What did the Romans say in their letters? How are their letters useful in understanding the ancient world? Addressing these and other questions, Finley Hooper and Matthew Schwartz have compiled a selection of letters from Cicero in the first century B.C. to Cassidorus in the sixth century A.D. The letters, sometimes surprising, occasionally amusing, but always impressive, provide new insights to Roman life. With sixteen chapters, notable Romans write about themselves and their times, and about personal and public matters. Seneca provides indignant remarks about the behavior of women in Nero's Rome. From his monastic cell in Bethlehem, St. Jerome berates St. Augustine for unkind gossip he may have spread. Some letters give a different perspective to history, while others talk of harvests, marriages, and day-to-day events. The authors have included running commentary for historical continuity as well as brief sketches on the men behind the letters.