This book contains a selection of pagan Greek poetic texts ranging in date from the first to the sixth century A.D. It makes easily accessible for the first time work by poets hitherto neglected in Classical syllabuses. Genres represented include epic, epyllion, didactic, epigram, lyric and the verse fable. There is a brief general introduction, and in addition each section of detailed commentary is prefaced by a discussion of literary aspects of the poems and of their wider contexts.

The Greek lyric poet Pindar is renowned for his poems celebrating the victories of athletes in the great games of Greece at Olympia, Delphi (the Pythian Games), Corinth (the Isthmian Games) and Nemea. Pindar's victory odes have the reputation of being complex and allusive in their language and reference. In this much-needed commentary on seven of the extant odes, Professor Willcock aims to open up Pindar's poetry to a wider readership by starting with a short and straightforward poem and progressing by level of difficulty to one of the greatest. The book begins with an introduction that...

Book IV of Ovid's celebration of the calendar and the associated legends of the Roman year treats the month of April, a particularly happy phase of the Augustan ceremonial year. Around the festival of Venus and the anniversary of the foundation of Rome, Ovid retells the legends of Rome's royal founder Romulus and the Trojan hero Aeneas. The introduction and commentary pay special attention to Ovid's art as a poet, but aim to provide both the general background and specific explanations of his historical and religious material.

This is an edition with commentary of six poems by the Roman poet Ovid. These are the letters, as Ovid imagined them, exchanged between three famous pairs of lovers, Paris and Helen of Troy, Hero and Leander, and Acontius and Cydippe. Interest in Ovid has never been more lively than it is today, and this book will have much to offer students at all levels. This is the first commentary in any language since 1898 on these "double" letters. It complements Peter E. Knox's selection of the single epistles in the same series.

This volume presents the Latin text of one of the great classics of Christian literature, accompanied by a commentary. Confessions is concerned with one human life as an example of what it is to be human and in search of God. In books I-IV, Augustine reflects on his infancy and childhood, adolescent rebellion and student days, and his early teaching career. The commentary, which can be used by those new to Augustine and his world, concentrates on his brilliant Latin and on his theology and philosophy.

Book IX of Herodotus' Histories is the conclusive climax to his work, as the victories at Plataea and Mycale complete the improbable Greek victory over Persia. This English commentary treats Herodotus' work as historical narrative and as literature, incorporating the results of recent scholarly research in Greek history and historiography. It contains a Greek text and detailed philological, literary, and historical notes designed to assist the intermediate Greek student.

This is an edition of Tacitus' work on oratory, with a substantial introduction and commentary. It is the first commentary in English in over 100 years and the only one at this level. It is designed to elucidate problems of language and reference in the text and to put the reader in the picture as regards late first-century AD society and literature, particularly oratory, still the most important activity within the Roman elite.

This volume provides a commentary on the six speeches of the fifth-century BC Athenian orator Antiphon, all of which concern homicide. This is the first complete English commentary on Antiphon and the first in any language since 1838. The book opens with a substantial introduction to the life and work of Antiphon and the nature of Athenian law and legal oratory. A new Greek text follows. The commentary itself discusses grammatical, stylistic, legal, rhetorical and historical matters.

Xenophon of Athens was a pupil of Socrates and a philosopher in his own right. He wrote two of the texts included in this volume, the Hiero (On Tyranny) and the Constitution of the Spartans. The third, the Constitution of the Athenians, is found under Xenophon's name alongside the other two in the manuscripts. This volume presents an introduction discussing Xenophon's views on government in the context of his general political thought and a commentary on the Greek text of each work aimed primarily at advanced undergraduates and graduate students.