Bøger i Oxford Classical Monographs serien

Thomas Harrison presents a study of the religious beliefs of the ancient Greek historian Herodotus - his beliefs in divine retribution, in oracles and divination, in miracles or in fate. The author shows not only how such beliefs were central to his work, but also how they were compatible with lived experience.

What was happening in Rome when Homer was writing the Iliad in Greece? This book is the first detailed account in English to study both the earliest archaeological and literary evidence of Rome's earliest history, going right back to the Late Bronze Age. The book is also unique in setting the development of civilization in the context of the Mediterranean as a whole.

After Plato's Forms, and Aristotle's substances, the Stoics posited the fundamental reality of lekta - the meanings of sentences, distinct from the sentences themselves. This volume analyses the resulting unique, complex, and consistent cosmic view in which lekta are the keystones of the structure of reality: they are all there is to say.

This is the first study of emperor worship among the Romans themselves, in Rome and its heartland Italy. It argues that emperor worship was indeed perfectly in keeping with Roman religious tradition, which has been generally misunderstood by a posterity imbued with radically different notions of the relationship between humans and the divine.

By examining the literary evidence relating to the historical, ethnographic, and geographic writings of Greeks and Romans focussing on invasion and conflict, this work attempts to answer the questions how and why the Gauls became the deadly enemy of the Romans.

The Kingdom of Priam offers a detailed exploration of questions about regional integration in the ancient world through a diverse series of case studies focusing on the regional history of Lesbos and the Troad from the seventh century BC down to the first century AD.

The aim of this treatise is to explain the singular fascination ancient Greek tragedians felt for the non-Greek, "barbaric" world. It sets Greek drama against the historical background of the Panhellenic wars with Persia and the establishment of an Athenian empire based on democracy and slavery.

This first comprehensive study of the ancient Greek dramatic chorus in the fourth century reassesses the traditional narrative that it more or less 'declined' in quantity and quality, demonstrating instead how varied and vital this component of drama continued to be during a time when the theatre became truly international.

Lucretius' Epicurean poem De Rerum Natura ('On the Nature of Things') made a fundamental and lasting contribution to the language of Latin philosophy. In this book Barnaby Taylor offers an in-depth reconstruction of core features of Epicurean linguistic theory, and a new understanding of Lucretius' linguistic innovation and creativity.

The Fasti is one of Ovid's most complex, inventive, and remarkable works. This commentary on Book 2 - the first detailed commentary in English - guides the reader towards a fuller appreciation of the poem, through detailed analysis of its religious, historical, political, and literary background.

This volume offers a major reinterpretation of Ammianus Marcellinus' Res Gestae, one of the main narrative sources for the political history of the later Roman Empire. Arguing for a re-examination of Ammianus' agenda and methods in depicting Julian, the last 'pagan' emperor, it re-analyses his narration of several key moments in Julian's reign.

This study of Euripides' Electra marries linguistics and literary criticism to provide novel insights into the interpretation of the play. Focusing on characterization, it demonstrates how the figures are shaped through their use of language, using new means of analysis to argue for a balanced interpretation and challenge prevailing views.

This volume is a historical study of the ancient city of Byzantium, before it became Constantinople then Istanbul, and its relationship with the Bosporus strait. It explores how this relationship shaped many facets of its inhabitants' lives and illustrates how the region's history cannot be understood in isolation from its geographical context.

Pindar's Library is the first volume to analyse the role played by Pindar's literary, cultic, and scholarly reception in affecting readers' engagement with his poetry, considering the continuities between reading and attending performances, and highlighting elements of readers' experiences which were distinctive to Hellenistic culture.

This oracle is of particular interest as the only first-hand narrative of the critical years of the mid-3rd century AD. A full introduction is followed by the new edition of the text since 1902 and detailed commentary.

This book examines the ways by which the city-state of Athens, and its various associations, administrative and religious, managed their landed assets. It investigates the close connection between income and sacred property and it analyses notions of sacred and public ownership in antiquity by deconstructing earlier anachronistic interpretations.

Kechagia rehabilitates Plutarch as a thinker and historian of philosophy by offering a critical analysis of Against Colotes, an anti-Epicurean treatise in which Plutarch discusses some of the most important philosophical theories. The book argues that Plutarch produces insightful philosophical interpretations of past theories.

This volume offers a full translation and analysis of Vita Malchi, one of the more intriguing works by a figure who is central to our understanding of Late Antiquity and early Christianity: the translator, exegete, and controversialist Jerome (c.347-419/20AD).

Terence and the Verb 'To Be' in Latin is the first in-depth study of the verb 'to be' in Latin (esse) and its contracted form, with a particular focus on its appearance in the plays of the ancient Roman playwright, Terence.

A study of the rhetorical and political strategy adopted by the Roman orator and statesman Cicero as a newcomer in Roman republican politics. Henriette van der Blom argues that Cicero advertised himself as a follower of chosen models of behaviour from the past - his role models - and in turn presented himself as a role model to others.

In a critique of Max Weber's influential ideas about the Mediterranean region in late antiquity, Jairus Banaji shows that the fourth to seventh centuries were in fact a period of major social and economic change, bound up with an expanding circulation of gold.

The control over marble and metal resources was of major importance to the Roman Empire. Alfred Hirt's comprehensive study defines the organizational outlines and the internal structures of the mining and quarrying ventures under imperial control.

The first investigation of the relationship between the chorus of Greek tragedy and other types of choral song in Greek society. L. A. Swift not only provides new insights into individual plays, but also enriches our understanding of the role poetry and song played in ancient Greek life.

Dr Allan has produced a fundamental reappraisal of one of Euripides' most problematic and neglected tragedies. The close study of a single play is used to test, and to escape, many standard assumptions about Euripidean tragedy. The Andromache is shown to be a powerful and stimulating drama.

A study of the representation of human motivation in Herodotus' Histories. Emily Baragwanath's focus is upon the sophisticated narrative techniques with which Herodotus represents this elusive kind of historical knowledge.

The speeches of Demosthenes and other 4th-century BC Athenian orators have long been recognized as a source of information about the mindset and life of ordinary Athenians. This book contributes to an understanding of religion in the public discourse by studying references to religious beliefs, institutions, and events in the oratorical corpus.

This study of Cicero's political oratory and Roman imperialism in the late Republic offers new readings of neglected speeches. C.E.W. Steel examines the role and capacities of political oratory and puts Cicero's attitude to empire, with its limitations and weaknesses, in the context of wider debates among his contemporaries on the problems of empire.

Lucretius' account of the origin of life, the origin of species, and human prehistory (first century BC) is the longest and most detailed account extant from the ancient world. This commentary seeks to locate Lucretius in both the ancient and modern contexts.

This edition of Book 5 of Statius' Silvae includes an introduction, translation, and full literary and cultural commentary, enabling readers to engage with the work of this learned and increasingly popular poet.

Blighted and accursed families are an inescapable feature of Greek tragedy. N.J. Sewell-Rutter gives the familiar issues of inherited guilt, curses, and divine causation a fresh appraisal, with particular reference to Aeschylus' Seven against Thebes and the Phoenician Women of Euripides. All Greek quotations are translated.