Book excerpt: Agonistic or friendly song exchange in idyllic settings forms the very heart of Roman pastoral. By examining in detail the evolution of a wide variety of literary, linguistic, stylistic, and metrical features, the present book focuses on how politics, panegyrics, elegy, heroic, and didactic poetry function as guest genres within the pastoral host genre, starting from Vergil and continuing with Calpurnius Siculus, the Einsiedeln Eclogues and Nemesianus.