Roman Manliness "Virtus" and the Roman Republic

Some studies of ancient Roman masculinities have concentrated on the private aspects of the subject, particularly sexuality, and have drawn conclusions from a narrow field of reference, usually rhetorical practice. In contrast, this 2006 book examines the public and the most important aspect of Roman masculinity: manliness as represented by the concept of virtus. Using traditional historical, philological, and archaeological analyses, together with the methods of socio-linguistics and gender studies, it presents a comprehensive picture of how Roman manliness developed from the middle to the late Republic. Arguing that virtus was not, in essence, a moral concept, Myles McDonnell shows how the semantic range of the word, together with the manly ideal that it embodied, were altered by Greek cultural ideas; and how Roman manliness was contested in the religion, culture, and politics of the late Republic.

Introduction - manliness and Virtus; 1. Manliness as courage in early Latin; 2. Hellenization and Arete - semantic borrowing; 3. Arete and manly Virtus; 4. Visual representations of Virtus; 5. The boundaries of manliness; 6. Manliness in Republican Rome; 7. Divine Virtus, M. Claudius Marcellus and Roman politics; 8. Virtus contested; 9. Virtus Imperatoris; 10. Manliness redefined; Epilogue - Roman manliness and the Principate; Index.

Arguing that virtus was not, in essence, a moral concept, Myles McDonnell shows how the semantic range of the word, together with the manly ideal that it embodied, were altered by Greek cultural ideas; and how Roman manliness was contested in the religion, culture, and politics of the late Republic.