Declamations, Volume I: Controversiae, Books 1?6

Seneca The Elder

ISBN 10: 0674995104 / ISBN 13: 9780674995109

Verlag: Harvard University Press, 1974

Owner's mark on front flyleaf. light yellowing to text. Dust jacket spine yellowed, scratch on back. Tips of front jacket flap clipped. Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers 227632

Inhaltsangabe:

Roman secondary education aimed principally at training future lawyers and politicians. Under the late Republic and the Empire, the main instrument was an import from Greece: declamation, the making of practice speeches on imaginary subjects. There were two types of such speeches: controversiae on law-court themes, suasoriae on deliberative topics. On both types a prime source of our knowledge is the work of Lucius Annaeus Seneca, a Spaniard from Cordoba, father of the distinguished philosopher. Towards the end of his long life (?55 BCE??40 CE) he collected together ten books devoted to controversiae (some only preserved in excerpt) and at least one (surviving) of suasoriae. These books contained his memories of the famous rhetorical teachers and practitioners of his day: their lines of argument, their methods of approach, their idiosyncrasies, and above all their epigrams. The extracts from the declaimers, though scrappy, throw invaluable light on the influences that coloured the styles of most pagan (and many Christian) writers of the Empire. Unity is provided by Seneca's own contribution, the lively prefaces, engaging anecdote about speakers, writers and politicians, and brisk criticism of declamatory excess.

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor: Michael Winterbottom is the Corpus Christi Professor of Latin Emeritus at Oxford University.

Bibliografische Details

Titel: Declamations, Volume I: Controversiae, Books...
Verlag: Harvard University Press
Erscheinungsdatum: 1974
Einband: Hardcover
Zustand: Very Good
Zustand des Schutzumschlags: Very Good