Writing Biography In Greece And Rome

Explores narrative techniques in ancient biography and how they fictionalize narrative.

Explores narrative techniques in ancient biography and how they fictionalize narrative.

Written early in the 2nd century, Plutarch's Lives offers richly detailed and anecdotal profiles of some of the ancient world's mightiest and most influential figures, including those of Alexander the Great, Cicero, and Julius Caesar.

Plutarch's Lives, written at the beginning of the second century A.D., is a brilliant social history of the ancient world by one of the greatest biographers and moralists of all time. In what is by far his most famous and influential work, Plutarch reveals the character and personality of his subjects and how they led ultimately to tragedy or victory. Richly anecdotal and full of detail, Volume I contains profiles and comparisons of Romulus and Theseus, Numa and Lycurgus, Fabius and Pericles, and many more powerful figures of ancient Greece and Rome. The present translation, originally published in 1683 in conjunction with a life of Plutarch by John Dryden, was revised in 1864 by the poet and scholar Arthur Hugh Clough, whose notes and preface are also included in this edition. "From the Trade Paperback edition.

The complete text of Clough's edition of Plutarch's Lives; containing fifty lives and eighteen comparisons.

Trebia. Trasimene. Cannae. With three stunning victories, Hannibal humbled Rome and nearly shattered its empire. Even today Hannibal's brilliant, if ultimately unsuccessful, campaign against Rome during the Second Punic War (218-202 BC) make him one of history's most celebrated military leaders. This biography by Cornelius Nepos (c. 100-27 BC) sketches Hannibal's life from the time he began traveling with his father's army as a young boy, through his sixteen-year invasion of Italy and his tumultuous political career in Carthage, to his perilous exile and eventual suicide in the East. As Rome completed its bloody transition from dysfunctional republic to stable monarchy, Nepos labored to complete an innovative and influential collection of concise biographies. Putting aside the detailed, chronological accounts of military campaigns and political machinations that characterized most writing about history, Nepos surveyed Roman and Greek history for distinguished men who excelled in a range of prestigious occupations. In the exploits and achievements of these illustrious men, Nepos hoped that his readers would find models for the honorable conduct of their own lives. Although most of Nepos' works have been lost, we are fortunate to have his biography of Hannibal. Nepos offers a surprisingly balanced portrayal of a man that most Roman authors vilified as the most monstrous foe that Rome had ever faced. Nepos' straightforward style and his preference for common vocabulary make Life of Hannibal accessible for those who are just beginning to read continuous Latin prose, while the historical interest of the subject make it compelling for readers of every ability.

The first study of ancient Greek and Roman literary history as a phenomenon on its own terms.

Despite a common perception that most writing in antiquity was produced by men, some important literature written by women during this period has survived. Edited by I. M. Plant, Women Writers of Ancient Greece and Rome is a comprehensive anthology of the surviving literary texts of women writers from the Graeco-Roman world that offers new English translations from the works of more than fifty women. From Sappho, who lived in the seventh century B.C., to Eudocia and Egeria of the fifth century A.D., the texts presented here come from a wide range of sources and span the fields of poetry and prose. Each author is introduced with a critical review of what we know about the writer, her work, and its significance, along with a discussion of the texts that follow. A general introduction looks into the problem of the authenticity of some texts attributed to women and places their literature into the wider literary and social contexts of the ancient Graeco-Roman world.