Spring Books 2021

 by Philip Hooker

Once again, I have surveyed the Bookseller’s Buyers Guide to find some forthcoming books on classical themes which publishers believe will be of interest to the general reader – and have also called in some more from elsewhere.

I start with works from leading classical scholars. Judith M Barringer’s Olympia: A Cultural History is a splendid survey of the games, the monuments, the oracle, from 600 BC all the way to the late Roman Empire. Anthony Barrett’s Rome is Burning: Nero and the Fire That Ended a Dynasty examines Nero’s role in the great fire of 64 AD; he reckons that he took sensible steps to prevent the fire from spreading, but 15-20% of the city was razed to the ground including many noble houses; when their owners were hard hit by tax increases for the rebuilding, they spun stories about Nero’s iniquity, what might today be called fake news. This is complemented by Thorsten Opper’s Nero which accompanies a new British Museum exhibition with 200 objects, due from May to October. Michael Fulford’s Silchester Revealed presents a full description of the Iron Age and Roman town of Calleva, based on decades of archaeological research.

We have two major feats of reception study. Simon Goldhill’s Preposterous Poetics: The Politics and Aesthetics of Form in Late Antiquity asks how does literary form change as Christianity and rabbinic Judaism take shape? This is, one reviewer opined, “a playful book”. Meanwhile, Edmund Richardson offers Alexandria: The Quest for a Lost City – a wild journey through 19^th century India and Afghanistan, featuring Charles Masson, a spy extraordinaire and master of a hundred disguises, who discovered a city in Afghanistan in 1833. This is a follow-up to his Classical Victorians: Scholars, Scoundrels and Generals in Pursuit of Antiquity, published in 2013.

We also have several works from professional writers. David Stuttard has Phoenix: A Father, A Son, and the Rise of Athens, a novelistic history of Athens by way of the lives of Miltiades and Cimon.   Jeffrey Smith has Themistocles: The Powerbroker of Athens. Philip Matyszak offers A Year in the Life of Ancient Greece: The Real Lives of the People who Lived There – 248BC, an Olympic Year as seen by assorted characters in the Hellenistic World. Alberto Angela, an Italian journalist and TV host, has his 2018 Cleopatra: The Queen who Challenged Rome and Conquered Eternity now in translation; he has, more recently, published the first part of a trilogy on Nero and the fire of Rome. In lighter vein, Philip Womack has How to Teach Classics to Your Dog: A Quirky Introduction to the Ancient Greeks and Romans. “You’d be barking to miss it” declares Michael Scott.

On the fiction front Lindsey Davis’ A Comedy of Terrors is the ninth Flavia Alba story featuring the Saturnalia, a possible Nut War and threats to Domitian; we also have the latest works from Conn Iggulden (with an Athenian series) and Simon Turney (Rise of Emperors series, with Gordon Doherty).    Slightly Foxed Books are reprinting all of Rosemary Sutcliffe’s Roman Britain series for younger readers, starting with The Eagle of the Ninth.

Notable translations include Vergil’s Aeneid, a revision by Susanna Braund of Sarah Ruden’s 2008 version (line by line in iambic pentameters), an Oxford World Classics edition of Epigrams from the Greek Anthology by Gideon Nesbit and two more of the Princeton series with jolly titles – Cicero’s How to Tell A Joke (based on the Ideal Orator, with additional material from Quintilian) by Michael Fontaine and Sextus Empiricus’ How to Keep an Open Mind by Richard Bett. Kae Tempest’s version of Sophocles’ Philoctetes, which is still a planned National Theatre production with Lesley Manville in the lead role and a large all-female cast, should have its text published. The latest Cambridge Green and Yellow is Cicero’s Pro Milone by Thomas J Keeline; the latest Loebs are Petronius’ Satyricon by Gareth Schmeling, Galen’s On Temperaments by Ian Johnston and Livy volume 7 (Books 26-27) by J C Yardley. Douglas Olson has a new Aristophanes commentary – the Clouds, the first major one since Dover.

And then. on March 31^st, so Amazon tells us, we should see the long-awaited Cambridge Greek Lexicon, edited by James Diggle and others, rebased on first principles with a study of original texts, in two volumes, part-funded by The Classical Association, one of the great scholarly achievements of our time.

Philip Hooker is the Hon. Treasurer of the Classical Association, and writes regularly for the CA Blog on Classics in the Media

 

Autumn Books 2020

 by Philip Hooker

Once again, I have surveyed The Bookseller’s Buyers’ Guides, looking for forthcoming (or recent) books on classical themes which publishers believe will be of interest to the general reader.   There are not so many this time, so I have again called in a number from elsewhere.    And indicated publication dates may not be currently reliable. Paul Cartledge’s book on Thebes, due in May, widely and favourably reviewed, is not, in fact, emerging as a hardback until November; at this stage we just have the e-book.

I start with two outstanding books from leading scholars. Roy Gibson’s Man of High Empire, the Life of Pliny the Younger, was very highly praised by Rebecca Langlands: “A wise and humane biography, finely crafted....Gibson writes beautifully, with gentle wit, and his insights are so grounded in vivid landscapes as to linger in the mind long after the book has been laid aside”. Edith Hall and Henry Stead have produced A People’s History of Classics: Class and Greco-Roman Antiquity in Britain and Ireland 1689 to 1939 – the influence of the subject on ordinary working people. It tells of Chartist Banners, Staffordshire pots, Dissenting schools, autodidacts, Robert Tressell’s debt to Plato, the work of Christopher Caudwell and Jack Lindsay and much more. The Morning Star’s reviewer called it a riveting and entertaining read, “a classic in every sense of the word”. David Butterfield, in History Today, was less impressed; he noted the almost complete lack of coverage of the role of grammar schools and the likes of Richard Porson; its “rich and varied pickings have much to teach and inspire”, but it does lack balance.

There are two notable books which are likely to feature at literary festivals. Peter Stothard offers The Last Assassin: The Hunt for the Killers of Julius Caesar. Octavian tracked them all down, but Cassius Parmensis, poet and sailor, evaded his agents for 14 years. “A political thriller and a human story that astonishes” declares Hilary Mantel. Natalie Haynes has Pandora’s Jar: Women in the Greek Myths (“Box”, we are told, was a 16^th century mistranslation of pithos by Erasmus).

Popular fiction includes the latest works from Harry Sidebottom, Simon Scarrow, Conn Iggulden, Robert Fabbri, Simon Turney, Antony Riches and Christian Cameron. These continue to sell very well. The most imaginative work is probably Philip Womack’s The Arrow of Apollo, a fresh interpretation of Greek Myth for young adults, set in Achaea and Mycenae 15 years after the Trojan War.

We also note a number of non-fiction works by what might be called professional authors (rather than academics). These include Adrian Goldsworthy’s Philip and Alexander: Kings and Conquerors, a double biography based in Macedon, Guy de la Bédoyère’s Gladius: Living, Fighting and Dying in the Roman Army, and Emma Southon’s A Fatal Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum: Murder in Ancient Rome.

Broadening our scope, we have Robin Lane Fox with The Invention of Medicine: from Homer to Hippocrates (whose Books 3 and 5 may belong to a much earlier era than generally recognised), Benjamin Wardhaugh’s The Book of Wonders: How Euclid’s Elements Built The World – influencing 2,000 years of art, philosophy and literature, and Pauline Allen and Bronwen Nash with Greek and Latin Letters in Late Antiquity: The Christianisation of a Literary Form.

Less literary works include Susan Woodford’s Greek and Roman Art in the Art Essentials series and a new series of multimedia Apple e-books on ancient theatre for the 21^st century edited by Fiona McIntosh and team, currently the Agamemnon (in instalments), previously Medea, based on APGRD’s collected materials. Naxos’ latest classical audiobook is Tacitus, read by David Timson – and Julian Morgan has published Quare id Faciam: The Latin Puzzle Book – 100 word games, all in Latin, “definitely not a book for Latin beginners”.

New translations include Virgil’s Aeneid by Shadi Bartsch and a continuing series from Princeton with jolly titles – How to Be Content: An Ancient Poet’s Guide for an Age of Excess is Horace translated by Stephen Harrison; How to Give: An Ancient Guide to Giving and Receiving is Seneca translated by James Romm and How to Drink: A Classical Guide to the Art of Imbibing is Vincent Obsopoeus translated by Michael Fontaine. New texts and commentaries include Juvenal: Satires Book V edited by John Godwin, Sophocles: Oedipus Tyrannus edited by Jenny March and (in the CUP Green and Yellow series) Plautus: Pseudolus edited by David Christenson. 

Philip Hooker is the Hon. Treasurer of the Classical Association, and writes regularly for the CA Blog on Classics in the Media

 

Spring Books 2020

by Philip Hooker

Once again, we have studied the Bookseller’s Buyers Guide and picked out the books on classical themes which publishers believe will be of interest to the general reader (plus a number sourced elsewhere).

Pride of place goes to two big, wide-ranging, books by two of our most notable scholars. Greg Woolf has The Life and Death of Ancient Cities: A Natural History, due in May. This covers Athens and Sparta, Persepolis and Carthage, Rome and Alexandria, a vivid panorama of the ancient world. Meanwhile Paul Cartledge offers Thebes: The Forgotten City of Ancient Greece, also due in May. Thebes was once the most powerful city in Greece, the birthplace of Hercules, the home of the Sphinx and Oedipus, which sided with Xerxes and the Persians and later with Sparta to quash democracy in Athens, only to be utterly destroyed by Alexander the Great. It’s a big story.

In different vein, we call attention to Helen Morales with Antigone Rising: The Subversive Power of Ancient Myths – and its modern legacies, from MeToo to the imagery of Beyoncé. It is seriously feminist, as might be expected from the author of Pilgrimage to Dollywood. The most notable work of fiction is probably from Lindsey Davis with The Grove of the Caesars, the eighth instalment of the Flavia Albia series. There is still a possibility of a television series featuring Falco; in November, Mammoth Screen announced that they were in “advanced development” talks with ITV; this probably means that the BBC turned the project down (again), but that ITV are now looking at it. In the meantime, we must rest content with occasional repeats of the Anton Lesser radio serials on Radio 4 Extra.

Many of the works featured in previous notes are about to appear in paperback – those of Daisy Dunn, Armand D’Angour, Jerry Toner, Mary Norris, Natalie Haynes, Simon Turney, Adrienne Mayor, for example, who were all favourably reviewed and sold well in hardback.

Among scholarly works, we single out The Cambridge Companion to Ancient Greek and Roman Science, edited by Liba Taub and How Dead Languages Work by Coulter H. George (Greek, Latin, Old English, Sanskrit, Old Irish, Biblical Hebrew). Philip Matyszak with Forgotten Peoples of the Ancient World covers 40 ancient civilisations – from the Hyksos to the Hephthalites and everyone in between – and certainly has range. Andrew Bayliss offers The Spartans, a useful paperback guide.  Denise Allan and Mike Bryan have compiled Roman Britain … And Where to Find It. Piero Boitani’s A New Sublime: Ten Timeless Lessons on the Classics is based on a popular series for Swiss radio.

For lighter entertainment, we commend Sarah Rowley with Latin Rocks On, based on a renowned Twitter account, with Latin versions of popular song lyrics from Martin Gaye to Madonna, Take That to Taylor Swift. Simon Walters with The Borisaurus: The Dictionary of Boris Johnson explores the great man’s extensive vocabulary and explains most of his classical references. We also note the growing number of audio books, ideal for long journeys – Naxos are about to publish Xenophon’s The Persian Expedition read by David Timson; he has previously done Herodotus, Apollonius, Apuleius and Gibbon’s Decline and Fall; Anton Lesser has voiced the Iliad and the Odyssey; others have done Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Thucydides and Plutarch’s Greek Lives. The great recent bestseller is Stephen Fry with Mythos.

New translations include After Callimachus by Stephanie Burt, Josiah Osgood’s translated selections from Suetonius (How to be A Bad Emperor - An Ancient Guide to Truly Terrible Leaders), Sophocles' Oedipus the King (in verse) by David Kovacs and Aristotle's The Nicomachean Ethics by Adam Beresford (from Penguin). New texts include Loebs of Appian (another volume from Brian McGing) and Livy (another volume from J. C. Yardley), Oxford Classical Texts of Aulus Gellius (by Leofranc Holford-Strevens) and Apuleius' Philosophical Works (by Giuseppina Magnaldi), as well as Cambridge Green and Yellows of Virgil's Aeneid Book XI (Scott McGill), Plautus' Pseudolus (David Christenson), Achilles Tatius' Leucippe and Clitophon (Tim Whitmarsh) and Euripides' Cyclops (Richard Hunter and Rebecca Laemmle). There is also is a new Collins Latin Essential Dictionary “for all the words you need every day”, which is presumably rather basic and inexpensive.

Philip Hooker is the Hon. Treasurer of the Classical Association, and writes regularly for the CA Blog on Classics in the Media

Autumn Books 2019

by Philip Hooker

We have again studied the Bookseller’s Buyers’ Guide to pick out the new books on classical themes which publishers believe will be of interest to the general reader and have also called in some more from elsewhere.

We start with some of the more scholarly popular works.  Liz Gloyn’s Tracking Classical Monsters in Popular Culture deals with the creations of Ray Harryhausen, the television opponents of Hercules, Medusa, the Minotaur and more.  In similar vein, Edinburgh’s Screening Antiquity series features Epic Heroes on Screen (Hercules and others), a set of papers edited by Antony Augoustakis and Stacie Raucci, and another set on Ancient Greece on British Television edited by Fiona Hobden and Amanda Wrigley.

Peter Wiseman offers The House of Augustus: A Historical Detective Story – the Palatine home of Augustus has often been called the Emperor’s palace, but close scrutiny of the archaeological and textual evidence reveals that he was no Emperor and it was no palace.  Jerry Toner with Infamy: The Crimes of Ancient Rome moves forward to the times of Tiberius and Nero, exploring not just the excesses of the emperors but also the chances of a citizen being mugged in the street.  Meanwhile in Troy: myth and reality, which accompanies the forthcoming British Museum exhibition, Lesley Fitton and others explore how Troy has inspired the storytellers and the classical artists over the ages.

Mary Norris in Greek to Me – Adventures of the Comma Queen explains how the New Yorker copy editor became an enthusiast for the Ancient Greek language and literature.  Nicola Gardini, who teaches Italian in Oxford, has Long Live Latin: The Pleasures of a Useless Language (a best seller in Italy in 2016), which explores its history, authors, essential role in education and enduring impact on modern life.  David Stuttard offers Roman Mythology: A Traveler’s Guide from Troy to Tivoli, which takes the reader on a tour of 18 ancient sites and the stories which accompany them (following on from a similar work on Ancient Greek sites).  Dilys Powell’s An Affair of the Heart, a classic 1955 account of the 1931 Perachora dig undertaken by her husband and her later return to the site, has now been reprinted.

Daisy Dunn, already highly praised for her work on the two Plinies, now has Of Gods and Men: 100 Stories from Ancient Greece and Rome (and also a Ladybird Expert book on Homer).  Bettany Hughes offers Venus and Aphrodite: History of a Goddess, while Asa Bennett (a Classics graduate and now Brexit commissioning editor at The Telegraph) is publishing a Romanifesto: Modern Lessons from Classical Politics - what can Boudica teach us about Brexit, what could Emperor Hadrian teach President Trump about walls? We also have a good number of works of fiction, the latest by Robert Fabbri and Simon Scarrow among others; the most entertaining may be JM Alvey’s Scorpions in Corinth, the second in a series about a Greek comic poet turned detective.

Teachers should note Teaching Classics with Technology, edited by Bartolo Natoli and Steven Hunt, which reviews new developments in the US, the UK and elsewhere.  In addition, Andrew Wilson (who previously produced an Ancient Greek version of Harry Potter) now has Avem Occidere Mimicam, a translation of Harper Lee’s “best-loved American novel”.

Among more substantial academic works we note Pindar, Song, and Space: Towards a Lyric Archaeology by Richard Neer and Leslie Kurke, a feat of “lyric archaeology” which considers both the poetry and the sites referred to therein; Author Unknown: The Power of Anonymity in Ancient Rome, an exploration of anonymous works of literature by Tom Geue; The Spartans (a very short introduction) by Andrew Bayliss; The Scythians: Nomad Warriors of the Steppe by Barry Cunliffe; Magic in Ancient Greece and Rome by Lindsay Watson; The Great Fire of Rome: Life and Death in the Ancient City by Joseph J Walsh, which examines the fire of 64 AD with the aid of modern forensic techniques; The Ruler’s House: Contesting Power and Privacy in Julio-Claudian Rome by Harriet Fertik; Escape from Rome: The Failure of Empire and the Road to Prosperity by Walter Scheidel; and a different view, Imperial Tragedy: From Constantine’s Empire to the Destruction of Roman Italy AD 363-568  by Michael Kulikowski.   Julia Hell’s The Conquest of Ruins: The Third Reich and the Fall of Rome describes the way in which subsequent European rulers were fascinated by the history of the Roman Empire. There is also Postclassicisms by The Postclassicisms Collective: nine prominent scholars map a space for reflecting and theorising on the values attributed to antiquity and offer suggestions for a discipline in transformation structured around 12 concepts.

There are also several new texts and translations.  Peter Liddel’s Decrees of Fourth Century Athens (403/2- 322/1 BC): Volume One describes the literary evidence.  The latest Cambridge Green and Yellows include Virgil: Aeneid Book XI, Euripides: Ion, Aeschylus: Suppliants, Homer: Iliad Book VI, Longus: Daphnis & Chloe, and Greek Elegy and Iambus: A Selection.  The Oxford series has Sophocles: Electra and Aristophanes: Wasps.    Aris & Phillips has Terence: The Girl from Andros and Herodotus: Histories Book V.  The latest Oxford World's Classics include Diodorus Siculus: The Library, Books 16-20 and Artemidorus: The Interpretation of Dreams (with a separate monograph from Peter Thonemann).  Martin Goodman has also provided a monograph to accompany the recent edition of Josephus: The Jewish War.  The latest Loebs include Appian: Roman History (three volumes) and Livy:  History of Rome, Volume 5.   We also note translated selections from Cicero (How to Think About God: An Ancient Guide for Believers and Nonbelievers) and Plutarch (How to Be a Leader: An Ancient Guide to Wise Leadership) as well as Pamela Mensch’s version of Theophrastus: Characters (An Ancient Take on Bad Behaviour), commended by A E Stallings as “a perfect gift for the person in your life who mentions Plato’s cave or Zeno’s paradox or wears a bow tie or uses a fountain pen or enjoys a bit of harmless armchair misanthropy”.

Philip Hooker is the Hon. Treasurer of the Classical Association, and writes regularly for the CA Blog on Classics in the Media

Spring Books 2019

by Philip Hooker

Once again, we have studied The Bookseller’s Buyers’ Guide and picked out some of the new books on classical themes which publishers believe will be of interest to the general reader.   We have called in a few more from elsewhere.

The one highlighted work is Daisy Dunn’s Pliny: Life, Letters and Natural History in the Shadows of Vesuvius, a literary biography based on the letters of the younger and the natural history of the elder.   Armand D’Angour’s Socrates in Love: The Making of a Philosopher may be more notable; it focuses on his little-known early life as a heroic warrior, an athletic wrestler and dancer, and a passionate lover – and it identifies ‘Diotima’ in the Symposium as Aspasia of Miletus, the consort of Pericles.

Among works of fiction, Natalie Haynes is back with A Thousand Ships, an all-female retelling of the Trojan War, the latest in a long line of recent feminist fiction - “This is the Women’s War”.  In contrast, Harry Sidebottom’s The Lost Ten is very much a boy’s book. “A Crack Squad.  An Impenetrable Fortress.  A Desperate Mission” behind enemy lines in Mesopotamia, with a traitor in the group.  “Bravo Two Zero in Ancient Rome” the publisher shouts. There are also numerous additional volumes of historical fiction set in classical times by other established authors, too many to mention.

A new one, which promises to be entertaining, is J M Alvey with Shadows of Athens, about a comic playwright who finds a murdered man outside his front door.   “A new detective in the Agora – move over Falco”.  Lindsey Davis, meanwhile, has A Capitol Death, the seventh tale featuring Falco’s adopted daughter in the time of Domitian.   More intriguing is David Barbaree, a Toronto lawyer, with his second work, The Exiled.   It is AD79, ten years after the fall of Nero, there is trouble in Parthia with someone claiming to be Nero, Pliny the admiral is sent out – and then Vesuvius erupts.

Among books for children, we note Andy Stanton’s The Paninis of Pompeii, the first in a new series by the author of Mr Gum, and Gary Northfield’s Grapple with the Greeks! (which follows Rumble with the Romans!) – both for the 7-9s.  For the 9-12s, we have Maz Evans with Against All Gods, number four in the Who Let the Gods Out series, and Nicholas Bowling with In the Shadow of Heroes, about a 14-year old slave who travels the Roman world at the time of Nero in search of the Golden Fleece.

Jonathan Bate has a major work: How the Classics Made Shakespeare, which shows how steeped Shakespeare was in the classics, notwithstanding Ben Jonson’s gibe that he had “small Latin and less Greek”. Violet Moller’s The Map of Knowledge describes how the works of Euclid, Ptolemy and Galen survived, focusing on seven cities in the Mediterranean, centres of scholarship in the post-Roman world.  Simon Critchley, moderator of the New York Times philosophy blog, has Tragedy, the Greeks and Us, arguing that ancient Greek tragedy holds a mirror up to us.   David B Small’s Ancient Greece: Social Structure and Evolution applies social scientific theories from Minoan and Mycenean times all the way to the middle years of the Roman Empire.  Vassiliki Panoussi has Brides, Mourners, Bacchae: Women’s Rituals in Roman Literature, and Soultana Marie Valamoti presents Cooking with Plants in Prehistoric Greece: An Archaeobotanical Exploration of Ancient Cuisine, complete with recipes.

Chris Carey has written Thermopylae for an OUP series on Great Battles, Barbara Graziosi has provided Homer: A Very Short Introduction, and Catherine Wilson tells us How to be an Epicurean.  Books for a classicist’s next Christmas stocking include Alexander Tulloch’s It’s All Greek: Borrowed Words and Their Histories, Peter Parker’s A Little Book of Latin for Gardeners and Philip Matyszak’s 24 Hours in Ancient Athens, describing the life of 24 ordinary Athenians over the course of one day, which follows a previous work on Ancient Rome.

Among more substantial works, we note The Cambridge Grammar of Classical Greece by Evert van Emde Boas and others, The Cambridge Companion to Roman Comedy, edited by Martin T Dinter, Army of the Roman Emperors by Thomas Fischer and M C Bishop (lavishly illustrated), and two from the Metropolitan Museum, New York: Art of the Hellenistic Kingdoms from Pergamon to Rome, edited by Sean Hemingway and Kiki Karoglou, comprising 20 essays following its 2016 exhibition, and The World Between Empires: Art and Identity in the Ancient Middle East by Blair Fowlkes-Childs and Michael Seymour.

There are also several new translations and texts.  How to Think About War: An Ancient Guide to Foreign Policy is a selection from Thucydides translated by Johanna Hanink.   How to Keep Your Cool: An Ancient Guide to Anger Management is a selection from Seneca translated by James Romm.    The War for Gaul is a new translation of Caesar by James O’Donnell.   Ancient Peoples in Their Own Words is a highly-illustrated guide by Michael Kerrigan, based on ancient writing from tomb hieroglyphics to Roman graffiti.  Ancient Philosophy: A Companion to the Core Readings by Andrew Stumpf is a complementary undergraduate guide to the texts.  There are three new Cambridge Green and Yellows:  Plato/Xenophon’s Apology of Socrates, edited by Nicholas Denyer, Lucan’s Civil War Book 7 edited by Paul Roche, and Seneca’s Selected Letters edited by Catharine Edwards.   Aris & Phillips have Minor Greek Tragedians, Volume 1: The Fifth Century, a collection of fragments edited by Martin J Cropp.   The latest Loebs are Fragmentary Republican Latin Oratory (three volumes) edited by Gesine Manuwald and Menander Rhetor. Dionysus of Halicarnassus, Ars Rhetorica edited by William H Race.

Philip Hooker is the Hon. Treasurer of the Classical Association, and writes regularly for the CA Blog on Classics in the Media.

Autumn Books 2018

by Philip Hooker

Once again, we have studied the latest Bookseller Buyer’s Guides and picked out the books on classical themes which publishers believe will be of interest to the general reader (and added a few more).

The major highlight is Pat Barker’s The Silence of the Girls, the Trojan War as seen by Briseis – another feminised fictional version of the ancient world to add to those covered in previous notes.  We also have Country by Michael Hughes, the Iliad transposed to Northern Ireland in 1996, which has had strong reviews, Everything Under by Daisy Johnson, “a weird and wonderful revisioning of Oedipus Rex”, long-listed for the Man Booker Prize, and Metamorphica by Zachary Mason, a re-imagining of Ovid.    In more popular vein, there are the latest works from Robert Fabbri, Margaret George, Conn Iggulden, Douglas Jackson, Anthony Riches and Simon Scarrow.

Among childrens’ books, we note Lucy Coats with Beasts of Olympus, Stella Tarakson with Hopeless Heroes (Greek mythology) and Tim Collins with The Long-Lost Secret Diary of the World’s Worst Gladiator (all for the 7-9s) and, for older children, Know-It-All: Greek Mythology in the National Geographic ‘Weird but True’ series, Russell Punter’s “action-packed graphic novel adaptation” of The Odyssey and Isabel and Imogen Greenberg’s Athena: The Story of a Goddess.  There are also Nick Pierce’s “Starters” books on Ancient Rome and Ancient Greece, with bite-sized text, timelines, quizzes and “can you find?”

The non-fiction highlight is Guy de la Bedoyere’s Domina: The Women Who Made Imperial Rome (of the Julio-Claudian dynasty).  We also have Tony Spawforth’s The Story of Greece and Rome, David Stuttard’s Nemesis : Alcibiades and the Fall of Athens, Robin Waterfield’s Olympia: the Story of the Ancient Olympic Games, Peter Jones with Memento Mori : What the Romans Can Tell Us About Old Age and Death, Fred Naiden with Soldier, Priest and God: A Life of Alexander the Great (which explores his personal religion), Jeremiah McColl with Clan Fabius, Defenders of Rome (the history of the Fabii Maximi) and Richard Hingley with Londinium: A Biography: Roman London from its Origins to the Fifth Century.

In the category of “reception”, we note Charlotte Higgins’ Red Thread: On Mazes and Labyrinths, which starts with the classical poets and then explores widely among later gardens, writers and artists. Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones has Designs on the Past, how Hollywood Created the Ancient World from 1916-1966, lavishly illustrated. Adrienne Mayor offers Gods and Robots: Myths, Machines and Ancient Dreams of Technology and James M Russell has Plato’s Alarm Clock and Other Amazing Ancient Inventions.  Donna Zuckerberg’s Not All Dead White Men: Classics and Misogyny in the Digital Age exposes the way in which the American “Alt-Right” cites classical texts to support their claims.

Among books for students we note Oliver Taplin’s new translation of the Oresteia, with a clutch of critical essays, Simon Pulleyn’s new edition of Homer’s Odyssey Book 1, and a set of Bloomsbury Ancient Comedy Companions - Aristophanes: Peace edited by Ian C Storey, Plautus: Casina by David Christenson, and Terence: Andria by Sander M Goldberg.   The latest Cambridge Green and Yellows include Homer: Iliad Book XVIII from Richard Rutherford and Xenophon: Anabasis Book III from Luuk Huitink and Tim Rood.  The latest Loebs include Quintus Smyrnaeus’ Posthomerica, edited by Neil Hopkinson, the final volume of their Hippocrates, edited by Paul Potter, and Vol XI of their Livy, edited by John Yardley.   There are new translations of Cicero’s De Amicitia from Philip Freeman and Epictetus’ Enchiridion (and other works) from Anthony Long. Andrew Stumpf offers Ancient Philosophy: A Companion to the Core Readings, Michael Moore has Classical Philosophy in a Nutshell and there is also the first English translation of Martin Heidegger’s 1943/4 lectures on Heraclitus.

Philip Hooker is the Hon. Treasurer of the Classical Association, and writes regularly for the CA Blog on Classics in the Media.            

Spring Books 2018

by Philip Hooker

Once again, we have studied the Bookseller’s Buyers Guide and picked out the books on classical themes which publishers believe will be of interest to the general reader.

Among the highlights is Circe, by Madeline Miller, whose Song of Achilles won the Orange Prize in 2012 and is one of their top ten in literary fiction.  In paperback, there will be The Children of Jocasta by Natalie Haynes, House of Names by Colm Tóibín and The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood.  For the Immortal, in hardback, is the ‘triumphant finale’ of Emily Hauser’s Golden Apple trilogy.

More popular works include the latest from Lindsey Davis, Robert Fabbri, Adrian Goldsworthy, Conn Iggulden, Harry Sidebottom, Ben Kane, Ian Ross, Anthony Riches and Simon Scarrow, who all seem to sell very well.   Lesser known, but more intriguing, is Alessandro Barbero’s The Athenian Women: A Novel, set in 411BC, the time of Lysistrata, with oligarchs oppressing the democrats (which is claimed to be very contemporary).

Adrian Goldsworthy is also highlighted for Hadrian’s Wall: Rome and the Limits of Empire, in the highly illustrated Landmark series.  Mary Beard has one of the two books based on the new BBC Civilisations series, describing ancient representations of the human body and the interface between art and religion.  We must also include Edith Hall, whose Aristotle’s Way: How Ancient Wisdom Can Change Your Life is described as a self-help book.  Troy is also topical, which makes Naoise Mac Sweeney’s Troy: Myth, City, Icon particularly timely.

Non-fiction paperbacks include several acclaimed works from 2017: Paul Cartledge’s Democracy, Guy de la Bédoyère on the Praetorian Guard, Bijan Omrani’s Caesar’s Footprints: Journeys to Roman Gaul, and Catharine Nixey’s polemic on the Christian destruction of the Classical world.

There are a good number of new scholarly histories for the general reader:  Josiah Osgood’s Rome and the Making of a World State, 150 BCE - 20 CE, Robin Waterfield’s Creators, Conquerors and Citizens: A History of Ancient Greece, Jeremy McInerney’s Greece in the Ancient World (illustrated), Angelos Chaniotis’ Age of Conquests: The Greek World from Alexander to Hadrian (336 BC – AD 138), Philip Matyszak’s The Greeks: Lost Civilisations  (all about Greeks abroad from India to Spain),  Peter Rhodes’ Periclean Athens, and Richard Billows’ Before and After Alexander: The Legend and Legacy of Alexander the Great.

More specialist works come from Walter Scheidel, who has edited The Science of Roman History: Biology, Climate and the Future of the Past, on how the latest scientific advances have changed our understanding, Robin Osborne with The Transformation of Athens: Painted Pottery and the Creation of Classical Greece, based on the Princeton Martin Classical Lectures, and Judith Swaddling with An Etruscan Affair: The Impact of early Etruscan discoveries on European culture.

Then there is Iain Ferris with Cave Canem: Animals in Roman Civilisation, David Weston Marshall with Ancient Skies: Constellation Mythology of the Greeks, Jeremy Mynott with Birds in the Ancient World: Winged Words, Carolyn Roncaglia with Northern Italy in the Roman World: From the Bronze Age to Late Antiquity, Simon Elliott with Septimius Severus in Scotland: The Northern Campaigns of the First Hammer of the Scots, and Roger White and Mike Hodder’s Clash of Cultures?: The Romano-British Period in the West Midlands.

Among reception works we note Ian Jenkins and colleagues’ Rodin and the Art of Ancient Greece, the catalogue of the British Museum exhibition running from 26 April to 29 July, and Edgar Vincent’s A. E. Housman: Hero of the Hidden Life, about his poetry and academic life, aided by 81 newly discovered letters.

New texts and translations include two translations from Pamela Mensch: Plutarch’s The Age of Caesar: Five Roman Lives, and Diogenes Laertius’ Lives of the Eminent Philosophers.    The latest Oxford Classical Text is Antiphon and Andocides: Speeches (Antiphontis et Andocidis Orationes) edited by Mervin Dilts and David Murphy.  The latest Loeb Classics include Ennius’ Fragments, edited by Sander Goldberg and Gesine Manuwald, Galen’s Hygiene edited by Ian Johnston, and Volume X of their new Livy.    New Oxford World Classics include two from Aristotle: The Art of Rhetoric (translated by Robin Waterfield) and On the Soul and Other Psychological works (translated by Fred D. Miller, Jr.), as well as Anthony Verity’s version of Homer’s Odyssey, which must compete with those of Emily Wilson and Peter Green.    Virgil’s Aeneid also appears in a new version from poet David Ferry.    Aeschylus’ Libation Bearers, edited and translated by Andrew Lyon Brown, is the latest in the Aris & Phillips Classical Texts series (now part of Liverpool University Press).

For those with short attention spans, Matthew Nicholls has edited 30-Second Ancient Greece: The 50 Most Important Achievements of a Timeless Civilization, each Explained in Half a Minute (300 words and one image).  Cath Senker has a juvenile version: Ancient Greece in 30 Seconds: 30 Fascinating Topics for Kid Classicists Explained in Half a Minute.  Similarly, there is Charles Phillips' The Ancient World in Minutes.

Among children’s books we note, for ages 7-9, Museum Mystery Squad and the case of the Roman Riddle by Mike Nicholson (illustrated by Mike Phillips) and a new Asterix and the Chariot Race by Jean-Yves Ferri (illustrated by Didier Conrad and René Goscinny).  For ages 9-12, we note the latest from Rick Riordan: The Dark Prophecy and The Burning Maze in the Trials of Apollo series, the latest from Caroline Lawrence: Return to Rome in the Roman Quests series, and a new time-travel from Ben Hubbard: Roman Britain and Londinium.

Philip Hooker is the Hon. Treasurer of the Classical Association, and writes regularly for the CA Blog on Classics in the Media.