Bøger i Oxford Classical Monographs serien

This volume offers a full translation and analysis of Vita Malchi, one of the more intriguing works by a figure who is central to our understanding of Late Antiquity and early Christianity: the translator, exegete, and controversialist Jerome (c.347-419/20AD).

Terence and the Verb 'To Be' in Latin is the first in-depth study of the verb 'to be' in Latin (esse) and its contracted form, with a particular focus on its appearance in the plays of the ancient Roman playwright, Terence.

This volume examines the question of whether early Greek poetry was inspired by texts from the neighbouring civilizations of the ancient Near East, especially Mesopotamia.

For long stretches of Greek history in the classical period, Diodorus Siculus provides the only surviving narrative of events. For this narrative he summarized, work of earlier historians whose original texts are lost. The present study aims to meet the needs of history and historiography.

The author examines images of the fall of Troy in early Greek epic poetry, fifth-century Athenian tragedy, and Athenian black- and red-figure vase painting to focus on the narrative artistry with which poets and painters blended the various components of the myth into a balanced whole and intertwined them with other chapters in the story of Troy.

Statius' epic poem the "Thebaid", which was written in 12 books in about AD 80-92, concerns the expedition of the seven kings against Thebes. This edition of book IX includes a translation, a commentary and an introduction on Statius' life and works and his influence on European literature.

The Fasti is one of Ovid's most complex, inventive, and remarkable works. This commentary on Book 2 - the first detailed commentary in English - guides the reader towards a fuller appreciation of the poem, through detailed analysis of its religious, historical, political, and literary background.

The control over marble and metal resources was of major importance to the Roman Empire. Alfred Hirt's comprehensive study defines the organizational outlines and the internal structures of the mining and quarrying ventures under imperial control.

The force of example was a distinctive determiner of Roman identity. In this study of the representation of certain central characters in Silius Italicus' Punica, Ben Tipping considers the virtues and vices they embody, their status as exemplars, and the process by which Silius as epic poet heroizes, demonizes, and establishes models.

Dr Allan has produced a fundamental reappraisal of one of Euripides' most problematic and neglected tragedies. The close study of a single play is used to test, and to escape, many standard assumptions about Euripidean tragedy. The Andromache is shown to be a powerful and stimulating drama.

The first investigation of the relationship between the chorus of Greek tragedy and other types of choral song in Greek society. L. A. Swift not only provides new insights into individual plays, but also enriches our understanding of the role poetry and song played in ancient Greek life.

A study of the rhetorical and political strategy adopted by the Roman orator and statesman Cicero as a newcomer in Roman republican politics. Henriette van der Blom argues that Cicero advertised himself as a follower of chosen models of behaviour from the past - his role models - and in turn presented himself as a role model to others.

Cicero's Topica is one of the canonical texts on ancient rhetorical theory. This is the first full-scale commentary on this work, and the first critical edition of the work that is informed by a full analysis of its transmission.

Aristocles of Messene is a first century AD Aristotelian philosopher who discusses the thought of ancient Greek philosophers, including Plato, Zeno, Pyrrho, and Epicurus, as well as Eleatic and Cyrenaic philosophies. His main contribution is his testimony on Pyrrhonism, and his political verve makes his On Philosophy an interesting and amusing read for specialists and non-specialists alike.

By examining the literary evidence relating to the historical, ethnographic, and geographic writings of Greeks and Romans focussing on invasion and conflict, this work attempts to answer the questions how and why the Gauls became the deadly enemy of the Romans.

Reconstructs the lives of some of the men who shaped events in the final controversial years of the Western Roman Empire during the fifth century AD. Ranging from the Balkans and Italy to northern France, this study uses a wide range of historical evidence, folklore, letters, poems, sermons, archaeology, and coins.

The text is about the tension between the classical city and the individual of superlative power, status and ambition. It looks at the way Alcibiades is approximated to archetypes of the individual "outside" the city: the tyrant, the victor, the ostracism victim, the scapegoat, the barbarian.

This study explores how Christian women of the classical world initiated ascetic ways of living, and how these practices were then institutionalized. The author demonstrates that - in direct contrast to later conceptions - asceticism began primarly as an urban movement.

As well as giving a better understanding of the history of Greek accentuation, this study yields insights into aspects of Indo-European accentuation and into the effects of word frequency on language change.

This is a study of six historians from different corners of the Roman empire at the end of the Republic. All these writers accept the new ruling power, but comment on how that power might best be used. They therefore provide a unique insight into the minds of the conquered peoples and the intellectual culture which allowed them to influence their conquerors.

This edition of Book 5 of Statius' Silvae includes an introduction, translation, and full literary and cultural commentary, enabling readers to engage with the work of this learned and increasingly popular poet.

Anna J. Clark explores 'divine qualities', such as Concord, Faith, Hope, and Clemency, to show how they reveal an aspect of how Romans thought about themselves. Clark draws on a wide range of evidence (literature, drama, coins, architecture, inscriptions and graffiti) to show that these qualities were relevant to a wide range of people.

A fresh approach to the old problem of the nature of individual liberty in ancient Athens. Using modern political theory as a springboard, Peter Liddel argues that the ancient Athenians held liberty to consist of the substantial obligations (political, financial, and military) of citizenship.

In a critique of Max Weber's influential ideas about the Mediterranean region in late antiquity, Jairus Banaji shows that the fourth to seventh centuries were in fact a period of major social and economic change, bound up with an expanding circulation of gold.

A full account of the reception of the second-century prose fiction The Golden Ass (or Metamorphoses) of Apuleius, which has intrigued readers as diverse as St Augustine, Petrarch, Boccaccio, Sidney, Spenser, Shakespeare, and Milton. Robert H. F. Carver traces readers' responses to the novel from the third to the seventeenth centuries.

An original and wide-ranging study of the Greek lyric poet Bacchylides, exploring his engagement with poetic tradition and evaluating the complex relationship of the poetry to its multiple contexts of performance.

The speeches of Demosthenes and other 4th-century BC Athenian orators have long been recognized as a source of information about the mindset and life of ordinary Athenians. This book contributes to an understanding of religion in the public discourse by studying references to religious beliefs, institutions, and events in the oratorical corpus.

The first comprehensive treatment of Latin extra-paradigmatic verb forms, that is, verb forms which cannot easily be assigned to any particular tense in the Latin verbal system.

Adrian Kelly shows that familiarity with the oral background of Homeric poetry is vital for a proper appreciation of Homeric narrative. He presents the kind of information a modern reader requires to become as fluent in traditional epic poetry as an original ancient audience.

An exploration of the use of drama as an intertext in the work of the 2nd century Latin author Apuleius, who wrote the only complete extant Latin novel, the Metamorphoses, in which a young man is turned into a donkey by magic. All Latin and Greek is translated into English.