This book provides the first full edition and commentary of the Oxyrhynchus Glossary (POxy 1802 and 4812). This is a unique document both for the history of Greek lexicography and for the study of the cultural and linguistic exchange between the Greeks and the "others" in the Hellenistic near East. The fragment contains a fully alphabetized glossary with lemmas defined as "Persian," "Babylonian," and "Chaldaean", as well as lemmas taken from Greek dialects or common Greek. The entries are rich in quotations from ancient authorities including Berossus, Apollodorus and Erasistratus. This glossary had never been analyzed in depth previously. Francesca Schironi provides a comprehensive introduction and commentary that places the Oxyrhynchus Glossary into the wider context of Greek lexicography and scholarship, discusses its interest for non-Greek languages and the problems related to linguistic exchanges in the Near Eastern areas, and shows the uniqueness and value of this document. The Oxyrhynchus glossary and this study will be of interest to classicists, papyrologists, comparative philologists, and scholars interested in the history of Greek lexicography and scholarship.

A systematic and chronoloical investigation into the nature and development of end-titles in papyrus rolls and codices of hexameter poetry from the III century BC through the VI century AD. The bulk of the evidence for presentation of hexametric verse derives from Homeric papyri (51 papyrus copies), although Hesiod's Theogony, Works & Days, and Shield (two), and Oppian's Halieutica likewise supply data (one). For comparative purposes the author also provides a sampling of end-titles in non-epic genres. The discussion of individual papyri and summation of the results are rich and informative. Includes bibliographical references, charts with comparative statistics, and pertinent indices.

A founding father of the "art of philology," Aristarchus of Samothrace (216-144 BCE) developed a sound, almost scientific method of literary exegesis, making a profound contribution to ancient scholarship. In his work on the text of Homer's Iliad, his methods and principles inevitably informed, even reshaped, his edition of the epic. The Best of the Grammarians, a systematic study of the most famous grammarian in Alexandria, places Aristarchus and his Iliadic scholia, or marginal annotations, within the context and cultural environment of his own time. Francesca Schironi presents a more robust picture of Aristarchus as a scholar than anyone has offered previously. Based on her analysis of over 4,300 fragments of his scholia, she reconstructs Aristarchus' methodology and its relationship to earlier scholarship, and especially to Aristotle, as well as the cultural milieu in which he was immersed. In doing so, Schironi departs from the standard commentary on individual fragments, and instead offers a broad yet rigorously scholarly examination of how Aristarchus worked. Combining the accuracy and detail of old-school philological works on individual fragments with a big-picture study enabling the identification of recurrent patterns and methodological trends across Aristarchus' work, this volume represents a new approach to scholarship in Alexandrian and classical philology. It will be the go-to reference book on this topic for many years to come, and will usher in a new way of addressing the highly technical work of ancient scholars without losing philological accuracy, shifting the focus from details of individual fragments to the broader picture of how ancient scholars approached literary texts, what drove their methodology, and what contribution their work provided to those who came after them. This book will be valuable to classicists and philologists interested in scholarship on Aristarchus, Homer and Homeric criticism in antiquity, the history of Greek culture, Hellenistic scholarship, and ancient literary criticism.