Description
Book SynopsisThis anthology fills a gap which has been widely felt. It gives students - at sixth-form, undergraduate or junior graduate level - the opportunity of sampling a very wide variety of Latin prose texts, chosen to illustrate both development and generic differences. Each of the 96 passages is accompanied by a short introduction, and there are brief notes explaining difficult words and drawing attention to linguistic and stylistic points occurring in the extracts. The extracts range from the second century BC to the fifth century AD: Cato the Censor, C. Gracchus, and the annalists; Cicero (oratory, letters, philosophical treatises); the historians (Sallust, Livy, and Tacitus); non-historical prose (Seneca, Vitruvius, Pliny, Apuleius, Tertullian); and finally some early Patristic texts and extracts from the Vulgate.
Trade ReviewA rich and varied selection, representing all the major periods and styles of classical Latin prose literature from the beginnings to the fifth century AD ... The volume is attractive to read, and I suspect that not only students, for whom it is primarily intended, but also professional scholars, will enjoy browsing in it. * Classical Review *
The qualifications and skill of the editor are without question, and he has produced a very useful and informative anthology of ninety-six selections beginning with Cato's defense of the Rhodians and ending with a marvelously mannered description of Theodoric, King of the Goths, by Sidonius Apollinaris. The book is well laid out and produced with care. Even minor flaws are rare, and the physical appearance is not only attractive but assists the reader in understanding the text. * Charles Fuqua, Williams College, New England Classical Newsletter & Journal, Volume XIX, February 1992, Number 3 *
I think that the work succeeds admirably ... a very sensitive survey of a broad range of Roman attitudes and culture. Russell's command of the different authors and their styles is the strongest aspect of the book. The intelligence and discernment of the author are evident on every page. The book conveys a good sense of the diversity of Latin prose, and the selections can be compared with one another in a number of significant ways. Russell's anthology is welcome, and it should prove an excellent guide to an area of classical studies that is all too frequently neglected ... an excellent introductory survey ... it is going to teach the students a great deal about a variety of important literary forms and figures. * Charles Fuqua, Williams College, New England Classical Newsletter and Journal, Volume XIX, February 1992, Number 3 *
This is another sturdy and scholarly work from the Oxford University Press, from which we have come to expect the very best in Latin texts. It should prove useful and long-lived. * Sue Chaney Gilmore, Hillsboro High School, Nashville, Classical World *
a representative and varied picture of the development of the literary prose of the Romans ...this anthology can certainly be qualified as a very useful and richly variegated one ... Texts that show a wide range of tones and levels - serious and moralising or humorous and amusing, very technical and complicated next to fairly general and simple - have been brought together in a well-balanced way ... the numerous references to the list of secondary reading given in the Bibliography make the book very accessible and undoubtedly add to its usefulness. * J.H. Brouwers, Katholieke Universiteit, Nijmegen, Mnemosyne, Vol. XLVII, Fasc. 3 (1994) *
