Stock characters speaking : eight Libanian declamations introduced and translated / Robert J. Penella.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Penella, Robert, author.

Standardized Title:

Works. Selections. English.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Libanius. Declamationes.

Libanius.

Sophists (Greek philosophy).

Oratory, Ancient.

Rhetoric, Ancient.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (186 pages)

Place of Publication:

Ann Arbor, Michigan : University of Michigan Press, 2023.

Summary:

Declamations were composed and orally delivered in the Roman Empire by sophists, or teachers of rhetoric, of whom the Greek-speaking Libanius was one of the most distinguished. Stock Characters Speaking may be thought of as emerging from three developments of recent decades: an explosive interest in late antiquity, a newly sympathetic interest in rhetoric (including ancient declamation), and a desire to bring Libanius's massive corpus into English and other modern languages. In this book, author Robert J. Penella translates eight of Libanius's declamations: 29, 30, 34, 35, 37, 45, 46, 47, and, in an appendix, the thirteenth-century Gregory of Cyprus's response to Declamation 34. Each translation is accompanied by an introduction, in which Penella examines the themes, structure, and the stasis, or key issue, of the declamations. Figures who appear in the translated declamations include a parasite who has lost his patron, a man envious of his rich neighbor, a miser's son, a poor man willing to die for his city, a rich war-hero accused of aiming at tyranny, and a convict asking for exile. Three of these declamations have appeared in German; otherwise, these translations are the first into a modern language.

Contents:

Cover

Title Page

Copyright Page

Dedication

Contents

Foreword

Abbreviations

Introduction

The Declamations

Declamation 29

Declamation 30

Declamation 34

Declamation 35

Declamation 37

Declamation 45

Declamation 46

Declamation 47

Appendix

Gregory of Cyprus

Footnotes

Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 147-149).

Description based on information from the publisher.

Other Format:

Print version: Penella, Robert Stock Characters Speaking

ISBN:

9780472220946