The Cambridge History of Classical Literature ed. by E. J. Kenney, W.V. Clausen (review)

182 BOOK REVIEWS/COMPTES RENDUS ~ia;;ic:IE~i~;~tur::V vo~~:eU~:Np;~td~~). Th:hfL~:mRb:~~6i,c~iSr~Xd~~ and New York, Cambridge University Press, 1982. Pp. vi, 153. Paper (1983), U.S. $12.95. This part of the CHCL consists of the following sections: Predecessors, by E. J. ~y, 1-3; The New Direction in Poetry, by W. V. Clausen, 4-32; Lucretius, by A. Dalzell, 33-55; Cicero and the Relationship of Oratory to Literature, by L. P. Wilkinson, 56-93; Sallust, by F. R. D. Goodyear, 94-106; Caesar, by R. M. Ogilvie, 107-111; Prose and mime, by N. Horsfall, 112-120. There is also an Appendix of authors and works and a Metrical appendix. The former is extremely useful as a guide for further information, but there are no actual quotations regarding authors, as in Schanz-Hosius and Teuffel, and important references, perhaps inevitably but nonetheless regrettably, are missing from virtually every section. Almost as much space is devoted to poetry as to prose in the late Republ ic, a vast difference from the handbook of Rose (1936), for example, where there is a ratio of three to one in favor of prose, or that of Hadas (1952), which has a ratio of four to one. Multiple authorship blends together fairly well, although there is some overlap in the comments on the poetry of Cicero. Kenney introduces the volume with brief but perceptive remarks on early epigrammatists, Laevius and the enigmatic Cicero. The section by Clausen on the new direction in poetry (largely Catullus) was no doubt the most difficult to write and hence is the most conjectural, but this is the one area which above all needed updating in the light of recent scholarship. It is pleasing to find that it contains the text and translation of Callimachus' ideas on poetry as set out in the Aetia (I fr.1.21-28), which is a passage crucial to the understandingorlate Republ ican and Augustan poetry. Clausen also discusses Poem 64 of Catullus, the problems of Poem 1 and the libellus (in a revised version of his article in CP 71 [1976]), and comments on seven other poems, 51, 58, 36, 3;-:- 85, 109 on Lesbia, and 50 on Calvus. A paragraph on Poem 68 is found in the next volume under the heading of Love Elegy. Dalzell has written a good, interesting and in some ways novel account of the other dominant poet of the period, Lucretius. He comments on the background of the poet, his attitude to religio, the relationship between poet and philosopher and the artistry of the poem itsel f. Wilkinson comments on Cicero's attitude to culture, oratorical theory, verse, letters, speeches, dialogues, treatises and influence. This too is a successful discussion, especially with regard to his verse and letters. The chapters on the historians Caesar and Sallust are mainly factual with useful comments. They are, however, disproportionate. Surely Caesar merited more than four and a half pages, little more than a third of the space devoted to Sallust. It is also surprising to find Caesar listed after Sallust. BOOK REVIEWS/COMPTES RENDUS 183 The voluminous Varro has four and a half pages, Cornelius Nepos two and a half, probably more than he deserved, and the literary mime slightly over one page. This part of CHCL is a definite advance over previous handbooks in English"""a"nd certainly presents recent advances in scholarship, as it set out to do. The general reader may be hindered at times by insufficient references in the text and will find the section on Catullus and new poetry to be challenging. UNIVERSITY OF WESTERN ONTARIO NIGEL B. CROWTHER E. J. KENNEY, W. V. CLAUSEN (edd.). The Cambridge History of Classical Literature. Volume 2, Part 3: The Age of Augustus. London and New York, Cambridge University Press, 1982. Paper (1983), U.S. $12.95. ISBN 0-521-27373-0 The Age of Augustus consists of a general introduction to the age and its literature and 8 chapters describing that literature, both extant and lost. Because each author was left free to decide the scope and level of his article, some contributions are elementary...