Bücher der Reihe Cambridge Classical Studies

Collects fourteen important essays of Cambridge sociologist Keith Hopkins - one of the most radical, innovative and influential Roman historians of his generation. It will appeal to all those interested in Roman history and sociology and particularly to those eager to experience challenging and controversial approaches to understanding the past.

This full-length study of Plato's dialogue Phaedrus, now in paperback, is written in the belief that such concerted scrutiny of a single dialogue is an important part of the project of understanding Plato so far as possible 'from the inside' - of gaining a feel for the man's philosophy. The focus of this account is on how the resources both of persuasive myth and of formal argument, for all that Plato sets them in strong contrast, nevertheless complement and reinforce each other in his philosophy. Not only is the dialogue in its formal structure a dovetail of myth and argument, but the philosophic life that it praises is also shaped by an acknowledgement of the limitations of argument and the importance of mythical understanding. By means of this correlation of form and content Plato invites his readers, through the very act of reading, to take a first step along the path of the philosophical life.

Uses an interdisciplinary approach to throw light on the transmission process of Linear A to Linear B script, by combining structural and linguistic analyses with epigraphic, palaeographic and archaeological investigations and by placing the writing practice in its socio-historical setting. Of interest to linguists, archaeologists and historians.

Shows that wonder and wonders constituted a central theme in Greek culture from Homer to the Hellenistic period. Argues for its importance in discussions of the purpose of philosophy and literature and in expressions of the relationships between the human and the divine and between self and other.

This book explores how different forms of reasoning and of divine disclosure played equally integral and harmonious roles in the emergence of systematic epistemology in archaic Greece, and particularly in Hesiod, Xenophanes and Parmenides. Provides a fresh perspective on long-standing questions of rationality and irrationality, philosophy and religion.

This book examines a type of object that was widespread and very popular in classical antiquity - votive offerings in the shape of parts of the human body, using them to explore how beliefs about the body changed throughout the period. It will be of interest to scholars and students of classics as well as religious studies.

The first edition with introduction and commentary of a unique second-century BC land survey written on papyrus in Greek which, coming from Edfu in Upper Egypt, provides a new picture of landholding and taxation in the area. This volume is essential for all scholars of ancient Egypt and Hellenistic history.

This book examines how the biographical traditions of ancient poets and artists parallel the creative processes of biographers themselves, both within antiquity and beyond. Each chapter explores a range of biographical material that highlights the complexity of how readers and viewers imagine the lives of ancient creator-figures.

This book studies the idea and practice of reperformance as it affects ancient lyric poetry and drama, and especially how poets and critics use this idea to create a deep temporal sense. All chapters are informed by recent developments in performance studies, and all Greek and Latin is translated.

Argues that the mysterious Roman satirist Juvenal actively worked to wipe all trace of the author from the text as a way of processing and publicising a dangerous political climate. Will interest scholars of the literature and history of imperial Rome and those working in authorship and anonymity studies.

This study describes the meaning of libertas as a political idea at Rome during the two hundred years or so between the Gracchi and Trajan, a period in which the Republican constitution gradually gave way and was finally superceded by the Principate which, in its own turn, considerably changed during the first century AD.

Studies the philosophical development of the meaning of the Greek word eoikos, which can be used to describe similarity, plausibility or even suitability. It focuses on Xenophanes, Parmenides and Plato's Timaeus and shows how such a study serves to enhance our understanding of their epistemology and methodology.

This book focuses on the development of Platonic philosophy at the hands of Roman writers between the first century BCE and the early fifth century CE. It discusses the interpretation of Plato's Timaeus by Cicero, Apuleius, Calcidius, and Augustine, and examines how these authors created new contexts and settings for the intellectual heritage they received and thereby contributed to the construction of the complex and multifaceted genre of Roman Platonism. It takes advantage of the authors' treatment of Plato's Timaeus as a continuous point of reference to illustrate the individuality and originality of each writer in his engagement with this Greek philosophical text; each chooses a specific vocabulary, methodology, and literary setting for his appropriation of Timaean doctrine. The authors' contributions to the dialogue's history of transmission are shown to have enriched and prolonged the enduring significance of Plato's cosmology.

Explores the ideological use of Carthage in the most authoritative of the Augustan literary texts, the Aeneid of Virgil. Addressed to students and scholars of the classical world interested in the literature and ideology produced under autocratic regimes, the representations of enemies and the relationship between history, poetry, and myth.

This book speaks to all admirers of Delphi and its famous prophecies, whether they are experts on ancient Greek religion, students of the ancient world, or just lovers of a good story. It highlights key themes of oracle stories and finds religious meaning in the infamous oracular ambiguity.

In this book, Sophia M. Connell sets out Aristotle's views on female animals and argues that they should be seen in a much more positive light than has been previously thought. This results in a reassessment of many fundamental aspects of Aristotle's metaphysics, philosophy and methodology.

In pre-Roman Italy and Sicily, dozens of languages and writing systems competed and interacted. Using new archaeological evidence and modern theories of bilingualism, this book explores the relationship between Greek and Oscan, two of the most widely spoken languages in the south of the peninsula.

This book shows how Plato, in the Laws, theorizes citizenship as simultaneously a political, ethical, and aesthetic practice. Essential reading for all scholars interested in citizenship and the impact of rhetoric in shaping the forms and content of political discourse in societies.

This book emphasises the role of verbal as well as visual allusion in positioning the plays of New Comedy within the context of contemporary polis culture and in instigating sophisticated processes of audience response. It will interest all classicists as well as scholars of theatre, performance and cultural studies in general.

Focusing on key ancient responses to the five-part narrative of human history in Hesiod's Works and Days, this book argues that critical disciplines from philosophy to satire defined themselves in part through questions about 'Hesiodic' teaching. It will be of interest to scholars of ancient literature and the development of intellectual traditions.

The Athenians themselves invented the notion of 'classical' tragedy just a few generations after the city's defeat in the Peloponnesian War. This study marks the first account of how Athens constructed its theatrical past and sheds new light upon the interaction between the city's literary and political history.

Offers scholars of Greek literature new evidence of Aristophanes' polemical use of philosophy in poetic competition; ancient philosophers new evidence of the popular reception of Parmenides; and scholars in theatre studies new evidence that explicit theorizing about theatre begins with a comic appropriation of Eleatic ideas about reality and illusion.

This book selects central moments in the literary reception of the Works and Days in antiquity, studies these moments in sophisticated depth, and pays particular attention to Hesiod's importance as the founding father of 'didactic literature'. It will appeal to all those with a serious interest in ancient literature.

A thorough examination of the nature and function of absolute constructions in Greek, Latin and Sanskrit, including a detailed description of how they interact with their syntactic environment. Of great interest and importance to historical linguists and to classicists and Sanskrit scholars concerned with the history of those languages.

Desire is a central concept in Aristotle's ethical and psychological works, but he does not provide us with a systematic treatment of the notion itself. This book reconstructs the account of desire latent in his various scattered remarks on the subject and analyses its role in his moral psychology.

This book studies the reception of Plato's dialogues as performance texts both by his original audience and by his readers down to late antiquity. A combination of well-known and newly discovered pieces of literary and archaeological evidence tell the forgotten story of 'Plato the playwright'.

This book advances a revisionist approach towards the clash between humanism and Christian Orthodoxy in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries that led to the secular utopianism and paganism of visionary Platonist, Gemistos Plethon. An important read for those interested in ancient and medieval philosophy, Byzantine studies and the Renaissance.