Through the examination of political autobiographies and memoirs, some preserved in their entirety, others known only from fragments, this book offers a fascinating picture of the way characters who stand out in history saw and represented themselves and their own political actions. Ancient autobiography has been the object of several studies and meetings. However, these have focused chiefly on the philosophical and literary aspects. This book aims to examine the development of political autobiography and memoirs in the Greek and Roman world, stressing, instead, the relation of a single work with the traditions of the genre and also the influence of the respective aims of the authors on the composition of autobiographies. At times these works were written as a means of propaganda in a political struggle, or to defend a past action, and often to furnish material to historians. Nonetheless, they still preserve the personal viewpoint and voice of the protagonists in all their vividness, even if distorted by the aim of defending their record. Political Autobiographies and Memoirs in Antiquity will be a highly valuable and useful reference tool for both scholars and students of Greek and Roman history and literature.

Contributors include: Vivienne Grey, Gabriele Marasco, Cinzia Bearzot, José Mª Candau Morón, W. Jeffrey Tatum, Marc Mayer, Joseph Geiger, Ronald Thomas Ridley, Pere Villalba, Frederick Brenk & Richard Westall, Hartmut Leppin.