Some studies of ancient Roman masculinities have concentrated on the private aspects of the subject, particularly sexuality, and have drawn conclusions from a narrow field of reference, usually rhetorical practice. In contrast, this 2006 book examines the public and the most important aspect of Roman masculinity: manliness as represented by the concept of virtus. Using traditional historical, philological, and archaeological analyses, together with the methods of socio-linguistics and gender studies, it presents a comprehensive picture of how Roman manliness developed from the middle to the late Republic. Arguing that virtus was not, in essence, a moral concept, Myles McDonnell shows how the semantic range of the word, together with the manly ideal that it embodied, were altered by Greek cultural ideas; and how Roman manliness was contested in the religion, culture, and politics of the late Republic.

This 2006 book examines notions of virtus as it contributed to Roman ideas of manliness.
Reviews
'For historians, therefore, the study of ethics is now the study of a basic building block of the Greek and Roman world, and McDonnell ... [has] made a major contribution to the field.' The Times Literary Supplement



Book Information
ISBN 9780521118934
Author Myles McDonnell
Format Paperback
Page Count 504
Imprint Cambridge University Press
Publisher Cambridge University Press
Weight(grams) 730g
Dimensions(mm) 229mm * 152mm * 28mm