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.

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.

Treats a compelling narrative of two of history's most famous battles, and assists translation and literary and historical appreciation.

Livy's Ab urbe condita Book XXII narrates Hannibal's massive defeats of the Romans at Trasimene (217 BC) and Cannae (216 BC). It is Livy's best and most dramatic book, and the one most likely to appeal to students at every level. Livy drew on the Greek historian Polybius, but transformed his drier treatment into a rhetorical masterpiece, which by a series of insistent thematic contrasts brings out the tensions between the delaying tactics of Fabius and the costly rashness of Flaminius, Minucius and Varro. A substantial and accessibly written introduction by two experienced commentators covers historical, religious, literary and linguistic matters, including the place of Book XXII in the structure of Livy's long work. A new text by Briscoe is followed by a full commentary, covering literary and historical aspects and offering frequent help with translation. The volume is suitable for undergraduates, graduate students, teachers, and scholars.

Livy's 142-volume history of Rome is one of the high points of ancient historical writing; but three-quarters of that history is lost, known only from indirect sources such as epitomes and quotations. D. S. Levene's Livy: The Fragments and Periochae provides a text, translation, and commentary on all of the surviving 'para-Livian' material from antiquity. This includes the various epitomes and 'fragments' (quotations from or references to the lost books), but it also covers citations from the surviving books and all testimonia to Livy's life, work, and readership between his death in A.D. 17 and the end of classical antiquity (approximately A.D. 650). This collection of material provides the fullest account ever developed of the reputation of Livy in antiquity and the way he was used and read by later writers. Through it, Levene explores an important but under-studied aspect of the intellectual life of the Roman world. This second volume contains the first part of the Periochae, the fullest surviving epitome of Livy's history. The text has been newly translated and reedited with a new scholarly apparatus; there is also a full literary, textual and historical commentary. The volume's extensive introduction offers the fullest ever study of the Periochae as a literary text, with new evidence for the nature of the text and the circumstances of its writing.

"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"--

Employs the metaphor of the body politic in Ancient Rome to rethink the transition from the Republic to Principate.