Romans in a New World: Classical Models in Sixteenth-Century Spanish America (History, Languages, and Cultures of the Spanish and Portuguese Worlds)

"Romans in a New World" shows how the ancient Romans haunted the Spanish conquest of the New World. While the conquistadors themselves challenged the reputations of the Romans for incomparable military genius and daring, Spanish critics of the conquest launched a concerted assault upon two other prominent uses of ancient Rome as a model: as an exemplar of imperialistic motives and behavior fit for Christians to follow, and as a yardstick against which to measure the cultural level of the natives of the New World.