Amanda Wilcox offers an innovative approach to two major collections of Roman letters--Cicero's "Ad Familiares" and Seneca's "Moral Epistles"--informed by modern cross-cultural theories of gift-giving.
By viewing letters and the practice of correspondence as a species of gift exchange, Wilcox provides a nuanced analysis of neglected and misunderstood aspects of Roman epistolary rhetoric and the social dynamics of friendship in Cicero's correspondence. Turning to Seneca, she shows that he both inherited and reacted against Cicero's euphemistic rhetoric and social practices, and she...