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The main focus of this book is the ancient formation and development of the canons of Greek historiography. It takes a fresh look on the modern debate on canonical literature and deals with Greek historiographical traditions in the works of ancient rhetors and literary critics. Writings on historiography by Cicero, Quintilian, and Dionysius of Halicarnassus are chiefly taken into account to explore the canons of Greek historians in Hellenistic and Roman Imperial Ages. Essential in canon-formation was the concept of classicism which took shape in the Age of Augustus, but whose earlier developments can be traced back to Isocrates, a model rhetor according to Dionysius at the end of the 1st century BC. The analysis explores also late-antique authors of school treatises and progymnasmata, a field where historiography had a pedagogical function. Previous studies on canonical literature have rarely considered historiography. This book examines not only the works of ancient historians and their legacy, but also the relationship between historiography, literary criticism, and the rhetorical tradition.

Zenon von Elea (5. Jh. v. Chr.) gilt als einer der bedeutendsten vorsokratischen Philosophen. Mit Ausnahme von hochstens funf wortlichen Zitaten besteht die gesamte Uberlieferung zu ihm jedoch nur aus kursorischen Paraphrasen und teils kontroversen Diskussionen seiner Uberlegungen bei spateren Autoren. Durch umsichtige und kritische Auswertung samtlicher relevanter Quellen lassen sich gleichwohl uber seine beiden sogenannten Argumente gegen die Vielheit"e; (Frg. B1-3) sowie uber das sogenannte Argument des Orts"e; (Frg. B5) philologisch schlussige, sachlich plausible und historisch stimmige Hypothesen aufstellen. Das Ergebnis besteht in zwei neuen Rekonstruktionen, die im Vergleich zum bisherigen Forschungsstand den gesamten Uberlieferungsbefund verstandlicher sowie Zenons ursprungliche Argumentation und Zielsetzung einsichtiger werden lassen. Folgt man diesen beiden Rekonstruktionen, so erscheint nicht nur die Beziehung, die seit der Antike zwischen den Uberlegungen Zenons und der Philosophie des Parmenides angenommen wird, in einem neuen Licht, sondern es werden womoglich auch einige geistesgeschichtliche Entwicklungen des 5. und 4. Jhs. v. Chr. praziser fassbar, als dies bislang der Fall war.

We cannot fully understand the development of Roman poetry if we ignore the works that survive only in fragments, or that are known only through quotations or allusions. During the last two decades, studies on this topic have been fostered by the collections of Courtney, Hollis and Blansdorf, but there is still room for further improvement in editing and discussing the fragments of the Latin non-dramatic poets. This volume gathers together ten essays, most of which were discussed in a Seminar held in Bologna in 2014; they can be seen as case studies that confront the main issues of the research on Roman poetic fragments, such as textual criticism and interpretation, authorship, prosody and colometry, literary genre, and the connection between quotation and context. These papers do not deal only with texts already known, but suggest some new additions to the corpus of the Fragmenta poetarum Latinorum. In a methodological introduction, the editor also provides an up-to-date review of the scholarship on the subject, that aims to supplement Blansdorf's bibliography. For all these reasons, this volume will be of primary relevance to students and scholars in Classical philology.

Juvenal's satire continues to fascinate his readers and to challenge scholars by the constant interplay of a strong poetical identity, a keen historical perception, and an irresoluble ideological tension. The essays collected in this volume pursue these three strands from different but complementary perspectives, aiming at a firmer assessment of the character, the oeuvre, and the background of Rome's last great satirical poet.

The oath was an institution of fundamental importance across a wide range of social interactions throughout the ancient Greek world, making a crucial contribution to social stability and harmony; yet there has been no comprehensive, dedicated scholarly study of the subject for over a century. This volume of a two-volume study explores the nature of oaths as Greeks perceived it, the ways in which they were used (and sometimes abused) in Greek life and literature, and their inherent binding power.

This volume explores the tremendous influence of Platös Phaedrus on the philosophical, religious, scientific and literary discussions in the first two millennia of the dialogue¿s reception history. It will appeal to readers interested in the Phaedrus itself, as well as to classicists and historians of philosophy, science and religion concerned with the ancient, medieval and early modern readers of Plato.

Speeches for the Dead unites the contributions of scholars working on diverse aspects of Plato's Menexenus. In addition, the volume contains an up-to-date bibliography of scholarship in English, French, German, and Italian on the dialogue. This makes the book the definitive guide and ideal starting point for advanced students and scholars looking for further information about the Menexenus.

This volume sets out to explore the complex relationship between Horace and Seneca. It is the first book that examines the interface between these different and yet highly comparable authors with consideration of their ¿uvres in their entirety. The fourteen chapters collected here explore a wide range of topics clustered around the following four themes: the combination of literature and philosophy; the ways in which Senecäs choral odes rework Horatian material and move beyond it; the treatment of ethical, poetic, and aesthetic questions by the two authors; and the problem of literary influence and reception as well as ancient and modern reflections on these problems. While the intertextual contacts between Horace and Seneca themselves lie at the core of this project, it also considers the earlier texts that serve as sources for both authors, intermediary steps in Roman literature, and later texts where connections between the two philosopher-poets are drawn. Although not as obviously palpable as the linkage between authors who share a common generic tradition, this uneven but pervasive relationship can be regarded as one of the most prolific literary interactions between the early Augustan and the Neronian periods. A bidirectional list of correspondences between Horace and Seneca concludes the volume.

This book studies Seneca's poetic drama from a novel point of view. Whereas most criticism of Seneca's dramas has tended to focus on their relationship to Stoicism, I approach them from the perspective of Seneca's own theory of literary decadence, which he sets forth in the 114th of his letters to Lucilius. His theory can be summed up as follows: the various forms of stylistic corruption are the result of a straining for effect, which itself reflects a taste for the extreme. A writer or speaker's stylistic vices thus mirror the vices of his character; they also reflect the vices of the time and place in which he lives, since every user of language is conditioned by his environment. What is especially striking about Seneca's discussion is that a number of the vices he lists ¿ hyperbole, disruption of natural word order, excessive metaphor ¿ are notable features of the poetic style of his own dramas. I argue for a rehabilitation of the 'decadent' style of Seneca's tragedies: in Seneca's hands, this style is a precise diagnostic tool for revealing the self-destructive irrationality that governs not only the individual, but also his society and the entire universe.

The Ciris, a Latin mythological poem of contested date and authorship, has received a certain amount of scholarly attention during the twentieth century, but has failed to meet with adequate appreciation. This study aims at vindicating the Ciris, by exploring its use of pre-Virgilianpoetic texts largely ignored in previous scholarship.

In addition to being the author of the Parallel Lives of noble Greeks and Romans, Plutarch of Chaeronea (AD c.46-c.120) is widely known for his rich ethical theory, which has ensured him a reputation as one of the most profound moralists in antiquity and beyond. Previous studies have considered Plutarch's moralism in the light of specific works or group of works, so that an exploration of his overall concept of ethical education remains a desideratum. Bringing together a wide range of texts from both the Parallel Lives and the Moralia, this study puts the moralising agents that Plutarch considers important for ethical development at the heart of its interpretation. These agents operate in different educational settings, and perform distinct moralising roles, dictated by the special features of the type of moral education they are expected to enact. Ethical education in Plutarch becomes a distinctive manifestation of paideia vis-a-vis the intellectual trends of the Imperial period, especially in contexts of cultural identity and power. By reappraising Plutarch's ethical authority and the significance of his didactic spirit, this book will appeal not only to scholars and students of Plutarch, but to anyone interested in the history of moral education and the development of Greek ethics.