{"title":"Understanding Classics Series","description":"","products":[{"product_id":"horace-understanding-classics","title":"Horace: Understanding Classics","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eUnderstanding Classics Series\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003ePerhaps no classical writer has been so consistently in vogue as Horace. Famous in his own lifetime as a close associate of the Emperor Octavian, to whom he dedicated several odes, Quintus Horatius Flaccus (65–8 BC) has never really been out of fashion. Petrarch, for example, modelled his letters on Horace's innovative Epistles, while also borrowing from his Roman forebear in composing his own Italian sonnets.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe echo of Horace's voice can be found in almost every genre of medieval literature. And in later periods, this influence and popularity if anything increased. Yet, as Paul Allen Miller shows, while Horace may justifiably be called the poet for all seasons he is also in the end an enigma. His elusive, ironic contrariness is perhaps the true secret of his success. A cultured man of letters, he fought on the losing side of the Battle of Philippi (42 BC). A staunch Republican, he ended up eagerly (some said too eagerly) promoting the cause of Julio-Claudian imperialism. Viewed as the acme of Roman literary civilization, he was shaped by his Athens education at Plato's famous Academy. This new introduction reveals Horace in all his paradoxical genius and complexity.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePrint-On-Demand\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Hellenic Bookservicew","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56036758258043,"sku":null,"price":19.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0913\/6862\/0411\/files\/9781784533304.jpg?v=1769438159"},{"product_id":"tacitus-understanding-classics","title":"Tacitus: Understanding Classics","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eUnderstanding Classics Series\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe greatest of Roman historians, Publius Cornelius Tacitus (56-117 CE) studied rhetoric in Rome. His rhetorical and oratorical gifts are evident throughout his most substantial works, the incomplete but still remarkable Annals and Histories. In concise and concentrated prose, marked by sometimes bitter and ironic reflections on the human capacity to misuse power, Tacitus charts the violent trajectory of the Roman Empire from Augustus' death in 14 CE to the end of Domitian's rule in 96. Victoria Emma Pagan looks at Tacitus from a range of perspectives: as a literary stylist, perhaps influenced by Sallust; his notion of time; his modes of discourse; his place in the historiography of the era; and the later reception of Tacitus in the Renaissance and early modern periods. Tacitus remains of major interest to students of the Bible, as well as classicists, by virtue of his reference to 'Christus' and Nero's persecution of the Christians after the great fire of Rome in 64 CE. This lively survey enables its readers fully to appreciate why, in holding a mirror up to venality and greed, the work of Tacitus remains eternal.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Hellenic Bookservice","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56036773691771,"sku":null,"price":19.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0913\/6862\/0411\/files\/9781780763187.jpg?v=1769438545"},{"product_id":"cicero-understanding-classics","title":"Cicero: Understanding Classics","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eUnderstanding Classics Series\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eMarcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BCE) introduced Romans to the major schools of Greek philosophy, forging a Latin conceptual vocabulary that was entirely new. But for all the sophistication of his thinking, it is perhaps for his political and oratorical career that Cicero is best remembered. He was the nemesis of Catiline, whose plot to overthrow the Republic he famously denounced to the Senate. He was the selfless politician who turned down the opportunity to join Julius Caesar and Pompey in their ruling triumvirate with Crassus. He was briefly Rome's leading man after Caesar's assassination in 44 BCE. And he was the great political orator whose bitter conflict with Mark Antony led to his own violent death in 43 BCE. In her authoritative survey, Gesine Manuwald evokes the many faces of Cicero as well as his complexities and seeming contradictions. She focuses on his major works, allowing the great writer to speak for himself. Cicero's rich legacy is seen to endure in the works of Quintilian and the Church Fathers as well as in the speeches of Harry S. Truman and Barack Obama.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePrint-On-Demand\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Hellenic Bookservice","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56036835492219,"sku":null,"price":20.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0913\/6862\/0411\/files\/9781780764023.jpg?v=1769440064"},{"product_id":"ovid-understanding-classics","title":"Ovid: Understanding Classics","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eUnderstanding Classics Series\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eVirgil, Horace and Ovid are often cited as the three great canonical poets of classical Roman literature. And of the three, arguably it is Ovid (43 BCE-CE 17\/18) who has the most enduring legacy. Carole Newlands introduces her subject as an ancient author with a vital place in the modern cultural canon: and also as the inspiration behind figures as diverse as Chaucer, Titian, Dryden and Ted Hughes. She views Ovid as a Latin writer who is uniquely suitable for times of change: he appeals to postmodern sensibilities because of his interest in psychology, his fascination with cultural hybridity and his challenge to the conventional divide between animal and human. This book explores the connection between the historical poet and the works he produced: love elegies, the Metamorphoses and the Fasti. It shows that unlike Virgil - who wrote early in Augustus' reign, anticipating a golden age of peace and prosperity - Ovid was a product of the late Augustan age: one of hardening autocracy and the greater influence of Tiberius behind the scenes. His elegies and erotic myths must therefore be understood as the result of complex, shifting political circumstances.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Hellenic Bookservice","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56036854137211,"sku":null,"price":20.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0913\/6862\/0411\/files\/9781848859302.jpg?v=1769440305"},{"product_id":"latin-love-poetry-understanding-classics","title":"Latin Love Poetry: Understanding Classics","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eUnderstanding Classics Series\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eI hate and I love.' The Roman poet Catullus expressed the disorienting experience of being in love in a stark contradiction that has resonated across the centuries. While his description might seem to modern readers natural and spontaneous, it is actually a response planned with great care and artistry. It is that artistry, and the way in which Roman love poetry works, that this book explores. Focusing on Catullus and on the later genre of elegy - so-called for its metre, and a form of poetry practiced by Tibullus, Propertius and Ovid - Denise Eileen McCoskey and Zara Martirosova Torlone discuss the devices used by the major Roman love poets, as well as the literary and historical contexts that helped shape their work. Setting poets and their writings especially against the turbulent backdrop of the Augustan Age (31 BCE-14 CE), the book examines the origins of Latin elegy; highlights the poets' key themes; and traces their reception by later writers and readers.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePrint-On-Demand\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Hellenic Bookservice","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56036861575547,"sku":null,"price":20.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0913\/6862\/0411\/files\/9781780761916.jpg?v=1769440568"},{"product_id":"euripides-understanding-classics","title":"Euripides: Understanding Classics","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eUnderstanding Classics Series\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eSophocles, Aeschylus and Euripides are often described as the greatest tragedians of the ancient world. Of these three pivotal founders of modern drama, Euripides is characterized as the interloper and the innovator: the man who put tragic verse into the mouths of slaves, women and the socially inferior in order to address vital social issues such as sex, class and gender relations. It is perhaps little wonder that his work should find such resonance in the modern day.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIn this concise introduction, Isabelle Torrance engages with the thematic, cultural and scholarly difficulties that surround his plays to demonstrate why Euripides remains a figure of perennial relevance. Addressing here issues of social context, performance theory, fifth-century philosophy and religion, textual criticism and reception, the author presents an astute and attractively-written guide to the Euripidean corpus – from the widely read and celebrated \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eMedea\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e to the lesser-known and deeply ambiguous \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eAlcestis.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Hellenic Bookservice","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56038000525691,"sku":null,"price":19.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0913\/6862\/0411\/files\/9781848856684.jpg?v=1769524186"},{"product_id":"homer-understanding-classics","title":"Homer: Understanding Classics","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eUnderstanding Classics Series\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWhat reader could fail to be enthralled by the Iliad and the Odyssey, those greatest heroic epics of antiquity? Yet the author of those immortal text remains, in the end, an enigma. The central paradox of 'Homer' is that- while recognized as producing poetry of incomparable genius- even in the ancient world nobody knew who he was. As a result, the myth-maker became the subject of myth. For the satirist Lucian (c.125-180 CE) he was a captive Babylonian. Other traditions have Homer born in Smyrna, or on the island of Chios, or portray him as a blind and wandering minstrel. In his new and authoritative introduction, Jonathan S. Burgess addresses fundamental questions of provenance and authorship. Besides conveying why these epics have been cherished down the ages, he discusses their historical sources and the possible impact on the Iliad and Odyssey of Indo-European, Near Eastern and folktale influences. Tracing their transmission through the ancient, medieval and modern periods, the author further examines questions of theory and reception.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Hellenic Bookservice","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56038491160955,"sku":null,"price":20.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0913\/6862\/0411\/files\/9781848858633_be0b9943-aa87-44f3-85ab-f4323a77051f.jpg?v=1769525502"}],"url":"https:\/\/hellenic-books.com\/collections\/understanding-classics-series.oembed","provider":"Hellenic Bookservice","version":"1.0","type":"link"}