Greece and Rome: Texts and Contexts – serie

An exciting series that provides students with direct access to the ancient world by offering new translations of extracts from its key texts. This book offers a valuable guide to Greek theatre. It presents a broad selection of key ancient sources, both visual and literary, about all aspects of performance - including actors, masks, stage props and choral dancing - as well as scenes from the plays themselves that offer insights into their staging, plots, and reception. The dramatic brilliance of playwrights such as Sophocles, Aristophanes and Menander is brought to the fore by helpful commentary that provides a framework for the interpretation of Greek drama, fleshes out its cultural contexts, and invites students to consider a range of provocative questions.

For Greeks of the Classical period (and onwards) Homer was simply 'the Poet', in much the same way that for centuries in the Western tradition the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures were 'the Book'. Homer came to dominate the Greek literary and cultural tradition and it is difficult to understand ancient Greek culture without knowing his poetry. This book provides selected extracts from The Odyssey, together with comprehensive notes on the text, questions for discussion and an examination of the influence of The Odyssey on later works of literature, enabling readers to explore and understand this seminal work.

When we think of ancient theatre today, we tend to think of Greek theatre. Yet the Romans also had a lively and varied set of theatrical traditions, which have had a considerable influence on later drama. This book offers an introduction to these traditions, including the origins of Roman theatre, the extant plays of Plautus, Terence and Seneca, and the many works of comedy, tragedy, mime and pantomime that no longer survive as written texts. The emphasis throughout is on performance, the role of these theatrical works within Roman society, and Roman theatre's legacy.

An exciting series that provides students with direct access to the ancient world by offering new translations of extracts from its key texts. Where did the idea of celebrating the Olympic Games every four years come from? The short answer is ancient Greece. The very name 'Olympic' announces an origin for the competition, but, as with most of our classical heritage, it is easy for the superficial similarities to conceal major cultural differences. The purpose of this new book in the Greece and Rome: Texts and Contexts series is to provide an introduction to Greek athletics and their most important competition at Olympia through a selection of contemporary visual and literary sources.

An exciting series that provides students with direct access to the ancient world by offering new translations of extracts from its key texts. Herodotus, writing in the second half of the 5th century BC, is the first historian of western civilisation. His narrative tells of the expansion of the Persian Empire in the 6th and 5th centuries BC and the wars between Greece and Persia in 490 and 480 BC. Some of the most famous battles of history, Marathon, Thermopylae and Salamis, are dramatically described in his work. His purpose is to explain why the wars happened and his sophisticated and complex answer encompasses the relation of gods to men, the nature of different peoples and the character of individuals.

An exciting series that provides students with direct access to the ancient world by offering new translations of extracts from its key texts. Virgil is to Latin literature what Homer is to Greek and Shakespeare to English. He is both the supreme poet of Rome's greatness and its most profound exponent of the suffering involved in human experience. This book enables students to explore the issues at the heart of his work. It is built around substantial excerpts from his three great poems: the Eclogues, his highly original pastoral collection; the Georgics, his work about farming described by Dryden as 'the best Poem of the best poet'; and the Aeneid, the supreme Roman epic.

An exciting series that provides students with direct access to the ancient world by offering new translations of extracts from its key texts. Cicero was one of the greatest and most human men of antiquity. He was on the closest terms with political giants such as Pompeius and Caesar and far surpassed them in oratorical and legal skills. Since so much of his work survives, he stands as a prism through which we can study the last years of the Roman Republic, above all its transition to the rule of one man. Through a selection from his writings, this book provides a chronological outline of his life and political career, tracing his many successes and ultimate failure.

An exciting series that provides students with direct access to the ancient world by offering new translations of extracts from its key texts. Alexander the Great famously brought the mighty Persian Empire's two-hundred year rule to an end, but the figure behind this phenomenon often eludes us. This book invites students to follow Alexander's remarkable story and to engage with a variety of perspectives on him as king, general and human being. Notes provide helpful contextual information for these excerpts while questions challenge readers to embark on their own investigations of this fascinating individual, who continues to rival all others in historical significance.

An exciting series that provides students with direct access to the ancient world by offering new translations of extracts from its key texts. What is the world made of? How can we be happy? What happens after death? Drawing on the philosophical teachings of Epicurus, Lucretius seeks to answer these and other big questions in his masterful poem 'On the nature of things'. This book offers a selection of key passages from the poem. In addition it gives students insight into its artistic inventiveness, provides a cultural and historical frame of reference, and offers access to the Epicurean philosophy underlying the poem.

An exciting series that provides students with direct access to the ancient world by offering new translations of extracts from its key texts. As a successful senator, Tacitus was ideally placed to comment on the Roman political system. This selection of extracts from his histories sheds light on the rise and fall of emperors such as Domitian and Nero.

An exciting series that provides students with direct access to the ancient world by offering new translations of extracts from its key texts. Horace's poetry not only sheds light upon his own world, but also provides ways for us to think about our own. This book provides a range of extracts which show how Horace dealt with a wide range of subjects, issues and people.