The most prolific of Roman poets, Ovid was born in 43 BC and died in exile on the Black Sea in 17 AD, banished by the Emperor Augustus. As well as his famous Metamorphoses (the subject of another book in this series) he produced a large body of elegiac poetry, the Amores, Ars Amatoria, Remedia Amoris, Heroides, Fasti, Tristia and Ex Ponto, all of which are accessibly discussed here in Genevieve Liveley's important re-evaluation of the poet's politics, poetics and erotics. She examines the impact on Ovid of Augustus' programmes for social and political reform, the role of genre, allusion...

The Roman poet Lucretius, who lived in the first century BC, composed an epic poem, De Rerum Natura (On the Nature of the Universe), whose avowed purpose was to change the way we live our lives, to abandon our fear of the gods and of death, and to see what real happiness is and how to obtain it. The poem explains the atomic nature of the world and our own place in it, examining the microscopic world of atoms and the telescopic world of the universe, as well as human life in all its facets - politics, pleasure, the nature of perception, our dreams and sexual behaviour. Here John Godwin...

The impact of Ovid's Metamorphoses on our culture can hardly be overestimated. The poem is one of the most exciting and accessible classical texts, our key source for nearly all the famous myths of Greece and Rome. Sarah Annes Brown offers a lively, and sometimes provocative, introduction to the Metamorphoses, exploring the impact of recent critical developments and tracing its rich afterlife in both high and popular culture. The book's later chapters are devoted to five of the most memorable Ovidian stories - Apollo and Daphne, Actaeon, Philomela, Arachne and Pygmalion. Each subtle and...

Why are we still interested in Cleopatra? She has that eternally attractive combination of sexual allure, political power - even divine status - and personal wealth. She had by any standards an eventful life and an unforgettable death. She very nearly tipped the balance of power at a crucial moment in history: had she and Antony succeeded in maintaining their empire in the east, our cultural life might be very different today. In this concise, readable, well-illustrated book, Susan Walker and Sally-Ann Ashton look at the historical Cleopatra, at images of Cleopatra as a Greek queen and as...

Horace is a poet of surprising contradictions who lived through the most dramatic period of social and political revolution in Rome. From fighting on the losing side in the civil war, he became a confidant of his recent enemies. From humble beginnings as the son of a freedman, he rocketed to the very centre of the Roman establishment. Though he is often regarded as morally and politically conservative, his love poetry is played against the backdrop of a hedonistic, bisexual demi-monde. The strident voice of some of the nationalistic odes contrasts with the quieter melancholic tone of the...

This series of short incisive books introduces major figures of the ancient world to the modern general reader, including the essentials of each subject's life, works, and significance for later western civilisation. In the newly created tradition of the "Ancients in Action" series, Marguerite Johnson has written a fascinating and accessible account of what remains of the life and works of the Greek poet, Sappho. Sappho's ancient biography is covered in addition to the post-classical accounts of her life, which continue to appear, in a variety of creative and non-creative contexts, in...

A completely new guide to writing Latin from scratch, this user-friendly book includes key features such as: broad coverage - all the major grammatical constructions of the Latin language are covered, reinforcing what students have learnt from reading Latin; thorough accessible explanations - no previous experience of writing in Latin assumed; hundreds of examples - clear accurate illustrations of the constructions described, all with full translations; over six hundred practice sentences - graduated exercises leading students through three levels of difficulty from elementary to advanced...

Of all the lyric poets of ancient Greece, Pindar is the one whose work has been best preserved. His odes to victorious Greek athletes were entertainments designed for performance in a hospitable atmosphere of drinking, dining and jokes. The victor has known the favour of the god whose contest he entered, and has brought back pan-Hellenic fame to his family, friends and city. To extend this glory and make it permanent, he has commissioned a song of praise, had dancers trained to sing it, and summoned an audience of kinsmen, neighbours and friends to enjoy it. Pindar's odes contain...

In this fascinating addition to the "Classical Inter/faces" series, Karelisa Hartigan suggests that drama was regularly performed in the theatres built within or adjacent to the ancient sanctuaries of Asklepios. She argues that a pageant which showed the enactment of the god healing prompted the dream therapy the patient experienced at the sanctuary. Patients who viewed this drama were ready to receive the nightly ministrations of the deity, his attendants and his animals while they slept in the dormitory at the Asklepieion. To support her thesis, Hartigan discusses the mind-body...