Lucian's science fiction novel, True histories : interpretation and commentary /
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This is the first substantial commentary on Lucian's Verae Historiae (\'True Histories\'), a fantastic journey narrative considered the earliest surviving example of Science Fiction in the Western tradition. The Introduction situates the work in the context of Lucian's oeuvre, especially his preoccupation with distinguishing truth from fiction and exposing the lies of philosophers. In their commentary, the editors trace the sources and the meaning of the numerous intertextual allusions and parodies of philosophers, poets, historians and paradoxographers. The Verae Historiae emerges from this scrutiny as a remarkably complex text with some very \'modern\' concerns: it problematizes the act of reading, allegorical interpretation, authorial reliability, and the validity of cultural norms and literary genres.
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1 online resource (254 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 233-245) and indexes. :
9789004351509 :
0169-8958 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Lucrèce et les sciences de la vie /
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This volume contains a collection of 11 studies on the philosophical and scientific background of Lucretius' De rerum natura . The studies 1-7 form a running commentary on the history of ideas in Drn . 5.780-1160 (Lucretius' famous description of the History of Human Mankind); 8-10 discuss some topics from book 4 (sleep, dreams, optical illusions) in relationship to other philosophical doctrines and ancient medical thought; the last study (11) treats the use of analogy by Lucretius.
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1 online resource (231 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004351448 :
0169-8958 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The literature of the sages.
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This long-awaited companion volume to The Literature of the Sages , First Part (Fortress Press, 1987) brings to completion Section II of the renowned Compendia series. The Literature of the Sages, Second Part, explores the literary creation of thousands of ancient Jewish teachers, the often- anonymous Sages of late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Essays by premier scholars provide a careful and succinct analysis of the content and character of various documents, their textual and literary forms, with particular attention to the ongoing discovery and publication of new textual material. Incorporating groundbreaking developments in research, these essays give a comprehensive presentation published here for the first time. This volume will prove an important reference work for all students of ancient Judaism, the origins of Jewish tradition, and the Jewish background of Christianity. The literary creation of the ancient Jewish teachers or Sages - also called rabbinic literature - consists of the teachings of thousands of Sages, many of them anonymous. For a long period, their teachings existed orally, which implied a great deal of flexibility in arrangement and form. Only gradually, as parts of this amorphous oral tradition became fixed, was the literature written down, a process that began in the third century C.E. and continued into the Middle Ages. Thus the documents of rabbinic literature are the result of a remarkably long and complex process of creation and editing. This long-awaited companion volume to 'The Literature of the Sages, First Part' (1987) gives a careful and succinct analysis both of the content and specific nature of the various documents, and of their textual and literary forms, paying special attention to the continuing discovery and publication of new textual material. Incorporating ground-breaking developments in research, these essays give a comprehensive presentation published here for the first time. 'The Literature of the Sages, Second Part' is an important reference work for all students of ancient Judaism, as well as for those interested in the origins of Jewish tradition and the Jewish background of Christianity.
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1 online resource (xvii, 772 p) :
9789004275126 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Niccolò Machiavelli : history, power, and virtue /
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This volume is an attempt to rethink Niccolò Machiavelli, one of the most challenging political thinkers in the history of European political thought. In 2013, we will mark 500 years since Machiavelli wrote his puzzling letter to Lorenzo de' Medici, Il Principe . This book is an endeavor to cover some of the most complex aspects of Machiavelli's life and work.
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"This book is the outcome of a series of international seminars on Niccolò Machiavelli and early modern European political philosophy held at Vytautas Magnus University School of Political Science and Diplomacy in Kaunas, Lithuania"--Page [ix]. :
1 online resource (114 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789042032781 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Writing politics in Imperial Rome /
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Roman literature is inherently political in the varied contexts of its production and the abiding concerns of its subject matter. This collection examines the strategies and techniques of political writing at Rome in a broad range of literature spanning almost two centuries, differing political systems, climates, and contexts. It applies a definition of politics that is more in keeping with modern critical approaches than has often been the case in studies of the political literature of classical antiquity. By applying a wide variety of critically informed viewpoints, this volume offers the reader not only a long view of the abiding techniques, strategies, and concerns of political expression at Rome but also many new perspectives on individual authors of the early empire and their republican precursors.
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1 online resource (xii, 539 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 483-512) and indexes. :
9789004217133 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The propaganda of power : the role of panegyric in late antiquity /
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The 13 essays presented here shed new light on the role of panegyric in the western and eastern Roman Empire in the late antique world. Introductory chapters give an overview of panegyrical theory and practice, followed by studies of major writers of the early empire and the anonymous Panegyrici latini . The core of the volume deals with prose and verse panegyric under the Christian Roman Empire (4th-7th century): key themes addressed are social and political context, the 'hidden agenda', and the impact of Christianity on the pagan tradition of the panegyric, including the portrayal of patriarchs and holy men.
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1 online resource (x, 378 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004351479 :
0169-8958 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Ainoi, logoi, mythoi : fables in archaic, classical, and Hellenistic Greek literature : with a study of the theory and terminology of the genre /
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The first study to focus on the numerous ancient Greek fables occurring outside (and predating) the extant fable collections. Divided into three parts, its core is an intertextual analysis of the functions of fables and their allusions. Here the author covers many different authors and a variety of genres in Archaic, Classical and Hellenistic Greek Literature, ranging from lyric to historiography, from Aristotle to Hesiod and from Agamemnon to Zopyrus. This analysis is based on a study of both modern and ancient fable theory - the latter having hitherto never been studied in toto , and incorporating the Graeco-Roman terminology of the genre. The book's third part is a collection of all texts (and contexts) studied, which greatly facilitates cross-referencing.
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Title romanized.
Includes indexes. :
1 online resource (xxx, 683 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 577-610). :
9789004330306 :
0169-8958 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Harmonics /
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Ptolemy's comprehensive treatises on astronomy and geography were influential for nearly two millennia. Equally influential was his treatise on harmonics, the ancient science which combined and brought to completion the study of philosophy and science. This volume offers a comprehensive English translation and commentary of Ptolemy's Harmonics . The treatise begins with Ptolemy's study of pitches and intervals, for which he extracts both an idealized musical scale and a new acoustical tool. After discussing modulation, he expands his horizons by applying musical intervals to the human soul and celestial bodies, ultimately describing a cosmic harmony. The English translation faithfully reproduces Ptolemy's style and includes all the charts surviving in the manuscript tradition. The commentary offers a full exegesis of the text, loci paralleli, and citations of modern scholarly sources.
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1 online resource (xxxvii, 192 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 167-179) and indexes. :
9789004351165 :
0169-8958 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.