Bücher der Reihe Cambridge Classical Studies

This book examines the work of Ammianus Marcellinus, who has often been underestimated as a writer while lauded as an historian. This book portrays him as a subtler writer and more manipulative and partial historian, using allusion to the classical past to insinuate different meanings.

This 1992 book is a major literary re-evaluation of Lucan's epic poem, the Bellum Civile ('The Civil War'). Its main purpose is to bring out the implications of one basic premise: this poem is not only about civil war, but uses the metaphor of civil war (i.e. self-destruction and internal discord) as the basis for the way it tells its story.

This book is at once an analytical study of one of the most important mathematical texts of antiquity, the Mathematical Collection of the fourth-century AD mathematician Pappus of Alexandria, and also an examination of the work's wider cultural setting.

The Chain of Change, first published in 1990, is a philosophical commentary devoted to Aristotle's Physics VII, in which Aristotle argues for the existence of a first, unmoved cosmic mover. This study systematically considers the major issues of the book.

How was the poet Homer imagined by ancient Greeks? This book examines stories about this elusive figure that circulated between the sixth and fourth centuries BC, and attempts to explore the ancient reception of the Homeric poems and to look at it in relation to modern conceptions and approaches.

This book analyzes the historical transformation of early mathematics, from a Greek practice based on the localized solution to an Islamic practice based on the systematic approach. The transformation is accounted for in terms of changing social practices, thereby offering an alternate interpretation of the historical trajectory of mathematics.

Apollonius Rhodius' influential epic poem from the Hellenistic period is here examined from a number of perspectives, with the main emphasis on thematic and narrative complexities arising from the poet's use of language. Written in an accessible style, this book breaks new ground in the critical interpretation of the poem.

This is an in-depth treatment of Juvenal's third book of Satires, which gives a welcome overview of the development of Juvenal's satiric output.

A feature of Roman rhetorical education under the early empire was the dominance of the declamatio - the declamation on a mythological, historical or quasi-legal theme. The elder Seneca, father of the philosopher and dramatist, compiled an anthology of the often bizarre utterances of the declaimers.

This 1999 book is a wide-ranging study of the language of Sophocles. From a detailed analysis of sentence-structure it moves on to discuss how language shapes the perception of characters, of myths, of gods and of choruses. All chapters are concerned to investigate how Sophoclean language engages readers and spectators.

The astronomical material in Ovid's Fasti has been overlooked by the current trend of scholarly interest in the poem. It is this material which is the subject of this book. The author does not study Ovid's stars using the techniques of mathematical astronomy. Rather she aims to combine the methodology of recent 'programmatic' or genre-based readings with a broad cultural perspective.

This is a 1999 study of one of the most famous poems of Roman literature. By close reading of selected passages from the Georgics the author seeks to understand the work in terms of the cultural and political upheavals which were afflicting Rome at the time of its composition.

This in-depth and engaging study of Aristotle's theory of the sense-organs shows the extent to which his theory is motivated by his interest in form and function.

In Aristotle's view, Anaxagoras stood out from the other Presocratics as a sober man among the incoherent. This book explores the fragmentary evidence both for Anaxagoras' concept of mind - to which Aristotle was particularly referring - and for his subtle, complex and elusive theory of matter and change.

This book reconstructs the life and workings of the Appianus estate in the Fayum district of Egypt under Roman rule in the third century AD. Basing his study on the extensive documentary evidence of the Heroninos archive, consisting of hundreds of letters and accounts on papyrus, Dr Rathbone examines the nature of rural society at the time.

Ovid, a poet unashamedly in love in poetry, including his own, has enjoyed a recent renaissance in popularity. Yet there is still a certain tendency amongst critics to withhold from his writing the close, word-by-word, engagement which is its due. The primary aim of The Metamorphosis of Persephone is to celebrate this poet's detailed verbal art.

This book attempts to provide a more positive assessment of Lucretius' aims and methodology by considering the poet's attitude to myth, and the role which it plays in the De Rerum Natura, against the background of earlier and contemporary views.

This interpretation of Plato's dialogue, the Sophist, shows how important the issues concerning the sophist are to the possibility of philosophy. Plato is seen to struggle with difficult philosophical issues in a single line of inquiry and, in defining the sophist, to reveal his conception of the authentic philosopher.

An interpretation of Hellenistic and Roman education. Teresa Morgan draws on evidence from all over the classical world, including papyri from Graeco-Roman Egypt, to re-examine one of the institutions which made that world an entity, and which was one of its most influential legacies to the west.

A 1976 study of the organization and tactics of the Seleucid armies from 312 to 129 BC. Dr Bar-Kochva discusses the numerical strength of the armies, their sources of manpower and their equipment and historical development, and also reconstructs the great campaigns in order to examine the Seleucid tactics.

This study examines how one of the most popular and glamorous figures of Greek mythology, and a key character in the Homeric epics, was imagined on the tragic stage of fifth-century Athens. Dr Michelakis argues that dramatists persistently appropriated Achilles to address concerns of their time.

Demos is a study of a classical city-state, providing an integrated account which gives due attention to the countryside as well as urban areas of a polis. Concentrating on classical Athens, it establishes the nature of settlement in the countryside and how it relates to farming, mineral mining and political participation in local and central politics.

This book is a philosophical analysis of Plato's dialogue, the Statesman. Dr Lane finds that rather than being transitional between the Republic and the Laws, the Statesman deserves a special place of its own - the dialogue emerging as a text which proposes an alternative conception of knowledge, authority, and the relationship between them.

This study examines the literary complexities of the poetry which Ovid wrote in Tomis, his place of exile after his banishiment from Rome. The author contests Ovid's claims of the terminal decline of his art through close analysis of the literary manoeuvres contradicting his prose, counteracting traditional scholarly antipathy to these poems.

By analysing a selection of speeches of the Athenian orator Andokides and the decisions reached by his audience on each occasion, Dr Missiou demonstrates that the orator had divergent perceptions, values and attitudes from those of his audience on a number of issues. By this means she challenges the criticism that the decisions of the Assembly during this period were irresponsible and irrational.

Cicero's letters are saturated with learned philosophical allusions and arguments. This innovative study shows just how fundamental these are for understanding Cicero's philosophical activities and for explaining the enduring interest of his ethical and political thought. Dr McConnell draws particular attention to Cicero's treatment of Plato's Seventh Letter and his views on the relationship between philosophy and politics. He also illustrates the various ways in which Cicero finds philosophy an appealing and effective mode of self-presentation and a congenial, pointed medium for talking to his peers about ethical and political concerns. The book offers a range of fresh insights into the impressive scope and sophistication of Cicero's epistolary and philosophical practice and the vibrancy of the philosophical environment of the first century BC. A new picture emerges of Cicero the philosopher and philosophy's place in Roman political culture.

Apuleius of Madauros, writing in the latter half of the second century CE in Roman North Africa, is best known to us today for his Latin fiction, the Metamorphoses aka The Golden Ass, about a man who turned into a donkey and back again. However, he was also a Platonic philosopher, who, even though many of his writings are lost, wrote a range of rhetorical and philosophical works which survive to this day. This book examines these works to reveal how Apuleius' Platonism is a result of his 'impersonation of philosophy', that is, a rhetorically powerful methodological tool that allows him to 'speak' on behalf of Plato and his philosophy. This book is the first exploration of the full scope of his idiosyncratic brand of Platonism across his multifarious literary corpus and is a major contribution to the study of the dynamic between literature and philosophy in antiquity and beyond.

This 1983 book provides a serious modern literary treatment of perhaps the best known of all surviving works of ancient Greek fiction. Dr Hunter demonstrates the sophistication of this pastoral romance, a sophistication which he maintains has often been assumed but never properly discussed. Evidence for the identity of the author and the date of composition are also considered.

Bucchero is a very common type of fine pottery that was made by the Etruscans when their civilization was at its height, from the seventh to the fourth century BC. This study concentrates on the products of South Etruria, where the earliest and finest bucchero was made, and where the tradition lasts longest. Until recently bucchero has been little studied, and the aim of this book is to present a sequence of pottery from archaeological contexts, so that the development of the ware can be seen as a whole within a chronological framework. Many of the tomb-groups catalogued are published here for the first time. In studying the shapes careful consideration is given to the affinities with Greek and with other Etruscan wares. A full survey of the decorative techniques is included, and the pattern of distribution both within Etruria and further afield is discussed. An important feature of the book is a series of sixty pages of drawings of the profiles of every shape of bucchero pot studied. Bucchero is of considerable importance as a dating tool, and although the book is directed primarily at specialists, it will also be of interest to anyone who is curious about Etruscan art and archaeology.

A critical study of Persius' poetic aims, aversions and techniques, based mainly on an extended analysis of Satires I. John Bramble shows how Persius' discontent with conventional literary language led him to compress the existing satiric idiom and create a powerful individual style. The author situates Persius' work in the tradition of Roman satire, and shows how he takes the concepts and metaphors of literary criticism back to their physical origins, to indict moral and literary decadence through a series of images connected with, for example, gluttony and sexual excess. This is a model study of a classical text, which makes consistent sense of a difficult and subtle manner, and answers questions posed by the potentially constricting nature of Roman poetic form. It also reconstructs the referential framework of ideas and associations upon which a sophisticated writer addressing a discriminating audience could draw.