This book is a multidisciplinary attempt to understand the Roman Revolution as a cultural phenomenon. Contributors draw on the latest approaches in literary and cultural studies to integrate literature, art and history into a new account of Roman culture during the transition from Republic to Empire. In Part I the changes in cultural systems are discussed under the topics of authority, gender and sexuality, status and space in the city of Rome, and in Part II texts and artifacts are shown to refract social, political and economic changes.