Fides in Flavian Literature

Fides in Flavian literature explores the ideology of "good faith" (fides) during the time of the emperors Vespasian, Titus, and Domitian (69-96 CE), the new imperial dynasty that gained power in the wake of the civil wars of the period. The contributors to this volume consider the significance and semantic range of this Roman value in works that deal in myth, history in prose and verse, and the poetry of contemporary society. Though it does not claim to offer the comprehensive "last word" on fides in Flavian Rome, it aims to show that fides in this period was subjected to a particularly striking and special brand of contestation and re-conceptualization, used to interrogate the broad cultural changes and anxieties of the Flavian period, as well as connect to a republican and imperial past. The editors argue that fides was both a vehicle for reconciliation and a means to test the nature of "good faith" in the wake of a devastating and divisive period of Roman history.