Oklahoma Series in Classical Culture – serie

Prudentius (b. 348 c.e.), one of the greatest Latin poets of late antiquity, was also a devoted Christian. His allegorical masterpiece, Psychomachia, combines epic language and theological speculation to offer a powerful vision of Roman and Christian triumphalism. Yet this important work - one of the most popular and influential poems of the Middle Ages - is unfamiliar to most contemporary students of Latin. This edition, featuring the first full-length English commentary on the poem, makes Psychomachia accessible to modern learners.In his wide-ranging introduction, Aaron Pelttari examines the life of Prudentius, the world of late antiquity, and the structure of Psychomachia, along with its aims, reception, and manuscript transmission. The Latin text includes an apparatus criticus, and the corresponding commentary covers points of textual, grammatical, literary, and historical interest. Following the commentary are two appendices: an explanation of the poem's meter, and a glossary of rhetorical and literary terms. A bibliography and a complete Latin-to-English glossary round out the volume. Ten illustrations enrich the text by showcasing medieval illuminations and early editions of the poem.Ideally suited for intermediate and advanced students of Latin, this volume is also useful for instructors and scholars, who will welcome its lucid interpretation of the poem and expert guidance on difficult passages. With its concise yet carefully considered format, The Psychomachia of Prudentius will be a welcome addition to scholarship on late antique Latin literature.

The Greek writer Lysias is a fascinating source for the study of Athenian law, society and history in the late fifth century B.C. Six of his professional legal speeches are included in this new edition, both for their intrinsic interest and for the accessibility of their language. In his introduction, Dr. Carey discusses Lysias' life and place in the evolution of Greek prose style and in the development of Greek rhetoric. He approaches the speeches as attempts to secure a verdict favorable to the speaker and assesses how effectively the selection and deployment of arguments promote this end. He addresses textual issues and problems of Lysias' style and syntax, while focusing particularly on literary concerns: Lysias' use of rhetorical devices, his marshalling of fact and argument and his manipulation of contemporary values and prejudices.

ocial attitudes in our culture have led to the assumption that early advances in human knowledge were the achievements of men; the role of women in prehistoric times has been largely overlooked. In this thought-provoking book, however, Margaret Ehrenberg argues that the true contribution of women especially in the discovery and development of agriculture was much greater than has been acknowledged to date. Examining the evidence from archaeological, anthropological, and classical documentary sources, Ehrenberg throws new light on the lives of women and their social status in Europe from the Palaeolithic era to the Iron Age.The relationship between the role of women and economic production is a central theme of this survey. In Bronze Age and Iron Age societies individual women are seen to be in positions of power.Although available evidence is fragmentary and often controversial, Ehrenberg shows how information can be gathered from skeletons and grave goods found in burials, from settlement sites, from rock carvings and sculpted figurines, as well as from anthropological parallels, to enable significant inferences to be drawn about the life of prehistoric women.

In Work, Identity, and Legal Status at Rome, Sandra R. Joshel examines Roman commemorative inscriptions from the first and second centuries A.D. to determine ways in which slaves, freed slaves, and unprivileged freeborn citizens used work to frame their identities. The inscriptions indicate the significance of work-as a source of community, a way to reframe the conditions of legal status, an assertion of activity against upper-class passivity, and a standard of assessment based on economic achievement rather than birth. Drawing on sociology, anthropology, ethnography, and women's history, this thoroughly documented volume illuminates the dynamics of work and slavery at Rome.

Susan Ford Wiltshire traces the evolution of the doctrine of individual rights from antiquity through the eighteenth century. The common thread through that long story is the theory of natural law. Growing out of Greek political thought, especially that of Aristotle, natural law became a major tenet of Stoic philosophy during the Hellenistic age and later became attached to Roman legal doctrine. It underwent several transformations during the Middle Ages on the Continent and in England, especially in the thought of John Locke, before it came to justify a theory of natural right, claimed by Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence as the basis of the ""unalienable rights"" of Americans.

Plautus' Curculio, the shortest of the twenty surviving comedies by ancient Rome's master dramatist, certainly is among his best. It has all the characteristics that make Plautus a perennial favorite among readers of Latin: archetypal characters such as the braggart warrior and the greedy parasite, a seminal plot based on greed and deception, and the powerful, inventive verbal style that for two thousand years has been the playwright's chief claim to critical attention. For all those reasons, the Curculio is an excellent introduction to an important and appealing ancient writer. In the revision of the American Philological Association edition, the introduction and notes have been expanded and a vocabulary has been added. Because it retains the standard scholarly Latin text, it will be useful even to advanced readers of Plautus.

In this classic study, Brooks Otis presents Virgil as a radically different poet from any of his Greek or Roman predecessors. Virgil molded the ancient epic tradition to his own Roman contemporary aims and succeeded in making mythical and legendary figures meaningful to a sophisticated, unmythical age. Otis begins and ends his study with the Aeneid and includes chapters on the Bucolics and the Georgics. A new foreword by Ward W. Briggs, Jr., places Otis's groundbreaking achievement in the context of past and present Virgilian scholarship.

This fully annotated Latin edition, by Daniel H. Garrison, of Horace's Epodes, Odes, and Carmen Saeculare is the first comprehensive English commentary on these works since 1903. The full text of the Epodes is included and placed before the Odes, as it was originally written and published. Garrison offers help with meter, vocabulary, and difficult points of grammar. For advanced students, he place Horace against the background of archaic and Hellenistic Greek poetry, demonstrates the poet's debt to Catullus, and illuminates Horace's relation to his contemporaries, particularly Virgil. Biographical information and a discussion of Horace's literary persona expand our view of the poet and his works. Appendices on meter, persons mentioned in the poems, and technical terminology provide what readers end to understand topical and mythological references, rhetorical conventions, and poetic artistry.

Vergil's Aeneid has been considered a classic, if not the classic, of Western literature for two thousand years. In recent decades this famous poem has become the subject of fresh and searching controversy. What is the poem's fundamental meaning? Does it endorse or undermine values of empire and patriarchy? Is its world view comic or tragic? Many studies of the poem have focused primarily on selected books. The approach here is comprehensive.An introduction by editor Christine Perkell discusses the poem's historical background, its reception from antiquity to the present, and its most important themes. The book-by-book readings that follow both explicate the text and offer a variety of interpretations.

Ideally suited to intermediate to advanced college-level students, The Student's Ovid offers twenty-one selections from the Metamorphoses, with notes to aid translation and interpretation. The introduction includes an essay on Ovid's life and works, an outline of the structure of the Metamorphoses, and tips on Latin poetic forms and usage.Accompanying each Latin passage is an introduction that provides background on the myths and their literary history, both in Ovid and in other classical authors. The detailed notes on each selection are designed to help students read and understand the Latin for themselves.Other special features of this book include:· a glossary of mythological characters· lists of stories grouped by theme to help teachers design courses to suit their students' interests· discussions of the basic concepts of classical meter, Latin pronunciation, and accentuation· reference charts on the declension of Greek nouns to aid the reading of proper names· a select bibliography of translations and secondary studies

Wily Odysseus. Bold Achilles. Brave Hektor. Beautiful Helen of Troy. For centuries, people around the world have been fascinated by these figures and their tragic war as recounted in Homer's Iliad, long admired and studied as one of the foremost epic poems of the ancient world. In The Iliad as Politics, Dean Hammer revisits this epic with a new perspective.In this first full-length treatment of the Iliad as a work of political thought, Hammer demonstrates how Homer's epic is also an ancient Greek discussion on political ethics. Hammer redefines political thought as the activity of addressing issues of collective identity and organization. Using this understanding of politics, he discusses how the characters in the Iliad, through their larger-than-life actions and interactions, embody community issues of authority, conflict, judgment, and the interrelationship between personal and collective identity. The characters' many quarrels, laments, reconciliations, and vows of loyalty and friendship all critically model the principles and controversies of underlying Greek political ethics of communal responsibility and relationship.Much of modern Western political thought focuses on classical Greek discussions of political philosophy. Hammer demonstrates that the Iliad constitutes another such ancient Greek political discussion.

Euripides' Alcestis - perhaps the most anthologized Attic drama--is an ideal text for students reading their first play in the original Greek. Literary commentaries and language aids in most editions are too advanced or too elementary for intermediate students of the language, but in their new student edition, C. A. E. Luschnig and H. M. Roisman remedy such deficiencies.The introductory section of this edition provides historical and literary perspective; the commentary explains points of grammar, syntax, and vocabulary, as well as elucidating background features such as dramatic conventions and mythology; and a discussion section introduces the controversies surrounding this most elusive drama. In their presentation, Luschnig and Roisman have initiated a new method for introducing students to current scholarship. This edition also includes a glossary, an index, a bibliography, and grammatical reviews designed specifically for students of Greek language and culture in their second year of university study or third year of high school. Luschnig and Roisman, who have published numerous articles and books on Greek literature, bring to this volume decades of experience teaching classical Greek. ""General readers could well benefit from using this book, as it contains valuable literary discussion and explication of the conventions of Greek drama."" - Daniel H. Garrison, author of Sexual Culture in Ancient GreeceC. A. E. Luschnig, Professor of Classics at the University of Idaho in Moscow, is the author of An Introduction to Ancient Greek and The Gorgon's Severed Head: Studies in Euripides' Alcestis, Electra, and Phoenissae. H. M. Roisman, Professor of Classics at Colby College in Waterville, Maine, is the author of Loyalty in Early Greek Epic and Tragedy and Nothing Is As It Seems: The Tragedy of the Implicit in Euripides' Hippolytus.

Who was Cleopatra? Who is Cleopatra? Viewed as both goddess and monster even in her own lifetime, she has become through the ages saint and sinner, heroine and victim, femme fatale and star-crossed lover, black and white. A protean figure, Cleopatra defies categorization.Cleopatra's life story, gleaned from contemporary sources, is powerfully intriguing: Married four times, she seduced two of the most powerful men in Rome (Julius Caesar and Marc Antony), became the sole ruler of Egypt, gained legendary status for her lavish banquets, and chose to die rather than endure disgrace as the prisoner of Octavian, Caesar's heir.This fascinating sourcebook documents what we know of the historical figure and also shows how she has evolved through the lens of interpretation. Arranged both chronologically and thematically, the volume consists of a series of readings about Cleopatra - historical, literary, and documentary - extending from ancient times to the twentieth century, from the European Romantics to the Afro centrists, and from Middle English to modern Arabic.In her introductions to the readings, Prudence J. Jones provides helpful information about the sources, placing them in historical and cultural context. She includes passages both familiar and unfamiliar, some not easily found in translation. Suitable for classroom use, Cleopatra: A Sourcebook reveals a multitude of Cleopatras, raising as many questions as it answers about one of history's most captivating figures.

Catullus, Horace, Ovid, Cicero, and Vergil are the official Advanced Placement Program Latin authors as well as standard reading for college and advanced secondary students of Latin. This book provides accessible information about recent scholarship on these authors to show how an awareness of current academic debates can enhance the teaching of their work.This is the first book aimed specifically at keeping teachers up to date on recent developments in Latin scholarship. Edited by Ronnie Ancona, a classics scholar with expertise in pedagogy, it features contributions by established authorities on each of the five Latin authors. Each essay combines theoretical material with Latin passages so that instructors can see how practically to apply these methods to specific texts.These contributions reveal many and varied ways to approach the reading and study of Latin texts while conveying the excitement of recent scholarship. A practical sourcebook for busy teachers who wish to keep abreast of current critical thought, A Concise Guide to Teaching Latin Literature contributes to the ongoing conversation between pedagogy and scholarship as it shows ways to broaden students' appreciation of these timeless classics.

A striking portrait of one of the most fascinating women in Roman historyNoble and notorious, the flamboyant Clodia Metelli was the object of passion in poetry and prose in ancient Rome and appears in more written sources than any other woman of her day. Cicero, in a famous oration, branded her a whore yet in private correspondence mentions seeking her help. Her stormy affair with the poet Catullus - the Western world's first recorded romance with a real and richly characterized woman - had a profound influence on erotic literature.Bringing together works by Cicero, Catullus, and others in which Clodia plays a part, Julia Dyson Hejduk has produced a striking portrait of one of the most fascinating women in Roman history. Her accurate and accessible English translations include not only all the classical texts that mention Clodia, but also a substantial selection of Roman erotic poetry by Propertius, Tibullus, and Ovid. While many sourcebooks offer only small illustrative excerpts, Clodia provides most sources in their entirety, such as the Pro Caelio of Cicero, nineteen complete letters, all of Catullus's poems on ""Lesbia"" (his pseudonym for Clodia), and many subsequent love elegies.Hejduk's translations please the ear while remaining faithful to the original meaning. Her introduction reviews topics in classical culture and themes in Roman love poetry, placing the texts in their literary, social, and historical context and making them accessible to high school students and undergraduates. Notes, glossary, and bibliography make the book a well-rounded teaching tool.

Links modern political theorists with the Romans who inspired themRoman contributions to political theory have been acknowledged primarily in the province of law and administration. Even with a growing interest among classicists in Roman political thought, most political theorists view it as merely derivative of Greek philosophy.Focusing on the works of key Roman thinkers, Dean Hammer recasts the legacy of their political thought, examining their imaginative vision of a vulnerable political world and the relationship of the individual to this realm. By bringing modern political theorists into conversation with the Romans who inspired them - Arendt with Cicero, Machiavelli with Livy, Montesquieu with Tacitus, Foucault with Seneca - the author shows how both ancient Roman and modern European thinkers seek to recover an attachment to the political world that we actually inhabit, rather than to a utopia - a ""perfect nowhere"" outside of the existing order.Brimming with fresh interpretations of both ancient and modern theorists, this book offers provocative reading for classicists, political scientists, and anyone interested in political theory and philosophy. It is also a timely meditation on the hidden ways in which democracy can give way to despotism when the animating spirit of politics succumbs to resignation, cynicism, and fear.

One of the Greatest Military and Political Geniuses in western history, Julius Caesar stirs almost as much controversy today as he did in his own time. Neutrality toward Caesar may well be impossible--and according to James S. Ruebel, it is undesirable. In Caesar and the Crisis of the Roman Aristocracy, Ruebel introduces students of Latin to Caesar and the civil war that Pompey led against him from 49 to 48 B.C. By presenting the Roman leader in his own words and those of his contemporaries, the book forces readers to confront the same choices that Cicero and others faced in this tumultuous period.Ruebel places the readings in historical context in his introduction, and then presents substantial portions of Caesar's De Bello Civili in Latin. Extracts from the writings of Caesar's contemporaries (most in English translation), along with Ruebel's commentary and notes, further illuminate Caesar's account for students and invite them to grapple with such issues as personal honor, morality, leadership, patriotism, and the justifications for civil war.

The significance of Plato's Apology of Socrates is impossible to overestimate. An account of the famous trial of Socrates in 399 b.c., it appeals to historians, philosophers, political scientists, classicists, and literary critics. It is also essential reading for students of ancient Greek.This new commentary on Plato's canonical work is designed to accommodate the needs of students in intermediate-level Greek classes, where they typically encounter the Apology for the first time. Paul Allen Miller and Charles Platter, two highly respected classicists and veteran instructors, present the Apology in its traditional thirty-three-chapter structure. They amplify the text with running commentary and glosses of unfamiliar words at the bottom of each page; brief chapter introductions to relevant philosophical, historical, and rhetorical issues; and a separate series of thought-provoking essays, one on each chapter. The essays can serve as bases for class discussions or as starting points for paper topics or general reflection.By integrating background material into the text at regular intervals rather than front-loading it in a lengthy initial overview or burying it in back-of-the-book endnotes, the authors offer students a rich encounter with the text. Their commentary incorporates the latest research on both the trial of Socrates and Plato's version of it, and it engages major philosophical issues from a contemporary perspective. This book is not only a much-needed aid for students of Greek. It is also the basis of a complete course on the Apology.

Among the best-known Greek tragedies, Electra is also one of the plays students of Greek often read in the original language. It tells the story of how Electra and her brother, Orestes, avenge the murder of their father, Agamemnon, by their mother and her lover. H. M. Roisman and C. A. E. Luschnig have developed a new edition of this seminal tragedy designed for twenty-first-century classrooms. Included with the Greek text are a useful introduction, line-by-line commentary, and other materials in English, all intended to support intermediate and advanced undergraduate students.Electra's gripping story and almost contemporary feel help make the play accessible and interesting to modern audiences. The liberties Euripides took with the traditional myth and the playwright's attitudes toward the gods can inspire fruitful classroom discussion about fifth-century Athenian thought, manners, and morals. Roisman and Luschnig invite readers to compare Euripides' treatment of the myth with those of Aeschylus and Sophocles and with variant presentations in epic and lyric poetry, later drama, and modern film. The introduction also places the play in historical context and describes conventions of the Greek theater specific to the work.Extensive appendices provide a complete metrical analysis of the play, helpful notes on grammar and syntax, an index of verbs, and a Greek-English glossary. In short, the authors have included everything students need to support and enhance their reading of Electra in its original language.

After studying ancient Greek for a year, students often become discouraged when presented with unabridged classical texts that offer only minimal supportive apparatus.In welcome contrast, this intermediate-level textbook reinforces the first-year lessons and enables students to read Plato's Symposium, one of the most engaging works in Attic Greek, the dialect taught in most first-year courses.To meet the needs of students who are reading extended passages of challenging Greek for the first time, Louise Pratt, a classical scholar with more than twenty years' teaching experience, has lightly condensed the early readings, supplementing them with review exercises and new vocabulary. She includes the remaining portion of the dialogue in its entirety to give students the experience of reading Plato's imaginative dialogue in all its richness. All readings are glossed, with explanatory notes appearing on the same page as the relevant texts.Enlivened by twenty-five illustrations, Eros at the Banquet also features an introduction explaining the Symposium's historical and philosophical significance, a comprehensive glossary, and an up-to-date bibliography. Instructors may also supplement this volume with Pratt's The Essentials of Greek Grammar: A Reference for Intermediate Readers of Attic Greek, which includes many examples from the Symposium.

Designed for intermediate-level students, this textbook presents an outline of the essential forms and syntax of ancient Attic Greek. A perfect supplement to Louise Pratt's Eros at the Banquet, it also stands alone as a useful resource for any student seeking to move beyond the basics of Greek into the exciting experience of reading classical literature in its original language. The Essentials of Greek Grammar is based on the author's many years of classroom experience and on the handouts she developed and fine-tuned to supplement a variety of textbooks and approaches. In part 1 of the volume, Pratt covers the following:morphology and parts of speech in increasing order of complexity, from articles and pronouns through adjectives;active and passive participles;nouns, with a summary of endings and examples of the three declensions;verbs, with summaries and examples of regular and irregular forms.Part 2 presents syntax, moving from the relatively straightforward case uses of nouns and pronouns, to the uses and positions of adjectives and the complexities of verb types and moods. Pratt also includes miscellaneous figures of speech and a handy appendix listing two hundred common Attic verbs and their principal parts.

Most readers nowadays encounter the plays of Aristophanes in the classroom, not the theater. Yet the ""father of comedy"" wrote his plays for the stage, not as literary texts. Many English translations of the plays were written decades ago, and in their outdated language they fail to capture the dramatic liveliness of the original comedies. Now Michael Ewans offers new and lively translations of three of Aristophanes' finest plays: Lysistrata, The Women's Festival, and Frogs. While remaining faithful to the original Greek, these translations are accessible to a modern audience - and actable on stage.Here readers will discover - in all its uncensored glory - the often raw sexual and scatological language Aristophanes used in his fantastically inventive works. This edition also contains all that a reader needs to understand the plays within a broader context. In his comprehensive introduction, Ewans discusses political and social aspects of Aristophanic comedy, the conventions of Greek theater, and the challenges of translating ancient Greek into modern English. In his theatrical commentaries - a unique feature of this edition - Ewans draws on his own experience of directing the plays in a replica of the original theater. In scene-by-scene analysis, he provides insight into the major issues each play raises in performance. The volume concludes with two glossaries - one of proper names and the other of Greek terms - as well as a bibliography that includes the most recent scholarship on Aristophanic comedy.

In our contemporary Western society, death has become taboo. Despite its inevitability, we focus on maintaining youthfulness and well-being, while fearing death's intrusion in our daily activities. In contrast, observes Maria Serena Mirto, the ancient Greeks embraced death more openly and effectively, developing a variety of rituals to help them grieve the dead and, in the process, alleviate anxiety and suffering. In this fascinating book, Mirto examines conceptions of death and the afterlife in the ancient Greek world, revealing few similarities - and many differences - between ancient and modern ways of approaching death.Exploring the cultural and religious foundations underlying Greek burial rites and customs, Mirto traces the evolution of these practices during the archaic and classical periods. She explains the relationship between the living and the dead as reflected in grave markers, epitaphs, and burial offerings and discusses the social and political dimensions of burial and lamentation. She also describes shifting beliefs about life after death, showing how concepts of immortality, depicted so memorably in Homer's epics, began to change during the classical period.Death in the Greek World straddles the boundary between literary and religious imagination and synthesizes observations from archaeology, visual art, philosophy, politics, and law. The author places particular emphasis on Homer's epics, the firstliterary testimony of an understanding of death in ancient Greece. And because these stories are still so central to Western culture, her discussion casts new light on elements we thought we had already understood.Originally written and published in Italian, this English-language translation of Death in the Greek World includes the most recent scholarship on newly discovered texts and objects, and engages the latest theoretical perspectives on the gendered roles of men and women as agents of mourning. The volume also features a new section dealing with hero cults and a new appendix outlining fundamental developments in modern studies of death in the ancient Greek world.

At the beginning of Vergil's epic poem - long considered a classic of Western literature - the hero Aeneas escapes from the carnage of the Trojan War and embarks on a treacherous series of adventures that eventually lead him to the future site of Rome. Vergil renders Aeneas' dramatic story in deceptively simple but powerful language, yet the poet's style is often lost in translation. This magnificent new English translation of the Aeneid conveys the force of the original poetry, as well as its subtle undertones, in part by employing the poet's own metrical style. Unlike other modern translators of Vergil, who forgo meter entirely or use iambic pentameter (the meter of Shakespeare and other English poets), Patricia A. Johnston uses dactylic hexameter, the meter used by Vergil and by all ancient writers of epic poetry, beginning with Homer. Johnston also avoids elaborate or esoteric language and instead uses clear, unadorned diction to capture Vergil's masterful simplicity. This volume is unique as well in addressing the needs of students and other readers who may be encountering Vergil's work for the first time. In her introduction to the poem, Johnston traces the life of Vergil, describes his other works, and provides a brief plot summary of the Aeneid. Her lucid explanation of poetic meters in English and Latin is useful even for readers who thought they understood the difference between a dactyl and a spondee. Throughout the poem itself, she provides ample footnotes to explain the meaning of unfamiliar references. The volume concludes with a glossary of names and a select bibliography.

Most readers nowadays encounter the plays of Aristophanes in the classroom, not the theater. Yet the ""father of comedy"" wrote his plays for the stage, not as literary texts. Many English translations of the plays were written decades ago, and in their outdated language they fail to capture the dramatic liveliness of the original comedies. Here Michael Ewans offers new and lively translations of three of Aristophanes' earliest surviving plays: Acharnians, Knights, and Peace. While remaining faithful to the original Greek, Ewans's translations are accessible to a modern audience - and actable on stage. The first two plays in this volume, Acharnians and Knights, satirize the Athenians for their madness in continuing the Peloponnesian War. The third play, Peace, celebrates the end to all the warmongering. This edition contains all that a reader needs to understand these plays within a broader context. In his comprehensive introduction, Ewans discusses historical, political, and social aspects of Aristophanic comedy, the conventions of Greek theater, and the challenges of translating ancient Greek into modern English. In his theatrical commentaries, Ewans draws on his own experience of directing the plays in a replica of the original theater. In sceneby-scene analysis, he provides insight into the major issues each play raises in performance. The volume concludes with two glossaries - one of proper names and the other of Greek terms - as well as a bibliography that includes the most recent scholarship on Aristophanic comedy. With its accessible format and design, this book serves as a fitting companion to Ewans's recently published edition of Aristophanes' Lysistrata, The Women's Festival, and Frogs.

Although his audacious, erotic, and satirical verses survived the Middle Ages in only a single copy, Catullus has become in our time a canonical author, ranking in popularity and importance with Virgil, Horace, and Ovid. And for students and teachers of Latin, Daniel H. Garrison's The Student's Catullus is a definitive introductory text. This fourth edition, thoroughly revised, makes Catullus' famous poems more accessible than ever. A comprehensive reference, The Student's Catullus includes the following features: A brief overview of Catullus's life and artistic persona A fresh recension of all 113 poems A commentary in English on each poem, explaining difficult points of Latin and salient aspects of Catullus' artistry A Who's Who of the people in Catullus' poems An explanation of Catullan meters A glossary of literary terms used in the commentary A complete Latin-English Catullan vocabulary Six reference maps New to this fourth edition are dozens of additional notes to aid comprehension, more nuanced definitions in the vocabulary list, and amplified information in the appendices. In addition, Garrison has expanded his introduction to include tips for students and teachers. Drawing on years of classroom experience, Garrison urges readers to avoid rote translation and instead engage thoroughly with the poet's delightful language, syntax, structure, and rhythm.

A classic of western literature, Julius Caesar's Gallic War is also a staple of Latin language instruction at both the high school and college levels. This new edition for students, prepared by a senior classical scholar and translator, is among the most comprehensive available and will be especially valuable because Caesar is one of the two authors chosen for the new Advanced Placement curriculum in high school Latin.The Gallic War is a lively autobiographical account. Caesar writes passionately of his military exploits in Gaul (58-51 b.c.), the region embracing territories we know today as France, Germany, and Britain. Including all 933 AP line selections from Caesar's Latin text, this edition begins with Benario's introduction to the life and career of Julius Caesar, followed by a brief history of Rome and the Gauls from the fourth century b.c. to Caesar's consulship, when he conducted annual campaigns to subdue the Gallic threat once and for all. The volume also features:· A brief analysis of the Gallic War and of Caesar's prose style · Benario's extensive commentary, which leads the student through grammatical complexities, explains Caesar's rhetorical, geographical, and historical references, and illuminates aspects of Roman life ranging from military technology to astronomy · A comprehensive vocabulary · A list of suggested readings Benario's wide-ranging commentary lends this book a value that goes beyond the classroom. Reading Caesar in this edition is not the plodding exercise in translation that generations of high school Latin students once endured. Instead readers see Rome's Gallic frontier as one of its greatest military commanders saw it, reminding us why Caesar's De bello Gallico has endured for more than two thousand years.

Political image-making - especially from the Age of Augustus, when the Roman Republic evolved into a system capable of governing a vast, culturally diverse empire - is the focus of this masterful study of Roman culture. Distinguished art historian and classical archaeologist John Pollini explores how various artistic and ideological symbols of religion and power, based on Roman Republican values and traditions, were taken over or refashioned to convey new ideological content in the constantly changing political world of imperial Rome. Religion, civic life, and politics went hand in hand and formed the very fabric of ancient Roman society. Visual rhetoric was a most effective way to communicate and commemorate the ideals, virtues, and political programs of the leaders of the Roman State in an empire where few people could read and many different languages were spoken. Public memorialization could keep Roman leaders and their achievements before the eyes of the populace, in Rome and in cities under Roman sway. A leader's success demonstrated that he had the favor of the gods - a form of legitimation crucial for sustaining the Roman Principate, or government by a ""First Citizen.""Pollini examines works and traditions ranging from coins to statues and reliefs. He considers the realistic tradition of sculptural portraiture and the ways Roman leaders from the late Republic through the Imperial period were represented in relation to the divine. In comparing visual and verbal expression, he likens sculptural imagery to the structure, syntax, and diction of the Latin language and to ancient rhetorical figures of speech.Throughout the book, Pollini's vast knowledge of ancient history, religion, literature, and politics extends his analysis far beyond visual culture to every aspect of ancient Roman civilization, including the empire's ultimate conversion to Christianity. Readers will gain a thorough understanding of the relationship between artistic developments and political change in ancient Rome.

Composed in the fourth century b.c., the Phaedrus - a dialogue between Phaedrus and Socrates - deals ostensibly with love but develops into a wide-ranging discussion of such subjects as the pursuit of beauty, the nature of humanity, the immortality of the soul, and the attainment of truth, ending with an in-depth discussion of the principles of rhetoric. This erudite commentary, which also includes the original Greek text, is designed to help intermediate-level students of Greek read, understand, and enjoy Plato's magnificent work.Drawing on his extensive classroom experience and linguistic expertise, Paul Ryan offers a commentary that is both rich in detail and - in contrast to earlier, more austere commentaries on the Phaedrus - fully engaging. Line by line, he explains subtle points of language, explicates difficulties of syntax, and brings out nuances of tone and meaning that students might not otherwise notice or understand. Ryan sections his commentary into units of convenient length for classroom use, with short summaries at the head of each section to orient the reader.Never straying far from the text itself, Ryan provides useful historical glosses and annotations for the student, introducing information ranging from the architecture of the Lyceum to Athenian politics. Further historical and philosophical context is provided in the introduction by Mary Louise Gill, who outlines the issues addressed in the Phaedrus and situates it in relation to Plato's other dialogues.