Seneca was a man of many facets: statesman, dramatist, philosopher, prose stylist. His life was marked by extremes of fortune - extremes that are reflected in much of his writing, and in the vicissitudes of his reputation in later centuries. This volume brings together some outstanding essays written about him over the past four decades, and illustrates the diversity of approaches by which modern critics have attempted to understand this multifaceted figure. Just as Seneca's writings often reflect his times, so current critical approaches often reflect issues in contemporary thought and society. Several of the essays have been revised by their authors for this volume, and two of them are translated for the first time. A new introduction places the articles within the context of recent academic thought and criticism. All Latin has been translated.

This book argues that poetry is compatible with systematic knowledge including science, and indeed inherent in it; it also discusses particular poems that engage with such knowledge, including those of Lucretius, Vergil, and Vita Sackville-West. The book argues that there are substantial similarities between knowledge-making and poetry-making, for example in their being shaped by language, including metaphor, and in their seeking unity in the world, under the impulse of eros and pleasure. The book also discusses some of the obstacles to a 'poetry of knowledge', including scientific objectivism, the Kantian tradition in philosophy, and the separation of the 'two cultures' in our academic and intellectual institutions. The book is designed to be accessible to all those interested in the issue of the 'two cultures', or in the role of poetry and of science in contemporary culture.

Palladius wrote in the 5th century AD. His is the latest of Roman agricultural texts and perhaps for that reason was the treatise most widely distributed in the medieval world, being translated into Italian, Catalan and Middle English, among other languages. Later, Palladius fell into neglect as the Renaissance preferred more classical authors (Cato, Varro, Columella) and although he was translated into English about 200 years ago (not entirely satisfactorily) his achievements are little known. Palladius is therefore an important guide to agricultural practice at the end of the Empire, and his significance is redoubled because of the sources he relied upon, including Gargilius Martialis, a major text which has not come down to us. Palladius wrote from personal experience of several parts of the Empire; his style is concise and his methods less elaborate than, for instance, Columella's. John Fitch's translation is based on the Rodgers edition of the Latin. This means it includes Book 14, on veterinary medicine, which was not discovered until the 20th century. He provides an introduction placing the work in context; some explicatory drawings, for instance of a reaping machine described by Palladius, and of a wine-pressing room; footnotes elucidating the text itself; and a full index. As the authoritative Latin edition is still available, there is no parallel Latin text in this version.John G. Fitch is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Greek and Roman Studies, the University of Victoria, British Columbia. His research and publications have been much concerned with the work of Seneca, however his interest in Palladius was stimulated by his own life as a small farmer (sheep and fruit trees) on the island of Victoria in Canada.

Seneca was a man of many facets: statesman, dramatist, philosopher, prose stylist. His life was marked by extremes of fortune - extremes that are reflected in much of his writing, and in the vicissitudes of his reputation in later centuries. This volume brings together some outstanding essays written about him over the past four decades, and illustrates the diversity of approaches by which modern critics have attempted to understand this multifaceted figure. Just as Seneca's writings often reflect his times, so current critical approaches often reflect issues in contemporary thought and society. Several of the essays have been revised by their authors for this volume, and two of them are translated for the first time. A new introduction places the articles within the context of recent academic thought and criticism. All Latin has been translated.

John G. Fitch's new Latin text of Seneca's play, Hercules Furens, is based on a collation of the chief manuscripts, including the Paris manuscript T. In his introduction, Fitch traces the conflicting classical portrayals of Hercules a figure embodying altruism and aggrandizement, restraint and wildness and argues that in the play, the untamed side of his nature ultimately turns against him and destroys him.

In introductory notes to individual acts and choral odes, Fitch addresses the play's thematic development and discusses probably influences, including the Greek tragedies of the fifth century B.C., the tragedies of the Hellenistic and Roman Republican periods, and the writings of the Augustan poets, particularly Ovid. His line-by-line commentary focuses on such stylistic matters as wordplay, soundplay, meter, diction, and rhetoric, and he also looks closely at line divisions and at characteristic metrical patterns and anapestic odes. Fitch's assessment of the figure of Hercules in ancient literature, popular religion, and literary/moral tradition will be of compelling interest to classicists and students of later periods."

John G. Fitch's new Latin text of Seneca's play, Hercules Furens, is based on a collation of the chief manuscripts, including the Paris manuscript T. In his introduction, Fitch traces the conflicting classical portrayals of Hercules a figure embodying altruism and aggrandizement, restraint and wildness and argues that in the play, the untamed side of his nature ultimately turns against him and destroys him.

In introductory notes to individual acts and choral odes, Fitch addresses the play's thematic development and discusses probably influences, including the Greek tragedies of the fifth century B.C., the tragedies of the Hellenistic and Roman Republican periods, and the writings of the Augustan poets, particularly Ovid. His line-by-line commentary focuses on such stylistic matters as wordplay, soundplay, meter, diction, and rhetoric, and he also looks closely at line divisions and at characteristic metrical patterns and anapestic odes. Fitch's assessment of the figure of Hercules in ancient literature, popular religion, and literary/moral tradition will be of compelling interest to classicists and students of later periods."