This book offers a sophisticated analysis of the pervasive use of historical myth in some of the best-known writers of the Late Republic and Augustan periods, including Cicero, Livy, Virgil, Propertius, and Ovid. Looking at these writers' use of narrative, Fox uncovers an uneasy tension between the desire for accurate historical representation and the legendary character of traditional stories. In this way, the accounts of Rome's regal period in both prose and verse bear witness to the uncertainties and upheavals at the end of the republic.

"This provocative literary analysis challenges conventional depictions of early Rome and is intended primarily for scholars."

Matthew Fox, Lecturer in Classics, University of Birmingham