The earliest Virgilian manuscripts are from the fourth century, so all we have are multiple receptions of Virgil. Virgil’s most famous commentator, Servius, lived at the time when Roman culture was being Christianised and when the greatness of Rome projected in Virgil was in flux. I focus on the reception of Virgil through Servius in this context, concluding with later adaptations in mediaeval Christian England. I identify different layers of reception. First, Servius s commentary on Virgil, in the context of his contemporaries, Claudian and Augustine. The former uses Virgil to support the greatness of Rome, the latter uses Virgil to give cultural status to his Christian interpretation. However, all three present a construction of Rome either as the great city of the past, the present or the future. Secondly, I identify persona as a layer of reception in which Servius and Virgil appear as personae constructed as characters in literary texts. Thirdly, I show how the material text can be seen as another layer of reception: whilst Virgil’s text is presented in a relatively stable format, Servius s Commentary changes with each instantiation. I analyse two Christian receptions of the physical text: Proba’s reception of Virgil, and Isidores reception of Servius. The former presents Jesus as a classical epic hero, the latter fixes words and meanings. Finally, I move to mediaeval England, and a less explicit reception of Virgil and Servius in Lydgate and Maydiston. Royal entry poems and the Fall of Princes define rulership authorised by references to the past. They re-imagine cities and rulers by projecting an imagined Roman model onto the mediaeval world. Servius can be seen as an outstanding example of why reception studies should also consider the teacher and the educator when discussing reception of Virgil in the fourth century and beyond.

The thesis presents a detailed analysis of scholia found in the late tenth- or early eleventh-century Bavarian Horace manuscript, British Library Harley 2724. I append a full transcript of scholia found in the lyric part of this manuscript. The Harley annotations are distinguished by extensive verbatim use of texts and commentaries, particularly Orosius, Eutropius, Paul the Deacon, Dares, Dictys, Solinus, Cicero’s De Senectute, Isidore’s Etymologiae, Macrobius’ In Somnium, Servius, Remigius’ commentary on Martianus Capella, scholia on Statius’ Thebaid, Bede’s commentary on the Acts of the Apostles, and other sources. One the basis of the examined evidence, I suggest that the annotations form a unified body. The annotator(s) favours extensive narrative; the choice of material is not restrained by relevance to Horatian lemmata; there is a tendency to collect and compile material from multiple sources; the approach is encyclopedic, not rhetorical or stylistic. Harley 2724 is annotated in multiple hands, but these cannot be connected with the use of specific sources. It is clear from manuscript and textual evidence that the original compilation predates Harley 2724, yet seems close to Harley in place and date. In addition to the distinctive annotations described above, Harley 2724 also includes some Horace scholia, such as we find in other Horace manuscripts. Results of a comparative study of Harley 2724 and Horace manuscripts of the Vatican and the Bavarian State Libraries are presented in Chapter 1 and the Transcription. Only a small proportion of medieval Horace scholia have been scrupulously studied or edited in their entirety. The most extensive study of the medieval reading of Horace, undertaken by Friis-Jensen, focuses on popularly copied ’school-room’ commentaries, which apparently emerged in the twelfth century.

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The purpose of this research is to collect in a distinct corpus all the Latin verse inscriptions found in Roman Britain, those entirely metrical and those mixed with prose, those definitely metrical and those questionably so as well, analyse them both individually and as a block, with all the relative interconnections. The texts are also considered as evidence for a certain type of Romanisation spread in the province from the first to the fourth century AD. The aim of my research is to: - create a complete census of all the Latin verse inscriptions gathered from Roman Britain - trace the history of their discovery and map out the previous, including antiquarian, studies on them. This proves to be particularly useful for those inscriptions that experienced a tangled history and where with time some crucial details about the text and its archaeological context went missing in the accounts. - analyse the texts both from an epigraphic-historical and linguistic-philological point of view - offer fresh interpretations and supplements of the fragmentary texts - put the inscriptions in relation to their archaeological context - consider the implications for the cultural level of the province during the Roman occupation The results arc compared to those extrapolated from the metrical inscriptions found in Gallia Belgica. My investigation has clearly shown that the use of verse inscriptions in Britannia was markedly different from that in neighbouring Belgica. The comparison brings interesting conclusions and observations regarding the different approach and use of verse inscriptions in the two Roman provinces. Latin verse inscriptions represent an interesting key-study on the leve I of culture and sophistication that the Romans, together with the locals, achieved in a provincial environment. The comparative study proves the thesis that verse inscriptions do say something about the type of Romanisation of a province: the metrical texts found in Belgica are in fact quite different from those from Britannia.

The thesis consists of text, translation, and commentary on the first 262 lines of Tristia 2. During my doctoral studies, I have written a first draft of text, translation, and commentary on the poem in its entirety; only a section of this could be submitted for examination. This portion was selected for comment because these lines include important information about the carmen et error which avid blames for his exilic predicament, and because they encapsulate a characteristic feature of the work: engagement with contemporary affairs coupled with an interest in literary matters. There is also a brief general introduction to Tristia 2, in which there is a short account of major issues surrounding the poem; some of the material found in the parts of the commentary not submitted for examination is treated here. Stylistic comment is found in the main body of the commentary. Textual matters are discussed in the main body of the commentary. The translation is primarily intended as a tool to aid the reader's understanding of the poem. In the commentary, there is detailed line by line analysis and interpretation of aspects of the poem such as historical references, allusion, etymological play, ambiguities, and humour, as well as technical issues such as usage, grammar, and metre. In terms of historical content, the thesis pays particular attention to Ovid's engagement with the ideology and iconography of the Augustan period. The overall concern of the thesis is to consider Tristia 2 in the context of Ovid' s corpus as a whole, since it provides readings of his earlier works, and a key to understanding those that follow it.

One of the few monographs on Dryden's Aeneis cites Earl Miner: 'The definitive study of Dryden's Virgil remains to be written, but it seems beyond question that it is the most important translation in the language' (Corse, 1991). The aim of this thesis is to reopen the following questions: Why did Dryden undertake it? What qualities did he bring to this venture, at what he calls his 'great Clymacterique'? What in retrospect makes this work such a significant literary landmark? The main contribution I seek to make is a fuller consideration of Dryden's Virgil as a unitary work, and virtually unique as a complete translation of Virgil by a major poet. The Introduction provides contexts for my argument: a summary of current Dryden criticism , and of current Virgil scholarship. Chapter 1 considers Dryden's translation in the context of contemporary and later conceptions of Virgil in English poetry. Chapter 2 examines Dryden's trans-historical perspective and the formative role of his Lucretius (1685), and the influence (to a lesser degree) of Plutarch. Chapter 3 examines the neglected Pastorals, focusing on their tonal complexity and the quest for poetic sublimity in 'hard Iron Times'. Chapter 4 considers the Georgics, 'the best poem of the best Poet', its generic originality and contribution to the cultivation of English verse, and as an articulation of Virgil's Lucretian dimension. Finally, Chapter 5 discusses heroic ambivalence and 'tragical satyre', and Lucretian elements in Dryden's Aeneis. The Conclusion draws together unifying features of the work, the 'secret Beauties' of Dryden's translation that vindicate his aim to bear the 'weight of the whole Author' and show his responsiveness to 'Virgil's Design'. I argue that it is through this translation that Dryden finds his English voice.

This thesis analyses Statius' Thebaid and the relationship it creates with VirgiVs Aeneid and the emperor Domitian. The poem constructs itself as a competing source of authority, both poetic and ideological. The poem aims to supersede Virgil's masterpiece as a poetic authority whilst providing Domitian with imperial, and in particular, regal ideology. The thesis examines three key qualities, virtus pietas and dementia in this regard, showing the manner in which Virgilian and Augustan interpretations are undermined and new understandings of these ideas are provided for Domitian's principate. The thesis then examines the role tyranny and tyrannical behaviour plays in the poem. The Thebaid portrays tyranny in unusual ways and promotes surprising responses to tyrannical rule. Throughout the poem, Statius is working to provide his audience, especially Domitian, with an educational framework for understanding models of kingship Domitian should learn from the negative examples the Thebaid provides. Statius uses the Thebaid as a step in a poetic oeuvre whose design is nothing less than to make the poet himself powerful by becoming the poetic voice on which his emperor depends.

This dissertation discusses the proem of Statius' Thebaid (1.1-45) and the analysis of the text is split between an introduction, three extended chapters and a lemmatized commentary. Statius' acknowledgements of his literary debts, in particular Virgil, encourages, if not demands, an intertextual reading of his poetry. As such, my first chapter, Literary Models, looks at how Statius engages with his epic models, namely Homer, Virgil, Lucan and Ovid, but also how he draws upon the rich literary Theban tradition. Like all Roman poets, Statius is highly self-conscious of his craft, and draws upon Hellenistic and lyric models to enrich his epic and define himself as an exemplary poet. I will argue that the proem offers a useful lens for analysing the Thebaid and introduces his epic in exemplary fashion, in the sense that he draws attention to the concept of opening his epic with the use of traditional tropes (namely, the invocation of inspiring force; a recusatio; an imperial encomium and a synopsis of the poem's narrative). Considering the importance of origins in the Thebaid, and the inability to escape them, I consider the proem, in this sense, the origin of the poem itself insofar as elements of it are constantly ‘remembered' and reiterated throughout the poem. The central feature of the proem is the encomium to Domitian, in which Statius advises Domitian to realize his own limits and hence retain order of the world he rules over, articulating contemporary concerns about succession and empire. Statius, in a similar manner, expresses intent to impose limits upon his own poem, which prompted me to write the chapter entitled Restraint. The third chapter, Characterisation, draws upon the discussions in Literary Models and Restraint in an analysis of the heroes introduced at 1.41-45.

Ovid's Heroides in the form they have come down to us are a diverse group comprising fourteen verse letters supposedly addressed by heroines of Greek mythology to their absent loved ones (Her. 1-14), one further similar letter by the Greek poet Sappho (Her. 15), and the so-called "double letters" (Her. 16-21), which consist of three pairs of letters exchanged between famous couples of myth and literature. Despite the recent revival in the study of this Ovidian work, this thesis is the first full-length comprehensive commentary on Phaedra's letter to Hippolytus (Her. 4) and Hermione's letter to Orestes (Her. 8) since 1898. In the main commentary my investigation treats issues of language, style, versification and structure in the light of possible intertextual exchanges with prior works of Greek and Roman literature (esp. Greek epic, Euripidean tragedy and Roman elegy). A wide range of literary, inscriptional and archaeological material is used to illuminate and contextualize this many-sided poetry. The introduction concentrates primarily on issues of characterization mainly from a post-feminist and intertextual perspective with emphasis on the representation of (fe)male voice and desire, and the mechanics of the generic assimilation of prior literary material to the elegiac context. In addition, the introduction also provides a detailed examination of the (mis)application of mythological exempla in terms of rhetorical effectiveness and relevance to the overall structure of both letters. The aim of this explorative study, besides including a detailed stylistic and linguistic analysis, is to offer an in-depth and multi-faceted critical examination of the poetic quality of these two poems and with the help of modern, up-to-date literary theories on genre, gender and writing to contribute further to the critical reassessment of the Heroides as a whole.

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