D. A. Russell - Böcker

Menander Rhetor

The quality as well as the historical view of the flourishing bilingual literature of the second century AD is increasingly recognized, but it has been rarely discussed with both Greek and Latin sides linked. This volume collects together eight papers which together offer a wide view of the intellectual and literary world of the Antonines. There are special studies on Plutarch's Lives (C. B. R. Pelling), Lucian's Prologues (H. G. Nesselrath), Aristides' Hymns (D. A. Russell), and Apuleius' Cupid and Psyche (E. J. Kenney). The relationship between the two literary languages is an important theme of the introductory paper (D. A. Russell) and there are also essays on the neglected topic of Greek poetry of the period (E. L. Bowie), on the definition of the Second Sophistic (G. Anderson), and on the influence of Plato's Phaedrus in this period (M. B. Trapp). There is a full bibliography and a brief table of important dates.

Ancient literary criticism has always been a particularly inaccessible subject for the non-specialist student. This edition provides for the first time the principal texts in translation, giving the reader a full view of ancient literary criticism and its development. In addition to well-known texts such as Aristotle's Poetics, Horace's Art of Poetry, and Longinus's On Sublimity, the book includes complete versions of Aristotle's Rhetoric Book III, Demetrius's On Style, and Tacitus's Dialogue on Orators. It's shorter passages range from Homer to Hermogenes of Tarsus, in addition to selections from Plato, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Cicero, the two Senecas, and Quintilian.

This excellent and accessible work includes many major texts in translation: Aristotle's Poetics, Longinus' On Sublimity, Horace's Art of Poetry, Tacitus' Dialogues, and extracts from Plato and Plutarch. Based on the highly praised Ancient Literary Criticism (OUP, 1972), it contains a new introduction and explanatory notes, and will be of enormous value to students both of Latin and Greek and of literary criticism and theory. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

Declamation was 'a toy model of oratory' in which students composed and delivered deliberative and forensic practice speeches in character. It was not confined to the schools: the professionals gave public performances to large and critical audiences. Greco-Roman education was more or less dominated by rhetoric; from the fourth century BC down to and beyond the end of classical antiquity declamation was an art within the larger art, inhabiting almost a distinct world, with its own laws, customs and mores. Latin declamation has been well studied but its Greek counterpart is less well known. This book sets the practice of declamation in its historical context, describes the conventional, though often bizarre, themes of the speeches and discusses the declaimers' public performances, rhetorical theory and knowledge and use of classical literature and history. This book will be of interest both to students of classical literature and to historians of ancient society and education. The main text is written so as to be wholly intelligible to those with no knowledge of Greek.

Dio of Prusa, known as Dio Chrysostom, was the foremost orator in the classical world in the first century AD. This new edition, with introduction and commentary, presents three of his speeches, all of which are masterpieces of the genre and are particularly important for the intellectual history of the period. In 'Euboicus' (7), Dio relates his shipwreck in Euboea and hospitable reception by an isolated group of hunters in the mountains, and uses this as the basis of an eloquent discourse on the simple life and the evils of urban societies. In 'Olympicus' (12), he addresses the assembled crowd at Olympia on theological themes suggested by the vast statue of Zeus by Phidias, one of the wonders of the ancient world. In 'Borystheniticus' (36), he recounts a lecture he gives to the people of Olbia, a remote Greek city in southern Russia, on the subject of the true 'city' and the 'heavenly city' which is the cosmos, whose periodical destruction and rebirth he describes in a colourful orientalizing myth. This is the first commentary in English on these speeches, and while it discusses textual and linguistic problems necessary for the understanding of Dio's text, its main thrust is to make Dio more accessible to students through an appreciation of the literary qualities of his orations and the context in which they were delivered.

The remains of classical literature contain a good deal of scattered literary theory, however difficult it may be to divine a consistent view among the conflicting interests of scholars, moralists and teachers of rhetoric. This book attempts to analyze the main themes against their historical background. It discusses ancient beliefs and theories relating to inspiration, the poet's message, imitation, the rhetorical approach to literature, classification of literary genres and the ancient sense of literary history. Aristotle, the Alexandrians, Longinus, Horace and other ancient critics have defined and influenced a critical terminology and technique for later generations of writers and critics. This edition should prove valuable to students of modern literary criticism and students of Greek and Latin.