Petronius: A Handbook - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1118451376 ISBN 13: 9781118451373

Publisher: *Wiley-Blackwell, 2012

Synopsis

Petronius: A Handbook unravels the mysteries of the Satyrica, one of the greatest literary works that antiquity has bequeathed to the modern world.

• Includes a dozen original essays by a team of leading Petronius and Roman history scholars
• Features the first multi-dimensional approach to Satyricon studies by exploring the novel's literary structure, social and historic contexts, and modern reception
• Supplemented by illustrations, plot outline, glossary, map, bibliography, and suggestions for further reading

About this title

About the Author

Jonathan Prag is a University Lecturer in Ancient History at the University of Oxford, and a Tutorial Fellow of Merton College. His main areas of research are Hellenistic and Republican Sicily, and the Roman Republic. He has edited a volume (Sicilia nutrix plebis Romanae) on Cicero's Verrines, and is currently co-editing a volume on The Hellenistic West and writing a book on the non-Italian soldiers of the Roman Republican army.

Ian Repath is Lecturer in Classics at Swansea University. His principal research interests are Greek and Latin prose fiction, and literary aspects of Plato. He is the author of the forthcoming article, Plato in Petronius: Petronius in platanona, and co-editor (with John Morgan) of Where the Truth Lies: Fiction and Metafiction in Ancient Narrative. He is a founding member of KYKNOS, the Swansea, Lampeter, and Exeter Centre for Research in Ancient Narrative Literatures.

From the Back Cover

Of all the literary works to have survived from the ancient world, few have been as celebrated – or as outrageously provocative – as the Satyrica. Traditionally ascribed to the Petronius who lived and died under Nero's rule, one of the most darkly fascinating periods of Roman history, the Satyrica recounts a bizarre odyssey through contemporary everyday life. With its startling originality, bawdy humor, and vivid characterizations, Petronius's brilliant, but fragmentary, novel has inspired countless writers and artists through the ages, most famously the Italian film director Fellini. The grotesqueries and excesses of the book's most best-known extant section, Trimalchio's feast, are particularly notorious and influential.

Reflecting the Satyrica's unique stature in world literature, Petronius: A Handbook features a dozen original essays that explore the world portrayed by Petronius. Commissioned from leading scholars specializing in the ancient novel, Julio-Claudian culture, and early Roman imperial history, each essay tackles a specific aspect of the Satyrica – from the novel's literary structure to its social and historic contexts and modern reception in literature and film. Collectively, the essays provide the first comprehensive, multi-dimensional approach to the study of the Satyrica and its relevance to our understanding of the early Roman Empire. Authoritative and insightful, Petronius: A Handbook will unravel the mysteries of one of the greatest literary works that antiquity has bequeathed to the modern world.

From the Inside Flap

Of all the literary works to have survived from the ancient world, few have been as celebrated – or as outrageously provocative – as the Satyrica. Traditionally ascribed to the Petronius who lived and died under Nero’s rule, one of the most darkly fascinating periods of Roman history, the Satyrica recounts a bizarre odyssey through contemporary everyday life. With its startling originality, bawdy humor, and vivid characterizations, Petronius's brilliant, but fragmentary, novel has inspired countless writers and artists through the ages, most famously the Italian film director Fellini. The grotesqueries and excesses of the book's most best-known extant section, Trimalchio’s feast, are particularly notorious and influential.

Reflecting the Satyrica's unique stature in world literature, Petronius: A Handbook features a dozen original essays that explore the world portrayed by Petronius. Commissioned from leading scholars specializing in the ancient novel, Julio-Claudian culture, and early Roman imperial history, each essay tackles a specific aspect of the Satyrica – from the novel's literary structure to its social and historic contexts and modern reception in literature and film. Collectively, the essays provide the first comprehensive, multi-dimensional approach to the study of the Satyrica and its relevance to our understanding of the early Roman Empire. Authoritative and insightful, Petronius: A Handbook will unravel the mysteries of one of the greatest literary works that antiquity has bequeathed to the modern world.

Edition details

• Publisher: *Wiley-Blackwell
• Publication date: 2012
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1118451376
• ISBN 13: 9781118451373
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 272
• Editor: Prag Jonathan R. W., Repath Ian D.