Göttinger Forum für Altertumswissenschaft. Beihefte N.F.

As a "world poem," Ovid’s Metamorphoses do not deal with the deeds of a single hero, but with the entirety of world history, from Chaos to the Augustan period. Its cast of characters is accordingly impressive, and are the complexity of the relationship networks and the dynamics of the characters’ development in relationship to each other. This volume looks at intertextuality and intermateriality, extending this diversity past the world portrayed.

In 56 BCE, Cicero defended Lucius Cornelius Balbus of Spain, one of the Pompey and Caesar Triumvirate’s protégés, who was to have his Roman citizenship revoked. Apart from his speech on behalf of the poet Archias, the Balbiana is Cicero’s only surviving speech and deals with issues of Roman citizenship, making it a significant witness to the theory and practice of awarding citizenship in the late Republican period.

In the first pentad of his history, Livy presents the history of the city of Rome and its immediate surroundings, from its founding until 390 CE. Starting with the praefatio, in which Livy comments on the nature and intention of his presentation, this book examines the literary techniques that Livy applied to present the city of Rome in this period.

Africa was for the most part an unchartered continent when the Augustinian poets Virgil, Horace, and Propertius made it an object of literary fiction in epic and lyric poetry. This study analyzes their concepts of poetic composition in detail to show which fictional images of Africa were created intentionally and how they were able to become influential models of perception in the discourse on Africa both in their own time and in later periods.

The day after he returned from exile, Cicero gave a speech of thanks to the senate. This is the first modern commentary of that oration, cum senatui gratias egit. Considering the matching oration Cicero gave to the people as well, this book is an important contribution to an overlooked area of Cicero studies. The commentary focuses in particular on textual issues.

The Festschrift presents the results of the conference "Vestis variata. Texts and Structures - Motifs and Intertexts", which took place at the University of Bamberg on the occasion of the 70th birthday of the important classical philologist Niklas Holzberg. The focus is on the 'text', whose structure and motifs both constitute its unity and point beyond it: 'text' and 'context' interact via structural and genre elements as well as via topoi and motifs. Renowned classical philologists explain the complicated relationship between 'text' and 'context' - always in search of 'plain text'.

In other words, it is about those aspects of literary studies that Niklas Holzberg has focussed on during his long life as a researcher. The lectures by his colleagues, friends and students, which were held at the Bamberg conference and discussed in a variety of ways, are now collected here. They cover the entire spectrum of ancient and modern genres and authors: from the sayings of the Seven Wise Men to Sappho, Aristophanes, Longos, Catullus, Ovid, Martial and Juvenal to neo-Latin poetry and specialised literature. The anthology provides insights into the research work and offers stimulating reflections on the research achievements of the exceptional philologist Niklas Holzberg.

For the first time, this basic work systematically analyzes the most important ancient theories of literary fiction, from Homer to Isidore of Seville. Since the notion of fiction has taken on diverse meaning in modern literary theories, the book begins with an introductory definition that seeks to strictly differentiate fiction from other forms of untruth.

Plautus‘ prologues are the starting point for many of his comedies. Their speakers introduce the audience to a parallel world, entertain them, create a sense of suspense for what is to come, and influence their view far into the play. The book analyses the methods and structures that are called into play and the virtuosity of the variations used to help each comedy achieve its optimal effect.

In recent years, the methods of modern narrative theory have become essential tools for researching ancient texts. This work analyzes figural perspectives in the Civil War epic Pharsalia by the Roman poet Lucan (39-65 AD), and describes their function in communicating the overall message of the text. The author demonstrates unique elements in Lucan’s figural perspective through a comparison with Virgil’s Aeneid.

The three Flavian poets, Valerius Flaccus, Statius, and Silius Italicus, held different views on the form and function of epic storytelling. This study shows which personae perform the role of storyteller in their works and how these interact with the narrated world and are mirrored by the singers and prophetic characters in the narrative.

This new edition of The Suasoriae of Seneca the Elder contains, in addition to the original text, its first-ever commentary, providing helpful assistance with the hard-to-read declamations. The introduction addresses problems in Seneca the Elder scholarship (the poor state of The Suasoriae’s written record, for instance) and with ancient declamation. All those interested in scholastic rhetoric and the culture of the early empire will find in this book an enlightening study of a neglected area of research.

In this volume of papers 19 authors demonstrate on the basis of selected examples how Virgil’s works, and above all his Aeneid, have been received by modern authors. The examples span six centuries (from the 15^th to the 20^th century). They are not limited to the Latin reception, but also present texts from various genres and languages (including Latin, German, English, French, Italian etc.). The volume thus provides an impressive review of the variety of the modern reception of Virgil.

In the 9th Book of Lucan’s “Bellum Civile”, the young Cato takes centre stage. With this, the epic also reaches the climax in its representation of Stoic ethics and interpretation of nature. In his commentary on verses 1-733 and three further essays on particular questions, Martin Seewald places particular emphasis on explicating Lucan’s paradoxical train of thought and the philosophical and scientific view of the world underlying the historical epic narrative.

The work presented here is a historical commentary on an ancient biography of one of the Persian Great Kings (Artaxerxes II, reigned 404-359 BC). The author was the Greek scholar Plutarch (c. AD 45-120). The aim of the commentary is to make the text, which was written some 500 years after the events described, accessible as a source to the modern historian.