Eugene N. Lane (1936–2007)

For me, every scrap of writing that survives from the Classical era is precious. Reading through fragments such as those collected in this book is an active pleasure where one absorbs the text and reconstructs the dusty, tumultuous culture glimpsed between the lines: a piece on the interpretation of dreams illuminates the role of the Olympian gods in everyday life; a trial involving rival Christian factions in North Africa animates the perjuries and revelations of the Roman courthouse; a letter of the Emperor Julian captures the dying breath pagan culture.

The selections here do a wonderful job tracing the transitions of Late Antiquity and I can't imagine anyone with an interest in that time not finding something evocative and new in this excellent anthology.… (plus d'informations)

A quite complicated book. To begin with it seems to have been written by a Komnenian literary Gentleman, writing after 1120CE,and this is a relatively small component of the whole work. This translation covers the period from the reign of the emperor Alexander Severus (222CE) to the death of the emperor Theodosius I (395CE). This is not an extensive account of the period, and is embodied in Book XII, chapters 15-35, and Book XIII, chapters 1-19. The total work has eighteen books starting with the creation myth in Josephus' Antiquities, and ends with the reign of Alexis Komnenus in 1118CE. The manner has a great deal in common with a modern middle school textbook of world history. The value of the work is the number of holes in the received account of the period that are sketched in this selection. The notes often employ parallel column comparisons of other works to be compared to suggest further lines of enquiry by the student. The editor and translator have given us a useful tool for the training of other scholars in researching the period. The main text is entertaining, and does impart some idea of the scope of the rest of the Epitome. For the scholar the treasury is in the notes.… (plus d'informations)