Scrinium Classical Antiquity

BURNETT, A.P., Catastrophe Survived. Euripides' Plays of Mixed Reversal. Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1971. VIII,234p. Cloth wrps. Gilt titled spine. A few pen annotations in index. Name and date on free endpaper. 'This stimulating book discusses seven plays of Euripides from a point of view which is carefully stated at the beginning and consistently maintained throughout. Professor Burnett explains that she is not here concerned with the 'verbal modes' of tragedy; nor with the 'physical modes' of the Attic theatre (...). She bases her interpretation of the plays on a study of Euripides' handling of conventions of a different kind - the 'limited set of matrix-plots' into which traditional story was broken up for the purposes of the tragic genre. (...) She sees the tragic poets as building their dramas out of suppliant plots, vengenance plots, willing-sacrifice plots, and the like, each with its characteristic scenes, tableaux, and characters. (...) but both Sophocles and Euripides 'showed a major preoccupation with devices that could introduce a covert multiplicity' into this artificial unity, and in so doing brought their plays closer to the complexities of real life. It was Euripides who carried this furthest, in works which are not to be regarded as mere 'happy ending plays', or 'tyche plays' or melodrama, but as 'dramas whose multiple plots revolve in both directions at once, mixing actions of catastrophe with others of favourable fortune'. In these plays of catastrophe survived, with rescue as their common symbolic action, human exertion is repeatedly shown to be 'blind and ineffective at best, sordid sometimes, and occasionally contemptible and cruel', in contrast with 'a devine pity and purpose that can, when it is ready, turn disaster into bliss.' This is the thesis of Mrs. Burnett's preface and first chapter. In the remaining chapters she applies it, with varying success, to the seven plays which she places in the category of 'mixed reversal'. (...) Most of this makes good and occasionally scintillating reading, full of insights which provoke fresh thought even where they do not command belief. (...) Nevertheless, this book is one of the most adventurous and interesting studies of Greek tragedy that have appeared in recent years.' (H.C. BALDRY in The Classical Review (New Series), 1974, pp.23-25). € 29.50 (Antiquarian)

BURNS, Th.S., Rome and the Barbarians, 100 B.C. - A.D. 400. John Hopkins University Press, Baltimore / London, 2003. XIV,461p. Original grey cloth with dust wrps. Initials stamp, date and personal library mark on free endpaper. 'B. treats 500 years of Roman interaction with northerners, from the day of the Cimbri and Teutones until the morrow of the Gothic influx. (...) The principles first: (i) the most abiding contacts between Romans and northerners were those occurring in the Roman army; and (ii) the interactions were not the result of massive intrusions of northerners into Roma territory. Borrowing from the Greeks, the romans called the northerners 'barbari'- savages, stammering brutes. The cultural animus behind such a term is evident, and thus B. keeps a distance from it. He prefers another Roman characterization, one which the supposedly speech-impaired roughnecks were disposed to accept. The northerners were clients, their patrons at first being individual (and distinguished) Romans and later the Roman state. The Roman government maintained treaty relations with a leader, the principal client, and by extension the people he ruled. Now, having set perceptions and principles in order (pp.1-41 (...), B, is ready to generate the two dramas. From Caesar's Rhineland campaigns until the aftermath of Julian's victory at Argentoratum, the mingling of Romans and their neighbors in Northern Frontierland produced a composite society (...). Meanwhile, the second and perhaps more chaotic drama was unfolding in the centers of roman power. In the time of the Roman Dominate, some of the habits and even the players from Northern Frontierland came to the top of Roman society. (...) In general, B. has presented a remarkably even-handed portrait of Roman-northern action and reaction, as portrait made effective especially by the novel distancing from the Roman conception of 'the barbarian'. (...) B. has written a useful book.' (FRANK M. CLOVER in The Classical Review (New Series), 2005, pp.258-60). € 37.50 (Antiquarian)

BURR THOMPSON, D. and R.E. GRISWOLD, Garden Lore of Ancient Athens. American School of Classical Studies at Athens, Princeton/New Jersey, 1963. ills. Wire stitched. Series: Picture book, 8. € 7.50 (Antiquarian)

BURROWS, R.M., The Discoveries in Crete and their bearing on the History of Ancient Civilization. John Murray, London, 1908. Reprint with addenda of ed.1907. XVIII,252p. ills. Folding plate. Cloth. Name on endpaper. Upper edge gilded. Gilt titling. Fore and lower edge as well as some pages bit foxed. € 16.00 (Antiquarian)

BURSIAN, G., Beiträge zur Kritik der Metamorphoses des Apuleius. Sitzungsberichte Akademie der Wissenschaften, Mu2nchen, 1881. pp.119-144. Rebound. Pages yellowed, with occasional stains and paper restaurations. € 10.00 (Antiquarian)

BURSTEIN, S. M., (ed. and transl.), The Hellenistic Age from the Battle of Ipsos to the Death of Kleopatra VII. Cambridge University Press, 1985. 196p. Paperback. Lower corner a bit bumped. Name and date on half title. Series: Translated Documents of Greece and Rome, 3. Greek and Roman history has largely been reconstructed from the works of Herodotus, Thucydides, Livy, Tacitus, and other major authors who are today well represented in English translations. But much equally valuable documentary material is buried in inscriptions and papyri and in the works of Greek and Roman grammarians and scholars, and less well known historians and literary figures, of whose writings only isolated quotations have been preserved. 'Translated Documents of Greece and Rome' has been planned to provide, above all, primary source material for the study of the classical world. It makes important historical documents available in English to scholars and students of classical history. The format of the translations is remarkable in attempting to reproduce faithfully the textual difficulties and uncertainties inherent in the documents, so that the reader without a knowledge of classical languages can assess the reliability of the various readings and interpretations. The author's purpose in compiling this book is to help the teaching of Hellenistic history at undergraduate and graduate level by providing students and teachers with a representative selection of accurately translated documents dealing with the political and social history of Greece and the Near and Middle East from c. 300 to c. 30 BC. The continuing vitality of the Greek cities in the Hellenistic period and the interaction of Greek and non-Greek cultures in the Near and Middle East after Alexander are the two themes to which the author pays particular attention. In accordance with the principles of this series, selections from readily available major authors such as Polybius and Plutarch have been excluded except where unavoidable. Instead the bulk of the selections have been drawn from papyrological and epigraphical sources, many of which have never been translated into English before. The texts include city decrees and regulations, royal letters and ordinances, records of embassies and judicial decisions, dedications, treaties, statue bases, and documents dealing with the establishment of festivals, dynastic and other religious cults, education and other endowments. Brief commentaries and bibliographical notes accompany each text. Students and teachers of ancient history and classical civilization will welcome this book. Those studying Jewish history and the historical background of early Christianity will also find it interesting. (Publisher's information). € 22.50 (Antiquarian)

BURTON, R., A Pilgrimage to Meccah and Medinah. Herbert Joseph, London, 1937. 1st ed. 357p. Original green embossed cloth. Spine gilt titled. Small personal library mark and signature from Prof. K.J. Dover on free endpaper. Series: Great Explorations, Vol.1. From the library of the late Sir Kenneth James Dover. € 20.00 (Antiquarian)

BURTON, R.W.B., Pindar's Pythian Odes. Essays in Interpretation. Oxford University Press, London (...), 1962. IX,202p. Cloth wrps. With signature from Prof. W.G. Arnott on free endpaper.This book devotes a chapter to each Pythian Ode, examining its structure and contents as a finished work. The poems are discussed in chronological order of composition, so that the development of Pindar's style and personality may be traced from youth to old age. Special attention is paid to his forms of expression, methods of composition and modes of thought. Although the book is meant to be read in close conjuction with the Greek text, it is not intended to replace a detailed commentary, textual and grammatical points being considered only where they are relevant to its main purpose, which is to interpret Pindar's meaning. (Publisher's information). From the library of the late Prof. W. Geoffrey Arnott. € 42.50 (Antiquarian)

BURTON, R.W.B., The Chorus in Sophocles' Tragedies. Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1980. IX,301p. Cloth wrps. Wrps a bit worn and partly discoloured. Personal summary from WGA loosely inserted. 'Burton treats each play of Sophocles in turn, subjecting the choral parts (both spoken and sung) to a close analysis, with his attention focused on no one feature to the exclusion of others. He sets each choral part into its dramatic context. He explains the structure and overall metrical form of each ode, and comments on noteworthy aspects of style, language, or thought. (…) He is a sound, sympathetic, and perceptive guide. (…) These blemishes (…) do little to detract from the excellence of this book.' (JAMES DIGGLE in The Classical Review, 1982, pp.12-14). From the library of the late Prof. W. Geoffrey Arnott. € 75.00 (Antiquarian)

BURY, E., (ed.), Tous vos gens à Latin. Le latin, langue savante, langue mondaine (XVIe - XVIIe siècles). Études réunies et éditées par E. Bury. Librairie Droz, Genève, 2005. 463p. Original red gilt titled cloth. Nice copy. A.o.: P. BOURGAIN: Réflezions médiévales sur les langues de savoir (pp.23-47); A. GRONDEUX: Le latin et les autres langues au Moyen Âge: contacts avec des locuteurs étrangers, bilinguisme, interprétation et traduction (800-1200) (pp.47-69); P. LARDET: Langues de savoirs et savoirs de langue: la refondation du latin dans le 'De causis linguae latinae de Jules-César Scaliger (1540) (pp.69-113); M. FURNO: De lérudit au pédagogue: prosopographie des auteurs de dictionnaires latins, XVIe-XVIIIe siècles (pp.147-177); J. ROYÉ: La littérature comique et la critique du latin au XVIIe siècle (pp.223-237)A. VANAUTGAERDEN: L'oeuvre 'latin' de Jean Froben, imprimeur d'Erasme (pp.309-331); Y. HASKELL: Bad taste in baroque Latin? Father Strozzi's Poem on Chocolate (pp.429-439); A. MICHEL: Le latin, les mots et les choses: Virgile, Eckhart, Edmond Jabès (pp.439-449). From the library of Prof. Carl Deroux. € 100.00 (Antiquarian)