BiblioVault - Books about Dialogues, Latin

A Commentary on Cicero, De Legibus

Andrew R. Dyck

University of Michigan Press, 2004

Just as Plato drafted a vision of an ideal state in his Republic and followed that up with detailed provisions in his Laws, so Cicero -- after writing a Republic -- wanted to provide legislation for his ideal state and wrote de Legibus (the Laws) as a sequel. But while Cicero's Republic was set shortly before the death of its speaker, Scipio Africanus, in 129 b.c., his de Legibus was set in his own lifetime, thus enabling him to comment on current political events and trends. Written in the final years of the Roman Republic, de Legibus is as a work that gives Cicero's own diagnosis of the ills that had befallen the Roman state and what might be done to cure them. It is thus a document crucial to our understanding of one of the most turbulent periods of Roman history.
Surprisingly, de Legibus has been one of Cicero's most neglected works. Andrew R. Dyck's commentary is the first to appear on the complete work in well over one hundred years. Dyck provides a detailed interpretation and sets the essay into the context of the politics and philosophical thought of its time. While previous commentaries focused primarily on grammar and textual criticism, this one also seeks to relate Cicero's text to the political, philosophical, and religious trends of his day. The author identifies the influences on Cicero's thinking and analyzes the relation of this theoretical treatise to his other works. This commentary is based on a new text, worked out in consultations between the author and Jonathan Powell of Royal Holloway, London.
Andrew Dyck is Professor of Classics, University of California at Los Angeles.

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Saturnalia, Volume I

Books 1–2

Macrobius

Harvard University Press, 2011

An antiquarian’s festival.

The Saturnalia, Macrobius’ encyclopedic celebration of Roman culture written in the early fifth century AD, has been prized since the Renaissance as a treasure trove of otherwise unattested lore. Cast in the form of a dialogue, the Saturnalia treats subjects as diverse as the divinity of the Sun and the quirks of human digestion while showcasing Virgil as the master of all human knowledge from diction and rhetoric to philosophy and religion.

The new Latin text is based on a refined understanding of the medieval tradition and improves on Willis’ standard edition in nearly three hundred places. The accompanying translation—only the second in English and the only one now in print—offers a clear and sprightly rendition of Macrobius’ ornate Latin and is supplemented by ample annotation. A full introduction places the work in its cultural context and analyzes its construction, while indexes of names, ancient works cited in both text and notes, and topics make the work more readily accessible than ever before.

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Saturnalia, Volume II

Books 3–5

Macrobius

Harvard University Press, 2011

An antiquarian’s festival.

The Saturnalia, Macrobius’ encyclopedic celebration of Roman culture written in the early fifth century AD, has been prized since the Renaissance as a treasure trove of otherwise unattested lore. Cast in the form of a dialogue, the Saturnalia treats subjects as diverse as the divinity of the Sun and the quirks of human digestion while showcasing Virgil as the master of all human knowledge from diction and rhetoric to philosophy and religion.

The new Latin text is based on a refined understanding of the medieval tradition and improves on Willis’ standard edition in nearly three hundred places. The accompanying translation—only the second in English and the only one now in print—offers a clear and sprightly rendition of Macrobius’ ornate Latin and is supplemented by ample annotation. A full introduction places the work in its cultural context and analyzes its construction, while indexes of names, ancient works cited in both text and notes, and topics make the work more readily accessible than ever before.

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Saturnalia, Volume III

Books 6–7

Macrobius

Harvard University Press, 2011

An antiquarian’s festival.

The Saturnalia, Macrobius’ encyclopedic celebration of Roman culture written in the early fifth century AD, has been prized since the Renaissance as a treasure trove of otherwise unattested lore. Cast in the form of a dialogue, the Saturnalia treats subjects as diverse as the divinity of the Sun and the quirks of human digestion while showcasing Virgil as the master of all human knowledge from diction and rhetoric to philosophy and religion.

The new Latin text is based on a refined understanding of the medieval tradition and improves on Willis’ standard edition in nearly three hundred places. The accompanying translation—only the second in English and the only one now in print—offers a clear and sprightly rendition of Macrobius’ ornate Latin and is supplemented by ample annotation. A full introduction places the work in its cultural context and analyzes its construction, while indexes of names, ancient works cited in both text and notes, and topics make the work more readily accessible than ever before.

[more]