The Poems
Propertius
His helpless infatuation for the sinister figure of his mistress Cynthia forms the main subject of his poetry and is analyzed with a tormented but witty grandeur in all its changing moods, from ecstasy to suicidal despair.
Odes and Epodes
Horatius
Here is a new Loeb Classical Library edition of the great Roman poet's Odes and Epodes, a fluid translation facing the Latin text. Horace took pride in being the first Roman to write a body of lyric poetry. For models he turned to Greek lyric, especially to the poetry of Alcaeus, Sappho, and Pindar; but his poems are set in a Roman context. His four books of odes cover a wide range of moods and topics. Some are public poems, upholding the traditional values of courage, loyalty, and piety; and there are hymns to the gods. But most of the odes are on private themes: chiding or advising friends; speaking about love and amorous situations, often amusingly. Horace's seventeen epodes, which he called iambi, were also an innovation for Roman literature. Like the odes they were inspired by a Greek model: the seventh-century imabic poetry of Archilochus. Love and political concerns are frequent themes; here the tone is generally that of satirical lampoons. In his language he is triumphantly adventurous, Quintilian said of Horace;Content:Odes* Book I* Book II* Book III* Book IVHymn for a New AgeEpodes
Clicking Her Heels
Lucy Hepburn - 2007
Amy embarks on a modern-day Cinderella quest to reclaim her pride and joy, travelling to New York, Ireland and Miami and meeting a whole host of unlikely characters - including some real-life ugly sisters and a very sexy Prince Charming...Amy begins to realise that her shoes aren't mere accessories - from her favourite killer heels to her late mother's beloved ballet slippers, each pair holds unforgettable memories. But as Amy is reunited with her most cherished possessions, she unearths secrets about her past - and a few home truths. Could it be that the important things in life don't always come boxed and gift-wrapped...?
The Plays and Fragments
Menander
Until the twentieth century he was known to us only by short quotations in ancient authors. Since 1907 papyri found in the sand of Egypt have brought to light more and more fragments and in 1958 the papyrus text of a complete play was published, The Bad-Tempered Man (Dyskolos). His romantic comedies deal with the lives of ordinary Athenian families. This new verse translation is accurate and highly readable, providing a consecutive text by using surviving words in the damaged papyri.
Lives of Eminent Philosophers, Vol 2, Books 6-10
Diogenes Laërtius
Diogenes Laertius carefully compiled his information from hundreds of sources and enriches his accounts with numerous quotations.Diogenes Laertius lived probably in the earlier half of the 3rd century CE, his ancestry and birthplace being unknown. His history, in ten books, is divided unscientifically into two 'Successions' or sections: 'Ionian' from Anaximander to Theophrastus and Chrysippus, including the Socratic schools; 'Italian' from Pythagoras to Epicurus, including the Eleatics and sceptics. It is a very valuable collection of quotations and facts.The Loeb Classical Library edition of Diogenes Laertius is in two volumes.
Fasti
Ovid
Both a calendar of daily rituals and a witty sequence of stories recounted in a variety of styles, it weaves together tales of gods and citizens together to explore Rome's history, religious beliefs and traditions. It may also be read as a subtle but powerful political manifesto which derides Augustus' attempts to control his subjects by imposing his own mythology upon them: after celebrating the emperor as a Jupiter-on-earth, for example, Ovid deliberately juxtaposes a story showing the king of the gods as a savage rapist. Endlessly playful, this is also a work of integrity and courage, and a superb climax to the life of one of Rome's greatest writers.
Out on a Limb
Lynne Barrett-Lee - 2007
Either slightly dramatic or seriously dramatic. That this is the latter means just the one thing. That my day is about to get worse...' And for single mum, Abbie, life is complex enough. So once her eldest son, Seb, has gone on his gap year, she's decided it's time to make changes. She's just left her old job and started a new one (to escape the gorgeous man-who-turned-out-to-be-married), and is planning some space for herself at long last. But fate seems to have something else in mind for Abbie, in the shape of her demanding and incorrigible mother, whose feckless fourth husband, Hugo, has just died. Temporarily in a wheelchair after a recent knee op, Diana - retired TV fitness icon and dancer - will need looking after, so will have to move in. Still, Abbie tells herself - gritting her teeth - it won't be for more than a few weeks... However, Abbie hasn't figured on the sudden arrival of Hugo's 20 years' estranged son.
Four Tragedies and Octavia (Thyestes, Phaedra, Troades, Oedipus, Octavia)
Seneca
Thyestes depicts the menace of an ancestral curse hanging over two feuding brothers, while Phaedra portrays a woman tormented by fatal passion for her stepson. In The Trojan Women, the widowed Hecuba and Andromache await their fates at the hands of the conquering Greeks, and Oedipus follows the downfall of the royal House of Thebes. Octavia is a grim commentary on Nero's tyrannical rule and the execution of his wife, with Seneca himself appearing as an ineffective counsellor attempting to curb the atrocities of the emperor.
Eclogues. Georgics. Aeneid: Books 1-6
Virgil
Slow in speech, shy in manner, thoughtful in mind, weak in health, he went back north for a quiet life. Influenced by the group of poets there, he may have written some of the doubtful poems included in our Virgilian manuscripts. All his undoubted extant work is written in his perfect hexameters. Earliest comes the collection of ten pleasingly artificial bucolic poems, the "Eclogues," which imitated freely Theocritus's idylls. They deal with pastoral life and love. Before 29 BCE came one of the best of all didactic works, the four hooks of Georgics on tillage, trees, cattle, and bees. Virgil's remaining years were spent in composing his great, not wholly finished, epic the "Aeneid," on the traditional theme of Rome's origins through Aeneas of Troy. Inspired by the Emperor Augustus's rule, the poem is Homeric in metre and method but influenced also by later Greek and Roman literature, philosophy, and learning, and deeply Roman in spirit. Virgil died in 19 BCE at Brundisium on his way home from Greece, where he had intended to round off the "Aeneid." He had left in Rome a request that all its twelve books should be destroyed if he were to die then, but they were published by the executors of his will.The Loeb Classical Library edition of Virgil is in two volumes.
Caesar's Commentaries: On the Gallic War & On the Civil War
Gaius Julius Caesar
A. MacDevitt. Caesar's Commentaries are an outstanding account of extraordinary events by one of the most exceptional men in the history of the world. Julius Caesar himself was one of the most eminent writers of the age in which he lived. His commentaries on the Gallic and Civil Wars are written with a purity, precision, and perspicuity, which command approbation. They are elegant without affectation, and beautiful without ornament. Of the two books which he composed on Analogy, and those under the title of Anti-Cato, scarcely any fragment is preserved; but we may be assured of the justness of the observations on language, which were made by an author so much distinguished by the excellence of his own compositions. His poem entitled The Journey, which was probably an entertaining narrative, is likewise totally lost. All of Caesar's works that remain intact are contained in this edition of his commentaries.It is to the honor of Caesar, that when he had obtained the supreme power, he exercised it with a degree of moderation beyond what was generally expected by those who had fought on the side of the Republic. His time was almost entirely occupied with public affairs, in the management of which, though he employed many agents, he appears to have had none in the character of actual minister.Caesar deprecated a lingering death, and wished that his own might be sudden and speedy. And the day before he died, the conversation at supper, in the house of Marcus Lepidus, turning upon what was the most eligible way of dying, he gave his opinion in favor of a death that is sudden and unexpected. He died in the fifty-sixth year of his age, and was ranked amongst the Gods.
Metamorphoses (The Golden Ass), Vol 1 of 2: Books 1-6
Apuleius
It is truly enchanting: a delightful romance combining realism and magic. The hero, Lucius, eager to experience the sensations of a bird, resorts to witchcraft but by an unfortunate pharmaceutical error finds himself transformed into an ass. He knows he can revert to his own body by eating rose-petals, but these prove singularly elusive; and the bulk of the work describes his adventures as an animal. He also retails many stories that he overheard, the most charming being that of Cupid and Psyche (beginning, in true fairy-tale fashion, 'Erant in quadam civitate rex et regina'). Some of the stories are as indecent as they are witty, and two in the ninth book were deemed by Boccaccio worthy of inclusion in the Decameron. At last the goddess Isis takes pity on Lucius. In a surprising denouement, he is restored to human shape and, now spiritually regenerated, is initiated into her mysteries. The author's baroque Latin style nicely matches his fantastic narrative and is guaranteed to hold a reader's attention from beginning to end. J. Arthur Hanson was at the time of his death in 1985 Giger Professor of Latin at Princeton University. His publications include Roman Theater-Temples. The Loeb Classical Library edition of Apuleius is in two volumes.
Stanley Donwood: There Will Be No Quiet
Stanley Donwood - 2019
His influential work spans many practices over a 23-year period, from music packaging to installation work to printmaking. Here, he reveals his personal notebooks, photographs, sketches, and abandoned routes to iconic Radiohead artworks. Arranged chronologically, each chapter is dedicated to a major work—whether an album cover, promotional piece, or a personal project—and is presented as a step-by-step working case study. Featuring commentary by Thom Yorke and never-before-seen archival material, this is the first deep dive into Donwood’s creative practice and the artistic freedom afforded to him by working for a major music act. It is a must-have for fans of the band and anyone interested in graphic design and popular culture.
The natural history of Pliny
Pliny the Elder
This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book.
The Satyricon and The Apocolocyntosis
Petronius
Here Petronius brilliantly brings to life the courtesans, legacy-hunters, pompous professors and dissolute priestesses of the age and, above all, Trimalchio, the archetypal self-made millionaire whose pretentious vulgarity on an insanely grand scale makes him one of the great comic characters in literature. Seneca's The Apocolocyntosis, a malicious skit on the deification of Claudius the Clod', was designed by the author to ingratiate himself with Nero, who was Claudius' successor. Together, the two provide a powerful insight into a darkly fascinating period of Roman history.For this edition Professor Sullivan has updated his translation & his literary & historical introductions in the light of the latest research. He's included all Petronius' surviving verse.Petroneus:Introduction --The authorship and date of The Satyricon --The extent of the work and the plot --The literary qualities of the Satyricon --On the text and translation --The Satyricon --Puteoli --Dinner with Trimalchio --Eumolpus --The road to Croton --Croton --The fragments and the poems --List of characters --Notes on the Satyricon --Notes on the fragments and poems --Seneca:Introduction --The authorship and date of the Apocolocyntosis --The place of the work in Seneca's writings --The literary qualities of the Apocolocyntosis --On the text and translation --The Apocolocyntosis of the divine Claudius --Notes on the Apocolocyntosis
Civil War
Marcus Annaeus Lucanus
This newly annotated, free verse translation conveys the full force of Lucan's writing and his grimly realistic view of the subject. The work is a powerful condemnation of civil war, emphasizing the stark, dark horror of the catastrophies which the Roman state inflicted upon itself. Both the introduction and glossary set the scene for readers unfamiliar with Lucan and explore his relationship with earlier writers of Latin epic, and his interest in the sensational.