There is no modern commentary on the whole of Valerius Maximus’ Facta et dicta memorabilia, though commentaries on books 1 and 2 have been published by, respectively, David Wardle (1998) and Andrea Themann-Steinke. Progress is likely to be made by further commentaries on individual books and John Briscoe contributes to this with a commentary on Book 8, of particular interest because of the variegated nature of its subject matter. The commentary, like those of Briscoe’s commentaries on Livy Books 31-45 (OUP, 1973-2012), deals with matters of content, textual issues, language and style, and literary aspects. An ample introduction discusses what is known about the author, the time of writing, the structure both of the work as a whole and of Book 8 itself, Valerius’ sources, language and style, the transmission of the text, editions of Valerius, and the methods of citation used in the commentary. The commentary is preceded by a text of Book 8, a slightly revised version of that in Briscoe’s edition in the Bibliotheca Teubneriana (1998), with an apparatus limited to passages where the commentary discusses a textual problem. The book will give readers an understanding of an author once very popular, then long neglected and now enjoying a revival.

Valerius Maximus stands alone as an extant prose author of the early principate who devoted specific interest to the Romans' attitude to religion. In eight chapters he presents a variety of material selected from earlier authors, such as Cicero, Livy, and Varro, to illustrate central areas of Roman religious thought and practice: augury, omens, dreams, and miracles. Valerius has not been translated into English since 1678 and there has never been a detailed commentary on his work in any language. With the growing interest in the non-Judaeo-Christian religions of the Mediterranean world and scholars recognizing that Roman religion should not be approached with Judaeo-Christian presuppositions or through the filter of the Christian Fathers, Valerius Maximus gives us an opportunity to see an unexceptional pagan speaking about his religion.

From footnote-fodder to intellectual: Valerius Maximus, a generally under-appreciated minor author of the early first century AD emerges as a holder of distinct views on Rome's dynasty, their world, on how to behave within that world, and as an influencer of later thought both pagan and Christian.

Popular in its day both as a sourcebook for writers and orators and as a guidebook for living a moral life, this remarkably rich document serves as an engaging introduction to the cultural and moral history of ancient Rome. Valerius' "thousand tales" are arranged thematically in ninety-one chapters that cover nearly every aspect of life in the ancient world, including such wide-ranging topics as military discipline, child rearing, and women lawyers. As a whole, the work gives the reader fascinating insights into what it felt like to be an ancient Roman, what the ancient Romans really believed, what their private world was like, how they related to one another, and what they did when nobody was watching.

A 2006 study of Roman sexuality and sexual ethics focusing on the crucial and unsettled concept of pudicitia.

"The well-known mythographer Marina Warner has described the process of reading fairy tales and folktales as 'tasting the dragon's blood' - a magical and transformative process by which one's ears are opened to the voices of the past and of other worlds. Roman exempla, which constitute a national story-telling tradition, are very different in many ways from the dream-like fantasies of fairy-tales and other narrative folk traditions that have been the subject of Warner's studies. In (supposedly) true stories from history, battle-hardened warriors, noble maidens and honourable sons of the soil face impossible dangers, take terrible decisions and sacrifice their lives, their limbs and even their own children for the sake of justice, discipline and the Roman community. Yet for the ancient Romans too, hearing the blood-soaked stories of their ancestral heroes was an intimate and potent experience, and this 'taste of the hero's blood' had an intoxicating effect similar to the blood of Warner's dragon: evoking other worlds, shaping understanding of their own world"--

The popularity of the work of Valerius Maximus during the Middle Ages and Renaissance was due to its value as a source of moral exhortation and guidance: the work was as relevant to the readers of those times as it had been to Valerius' contemporaries in the first century AD. Practical Ethics for Roman Gentlemen demonstrates that the purpose of Valerius' work was to promote a system of morality based upon historical precedent that was both traditional and authoritative to the educated classes for whom he wrote. Practical Ethics for Roman Gentlemen offers a re-definition of the purpose of Valerius' work and totally new conclusions about its predecessors, form and audience. The book is not confined to an examination of Valerius' work in isolation, but also examines earlier forms of exemplary literature, questions of how Roman literature was communicated to its audience, and presents an entirely new theory on the identity of Valerius Maximus the author.

Essays examining both the theory and practice of medieval translation.

This book has been considered by academicians and scholars of great significance and value to literature. This forms a part of the knowledge base for future generations. So that the book is never forgotten we have represented this book in a print format as the same form as it was originally first published. Hence any marks or annotations seen are left intentionally to preserve its true nature.

Matthew V. Novenson, ed., Monotheism and Christology in Greco-Roman Antiquity is a collection of state-of-the-art essays by leading scholars on views of God, Christ, and other divine beings in ancient Jewish, Christian, and classical texts.