Readers' rating:
Published May 2014
335 pages
Genre: History, Current Affairs and Religion
Publication Information
The Roman "philosophy of life" as mirrored in the literature of ten outstanding representative authors
Though Rome conquered much of the world and established an empire that lasted more than a millennium, its citizens sometimes expressed a sense of inferiority to the intellectual accomplishments of ancient Greece. The notion that Roman philosophers, thinkers, and writers were just pale imitations of Greek originals has persisted to this day. Even the great Roman poet Horace wrote, "Captive Greece took its Roman captor captive,/ Invading uncouth Latium with its arts."
Michael K. Kellogg puts this notion to rest in this lively, very readable overview of Roman literature. The author uncovers many examples of Roman wisdom, showing that the Roman contribution to intellectual history is considerable and need not take second place to ancient Greek literature.
Kellogg offers fresh and engaging portraits of poets (Lucretius, Virgil, Horace, Ovid); dramatists (Plautus, Terence, Seneca); biographers (Plutarch, Suetonius); historians (Livy, Tacitus); and philosophers (Cicero, Marcus Aurelius), against the background of Roman history.
The contemporary reader will come away from this excellent survey with the realization that even today our culture still bears the lasting imprint of ancient Rome.
"Starred Review. [A] well-organized, accessible work that will serve as both introduction and lodestar to these elements of classical wisdom, philosophy, and history." - Publishers Weekly
"The Roman Search for Wisdom offers the general reader an ambitious survey of the richness of Roman thought... This book will engage readers at a very personal level about the ends of their own lives." - Richard Saller, professor of Roman history, Stanford University
"Michael Kellogg's abundantly informative new book fills in a great gap in most educated people's historical and cultural knowledge - ancient Rome." - Dana Gioia, poet and former chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts
"Kellogg's book offers a marvelously clear and accessible account of the intellectual life of ancient Rome. He guides the reader to a deep appreciation of the many ways our own ideas are indebted to what was thought and written two thousand years ago." - John Lachs, Centennial Professor of Philosophy at Vanderbilt University
This information about The Roman Search for Wisdom was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Michael K. Kellogg is the author of The Greek Search for Wisdom and Three Questions We Never Stop Asking. Educated at Stanford and Oxford in philosophy and at Harvard Law School, he is a founding and managing partner at Kellogg, Huber, Hansen, Todd, Evans & Figel, PLLC.
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