Wandering Poets and Other Essays on Late Greek Literature and Philosophy

Alan Cameron taught classics at Columbia University for more than 30 years. Educated at Oxford University, he is a Fellow of the British Academy, of the American Philosophical Society, and of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His most recent book was The Last Pagans of Rome (2011). In 2013 he was awarded the Kenyon Medal for Classical Studies.

"...Cameron's superb sensitivity as a literary reader shines through. As a whole, then, this volume stands as a historical, cultural and literary overview that is consistent in the themes addressed and rather unified...As a whole, these chapters work well together and ultimately offer a dense, richly documented, and accessible literary and cultural history of late antiquity, filled with nuanced and sophisticated arguments from a half-century of scholarlydevotion to the period. As such, the collection presents the strengths and excellence of Alan Cameron's scholarly contributions to the study of late antiquity, specifically, and Greek and Latin literatureand culture, in general. In many respects, the lines of inquiry and methodologies exhibited in this collection provide a model for future scholars and the larger picture that emerges will be a boon, such as was not available before Cameron began to publish in this field in 1965." --Lawrence Kowerski, Bryn Mawr Classical Review"By reprinting, with revisions, his most important articles on late antique Greek literature and philosophy, beginning with the classic 'Wandering Poets,' Alan Cameron confirms his seminal role in the contemporary revival of interest in Greek authors from Constantine to Justinian. The present volume includes two hitherto unpublished papers (one on Palladas and the other on late paganism) that meticulously correct the work of others with Cameron's customaryerudition, verve, and good sense. They make an already valuable collection indispensable." --G. W. Bowersock, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton"For half a century, Alan Cameron has been at the forefront of scholars tearing down arbitrary boundaries that separated the study of Christian and Pagan, Greece and Rome, literature and history, prose and poetry. This book contains chapters essential to a full understanding of what Late Antiquity was all about." --H. A. Drake, University of California, Santa Barbara"This volume highlights once again Alan Cameron's extraordinary gifts as a reader and writer. Cameron's exquisitely nuanced pieces insert Late Antique and Byzantine authors into a vivid and compelling historical context." --Susanna Elm, University of California, Berkeley

• Preface ; 1. Wandering Poets: A Literary Movement in Byzantine Egypt ; 2. The Empress and the Poet ; 3. The Poet, the Bishop and the Harlot ; 4. Palladas: New Poems, New Date? ; 5. Claudian ; 6. Claudian Revisited ; 7. Poets and Pagans in Byzantine Egypt ; 8. Poetry and Literary Culture in Late Antiquity ; 9. Hypatia: Life, Death and Works ; 10. The Last Days of the Academy at Athens ; 11. Oracles and Earthquakes ; 12. Accusations of Paganism in Sixth-Century Byzantium