Gender, domesticity, and the age of Augustus : inventing private life /

Milnor's brilliant work, the latest addition to the "Oxford Studies in Classical Literature and Gender Theory" series, breaks new ground in the study of the "paradox" that Roman society relegated women to domesticity at the same time that, in the age of Augustus, elite Roman women assumed public civic roles. In form and content, this is an extraordinary book. An impeccable scholar, Milnor (Barnard College) argues persuasively, supporting her thesis with a broad range of evidence and methodology, including the law, Vitruvius, political theory, and cultural and gender studies. Her careful examination of what she sees as a redefinition of "public" and "private" by the princeps informs her analysis throughout. Within this redefinition, Milnor considers the extent to which civic life was built around the family in general and the emperor's family in particular. She concludes with a compelling argument for Nero as the inevitable last of the Julio-Claudians and as a "parody" of the first. Her extensive bibliography will be as useful to scholars as her text itself. ^BSumming Up: Essential. All levels/libraries. J. de Luce Miami University