This volume comprises articles by an international team of twenty-three scholars. The contributions focus on the historical genesis, stylistic and narrative features and evolution of pastoral, both as genre and mode, from Theocritus to the Byzantine period. Special attention has been paid to the idea of the 'invention of a fictionalized tradition', and to pastoral's thematic and formal relationship with other literary genres. In their totality, the contributions, as well as offering a comprehensive overview of the more or less familiar issues and ideas discussed in connection with pastoral,...

Important research in recent decades, along with the publication of P.Mil.Vogl. VIII 309 ('the Milan Posidippus papyrus') in 2001, have reinvigorated the study of Hellenistic epigram. Yet, scholarship on this genre often remains fragmented according to disciplinary sub-specialty and approach: some scholars focus on poets of Meleager's Garland, others on Philip's; some on inscriptional epigram, others on literary; each approaching the genre with different motives and questions. In this volume, expert scholars offer those less familiar with the genre an introduction to all aspects of...

The present volume provides a comprehensive guide to one of the most difficult authors of classical antiquity. All the major aspects of Propertius' work, its themes, the poetical technique, its sources and models, as well as the history of Propertian scholarship and the vexed problems of textual criticism, are dealt with in contributions by Joan Booth, James Butrica, Francis Cairns, Elaine Fantham, Paolo Fedeli, Adrian Hollis, Peter Knox, Robert Maltby, Tobias Reinhardt and Richard Tarrant; due space is also given to the reception of the author from antiquity and the renaissance (Simona...

This volume on Apollonius of Rhodes, whose Argonautica is the sole full-length epic to survive from the Hellenistic period, comprises articles by eighteen leading scholars from Europe and America. Their contributions cover a wide range of issues from the history of the text and the problems of the poet's biography through questions of style, literary technique and intertextual relations to the epic's literary and cultural reception. The aim of this 2nd edition is to give an up-to-date outline of the scholarly discussion in these areas and to provide a survey of recent and current...

This volume on Thucydides, the most important historian of the ancient world, comprises articles by thirty leading international scholars. The contributions cover a wide range of issues, including Thucydides' life, intellectual milieu and predecessors, Thucydides and the act of writing, his rhetoric, historical method and narrative techniques, narrative unity in the History, the speeches, Thucydides' reliability as a historian, and his legacy through the centuries. Other topics dealt with include warfare, religion, individuals, democracy and oligarchy, the invention of political science,...

The present volume sets forth the main resources for the advancing student of Ancient Greek Comedy. An international roster of specialists contributes chapters organized into three sections: "Contexts": the intellectual, physical and socio-historical setting of Athenian Comedy; "History": the literary history of the Old, Middle and New periods; and "Elements": the text, language and formal components of the genre (including a comprehensive bibliography). This Companion is designed as a resource for understanding and interpreting the classics of Athenian Comedy from its inception through...

Ancient autobiography has been the object of several studies and meetings. However, these have focused chiefly on the philosophical and literary aspects. This book aims to examine the development of political autobiography and memoirs in the Greek and Roman world, stressing, instead, the relation of a single work with the traditions of the genre and also the influence of the respective aims of the authors on the composition of autobiographies. At times these works were written as a means of propaganda in a political struggle, or to defend a past action, and often to furnish material to...

Brill's Companion to Ancient Geography edited by S. Bianchetti, M. R. Cataudella, H. J. Gehrke is the first collection of studies on historical geography of the ancient world that focuses on a selection of topics considered crucial for understanding the development of geographical thought. In this work, scholars, all of whom are specialists in a variety of fields, examine the interaction of humans with their environment and try to reconstruct the representations of the inhabited world in the works of ancient historians, scientists, and cartographers. Topics include: Eudoxus,...

This new and important introduction to Seneca provides a systematic and concise presentation of this author's philosophical works and his tragedies. It provides handbook style surveys of each genuine or attributed work, giving dates and brief descriptions, and taking into account the most important philosophical and philological issues. In addition, they provide accounts of the major steps in the history of their later influence. The cultural background of the texts and the most important problem areas within the philosophic and tragic corpus of Seneca are dealt with in separate essays.

Roman literature is inherently political in the varied contexts of its production and the abiding concerns of its subject matter. This collection examines the strategies and techniques of political writing at Rome in a broad range of literature spanning almost two centuries, differing political systems, climates, and contexts. It applies a definition of politics that is more in keeping with modern critical approaches than has often been the case in studies of the political literature of classical antiquity. By applying a wide variety of critically informed viewpoints, this volume offers the...