Nature Embodied – Gesture in Ancient Rome

"Showing exemplary control of his Latin sources, Corbeill alerts readers to Roman feelings about certain formal and ritual gestures, about stance and gait, and about facial expressions. He makes a significant contribution to Roman history and historiography--and to our understanding of the Roman soul."--Alan L. Boegehold, Brown University, author of "When a Gesture was Expected" "This is an important successor to the author's well received and frequently cited Controlling Laughter. Corbeill argues that gesture responds to nature as man's instinct for harmonizing bodily existence with the power of the earth but, with increased social complexity, becomes systematized and studied. In contrast to other treatments, Corbeill's range of gesture includes not merely what is done with the hands or prescribed in rhetorical treatises but all aspects of bodily movement, facial expression, dress, posture."--Eleanor Winsor Leach, Indiana University, author of "The Rhetoric of Space"