This dissertation is divided into three parts. The first part, 'Copious Dryden', considers the various inter-connected factors which inform the noticeably expansive status of Dryden's translations of Virgil. It argues that the underlying principle behind these factors is Dryden's desire to demonstrate how his own approach to Virgil has been shaped by various key poets who acted as intermediaries for the original texts. These poets stretch across a broad chronological range, from Virgil's near-contemporaries (Horace, Ovid) to Dryden's (Denham, Cowley, Milton) and a range of figures in between (Lucan, Statius, Spenser), including Dryden's own younger self. It subsequently identifies three distinct strands of Virgil's reception - the Prosodic, Laureate, and Lacrimose Virgil - before discussing their origins and their influence on Dryden's Virgil. The second part, 'Footfalls', discusses how Dryden's first translations from the Aeneid in the 1680s are noticeably self-reflexive: they use a number of characters from the poem to explore the nature of his own inheritance from Virgil, both as a poet and as a translator, a relationship which incorporates erotic, fraternal and filial aspects. The third part, 'Original Copies', explores how Dryden concentrated on a number of father-son pairings in Virgil as a means of meditating on questions of political and poetical succession, and the frequent points of contact between these spheres. It argues this ultimately allowed Dryden not only to proclaim his political loyalties to the displaced Jacobite branch of the House of Stuart, but also to allot himself a central, if fluid, role within a poetical dynasty, thanks to his conviction that poetical tradition is bestowed as well as inherited. This dissertation concludes with a brief consideration of Dryden's own poetic successors, Congreve and Pope, and the manner in which they claimed their place within this poetic dynasty.

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My thesis is a study of lines 635-920 of DRNI, Lucretius' refutation of the theories about the fundamental nature of matter elaborated by Heraclitus, Empedocles, Anaxagoras and other unnamed thinkers. My main concern is establishing what source Lucretius used in these lines and how he used it. In chapter 1 I give my reasons for believing that Lucretius, in DRN I635-920, was following an Epicurean source, which in turn derived its information from Theophrastean doxography. In chapter 21 argue that books XIV and XV of the IIO were not Lucretius' source-text for Lucretius' refutation of earlier thinkers. In chapter 31 discuss how lines 635-920 fit in the structure of the first book of Lucretius' poem, whether the critique was an addition from a later stage in composition, and whether the source is more likely to be Epicurus himself or a later Epicurean author. In chapter 41 focus on Lucretius' own additions to the material he found in his source and his poetical and rhetorical contributions. Lucretius contributed extensively himself to this section as a finished poetic product. It will appear that even if the philosophy comes from the source, Lucretius shows understanding of the points in the way he adapts his poetical devices to the philosophical arguments. It will also appear that Lucretius foreshadows philosophical points in what have often been thought the 'poetical sections' or 'purple passages' of his poem (e.g. the invocation of Venus in the proem, and the description of Sicily and Aetna in DRN I 716-733), so that he could take them up later on in his narrative and provide an adequate explanation of reality.

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Modern scholarship on the Metamorphoses has frequently focused on the shifting character of the poem mainly produced by the constant variation in tone and diverse subject matter. Particular emphasis has fallen on the multiple stylistic features Ovid uses to appeal to a learned audience. This thesis focuses on and explores the use of personification ekphraseis which are illustrative examples of the poet's innovative technique, wit and style. Four major personified figures, Inuidia, Fames, Somnus and Fama play significant roles and figure prominently in the books where they appear. The study is divided into four main chapters where the four extended personification ekphraseis are individually treated. Each setting that Ovid creates for the figures bears its own corresponding reality. So their presence in the different episodes becomes both natural and amusing. Ovid displays a certain structural progression in the use of personification beginning with theriomorphic representations (Inuidia, Fames) and ending with more abstract descriptions (Somnus, Fama). The discussion also focuses on the various ways Ovid uses personification and offers close readings of thematic links and literary echoes. This study re-examines the aesthetics and narrative significance of the personification ekphraseis. It argues that, although connected to the rhetorical technique of enargeia and thus closely attached to the simple poetic intent of enlivening the style, the personifications have broader thematic implications which make them precious in the study of Ovid's ingenium. The initial question of how Ovid incorporates the four personifications in the narrative of each myth is developed into a broader investigation of their relevance in the world of the poem. The discussion leads to the conclusion that Inuidia, Fames, Somnus and Fama as poetic devices are both representative samples of stylistic ornamentation that enable the visual perception of what Ovid is describing and markers of generic boundaries between elegy and epic; the indiscriminate blending of epic and un-epic terminology creates a strong connection with the poet's aims stated in the opening lines of the Metamorphoses. In this sense, the four personification ekphraseis figure as reflections both of the poet and the poem.

In the first chapter of this thesis, starting from modern scholarship on melancholy, I attempt to combat the widely-held belief that this disease is identified exclusively with madness in antiquity. In order to do this, I locate the origins of this misreading in Cicero and attempt to restore the more inclusive attitude towards melancholy manifested in ps-Aristotle's treatise on melancholic genius, given that this text defines melancholy as consisting in both madness and depression. Chapter 11 argues that Menander is the first poet who shares this double understanding of melancholy; unlike Aristophanes who conceives of melancholy exclusively as a manic condition, the New Comedian describes it also as a depressive one. I therefore analyse the ways in which the word and the notion of melancholic depression are used in his comedies, according to the ps.-Aristotelian paradigm. In Chapter Ill, I suggest thatJason in Apollonius Rhodius' Argonautica is a character that exhibits all the textbook symptoms of melancholic depression and that Apollonius describes him as such through an intertextual play with ps-Aristotle's reading of the Homeric Bellerophon as a depressive melancholic. Moving to Latin poetry, Chapter IV examines the end of De Rerum Natura III and argues that Lucretius' description of restlessness and discontent with life becomes a key-passage which later Latin writers (Horace, Persius and Seneca) identify through their medical readings as a description of melancholic depression. The thesis concludes with a chapter on the second book of Horacc's Epistles in which I argue that Horace engages with the tradition of the melancholic genius by creating an authorial persona who grounds his claims to genius on his alleged suffering from both melancholic madness and depression.

Claudian the poet: poetology, myth, and story-telling The poetry of Claudian has, until recently, been studied principally for the historical information it provides for the late fourth century AD; less attention has been paid to interpreting its poetics, on account of the persistent distaste for the late antique style which has been condemned for its episodic structure and 'baroque' ornamentation. This thesis responds to the failure to examine the poetry through detailed literary analysis, and proposes a method for reading the poetry of Claudian based on the approaches developed by Roberts (1989). It argues that it is the poetics which are used to promote a political agenda in support of Claudian's patron Stilicho. I propose a reading which recognizes that the individual episodes, from which the poems are constructed, unite on an overarching level; in particular, I demonstrate that elements such as mythological images, descriptions and characterizations serve as key signifiers for that level and should be privileged rather than dismissed as ornamentation. This approach reveals the way in which the story-worlds constructed in the poems promote the political agenda which corresponds to the overarching level. The story-worlds created from these significant elements provide a platform on which contemporary events and characters can be (re)performed in order to propagate a particular version of 'real life', corresponding to the agenda of Stilicho. Using story-telling techniques, Claudian constructs a poetic universe under threat from chaos, and defended by a hero, Stilicho, against monstrous enemies. Claudian also manipulates his audience's expectation that poetry is a deceptive artifice. By making metapoetic references to the power of poetry and the poet's ability to deceive, he breaks down the 'fourth wall' between his story-world and the audience's experience of 'real life'. This brings the poetic monsters and heroes flooding into the audience's lives, and turns the story-world into another version of political reality.

Ovid's technique in the treatment of mythological characters and their stories has been well studied, especially in his later works that offer an abundance of mythological narratives. Other aspects of Ovidian studies include the exploration of allusions, as well as studies regarding genre. This study discusses the development of character-portrayal and generic play in a chronological sequence by focusing on the stories of two heroines in Ovid's poetic corpus: Ariadne and Deianira. The thesis is divided into two main parts, of which the first explores the accounts of Ariadne's story (in the Heroides, Ars Amatoria and Fasti) in three chapters and the second the accounts of Deianira's story (in the Heroides and the Metamorphoses) in two chapters. Each chapter explores the construction of identity by focusing on the male and/or female perspective(s) of each passage. Equal emphasis is given to generic play and allusion (with a particular attention on self-reference). Selected passages from Ovid's' Amores, Heroides, Ars Amatoria, Fasti and Metamorphoses, as well as from other poets (including Catullus, Propertius and Virgil) are integrated in the discussion to demonstrate that in addition to the previously acknowledged allusions and debts to previous texts and poets, Ovid displays a certain progression and differentiation regarding allusions, which is reflected in his treatment of the identity of his characters, as well as in generic play. The initial question of how Ovid treats characters and generic play is developed into how and why these two examples are central for Ovid's treatment of identity as well as genre. The discussion leads to the conclusion that Ovid's treatment of the two heroines emphasises that identity is intertwined so closely with the principle of duality and generic play in these poems that they become representative of this relationship throughout Ovid's corpus.

The goal of this thesis is to examine the cultural transformation of the Roman world as witnessed in the poetry and poetic traditions of the Latin-speaking West. In essence this thesis asks one fundamental question: when did the Late Antique world finally transform into the medieval? In order to answer this question, it will focus its investigation on one particular representative case-study. This case-study is provided by the poetry of the Late Antique North African poet Dracontius. After their initial composition in the final decades of the fifth century, part of Dracontius' corpus, the Salisfactio and Book I of the De Laudibus Dei, were redacted by Eugenius II of Toledo in mid-seventh-century Visigothic Spain. These poems, then, allow us to examine both Dracontius' own context in the Vandal kingdom of North Africa as well as Eugenius' context in late-Visigothic Iberia. This examination into Dracontius' Vandalic and Visigothic contexts will centre around one particular, and frequently undervalued, source of evidence: the use of loci similes. The investigation, split into two parts, will use these loci similes to examine and analyse the poetic methods employed by these two authors and the cultural mindsets behind them. Although the fundamental argument will be based on the shared texts, consideration will be taken both of the other works of these two authors and the wider literary landscape. After completing this investigation, the thesis will seek to explain its findings through a cultural historical analysis of their wider cultural and geographical contexts. After contextualising these works, the thesis will then give its own explanation, based on this new poetic evidence, as to why, and how, the final transformation of the Roman world came about.