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Reviewed by:
  • Vergil Aeneid 1, and: Vergil Aeneid 2, and: Vergil Aeneid 3
  • Keely Lake
Randall T. Ganiban, ed. Vergil Aeneid 1. Newburyport: Focus Publishing, 2008. Pp. 170. US $15.95. ISBN 9781585102259.
Randall T. Ganiban, ed. Vergil Aeneid 2. Newburyport: Focus Publishing, 2008. Pp. 170. US $15.95. ISBN 9781585102266.
Christine Perkell, ed. Vergil Aeneid 3. Newburyport: Focus Publishing, 2009. Pp. 180. US $15.95. ISBN 9781585102273.

Focus Publishing is releasing individual books of a new commentary of the Aeneid which will eventually be bound into two volumes (Books 1–6 and Books 7–12). Randall Ganiban, the series editor, says in his preface that this edition is intended for college students at the intermediate level or higher as a useful alternative to other editions aimed at the secondary level. As such, the commentary provides a generous amount of basic information while also addressing “issues of interpretation and style.” The series is based on the 1892 school edition of T. E. Page, with new notes and introductory material throughout, as well as supplementary material on Vergil’s meter and stylistic terms, both admirably useful. Each volume includes a bibliography or works cited section, a list of abbreviations, a vocabulary, and an index. While there are no macrons within the text, they are placed over long vowels in metrically ambiguous positions in the end vocabulary, an especially useful inclusion for those conscientious enough to spend time reading the Latin out loud as they study Vergil’s poetry.

All the volumes start out with the same introductory essay and then move on to a discussion of the specific book; the sections thus included are “Vergil’s lifetime and poetry,” “Vergil and his predecessors,” and “The Aeneid, Rome, and Augustus.” Students at any level today seem woefully reluctant to pay due attention to footnotes, and Ganiban’s essay is thick with them; the best one might hope is that students read the introductory essay and then go back to read the footnotes before moving on. The footnotes are so liberally provided in this section that they throw off the flow of an otherwise engaging piece. The generous use of secondary research in the introductory material may thus be somewhat intimidating [End Page 110] or even off-putting for the average student, but it is an invaluable refresher of the most important bibliography for the instructor and will be most useful as a resource for teachers at the secondary level as well, even if the text is not aimed at their students. A new AP teacher would want to pick up a copy of this edition, for instance, in order to get up to speed quickly with the appropriate secondary research, while a veteran teacher will appreciate having the material thus gathered and ready at hand.

As for the introductions to the individual books, the overall tone and quality does vary a bit between the first two volumes and the third. The discussion of furor vs. pietas-based heroism in the introduction to Book 1, for instance, is too short to do the topic justice, and perhaps this section could be expanded before the collected edition is produced. Ganiban also occasionally goes a bit far in emphasizing Vergil’s creative genius. Vergil was hardly the first author, for instance, to turn Odysseus into a “symbol of treachery” as he implies in his introduction to Book 2. The Greeks themselves understood his role as such, as is evidenced by Sophocles’ Philoctetes, to name but one example. While the end of the introduction of Book 2 seems generally choppy, the bibliographical list in that volume makes the text a wonderful part of the series.

Christine Perkell’s introduction to Aeneid 3 is particularly fine, living up well to the aim of providing scholarship for a college level audience. The secondary research is woven much more seamlessly into her piece, and her writing style is clear and very engaging. Her section on allusion in Book 3 could be used as a short supplementary essay even for high school students. There are other slight changes between the volumes by Ganiban and that by Perkell. Appendix A, “Vergil’s Meter,” has been slightly altered, and Appendix B has...

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