Scrinium Classical Antiquity

WES, M.A., Das Ende des Kaisertums im Westen des Römischen Reichs. Staatsdrukkerij, Den Haag, 1967. 210p. Sewn. Theses. Diss. Rijksuniversiteit Leiden. Upper corner bit bumped. Series: Archeologische Studiën van het Nederlands Historisch Instituut te Rome, deel II. 'Every schoolboy knows that the Western Roman Empire came to an end with the deposition of Romulus Augustus by Odoacer in 476. Contemporaries of this epoch-making event were less sure about it. (...) Dr. Wes, in a book marked equally by widt of range and depth of penetration, re-examines the dossier of the case. (...) chronological arguments form the central core of Wes's book; as he points out himself, they depend in part on unproved hypothes. Around these problems of dating and attribution he has built up a detialed and well-argues picture of the changing political views of the various groups of the Roman aristocracy. (...) This is a fascinating and thought-provoking book. Not all Wes's propositions are equally convincing, But they all demand serious reconsideration. And they centre round a problem far more important than the relations of Marcellinus,Jordanes, Cassiodorus, and Symmachus - that of the beginning of the Middle Ages in Western Europe.' (ROBERT BROWNING in The Classical Review (New Series), 1968, pp.336-38). € 22.50 (Antiquarian)

FLUSSER, D., Das Essenische Abenteuer. Die jüdische Gemeinde vom Toten Meer. Auffälligkeiten bei Jesus, Paulus, Didache und Martin Buber. Geleitwort von C. Thoma. Cardun, Winterthur, n.d.(>1994). 161p. Sewn. Few pencil markings and underlinings. € 14.50 (Antiquarian)

HESS, R., Das etruskische Italien. Entdeckungsfahrten zu den Kunststätten und Nekropolen der Etrusker. DuMont, Köln, 1974. 2nd ed. 286p. ills. Paperback. Spine with slight reading traces. € 10.00 (Antiquarian)

WIKENHAUSER, A., Das Evangelium nach Johannes. Übersetzt und erklärt von A. Wikenhauser. Piustet, Regensburg, 1961. 3rd ed. 360p. Cloth. Signatures on free endpaper. Part of paper wrappers glued on paste-down endpaper. Series: Regensburger Neues Testament, 4. Band. € 25.00 (Antiquarian)

BERNSDORFF, H., Das Fragmentum Bucolicum Vindobonense (P. Vindob. Rainer 29801). Einleitung, Text und Kommentar. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen, 1999.177p. Sewn. Nice copy. Series: Hypomnemata, Heft 123. 'This is a welcome and useful book on an interesting text: the Vienna bucolic fragment (first published in 1932; also in Gow's Bucolici Graeci (Oxford, 1952), pp.168-70). It contains an introduction, text and translation, plates of the papyrus, commentary, bibliography, and various indices. In his introduction, B. offers helpful guidance concerning the reconstruction of the manuscript, the content of the poem, and the questions of genre and authorship. In the end, most of these problems prove insoluble, but B. succeeds in giving a skilful and sensible survey of the evidence and the options. (...) According to B.'s preferred hypothesis, the fragment comes from an epyllion by Bion. In his interpretative summary (pp.52-61), B. is less circumspect. His account is little short of a wholesale surrender to structuralist theories (and jargon). Instead of an inductively arranged synopsis paraphrasing the text, he presents a deductive application of predetermined principles. (...) The commentary (especially the introductory notes to individual passages) shows a much more discerning interest in the shape and composition of the poem.' (ARND KERKHECKER in The Classical Review (New Series), 2000, p.414). € 15.00 (Antiquarian)

ALFÖLDI, A., Das frühe Rom und die Latiner. Aus dem Englischen übersetzt von Fr. Kolb. Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt, 1977. XIX,604,XXIVp. ills.(B&W photographs). Map loosely inserted. Bound. 'This is one of the fullest surveys of the problems of early Rome to have appeared in recent years. (...) Alföldi's thesis is that Rome only became an independent sovereign state shortly before the battle of Lake Regillus (496 B.C.). In the earliest times, before a proper city had been built, the community of shepherd-warriors which was the Latin nucleus of the Roman people was 'governed by Alba Longa'. The evidence for this is Roman participation in the festival of Iuppiter Latiaris on the Alban mount and the legends which linked the foundation of Rome and Alba Longa. Later, when Alba Longa declined, Rome passed into the power of Lavinium, which took over the control of the Latin federation. (...) In arguing this thesis Alföldi dismisses most of the grandiose stories about Roman achievements under the kings as romanticizing inventions by Fabius Pictor, the first Roman historian. The same conclusion can be reached by observing how many of these stories are Greek stories in Roman guise. And Alföldi is clearly right in discounting the exaggerated claims made for Rome in her relations with other states. He is right too in reasserting with detailed argument, against Bloch, Gjerstad, and others, the traditional chronology of the Etruscan dynasty at Rome. But his own thesis is impossibly over-simplified. It is not established by the evidence which he adduces for it and it requires the ruthless but implausible elimination of much conflicting evidence. (...) Alföldi is the victim of an over-schematic theory. He believes in linear progress whereas history is very often a matter of fits and starts. What would do most to advance our knowledge of early Rome now is not the manipulation of texts but the location and excavation of the Temple of Diana on the Aventine and of the probable site of the earliest settlement at Ostia. '(R.M. OGILVIE on the original English publication in The Classical Review (New Series), 1966, pp.95-97). € 11.50 (Antiquarian)

ALFÖLDI, A., Das frühe Rom und die Latiner. Aus dem Englischen übersetzt von Fr. Kolb. Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt, 1977. XIX,604,XXIVp. ills.(B&W photographs). Map loosely inserted. Bound. Front cover partly discoloured. Edges a bit stained. 'This is one of the fullest surveys of the problems of early Rome to have appeared in recent years. (...) Alföldi's thesis is that Rome only became an independent sovereign state shortly before the battle of Lake Regillus (496 B.C.). In the earliest times, before a proper city had been built, the community of shepherd-warriors which was the Latin nucleus of the Roman people was 'governed by Alba Longa'. The evidence for this is Roman participation in the festival of Iuppiter Latiaris on the Alban mount and the legends which linked the foundation of Rome and Alba Longa. Later, when Alba Longa declined, Rome passed into the power of Lavinium, which took over the control of the Latin federation. (...) In arguing this thesis Alföldi dismisses most of the grandiose stories about Roman achievements under the kings as romanticizing inventions by Fabius Pictor, the first Roman historian. The same conclusion can be reached by observing how many of these stories are Greek stories in Roman guise. And Alföldi is clearly right in discounting the exaggerated claims made for Rome in her relations with other states. He is right too in reasserting with detailed argument, against Bloch, Gjerstad, and others, the traditional chronology of the Etruscan dynasty at Rome. But his own thesis is impossibly over-simplified. It is not established by the evidence which he adduces for it and it requires the ruthless but implausible elimination of much conflicting evidence. (...) Alföldi is the victim of an over-schematic theory. He believes in linear progress whereas history is very often a matter of fits and starts. What would do most to advance our knowledge of early Rome now is not the manipulation of texts but the location and excavation of the Temple of Diana on the Aventine and of the probable site of the earliest settlement at Ostia. '(R.M. OGILVIE on the original English publication in The Classical Review (New Series), 1966, pp.95-97). From the library of the late Professor Doktor Nikolaus Himmelmann. € 12.50 (Antiquarian)

KÄHLER, H., Das Fuenfsaeulendenkmal fuer die Tetrarchen auf dem Forum Romanum. Dumont Schauberg, Köln, 1964. 59,24p. Bound. Head spine damaged. Blind tooling ex libris. Series: Monumenta Artis Romanae, III. € 52.50 (Antiquarian)

WESTMAN, R., Das Futurpartizip als Ausdrucksmittel bei Seneca. Centraltryckeriet, Helsinki / Helsingfors, 1961. 238p. Sewn. Front cover slightly creased and with tiny tear to fore edge. Series: Societas Scientorum Fennica, Commentationes Humanarum Litterarum XXVII. 3. 'The varied range of meanings which the future participle developed when its stylistic possibilities were fully exploited by the writers of the Silver Age is well known, and the freedom with which Seneca used this part of speech had already been noticed, but Dr. Westman is the first to study Seneca's usage in detail and he has produced a lucid and scholarly work. (...) There are useful chapters dealing with the future infinitive, the use of the future participle with conjunctions, in conditional clauses and substantially; but the central and most important section of the book deals with the periphrastic conjugation and the appositional and attributive use of the participle. (...) The value of this study must lie in the detailed analysis of general categories of meaning and the interpretation which is provided for a large number of individual passages. (...) The acuteness and sensibility with which Westman distinguishes a shade of meaning should not be underestimated and he often enables to elicit a more precise significance that one could before. His presentation is lucid, and the reader is helped at every stage by a clear statement of the procedure and frequent recapitulation of the argument.' (L.D. REYNOLDS in The Classical Review (New Series), 1964, pp.111). € 22.50 (Antiquarian)

PLATO, Das Gastmahl oder Über die Liebe. Aus dem Griechischen übertragen von R. Johne. Einleitung von H. Seidel und K-D. Eichler. Dieterich, Leipzig, 1979. 130p. Cloth wrps. Series: Sammlung Dieterich, 368. € 13.50 (Antiquarian)