This collection of commentaries by contributors such as Pelling, C.J. Gill, P.E. Easterling, F.S. Halliwell, D.A.F.M. Russell, S. Godhill, L. Coventry, M.S. Silk, O.P. Taplin, and J. Griffin examines a range of topics including childhood and personality in Greek biography, the construction of character in Greek tragedy, ethos as rhetorical theory, characterization in Plato's dialogues, the people of Aristophanes, the role of Agamemnon in the Iliad, and characterization in Euripides.

This is a collection of new essays on the theme of ethics and rhetoric in classical literature by an extremely prestigious array of scholars from the UK, US, and Europe. Writing in honor of Professor Donald Russell, former Professor of Classical Literature at Oxford, the contributors look at issues of ethics and rhetoric within Latin literature, Greek imperial literature, and ancient literary criticism.