A chronological guide to influential Greek and Roman writers, Fifty Key Classical Authors is an invaluable introduction to the literature, philosophy and history of the ancient world. Including essays on Sappho, Polybius and Lucan, as well as on major figures such as Homer, Plato, Catullus and Cicero, this book is a vital tool for all students of classical civilization.

The Histories is the first historical work by Rome's most accomplished and challenging historian, Tacitus. It narrates the brutal civil wars which broke out in AD 68-9 across the Roman Empire after the suicide of the last Julio-Claudian emperor, Nero. Book II covers the bloody finale of the war between two of those emperors, Otho and Vitellius, and the emerging challenge from the eventual victor, Vespasian. The progression of events, kaleidoscopic and gripping, unfolds over a broad geographical sweep and is presented by Tacitus with consummate artistry. This commentary on Histories Book II...

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. Tacitus is arguably the most significant writer of the Roman imperial period. His biting creativity is best known to us through his historical narratives. The Histories ruthlessly depicts the disastrous civil wars which exploded in AD 68-9, while the Annals chillingly documents the murky principates of the Julio-Claudian emperors from Tiberius to Nero. Tacitus is driven...

This collection of seminal and lively articles on the Roman historian of the early empire, Tacitus, is written by a wide range of established experts in the field. Tacitus is best known for his extraordinary historical narratives on the Roman emperors from Tiberius to Nero and the civil wars which followed the death of Nero in AD 68. The articles are designed to reflect the main trends in scholarship on Tacitus, particularly as they have developed over the last century, and to situate this Roman author in his literary and historical context.
Beginning with a comprehensive introduction,...

This collection of seminal and lively articles on the Roman historian of the early empire, Tacitus, is written by a wide range of established experts in the field. Tacitus is best known for his extraordinary historical narratives on the Roman emperors from Tiberius to Nero and the civil wars which followed the death of Nero in AD 68. The articles are designed to reflect the main trends in scholarship on Tacitus, particularly as they have developed over the last century, and to situate this Roman author in his literary and historical context.

Beginning with a comprehensive introduction,...

Over recent decades, the debate about how individuals are portrayed in prose-texts of Greek and Roman historiography and biography has evolved in increasingly nuanced ways. The sorts of questions which now tend to be raised concerning such prose-texts brings them closely into line with the more subtle analysis usually reserved for poetry. Moreover, the engagement with literary strategies at work in historiography and biography has a fundamental impact both on the relationship of these texts with poetry and on the status of these genres as historical evidence.
In twenty-four chapters...

Helps students and instructors read and appreciate this extraordinary piece of historical writing about Nero's infamous reign as emperor.

Helps students and instructors read and appreciate this extraordinary piece of historical writing about Nero's infamous reign as emperor.