A series of innovative studies in the textual and literary criticism of Latin literature and their mutually supportive relationship.

A History Today Best Book of the Year A Choice Outstanding Academic Title of the Year Virgil, Ovid, Cicero, Horace, and other authors of ancient Rome are so firmly established in the Western canon today that the birth of Latin literature seems inevitable. Yet, Denis Feeney boldly argues, the beginnings of Latin literature were anything but inevitable. The cultural flourishing that in time produced the Aeneid, the Metamorphoses, and other Latin classics was one of the strangest events in history. “Feeney is to be congratulated on his willingness to put Roman literary history in a big comparative context...It is a powerful testimony to the importance of Denis Feeney’s work that the old chestnuts of classical literary history—how the Romans got themselves Hellenized, and whether those jack-booted thugs felt anxiously belated or smugly domineering in their appropriation of Greek culture for their own purposes—feel fresh and urgent again.” —Emily Wilson, Times Literary Supplement “[Feeney’s] bold theme and vigorous writing render Beyond Greek of interest to anyone intrigued by the history and literature of the classical world.” —The Economist

A critical reassessment of the methods of Latin textual criticism and editing, in a form accessible to non-specialists.

This volume contains the first attempt to show in detail how two Latin texts, the history of Alexander the Great, written by Quintus Curtius Rufus, and the spoof history of the Trojan War, allegedly written by Dictys Cretensis, survived from antiquity until the fifteenth century, when printing provided a new security.

Building in Words explores the relationship between text and architecture in the Roman world from the perspective of architectural process. Ancient Romans frequently encountered buildings under construction - they experienced noisy building work, disruptive transportation of materials, and sometimes spectacular engineering feats. Bettina Reitz-Joosse analyzes how Roman authors responded to the process of building and construction in their literary works. Roman authors tell stories of architectural creation to give meaning to finished monuments. Their narratives can stress technological or logistic mastery or highlight morally problematic aspects of construction, particularly in large-scale engineering projects. While offering descriptions of the process of creating architecture, Roman writers also reflect on the creation of their own works. Building in Words demonstrates the richness of the image of construction for literary composition: writers use it to comment on the aesthetics or ambition of their literary work, to articulate the power and durability, but also the fragility of literature. Reitz-Joosse here offers original readings of a range of literary authors of the early Roman empire, including Vergil, Pliny the Elder, Tacitus, and Statius, and places literary texts in dialogue with contemporary epigraphic and archaeological material. Through its focus on building as a process, Building in Words furthers our understanding of the aesthetics of both architecture and literature in ancient Rome.

A Companion to Latin Literature gives an authoritativeaccount of Latin literature from its beginnings in the thirdcentury BC through to the end of the second century AD. Provides expert overview of the main periods of Latin literaryhistory, major genres, and key themes Covers all the major Latin works of prose and poetry, fromEnnius to Augustine, including Lucretius, Cicero, Catullus, Livy,Vergil, Seneca, and Apuleius Includes invaluable reference material – dictionaryentries on authors, chronological chart of political and literaryhistory, and an annotated bibliography Serves as both a discursive literary history and a generalreference book