In 1991 Suzanne Dixon published an article that suggested that, from the late Republic onwards, it is possible to detect a sentimental ideal of family life at Rome. She also argued that there is a significant paucity of affectionate terminology in Plautus' mid-republican works. My thesis looks for traces of a Roman sentimental ideal in Plautus' comedies. I analyse his plays, being careful to interpret them in the light of comic convention and paying attention to the varying forms of comic drama, and I search for sentimental themes related to wives and husbands, parents and children, the home, and slaves and outsiders. I consider the evidence and arguments used by Dixon and other historians and also look at modern examples of sentimentality (in literature and in other cultural material), using these as a tool to measure sentimentality in Plautus. My overall contention is that Plautus' metatheatrical plays deliberately explored and exploited the sentimental ideology of his original audience. In fact, some of the works’ humour depended upon the spectators' knowledge of the ideal and its claims upon their attention; Plautus wryly exposed the tensions that existed between the ideal and the realities of daily life. Plautus’ plays were successful and obviously communicated well with his contemporaries. I therefore conclude that sentimental ideology was well known in Rome prior to the late Republic – that it is an enduring concept, discernible in many cultures and eras.

The basis of the work is an examination of the ancient source material, in particular plutarch's 'Life of Philopoemen' and the fragments of polybius' Histories which deal with the Achaean League. An outline of the resultant interpretation of philopoemen's career is as follows. Until 222 B. C. he took no part in Achaean politics, but was involved solely with megalopolis. Between 222 and 211 philopoemen was in Crete representing the interests of Philip V of Macedon, from 210 to 200 in Achaea, where after attaining a military independence, of Macedonia with Philips encouragement, he used this attempt to join Rome. Defeated on this issue, in 200 he returned to Crete to help the Gortynians, Achean allies. In his absence his friend Aristaenus carried his policy and joined Achaea to Rome. On Philopoemen's return in 194 he first desired to cooperate with Flamininus; but when he discovered that flamininus was merely using Achaea for Roman policy Philopoemen began to press the letter of the law of the Achaean foedus with Rome at First misunderstanding , but finally exploiting Achaean olientela. He refused Rome any right of interference in Peloponnesian matters, although he himself was unable to find satisfactory solutions to many of the Achaens' problems, particularly those associated with exiles from Sparta and Messene. The Roman Senate, bound by its conventions could find no way round the impasse until after Philopoen's death in 182, when his party lost most of its influence in Achaea. This interplay of policies and purposes of the Senate and Philopoemen is worked out in the detail. The concluding chapter traces the developing weakness of his party after his death and attempts to correct some modern interpretation of Poybius' judgement of Philopoemen and his policies. Appendicies deal with source problems in the Achaean strategos list - and other pertinent problems.

The significance of the figure of Osiris cannot be overemphasized. Architectural remains witness to his importance in the past, and stories about him to the interest he has aroused throughout the Ages. Calris was a historical personage, a king who defied after his death. Osiris, the creator sun-god rules supreme. is a god, Osiris took over the functions of the other created gods of nature. He was water, the 'life of the Soul', or Nun; and earth, the nourieher of the body, or the Primaval Hill. Both created by the Sun ‘at the first time’. With Osiris, Nun became the inuniation or his exudations, and the Hill the land of Egypt or his burial-place. His death was a violent one: by murder and dismemberment, but followed by resurrection, which gave hope to every Osirlan believer. Water was used, which could ritually rejoin the scattered limbs of the deceased, and provide him with the efflux to live again. In the case of be water led sorely to rebirth. Osiris’ death and resurrection are reformed to in the such Osirian narratives as the tale of the two brothers and the story of the blinding of truth, which were in vogue in Pharaonic times. In course of time Osiris won a prominent place in the Egyptian pantheon. When finally Christianity vanquished the ancient religion, certain observances of the Osirian cult were still practices by some Christians in Egypt. The Osiris legend was also interpreted anew by the all-pervading philosophy of Plato. Features of the legend can be traced in certain folk-tales all over the world. These contain the moral: good remains, while evil vanishes. To the Egyptians, Osiris’ death meant Nature’s death, and his revival her revival, and these two vicissitudes were mythopocically understood as the struggle between Osiris and Seth. The conflict was enacted in myster-plays and ritual in ancient and modern Egypt and Greece, and even in Great Britain. If such folk-tales and customs are carefully scrutinized, their patterns reveal the main Osirian elements of death by mutilation, retreat in vegetation and final resurrection by water.

This thesis explores the reception of the Virgilian biography in antiquity. The ancients were interested not only in the Virgilian oeuvre, but also in the man who created these works. The thesis will investigate the ways in which various authors respond to Virgil’s life, with an especial emphasis on how the Virgilian biography is something amenable to creative appropriation and manipulation. The authors we will be studying both respond to, and contribute towards the construction of, the biographical tradition of Virgil. Chapter 1 seeks to complicate the idea of Virgil’s poetic career by considering how certain writers broach the issue of the Culex as a putative piece of Virgilian juvenilia. The second chapter examines how Virgil’s tomb and the cult which surrounded it play a part in the biographies and autobiographies of his epic successors. The third chapter offers a fresh look at biographical readings of the Eclogues, focusing on the different ways in which this practice is carried out, and the different purposes to which it is put. The final chapter looks at Tacitus’ presentation of the Virgilian biography in the Dialogus de Oratoribus, examining how the historian raises the question of Virgil’s political allegiances, and how he interrogates the idealization of Virgil’s life.

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This thesis considers the references to Egypt by Greek and Roman writers between 70 B.C. and A.D. 69 in so far as they made any substantial judgment on the geography, climate, population laws, customs and religion and their accounts of the cities, towns and villages and of the social structure of Egyptian society. Passing references in authors, chiefly poets, are noted only in so far as they have a bearing on these main considerations. The important classical authors from the point of view of this thesis are Diodorus Siculus, Strabo and Dioscorides in Greek and Pomponius Mela and Pliny the Elder in Latin. The thesis is divided into three parts. Part One discusses the geography of Egypt and its chapters discuss position, extent and formation of the land (with an appendix on the Homeric statement about Pharos) surface relief, climate, deserts, oases, canals, flora and fauna and mineral resources. Part Two covers population, urban settlements, cities, towns and important villages, with special attention to the three ancient capitals - Memphis, Thebes and Alexandria. Part Three is concerned with Egyptian society and discusses the antiquity of the Egyptians, their physical characteristics, behaviour and manners and goes on to consider their religion in its mythical and more metaphysical aspects and their veneration of sacred animals. Finally the structure of Egyptian society is considered - the rulers (Pharoahs, kings, prefects) the land tenure, the division of society into classes with particular reference to priests, warriors and peasants. The last chapter, before the conclusion, deals with laws and customs including burial customs.

This thesis examines the treatment of virtue in Silius Italicus’ Punica, particularly at three key points in the epic, the battles of Saguntum, Cannae and Zama, which form the beginning, middle and end of the poem. I argue that Silius writes the Punica with a particular moral message in mind, a message that can be discerned through the analysis of the models of virtue demonstrated by the Punica’s characters at these points in the epic. Silius depicts an imperfect model of virtue through the Saguntines’ brutal mass suicide. The Saguntines believe that they should be virtuous by remaining loyal to Rome, but they act through a misguided notion of fides that causes them to commit impious crimes. Virtue also plays a key role in Silius’ Cannae narrative, as his conception of Cannae as a paradoxical turning point in Rome’s history is reflected through the paradoxical nature of virtue that he depicts at Cannae. The contradictory role that virtue plays at Cannae is most apparent in Silius’ portrayal of the two consuls Varro and Paulus. Even though Varro acts without virtue and Paulus seemingly acts according to it, Varro ultimately does more good for Rome than the heroic Paulus. The models of virtue seen at Saguntum and Cannae are connected to the failures that the Saguntines and Romans suffer on the battlefield, but Silius depicts a much more appealing model of virtue by the end of the epic, which leads to Rome’s victory at Zama. This victory is due entirely to Rome’s ability to finally adopt a model of moral behaviour that balances both fides and pietas. At Zama, Scipio leads the Romans by providing a moral example for all to follow. Ultimately, it is Scipio’s moral behaviour that Silius endorses, by making it the true cause of Rome’s victory over Carthage.

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The first section of this thesis is devoted to en analysls of Basil's personality and activities, as evinced by his letters. This affords important insight into his attitude toward friendship, which is the subject of Section Two. Basil's expressions of sentiment about friendship provide a fruitful (and neglected) body of evidence for estimating his own character. They are so frequent, that they offer a standard of friendship-in-action against which to judge the theoretical approaches to friendship of the classical (and post-classical) Greek philosophers. Some similarities between classical Greek theories and Basil's ideas about this subject have been pointed out, as well as some basic differences. Also, some Biblical passages have been considered, which are echoed, or to which a closer reference is made, in Basil's correspondence. Uchoes do not always mean a clear and conscious derivation. Nevertheless, patterns and sentences about friendship as shown throughout the Bible are likely to have created a definite atmosphere, and offered criteria of behaviour to St. Basil. He gives the traditional notion of friendship, as founded on a natural feeling, a Christian orientation. If as early as in classical writers friendship is based upon virtue, Basil and the other Christian writers give further emphasis to its ethical-religious value: friendship is thus regarded as a grace from God. ccording to such a "mystical" conception, friendship is able to join in bonds of love even persons wno live separated from each other or who have never met: for they live in communion of faith and ideals. The assimilation of the Hellenic cultural aspects of style, imagery and vocabulary is investigated in the third section of this thesis by reference to the letters of Theodoret of Cyrus. Th:s stresses the importance of the connection of Christian letterwriting with the rhetorical tradition. oth in theory and in practice, Theodoret displays consideration for the value of words and of rhetorical ability. He thus u .dertakes the task begun by the earlier fathers of the Church, and givcs Christian ideals the customary literary and stylistic modes of classical antiquity. The Christian faith required precision of speech and dialectical training, and needed to be able to handle the same arms as the heathen. Theodoret can be considered as one of the major exponents of that Hellenic culture which was to be assimilated more and more (and so to be changed) into a wholly different climate of civilisation, pervaded by Orthodox Christianity; and, in particular, as an exponent of that Atticistic movement, the purity of which was to fade, overwhelmed progressively through contact with the more practical language of everyday. The deliberately repeated use of figures of speech in Theodoret's letters, as well as the usually accurate employment of metaphors and comparisons (though not to such extent as to be overwhelming), illustrate his close adherence to the rules of fchetoric. And the language of Theodoret's correspondence shows clear signs of having been influenced by the same cultural notion which moved the Atticists.

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