Cambridge Greek and Latin classics

Edward Gibbon called The Histories an 'immortal work, every sentence of which is pregnant with the deepest observations and the most lively images.' Its author, Cornelius Tacitus, widely acknowledged as the greatest of all Roman historians, describes with cynical power the murderous 'Year of the Four Emperors' - AD 69 - when in just a few months the whole of the Roman Empire was torn apart by civil war. The ultimate triumph of Vespasian and his sons Titus and Domitian was only the prelude to further conflicts and disasters, with revolts among the Germans and Jews challenging the very foundations of Roman authority.

The Epodes, with the first book of the Satires, were Horace's first published work. They consist of a collection of seventeen poems in different versions of the iambus, the metre traditionally associated with lampoon and in particular with the seventh-century Greek poet Archilochus. In none of Horace's works is his originality more brilliantly displayed than in this creative appropriation of a hitherto unexploited Greek genre. David Mankin's introduction and commentary examines all aspects of Horace's relationship with his models and of the technical accomplishment of his verse; it also gives help with linguistic problems. His edition places the Epodes firmly in their literary and historical context: Rome at the time of its greatest crisis, the Civil War which ended the Republic and led to the establishment of the Principate. . Students and scholars alike will welcome this commentary, only the second in any language since the 1930s and the only one providing a full and detailed interpretation in English.

"Plutarch's essay 'How to Study Poetry' offers a set of reading practices intended to remove the potential damage that poetry can do to the moral health of young readers. It opens a window on to a world of ancient education and scholarship which can seem rather alien to those brought up in the highly sophisticated world of modern literary theory and criticism. The full Introduction and Commentary, by two of the world's leading scholars in the field, trace the origins and intellectual affiliations of Plutarch's method and fully illustrate the background to each of his examples. As such this book may serve as an introduction to the whole subject of ancient reading practices and literary criticism. The Commentary also pays particular attention to grammar, syntax and style, and sets this essay within the context of Plutarch's thought and writing more generally"--

"Sextus Roscius was murdered in Rome some months after the official end of the Sullan proscriptions on 1 June 81 BC. The case was tried early the following year with a young Cicero acting as defense counsel in his first criminal case for the accused son. Though a novice, Cicero was able to tap into the public anger over the uncontrolled killing and looting of the proscriptions and channel it against the men behind the prosecution, T. Roscius Magnus and T. Roscius Capito. Cicero won a career-making victory, establishing his reputation as a formidable advocate. This, the first new edition of the work in English to be published for almost a century, provides a Latin text and commentary updated to take account of advances in the study of the Latin language as well as Roman institutions, law and society. It is suitable for use with upper-level undergraduates and graduate students"--Provided by publisher. "When young Cicero rose to plead the case of Sextus Roscius, the prosecutor was visibly relieved that this unknown was his opponent and not one of the established advocates (ʹ60). Once the trial was concluded, there was no case to which he was thought unequal (Brut. 312). This career-making speech contains an almost fully formed approach to juror persuasion and to the psychology of criminality. It is also a risky speech in which the young C. excoriates a favorite of the powerful Sulla besides taking rhetorical risks, especially the purple passage about the parricide's punishment that embarrassed him in later years (Orat.107). If, like Desmoulins' teacher at the Collège Louis-le-Grand, one is put off by the domineering figure of C. the senior statesman,1 this speech shows instead a modest and struggling young orator of great appeal"--Provided by publisher.

i don't think anybody else has ever read this book without first being forced to learn latin. yet it is worth reading in translation .the setting, sicily, libya, italy some twenty-five hundred years ago comes alive as communities of farmers and small towns united by person-sized culture. the land, the government, the value of father-son, husband-wife bonds, sports, hand-to hand combat, all apects of life are within the reach of of the person and the people he or she knows. the author chooses the adventures of aeneas and his twenty boats of trojans escaping the greeks's destruction of their city over seven years of travail . the end of the story , aeneas and his youngest and bravest battling the latins on the tiber to a truce, gets glorified as the founding of the never-ending roman empire, yet all aeneas gets is the daughter of the king of latium in marriage and land for his warriors to cultivate and inhabit. the trojan language gets dumped, and all that is left of aeneas is a story, yet what a story. the escapees from troy battle storms, are skilled enough to build towns and new ships, and more or less have the patience to keep on moving till they find a really nice location for the end of the journey. they find countrymen on the way, already settled, and other more or less hospitable towns. aeneas courts and dumps a wealthy widow ( dido, who commits suicide ), a lot of his people settle down along the way. sports, fair and unfair, get a lot of attention. war is a routine affair, with both tragedy and trophies, and aeneas is good at it.philosophising stands out as something you pay for dearly, with sacrifices of a lot a livestock at altars with oracles. a modern reader might hahe a problem with the contant reference to deities. they either appear as interested in whether aeneas will or will not make it to the tiber to sow his seed for rome, or take the credit when some person in deed or passion goes past the ordinary.they also travel in sky or sea with smoke and fire and a lot of fuss. i really enjoyed the book, in a verse translation, because vergil did bring to life very real people whose life is memorable and engrossing. the chapters each would make for an exciting evening of drama as read to a group untouched by television or even literacy. remember, in ancient rome , there were manuscripts, and news was announced on the streetcorner, and literature was for those who could afford a reader and a big living room. go ahead, take a chance. read the aeneid. you do not have to learn latin for this privilege.

"Books XVII and XVIII of the Odyssey feature, among other episodes, the disguised Odysseus' penetration of his home after an absence of twenty years and his first encounter with his wife. The commentary provides linguistic and syntactical guidance suitable for upper-level students along with detailed consideration of Homer's compositional and narrative techniques, his literary artistry and the poem's central themes. An extensive introduction considers questions of formulaic composition, the nature of the poem's audience and the context of its performance, and isolates the concerns most prominent in the poem's second half and in Books XVII and XVIII in particular. Here too are considered the roles of Penelope and Telemachus, questions of disguise and recognition, and the institution of hospitality flaunted by the suitors in Odysseus' halls. Brief sections also discuss Homeric metre and the transmission of the text"-- "Homer's Odyssey tells a familiar story: a hero, a veteran of the Trojan War, returns home after ten trial-filled years of wandering in exotic lands only to find his halls occupied by 108 carousing youths who court his wife in the hope that the lawful husband and master has perished abroad. And yet for all the simplicity of its tale, the poet's technique is brilliantly intricate; from the notorious tease of the opening line which hides the epic hero's name, to the sudden threat of retaliation from the dead suitors' kin in the closing episode, the composition uses flashbacks and internal narratives, dramatic irony, doubling, and retardation devices to keep us wondering how exactly affairs in Ithaca will be resolved. It is a work that, not surprisingly, has exercised a lasting fascination from archaic through to contemporary times, and that has been re-imagined in countless forms, visual, verbal and musical among them. If another study of the Odyssey needs no justification, then the choice to focus on books 17 and 18may prompt the question 'why these?'One reason is the sheer diversity and tonal range of the two books' contents, which run from the burlesque comedy of the boxingmatch between the disguised Odysseus and the parasite Irus to the charged moment when the hero re-enters his home after his twenty years' absence and first sets eyes on his wife. The pathos of the death of the tick-infested Argus, who has kept vigil for his master ever since his departure, is unmistakable, its poignancy sharpened by the entirely different episode preceding it, where Odysseus meets the churlish cowherd Melanthius and is treated to language and threats normally excluded from the epic register"--

Emile and Juliette Hazel have just purchased what will be their final home, set in a little clearing an hour's drive from the nearest town. Here, they think, is the place for an idyllic retirement, isolated from the rest of the world save for one neighbor, a doctor, on the far side of the clearing. One day, after they have spent a week in the house, the Hazels' new neighbor comes knocking at their door. Narrated by Emile, this simple story of social obligation yields with impending menace to a deeper exploration of the dangerous cost of restraint. With the peculiar logic of a dream, the doctor continues, unbidden, to visit his neighbors daily. And as he does so, the seed of disquiet in the Hazels' parlor bursts into full horror as Emile is forced to come to grips not only with the stranger next door but also with his own inner darkness.

The victory odes, or epinikia, are a series of poems composed by the ancient Greek poet Pindar to commemorate the triumphs of athletes who competed in various Panhellenic games like the Olympic, Pythian, Nemean, and Isthmian Games. The poems are known for their intricate complexity, which combines praise for the athletes, mythological references, moral reflections, and philosophical musings. The victory odes are considered to be the most complete works by Pindar that have survived from antiquity, as the rest of his works only exist in papyrus fragments. These odes provide valuable insights into the ancient Greek world, as they reveal how the Greeks celebrated their athletic heroes, and the cultural significance of athletic competition in ancient Greece.

The four private speeches contained in this collection were functional artefacts whose object was to persuade a jury numbered in hundreds by manipulating both the facts of the case and the prejudices, beliefs and attitudes of the Athenian man-in-the-street. It is as vehicles of persuasion that Dr Carey and Dr Reid seek primarily to treat the speeches, using their commentary to shed light on how well the speeches perform their function. The speeches have also been chosen for their value as documents of Athenian law, commerce and private life. The commentary explains as far as possible any obscurities in these fields and also deals with matters of linguistic interest. While intended mainly for undergraduates and students in the upper forms of schools, the book will be of interest to all classical scholars. The introduction, which provides a brief survey of the Athenian legal system and the trade of the speechwriter, requires no knowledge of Greek and should interest students of classical culture and literature in translation.

Title representation varies as: "DIVVS CLAVDIVS", "Divvs Clavdivs", and "Diuus Claudius" ISBN 0521593255 (hardback); 0521596769 (paperback)