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Introduction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 December 2024

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Summary

The introduction calls for a mutually enriching dialogue between ancient texts and environmental literary criticism, contextualizing the book in relation to ecocriticism and classical scholarship. It also establishes the key terms of the book’s approach – place, environment, and ecology – and distinguishes these from the unreflective use of the concept of nature. Finally, the introduction sketches the contextual background for Vergil’s and Horace’s environmental interests, noting a range of ancient traditions and discourses that took the nonhuman world seriously as a site of interest and inquiry. These include literary forebears like Sappho, Hesiod, Theocritus, and Lucretius; cultural traditions such as the Roman fascination with land surveying and agricultural treatises; political contexts like the expansion and consolidation of a quasi-global Roman empire; philosophical traditions from the Presocratics to Stoicism and Epicureanism; and religious traditions. Reading Horace and Vergil as environmental poets does not mean projecting modern sensibilities onto ancient texts but rather seeing how these authors pursue their own, different interests in place, ecology, and the environment.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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  • Introduction
  • Erik Pugh Fredericksen
  • Book: The Environmental Poetry of Augustan Rome
  • Online publication: 12 December 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009476157.001
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  • Introduction
  • Erik Pugh Fredericksen
  • Book: The Environmental Poetry of Augustan Rome
  • Online publication: 12 December 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009476157.001
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Introduction
  • Erik Pugh Fredericksen
  • Book: The Environmental Poetry of Augustan Rome
  • Online publication: 12 December 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009476157.001
Available formats
×