Antonio Stramaglia - Böcker

Declamation - the practice of training young men to speak in public by setting them to compose and deliver speeches on fictional legal cases - was central to the Greek and Roman educational systems over many centuries and has been the subject of a recent explosion of scholarly interest. The work of Michael Winterbottom has been seminal in this regard, and the present volume brings together a broad selection of his scholarly articles and reviews published since 1964, creating an authoritative and accessible resource for this burgeoning field of study. The assembled papers focus on two related topics: the rhetorician Quintilian and ancient declamation in practice. Quintilian, who taught rhetoric at Rome in the second half of the first century AD, was the author of the Institutio Oratoria, a key text for Roman educational practice, rhetoric, and literary criticism. Subjects explored in the present collection range widely over not only the establishment and interpretation of the text and its literary and historical context, but also Quintilian's views on inspiration, morality, philosophy, and declamation, of which he was a practitioner. While the volume also offers detailed examinations of the texts and interpretations of a wide range of Latin and Greek authors of declamations, such as Seneca the Elder, Sopatros, and Ennodius, there is a particular focus on two collections wrongly attributed to Quintilian, the so-called 'Minor' and 'Major Declamations'. A major re-assessment of the manuscript tradition of the latter collection is published here for the first time.

This edition of Apuleius's fragmentary works includes 62 items which, based on the most up-to-date scholarship, can be attributed with reasonable certainty to the 'lost Apuleius'. In most cases, identifying the ipsissima verba of the author is difficult or impossible, and even the methodological validity of such an attempt remains open to debate. Following established precedents, no distinction is drawn between testimonia and fragmenta; instead, a single consecutive numbering system is adopted for the various reliquiae. These are drawn from sources in Latin and Greek, as well as in Syriac, Arabic, and Armenian. Passages known from oriental languages are presented here in a Latin back-translation, specially prepared for this edition. Each entry includes a pre-apparatus (wherever applicable) and a selective but meticulous apparatus criticus. For certain Greek and Latin sources still lacking a reliable modern edition, the principal relevant manuscripts have been reexamined. This edition is further enriched by 161 purported 'new fragments' of Apuleius embedded in Niccolò Perotti's Cornu Copiae, a hitherto scarcely accessible set of dubious items which merit greater scholarly attention. An extensive praefatio (in Latin) surveys all the works either lost or falsely attributed to Apuleius, while also detailing the principles and methods underlying this edition.

Mock trial—Roman style.The Major Declamations stand out for their unique contribution to our understanding of the final stage in Greco-Roman rhetorical training. These exercises, in which students learned how to compose and deliver speeches on behalf of either the prosecution or the defense at imaginary trials, demonstrate how standard themes, recurring situations and arguments, and technical rules were to be handled by the aspiring orator. And what is more, they lay bare the mistakes that students often made in this process.Declamation was practiced in the ancient world from as early as the fifth century BC, but most of its vast tradition has disappeared. The surviving material is mainly in Greek, from the second century AD onward. In Latin the nineteen declamations in the present anthology are by far the most important evidence. In antiquity they were attributed to Quintilian, but they are now thought to be the work of several authors and to date from around AD 100 to the mid- or late third century.A wide variety of fascinating ethical, social, and legal details animates the fictional world conjured up by these oratorical exercises, and although the themes of declamation can be unrealistic and even absurd (often reminiscent of ancient novel and tragedy), they seem to provide a safe space in which a student could confront a range of complex issues, so as to attain both the technical knowledge necessary to speak persuasively and the soft skills needed to manage the challenges of adult life under the Roman empire.

Mock trial—Roman style.The Major Declamations stand out for their unique contribution to our understanding of the final stage in Greco-Roman rhetorical training. These exercises, in which students learned how to compose and deliver speeches on behalf of either the prosecution or the defense at imaginary trials, demonstrate how standard themes, recurring situations and arguments, and technical rules were to be handled by the aspiring orator. And what is more, they lay bare the mistakes that students often made in this process.Declamation was practiced in the ancient world from as early as the fifth century BC, but most of its vast tradition has disappeared. The surviving material is mainly in Greek, from the second century AD onward. In Latin the nineteen declamations in the present anthology are by far the most important evidence. In antiquity they were attributed to Quintilian, but they are now thought to be the work of several authors and to date from around AD 100 to the mid- or late third century.A wide variety of fascinating ethical, social, and legal details animates the fictional world conjured up by these oratorical exercises, and although the themes of declamation can be unrealistic and even absurd (often reminiscent of ancient novel and tragedy), they seem to provide a safe space in which a student could confront a range of complex issues, so as to attain both the technical knowledge necessary to speak persuasively and the soft skills needed to manage the challenges of adult life under the Roman empire.

Mock trial—Roman style.The Major Declamations stand out for their unique contribution to our understanding of the final stage in Greco-Roman rhetorical training. These exercises, in which students learned how to compose and deliver speeches on behalf of either the prosecution or the defense at imaginary trials, demonstrate how standard themes, recurring situations and arguments, and technical rules were to be handled by the aspiring orator. And what is more, they lay bare the mistakes that students often made in this process.Declamation was practiced in the ancient world from as early as the fifth century BC, but most of its vast tradition has disappeared. The surviving material is mainly in Greek, from the second century AD onward. In Latin the nineteen declamations in the present anthology are by far the most important evidence. In antiquity they were attributed to Quintilian, but they are now thought to be the work of several authors and to date from around AD 100 to the mid- or late third century.A wide variety of fascinating ethical, social, and legal details animates the fictional world conjured up by these oratorical exercises, and although the themes of declamation can be unrealistic and even absurd (often reminiscent of ancient novel and tragedy), they seem to provide a safe space in which a student could confront a range of complex issues, so as to attain both the technical knowledge necessary to speak persuasively and the soft skills needed to manage the challenges of adult life under the Roman empire.

Phlegon of Tralles, a learned freedman of Hadrian’s, was a prolific writer, but only two of his works have – though not entirely – survived: Peri thaumasion (‘On marvellous things’) and Peri makrobion (‘On long-lived persons’). The former is probably the main extant paradoxographic collection from classical antiquity, mostly famous for some memorable ghost stories (one of which inspired Goethe); the latter reviews long-lived individuals from both archival and literary sources. Both are extensively interespersed with oracles, Sibylline and others. These works were hitherto available in unsatisfactory editions. Stramaglia’s new edition relies on a fresh, meticulous collation of the codex unicus (Heidelberg, Palat. Gr. 398); takes complete account of scholarship from the editio princeps (1568) onwards; establishes the text according to a sounder evaluation of Phlegon’s language and style; and includes not only a detailed apparatus criticus, but also – for the first time – an apparatus auxiliarius providing loci similes vel paralleli, as well as close bibliographical references and elucidations of obscure or abstruse passages.

Juvenal’s satire continues to fascinate his readers and to challenge scholars by the constant interplay of a strong poetical identity, a keen historical perception, and an irresoluble ideological tension. The essays collected in this volume pursue these three strands from different but complementary perspectives, aiming at a firmer assessment of the character, the oeuvre, and the background of Rome’s last great satirical poet.

At his sudden death in 1987, Håkanson left a number of unpublished scholarly works. A former volume in this series (2014) printed four essays on the pseudo-Quintilianic Major Declamations; one more has appeared elsewhere. The present volume contains a commentary on Book One of the Controversiae by Seneca the Elder. After an introductory note by the editors, Michael Winterbottom offers a sympathetic appreciation of Håkanson’s life and scholarship. This is followed by a full bibliography of his publications. Håkanson’s own introduction deals with three key issues: Seneca’s sources and his use of memory; his method of composition; and the textual tradition of the excerpts from his work. Håkanson’s Teubner text (1989) of Controversiae I is subsequently reprinted. The core of the volume is Håkanson’s commentary, mostly – but not exclusively – devoted to textual elucidation. The volume closes with a bibliographical updating on the issues dealt with by Håkanson in the book, and an index locorum. With its keen insights and stimulating discussions, this publication appeals not only to scholars focussing on ancient rhetoric, but to anyone concerned with the culture of the Roman imperial era.