Ben-Hur (Cyclopedia of Literary Places)
At a glance:
- Author: Lewis Wallace
- First Published: 1880
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Historical
- Time of Work: Time of Christ
- Genres: Long fiction, Historical fiction
- Subjects: Love or romance, Slavery or slaves, Jews or Jewish life, Christianity, Biblical times, Adventure, Jesus Christ, Greek or Roman times, Israel or Israelis, Middle East
- Locales: Holy Land, Jerusalem, Roman Empire, Mediterranean, Antioch, Syria
Places Discussed
*Roman Empire. The broad context of the novel is the Roman Empire during the Golden Age of the Julio-Claudian emperors, who ruled from 27 b.c.e. to 68 c.e. This empire, the largest the world had yet known, extended more than eighteen hundred miles from west to east and included parts of three continents—Europe, Africa, and Asia. With more than 50,000,000 subjects under its protection, the empire was comparable in size to the continental United States.
In Lew Wallace’s novel, as in history, Rome has an ambiguous role. It represents both hostility and...
[The entire page is 980 words long]
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