Clarendon ancient history series

"In AD 68 Nero's suicide marked the end of the first dynasty of imperial Rome. The following year was one of drama and danger. In the surviving books of his Histories the barrister-historian Tacitus, writing some thirty years after the events he describes, gives a detailed account of the 'long but single year' when four emperors emerged in succession: Galba, the martinet; Otho, conspirator and dandy; Vitellius, the unambitious hedonist; and the ultimate victor, Vespasian, who established the Flavian dynasty. With great vividness and emotional power, Tacitus' gripping narrative lays bare corruption, injustice and folly, and sheds lasting light on the nature of power. This revised version of Kenneth Wellesley's translation has sensitively updated it to render it more accessible to the modern reader. This edition contains a new introduction by Rhiannon Ash discussing Tacitus' life and his contemporary audience, a note on the text, further reading, a glossary of place and peoples, expanded notes and a chronology"--P. of cover.

"The seventh book of Pliny's Natural History, his magisterial survey of nature, records his researches into the human race. Book 7 encapsulates the core of the complex and ambivalent relationship between nature and her human prodigy. Although structured around the human natural life cycle, Pliny's enquiries go far beyond a purely biological description to reveal the cultural belief system of the Roman world in the first century A.D. with a detail and variety unmatched by any other ancient record. The present study, the first detailed commentary on Book 7, is intended to highlight the cultural importance of Pliny's text. While giving due emphasis to Pliny's comments on 'mainstream' historical data involving well-known individuals and events, it focuses in particular on the off-beat, the curious, and the obscure, where investigation frequently reveals a complex substratum of ancient beliefs and ideas. As a result, fresh light is shed on the popular cultural heritage of Pliny's era, much of which was already of considerable antiquity, and may also, in some cases, reach beyond the confines of early imperial Rome to offer analogies with other cultures and eras."--BOOK JACKET.

"Dix-sept siècles après sa conversion, Constantin, premier empereur chrétien de l'histoire, reste une figure majeure et controversée. L'évêque et historien Eusèbe de Césarée, qui l'a personnellement connu, a rédigé juste après sa mort un long récit, entre biographie et hagiographie, où il présente la vie de Constantin essentiellement du point de vue religieux, comme il le précise lui-même. Ce texte à la fois bien documenté et engagé, même s'il demande à être interprété avec précaution, est notre source la plus ancienne et la plus précise sur la vie de cet empereur hors du commun. Comme dans l' Histoire ecclésiastique, Eusèbe appuie en outre son récit sur des documents qu'il cite en tout ou partie : c'est ainsi qu'il transmet une quinzaine de lettres et décrets de l'empereur, dont l'authenticité n'est plus guère discutée aujourd'hui. La Vie de Constantin est ici traduite en français pour la première fois depuis le dix-septième siècle, accompagnée d'une solide introduction qui fait le point sur tous les problèmes posés par l'œuvre, et d'une riche annotation historique"--Back cover.

"Cicero's speech delivered in the mid '50s BC in defence of Gaius Rabirius Postumus was the last of a series of trials which followed the restoration of the Egyptian king, Ptolemy XII Auletes, to his throne. This had been secured through the services of a Roman army which had acted on the promise of a huge illegal bribe. Rabirius Postumus, a leading financier, had travelled to Egypt to collect the promised money acting on behalf of himself and other creditors of the king, including Caesar and Pompey. On his return political opponents placed him, among others, on trial. This book provides a translation of the speech and a commentary in English of a work which is a major source for Roman and Egyptian history at a time of the late Republic. The introduction furnishes a review of the events surrounding the trial as well as a significant reappraisal of the career of Rabirius Postumus who is shown to be a major actor on the Roman political stage. The commentary discusses historical and legal points and also includes a number of important textual emendations. This book is intended for academics and post-graduate students interested in the study of Cicero and in Late Republican Roman literature, especially Roman historians, those interested in Ptolemaic Egypt, and Roman law."--Jacket.

"This is the first English commentary on Cicero's On Divination Book I that is fully accessible to the reader who knows no Latin or Greek." "David Wardle provides a new translation, an introduction and full commentary. The introduction explores Cicero's treatment of divination in all his works, his purpose in writing On Divination, his use of philosophical sources, and the context in which the work was written. The fully documented commentary pays attention to the development of the philosophical historiographical, and religious aspects of the examples used by Quintus."--BOOK JACKET.

"Besides his renowned prosecution of Gaius Verres, Cicero also appeared as defence counsel in a number of cases in which former governors were accused of misconduct in the provinces. This volume unites two such defences, both incompletely preserved, from an early phase of Cicero's career (ca. 69 BC) and from his maturity (54 BC). The first speech is on behalf of Marcus Fonteius. Fonteius was governor of Transalpine Gaul probably from 74 to 72 BC, a time when the Romans were consolidating their control of that province and simultaneously fighting a bitter war with rebels under Sertorius in the Iberian Peninsula. Cicero defends Fonteius with the argument that his measures, though severe, were in the state interest. The second speech is on behalf of Marcus Aemilius Scaurus, governor of Sardinia in 55, whose charges included not only peculation but also cruelty and hounding a woman to suicide through his unwanted attentions. In both cases Cicero seeks to stir Roman prejudice against the foreign witnesses testifying for the prosecution. The outcome of Fonteius' case is not clear from surviving evidence, but Scaurus was acquitted, only to be condemned and exiled on charges of corrupt electoral practices three years later. Dyck's volume provides a general introduction on the Roman extortion court and, for each speech, an introduction, English translation, and the first detailed commentary in English"--

"Cicero defended Publius Sestius against a charge of public violence in early March, 56 B.C.E., intending to discharge the obligation he owed for Sestius's efforts as tribune the previous year to win his restoration from exile. Because Cicero based his defence on an ample account of recent Roman political history and a 'survey' of the commonwealth's current condition, it is among the longest of his extant speeches. It is also arguably the most important of his political speeches that survive from the nearly two decades separating the Speeches against Catiline and the Second Philippic." "Though Cicero of course did not know it at the time, it was to be his last significant public performance as an independent political agent before the upheaval that followed Caesar's murder; in little more than a month Caesar and Pompey would meet at Luca, and Cicero would be kept on a short leash until the outbreak of civil war. The speech's account of recent history and of the men who made it provides any student of Rome with a full and fascinating way into the period. Because so much of the account concerns public meetings, demonstrations, and outbursts of violence, it is highly pertinent to the current debate on the place of the crowd in Rome in the late Republic'; more generally, the speech - with its energy, drama, and broad scope - is among the best introductions we have to traditional Republican values and ethics in action. This new translation and commentary make this important text accessible to a new generation of readers."--BOOK JACKET.