This book, written for the scholar and layman alike, focuses on many aspects of the complex relation between society and civilization in Greece and Republican Rome. Victor Ehrenberg brings to life the ancient social scene and demonstrates how a way of life affected literature and thought as well as art, and was in its turn affected by various cultural developments. Conferring a new and revealing significance on familiar figures, settings, and events, he provides a full picture of the essential trends in Greek and Roman civilization, amplified by numerous illustrations.