Wilcox provides a nuanced analysis of neglected and misunderstood aspects of Roman epistolary rhetoric and the social dynamics of friendship in Cicero's correspondence. Turning to Seneca, she shows that he both inherited and reacted against Cicero's euphemistic rhetoric and social practices, and she analyzes how Seneca transformed the rhetoric of his own letters from an instrument of social negotiation into an idiom for ethical philosophy and self-reflection.



Though Cicero and Seneca are often viewed as a study in contrasts, Wilcox extensively compares their letters, underscoring Cicero's significant influence on Seneca as a prose stylist, philosopher, and public figure.