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This book presents an edition of Greek metrical inscriptions from eastern Phrygia (modern Turkey), accompanied by a translation and commentary. It is a corpus of ca. 100 funerary, honorary and votive epigrams from the 2^nd- 5^th c. CE. The commentary is centered on their linguistic, philological and literary features.

It analyses several phenomena related to the late stage of Greek language development and to the spoken language. As regards the literary tradition, even though the Homeric poems are the primary models for most epigrams, the commentary highlights the occurrence of several terms and expressions found in later (epic and non-epic) works, often reflecting a Christian background.

The book shows the relevance of the study of metrical inscriptions from Asia Minor as a means to enhance our knowledge of the spread of education and literary culture in the area even in the late Roman Empire. The inscriptions analyzed are not only invaluable linguistic documents, but also play an important role both as pioneering texts reflecting the emergence of a new literary style and as reliable and enduring testimonies to the cultural influence of the Greek literary tradition in places and periods very remote from its original context.

The Περὶ ἑπτὰ θεαμάτων is the only treatise on the seven wonders that has come down to us from antiquity. The only witness who hands down the text - the Pal. Gr. 398, a famous witness belonging to the so-called 'philosophical collection' - attributes it to the Hellenistic ingenue Philo of Byzantium, active between the mid- and late 3rd century BC. This attribution has increased the treatise's fame and authority since the 17th century. Everything indicates, however, that the author must be considered late antique, if not even proto-Byzantine.

This volume offers the first critical edition of the Περὶ ἑπτὰ θεαμάτων, accompanied by a translation, and preceded by an extensive introduction that explores the literary tradition the author was nourished by, as well as the textual fate, genre, language and style of the treatise, to arrive at a dating hypothesis. Historical and literary insights are also dedicated to each of the marvels described by the author, useful to bring out the peculiarities of the perspective adopted by Pseudo-Philon, and - in some cases - to identify the probable or certain sources. A discussion of the most problematic passages from an exegetical and critical-textual point of view is offered to accompany and justify the text.

The volume concludes with a hitherto unpublished Latin translation by Lukas Holste (1596-1661).

Demosthenes' speech Against Aristocrates (or. 23) was written for a paranomy trial in which the plaintiff sought to prove that a decree requested in favour of the mercenary leader Charidemos, who was in the service of the Thracian king Kersobleptes, was unlawful. Up to now, it has mainly been of interest to ancient historians and legal historians as a source for the history of Thrace in the first half of the 4th century and as a collection of archaic legal texts. In classical philology, on the other hand, it has not met with a great response - probably also because it presents its readers with obstacles that are difficult to overcome without suitable aids. The present commentary, supplemented by text and translation, attempts to facilitate access to a rhetorically brilliant speech that deserves a wider audience by providing detailed linguistic and contextual explanations, including a critical analysis of the sometimes complicated train of thought.

In the flourishing revival of commentaries on Lucan's Bellum Civile over the last two decades, Book VIII had not yet received an interest commensurate with its decisive importance in the overall structure of the poem: until now, the only comprehensive exegetical tools available to scholars remained those of J. P. Postgate (1917) and R. Mayer (1981), now inevitably dated.

This new commentary, accompanied by an extensive introduction, a critically revised text and a 'service' translation conceived as a first interpretive approach, aims to fill this gap not only by taking due account of the renewed scholarly debate on numerous aspects of Lucan's poem, but also by making the minute analysis of the text an opportunity to reconsider in a new light some traditional themes of Lucan's bibliography, from the relationship with historical sources to that with the practice of declamation, from the poet's political positions to his technical-scientific skills.

For these reasons, the volume is an opportunity for comparison and in-depth study not only for those who deal with Latin epics or the literature of the Neronian age, but also for historians and scholars of rhetoric.

This study is the first to treat the Libyan episode (IV, 1223-1781) of the Argonautica of Apollonius of Rhodes in detail. Since an up-to-date, comprehensive philological commentary on the final part has not existed until now, the essential principles of textual criticism, lexis, metrics, semantics, syntax, stylistics, realia and geographical spatial recording are newly developed. The commentary makes the pre- and intertexts accessible, but is also committed to exegesis, and a translation illustrates the findings. The introduction presents new theses on the composition and characterisation of figures in the fourth book and discusses in detail narrative strategies typical of the Argonautica.

Overall, this results in a fundamental reassessment of central questions of current research on the Argonautica.

A fine-tuning of Sappho was necessary, after new papyrus acquisitions have integrated the poetess’ corpus, dated glorious editions and updated a critical debate that introduced new views in the study of ancient poetry and forced to rethink the productive dynamics, performative occasions, contexts and social functions, literary dimension of archaic Greek lyric.
Therefore, Camillo Neri does not limit himself to update previous works since Sappho is in the singular position of object a) of good, although partial, critical editions, but without translation and commentary, b) of good translations, but without critical text and often without commentary, c) of good commentaries, but without critical text and/or translation.
The introduction addresses all the issues related to Sappho: biography, contexts and functions of her poetry, metre, language and style, tradition, history of her centuries-old fortune. The text proposes the first complete collection of all the fragments and all the testimonia, with an extensive critical apparatus, Italian translation, perpetual commentary.
Finally, the book contains a conspectus metrorum, a large array of indices (verborum, sources, locorum and nominum et notabilium) and a rich and updated bibliography.

Juvenal's Satire 9, though often considered among its author's most successful, has not infrequently been censored or condemned for its 'obscene' subject matter. The present work constitutes the first extensive and independent commentary devoted to this composition. The author studies the degradation of the Roman institution of the clientele, as well as the parameters relating to sexuality in force in Roman society between the first and second centuries AD.

La satira 9 di Giovenale, pur essendo considerata spesso tra le più riuscite del suo autore, è stata non di rado censurata o condannata per il suo argomento 'osceno'. Il presente lavoro costituisce il primo commento esteso ed autonomo dedicato a questa composizione. L’autore studia il degrado dell'istituzione romana della clientela, nonché i parametri relativi a sessualità vigenti nella società romana tra I e II secolo d.C.

The book offers a detailed philological commentary on Kallimachos' Hymn to Artemis and thus fulfils a desideratum of modern research. It is based on a text with a new critical apparatus, including an apparatus locorum similium. The introduction deals with all the issues relevant to the interpretation of the poem: the position of the hymn within the book of hymns and its relationship to the other hymns; poetic unity, an old controversial issue which is addressed here by synthesising earlier positions; the figure and cultic function of Artemis; dating and place in the life of the text, whereby a systematic demonstration of the temporal-political-Ptolemaic dimension is also attempted. A metrical analysis concludes the introductory section. The commentary aims to be as complete as possible, focussing on the linguistic aspect and the fine allusion technique of the Alexandrian poet. The book thus pursues two main objectives: on the one hand, it aims to shed light on the poet's use of literary models and, on the other, to reveal the Ptolemaic ideology behind the Olympian façade.

Florus’ dialogue, of which only a fragment survives, dealt with the literary issue of whether Virgil, who had already been a canonical author in the Roman school for decades, was an orator or a poet. The preserved section contains the setting of the story in a temple in Tarragona (temple of Augustus), an account of Florus’ travels through the Roman empire and a lively defence of the beauty of teaching against the prejudices of the time. The volume includes an extensive introduction, which provides information about the author (onomastics and biography) and the work itself (history of the text, genre, dating, prose of art, intertextuality, and reception), a new critical text, an Italian translation, and the first comprehensive commentary on the dialogic fragment.

This is the first modern commentary devoted exclusively to the poems of Hedylus, one of the most important representatives of Greek epigram in a crucial phase of the development of the genre. Although only a few of Hedylus’ poems survive, he helped shape the genre of literary epigram. His influence is comparable to that of his roughly contemporaries Posidippus of Pella and Asclepiades of Samos, with whom he is associated by Meleager of Gadara in the proem to his Garland.

The volume contains an extensive introduction, a new critical text, a translation, and a full literary and philological commentary. Each epigram is preceded by an essay. Particular attention is paid to the different branches of transmission, in order to understand why so few of Hedylus' epigrams survive via the Greek Anthology, while most of his poems are transmitted by Athenaeus in his Deipnosophistai. The commentary is followed by an Auctarium Lectionum, an Appendix Coniecturarum, an Index verborum, an Index locorum, and an Index nominum et rerum notabilium.

With its insights into literary Hellenistic epigram in an important phase of its development, this book represents an important tool for all those interested in epigram and Hellenistic literature in general.

Prudentius’ Psychomachia is the first fully allegorical epic in the Western tradition. It was an especially important reference for the art and literature of the middle ages. As the first commentary on this work from late antiquity, Magnus Frisch’s book is an important contribution to the field. The commentary also takes into account relevant recent research in the areas of philology, theology, and medieval studies.

The volume provides readers with an extensive introduction, a new translation, and a full literary and philological updated commentary of Lucian’s The Ship or The Whishes. In the introduction there's an explanation of the structure and the dating of the dialogue, of the author's poetics and the peculiar features of the work: the relationship with the literary traditions, the connection with contemporary reality, the psychological characterisation of characters, the stylistic and lexical features. The comment offers a systematic dissertation on linguistic, historical, artistic and sociocultural aspects of the text, in order to provide a complete undestanding of the work and of its author's personality.

Cicero's actio secunda in Verrem is undoubtedly one of the best-known speeches by the great Roman politician. Nevertheless, it has so far only been partially analysed in modern commentaries.

This gap in research is closed by the commentary presented here for De praetura Siciliensi. The second book of the actio secunda is devoted to such diverse topics as bribery or enrichment in connection with civil and capital proceedings, municipal offices and honorary statues as well as cooperation with tax tenants. The commentary takes into account the findings of various research disciplines, especially legal and ancient historical research, critically analyses them and makes them useful for understanding the speech. Above all, however, it illuminates this individual speech from a philological perspective for the first time, discusses language, style and textual criticism and, above all, demonstrates the sophistication of Cicero's oratorical tactics in this speech and in the context of the entire corpus.

This provides readers with all the information they need to understand the various individual aspects of the speech and to appreciate Cicero's oratorical art.

This book provides a comprehensive study of the Certamen Homeri et Hesiodi, an influential ancient Greek text that narrates the lives of Homer and Hesiod and their legendary poetic contest. It offers new perspectives on the nature, uses, and legacy of the text and its tale of literary competition.

Located within a recent trend in scholarship that treats ancient biographies as modes of literary reception, the first chapter discusses how, for authors throughout antiquity and beyond, staging an imaginary competition between Homer and Hesiod was an adaptable and flexible way to convey a diverse range of speculations on epic poetry.

The study of the manuscript tradition reassesses the relationships between the text of the Certamen preserved in its entirety in one single manuscript, and a small number of fragmentary witnesses on papyrus. It also presents new textual evidence demonstrating the success and circulation of the text in the Renaissance, and a new critical edition with translation.

The commentary focuses on how the text characterises the two poets and encourages reflection on their respective wisdom, aesthetic and ethical values, divine inspiration, and Panhellenic appeal. It also addresses the role of Alcidamas as a source for the Certamen and identifies other sophistic influences.

Euripides’ Ion is a highly complex and elusive play and thus poses considerable difficulties to any interpreter. On the basis of a new recension of the text, this commentary offers explanations of the language, literary technique, and realia of the play and discusses the main issues of interpretation. In this way the reader is provided with the material required for an appreciation of this entertaining as well as provocative dramatic composition.

This is the first full-scale commentary on Euripides’ Alexandros, which is one of the best preserved fragmentary tragedies. It yields insight into aspects of Euripidean style, ideology and dramatic technique (e.g. rhetoric, stagecraft and imagery) and addresses textual and philological matters, on the basis of a re-inspection of the papyrus fragments. This book offers a reconstruction of the play and an investigation of issues of characterization, staging, textual transmission and reception, not least because Alexandros has enjoyed a fascinating Nachleben in literary, dramaturgical and performative terms. It also contributes to the readers’ understanding of the trends of later Euripidean drama, especially the dramatist’s innovation and experimentation with plot-patterns and staging conventions. Furthermore, the analysis of Alexandros could stimulate a more comprehensive reading of the extant Trojan Women coming from the same production, which bears the features of a ‘connected trilogy’. Thus, the information retrieved through the interrogation of the rich fragmentary material serves to supplement and contextualize the extant tragic corpus, showcasing the vitality and multiformity of Euripidean drama as a whole.      

The critical commentary justifies the text of the new edition of Lucretius' De rerum natura in the Bibliotheca Teubneriana. It discusses many passages which are difficult or corrupt, examines competing conjectures and offers new solutions. Beyond textual criticism the commentary illuminates philosophical, literary and stylistic aspects of the poem.

The book provides a comprehensive study of Demosthenes’ Against Leptines as a document for the reconstruction of Athenian fourth-century politics, law and public economy. The importance of the speech has been increasingly recognized in recent years, with research on Athenian lawmaking highlighting its centrality and the inadequacy of previous accounts, and work on honours for benefactors and on the liturgical system stressing its importance for understanding the development and conceptualization of euergetism. The speech is the earliest and only extensive ancient account of the ideological, theoretical and moral underpinnings of these institutions and developments. The introduction and commentary offer a comprehensive treatment of these aspects, providing historians with key insights into Athenians conceptions of public service, public honour and reciprocity. Other work has stressed the importance of the speech for the study of the Greek public economy, and the introduction and commentary make these aspects central. The Against Leptines stands at the crossroads of some of the liveliest and most important current discussions in Greek history, and this commentary aims to advance our historical understanding in these areas.

Il volume offre un’introduzione, traduzione e commento del primo discorso politico pronunciato da Demostene, la Contro Leptine. Analizza il discorso come documento per la ricostruzione delle istituzioni politiche, della legge e dell’economia pubblica dell’Atene di IV secolo. Fa luce sulle istituzioni della nomothesia, sull’evergetismo ateniese e l’economia degli onori, e sul funzionamento e i dibattiti di politica economica.

The Epigrammata Bobiensia are a collection consisting of 71 poems written between the fourth and fifth century d.C. This book offers new answers to old and fundamental questions, such as the identity of the authors of anonymous texts, the original extent of the collection, and the disposal of the same epigrams. The collection deals with a huge variety of epigrammatic themes and genres: while translations are chiefly from the Greek, the main and most valuable epigrams are those written by the poet Naucellius. All the authors belong to an educated pagan environment associated with Symmachus, but gravitating toward Ausonius. The absence of polemical accents and the search for balanced expressions fit well with this pagan elite, for whom the literary revival of classic models is a rhetorical exercise and an instrument of cultural affirmation. The importance of Epigrammata Bobiensia consists preeminently in the fact that they appear as the most emblematic cultural product of Late Antiquity.

Gli Epigrammata Bobiensia, scritti fra il IV–V sec. d. C., sono una silloge di 71 componinenti, provenienti da un ambiente di pagani colti legati a Simmaco, ma gravitanti intorno ad Ausonio. La mancanza di accenti polemici e la ricerca di forme espressive misurate ben si adattano a questa élite pagana, per la quale la riproposizione letteraria di modelli classici costituisce un esercizio retorico e uno strumento di affermazione culturale.

A hundred years after Adolf von Harnack’s first edition of Porphyry’s Contra Christianos (1916) this work presents a new collection of the fragments and testimonia with an introduction, a German translation and notes. It is the first German translation of and commentary on Contra Christianos. All texts are newly arranged. For the first time ever, texts which cannot be securely attributed to Porphyry (dubia) are presented in a separate section.

The Historiae, of which only fragments survive, was probably Sallust’s most comprehensive work of history. Embracing the eventful period between 78-67 BC, it describes a series of political crises which ultimately lead to the fall of the Roman Republic and the establishment of Augustus’ principate. This volume fills a desideratum in Sallustian studies presenting a new, complete edition and the first comprehensive commentary on the fragments.

The “Archimedes Palimpsest”, that aroused the interest of the scientific community in 1998, contains the so called New Hypereides. Based upon a tentative text-critical reconstruction of the text, Horváth’s monograph presents an historical-philological analysis of the newly-discovered speech Against Diondas. Three additional essays complete the volume, one of them containing text and translation of the other newfound speech Against Timandros.

This work offers a new interpretation and an in-depth analysis of one of the least studied among Juvenal’s satires. The introduction examines the structure of the piece and some of its rhetorical features, such as the peculiar use of exempla and evidentia, while focusing on its basic theme, the degeneration of the contemporary nobility. Although grafted onto the traditional and commonplace antithesis between true and false nobility, this theme has a strong historical connection with the early years of Hadrian’s reign, when Roman noblemen were increasingly being ousted from the official positions they traditionally held. An updated overview of the history of Juvenal’s text is followed by a revised critical edition and an Italian translation. Besides discussing textual matters, the commentary offers a systematic treatment of the linguistic, rhetorical, historical and antiquarian aspects of the text, indispensable for the understanding of this satire.

Juvenal has long been known as the poet of indignation, a view based mainly on his early satires. His later work had been relatively overlooked until recently. The present commentary is meant to be a contribution to the reappraisal of the later part of Juvenal’s career, a significant trend in the juvenalian scholarship of the last decade.

Among the topics addressed there are the relationship between Juvenal and Martial, his position within the tradition of Roman satire, his relationship with the cultural discourse of Roman moralistic literature, the intertextual links with satire 5 and the vexata quaestio of the literary or authentic nature of Juvenal’s work. The author denies a strong break between the early books and the 4th and satire 11 in particular, advocating the idea of a gradual evolution rather than a radical conversion.

In the commentary the reader will find a comprehensive analysis of textual problems and stylistic features, in a historically comparative light, with early Juvenal, other satiric poets and Martial as the chief objects of comparison.
Realien are also devoted close attention. The volume will thus be a useful tool for scholars and students interested in latin satire and poetry, and also for historians of roman society in the early imperial age.

Il presente volume costituisce il primo commento esclusivo alla satira 11 di Giovenale. L’introduzione affronta problemi quali l’unità strutturale del componimento, il rapporto con i suoi modelli e l’influenza esercitata dalla tradizione moralistica romana. Il commento si sofferma diffusamente su questioni testuali, linguistiche e storico-archeologiche. Al testo segue una traduzione italiana originale.

This is the first modern commentary devoted exclusively to the epigrams of Lucillius, a prolific Neronian poet who, in spite of being one of the most significant representatives of the Greek satirical epigram, has primarily been studied not for his own value, but for the influence he had on Martial. About 140 epigrams of his survive, mostly in book XI of the Anthology.

The volume contains an extensive introduction, a new critical text and translation, and a full literary and philological commentary. While the body of the commentary focuses on the particular, providing literary readings of individual epigrams and a line-by-line linguistic, philological, and stylistic analysis, the introduction deals with Lucillius’s identity, the tradition of the text, style, themes, metrics, and cultural setting, and additionally investigates the origins and development of Greek skoptic epigram.

Particular attention is paid to the way in which Lucillius engages with the conventions of the genre, often overturning the reader’s expectations. In this way, the work explores the paradox inherent to the fact that a poetic form that was by its nature eulogistic (inscriptional epigrams were born in order to record, and thus celebrate, the dedication of an object or the death of a man) ultimately became the genre of mockery and abuse.

Nemesianus’s didactic poem about hunting, written in 283-84 AD, is based in its structure and conception on Vergil’s Georgics, the classical model for the genre. In its presentation of hunting as a leisure sport, the Cynegetica provides an un-heroic counterpoint to earlier hunting poems. This new critical edition includes extensive and detailed philological commentary. It also considers broader questions, such as the relationship to cynegetic literature, genre-related elements, and the author’s self-perception.

The last full commentary on The Sack of Troy was published by Wernicke in 1819 and even the most recent analyses of the poem tend to see it as a quick halt in the evolution of epic poetry on its way towards Nonnus of Panopolis. This book offers a complete treatment of The Sack of Troy for its own sake.

The introduction gathers all the information we have about Triphiodorus and his work, focusing on the reasons behind the election of topic, the outline of the poem, different forms of allusion, the use of the characterisation of individuals and groups to sustain plot development, the nature of the narrator and the value of speeches. This part is followed by a detailed analysis of Triphiodorus’ literary universe: his different forms of engagement not only with Homer and other distant poets, but also with Imperial literature and the contemporary cultural production.

The line-by-line commentary of the poem attends to the position of each episode in the poem and in the tradition of the Trojan War and offers a linguistic, formal and stylistic analysis. Each section or episode is preceded by a comprehensive introduction, always bringing in all the related bibliography but providing a fresh and reliable view on Triphiodorus.

This new interpretation of V Satire is embedded in a broader analysis of a central topos in Juvenal's work: the degradation of the clientela. The introduction illuminates Juvenal's attitude towards this topic, giving particular attention to his relationship to Martial and to the reception of this topos by Lucian. The commentary explains text critical and linguistic issues and thoroughly investigates the most relevant historical aspects.

La descrizione della cena di Virrone per suoi clientes offre lo spunto per un’amara riflessione sulla degradazione dell’istituto della clientela, ormai svuotato di ogni contenuto: il cliens si va trasformando in un mero parassita, di cui il patrono non ha bisogno se non come mezzo di intrattenimento. Mostrando a Trebio quante umiliazioni gli saranno imbandite alla tavola del suo patronus Virrone, Giovenale tenterà di spingerlo a cambiar vita.

Although the astrological fragments of Antigonos of Nicaea (ca. 150 CE) are often cited, especially his horoscope for the emperor Hadrian, a reliable edition and commentary have yet to appear. In addition to his astrological fragments, this volume includes the first comprehensive account of his life, work, sources, and reception. The commentary is based on a systematic appraisal of all relevant manuals and horoscopes in the ancient era.

Since the 1926 edition of C. Hosius’s critical commentary on Mosella by Ausonius, no comparable German-language work has been published. In this new edition, the Latin text is accompanied by a comprehensive critical apparatus and a German prose translation. The work’s linguistic forms, actual contents, and underlying historical situation are elucidated, and the material is made accessible with extensive indices. An indispensable commentary for scholars of Latin and ancient history alike.

The Hymn to Hermes, while surely the most amusing of the so-called Homeric Hymns, also presents an array of challenging problems. In just 580 lines, the newborn god invents the lyre and sings a hymn to himself, travels from Cyllene to Pieria to steal Apollo’s cattle, organizes a feast at the river Alpheios where he serves the meat of two of the stolen animals, cunningly defends his innocence, and is finally reconciled to Apollo, to whom he gives the lyre in exchange for the cattle. This book provides the first detailed commentary devoted specifically to this unusual poem since Radermacher’s 1931 edition. The commentary pays special attention to linguistic, philological, and interpretive matters. It is preceded by a detailed introduction that addresses the Hymn’s ideas on poetry and music, the poem’s humour, the Hymn’s relation to other archaic hexameter literature both in thematic and technical aspects, the poem’s reception in later literature, its structure, the issue of its date and place of composition, and the question of its transmission. The critical text, based on F. Càssola’s edition, is equipped with an apparatus of formulaic parallels in archaic hexameter poetry as well as possible verbal echoes in later literature.

An enormous turbot is presented to Emperor Domitian, who then calls upon his cabinet to determine the very best way to prepare the fish: This absurd situation provides occasion for Juvenal to undertake a broader critique of the decline of politics and morals during his time.

This work re-examines Juvenal’s big fish satire through detailed scholarly commentary. It includes the original text along with a new Italian translation. Santorelli demonstrates that Juvenal's satire not only looks back at the earlier period of Domitian’s rule but also is intended as an indirect critique of the political system of the Optimus Princeps Trajan.

The Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite (600s BCE?) tells the story of a brief encounter between the goddess of love and the cowherd Anchises, which led to the birth of the Trojan hero Aeneas. Less than 300 lines long, it is among the shortest of the so-called ‘major Homeric Hymns’. However, it is also richly and beautifully conceived and narrated, and of enormous importance for the Greek mythology and the history of Greek religion.

Olson offers a complete new text of the poem and of ten related ‘minor Hymns’, based on a fresh examination of the manuscripts; a full critical apparatus; and a translation. The work is completed by a substantial introduction, which treats inter alia the stories of Aeneas, the problem of dating early Greek epic, and the nature of the connections between the Hymn to Aphrodite and the Homeric and Hesiodic poems. Olson furthermore offers a substantial, narratologically-oriented commentary.

The origins of the anonymous Late Latin Story of Apollonius, King of Tyre (Historia Apollonii regis Tyri), are disputed, with the narrative commonly being seen as a Christianised folktale of a sub-literary character. Scholars focus mainly on questions of editing the text, seeking its origins (Greek or Latin, pagan or Christian) and exploring its afterlife. This literary and philological commentary discusses aspects of language, style, characterisation, intertextuality, and narrative technique in the earliest existing version of the Story of Apollonius, recension A. It situates the Late Latin text in the context of both ancient prose fiction and pagan and Christian literature. The author offers new arguments in the ongoing debate about the alleged Greek background of the Latin text, and his analysis enables readers to assess the literary character of this unique narrative, which contains elements of “popular” culture (e.g. riddles) and displays thorough knowledge of the Greek and Latin classics. The Commentary views the Story of Apollonius as a crossroad in which the notions of pagan and Christian, Greek and Latin, popular and sophisticated meet and interact in a complex way, reflecting the cultural atmosphere of the era of its creation.

The outline of grammar in the work of Quintilian’s The Orator’s Education (1,4-8) is the earliest and at the same time most reliable presentation of the Roman ars grammatica. This new edition seeks to provide a completely new access to this document of the history of linguistics which is written in such a subtle and elegant style. The edition contains a revised Latin text, a new translation by the editor and an extensive commentary and aims to assign a new position in the history of Roman grammar to this work.

The Homeric Questions of the Neoplatonic philosopher Porphyry (3rd cent. CE) is an important work in the history of Homeric criticism. In contrast to the philosopher’s allegorical readings of Homer in De Antro and De Styge, in the Homeric Questions Porphyry solves problemata by applying the dictum that “the poet explains himself”. Based on a new collation of the manuscripts, this edition of Porphyry’s Homeric Questions on the Iliad is the first since 1880. The preface contains sections on Porphyry’s life and works, the manuscript tradition of the text, scholarship on the Homeric Questions, and the principles of this edition. The editor has eliminated much that had been wrongly attributed to Porphyry on stylistic grounds and has constructed text according to a strict distinction between extracts of the Homeric Questions, epitomes of the extracts, and Porphyrian scholia ‑ all confusingly interspersed in the old text. A facing English translation at last makes this text accessible to the Greek-less reader. The commentary explains Porphyry’s arguments and the editor’s textual decisions. The editor sheds new light on Porphyry’s use of the dictum that “the poet explains himself”, by differentiating it from that of Alexandria textual critics.

Ariadne’s elegiac letter to her faithless Theseus offers the epistolary mise en scène of the heroine’s lamentation previously versified by Catullus in his epyllion (carmen 64). The Ovidian text looks retrospectively at its predecessor and is inevitably indebted to it. This volume explores the complex relationship between the Ovidian and the Catullan model and focuses on literary memory, allusive forms, generic boundaries and transgression. Resorting to more recent interpretative approaches and an updated bibliography, the introduction aims at disclosing the parallel construction of text and character, placing emphasis on the sophisticated dialogic contact with the source-texts (e.g. from elegy, epic, comedy) and its literary effects on the epistle. The text also deals with some metaliterary and authorial instances to which readers of the Heroides are quite familiar. The commentary surveys aspects of Ovidian language and style and discusses major textual problems shedding light on literary sources and strategies of dramatic irony.epistle to its literary models.

In medieval Byzantium Hecabe was Euripides’ most popular tragedy, so that it is this play for which we have the most manuscripts. Although this means that the production of a critical edition to satisfy modern criteria is particularly difficult, such an edition can now be presented. It comprises a revised text, a collection of testimonials, an extensive textual criticism, a prose translation, an introduction that pays particular attention to the history of the transmission and the reception of the text, an extended commentary and metrical analyses of the lyrical passages.

Book 4 of Lucan’s epic contrasts Europe with Africa. At the battle of Lerida (Spain), a violent storm causes the local rivers to flood the plain between the two hills where the opposing armies are camped. Asso’s commentary traces Lucan’s reminiscences of early Greek tales of creation, when Chaos held the elements in indistinct confusion. This primordial broth sets the tone for the whole book. After the battle, the scene switches to the Adriatic shore of Illyricum (Albania), and finally to Africa, where the proto-mythical water of the beginning of the book cedes to the dryness of the desert. The narrative unfolds against the background of the War of the Elements. The Spanish deluge is replaced by the desiccated desolation of Africa. The commentary contrasts the representations of Rome with Africa and explores the significance of Africa as a space contaminated by evil, but which remains an integral part of Rome. Along with Lucan’s other geographic and natural-scientific discussions, Africa’s position as a part of the Roman world is painstakingly supported by astronomic and geographic erudition in Lucan’s blending of scientific and mythological discourse. The poet is a visionary who supports his truth claims by means of scientific discourse.

The remarkable variety and irony of Petronius’ Satyrica today amaze scholars and readers alike. However, a complete commentary on this important example of the ancient novel is still lacking. With this volume Natalie Breitenstein presents the first comprehensive commentary on the opening of the Satyrica (chapters 1–15). Modern research is included in her analysis of all aspects of the textual criticism, language, style, and content of the text. The introduction also offers an up-to-date summary of the state of research on all main problems and questions relating to Petronius’ Satyrica and the fragmentary nature of the text.

Book seven, “Of a happy life” (De uita beata), closes Lactanius’ (AD 250-325) “Introduction to Christianity” (Diuinae institutiones). In it the church father, who was renowned as a Christian Cicero, describes the end of the world, the thousand year Kingdom of God and the Last Judgment, from a standpoint influenced by the Christian persecutions. This significant text, which offers insight into early Christians’ views of the end of the world, is presented together with an introduction, translation (the first since 1787) and an extensive commentary.

The Philippics form the climax of Cicero’s rhetorical achievement and political activity. Besides, these fourteen speeches are an important testimony to the critical final phase of the Roman Republic. Yet for a long time they have received little scholarly attention. This two-volume edition now provides a comprehensive scholarly commentary on Philippics 3-9, seven central speeches of the corpus. Full annotations explain the speeches in terms of linguistic, literary and historical issues (vol. 2); they are based on a revised Latin text with a facing translation into English as well as a detailed introduction dealing with problems relevant to the whole corpus; a bibliography and indices complete the edition (vol. 1). Besides a running commentary on each speech, the study shows these orations to be rhetorical constructs in a historical conflict; hence particular emphasis is placed on an analysis of Cicero’s rhetorical techniques and political strategies. The format of the commentary is also intended to present scholarly information to a wide and diverse readership.

The book deals with three poems of the Corpus Theocriteum: Idyll 20 (Boukoliskos), 21 (Fishermen) und 27 (Love dialogue), which have been discussed in previous research almost exclusively from the viewpoint of questioning their authenticity. Detached from this problem, Robert Kirstein undertakes a linguistic, conceptual and composition-technical examination, highlights the points of contact of these poems with other poems in the Corpus Theocriteum as well as their relationship to the Theocritean ‘Bucolics’, and challenges the previous literary-aesthetic appraisal factors.

Pacuvius is one of the most important Republican tragedians. The commentary compiles and explains the roughly 300 fragments of his work which have been preserved as quotations by ancient authors. It establishes a new basis for the philological, literary as well as cultural historical study of Pacuvius, now that D’Anna’s commentary edition (Rome 1967) has been superseded by recent research.

Petra Schierl has revised the text following the standard editions and arranged the fragments in a new sequence under the titles of the respective tragedies. The fragments, including the fragmenta incerta, are commented upon and for the first time translated into German. To ensure the transparency that is necessary when dealing with fragments, the commentary is used in particular to discuss different proposals for their interpretation. A detailed introduction provides an overview both of Pacuvius’ tragic output and the reception and transmission of his works. Indices facilitate the use of the commentary.

Petronius’ Satyrica, one of the significant fictional texts of Antiquity, stands since decades in the focus of international research. This new commentary on the second half of the Satyrica presents the reader with all relevant information regarding the language, the “Realien” (antiquarian facts) and the novel’s plot. In addition it engages with the scholarly discussion on the novel and thus contributes to the Satyrica’s interpretation.

Petronius' Satyrica, one of the most authoritative fictional texts of ancient literature, has been the focus of international research since the 1960s. For a long time, only the central part of this text, the famous Cena Trimalchionis, was analysed in modern commentaries.

The commentary presented here remedies this situation for the particularly neglected second half of the work. It provides the reader with everything they need to understand the language, the realia and the plot. In addition, it analyses the scholarly discussion of the novel in an exemplary manner and thus makes a fundamental contribution to the still controversial interpretation of the Satyrica as a whole.

At the centre of the exegesis is the famous novella of the "Widow of Ephesus", whose controversial discussion in modern secondary literature is examined as well as its role in the context of the novel.

The Satyrica of Petronius, one of the fictional key texts in ancient literature, have been the focus of international research since the 1960s. It is all the more surprising, therefore, that modern commentators have only concentrated on the central part of the work, the famous Cena Trimalchionis. This defect is now remedied with Habermehl’s commentary on the especially neglected second half of the work (a second volume, on Sat. 111’141, is scheduled to follow in about two years’ time). The commentary provides the reader with all the necessary apparatus for understanding the language, the factual elements and the action of the text. In addition, it includes critical discussion of the novel as an exemplar, and thus renders a contribution of fundamental importance to the interpretation of the Satyrica in their entirety, which are still the subject of much controversy.

The Supplement to the Supplementum Hellenisticum, edited by Hugh Lloyd-Jones and Peter Parsons in 1983, presents new papyrus material, along with a succession of new suggestions regarding the texts and their meanings. It also provides references and brief analyses of the scholarly discussions that concern them. As in the original volume, all information is arranged alphabetically by author name and includes readings of the texts, addenda from new papyri, and references to recent scholarship. Indices of the Greek word forms of all newly added texts and of the sources follow the format of the original volume’s indices.

On the occasion of the publication of Supplementum Supplementi Hellenistici (SSH), Supplementum Hellenisticum (SH) is being offered at a lower price. Both volumes are available as a set for € 198.00.

The Florida, an anthology of 23 orations that Apuleius of Madauros delivered primarily in Carthage during the 160’s A.D., offers a rich store of evidence about epideictic rhetoric, Middle Platonism, and the civic and intellectual life of the North African provincial metropolis. In addition to locating the work in its historical and cultural context, this commentary investigates Apuleius’ remarkable language and style. Full attention is given to the rich and complex intertextual relationship of the Florida to earlier Greek and Roman literature, as well as to the work’s extensive links to Middle Platonism, the Second Sophistic, and the rest of the Apuleian corpus, particularly his philosophical works.

This work presents a new critical edition of The Spartan Constitution, a treatise in state philosophy attributed to the historian Xenophon (c. 430 - c. 355 B. C.). The Greek text, reconstructed on the basis of extant manuscript sources, is prefaced by an introduction and supplemented by a critical commentary and an English translation. The introduction discusses the problem of the text's authenticity and dating and provides a comprehensive account of its sources, reception, language, style and structure as well as an analysis of the manuscript sources and the textual tradition. The commentary addresses linguistic as well as historical problems.

Until 1901, most scholars regarded Demosthenes' last extant political speech in 341 B.C. either as not genuine or at best as an amalgam put together by a later editor. For this reason, it played a less important role in schools than later Demosthenian orations and fewer commentaries were written on it. The present study therefore meets the need for a critical commentary which examines linguistic, rhetorical and historical aspects. It also sheds light on the political situation on the eve of the decisive battle between Athens and the Macedon King Philip II.

The "Carmina XII sapientum" is a corpus of inscriptions from late classical antiquity which was widely received in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance; it consists of twelve cycles of twelve poems, each cycle with a different theme. The titles of the manuscripts name twelve scholars as the authors.

The present study provides the first detailed critical commentary on the individual elements of the corpus, dealing with all its textual, linguistic, stylistic and content-related aspects. The commentary on each cycle is preceded by a historical treatment of the motifs.

In the process, the author reaches a completely new interpretation of this collection of epigrams. She presents it as a jocular work in the ancient literary tradition of the symposium; it was produced at the turn of the 4th century AD by a rhetorically skilled author already versed in Christian discourses, probably by the rhetor and later Christian apologist Lactantius.

The Alexandra is the only extant complete work of the Hellenistic poet and philologist Lycophron (3rd cent. BC). A crucial section of it deals with the fate of Odysseus. The present study undertakes an exact evaluation of Lycophron’s style in order to investigate possible later emendations and the dating of the text. Lycophron’s authorship of the Alexandra is not in doubt; the poem was not written in sections, nor was it composed later.
The present volume contains the Greek text with a German translation, a detailed commentary and an introduction. The book concludes with two appendices, a bibliography and an index.

The final work of the statesman and philosopher Boethius not only represents both a climax and the end of philosophy from Late Antiquity in Latin, but also combines numerous literary prose forms such as dialogue, satire, speeches of defence and consolation with an extraordinary wealth of lyric and metrical elements to weave a rich literary tapestry which has continually attracted new readers right up to the present day. This is the first modern commentary on the Consolatio Philosophiae, and beside offering a detailed introduction it also provides a detailed philological and philosophical key to the text of the consolation which proceeds from keyword to keyword. There is a full documentation of the manifold references to related texts. This is the second fully revised and extended edition of the commentary, which first appeared in 1978; it is regarded as one of the standard works in Late Latin studies.

The volume contains the first modern commentary entirely dedicated to the epigrams of Leonidas of Alexandria, a 1^st century AD poet affiliated with the imperial court. Leonidas’ claim to fame lies with his composition of the so-called isopsephic distichs, a peculiar example of technopaegnion.

The book includes an exhaustive introduction, tracing the figure of the author and discussing the transmission of the text as well as the treatment of the isopsephic method by modern scholars. Furthermore, the introduction offers a synthesis of Leonidas’ work from the literary, stylistic, and prosodic point of view, presenting it in the broader context of the Imperial Age and comparing it to the extant isopsephic writings.

The main body of the book consists in the critical edition of circa 40 epigrams, and a line-by-line philological, literary and explanatory commentary, coupled with the reconstruction – where possible – of historical circumstances.

While appreciating Leonidas’ experiments with the epigrammatic form, the analysis presented in the book encompasses poems whose worth goes beyond their isopsephic structure and which, considering their dazzling variety of topics, constitute a prime example of Greek epigram in the Imperial Age.