Roland Mayer – författare

The beguiling ruins of Rome have a long history of allure. They first engaged the attention of later mediaeval tourists, just as they do today. The interest of travellers was captured in the Renaissance by artists, architects, topographers, antiquarians, archaeologists and writers. Once the ruins were seen to appeal to visitors, and to matter for their aesthetic quality, their protection and attractive presentation became imperative. Rome's ruins were the first to be the object of preservation orders, and novel measures were devised for their conservation in innovative archaeological parks. The city's remains provided models for souvenirs; paintings of them decorated the walls of eighteenth-century English country houses; and picturesque sham Roman ruins sprang up in landscape gardens across Europe. Writers responded in various ways to their emotional appeal. Roland Mayer's attractive new history will delight all those interested in the remarkable survival and preservation of a unique urban environment.

This volume comprises an edition with introduction and commentary of the first book of Horace's Epistles. These imaginary letters in verse represent the poet's most original contribution to Latin literature. The introduction discusses fully the invention of the new poetic form and the carefully devised style in which the letters are composed. There is also discussion of the addressees and of the main topics, as well as of the lay-out of the poems and the organisation of the book as a whole. The common view that the poems mark a conversion of Horace to philosophy is reassessed. The commentary offers analyses of the tone of the language, particularly the poetic qualities of Horatian usage. There is an ample index.

Seneca's Phaedra occupies an important and influential position in the tradition of European drama. This new edition concentrates on the dramatic qualities of Phaedra and examines the Greek and Roman background to the play, particularly Seneca's use of Euripides and Ovid, and its philosophical elements grounded in Seneca's Stoicism. The introduction also discusses dramatic and rhetorical presentation, aspects of style including imagery and the transmission of the text. An unusual feature is the treatment of the influence of the Phaedra story in later European literature and music. The commentary examines Seneca's language in detail and looks at his use of earlier poetic models (Virgil and Ovid) as well as plot, characterisation and his use of myth. Although principally for students of Latin literature, this new edition will also be of interest to historians of drama and comparative literature.

Tacitus' Dialogus de Oratoribus is his most neglected work - there has not been an English-language commentary in over a century - and yet it is arguably his most original. Although among his earliest writings it shows complete mastery of the dialogue from and of Ciceronian idiom. It makes an original contribution to the continuing first-century AD debate about the role of oratory in Rome under the Principate, and raises the question of what a man can do to secure lasting renown. This edition contains a substantial introduction discussing such matters as the place of the work in the author's oeuvre, its style and layout. The commentary is designed to explain not only the language, and its subtle reformation of the Ciceronian idiom, but also the large issues mentioned about the decline of oratory, and the best career for a man to follow.

Tacitus' Dialogus de Oratoribus is his most neglected work - there has not been an English-language commentary in over a century - and yet it is arguably his most original. Although among his earliest writings it shows complete mastery of the dialogue from and of Ciceronian idiom. It makes an original contribution to the continuing first-century AD debate about the role of oratory in Rome under the Principate, and raises the question of what a man can do to secure lasting renown. This edition contains a substantial introduction discussing such matters as the place of the work in the author's oeuvre, its style and layout. The commentary is designed to explain not only the language, and its subtle reformation of the Ciceronian idiom, but also the large issues mentioned about the decline of oratory, and the best career for a man to follow.

In the first book of odes, Horace presents himself to his Roman readers in a novel guise, as the appropriator of the Greek lyric tradition. He aspired to add a new province to the empire of the national literature. The first book is designed both to establish Horace's engagement with his Greek predecessors and to create a role for lyric poetry in contemporary Rome. The collection of thirty-eight poems is therefore a dazzling feat of poetic appropriation and innovation, a blend of the public and the private voice of the poet. Classic Greek songs are evoked so as to provide a springboard for reflections on moral and political issues, for the praises of gods and men, friends and public figures, for celebration of love and drinking. This edition will enable students and their instructors to enter and enjoy Horace's lyric world.

In the first book of odes, Horace presents himself to his Roman readers in a novel guise, as the appropriator of the Greek lyric tradition. He aspired to add a new province to the empire of the national literature. The first book is designed both to establish Horace's engagement with his Greek predecessors and to create a role for lyric poetry in contemporary Rome. The collection of thirty-eight poems is therefore a dazzling feat of poetic appropriation and innovation, a blend of the public and the private voice of the poet. Classic Greek songs are evoked so as to provide a springboard for reflections on moral and political issues, for the praises of gods and men, friends and public figures, for celebration of love and drinking. This edition will enable students and their instructors to enter and enjoy Horace's lyric world.

Phaedra is one of Seneca's most successful tragedies. It was the first ancient drama to be performed in the Renaissance, marking an epoch in European theatre. The myth, as reworked by Seneca on the basis of dramas by Euripides, was endowed with fresh power, and his characterisation of Phaedra, especially in her frank avowal of love to her stepson, Hippolytus, fired the imagination of later tragic poets, especially Racine. Roland Mayer introduces the reader to the complex dramatic and literary inheritance which Seneca appropriated and in his turn bequeathed, and he sets out some of the main lines of contemporary interpretation and performance practice.

In his De Bello Civili Lucan tells the story of the civil war between Caesar and Pompey, dealing in Book VIII with the defeat and death of the latter. This edition provides a literary commentary to accompany the Latin text and the revised translation of J.D.Daff. The introduction covers the life of Lucan and the literary revival of Nero's time, the meaning of Lucan's choice of theme, a sketch of the form of the whole poem and the eighth book's place within it, the rhetorical style and the transmission of the text. A glossary of proper names, a select bibliography and index complete this work which will be useful to students of Latin literature and of the literary epic in particular. Latin text with translation, commentary and notes.

This is the OCR-endorsed publication from Bloomsbury for the Latin AS and A-Level (Group 1) prescription of Annals Book I sections 16–30 and the A-Level (Group 2) prescription of Annals Book I sections 3–7, 11–14 and 46–49, giving full Latin text, commentary and vocabulary, with a detailed introduction that also covers the prescribed text to be read in English for A Level.Annals I starts with the death of Augustus and the beginning of Tiberius’ principate. Tacitus chronicles the uneasy and unprecedented transition from one to the other, in the context of a political elite shaken by years of civil war and unsure as to how best to protect their own interests and the stability Augustus had brought to Rome. With damning references to the servile nature of the new regime, Tacitus vividly paints scenes of confused senatorial debates, and Tiberius’ own uncertainty over his own position and the best decisions to make. Opportunistic rebellions in the army are described with dramatic brilliance.