Books in the The W. B. Stanford Memorial Lectures series

Proposes a new approach to the study of ancient Greek and Mesopotamian literature. Ranging from Homer and Gilgamesh to Herodotus and the Babylonian-Greek author Berossos, it paints a picture of two literary cultures that, over the course of time, became profoundly entwined. All passages of Greek and Akkadian are translated.

A consideration of how Plato represents his philosophical predecessors. These predecessors appear in imaginary conversations; and they are refuted when they fail to defend their philosophical positions in debate. Professor McCabe argues that Plato's reflections on these conversations allow him to develop a new account of the principles of reason.

Social memory is a powerful political and emotional force, although recovering the shared memories of past societies is notoriously difficult. Employing three case studies from the history of ancient Greece, this 2002 book explores how the evidence of landscape and monuments can reveal commemorative practices and collective amnesias in such societies.

This is a study of how sex and sexuality are written about in the first centuries of this era.

Drawing on a wide range of sources, pagan, Jewish and Christian, over ten centuries, Dr Garnsey challenges the common assumption of passive acquiescence in slavery and the associated view that, Aristotle apart, there was no systematic thought on slavery.

This book undertakes a literary analysis of the comic plays of Plautus and Terence. Despite being some of the earliest Latin literature in existence, they are argued to be sophisticated literary works which require close attention from the reader, while at the same time rewarding the audience with immediate humour.

The gens, a key social formation in archaic Rome, has given rise to considerable interpretative problems for modern scholarship. In this comprehensive exploration of the subject, Professor Smith examines the mismatch between the ancient evidence and modern interpretative models influenced by social anthropology and political theory. He offers a detailed comparison of the gens with the Attic genos and illustrates, for the first time, how recent changes in the way we understand the genos may impact upon our understanding of Roman history. He develops a concept of the gens within the interlocking communal institutions of early Rome, which touches on questions of land ownership, warfare and the patriciate, before offering an explanation of the role of the gens and the part it might play in modern political theory. This significant work makes an important contribution not only to the study of archaic Rome, but also to the history of ideas.

Aimed at scholars and students of Latin literature and at those interested in space, security and dwelling across the humanities, this book presents an ambitious and detailed analysis of the Roman literary obsession with retreat and closed spaces (caves, corners, villas, bathrooms, bodies and prisons) in the context of expanding empire.