This volume presents the Latin text, with an Introduction and full commentary, of Book XIII of the Roman poet Ovid's long work Metamorphoses. It discusses in detail Ovid's treatment of his sources and sets out the ways in which he adapted earlier literature as material for his novel enterprise. Guidance is offered on points of language and style, and the Introduction treats in general terms the themes of metamorphosis and the structure of the poem as a whole.

This volume contains the text of eight poems by the third-century BC Greek poet Theocritus, together with an introduction and extensive commentary. This is the first full-scale commentary on the work of Theocritus since Gow's edition of 1950, and is the first to exploit the recent revolution in the study of Hellenistic and Roman poetry. It offers new readings of all the poems, which show both how Theocritus differs from subsequent pastoral poetry, and how his poems, through their influence on Virgil, established the Western pastoral tradition.

As the first historical work by Rome's greatest historian, the Histories hold a crucial place in the study of Latin literature. Book I covers the beginning of the infamous "Year of the Four Emperors" (69 c.e.), which brought imperial Rome to the brink of destruction after the demise of the Julio-Claudian dynasty. Its account of the ensuing power struggles is unmatched for detail and interest. This edition includes the Latin text and provides a complete commentary accessible to students of intermediate level as well as an extensive introduction discussing historical, literary and stylistic...

Demos is a study of a classical city-state. It is the first attempt to provide an integrated account which gives due attention to the countryside as well as the urban areas of a polis. Concentrating on classical Athens, for which the literary and archaeological evidence is richest, Dr Osborne establishes the nature of settlement in the countryside and explores how this relates to the farming of the land, the exploitation of mineral resources, and the nature of political participation in both local and central politics. Further studies reveal the way in which the countryside was structured by...

This is a study of the first book of poems by the Roman poet Tibullus. By undertaking a poem-by-poem reading of Elegies Book One, the author explores the subtle, many-faceted interplay of power within the text. He brings a variety of literary and cultural theories to bear on the work and the result is a portrait of the poet and text far removed from the bland, safe and urbane Tibullus of previous criticism.

The Alcibiades was widely read in antiquity as the very best introduction to Plato. In spite of its ancient reputation, many modern scholars have thought that the Alcibiades is not by Plato and it has therefore lacked a decent commentary. This edition remedies that situation. The notes explain difficulties of linguistic, literary and philosophical detail. The introduction includes a discussion of the dialogue's authenticity, and of the consequences that acknowledging its authenticity has for our conception of Plato's intellectual development.

This book is at once an analytical study of one of the most important mathematical texts of antiquity, the Mathematical Collection of the fourth-century AD mathematician Pappus of Alexandria, and also an examination of the work's wider cultural setting. This is one of very few books to deal extensively with the mathematics of Late Antiquity. It sees Pappus' text as part of a wider context and relates it to other contemporary cultural practices and opens new avenues to research into the public understanding of mathematics and mathematical disciplines in antiquity.

Achilles Tatius' Leucippe and Clitophon has long been regarded as the most controversial of the ancient Greek novels. This extended study on Achilles Tatius explores Leucippe and Clitophon in its literary and visual contexts, presenting fresh insights into the work's narrative complexities and its obsessions with the eye. The book is written for non-specialists and all Greek is translated or paraphrased. It will be of value to readers with interests in feminist literary criticism, as well as ancient novels.

This is the first study to examine in detail the role and character of Homer's people (Greek laoi) in Homeric storytelling, arguing that Homeric poetry is crucially concerned with the people as a basis for communal life. Both the Iliad and the Odyssey are read as sustained meditations on the processes involved in protecting and destroying the people. The investigation draws on a wide range of approaches from formulaic analysis to the study of early performance contexts.

Were acts of sex which we would call rape and regard as a criminal offence similarly regarded in classical Athens? That is the main question posed in this book, the first in-depth study of the topic ever to be undertaken. It considers the legal terminology for rape and discusses exactly what these different terms describe. It also examines literary stories where rape and/or seduction feature as plot devices and looks at different characters' responses to them. The book's presentation makes it accessible to a wider readership of non-classicists.