Classics

This pedagogical reader of the Greek text of Plato's Gorgias, originally published for students in Victorian England, is an immensely helpful textbook for the student of the Greek language and literature. Edited by the prominent W. H. Thompson.

This edition of the Greek text is an excellent reader for any student of classics. It covers Plato’s Apology, Plato’s Crito, extracts from Plato’s Phaedo and Symposium, and Xenophon’s Memorabilia. It ends with a fifty page Greek-English vocabulary covering the entire material.

The book provides easy-to-use tables that translate the calendars of over sixty civilizations into the Julian and Gregorian calendars. An indispensable tool for scholars.

This is an indispensable reference to Roman Law, with an introductory essay by Erwin Grueber of Balliol College, Oxford. Sohm presents a systematic and historical exposition of Roman private law, introducing a new element into the legal studies of the English-speaking world.

Through the course of eight lectures, Franz Cumont gives a thorough investigation of the afterlife in Roman pagan thought. He covers topics such as the afterlife, celestial immortality, untimely death, the sufferings of hell and metempsychosis, the felicity of the blessed, the journey to the beyond, and more.

This is a classic book on the history of freedom of thought, covering ancient Greece and Rome, the Middle Ages, and the Renaissance. In addition, this early monograph deals with the Reformation, followed by the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries.

Long before its translation into English, this book secured its author a permanent place in the ranks of European philologists. Comparetti depicts a comprehensive history of the medieval conception of Vergil, then seeks to determine their nature, causes, and connection with European thought.

A necessary tool for any student of classics or Homer. A novel feature of the work is the introduction into the text of nearly one hundred and fifty small wood-cut images of various topics.

This is a reprint of the classical study by Pickard-Cambridge about Greece's most famous political orator, Demosthenes. It deals with his role in the last struggle of the Greeks for freedom against the Macedonian Empire.

W. Warde Fowler's book gives a detailed commentary on Roman religious festivals for each month of the year, covering both public and non-public worship.

The Apology of Aristides is the earliest Christian apologia to have survived in its entirety. It was written as a defense of the new Christian way of life against its many rivals and opponents, and details some of its leading ethical precepts. Long thought to have been lost, this early second-century work was rediscovered in a Syriac translation in a seventh-century manuscript preserved in the monastery of St. Catherine on Mount Sinai. This volume contains not only the standard edition of the Syriac text with critical notes, but also the first English translation and a study of surviving fragments in Greek, which were subsequently identified in the 'Life of Barlaam and Josaphat' (an early Christian reworking of the life of Buddha).

De Pretis’s book focuses on the epistolary features of Horace’s First Book of Epistles, reading them from points of view related to the epistolary form: the weight of the addressee; the dialogue between literary genres; the poet's self-representation; temporality; and the power of the author. These issues also pertain to literature as such, since all literature can be regarded, to a certain degree, as "epistolary." But the extent and consistency with which the Epistles explore epistolary aspects, can only be explained in terms of their generic affiliation.

The loves of the Olympian Zeus included countless immortal and mortal women, and one boy. The offspring, such as Apollo, Bacchus, Herakles, Helen of Troy and many others remain legendary. Section II is a 70-page modern debate on sexuality and spirituality.

The Book of the Laws of Countries (BLC) by Bardaisan of Edessa belongs to the most important writings of early Syriac literature. The text reflects the intellectual climate of northern Mesopotamia and in particular that of the city of Edessa, at the end of the second century and the first decades of the third century CE.

The consilium, or advisory council, played an important role in the everyday activities of the Roman magistrate in his role as military commander. This work is an in-depth look at the commander's consilium from its first depicted appearances in the accounts of the legendary period to 31 BC. The concilium adapted to meet changing needs and serves to illustrate how Romans felt about their own society. The role of the commander's consilium can be seen as a pragmatic compromise between the desire for competent leadership and personal ambition on the one hand, and the Romans' ever-present fear of tyrannical behavior on the other.

Exploring the important but complex historical period following the rule of Cleisthenes in Athens, Bates provides a handy reference for the tribes that emerged from this early experiment in democracy. The tribes of Antigonis, Demetrias, Ptolemais, Attalis, and Hadrianis are all considered, along with the families (demes) that made up each tribe.

Makings of the Sea is an inquiry into the makings of the Mediterranean imagination in the 20th century, focusing on specific cases in the visual and performing arts, music and literature. It also questions a number of populist perceptions of the Mediterranean and its cultures. Following a thematic structure that falls broadly under the headings of journey, doubt and nostalgia, this is an essay on Mediterranean aesthetics.

The continuation of the historic American Journal of Ancient History this volume contains three articles: “Urartu and the Medikos logos of Herodotus” by Laura D. Steele, “‘The athletes of war’: An evaluation of the agonistic elements in Greek warfare” by John Dayton, and “Agesilaus’ Egyptian enterprise” by Stephen Ruzicka. This is volume 2, number 2 of the New Series (2003 [2007]).

Negotiating Island Identities explores the history of interaction between Crete and the Cycladic islands from the late Middle to Late Bronze II periods when Minoan influence was at its peak. Based on a thorough investigation of pottery assemblages from key sites, the book advocates a rethink of established acculturation scenarios (such as “Minoanisation”) in relation to the Cycladic islands. Openness or closure towards outside influences was not predetermined by cultural, geographical or ecological variables but was socially constructed. Island communities could consciously fashion their worlds and make choices about the nature and degree of interaction with their neighbours.

The continuation of the historic American Journal of Ancient History this volume contains nine articles and comprises the contents of volumes 3 and 4 of the New Series (2004-2005 [2007]).

How did the Nabataeans view their world at the time of the Roman annexation in CE 106? If it is possible to detect an altered perception after their monarchy was dissolved at that time, how can we be sure it was authentic and not a veneer, masking the identity of a disaffected people? One approach is to consider religious practice as a diagnostic for identity within Nabataean society. Religious practice is examined through the ceramic oil lamp, a ubiquitous vessel that can portray socio-political and religious symbolism and cultural hybridization.

A special book-length publication of T.R.S. Broughton, Autobiography. Edited by T. Corey Brennan (Rutgers University), with T. Alan Broughton (University of Vermont, emeritus), Ryan F. Fowler, Andrew G. Scott, and Kathleen J. Shea (Rutgers). Edition with introduction, notes, and annotated index of the unpublished autobiography of one of North America's foremost ancient historians, who lived 1900–1993. The volume contains also Broughton's unpublished 1970 lecture "Roman studies in the twentieth century", which masterfully places Lily Ross Taylor’s major works in their intellectual context.

This volume contains 20 peer-reviewed papers highlighting historical, social and cultural episodes, conditions, and trends of the Empire during the reign of Septimius Severus, the last great emperor to lead the Romans prior to the third century crisis.

Indeed a classic of accessible archaeological writing, Burrows’ study of ancient Crete was one of the main contributors to the commencement of modern understanding of the Minoans. The earliest traces of the Minoan civilization are sketched out before he turns to the historical periods when Minos flourished. The sack of Knossos and the end of the Bronze Age are narrated against the archaeological background. Aware of the cultural continuity of classical stories from the island, he introduces the topic of the minotaur and the famed labyrinth of Knossos. For anyone interested in the roots of western civilization, or of the founding of classical civilizations, this book remains an essential reading.

Tomaschek’s seminal study on the Thracians has become a volume difficult to locate. This edition is the rarer first volume of his explorations of the ethnology of this poorly understood culture. Examining the tribes within the Thracian region, Tomaschek also looks at the traits of the Thracians in general. Consideration of the language is also given, including the names of gods and cultic terms. Personal names, regional and ethnic names, and the terms for mountains, hills, rivers, and seas are also part of the lexical study. Written in German, this historic study is now once again readily accessible to scholars.