The 'classical tradition' is no invention of modernity. Already in ancient Greece and Rome, the privileging of the ancient played a role in social and cultural discourses of every period. A collaboration between scholars in diverse areas of classical studies, this volume addresses literary and material evidence for ancient notions of valuing (or disvaluing) the deep past from approximately the fifth century BCE until the second century CE. It examines how specific communities used notions of antiquity to define themselves or others, which models from the past proved most desirable, what...

The ancient commentaries and scholia to Cicero’s speeches have hitherto received relatively little scholarly attention. This volume is dedicated to Asconius’ first-century commentary and the corpora of the scholia stemming from the 4th-7th centuries (Bobbio, ps.-Asconius, and Gronovius). It shows the specific interpretative challenges of these corpora and offers interpretative case studies. Furthermore, it contextualizes the corpora within the learning and learned environment of their time, by contrasting them with rhetorical teaching (via the transmission of Cicero on papyri and his...