Classicism and Christianity in Late Antique Latin Poetry. Prof. Philip Hardie

After centuries of near silence, Latin poetry underwent a renaissance in the late fourth and fifth centuries CE evidenced in the works of&#160;key figures such as Ausonius, Claudian, Prudentius, and Paulinus of Nola. This period of resurgence marked&#160;a milestone in the reception of the classics of late Republican and early imperial poetry. In <I>Classicism and Christianity in Late Antique Latin Poetry,</I> Philip Hardie explores the ways in which poets writing on non-Christian and Christian subjects used the classical traditions of Latin poetry to construct&#160;their relationship with Rome&rsquo;s imperial past and present, and with the by now not-so-new belief system of the state religion, Christianity. The book pays particular attention to the themes of concord and discord, the &quot;cosmic sense&quot; of late antiquity, novelty and <I>renouatio</I>, paradox and miracle, and allegory. It is also a contribution to the ongoing discussion of whether there is an identifiably late antique poetics and a late antique practice of intertextuality. Not since Michael Robert&#39;s classic <I>The Jeweled Style</I> has a single book had so much to teach about the enduring power of Latin poetry in late antiquity.<BR /> &#160;