This dissertation offers a literary approach to Pindar, his poetics, and his methods of commenting on the poetic art. It argues that Pindar consistently and self-consciously highlights himself in his poetics and that he actively shapes how his audience should receive and understand his poetry. This study challenges a current dominant scholarly approach to Pindar that prioritizes the practical performance context of Pindar’s poetry (an approach which frequently relegates the poet himself to the status of a technical writer of ritual scripts). In contrast, by focusing on the literary aspects of his programmatic techniques, this study makes the case for Pindar as a literary poet. The dissertation focuses on the language and function of Pindar’s invocations of the Muse, his poetic rivalry with and explicit commentary on previous poets, and his development of a complex metaphorical, metapoetic technique; this study also investigates the early reception of Pindar’s poetics and metapoetic techniques and locates the earliest critical reception of Pindar’s poetics in the comedies of Aristophanes. The first chapter considers the variety of ways in which Pindar invokes the Muses, and pursues a comparative reading of Pindar’s Muse invocations. The comparison brings out the range in function of the Muses in Pindar and also argues for a dynamic function of Pindar’s Muse invocations. Chapter 2 investigates Pindar’s poetic rivals and views Pindar in competition with the poets of the past of diverse genres: Homer, Hesiod, and Archilochus. The chapter argues that Pindar presents himself as rivaling these poets and that he engages in literary criticism to clarify his own poetic theory. The third chapter examines Pindar’s poetological imagery and suggests that Pindar’s metaphorical style constitutes a metapoetic technique. This chapter also brings out Pindar’s dynamic effect of layering multiple images for poetry. The final chapter reads Aristophanes’ parody of Pindar in the Birds as a reception of Pindar’s poetics. Through this parody, Aristophanes aims at positioning the comic poet in essential ways as a Pindaric poet. This reception highlights the continued relevance of what it means to be a “Pindaric poet” and signifies important aspects of the legacy of Pindar’s poetics.

<p>This dissertation examines the interplay of ethics and poetic craft in the <italic>Odyssey</italic> through the lens of the theme of <italic>tisis</italic>, "retribution." In this poem <italic>tisis</italic> serves two main purposes: it acts as a narrative template for the poem's composition and makes actions and agents morally intelligible to audiences. My work shows that the system of justice that <italic>tisis</italic> denotes assumes a retaliatory symmetry of precise proportionality. I also examine aspects of the ideology and social effects of this system of justice for archaic Greek culture at large. Justice thus conceived is "open-textured" and readily manipulable to the interests of the agent who controls the language of the narrative. In the end, I show that this system fails to secure communal harmony.</p> <p>The project has three parts. In part one, I argue that earlier scholars have not sufficiently appreciated the narrative character of <italic>tisis</italic>. Following an inductive analysis of the poem's paradigmatic example of Orestes' <italic>tisis</italic>, I draw upon the methods of narratology to propose a new definition of <italic>tisis</italic> as a "narrative," a certain conventional arrangement of a set of actions and roles that together constitute a narrative whole. This narrative acts as a compositional tool for a singer's re-composition and performance of poetry, becoming a major organizing structure in the tradition of Homeric poetry. From this practice arises the <italic>Odyssey</italic>'s complex texture of several interwoven <italic>tisis</italic> narratives that dialectically carry out the poem's moral program. Because Homeric ethics is a narrative ethics, a practice of placing one's self and others in the stories that society tells, <italic>tisis</italic> provides an ethical framework that renders experience morally intelligible and allows actors to evaluate the moral standing of themselves and others. <italic>tisis</italic>, thus, is morally inflected: those who play the role of avenger receive commendation; those who play the victim, condemnation. And the great moral conflicts in the <italic>Odyssey</italic>--between Poseidon and Odysseus, between Odysseus and the suitors--are over the assignment and adoption of these narrative roles.</p> <p>Against the other <italic>tisis</italic> narratives in the <italic>Odyssey</italic>, Odysseus' own, central narrative appears strikingly atypical. Unlike Aegisthus, the suitors have neither killed anyone nor corrupted Penelope--nonetheless, they face the same punishment. But through a creative interpretation of <italic>ius talionis</italic> the singer makes a series of brilliant rhetorical moves to recast the acts of the suitors as accomplished murder and adultery. This allows Odysseus to play the part of just avenger <italic>of himself</italic> Furthermore, it resolves in the person of Odysseus a latent tension between the narratives of <italic>nostos</italic> (which implies the happy return of a hero) and <italic>tisis</italic> (which implies the death of a hero and vengeance on his behalf).</p> <p>In part two, I argue that the ideology of justice that <italic>tisis</italic> denotes--returning equivalent harm for harm--runs through the heart of archaic Greek culture, but it is always vulnerable to manipulation. Speakers--and poets especially--exploit the possibilities of ambiguity in the language of justice in order to fabricate a likeness between crimes and their punishments, thus justifying avengers. Similarly, speakers use poetic techniques to cement this ideology into more than a merely talionic retribution of "like for like" and instead construct a justice that equates a crime and its punishment. Under this strengthened regime of equivalence, crimes merge with and become their own punishment. This ideology has political consequences: I take as a banner example Alcman's <italic>Partheneion</italic>, in which the order of both the political community and the universe rests on <italic>tisis</italic>. I examine as well many other examples of a tight linkage between crime and punishment.</p> <p>In part three, I return to the <italic>Odyssey</italic>, asking why the singer uses this rhetoric of synonymy of crime and punishment and why he has arranged the moral positions of the characters as he has. I conclude that this arrangement serves the narrator's seemingly monologic, overt program of justifying Odysseus and his divine patrons. But at the same time the narrator has taken the symbolic reasoning of <italic>ius talionis</italic> to a rhetorical extreme, effectively making the suitors into cannibals. Likewise, the retributive claims of the suitors' kin at the close of the poem disappear all too easily: hostilities are not so much resolved as obliterated in mass amnesia. Through such holes in the fabric of the justice of <italic>tisis</italic>, the audience perceives the workings of another program, a subversive program that calls into question the narrator's overt program and the entire, corruptible system of retributive justice. </p> <p>My project thus contributes to our understanding of the <italic>Odyssey</italic>'s subversive narrative integrity, the operation of justice in archaic Greece, and the nature of narratorial authority in poetic discourse. My conclusions should interest not only philologists and literary critics, but also scholars of ethics and political theory.</p> / Dissertation

The authorship and time of origin of the Shepherd have not been subjected to the same rigorous enquiry as the First Epistle of Clement and the Epistles of Ignatius. The reason for this is probably that the Shepherd has had little to contribute to contemporary polemics in the way that the other two Apostolic Fathers did. The method followed in this study is the reconstruction, where possible, of the contents of each codex of which we have fragments or quotations, and the comparison of the contents of these codices. Where the content of the original codex appears to have been only a part of the Shepherd, calculations based on the traditional three sections - Visions, Mandates and Similitudes - have been used. Where these have not sufficed, manuscript notations have been called into play. The results indicate that there are a number of lines of cleavage within the Shepherd where ancient codices began or ended their selection of material. These lines of cleavage, it is hypothesised, must have originated in the process of composition of the Shepherd. Yet at the same time there was in the ancient codices a perception of the various parts of the Shepherd as a unity. The oldest codex known to us contains the Shepherd in its entirety. Once the lines of cleavage have been established by means of the reconstructed codices and the manuscript notations, a study of internal inconsistences of the sort traditional in "Quellenkritik" or "Literary Criticism" is undertaken, and a chronological schema of the different strands which make up the Shepherd is offered. It is suggested that the core (Viss. I to IV, Mandd. I to XIIa, Simm. I singular parts only, II to VIII) came from one hand, probably towards the end of the first century. This core underwent four subsequent editorial reworkings which produced the text known to us today by the end of the second century.

Bibliography: pages i-ix. / No commentary on Martial Book 14 has appeared since that of Ludwig Friedlander (1886). Since Friedlӓnder dealt with Martial' s entire corpus, his introductory remarks to Book 14 were necessarily subordinated to his wider concerns. While his commentary is very superficial. This work hopes, therefore, to fill a significant gap. The thesis comprises three main parts. The introduction discusses the Roman Saturnalia, concentrating on its origins, the way it was celebrated, and the licence, lotteries and gifts which characterised these celebrations. Further discussion deals with the book's title and the order of the epigrams it contains. Another section defends Friedlӓnder' s dating of Book 14 against a recent challenge <Roger A. Pitcher, Hermes 113(1985), pp. 330-339). A study of Martial's use of metre and a survey of the textual tradition along with a new text conclude this part of the thesis. The second and most extensive part of the thesis comprises the commentary. In addition to the Realien which form the subject-matter of the epigrams, the commentary deals with matters of Latinity, literary style, text and metre. It includes a translation, which is intended to be elucidatory rather than literary. The thesis concludes with a three-part appendix devoted to rare usages and hapax legomena, illustrations, and textual concordances

The Facta et Dicta Memorabilia of Valerius Maximus, written during the formative stages of the Roman imperial system, survives as a near unique instance of an entire work composed in the genre of Latin exemplary literature. By providing the first detailed historical and historiographical commentary on Book 9 of this prose text - a section of the work dealing principally with vice and immorality - this thesis examines how an author employs material predominantly from the earlier, Republican, period in order to validate the value system which the Romans believed was the basis of their world domination and to justify the reign of the Julio-Claudian family. By detailed analysis of the sources of Valerius' material, of the way he transforms it within his chosen genre, and of how he frames his exempla, this thesis illuminates the contribution of an often overlooked author to the historiography of the Roman Empire.

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 184-210). / In the ensuing dissertation I explore the extent to which a coherent praeceptor persona may be found in Horace's Ars Poetica. In the first chapter, 'Interpreting the Ars Poetica', I commence by reviewing and commenting upon previous critical attempts to explain Horace's poem. This I have divided into three main sections: 'Interpretations of Incoherence', 'Interpretations of Coherence', and 'Authorial Personae'. In the first of these I explore how some critics have denied the possibility of arriving at a coherent interpretation of the poem, which they regard as an unfinished hotchpotch effort. Most notably in this section I illustrate how the Ars Poetica fails to conform to the expected form of any one particular literary genre. In the second section, 'Interpretations of Coherence', I examine attempts, particularly Brink's in his Prolegomena, to structure the poem into certain fixed aesthetic units, and I then explore some of the difficulties of utilizing such rigorous and tendentious rubrics in a flexible and free-flowing poem. Lastly, in the third section, 'Authorial Personae', I review more modern attempts to explain Horace's poem through the identification of an authorial persona within the text. I proceed to justify my preference for this interpretative method by explaining it both with reference to modern literary theory and ancient poetic and dramatic practice. Lastly, in this chapter I briefly introduce the character of the authorial persona whom I shall endeavour to locate in the Ars Poetica – the teacher or praeceptor persona. In the second chapter, 'The Praeceptor Persona in Play', I commence by trying to build a characteristically Horatian concept of the teacher figure in the Ars Poetica, in my section, 'The Horatian Concept of the Praeceptor'. To this end I turn to the Satires of Horace, particularly, 1.1, 1.4, and 1.10, where I show that the Horatian model of a praeceptor can be explained through three conceptual criteria – 'instruction ', 'demonstration', and 'play'. Applying in turn each of these three conceptual criteria to the text of the Ars Poetica I illustrate how the very language of the authorial persona of the poem fulfils these criteria. In the third chapter, 'The Teacher of Satire 1.4 ', having established the presence of a Praeceptor persona in the Ars Poetica, I turn my attention to the Satires of Horace where the most extensive critical work has been undertaken with respect to the character of the authorial persona; particularly, since it has informed my concept of the Horatian praeceptor, I examine the teacher figure of Satire 1.4. In the first section, 'Interpretations of the Teacher Persona', I examine and criticise four scholarly attempts to explain the character of the teacher figure in the sermo. I identify the mixture of instruction and humour in the language as the key critical concern of these critics. In the final section, 'The Playful Satirist' I then apply my conceptual criterion of 'play' to the discourse of the teacher of 1.4, suggesting that his humour is not incompatible with instruction, but is actually a vital constituent of his role as a praeceptor. Finally, I give a brief 'Epilogue', summarising my analysis and, more importantly, emphasising the importance of identifying a characteristically Horatian model of a praeceptor. A detailed bibliography is then given of the source material consulted and references used through the dissertation.

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 143-146). / This latter question necessitates a survey of the development of Greek biography through the Hellenistic era. Biography as a literary genre was characterised by a broad range of traits and styles, and was concerned with the character of the protagonist, details of his pirvate life, and his deeds, works or achievements. The belief that an investigation of a man's actions could shed light on his character was a feature of Hellenistic popular thought that had its origins with the Peripatetics. Nicolaus was a self-proclaimed follower of Aristotle's school, and certain motifs or features of Aristotelean thought permeate the Bios Kaisaros, particularly with regards to his characterisation of Octavian and Caesar. Nicolaus uses the theme of Fortune, a familliar topos of Hellenistic literature, at key moments during the text of the Caesar Extract, to highlight his presentation of Octavian and Caesar. The characterisation of Octavian and his relationship with his mother and Caesar forms the final focus of this dissertation, illustrating pertinent aspects of Nicolaus' technique in his presentation of Octavian as uniquely fitted to succeed to Caesar's political hegemony at Rome.

Bibliography: 197-207. / The j)rin;ary aim of this thesis is to make available in English for the first time a translation of, and full commentary on, the panegyrics in question. A general introduction contains sections on the collection of panegyrics known as the XII Panegyrici Latini, the term panegyricus, the uses to which panegyrics might be put, and the scope of the present study. Attention is then turned to the two panegyrics themselves and, in each case; an introduction, dealing with the occasion and the date, the question of authorship, and the place of delivery, is followed by a translation and commentary, which concentrates on historical problems. In the introduction to Pan. VII, proposed delivery dates of 31 March 307 (Seston et al.) and 25 December 307 (Lafaurie and Bruun) are discussed and rejected, along with the proposal of a third dies nataZis for Constantine; Sutherland's date of late April is upheld, but it is emphasized (pace Sutherland) that the speech jointly celebrates Constantine's marriage to Fausta and his promotion as Augustus. In the introduction to Pan. VI, a precise date of delivery of August 310 is suggested, and it is considered unlikely that the orator was a jurist or had held a full-time post in the imperial administration; the eviuence of the speech itself indicates that he combined occasional ewployment by the palace as orator, with a career as master of rhetoric. An appendix contains an index of the imperial virtues and attributes found in Pans. VI and VII.

In almost any general study of Roman history, references can be found to the character of the Roman people. Roman character forms the explanation of their conquests, the justification of their empire. Roman character and its resultant code of behaviour influenced early Christian writers; Roman ethical concepts form the firm foundation of Western civilization. Augustine used the Roman spirit of sacrifice for the common good as an example for the inhabitants of the City of God. Dante claims that the Roman people were ordained by nature for empire by foregoing their own advantage to secure the public safety of mankind. Many modern authors echo these sentiments: R.H. Barrow says: 'His virtues are honesty and thrift, forethought and patience, work and endurance and courage, self-reliance, simplicity and humility in the face of what is greater than himself.' He even gives a 'catalogue of virtues' which Romans regarded as characteristically Roman throughout their history. Religio, pietas, officium, gravitas, discipline, industria, virtus, clementia, mores maiorum are the character traits of the Roman people. F.R. Cowell gives a much shorter list (pietas, virtus, gravitas) but he at least warns his readers that these are the virtues which Cicero regarded as typically Roman. Cowell regards them as symptoms of Cicero's enthusiasm for the good old days, and he adds: 'we have learnt in our own day that there are few more misleading imaginative exercises than that of generalizing about the supposed character of so large and complete an organism as a nation.' The purpose of this study is to investigate some of these concepts, their development and importance in early Roman sources. The approach will be ideogrammatic, but to make more general conclusions possible the group of concepts has to be fairly large and this of course means sacrificing depth for the sake of breadth.

Bibliography: pages 207-225. / In this thesis I offer a detailed examination of the ten prose prefaces which head the Epigrams of Martial (AD c45-c96) and the Siluae of Statius (c45-c96). The most remarkable feature of these ten short pieces of prose lies in the field of literary history: these are the first extant instances of collections of verse which are headed with pieces of prose, and it is chiefly from this angle that the prefaces are studied. The body of the thesis (Section B) is devoted to a close thematic examination of the prefaces. Their content is discussed under three main headings, namely justification, information and request (chapters 5, 6 and 7 respectively). Within this framework the prefaces are examined in the terms suggested by the four chapters of Section A - the literary history of prefacing (both prose prefaces per se and proems to collections of verse), the production and dissemination of ancient literature, the patronage of letters, and the biographies of the two poets (chapters 1 to 4 respectively). All these topics are treated broadly in Section A and then with specific reference to the prefaces in Section B.