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In the context of recent challenges to long-standing assumptions
about the nature of Ennius' Annals and the editorial methods
appropriate to the poem's fragmentary remains, this volume seeks to
move Ennian studies forward on three axes. First, a re-evaluation
of the literary and historical precedents for and building blocks
of Ennius' poem in order to revise the history of early Latin
literature. Second, a cross-fertilization of recent critical
approaches to the fields of poetry and historiography. Third,
reflection on the tools and methods that will best serve future
literary and historical research on the Annals and its reception.
Adopting different approaches to these broad topics, the fourteen
papers in this volume illustrate how much can be said about Ennius'
poem and its place in literary history independent of any
commitment to inevitably speculative totalizing interpretations.
Caesar's Civil War is an unfinished masterpiece. It was abandoned
by an author who found himself living in a different world than
that which saw its commencement. A snapshot of the late republic,
it offers a vivid and detailed account of the troubled Roman empire
near the turn to the common era. In it, Caesar recounts his break
with the Senate and general Pompey and narrates the events of the
nineteen months of civil war that followed. It ends after general
Pompey's death, amidst the lead up to the Alexandrian war that
initiated the next phase of the fight for Rome. The work shows the
brilliance for which Caesar's oratory, like his generalship, was
known. The primary topics covered in this introduction to Caesar's
gripping history are the generic background of Caesar's commentarii
or "Notebooks," his criteria for selection of material, the
contemporary context of the civil war, the literary techniques
employed, and the work's characterization and structure. General
aids to the reader include maps to accompany the particular events
discussed, a timeline of the civil war and of Caesar's life,
explanation of technical terms, and a glossary.
Studies on the Text of Caesar's Bellum civile is a companion volume
to Damon's revised Oxford Classical Texts edition of Caesar's
Bellum civile, his account of his civil war with Pompey. Comprising
three parts, this volume investigates the detailed philological
arguments that underpin the revised edition of the text. The first
part supplements the preface of the Oxford Classical Texts edition,
providing an expanded background on the history of the text and a
more detailed argument for the shape of the stemma. The second part
is a discussion of nature and the causes of the difficulties
present in the text of the Bellum civile and their consequences for
the revised edition. The third part presents a series of around 75
notes on different areas of the text, exploring in depth the
contentions behind the various remedies suggested in the critical
apparatus of the Oxford Classical Texts edition.
Civil wars, more than other wars, sear themselves into the memory
of societies that suffer them. This is particularly true at Rome,
where in a period of 150 years the Romans fought four epochal wars
against themselves. The present volume brings together exciting new
perspectives on the subject by an international group of
distinguished contributors. The basis of the investigation is
broad, encompassing literary texts, documentary texts, and material
culture, spanning the Greek and Roman worlds. Attention is devoted
not only to Rome's four major conflicts from the period between the
80s BC and AD 69, but the frame extends to engage conflicts both
previous and much later, as well as post-classical constructions of
the theme of civil war at Rome. Divided into four sections, the
first ("Beginnings, Endings") addresses the basic questions of when
civil war began in Rome and when it ended. "Cycles" is concerned
with civil war as a recurrent phenomenon without end. "Aftermath"
focuses on attempts to put civil war in the past, or, conversely,
to claim the legacy of past civil wars, for better or worse.
Finally, the section "Afterlife" provides views of Rome's civil
wars from more distant perspectives, from those found in Augustan
lyric and elegy to those in much later post-classical literary
responses. As a whole, the collection sheds new light on the ways
in which the Roman civil wars were perceived, experienced, and
represented across a variety of media and historical periods.
In the context of recent challenges to long-standing assumptions
about the nature of Ennius' Annals and the editorial methods
appropriate to the poem's fragmentary remains, this volume seeks to
move Ennian studies forward on three axes. First, a re-evaluation
of the literary and historical precedents for and building blocks
of Ennius' poem in order to revise the history of early Latin
literature. Second, a cross-fertilization of recent critical
approaches to the fields of poetry and historiography. Third,
reflection on the tools and methods that will best serve future
literary and historical research on the Annals and its reception.
Adopting different approaches to these broad topics, the fourteen
papers in this volume illustrate how much can be said about Ennius'
poem and its place in literary history independent of any
commitment to inevitably speculative totalizing interpretations.
The first historical work by Rome's greatest historian, Tacitus'
Histories hold a crucial place in the history of Latin literature.
Book I covers the beginning of the infamous 'Year of the Four
Emperors' (69 CE), which brought imperial Rome to the brink of
destruction after the demise of the Julio-Claudian dynasty. Galba,
Otho, and Vitellius ride the currents of senatorial politics and
military sedition to power, while the survivor Vespasian waits just
off-stage. After a distinguished public career during the
principates of Vespasian and his sons, Tacitus, in middle age,
embarked on a historical narrative recording the seering events of
the Rome of his youth. This edition provides a Latin text of Book
I, a commentary accessible to students of intermediate level and
above, and an introduction discussing historical, literary, and
stylistic issues. The chance survival of three parallel accounts
permits detailed analysis of Tacitus' selection and stylization of
material.
Caesar's Civil War is an unfinished masterpiece. It was abandoned
by an author who found himself living in a different world than
that which saw its commencement. A snapshot of the late republic,
it offers a vivid and detailed account of the troubled Roman empire
near the turn to the common era. In it, Caesar recounts his break
with the Senate and general Pompey and narrates the events of the
nineteen months of civil war that followed. It ends after general
Pompey's death, amidst the lead up to the Alexandrian war that
initiated the next phase of the fight for Rome. The work shows the
brilliance for which Caesar's oratory, like his generalship, was
known. The primary topics covered in this introduction to Caesar's
gripping history are the generic background of Caesar's commentarii
or "Notebooks," his criteria for selection of material, the
contemporary context of the civil war, the literary techniques
employed, and the work's characterization and structure. General
aids to the reader include maps to accompany the particular events
discussed, a timeline of the civil war and of Caesar's life,
explanation of technical terms, and a glossary.
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Annals (Paperback)
Tacitus; Translated by Cynthia Damon; Introduction by Cynthia Damon
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R396
R324
Discovery Miles 3 240
Save R72 (18%)
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A compelling new translation of Tacitus' Annals, one of the
greatest accounts of ancient Rome, by Cynthia Damon. Tacitus'
Annals recounts the major historical events from the years shortly
before the death of Augustus to the death of Nero in AD 68. With
clarity and vivid intensity Tacitus describes the reign of terror
under the corrupt Tiberius, the great fire of Rome during the time
of Nero and the wars, poisonings, scandals, conspiracies and
murders that were part of imperial life. Despite his claim that the
Annals were written objectively, Tacitus' account is sharply
critical of the emperors' excesses and fearful for the future of
imperial Rome, while also filled with a longing for its past
glories.
Oxford Classical Texts, also known as Scriptorum Classicorum
Bibliotheca Oxoniensis, provide authoritative, clear, and reliable
editions of ancient texts, with apparatus criticus on each page. In
this revised critical edition of Caesar's account of his civil war
against Pompey during 49-48 BC, Damon allows readers to get closer
to the renowned author's original writings than ever before. Based
on a new collation of the ancient manuscripts and on a stemma that
permits the reconstruction of the archetype more frequently than
has previously been possible, the text is suitable for classroom
use in upper-level Latin classes, as well as for reading and
research purposes. A comprehensive English preface is followed by a
conspectus editionum, which lists the 300+ places where modern
editions of the text differ from each other, while the Latin text
is complemented by an expanded and up-to-date critical apparatus.
Also included are an appendix critica which allows readers to gauge
the character of the manuscript witnesses to the text, and an
appendix orthographica which explains the orthographical principles
underlying the printed text. This Oxford Classical Text is also
accompanied by a companion volume, Studies on the Text of Caesar's
Bellum civile, which presents the detailed philological arguments
underpinning this revised edition.
When Romans applied the term "parasite" to contemporaries in
dependent circumstances, or "clientes," they were evoking one of
the stock characters of ancient Greek comedy. In the Roman world
the parasite was moved out of his native genre into the literatures
of invective and social criticism, where his Greek origins made him
a uniquely useful transmitter of Roman perceptions. Whenever the
figure of the parasite is used to mask a person in Roman society,
we know that an effort of interpretation is underway. The fit
between the mask and its wearer is in the eyes of the beholder, and
in Rome the mask seemed to fit people in many different situations:
entrepreneurs, tax-farmers, lawyers, female companions,
philosophers, and poets.
In "The Mask of the Parasite," Cynthia Damon maintains that the
parasite of Latin literature is a negative reflection of the
"cliens," In Part One she assembles a composite picture of the
comic parasite using as evidence fragments of Greek comedy, works
from Greek writers of the imperial period whose works reflect the
comic tradition, and the ten complete plays of Roman comedy in
which a parasite appears. In parts two and three she examines the
ways in which Cicero and the satirists use the figure of the
parasite: Cicero in belittling his opponents in court, Horace and
Martial in creating a negative foil for the "poeta cliens," Juvenal
in painting contemporary patron/client relationships as morally and
spiritually bankrupt.
"The Mask of the Parasite" is a fascinating study of the
intersection of literature and society in ancient Rome. However,
neither the parasite nor patronage is confined to the Roman world.
Students of classical studies as well asstudents of literature and
cultural studies will find this to be a work of utmost importance
in understanding these complex issues of human interaction.
Cynthia Damon is Assistant Professor of Classics, Amherst
College
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