Ruth Caston

My work centers on Latin literature, in particular Augustan poetry and Republican drama. I have a special interest in Roman love poetry, satire and comedy, and in philosophy and literature as well, especially the representation of the emotions. My first book (Elegiac Jealousy, Oxford 2012) examined jealousy in Roman love elegy. In it I argue that jealousy shapes some of the most familiar features of the genre, including its emphasis on fides, seeing and being seen, and imagining oneself as another. I also co-edited with Robert Kaster a collection titled Hope, Joy and Affection in the Classical World (Oxford 2016), in which we suggest the importance of looking at positive emotions and not just negative ones. In addition to an article on “joy” in Terence in that volume, I have also written about drama and emotions in Cicero’s Tusculan Disputations and am currently working on a piece on pity and empathy.

My current book project examines all six plays of Terence. Terence remains less popular than Plautus, mostly I suggest because of unflattering comparisons with his comic predecessors. My own emphasis is on ethical and psychological features of his plays, something that helps bring out his connections with other Republican literature. My research on early Republican literature has given me a fresh perspective on late Republican and Augustan authors, and while working on comedy I continue to have a number of projects on Catullus and Horace.

Selected Publications

Books:

Elegiac Passion: Jealousy in Roman Love Elegy, Oxford University Press 2012.

Edited book:

with Robert A. Kaster, Hope, Joy and Affection in the Classical World, Oxford University Press 2016.

Articles:

“The Irrepressibility of Joy in Roman Comedy,” in R.R. Caston and R. Kaster, edd., Hope, Joy and Affection in the Classical World, Oxford University Press 2016, 95-110.

 “Pacuvius hoc melius quam Sophocles: Cicero’s use of drama in the treatment of the emotions.” In D. Cairns and L. Fulkerson, edd., Emotions Between Greece & Rome, Institute of Classical Studies 2015, 129-48.

 “The Divided Self: Plautus and Terence on identity and impersonation.” In E. Karakasis, ed., Plautine Comedy: Plot, Language and Reception, De Gruyter 2014, 43-61.

 “Re-invention in Terence’s Eunuch.” Transactions of the American Philological Association 144 (2014) 41-71.

 “Love as Illness: poets and philosophers on romantic love.” Classical Journal 101.3 (2006) 271-98.

“The Fall of the Curtain (Hor. S. 2.8),” Transactions of the American Philological Association 127 (1997) 233–56.

Field(s) of Study

• Latin Literature
• Augustan Poetry
• Roman Comedy
• Roman Satire
• Ancient Theories of the Passions