Text & Literature

Plutarch’s Life of Nicias

A Commentary Frances B. Titchener

study of the literary technique, goals, and methods of plutarch’s life of nicias

Appointed against his will to spearhead the Athenians’ ill-fated invasion of Sicily in 415 bc, Nicias became entangled in a disaster that ultimately led his city to military defeat and humiliation. Historians have deliberated ever since over the role that Nicias, and especially his character and behaviour, played in this catastrophe. Five centuries later, Plutarch of Chaeronea, the author of moral essays and a series of twinned biographies known collectively as The Parallel Lives, entered this debate with his Life of Nicias. Drawing not only from historical sources like Thucydides but also from the works of philosophers, lyric poets, tragedians, comic playwrights, and many others, some of which writings are now lost, Plutarch wove a rich tapestry from the data available to him about Nicias’ career and times and created a new vision of the doomed general’s life-story. Titchener’s commentary analyses Plutarch’s use of these sources in the Life of Nicias, along with his literary technique, goals, and methods, and in the process sheds new light on the author and subject alike.

frances b. titchener is professor of history at Utah State University in Logan, Utah. € 55,00 / £48.00 isbn 978 90 5867 904 8 06/2012 16 x 24 cm Hardback 256 p. nur 635/683 Plutarchea Hypomnemata 5 English

Previously published in the series Plutarchea Hypomnemata • Virtues for the People. Aspects of Plutarchan Ethics

Geert Roskam, Luc Van der Stockt (eds) € 64,95 / £58.00, isbn 978 90 5867 858 4, May 2011, English • Plutarch’s Life of Alcibiades. Story, Text and Moralism

Simon Verdegem € 69,50 / £60.50, isbn 978 90 5867 760 0, January 2010, English • Plutarch’s Maxime cum principibus philosopho esse disserendum.

An Interpretation with Commentary

Geert Roskam € 49,50 / £44.00, isbn 978 90 5867 736 5, June 2009, English • A Commentary on Plutarch’s De latenter vivendo

Geert Roskam € 34,50 / £30.00, isbn 978 90 5867 603 0, September 2007, English

Scottish Latin Authors in Print up to 1700

A Short-Title List R. P. H. Green (Director), P. H. Burton and D. J. Ford

€59,50 / £52.00 isbn 978 90 5867 899 7 04/2012 16 x 24 cm Paperback ca. 400 p. nur 635 Supplementa Humanistica Lovaniensia 30 English the first-ever bibliography of scottish latin in print

The work of the Latin writers of Scotland has suffered a neglect which its variety, copiousness, and intrinsic interest do not deserve. Their importance, and the importance of Latin as a literary language, is beginning to be recognized by scholars. Researchers from the universities of Glasgow and St. Andrews have now prepared the first-ever bibliography of Scottish Latin in print – unique both in its focus on the many works written in Latin and in the way in which Scottish writers are specifically targeted. Covering the years c. 1480-1700, this new reference tool carefully catalogues the work of some 500 writers, in both prose and verse. Thousands of works are named in a clear and original format, with their titles not so truncated as to be obscure (as sometimes happens in English ‘short-title’ catalogues). The editors take advantage of recent research, and many poetic works hitherto unknown or ignored are referenced. This ground-breaking reference work will be essential not only for those who study the progress of humanism and the history and literature of early modern Scotland, but also for those engaged in various kinds of research into the events and ideas of continental Europe, with which Scotland was closely linked in many ways.

roger green is professor of humanities (emeritus) in the University of Glasgow. philip burton is reader in Latin and early Christian studies in the Institute of Archaeology and Antiquity, University of Birmingham. deborah ford has degrees in both classics and theology and teaches in Union Theological College, Belfast.

Visit www.lup.be for previously published publications in the series Supplementa Humanistica Lovaniensia.