Book I -- The aristocracy under the terror -- The world of the satirist -- The society of the freedmen -- Book II -- The circle of the younger Pliny -- Municipal life -- The colleges and plebeian life -- Book III -- The philosophic director -- The philosophic
missionary -- The philosophic theologian -- Book IV -- Superstition -- Belief in immortality -- The old Roman religion -- Magna mater -- Isis and Serapis -- The religion of Mithra.
A dramatic reconstruction of the social intellectual, artistic and religious life of the Roman Empire from the terrorism of Nero and Caligula to the rule of the philosophers that was achieved under Marcus Aurelius.
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