Greek and Latin Letters: An Anthology with a Translation (review)

Michael Trapp's recent addition to the Cambridge Greek and Latin Classics series is most welcome. This innovative anthology of seventy-seven texts (forty-one in Greek and thirty-six in Latin), arranged thematically, encourages a fresh approach to the reading and teaching of Graeco-Roman letter-writing. As Trapp himself observes, "Placing and reading a papyrus recommendation ('real,' and strictly utilitarian) next to a Ciceronian example ('real,' but republished for aesthetic and commemorative effect), next to a Horatian Epistle (a verse transposition of the form) gives an opportunity to understand better the frame of reference within which each of them works, and to reflect more effectively on the whole institution that they jointly spring from" (47). Until very recently, the study of ancient letter-writing tended to be defined by a series of false oppositions: prose/poetry; real/fictitious; literary/historical; public/private. Trapp deliberately does away with most of these labels to propose an organic and, ultimately, profoundly illuminating overview of Graeco-Roman epistolography.

The anthology opens with a well-conceived introduction (1–47). After raising (and largely deflecting) the well-rehearsed problem of "what is a letter?", Trapp turns to the letters themselves and their authors. His summary of the variety of materials used in the production of letters and the variety of forms in which a letter could be transmitted will be useful to anyone interested in the practice of ancient letter-writing. Additionally, the introduction reminds the careful reader that, however beneficial it is to read Cicero next to Horace next to a Greek papyrus letter, it is also essential to recognize the vastly different circumstances of production and transmission that created and preserved these letters for the modern reader. Following the introduction are the letters (with facing English translations), divided into four categories: private letters (1–60); public life and official correspondence (61–70); embedded letters (71–72); and epistolary theory (73–76). The commentary which follows the letters is primarily historical. The book concludes with a substantial, though by no means comprehensive, bibliography. The scope of the anthology is breathtaking, extending from the so-called "Berezan letter" of c. 500 B.C., scratched on a piece of lead and preserved in a rubbish pit, to an early fifth-century C.E. letter from Augustine to his future biographer Possidius on the problem of Christians who wear too much make-up and jewelry. The geographic range is equally impressive and includes examples from Asia Minor, Egypt, North Africa, Tomis, and the North of England, as well as Italy and Greece (a map may be found on ix).

Although this series is generally aimed at advanced undergraduate and beginning graduate students working through a Greek or Latin text, this book will, I think, have a slightly different audience (as perhaps intended by the unusual choice to include an English translation). It can certainly be used as a reader in an advanced undergraduate or graduate course on Graeco-Roman letter-writing, but demands strong competence in both Greek and Latin of all periods, epigraphic and literary. The commentary is extremely helpful for contextual information, but less so on matters of morphology and syntax. More likely, it will be adopted either in a course taught completely in translation or as a supplement to an author-based course.

One might question the choice to place Catiline's "letter" to Quintus Catulus, which is transmitted in Sallust's Catilina, in the "private letter" section rather than the "embedded letter" section (similarly, the letter exchange between Circe and Polyaenus from Petronius); or question why Trapp included only one New Testament letter (#39), and from John rather than the more influential apostle Paul. One might wish that the commentary offered more philological assistance to less experienced students. But these are mere quibbles. Trapp's anthology should be on the reading list of any course...