For the Roman writers "Fighting for Rome" became not the expansive imperialism of the all-conquering Republic, but a collapse into horror and un-Roman autocracy brought about by the Caesars' fighting for control of Rome. The essays in this volume range across the literary forms--history and satire, lyric and epic--working closely with particular texts. Conceived over the decade after the Cold War, they have been updated and rewritten to make a book that brings the ancient texts before the reader in a strikingly immediate way.

John Henderson focuses on three key Letters visiting three Roman villas, and reveals their meaning as designs for contrasting lives. Seneca brings the philosophical epistle to Latin literature, creating models for moralizing which feature self-criticism, parody, and animated revision of myth. The Stoic moralist wrests writing away from Greek gurus and texts, and recasts it into critical thinking in Latin terms, within a Roman context. The Letters embody critical thinking on metaphor and translation, self-transformation and cultural tradition.

Recalling Gurdjieff's intent for his first series: "To destroy, mercilessly, without any compromises whatsoever, in the mentation and feelings of the reader, the beliefs and views, by centuries rooted in him, about everything existing in the world." For years Gurdjieff's followers have been working, reading, struggling to understand his writing. We are like miners chipping away at the rocks of his books, seeking the dog he so carefully buried. That "dog" has been waiting patiently to be disinterred, but we have been digging with the wrong tools. A few new "shovels" and "picks" which may be...

Recalling Gurdjieff's intent for his first series: "To destroy, mercilessly, without any compromises whatsoever, in the mentation and feelings of the reader, the beliefs and views, by centuries rooted in him, about everything existing in the world." For years Gurdjieff's followers have been working, reading, struggling to understand his writing. We are like miners chipping away at the rocks of his books, seeking the dog he so carefully buried. That "dog" has been waiting patiently to be disinterred, but we have been digging with the wrong tools. A few new "shovels" and "picks" which may be...