Description

From the library of Prof. Wolfgang Haase, long-time editor of ANRW and the International Journal of the Classical Tradition (IJCT). - Somewhat rubbed jacket, slightly bleached spine, slightly stained edge, otherwise very good. / Etwas beriebener Umschlag, leicht verblichener R�cken, leicht angeschmutzter Schnitt, sonst sehr gut. - Panegyrics are topical speeches or poems delivered in praise of rulers and other public figures, both living and deceased. A rich source of insight into the time, often they constitute our only surviving source of information about certain key events in Roman history. The XII Panegyrici Latini, or �Gallic corpus,� were contained in a manuscript, since lost, discovered in Mainz by Johannes Aurispa in 1433. The first panegyric in the collection, Plinys Panegyric to Trajan, dates from too c.E. and served as a model for subsequent panegyrists. The remaining eleven orations date from much later (291�389 c.E.) and are addressed to the emperors Maximian, Constantius I, Constantine, Julian, and Theodosius. In Praise of Later Roman Emperors provides, for the first time, an annotated English translation of the eleven later panegyrics in the corpus, as well as the original Latin text prepared by R. A. B. Mynors. The volume opens with a broad historical introduction surveying the third and fourth centuries�the period during which the panegyrics were delivered. Prefacing each panegyric is a cogent introduction discussing date, authorship, and historical context. The authors annotate each translation with detailed commentary on events mentioned by the orator. In addition, they examine style and literary antecedents and explain figures of speech and rhetorical strategies. And what extraordinary translations they are. C. E. V. Nixon and Barbara Saylor Rodgers have managed to render the very difficult Latin of the panegyrics into graceful English, while at the same time remaining faithful to the original. Nixons and Rodgers�s achievement is unique in the study of late antique texts. With In Praise of Later Roman Emperors, they make a major and original contribution to our knowledge and understanding of late antiquity. - C. E. V. Nixon is Senior Lecturer in Ancient History at Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia. He is the author and translator of Pacatus: Panegyric to the Emperor Theodosius (Liverpool University Press, 1987). Barbara Saylor Rodgers is Associate Professor of Classics at the University of Vermont. She is the co-author, with R. H. Rodgers, of Geoponica (critical edition, Teubner, forthcoming). ISBN 9780520083264