Overview

After centuries of near silence, Latin poetry underwent a renaissance in the late fourth and fifth centuries CE evidenced in the works of key figures such as Ausonius, Claudian, Prudentius, and Paulinus of Nola. This period of resurgence marked a milestone in the reception of the classics of late Republican and early imperial poetry. In Classicism and Christianity in Late Antique Latin Poetry, Philip Hardie explores the ways in which poets writing on non-Christian and Christian subjects used the classical traditions of Latin poetry to construct their relationship with Rome’s imperial past and present, and with the by now not-so-new belief system of the state religion, Christianity. The book pays particular attention to the themes of concord and discord, the ""cosmic sense"" of late antiquity, novelty and renouatio, paradox and miracle, and allegory. It is also a contribution to the ongoing discussion of whether there is an identifiably late antique poetics and a late antique practice of intertextuality. Not since Michael Robert's classic The Jeweled Style has a single book had so much to teach about the enduring power of Latin poetry in late antiquity.  

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Reviews

As always, Hardie's work is erudite and articulate, displaying the author's extensive knowledge of both early and late Latin poetic corpora. This recent work advocates for the uniqueness and vitality of late antique Latin poetry against the still-widespread stereotype of the period as one marked by decadence and degeneration. It should be widely appreciated by specialists in Latin poetry, late antiquity, and anyone interested in the complex interactions between 'classical' and Christian culture in the later Roman world. It is highly recommended. * The Society of Biblical Literature *

Author Information

Philip Hardie is Senior Research Fellow at Trinity College, Cambridge, and Honorary Professor of Latin in the University of Cambridge. He is the author of many books and articles on Latin literature and its post-antique reception.

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