Lindsay C. Watson – författare

This is by far the most detailed commentary yet on Horace's Epodes. The line-by-line commentary on each epode is prefaced by a substantial interpretative essay which offers a reading of that poem and synthesises existing scholarship. These essays, the first of their kind, will provide essential critical orientation to undergraduates approaching the Epode-book for the first time. Moreover, the scale and density of the commentary will make it an invaluable resource for scholars of Latin poetry. A particular feature is the first in-depth treatment of the two lengthy magical Epodes 5 and 17. The author draws extensively on ancient magical texts preserved on papyrus and lead, as well as the recent flood of publications on Greek and Roman magic, to cast light on countless details in these epodes which reveal a marked familiarity on Horace's part with authentic magical belief and practice.

Marcus Valerius Martialis, or Martial (born between 38 and 41 CE, died between 102 and 104 CE) is celebrated for his droll, frequently salacious, portrayal of Roman high and low society during the first century rule of the emperors Domitian, Nerva and Trajan. Considered the 'inventor' of the modern epigram, Martial was a native of Hispania, who came to Rome in the hope of securing both patronage and advancement. From the bath-houses, taverns and gymnasia to the sculleries and slave-markets of the capital, Martial in his famous Epigrams sheds merciless light on the hypocrisies and sexual mores or rich and poor alike. Lindsay C and Patricia Watson provide an attractive overview - for students of classics and ancient history, as well as comparative literature - of the chief themes of his sardonic writings. They show that Martial is of continuing and special interest because of his rediscovery in the Renaissance, when writers viewed him as an incisive commentator on failings similar to those of their own day. The later reception of "Martial", by Juvenal and others, forms a major part of this informative survey.

Marcus Valerius Martialis, or Martial (born between 38 and 41 CE, died between 102 and 104 CE) is celebrated for his droll, frequently salacious, portrayal of Roman high and low society during the first century rule of the emperors Domitian, Nerva and Trajan. Considered the 'inventor' of the modern epigram, Martial was a native of Hispania, who came to Rome in the hope of securing both patronage and advancement. From the bath-houses, taverns and gymnasia to the sculleries and slave-markets of the capital, Martial in his famous Epigrams sheds merciless light on the hypocrisies and sexual mores or rich and poor alike. Lindsay C and Patricia Watson provide an attractive overview - for students of classics and ancient history, as well as comparative literature - of the chief themes of his sardonic writings. They show that Martial is of continuing and special interest because of his rediscovery in the Renaissance, when writers viewed him as an incisive commentator on failings similar to those of their own day. The later reception of "Martial", by Juvenal and others, forms a major part of this informative survey.

Parting company with the trend in recent scholarship to treat the subject in abstract, highly theoretical terms, Magic in Ancient Greece and Rome proposes that the magic-working of antiquity was in reality a highly pragmatic business, with very clearly formulated aims - often of an exceedingly malignant kind. In seven chapters, each addressed to an important arm of Greco-Roman magic, the volume discusses the history of the rediscovery and publication of the so-called Greek Magical Papyri, a key source for our understanding of ancient magic; the startling violence of ancient erotic spells and the use of these by women as well as men; the alteration in the landscape of defixio (curse tablet) studies by major new finds and the confirmation these provide that the frequently lethal intent of such tablets must not be downplayed; the use of herbs in magic, considered from numerous perspectives but with an especial focus on the bizarre-seeming rituals and protocols attendant upon their collection; the employment of animals in magic, the factors determining the choice of animal, the uses to which they were put, and the procuring and storage of animal parts, conceivably in a sorcerer’s workshop; the witch as a literary construct, the clear homologies between the magical procedures of fictional witches and those documented for real spells, the gendering of the witch-figure and the reductive presentation of sorceresses as old, risible and ineffectual; the issue of whether ancient magicians practised human sacrifice and the illuminating parallels between such accusations and late 20th century accounts of child-murder in the context of perverted Satanic rituals.By challenging a number of orthodoxies and opening up some underexamined aspects of the subject, this wide-ranging study stakes out important new territory in the field of magical studies.