Conclusion

Abstract

The conclusion re-articulates the book’s model of the solitary sphere in the age of Virgil within the context of imperial politics, showing how this sphere helped shape new coordinations of cosmos, imperium, and the individual. It shows the role played in this process by newly popular genres like pantomime and the newly (or newly fashioned) subjective element of literary characterization, and demonstrates how this sphere’s new forms are embodied by two work from after the age of Virgil: Manilius’ Astronomica and one of Marcus Argentarius’ epigrams. Following comparison of their figures of the solitary singer with the companionate model of reading evinced by other works before, during, and after the age of Virgil, it shows how Tiberianus’ Amnis ibat took up the age of Virgil’s terms for the solitary sphere in order to invite the reader to think of oneself, with his poem, as an imperium of one.