Lucretius and the late Republic : an essay in Roman intellectual history /
:
The crisis Rome experienced in the last decades of the Republic was intellectual as well as political, social and military. This crisis was marked by conflicts over values and a growing dichotomy between words and things, as a result of which the key words of the Roman tradition lost their anchor in the inherited, commonly-held percepetion of reality known as the mos maiorum . The crisis was therefore also one of the Latin language itself. The monograph explores this thesis in discussions of the background and character of Roman intellectual history, the nature of the mos maiorum , the relationship of the Late Republic to the Mediterranean world, the roles of Julius Caesar, Catullus, Cicero, and Lucretius in the crisis, and its Augustan and later consequences. The major portion of the discussion is devoted to Lucretius, because the De Rerum Natura is the clearest example of the extent and nature of the crisis, from which it took its origin and gained its form and purpose. A principal goal of the essay is to relate Lucretius to the structure of Roman literary and intellectual history. It finds the explanation for his work in the nature of that history and the characteristic Roman modes and categories of thought rather than in the general history fo Greek philosophy. It also offers a new explanation of the relationshiop of the authors of the Late Republic to each other. In so doing, it indicates the foundation for a new history of Roman literature and a new conception of the reality and importance of the intellectual history of Rome.
:
1 online resource (viii, 87 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 80-83) and index. :
9789004328259 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Aristophanes and Athenian society of the early fourth century B.C. /
:
The purposes of this short monograph are to identify and analyze the problems of Athenian society with which the last two extant plays of Aristophanes - the Ekklesiazousai and the Ploutos - are concerned, as well as to examine the playright's views on the essence of these problems and on attempts to find satisfactory solutions to them. The work contains an introduction and seven sections: 1. Historical Background; 2. Poverty: Symptoms, Ideas regarding Solutions and Criticisms of Ideas; 3. Poverty versus Riches; 4. The sources of the ''Communistic'' Ideas; 5. Misthos Ekklesiastikos ; 6. The Censure of Materialism; 7. Aristophanes and the ''Middle Road''. The author has attempted here to set forth both the value of Aristophanes' last plays as historical sources and the significance of their social message.
:
1 online resource (46 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 44-46). :
9789004328167 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The Greek world of Apuleius : Apuleius and the second sophistic /
:
The first three chapters of this book elucidate the scholastic goals of both classical cultures during the Roman Imperial period. Apuleius' works share the stage in these chapters with representatives of the second-century Greek cultural paradigm. They define patterns of discourse and fit selected examples of analogous Apuleian strategies into the broader cultural framework. Subsequent chapters focus closely on the complete Apuleian corpus under the general headings of Apuleius in the roles of orator, philosopher and novelist. Two of Apuleius' philosophical works and his novel the Golden Ass provide an unparalleled opportunity to analyze the methods of translation and adaptation employed by the major Latin writer of the second half of the second century.
:
1 online resource (x, 276 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 257-263) and indexes. :
9789004330320 :
0169-8958 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.