The fourth in a series that explores cultural and ethical values in Classical Antiquity, this volume examines the negative foils, the anti-values, against which positive value notions are conceptualized and calibrated in Classical Antiquity. Eighteen chapters address this theme from different perspectives a "historical, literary, legal and philosophical. What makes someone into a prototypically a ~bada (TM) citizen? Or an abomination of a scholar? What is the relationship between ugliness and value? How do icons of sexual perversion, monstruous emperors and detestable habits function in philosophical and rhetorical prose? The book illuminates the many rhetorical manifestations of the concept of a ~badnessa (TM) in classical antiquity in a variety of domains.

Ineke Sluiter, Ph.D. (1990) in Classics, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, is Professor of Greek at the University of Leiden. She has published widely on Greek and Roman literature, especially in the area of ancient linguistics, exegetical traditions, and intellectual history. She is currently working on a volume about grammatical and rhetorical texts of the early Middle Ages (with R. Copeland) The Reading Road (Oxford).
Ralph M. Rosen, Ph.D. (1983) in Classical Philology, Harvard University, is Professor of Classical Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, USA. He has published extensively on Greek and Roman literature and intellectual history, including a new book Making Mockery: the Poetics of Ancient Satire (forthcoming, Oxford 2007).