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51 results

Page 1 of 3

  • Chapter 1 - Introduction

  • Edited by Roy Gibson, University of Durham, Christopher Whitton, University of Cambridge
  • Book:
    The Cambridge Critical Guide to Latin Literature
    Published online:
    04 January 2024
    Print publication:
    18 January 2024, pp 1-42

  • Summary

    This volume reflects on modes of scholarship in Latin literature: what texts do we read? How do we read them? And why? The introductory chapter first surveys the tools of the trade in the twenty-first century, then asks how ‘classical Latin’ is defined. We reflect on the exclusion of Christian Latin texts from the Oxford Latin Dictionary, try to quantify the corpus of surviving classical Latin, and uncover striking continuities between the canon of authors prescribed by Quintilian and modern teaching and research in classical Latin; commensurately, we draw attention to the neglect suffered by most surviving classical Latin authors and still more by the pagan and Christian texts of late antiquity. In the process we set an agenda for the volume as a whole, of ‘decentring’ classical Latin, and offer some first points of orientation in the late antique, mediaeval and early modern eras. Third, we look afresh at relations between Latin and fellow sub-disciplines in Classics and beyond. How much do we have in common, and what problems stand in the way of more successful communication? We close with some reflections on ‘close reading’ and on the possibility of evolving ‘distant reading’.

The Cambridge Critical Guide to Latin Literature
  • Edited by Roy Gibson, Christopher Whitton
  • Published online:
    04 January 2024
    Print publication:
    18 January 2024
  • The Cambridge Critical Guide to Latin Literature offers a critical overview of work on Latin literature. Where are we? How did we get here? Where to next? Fifteen commissioned chapters, along with an extensive introduction and Mary Beard's postscript, approach these questions from a range of angles. They aim not to codify the field, but to give snapshots of the discipline from different perspectives, and to offer provocations for future development. The Critical Guide aims to stimulate reflection on how we engage with Latin literature. Texts, tools and territories are the three areas of focus. The Guide situates the study of classical Latin literature within its global context from late antiquity to Neo-Latin, moving away from an exclusive focus on the pre-200 CE corpus. It recalibrates links with adjoining disciplines (history, philosophy, material culture, linguistics, political thought, Greek), and takes a fresh look at key tools (editing, reception, intertextuality, theory).

  • Chapter 2 - Intertextuality in Pliny, Epistles 6

  • from Part I - Intertextuality and Interdiscursivity in Pliny’s Letters
  • Edited by Margot Neger, University of Cyprus, Spyridon Tzounakas, University of Cyprus
  • Book:
    Intertextuality in Pliny's <i>Epistles</i>
    Published online:
    07 September 2023
    Print publication:
    21 September 2023, pp 47-66

  • Summary

    How does Plinian intertextuality contribute to making a book unit distinctive from its fellows? Taking Book 6 as its subject, this chapter first looks at the depth of intertextual investment made by Pliny in the second Vesuvius letter (6.20), and looks at the challenge set by its apparent references to Petronius. It then looks at the persistent intertextual presence across Book 6 of Cicero, Catullus, Vergil, Quintilian and Tacitus, and argues for a coherent programme of engagement particularly with Vergil, Quintilian and the Dialogus of Tacitus. The chapter ends by reflecting on why Pliny appeared to have good reason in the early second-century CE to be confident about the vigour and life-expectancy of public oratory at Rome.

  • On the Nature of Ancient Letter Collections*

  • Roy Gibson
  • Journal:
    The Journal of Roman Studies / Volume 102 / November 2012
    Published online by Cambridge University Press:
    07 June 2012, pp. 56-78
    Print publication:
    November 2012

  • There exists a strong link in modern thinking between letter collections and biographical or historical narration. Many ancient letter collections have been rearranged by modern editors along chronological lines, apparently with the aim of realizing the biographical and historiographical potential of these ancient collections. In their original format, however, non-fictional Greco-Roman letter collections were arranged predominantly by addressee or by theme (often without the preservation of chronology within addressee or thematic groupings), or they might be arranged on the principle of artful variety and significant juxtaposition. Consequently, some purpose or purposes other than biographical or historical narration must be attributed to ancient letter collections. This paper asks what those purposes might be.

Page 1 of 3