While Rome Burned

342 PHOENIX ideal (cf. the caption at 147, 157–160; 234–239), the latter demonstrating moral progress as sexual violence is no longer used. I also find many of Hösle’s thematic analyses in the last parts of the book convincing, for example, that of the love-triangles in Book 13 and 14, the metapoetic quality of the “female Orpheus” (“weiblicher Orpheus”) Canens as an example of “progress” brought about by Italy (“auch dies ein Fortschritt Italiens,” 228) and Ovid’s treatment of epic passages, including his focus on erotics in the Centauromachy in Book 12 (203–207). However, I do not agree with Hösle’s judgment concerning the artistic inferiority of the final pentad (especially of Book 15; cf. 194, 241) and the ways in which he takes statements made by the Ovidian persona all too literally and biographically (e.g., the suggestion that Ovid is probably appalled by the “venality of love” [“Käuflichkeit der Liebe,” 181] when gifts are demanded in the Amores). Still, Hösle accomplishes his goal to write for two audiences—the expert and the educated layman (50)—in an elegant style that makes for enjoyable reading. In sum, Ovids Enzyklopädie der Liebe is an insightful monograph that shows how myth becomes “the basis of a world-encompassing philosophy of Eros” (“Grundlage einer weltumfassenden Philosophie des Eros,” 258) and invites everyone to read Ovid’s Metamorphoses again. Munich Maria Anna Oberlinner While Rome Burned: Fire, Leadership, and Urban Disaster in the Roman Cultural Imagination. By Virginia M. Closs. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. 2020. Pp. 353. Different forms of fire played an important role in ancient Roman history and culture. Fires caused by arson, lightning, book burnings, and cremations were witnessed by the Romans and described in Roman literature. Roman leaders used fires for political reasons and faced criticism for their handling of conflagrations. The intersection of fire, leadership, and literature is at the center of Virginia Closs’s book While Rome Burned: Fire, Leadership, and Urban Disaster in the Roman Cultural Imagination. Her focus is on Latin texts of the early imperial period (from Augustus to Hadrian) that discuss fire or use metaphors of fire with explicit or implicit reference to politics. Closs aims to illustrate the ways in which the authors “used powerful images of fiery destruction to address contemporary moments of political crisis, as well as to express deep anxieties about leadership and Rome’s political future” (2). With its focus on early imperial times, the book presents some of the most intensively studied texts of Latin literature, among them Vergil’s Aeneid, Ovid’s Metamorphoses, and Tacitus’ Annals. The value of the book lies not so much in producing innovative insights into all these texts as in its coherent presentation of certain passages from one specific perspective. Bringing together texts about fire, crisis, and leadership, the book offers a sort of complex modern Motivgeschichte. It is complex because fire always forms part of larger motifs that have their own tradition: the main motifs studied here are Troy’s destruction (and the urbs capta-motif in general), Phaethon, the phoenix, and the concept of ekpyrosis. Closs’s approach is modern and in line with recent scholarship on the early imperial period because she aims to combine the methodologies of history, philology, BOOK REVIEWS/COMPTES RENDUS 343 and archaeology, and because she underlines the ambivalence of fire motifs, in which fire could be associated with destruction and death, but also with everlasting life and fame. The book starts with an introduction that presents its main idea, an overview of the motifs that are studied and a general outline of its theoretical approach (1–23). The five main chapters are in chronological order (25–205). Each starts with a general introduction , which is followed by readings of selected text passages. The conclusion presents a summary as well as two postclassical Roman examples of how fire and leadership are associated (207–220). The endnotes (221–290) are followed by a bibliography, an index locorum, and a general index. The first chapter (“The Vigilant princeps: Augustan Responses to Fire at Rome,” 25–67) deals with Augustan literature. Closs summarizes the importance

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