The Sublime under Empire

The Sublime Under Empire expands the range of classical authors, genres, and phenomena that can be analysed through the lens of the sublime. Building on recent scholarship that has demonstrated the concept’s dynamic versatility, the twelve essays that comprise the present volume locate the sublime in the context of empire, and explore, from a multiplicity of perspectives, the interconnectedness of sublimity and imperium. Focusing on Greek and Latin texts from the first century BCE to the second century CE, contributors examine how the sublime intersects with philosophy, politics, the study of nature, travel literature, and even comedy and satire. The volume concludes with meditations on the influence of this imperial discourse on later revivals of the sublime, especially at moments of political and/or cultural upheaval in the 18th–20th centuries.