Donald Russell, Emeritus Professor of Classical Literature at the University of Oxford, has been a leading figure in several fields of classical scholarship over the last few decades. The present volume collects essays written in his honour by scholars who have all worked closely with him. They fall into three sections, corresponding to Donald Russell's main work: Latin literature, Greek imperial literature, and ancient literary criticism. They are unified by two of Russell's own pervasive concerns: ethics, the concern of classical literature with moral conduct, and rhetoric, the techniques of effective persuasion.

A new edition of the Latin text, with a facing English prose translation, of one of Rome's most notorious and ferocious plays. The lengthy, useful introductionexamines all aspects of the play's literary and thematic features, placing it firmly within the context of the 1st century AD, whilst also trying to determine the processes that led Seneca to create such a bleak view of the universe. Hine's discussion includes a biography of Seneca, a history of tragedy and the Roman theatre, the influence of Stoicism, politics and religion, characterisation, the play's language, devices and structure, questions of staging and the manuscript tradition.