“The new Vergil commentaries from Focus are an exciting resource for almost anyone reading the Aeneid in Latin. . . . The editors recognize that developing core reading skills and involving students in the interpretive questions raised by the poem are not separate objectives. This recognition has resulted in commentaries that enticingly present basic information in a wider setting of observation and enquiry. . . . All in all, the Focus series balances simplicity and subtlety, reminding students at all levels that increasing technical precision and stretching one’s interpretive curiosity are—fundamentally—one endeavor.”
– Antonia Syson, Purdue University [Teaching Classical Languages (CAMWS) Volume 1.1, Fall 2012]
http://tcl.camws.org/view.php?file=fall2012/Syson.pdf
— Antonia Syson ― Teaching Classical Languages, Fall 2012, p. 52 Published On: 2013-01-08
About the Author
General Editor:
Randall T. Ganiban is Professor of Classics at Middlebury College in Vermont. He has taught there since 1996 and specializes in Roman epic.
Contributing Editors:
Joseph Farrell is Professor of Classical Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. He has authored and edited numerous books on Vergil and Latin language and culture.
Patricia A. Johnston has been teaching Latin, Greek, and classical mythology at Brandeis University since 1975. She is past president of the Vergilian Society.
James O’Hara is the George L. Paddison Professor of Latin at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is the author of several books on Vergil and Roman epic.
Christine Perkell is Professor of Classics at Emory University. She has published numerous works on reading Vergil, various aspects of Vergil’s poetics, and of lamentation in epic poetry.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Preface
This book is the first of a two-volume edition of Vergil’s Aeneid that has been tailored especially for use in advanced (i.e. third year and beyond) Latin courses in American colleges and universities. It has been written with the belief that contemporary students at this level need a new kind of commentary. Since so many students now begin Latin in college, they approach Vergil with an interest in interpretation, developed through years of high school and college literature coursework, that easily exceeds their ability in translation. A commentary ideally suited to them will, therefore, not only provide good assistance with the complexities of Vergil’s Latin, but will also elucidate the stylistic and interpretive issues that enhance and sustain readers’ appreciation of the Aeneid. The present commentary aims to fulfill these needs by combining grammatical and syntactic aid in translation along with discussion of interpretive and stylistic issues that reflect the contemporary and lively critical study of the epic. It is therefore an edition not so much for advanced readers of Vergil (the Oxford, Cambridge, and Brill editions will provide fuller and more scholarly discussions) as it is for advanced college Latin classes — that is, for fifth-semester Latin students and beyond.
This volume is a collaborative effort that takes as its starting point the still valuable school edition of Aeneid 1-6 by T. E. Page (1894). Page’s notes have been pared down, revised, updated, or omitted, while interpretive material as well as a wide variety of other information has also been included — all according to the judgment and preferences of each editor. In addition, the book commentaries include a general introduction, shorter introductions to the major sections of the given book, and brief introductions to smaller passages (where needed); major bibliography has been added throughout. A general introduction to the entire volume sets forth the literary, cultural, political and historical background necessary to interpret and understand Vergil (with relevant bibliography for further study). The appendix on meter explains Vergil’s creative mastery of the dactylic hexameter, and the glossary on rhetorical, syntactic and grammatical terms will aid students in identifying and discussing the characteristic elements of Vergil’s style.
Finally, this commentary is part of a larger project being produced by Focus Publishing that also includes editions of individual books of the Aeneid that suit the needs of intermediate Latin students (i.e. third semester and beyond). The commentaries in this present edition represent, in effect, somewhat shorter versions of those in the intermediate editions — with fewer of the more basic comments on grammar, syntax, and translation, and without a general vocabulary for each book.
Randall Ganiban
General Editor
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