Imagined Romes

Acknowledgments

Note on Spelling

Introduction

Part 1: Ancient Rome and Its Objects

1 The Relics of Rome: Christian Mercy and the Stacions of Rome

2 The Ruins of Rome: Pagan Marvels and the Metrical Mirabilia

Part 2: Narratives of Ancient Romans

3 Civic Romans in Gower’s Confessio Amantis

4 Heroic (Women) Romans in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales and the Legend of

Good Women

5 Virtuous Romans in Piers Plowman

6 Tragic Romans in Lydgate’s Fall of Princes

Notes

Bibliography

Index

“Benson’s lyrical book about English writers’ recovery of ancient Rome allows us to see how profoundly ideas about Rome shaped the later Middle Ages. Imagined Romes offers a delightful tour of an ancient city that existed only in the memories of Middle English poets. Despite being a fantasy, this Rome shaped conceptions of power, truth, justice, mercy, love, tragedy, and literature for generations. Benson’s book will appeal to literary scholars, medievalists, and any reader who has fallen in love with a place found only in a book.”

—Rebecca Krug, author of Reading Families: Women's Literate Practice in Late Medieval England