This collection on exemplarity focuses on what the editors call in the introduction the exceptional nature of exempla (‘die exzeptionelle Qualität von exempla’, p. 19). In the introduction Bauer and Brockkötter reflect on the concept that is at the heart of the collection: the potentially transgressive nature of exempla. Exempla do not only serve to legitimise normative systems, but may also potentially disrupt them and create new ones (‘Exempla haben nicht nur die Fähigkeit, historische Formationen und soziale Erscheinungen zu legitimieren, sie können sie gleichsam auch aufbrechen und so neue Ordnungssysteme, Verhaltensweisen und Wertvorstellungen etablieren’, p. 19). Bauer and Brockkötter dive into the relationship between the concepts of exemplarity and exceptionality in the first chapter dedicated to the state of the art. The first section of the chapter is devoted to the definition of exemplarity, as elaborated by the ancients (e.g. Plato, Aristotle, Cicero and Quintilian). Exempla were everywhere in antiquity, especially in Rome's urban and intellectual landscape. They were widely employed in works of literature in different contexts: rhetoric, history, ethics and moral discourse, philosophy and poetry. An exemplum could appear in the form of a very long and detailed story or just in a couple of words. The collection of exempla originated towards the second half of the first century bce and in the first century ce, as exemplified by the works of Cornelius Nepos, Valerius Maximus and Frontinus (to which Hyginus and Varro could be added).

The authors then turn to the scholarship on exemplarity that developed together with the flourishing of memory studies, especially in the last 30 years. Bauer and Brockkötter's overview of (and engagement with) modern scholarship is brief but exhaustive, emphasising how research has progressively paid more attention to the nuanced and fluid nature of exempla (‘Exempla wurden nun nicht mehr als geschlossene, gleichsam “monolithische Geschichtsbilder”, um eine Formulierung Uwe Walters aufzugreifen, betrachtet, sondern auch in ihren Pluralitäten, Ambiguitäten und ihrer Offenheit erfasst’, p. 32). In this sense the authors are in line with recent investigations on exemplarity by M. Roller and R. Langlands. In his extensive studies on exemplarity, Roller has theorised the four-stage process through which exempla are formed: action, evaluation, commemoration and norm setting (e.g. M. Roller, in: The Cambridge Companion to the Roman Historians [2009], pp. 214–30; A World of Exempla [2018], pp. 5–10). Langlands's work on the connection between exemplarity and ethics shows that the exemplum is not a fixed rhetorical instrument, but needs to be analysed according to the principle of ‘situation ethics’ or ‘situational variability’: each exemplum must be understood in view of its context and the type of person performing the exemplary deed; readers are actively involved in this process of evaluation of the exemplary deed, deciding whether they can measure their own actions accordingly (e.g. R. Langlands, JRS 101 [2011], 100–22; Exemplary Ethics in Ancient Rome [2018], pp. 124–7). Therefore, exempla have a malleable quality, so that they can provoke readers rather than rigidly instruct them (e.g. R. Langlands, Cambridge Classical Journal 54 [2008], 163; Exemplary Ethics [2018], pp. 258–90; in: Reading by Example [2022], pp. 178, 184).

The core of this chapter is the second part, where the authors reflect on the concept of exceptionality and emphasise how the ideas of exceptionality and exemplarity, going hand in hand, may be in contrast with each other, creating a conceptual clash: the exceptional (e.g. the extraordinary hero) can be both a norm setter and the one that then transgresses and opposes the norm, embodying, therefore, the role of an almost anti-exemplar (‘stellt sich das Exzeptionelle gegen Normen und Ordnungssysteme, dann kann von ihm schon fast als dem Anti-Exemplarischen gesprochen werden’, p. 37). The collection is divided into sections about specific themes: media, female exempla, the construction of memory and identity, legitimation and delegitimation. The book is closed by a response by Roller, whose fundamental studies on exemplarity, among many others, provide its theoretical basis.

Greek exemplarity is sometimes overlooked in comparison to Roman exemplarity. One of the merits of the book, as recognised by Roller (p. 300), is that it sheds light on the use of exemplary figures in Greek literature and, by combining papers on both Greek and Roman engagement with exemplarity, deepens and refines our understanding of the phenomenon as a whole. The first two papers, in the section on media, revolve around Greece and Greek culture and society. K. Kostopoulos analyses how orators of fourth-century Athens portrayed and employed exemplary figures of the past fifth-century Athens (as well as monuments and places that retained a strong collective memory) to make sense of their own present time and advocate for certain conducts of behaviour.

Using inscriptions made by members of the elite in Cyprus, B. Wieland investigates how the concepts of exemplarity, exceptionality and reciprocity were intertwined in Hellenistic kingdoms. Wieland's analysis reveals the presence of exemplary dynamics between exceptional individuals, such as kings and high functionaries, and communities based on the concept of eunoia.

M.J. Bensch's paper, which closes the first section of the book and is focused on Roman culture, opens with two provocative questions: (1) Is it possible to understand the meaning of exemplarity in Rome through research on Roman images? (2) Is the category of exemplarity really useful for understanding Roman images and material culture? Bensch suggests that visual representations are not as good a vehicle for exemplarity as literary genres such as history and rhetoric. To carry out this argument, Bensch lively engages with scholarship on the matter, in particular Z. Newby's Greek Myths in Roman Art and Culture (2016): Bensch shows scepticism that Greek mythological subjects in parietal art and on sarcophagi would provide exemplary models for the Roman imperial viewer. Whether or not one agrees with Bensch, the paper is an interesting starting point for deepening the investigation of the relationship between texts and visual media in relation to exemplarity.

Women often convey exemplary behaviour, as attested by Valerius Maximus’ collection of more than 1,000 exempla, where women, although certainly less prominent than men in terms of number, play an important role both as exemplar and as exceptional individual. In the second section dedicated to female exemplary figures, Bauer investigates Plutarch's portrayal of women, with a focus on the Mulierum virtutes belonging to the Moralia and with a comparison with two exemplary women of the Parallel Lives, Timokleia (Life of Alexander) and Licinia (Life of Gaius Gracchus). Bauer's long article argues that women and men are on the same level regarding exemplarity and that, contrary to what is sustained by part of the scholarship, exemplary superiority on the part of men in Plutarch's work should be refuted. Models of behaviour are in fact universal and not specific in terms of gender.

K. Piepenbrink reflects on the extent to which Christian ascetic practices can be approached through the lenses of exemplarity and exceptionality, pointing out a key difference between the experiences of female and male ascetics. According to Piepenbrink, women's ascetic practice is described mostly in exemplary terms, revolving around ethics and emphasising the concepts of imitatio Christi and perfectio (p. 166). Men's experience, on the other hand, is different: it revolves around the exceptional, is characterised by strength and dynamism (p. 170), especially in the context of martyrdom, and tends to underline the superiority of the Christian way of life, as opposed to that of the pagani, in an almost warlike fashion.

Augustus, exemplum par excellence, is the focus of the paper by Brockkötter, which opens Part 3, dedicated to identity-building processes. Brockkötter analyses in particular how Augustus’ images, which often played around his connection with Alexander, were received in other cultures and around the boundaries of the Roman empire. Investigating written sources as well as coinage and broadening the analysis from a geographical (East Asia) as well as temporal perspective (up to the establishment of Christianity), Brockkötter shows how individuals and communities further away from Rome employed, reworked and integrated the exemplum Augusti in their own contexts.

The use of exemplary figures made by different social actors in different times and political contexts is also at the heart of P. Scholz's paper. Scholz investigates the aftermath of a striking statue portraying a Hercules tunicatus, a dying Hercules, which the celebrated statesman L. Licinus Lucullus, himself an exemplary as well as an exceptional individual, transported to Rome from his Eastern campaigns (c. 63 bce). By analysing how and why, after Lucullus’ death, the statue was removed from the Forum and subsequently put back in place over the years (e.g. in Caesar's time and then under Augustus), Scholz illustrates how exemplary images as powerfully evocative as Hercules (Scholz effectively speaks of the sculpture's politically explosive nature, ‘hohe politische Brisanz’, p. 230) could be strategically reused, repurposed and manipulated according to the political needs of the time.

Prominent Romans sometimes appeared in trials dressed and styled in mourning fashion, even if they were not mourning a death. C. Degelmann investigates how this exceptional and exemplary practice, initiated in the early republic, was then received and modified in late republican and early imperial years, focusing in particular on how several illustrious Romans refused to engage with ‘mourning acts’ in the context of trials, therefore setting an exemplary precedent.

Part 4, on how exemplarity may legitimise or delegitimise social systems, opens with an article by I. Künzer, focused on the competitive dynamics of the imperial senatorial system. It concludes with a paper by H. Wagner, who investigates the theme of cannibalism in light of its link with exemplarity and exceptionality. After an introduction in which he gives an overview of the popularity of the theme in ancient literature, both in mythological narrative and ethnography, Wagner demonstrates how the topos could be used strategically as a communicative tool by politicians, taking as example Julius Caesar. Specifically, Wagner focuses on how Caesar narrates the speech given by Critognatus, leader of the Gauls during the siege of Alesia, portraying him and the Gauls as practising cannibalism. As Wagner shows, Caesar manipulates the ‘Kannibalismusmotiv’ to his own advantage, playing around with the contrast between the two words, the Romans and the ‘others’, therefore legitimising, in his fellow countrymen's eyes, his own deeds in Gaul for political gains.

This collection originated in the challenging context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite being unable to meet in person for an international day of studies to be held in Freiburg in April 2020, organisers and speakers managed to come together and to produce a fascinating and thought-provoking collection of essays, presenting a variety of methodological approaches, which undoubtedly provides a further step in the study of exemplarity.