A collection of the finest and most important writing of the Roman period, this title gives the reader access to a diversity of texts that shaped Roman thinking and provided the foundations of Western culture. 49 halftones.

The wonders of the Greek world are presented in a modern, accessible manner, perfect for those looking to refresh their acquaintance with the classics and for those who have yet to explore the exciting intellectual energy of ancient Greece. Atchity focuses not only on the big names but also on the less-familiar voices--the women, doctors, storytellers, herbalists, and romance writers of the time. 43 photos.

In Readers and Reading Culture in the High Roman Empire, William Johnson examines the system and culture of reading among the elite in second-century Rome. The investigation proceeds in case-study fashion using the principal surviving witnesses, beginning with the communities of Pliny and Tacitus (with a look at Pliny's teacher, Quintilian) from the time of the emperor Trajan. Johnson then moves on to explore elite reading during the era of the Antonines, including the medical community around Galen, the philological community around Gellius and Fronto (with a look at the curious reading habits of Fronto's pupil Marcus Aurelius), and the intellectual communities lampooned by the satirist Lucian. Along the way, evidence from the papyri is deployed to help to understand better and more concretely both the mechanics of reading, and the social interactions that surrounded the ancient book. The result is a rich cultural history of individual reading communities that differentiate themselves in interesting ways even while in aggregate showing a coherent reading culture with fascinating similarities and contrasts to the reading culture of today.

A reissue in paperback of a title first published in 1949.

Who were the ancient Romans? Views of Rome addresses this question by offering a collection of thirty-five annotated excerpts from Greek prose authors. As Adam Serfass explains in his introduction, these authors’ characterizations of the Romans run the gamut from fellow Hellenes, civilizers, and peacemakers to barbarians, boors, and warmongers. Although many of the authors featured in this volume—including Augustus, Cassius Dio, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Eusebius, Josephus, Julian, Libanius, Plutarch, Polybius, Strabo, and the writers of the New Testament—are important sources for Roman civilization, their written works are rarely presented in accessible Greek-language editions. These authors wrote in a variety of styles and dialects, and this collection enables readers to experience the range of expression the Greek language makes possible. Views of Rome is divided into five parts spanning early Rome through late antiquity. Within these parts, each prose selection is prefaced with a description of the featured author and the larger work from which the excerpt is drawn, as well as suggestions for further reading in English. The Greek passages themselves are accompanied by notes that provide crucial assistance for understanding grammar and vocabulary, thus enabling students to read the language with greater speed, accuracy, and nuance. Designed for advanced undergraduate- and graduate-level readers of Greek, this student-friendly book bridges the worlds of Greece and Rome and inspires discussion of identity, empire, religion, and politics—matters much debated in classical antiquity and in the present day.

The writings of the Greeks and Romans form the bedrock of Western culture. Inventing the molds for histories, tragedies, and philosophies, while pioneering radical new forms of epic and poetry, the Greeks and Romans created the literary world we still inhabit today. Writing with verve and insight, distinguished classicist Richard Jenkyns explores a thousand years of classical civilization, carrying readers from the depths of the Greek dark ages through the glittering heights of Rome's empire. Jenkyns begins with Homer and the birth of epic poetry before exploring the hypnotic poetry of Pindar, Sappho, and others from the Greek dark ages. Later, in Athens's classical age, Jenkyns shows the radical nature of Sophocles's choice to portray Ajax as a psychologically wounded warrior, how Aeschylus developed tragedy, and how Herodotus, in "inventing history," brought to narrative an epic and tragic quality. We meet the strikingly modern figure of Virgil, struggling to mirror epic art in an age of empire, and experience the love poems of Catullus, who imbued verse with obsessive passion as never before. Even St. Paul and other early Christian writers are artfully grounded here in their classical literary context. A dynamic and comprehensive introduction to Greek and Roman literature, Jenkyns's Classical Literature is essential reading for anyone seeking a deeper understanding of the classics -- and the extraordinary origins of Western culture. "There is scarcely anything on which he does not offer an original aperç sometimes illuminating, sometimes simply provocative, but always worth reading... Jenkyns's view of ancient literature is Olympian." -- G.W. Bowersock, The New York Review of Books

How do we retrieve the lives of "real Roman women"? This book presents a range of examples to support the argument that our ideas of what we "know" about women's work, sexuality, commerce and political activity in the Roman world have been shaped by the format, or genre, of each ancient source.