In this selection of letters, notable Romans write about themselves and their times, as well as 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 gossip he may have spread. Some letters give a different perspective to history, while other talk of harvests, marriages, and day-to-day events. For historical continuity, Hooper and Schwartz include a running commentary and brief biographical sketches on the writers.