Includes bibliographical references (p. 205-208) and index.

Preliminary Material / Francesca Santoro L’hoir -- Introduction / Francesca Santoro L’hoir -- Cicero’s masculine terminology and rhetorical convention / Francesca Santoro L’hoir -- The obscene mulier and the not-heard femina / Francesca Santoro L’hoir -- Sallust: factional politics through the looking-glass / Francesca Santoro L’hoir -- Ab Urbe Condita: when viri were VIRI / Francesca Santoro L’hoir -- Livian ladies: cardboard characters in feminine attire / Francesca Santoro L’hoir -- Velleius Paterculus: historicus patrioticus / Francesca Santoro L’hoir -- Tacitus: the tradition and its breaking / Francesca Santoro L’hoir -- C. Plinius Secundus: man of letters / Francesca Santoro L’hoir -- Suetonius: Ciceronian shorthand / Francesca Santoro L’hoir -- Petronius and Apuleius: the good; the bad; and the nequissimi / Francesca Santoro L’hoir -- Conclusion / Francesca Santoro L’hoir -- Select Bibliography / Francesca Santoro L’hoir -- Index / Francesca Santoro L’hoir -- Supplements to Mnemosyne.

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The aim of this work is to recover classical Roman assumptions about women on the basis of the surviving linguistic data. The author provides a control to her study of the connotations of the major Latin words for women in the form of a corresponding examination of how Roman authors use the various words for men. The resulting analysis throws light not only on Roman gender vocabulary but also on Roman cultural perceptions of class, moral worth and nationality. Furthermore, the author's detailed discussions of strictly linguistic evidence enable her to offer several original and persuasive insights about the traditional Latin literary representation of women. Understanding the connotative range of gender terms such as homo , vir , femina , mulier also reveals the value judgments made by ancient authors on male and female behaviour and can even be applied as a tool of historical analysis.