Classical Studies - Böcker

The Aeneid of Virgil is one of thegreatest works of Classical antiquity. This study by the Virgilian scholar R.Deryck Williams, first published in 1987 and long unavailable, sets the Aeneid in its historical literarybackground and shows how Virgil related his own world of the newlyestablished Roman Empire to the experience of the past. The poetic qualitiesof epic are analysed and illustrated by frequent quotations from the Latin,always with prose translations. The book will be appreciated by students andteachers of literature, and by knowledgeable non-academic readers.

Plato's "Politicus" (Statesman) stands, both in date and in political thought, between the "Republic" and the "Laws". It presents his thought at the point when he was chastened by disappointment with his attempts to put theory into practice at Syracuse. The dialogue reflects contemporary controversies on the method of definition; but its logical exercises and the impressive 'myth' of the two cosmic eras serve to bring out its essential political teaching. This volume contains the text in translation. In this second edition, Skemp made corrections to his extensive introduction and running commentary, and added a new appendix taking into account scholarship since the first (1952) edition.

M. Cornelius Fronto was a Roman senator from North Africa, and the foremost Latin orator and legal advocate of the mid-second century A.D. Fronto’s talent and fame led to his appointment as tutor to Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus, the adoptive sons of the emperor Antoninus Pius, in the late 130s A.D. Fronto’s extant correspondence, discovered in the early nineteenth century, consists of around two hundred letters extending over a period of more than twenty-five years, from the late 130s to the mid-160s A.D. In this period, Fronto educated Marcus and Verus in the art of Latin rhetoric, and watched with pride as his illustrious pupils matured and ascended the throne. The correspondence includes letters Fronto exchanged with Marcus and Verus, their father Antoninus Pius, leading senators, and other influential figures at court. This collection features new English translations and commentaries on fifty-four letters from Fronto’s correspondence. The letters have been selected for the insights they provide into the political and social history of the Roman empire in the second century A.D., with particular emphasis on court politics and intrigue, the Parthian War, and family relationships among members of the Roman elite. The letters have been arranged in approximate chronological order, enabling the reader to take a journey through Fronto’s life over a quarter of a century. The introduction discusses Fronto’s life and career, Roman letter writing, the history and character of Fronto’s correspondence, and the relationship between Fronto and Marcus Aurelius. It also includes brief biographies of key individuals and family trees. The translation of fifty-four letters with contextual editorial introductions and notes is divided into the following sections: Educating Caesar; Fronto and Herodes; Fronto the Consul; Family Affairs; Politics and Patronage; The Reign of Marcus and Verus; Fronto, Verus and the Parthian War; and Fronto’s Grief.

This series of "Companions" is designed for readers who approach the authors of the ancient world with little or no knowledge of Latin or Greek, or of the classical world. The commentaries accompany readily available translations, and the series should be of value to students of Classical Civilization Studies for GCSE and A Level and at university. Students of ancient history should also find useful the commentary on some of their source materials. Each volume in the series includes the following: an introduction to the author and his work, with reference to scholarly views; a commentary providing explanation of detail, historical background, and a discussion of difficult or key passages; and periodic summaries of situation or content. This book provides a line-by-line commentary on Homer's "Odyssey" that explains the factual details, mythological allusions, and Homeric conventions that a student or general reader could not be expected to bring to an initial encounter with the "Odyssey". It also illuminates epic style, Homer's methods of composition, the structure of work, and his characterization.An introduction describes the features of oral poetry and looks at the history of the text of the "Odyssey".

This edition, one of the BCP Classics Companion Series, provides a translation and detailed commentary of the Greek and Macedonian narrative of Diodorus Book XVI. An outstanding general, statesman and diplomat, Philip II inherited a kingdom near collapse and transformed it into the greatest power in the Mediterranean world. But for all its significance, his reign is badly served by the surviving writers of Greek literature. The loss of the major contemporary historians has left us dependent for our knowledge on the speeches of the Attic orators, especially the hostile Demosthenes, and on the 16th Book of Diodorus Siculus, who though he lived some 300 years later, has bequeathed the only detailed account of Philip's reign in Macedonia and the Greek mainland.

Nero's suicide in AD 68 was followed by a disastrous civil war that left the empire in a parlous state and saw the demise, in quick succession, of another three emperors (Galba, Otho and Vitellius). Normality returned with Vespasian and his sons, Titus and Domitian who ruled from 69 to 96. They changed the face of Rome, with massive public works such as the Flavian amphitheatre (later called the Colosseum) and the palace-complex on the Palatine, which provided much-needed employment whilst at the same time enhancing the city's status as the capital of the Mediterranean. The most detailed account of the new dynasty and its achievements is provided by Suetonius. What he has to say about these three Flavians constitutes the best source we have for the period. This edition of the three "Lives" includes a new translation, a general introduction to Suetonius and a detailed commentary that concentrates on the social and political history behind each life.

Propertius' celebration of his love for Cynthia broke new ground in Latin poetry: sensuous, passionate, witty, yet complex and allusive. The appeal of his 'Monobiblos' (Book I) is direct and immediate but his profound grasp of the violent and contradictory emotions of the relationship pushed his language into new areas and new forms. So he is a difficult and important poet, with the kind of difficulty that appeals to modern readers. This edition is designed to serve two different kinds of readers. For those who are not Latin specialists there is an elegant but literal translation alongside the Latin text, with a critical essay on each poem to lead the reader into the richness of the Latin. On the other hand Latinists will find here new light on the text itself. Above all, the edition is dedicated to reading poetry as poetry.

This volume offers a range of innovative approaches to Solon of Athens, legendary law-giver, statesman, and poet of the early sixth century B.C. In the first part, Solon’s poetry is reconsidered against the background of oral poetics and other early Greek poetry. The connection between Solon’s alleged roles as poet and as politician is fundamentally questioned. Part two offers a reassessment of Solon’s laws based on a revision of the textual tradition and recent views on early Greek lawgiving. In part three, fresh scrutiny of the archeological and written evidence of archaic Greece results in new perspectives on the agricultural crisis and Solon’s role in the social and political developments of sixth-century Athens.Originally published in hardcover

The present volume provides a comprehensive guide to one of the most difficult authors of classical antiquity. All the major aspects of Propertius' work, its themes, the poetical technique, its sources and models, as well as the history of Propertian scholarship and the vexed problems of textual criticism, are dealt with in contributions by Joan Booth, James Butrica, Francis Cairns, Elaine Fantham, Paolo Fedeli, Adrian Hollis, Peter Knox, Robert Maltby, Tobias Reinhardt and Richard Tarrant; due space is also given to the reception of the author from antiquity and the renaissance (Simona Gavinelli) up to the modern age (Bernhard Zimmermann). At the centre stands an interpretation of the four transmitted books by Gesine Manuwaldt, Hans-Peter Syndikus, John Kevin Newman and Hans-Christian Günther.Originally published in hardcover

This volume comprises articles by an international team of twenty-three scholars. The contributions focus on the historical genesis, stylistic and narrative features and evolution of pastoral, both as genre and mode, from Theocritus to the Byzantine period.Special attention has been paid to the idea of the 'invention of a fictionalized tradition', and to pastoral’s thematic and formal relationship with other literary genres.In their totality, the contributions, as well as offering a comprehensive overview of the more or less familiar issues and ideas discussed in connection with pastoral, point to new emphases, trends and insights in current scholarly work in this area. The volume is addressed to a wide range of students and scholars in classics, but much in it will also be of interest to those working in the fields of comparative and modern literatures.Originally published in hardcover

This volume on Apollonius of Rhodes, whose Argonautica is the sole full-length epic to survive from the Hellenistic period, comprises articles by eighteen leading scholars from Europe and America. Their contributions cover a wide range of issues from the history of the text and the problems of the poet's biography through questions of style, literary technique and intertextual relations to the epic's literary and cultural reception. The aim of this 2nd edition is to give an up-to-date outline of the scholarly discussion in these areas and to provide a survey of recent and current trends in Apollonian studies which will be useful also to students of Hellenistic poetry in general. Originally published in hardcover

This volume is the first English-language survey of Homeric studies to appear for more than a generation, and the first such work to attempt to cover all fields comprehensively. Thirty leading scholars from Europe and America provide short, authoritative overviews of the state of knowledge and current controversies in the many specialist divisions in Homeric studies. The chapters pay equal attention to literary, mythological, linguistic, historical, and archaeological topics, ranging from such long-established problems as the "Homeric Question" to newer issues like the relevance of narratology and computer-assisted quantification. The collection, the third publication in Brill's handbook series, The Classical Tradition, will be valuable at every level of study - from the general student of literature to the Homeric specialist seeking a general understanding of the latest developments across the whole range of Homeric scholarship.Originally published in hardcover

This handbook for the reading of early Greek poetry is intended to be both a manual for teachers and a guide for advanced undergraduate and graduate students. It covers poetry in the elegiac and iambic genres, as well as melic poetry which is provisionally divided into the personal and the public. The book takes a critical look at scholarly trends applied in interpreting this poetry, exploring, for example, the problems of defining the nature of the elegiac genre, the origins of iambic poetry, the personal voice used by the poets, and the validity of historical criticism. Appearing in the Classical Tradition series, it considers the impact of modern literary theory on the reading of these texts - for instance the new interpretations suggested by feminism - and guides readers to a full bibliography on scholarly debates from the 19th century to the present.Originally published in hardcover