Research Catalog

Title

Clemency & cruelty in the Roman world / Melissa Barden Dowling.

Author

Dowling, Melissa Barden.

Publication

Ann Arbor : University of Michigan Press, c2006.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

366 p., [22] p. of plates : ill.; 24 cm.

Summary

• "When the Roman democratic republic fell and the monarchical empire rose, a new vocabulary of power was needed to help balance the awesome abilities of the state to inflict harm and the need of its people for individual protection. In Clemency and Cruelty in the Roman World, Melissa Barden Dowling explores the formation of clemency as a human and social value in the Roman Empire, a topic that has been curiously neglected despite its obvious importance to our understanding of Roman society and the workings of the penal system."
• "In this first thorough study of the origins of clemency, Dowling provides a vivid look at the ideology of clemency and new philosophies of mercy and cruelty in Western society, through an examination of ancient art, literature, historical documents, and archaeological artifacts. By illuminating the emergence of mercy and forgiveness as social concepts, and the mechanisms by which peoples are transformed in response to changes in power structures, Dowling makes an important contribution to the study of the ancient Roman world, as well as to modem Western culture."--Jacket.

Alternative Title

Clemency and cruelty in the Roman world

Subjects

• Justice, Administration of > Rome
• Cruelty
• Clemency > Rome
• Torture > Rome
• Capital punishment > Rome
• Punishment > Rome

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliography (p. 341-357) and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

1. Kings, dictators, and orators : Hellenistic mercy and the use of clemency during the Roman republic -- 2. From the Crudelitas of Octavian to the Clementia of Augustus : politics and propaganda in the founding of the principate -- 3. Augustan authors and the Clementia Augusti -- 4. Augustan visual propaganda and Roman response -- 5. The Clemens tyrannus : clemency and cruelty under the Julio-Claudians -- 6. The clemency of the times : Clementia in private and public life during the high empire.

ISBN

• 0472115154 (cloth : alk. paper)
• 9780472115150

LCCN

^^2005016623

OCLC

• 60741959
• SCSB-10748025

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library