Cicero's Brutus and Orator constitute his final major statements on the history of Roman oratory and the nature of the ideal orator. In the Brutus he traces the development of political and judicial speech over the span of 150 years, from the early second century to 46 BCE, when both of these treatises were written. In an immensely detailed account of some 200 speakers from the past he dispenses an expert's praise and criticism, provides an unparalleled resource for the study of R...

The eminent classicist delivers "an evocative history of Europe's first great road" from Rome to the heel of Italy in this "slim but evocative volume" ( The Guardian, UK).The 1st century Roman poet Statius called the Via Appia "the Queen of Roads," and for nearly a thousand years that description held true, as countless travelers trod its path from the center of Rome to the Southern Italian city of Brindisi. Today, the road is all but gone, destro...

How ancient Stoicism can help teach us to treat others—and ourselves—more fairly and mercifullyThere are times when we’ve all felt that we haven’t been treated as we deserve—that we’ve been misjudged, shortchanged, or given a raw deal. And, at one time or another, other people have probably felt that we’ve treated them just as unfairly. How to Do the Right Thing draws on the principles of ancient Stoicism as articulated by the Roman statesman and philosoph...

Classical Culture and Society (Series Editors: Joseph A. Farrell, University of Pennsylvania, and Ian Morris, Stanford University) is a new series from Oxford that emphasizes innovative, imaginative scholarship by leading scholars in the field of ancient culture. Among the topics covered will be the historical and cultural background of Greek and Roman literary texts; the production and reception of cultural artifacts; the economic basis of culture; the history of ideas, values, a...

"A welcome addition to the existing English translations of Seneca's works [and] one of the best...for students or non-specialists." — Mouseion: Journal of the Classical Association of CanadaLucius Annaeus Seneca (4 BCE–65 CE) was a Roman Stoic philosopher, dramatist, statesman, and adviser to the emperor Nero, all during the Silver Age of Latin literature. The Complete Works of Lucius Annaeus Seneca is a fresh and compelling series of new English-...

The emotions have long been an interest for those studying ancient Greece and Rome. But while the last few decades have produced excellent studies of individual emotions and the different approaches to them by the major philosophical schools, the focus has been almost entirely on negative emotions. This might give the impression that the Greeks and Romans had little to say about positive emotion, something that would be misguided. As the chapters in this collection indicate, there are repr...

A radical new portrait of the infamous Roman emperorRome’s second emperor, Tiberius (42 BCE–CE 37), has traditionally been seen as a villainous hypocrite—treacherous, grasping, vindictive, and depraved. But in Tiberius and His Age, Edward Champlin draws on vast and diverse evidence to show that Tiberius was—and was seen by contemporaries to be—recognizably human and far more complex than the monster of the hostile tradition that began with Tacitus and Suet...

The Servian commentaries on Vergil are doubly distinguished: they are among the very few ancient commentaries on classical Latin texts to survive essentially intact; and they exist in two radically different forms-the original commentary created by the grammarian Servius early in the fifth century, emphasizing grammar and syntax, and an augmented version produced in the seventh century when a reader blended his Servius with much other recherché ancient lore. In the 1920s, the medievalist E...

How ancient Stoicism can help teach us to treat others—and ourselves—more fairly and mercifullyThere are times when we've all felt that we haven't been treated as we deserve—that we've been misjudged, shortchanged, or given a raw deal. And, at one time or another, other people have probably felt that we've treated them just as unfairly. How to Do the Right Thing draws on the principles of ancient Stoicism as articulated by the Roman statesman and philosoph...

"This is now the best English translation of Epictetus available . . . a reliable and up-to-date guide to the most influential Stoic in today's world." —Brad Inwood, author of Stoicism: A Very Short Introduction"Some things are up to us and some are not."Epictetus was born into slavery around the year 50 CE, and, upon being granted his freedom, he set himself up as a philosophy teacher. After being expelled from Rome, he spent the rest of his life living a...

These translations of the plays by the classical Roman dramatist are "an admirable effort to bring Seneca to a wider audience" ( Bryn Mawr Classical Review).The first of two volumes collecting the complete tragedies of Seneca.Edited by world-renowned classicists Elizabeth Asmis, Shadi Bartsch, and Martha C. Nussbaum, The Complete Works of Lucius Annaeus Seneca series offers authoritative, modern English translations of the writings of the Stoic philo...

**For both new and longtime readers, Robin Waterfield’s definitive translation and rich annotations offer everything they need to understand one of the most powerful works of practical philosophy ever written.“A treat (and an eye-opening experience) … If you haven’t read Marcus Aurelius or if you have…you should read this book and then read it again.”―Ryan Holiday, bestselling author of The Daily Stoic**An inexhaustible source of wisdom, Meditations is one...