{"title":"Emily Gowers","description":"\u003cp\u003eEmily Gowers offers insightful explorations into the richness of ancient Rome, blending meticulous research with engaging narrative. Her works delve into the cultural and artistic expressions that shaped Roman society, illuminating the connections between history, literature, and visual art.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eReaders can expect thoughtful analyses that enrich their understanding of classical antiquity, presented with clarity and elegance. Gowers’s writing is an essential resource for anyone fascinated by Rome’s enduring influence on arts and culture.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"romes-patron-by-emily-gowers-9780691193144","title":"Rome's Patron","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe story of Maecenas and his role in the evolution and continuing legacy of ancient Roman poetry and culture\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAn unelected statesman with exceptional powers, a patron of the arts and a luxury-loving friend of the emperor Augustus: Maecenas was one of the most prominent and distinctive personalities of ancient Rome. Yet the traces he left behind are unreliable and tantalizingly scarce. Rather than attempting a conventional biography, Emily Gowers shows in \u003cem\u003eRome's Patron\u003c\/em\u003e that it is possible to tell a different story, one about Maecenas's influence, his changing identities and the many narratives attached to him across two millennia.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eRome's Patron\u003c\/em\u003e explores Maecenas's appearances in the central works of Augustan poetry written in his name—Virgil's \u003cem\u003eGeorgics\u003c\/em\u003e, Horace's \u003cem\u003eOdes\u003c\/em\u003e and Propertius's elegies—and in later works of Latin literature that reassess his influence. For the Roman poets he supported, Maecenas was a mascot of cultural flexibility and innovation, a pioneer of gender fluidity and a bearer of imperial demands who could be exposed as a secret sympathizer with their own values. For those excluded from his circle, he represented either favouritism and indulgence or the lost ideal of a patron in perfect collaboration with the authors he championed.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAs Gowers shows, Maecenas had and continues to have a unique cachet—in the fantasies that still surround the gardens, buildings and objects so tenuously associated with him; in literature, from Ariosto and Ben Johnson to Phillis Wheatley and W. B. Yeats; and in philanthropy, where his name has been surprisingly adaptable to more democratic forms of patronage.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Hachette Aotearoa New Zealand","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47598068498668,"sku":"9780691193144","price":89.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9780691193144-rome-s-patron.jpg?v=1777960961"}],"url":"https:\/\/bookhero.co.nz\/collections\/emily-gowers.oembed","provider":"Book Hero","version":"1.0","type":"link"}