Roman Love Elegy and the Eros of Empire

Phebe Lowell Bowditch is Professor of Classics at the University of Oregon, USA. She is the author of Horace and the Gift Economy of Patronage (2001), A Propertius Reader. Eleven Selected Elegies (2014), and articles on Tibullus, Propertius, Ovid, Horace, and issues of translation.

“Bowditch is to be congratulated for writing such a nuanced, critical, and timely contribution to classical and literary studies. … I recommend this book to anyone looking for an example of how to use postcolonial theory in the study of ancient literatures, and especially to those who work on ancient erotic or romantic literature … . Though best suited to scholars and experts, this book would also be a good resource for graduate students … .” (R. Gillian Glass, Bryn Mawr Classical Review (BMCR), bmcr.brynmawr.edu, December 25, 2024)

• 1.Reading Elegy Against the Grain.- 2.Osiris, Egypt, and Postcolonial Ambivalence in Tibullus 1.7.- 3.Elegiac Cartography and Roman Conceptions of Space.- 4.Imperial Luxury and the Elegiac Mistress.- 5.The Elegiac Triumph: Imperial Pomp and Erotic Circumstance.- 6.Augustan Visions of Hellenism and Roman Imperial Identity.- 7.Isis-Io, Egypt, and Cultural Circulation.-Afterword: The Meroë Head of Augustus