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Jane Ellen Harrison (1850-1928) was a prominent classical scholar who is remembered chiefly for her influential studies of Greek religion, archaeology, literature and art. Introductory Studies in Greek Art (1885) was Harrison's second book, published after a period spent studying archaeology at the British Museum under Sir Charles Newton and writing and lecturing on the subject of Greek vase painting. In her preface to the book Harrison claims that Greek art is distinguished by what she calls 'ideality', a term she defines as a 'peculiar quality ... which adapts itself to the consciousness of successive ages ... a certain largeness and universality which outlives the individual race and persists for all time.' The book covers topics including Chaldaeo-Assyria, Phoenicia, Pheidias and the Parthenon, and the altar of Eumenes at Pergamos.

Sometimes accused of privileging controversy over scholarly restraint, the philologist John William Donaldson (1811-1861) was a precocious talent. Only twenty-five when this book was first published in 1836, he was already a fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, and would live to see his book appear in numerous editions. Revisiting the subject of a successful book published a decade earlier by P. W. Buckham (died 1829), a fellow of St. John's College, Donaldson's colourful new approach proved popular with readers. The appeal of his writing endures, and few can resist his invitation to 'strip our thoughts of their modern garb' and escape into a world of dramatic comedy and tragedy. From the historical account of Thespis, the forefather of Western acting, to an engaging analysis of Euripides and Sophocles, this introduction retains all of the appeal that made it a standard text on the Victorian student's bookshelf.

This monograph on classical engraved gems, which also contains a catalogue of the collection then held by the Fitzwilliam Museum, was published in 1891. J. Henry Middleton (1846-1896) was at the time the Director of the Museum and Slade Professor of Fine Art in Cambridge. His intention was to provide an introductory volume for students of archaeology which both traced the history of the use of engraved gemstones as seals and signets from Babylonian to classical times, described the techniques used to create these miniature works of art, and gave catalogue definitions, enhanced by photographic plates, of the Fitzwilliam collection, which had for the most part been donated by Colonel W. M. Leake (1777-1860), whose antiquarian interests had been aroused when he was sent to the eastern Mediterranean to assist the Turkish army against the French in the early nineteenth century.

Jane Ellen Harrison (1850-1928) was a pioneer in the academic study of myth in its historical and archaeological context, and was also one of the first women to make a full-time career as an academic. In her introduction to this book (1903), making the point that 'Greek religion' was usually studied using the surviving literary retellings of myths and legends, she states: 'The first preliminary to any scientific understanding of Greek religion is a minute examination of its ritual'. Using the then emerging disciplines of anthropology and ethnology, she demonstrates that the specific mythological tales of the Greeks embody systems of belief or philosophy which are not unique to Greek civilisation but which are widespread among societies both 'primitive' and 'advanced'. Her work was enormously influential not only on subsequent scholars of Greek religion but in the wider fields of literature, anthropology and psychoanalysis.

John Stuart Blackie (1805-1895) trained in law and studied divinity in Scotland and Germany before becoming a professor of Classics. Confident, well-travelled, vivacious, and outspoken, he delivered numerous public lectures, was instrumental in the founding of the Gaelic Chair at Edinburgh University, and published translations of many German and Classical works, as well as an impressive body of literary criticism. He was active in Radical politics, a strong opponent of the 1867 Reform Bill, and well-known for his eccentric dress. Anna M. Stoddart's detailed biography of Blackie, published in 1896, provides captivating insights into this extraordinary man's life and times by drawing on letters and papers provided by Blackie's widow and colleagues soon after his death. It remains a useful source for scholars interested in Scottish education or the experience of Scots abroad, as well as those studying nineteenth-century literature and literary criticism.

Thomas Kerchever Arnold's Practical Introduction to Greek Prose Composition first appeared in 1838 and was reprinted in several editions due to popular demand, being adopted as a textbook in leading public schools. Ordained as a priest in 1827 after graduating from Trinity College, Cambridge in 1821, Arnold had studied both theology and classics, and wrote prolifically on both subjects. His first school textbook was published in 1836 and others followed steadily until his death in 1853. One of the chief merits of Arnold's classical publications was his use of contemporary works of German scholarship, to which he readily acknowledged his debt. He produced, alongside Latin and Greek textbooks, grammars of English, French, German, Italian, and Hebrew, and editions of many Greek and Latin authors. This introduction was designed to provide students with the basic tools with which to construct sentences and includes exercises on syntax and a vocabulary index.

Thomas Kerchever Arnold's Practical Introduction to Latin Prose Composition first appeared in 1839 and was reprinted in several editions due to popular demand, being adopted as a textbook in leading public schools. Ordained as a priest in 1827 after graduating from Trinity College, Cambridge in 1821, Arnold had studied both theology and classics, and wrote prolifically on both subjects. His first school textbook was published in 1836 and others followed steadily until his death in 1853. One of the chief merits of Arnold's classical publications was his use of contemporary works of German scholarship, to which he readily acknowledged his debt. He produced, alongside Latin and Greek textbooks, grammars of English, French, German, Italian, and Hebrew, and editions of many Greek and Latin authors. This introduction was designed to provide students with the basic tools with which to construct sentences and includes exercises on syntax and a vocabulary index.

Published in 1891, this revised edition of Oskar Seyffert's Dictionary provides comprehensive coverage of Greek and Roman antiquities, and extends its range to incorporate the areas of mythology and literature. From Abacus to Zosimus, over 2,500 articles cover topics including the lives and work of Greek and Roman philosophers, historians, orators, poets and artists, and related subjects including Greek and Roman religion, philosophy, rhetoric, literature, architecture, painting, sculpture, music and drama. A landmark publication in its time, it is still regarded as factually reliable, and although there have been considerable advances in the interpretation of the data it is valuable as a benchmark for the state of classical scholarship in the late nineteenth century. Enhanced by over 450 illustrations, the volume gives the Latin equivalent for every Greek word, and contains a thorough index.

Sabrinae Corolla, published in 1850, takes its name from a poem by John Milton. It is a collection of poems from a wide range of sources, mainly in English but also in German, Greek and Italian, with translations into Greek or Latin on the facing page. It was edited by the Victorian classicist Benjamin Hall Kennedy (1804-1889), most famous for his Latin primer (also available in this series), and the translations were made by some of Kennedy's former students at Shrewsbury School, who are named in a separate list. The book contains Latin versions of works including the eighteenth-century Scottish poet Tobias Smollett's My Native Stream, the German Friedrich Schiller's Hektors Abschied, and Greek renditions of Shelley's The World's Wanderers and Voltaire's Enigma. It also includes nine illustrations.

This is an early publication (1891) by the highly regarded classical scholar and poet Walter George Headlam (1866-1908). Headlam, who taught at King's College, Cambridge, was deeply interested in textual criticism and dedicated much of his short life to translating and interpreting the works of Aeschylus, and even thirty years after his untimely death his notes formed the basis for an influential edition of the Oresteia. Although Headlam's subtitle does not name the target of his 'criticism', this book is in fact an impassioned attack on the style and method of editing employed by A. W. Verrall in Seven Against Thebes in 1887, and Agamemnon in 1889. Headlam condemns Verrall's 'rationalist' methods which in his view 'required outspoken criticism'. The young Headlam painstakingly dissects Verrall's work on Aeschylus, pointing out the errors, inconsistencies and shortcomings of the texts and proposing his own editorial methods.

Sir Richard Jebb (1841-1905) was the outstanding British classical scholar of the second half of the nineteenth century. This memoir, published by his widow in 1907, gives a rounded picture of the man chiefly remembered today for his editions of the plays of Sophocles, but who was also instrumental in founding the British Schools of Archaeology in Athens and Rome and the British Academy, and who as a Member of Parliament for Cambridge University played a significant part in the politics of his day, especially in educational reform at both school and university level. Extracts from his letters and speeches show the energy and enthusiasm which he brought to his many roles, and a sense of humour which may not be too evident in his published work but was remembered by his students as a feature of the lectures which secured his reputation as a great teacher.

William W. Goodwin (1831-1912) was Eliot Professor of Greek at Harvard from 1860 to 1901, and was the first director of the American School in Athens. This, his most important book, was written for nineteenth-century American students to make available to them the latest European developments in the understanding of Greek syntax, as well as his own original material. It went through several editions between 1860 and 1890, and remains an invaluable resource for scholars of the Greek language. This is a reissue of the 1867 edition, published in Cambridge Massachusetts by Sever and Francis. It presents a detailed and well organized discussion of moods, tenses, infinitive, participles and verbal adjectives. Goodwin includes a large collection of examples taken from a wide range of major Greek writers to illustrate every variety of each construction. An index of these examples is also provided for easy reference.

La Cite Antique is the best-known work by the nineteenth-century French historian Fustel de Coulanges (1830-1889), who pioneered an objective approach to the study of history, and the use of primary rather than secondary sources. This reissue is of the 1866 edition of the book, which was originally published in 1864 while the author was professor of history at Strasbourg. It explores the influence of religion and kinship on the development of the laws and political institutions of ancient Greek and Roman societies. Coulanges describes many aspects of Greek and Roman family law including marriage, divorce, adoption, property and inheritance. After giving an account of the social organisation of cities, their administration, and the rights and duties of citizens, he outlines the processes of institutional change and the evolving power relationships between the social classes. Finally he discusses the effects of Christianity in the political sphere.

William Young Sellar (1825-1890) was a classical scholar who specialised in the study of Roman poetry. After graduating from Balliol College, Oxford, in 1843 he held assistant professorships in various universities before being appointed Professor of Humanities at Edinburgh University in 1863, a post which he held until his death. This volume, first published posthumously in 1891, discusses the forms and development of Roman poetry in the reign of Augustus (43 BCE-14 CE); it was intended as a companion to his 1877 book on Virgil, also reissued in this series. Sellar provides a detailed discussion of Horace's many literary styles in their historical context, discusses the development of Roman elegy from early Greek forms, and analyses the works of Ovid in detail. Sellar's meticulous interpretations led to this volume becoming the standard authority on the development of Roman poetry in the early Roman Empire.

Sir James Frazer published this five-volume edition of Ovid's poem on the Roman calendar in 1929. It contains the text and a parallel English translation, with commentary on the six books, indexes, illustrations and plans. Volume 1 consists of the text and translation of all six books.

Controversial for centuries, Hannibal's route over the Alps was the subject of an extended scholarly dispute between William John Law (1786-1869) and Robert Ellis (1820-85). This two-volume 1866 publication, Law's major contribution to the debate, examines several theories and the accounts of Polybius and Livy.

Following a medical career, James Henry (1798-1876) focused on the study of Virgil's Aeneid, visiting libraries across Europe. Prepared for press by others after his death, this monumental multi-volume commentary, published between 1873 and 1892, remains a landmark in Virgilian scholarship. Volume 5 (1892) comprises the indexes.

Published 1898-1907, this three-part collection, edited by the Danish philologist Johan Ludvig Heiberg (1854-1928), contains the extant astronomical works in Greek of Ptolemy, active in second-century Alexandria. Volume 1 appeared in two parts. Part 1 (1898) contains Books 1-6 of Ptolemy's major astronomical treatise, the Almagest.

Published in 1897, this is the first volume (of two) of a collection of the surviving remains of Oscan, Umbrian and other minor Italic dialects, gleaned from epigraphy (such as Oscan inscriptions at Pompeii), the evidence of coins, glosses and references in later writers, and geographical and proper names.

One of the most widely studied texts of ancient philosophy, Plato's Laws is his last and longest dialogue, debating crucial questions on the subject of law-giving and education. This 1921 two-volume edition, prepared by Edwin Bourdieu England (1847-1936), includes a short introduction, the Greek text, analyses and extensive notes.

First published between 1776 and 1788, Gibbon's magnum opus is a magisterial account of the relationship between Roman imperialism and Christianity, spanning the period from the first century CE to the fall of Constantinople. Reissued here is J. B. Bury's authoritative seven-volume edition of 1896-1900.

Reginald Walter Macan (1848-1941) published this three-part edition of the last books of Herodotus in 1908. Particularly valuable for its introduction, commentary, maps, appendices and indexes, it remains relevant in classical historiography. The two parts of Volume 1 contain Books 7-9 in Greek with apparatus.

In this two-volume work, published in 1892-7, Swiss philologist Robert von Planta (1864-1937) gives an exhaustive account of the history and development of Osco-Umbrian phonology and syntax. In Volume 1 the reader is guided through different types of Osco-Umbrian dialect and given an overview of their phonology.

The classical historian Karl Julius Beloch (1845-1929), educated at Palermo, Rome and Heidelberg, was famous for dealing critically with traditional historical material. In this controversial but influential work, published between 1912 and 1927, he questions conventional views on Greek history and opposes them with a more subjective approach.

Volume 1 of Shuckburgh's superb 1889 translation of Polybius' Histories contains Books 1 to 5, part of Book 6, and fragments of Books 7 to 9. Covering Greek and Egyptian society, the Punic Wars, Roman society and historical method, it remains a fascinating source on the second and third centuries BCE.

Based on Ast's complete edition of Plato, this lexicon gives citations both from Plato and from later works that quote Plato. It remains a milestone in Plato scholarship and is a valuable resource for readers interested in the history of philology and textual criticism. Volume 1, published in 1835, covers Alpha to Epsilon.

This controversial work by Sir James Frazer (1854-1941) is widely considered to be one of the most important early texts in the fields of psychology and anthropology. Applying the techniques of comparative ethnography to classical religion, the 1890 first edition discusses the place of human sacrifice in cultures worldwide.

Published in 1811, this is the first volume of a classic edition of the surviving works of Pindar (c.522-c.443 BCE). German classicist August Boeckh (1785-1867) provides the Greek texts of the Epinician Odes, plus a groundbreaking treatise (in Latin) on Pindarian metrics, a preface and scholarly notes.

This pioneering work by Droysen (1808-84), published in two volumes in 1836 and 1843, was one of the first historical studies of the century after Alexander the Great. Droysen, who coined the term 'Hellenism', was noted for his careful attention to sources. Volume 1 covers 323-278 BCE.

In this three-volume work on tragedy, published between 1839 and 1841, Friedrich Gottlieb Welcker (1784-1868) attempts to reconstruct all the lost trilogies and tetralogies of Greek tragic theatre, insisting on their artistic unity, and demonstrating their fundamental debt to the Epic Cycle.