Review of Stephen Green (ed.), Grattius: Hunting an Augustan Poet (Oxford 2018), in Classical World 113.1 (2019). (original) (raw)

Grattius and Augustus: Hunting for an Emperor

Grattius: Hunting an Augustan Poet, 2018

This paper focuses on the poem’s potential for political resonance. It argues that the craft of hunting is, through extensive use of anthropomorphic language, subtly configured to promote Augustan-style leadership and to celebrate the Roman empire, albeit set within a divine framework that plays out the implications of Augustus’ (at times radical) programme of religious reform.

Peter Habermehl, Petronius, Satyrica 79-141. Ein philologisch-literarischer Kommentar. Bd. 2: Sat. 111-118, Texte und Kommentare 27.2 (Berlin-Boston: De Gruyter, 2020), Exemplaria Classica 25 (2021), pp. 391-398

Exemplaria Classica, 2021

There has been a long interval between the publication of the first and the second volume of the commentary by Peter Habermehl (hereafter PH) on the latter half of Petronius’ novel (i.e. the chapters subsequent to the Cena Trimalchionis). The first volume appeared in 2006 and the author’s original intention was to finalise his project in two instalments only, and to skip chapters 119-24.1 (the Bellum Civile). By now, however, the commentary has grown considerably: the current volume covers no more than eight chapters (instead of twenty-six, if we do not count Eumolpus’ poem), PH has changed his mind about the omission of the Bellum Civile, and it is likely that the commentary as a whole will consist of four volumes totalling at least some 1700 pages. Thus we are dealing here with a huge enterprise which, nowadays, is usually tackled by a team of scholars; PH himself (p. IX) refers to the Groningen Apuleius project (1977-2015, nine volumes). If, on the other hand, we are looking for an individual scholar’s work of comparable size and character, we may recall the commentary on Tacitus’ Annals by Erich Koestermann (1963-1968, four volumes), that on Thucydides by Simon Hornblower (1991-2008, three volumes) or that on Livy’s Books 6-10 by S.P. Oakley (1997-2005, four volumes).