This ground-breaking study reveals the thrill and moral power of the ancient Roman story-world and its ancestral tales of bloody heroism. These famous exempla disseminated widely not only core values such as courage and loyalty, but also key ethical debates and controversies which are still relevant for us today.
Inhaltsverzeichnis
Introduction; 1. Roman values and the archetypal exemplum; 2. The special capacity of exemplary stories; 3. Exploitation, participation and the social function exempla; 4. The experience of learning from exempla; 5. Multiplicity, breadth, diversity and situational sensitivity in exemplary ethics; 6. Working consensus around Roman exempla; 7. Indeterminacy of exempla: interpretation, motivation and improvisation; 8. Sites of exemplarity: referentiality, memory, orality; 9. The dynamics of cultural memory: forgetting, rupture, contestation; 10. Changing sites of exemplarity: two case studies; 11. Diachronic overview of the exemplary terrain; 12. Controversial thinking through exempla; 13. Philosophical and literary adventures in the exemplary terrain; Conclusion.
