Books in the Understanding Classics series

Offering nuanced readings of Sappho s poems, written in an archaic Aeolic dialect, DuBois skillfully draws out their sharp images and rhythmic melody. She further discusses the exciting discovery of a new verse fragment in 2004, and the ways in which Sappho influenced Catullus, Horace and Ovid, as well as later writers and painters."

Pindar, though still respected, is considered a difficult poet, and is sometimes dismissed as a reactionary, celebrating an aristocratic world that was passing and that deserved to pass. In this first work on the subject for many years, Richard Stoneman shows that Pindar's works, while at first seeming obscure and fragmentary, reward further study.

Tracing their transmission through the ancient, medieval and modern periods, the author further examines questions of later reception and the use made of Homer in colonialism and imperialism.

It examines the literary origins of Latin elegy, highlights the poets' key themes and traces their reception by later writers and readers. Introducing the chief Latin elegists, as well as these poets' main sources of inspiration, the book shows that love elegy is the defining genre of Roman poetry.

Placing Eusebius in the context of his age the author provides a full account his life, including the period when Eusebius controversially sought to assist the heretic Arius.

Marcus Valerius Martialis is celebrated for his droll, frequently salacious, portrayal of Roman high and low society during first century rule of the emperors Domitian, Nerva and Trajan. This title provides an overview - for students of classics and ancient history, as well as comparative literature - of the chief themes of his sardonic writings.

Gesine Manuwald evokes the many faces of Cicero, as well as his complexities and seeming contradictions. She focuses on his major writings, allowing the great rhetorician to speak for himself.