Redige par Ciceron en 46 av. J.-C., le Brutus se presente comme une histoire de l'eloquence romaine depuis ses origines et ses sources grecques jusqu'a l'epoque de sa redaction, mais entend surtout repondre aux defis institutionnels et intellectuels qu'a fait naitre la dictature de Cesar. Le traite autorise ainsi des lectures tres diverses, qui sont souvent restees isolees les unes des autres. A travers une approche pluridisciplinaire rassemblant des contributeurs de specialites diverses, cet ouvrage cherche a rendre compte de la reflexion ciceronienne dans toute sa richesse en...

In modern times the Theriaca of Nicander of Colophon (2nd century BCE) has not attracted many enthusiasts. Its complicated style, abstruse diction and technical subject matter - venomous bites and their remedies - have long put off classical scholars. In the wake of renewed interest in Hellenistic poetry, however, Nicander's dark poetry deserves new appreciation. In this book Floris Overduin provides a literary commentary on the Theriaca, focusing on Nicander's artistic merits. Viewed against the background of Alexandrian aesthetics and the didactic epic tradition, Nicander...

A unique variety of approaches to all aspects of urban culture in the ancient world can be found in Urban Dreams and Realities in Antiquity, a collection of 19 essays addressing ancient cities from an interdisciplinary perspective. As the title indicates, the volume considers both how ancient people lived in their cities as physical structures and how they thought with them as ideas and symbols. Essays in this volume deal with texts and sites from Spain to South India, but there is a particular focus on the archaeology and epigraphy of Roman-era Italy, civic identity in the Roman...

In Figures de l'epouvante grecques de l'antiquite au present, Maria Patera examines an unfamiliar aspect of the Greek pedagogy of fear, illustrated by narratives about four Greek terrifying figures: Lamia, Mormo, Gello and Empousa. These female bogeys belong to the children's world. Each of those figures provokes fear in a particular way, according to its own characteristics (metamorphosis, hybridity, cannibalism, etc.). By means of a diachronic comparison of the ancient figures with their Byzantine and modern Greek namesakes, each of them is assigned a proper position within its...

Late Antiquity is often assumed to have witnessed the demise of literature as a social force and its retreat into the school and the private reading room: whereas the sophists of the Second Sophistic were influential social players, their late antique counterparts are thought to have been overshadowed by bishops. Literature and Society in the Fourth Century AD argues that this presumed difference should be attributed less to a fundamental change in the role of literature than to different scholarly methodologies with which Greek and Latin texts from the second and the fourth century...

Ancient Greek hymns traditionally include a narrative section describing episodes from the hymned deity's life. These narratives developed in parallel with epic and other narrative genres, and their study provides a different perspective on ancient Greek narrative. Within the hymn genre, the place and function of the narrative section changed over time and with different kinds of hymn (literary or cultic; religious, philosophical or magical). Hymnic Narrative and the Narratology of Greek Hymns traces developments in narrative in the hymn genre from the Homeric Hymns via Hellenistic and...

In Legendary Rivals Jaclyn Neel argues for a new interpretation of the foundation myths of Rome. Instead of a negative portrayal of the city's early history, these tales offer a didactic paradigm of the correct way to engage in competition. Accounts from the triumviral period stress the dysfunctional nature of the city's foundation to capture the memory of Rome's civil wars. Republican evidence suggests a different emphasis. Through diachronic analyses of the tales of Romulus and Remus, Amulius and Numitor, Brutus and Collatinus, and Camillus and Manlius Capitolinus, Neel shows that...

How is it possible that modern scholars have labelled Maximus of Tyre, a second-century CE performer of philosophical orations, as a sophist or a 'half-philosopher', while his own self-presentation is that of a genuine philosopher? If we take Maximus' claim to philosophical authority seriously, his case can deepen our understanding of the dynamic nature of Imperial philosophy. Through a discursive analysis of twelve Imperial intellectuals alongside Maximus' dialexeis, the author proposes an interpretative framework to assess the purpose behind the representation of philosophy,...

Virgil's Aeneid 5 has long been among the more neglected sections of the poet's epic of Augustan Rome. Book 5 opens the second movement of the poem, the middle section of the Aeneid that sees the Trojans poised between the old world of Phrygia and the new destiny in Italy. The present volume fills a significant gap in Virgilian studies by offering the first full-scale commentary in any language on this key book in the explication of the poet's grand consideration of the meaning of Trojan versus Roman identity. A new critical text (based on first hand examination of the...