Virgil was the Greatest of Roman Poets. From Spenser and Shakespeare through to Tennyson and William Morris, his poetry has influenced the works of major writers throughout the ages. Dante chose Virgil as a guide through the hell and purgatory of his inferno; in the middle ages the Roman poet was regarded as a seer and a magician. His Aeneid served as the model for all the Latinepics of the medieval period and then for the new classical epic of the renaissance.It follows the mythical exploits of the hero Aeneas, who escapes from the burning rubble of Troy to become the founder of the Roman Empire. In this Patriotic masterpiece, the adventures of Aeneas take him across oceans, to mysterious lands and through the darkness of the underworld before the Gods eventually allow him peace.

The Aeneid (Everyman)

Literature & Fiction

Feeney, Denis

Stoneman, Richard

Sisson, C.H.

VIRGIL

Poetry

Everyman

The ancient Romans changed more than the map of the world when they conquered so much of it; they altered the way historical time itself is marked and understood. In this brilliant, erudite, and exhilarating book Denis Feeney investigates time and its contours as described by the ancient Romans, first as Rome positioned itself in relation to Greece and then as it exerted its influence as a major world power. Feeney welcomes the reader into a world where time was movable and changeable and where simply ascertaining a date required a complex and often contentious cultural narrative. In a style that is lucid, fluent, and graceful, he investigates the pertinent systems, including the Roman calendar (which is still our calendar) and its near perfect method of capturing the progress of natural time; the annual rhythm of consular government; the plotting of sacred time onto sacred space; the forging of chronological links to the past; and, above all, the experience of empire, by which the Romans meshed the city state’s concept of time with those of the foreigners they encountered to establish a new worldwide web of time. Because this web of time was Greek before the Romans transformed it, the book is also a remarkable study in the cross-cultural interaction between the Greek and Roman worlds. Feeney’s skillful deployment of specialist material is engaging and accessible and ranges from details of the time schemes used by Greeks and Romans to accommodate the Romans’ unprecedented rise to world dominance to an edifying discussion of the fixed axis of B.C./A.D., or B.C.E./C.E., and the supposedly objective dates” implied. He closely examines the most important of the ancient world’s time divisions, that between myth and history, and concludes by demonstrating the impact of the reformed calendar on the way the Romans conceived of time’s recurrence. Feeney’s achievement is nothing less than the reconstruction of the Roman conception of time, which has the additional effect of transforming the way the way the reader inhabits and experiences time.

Cæsar’s Calendar: Ancient Time and the Beginnings of History

History

Ancient Civilizations

University of California Press

The ancient Romans changed more than the map of the world when they conquered so much of it; they altered the way historical time itself is marked and understood. In this brilliant, erudite, and exhilarating book Denis Feeney investigates time and its contours as described by the ancient Romans, first as Rome positioned itself in relation to Greece and then as it exerted its influence as a major world power. Feeney welcomes the reader into a world where time was movable and changeable and where simply ascertaining a date required a complex and often contentious cultural narrative. In a style that is lucid, fluent, and graceful, he investigates the pertinent systems, including the Roman calendar (which is still our calendar) and its near perfect method of capturing the progress of natural time; the annual rhythm of consular government; the plotting of sacred time onto sacred space; the forging of chronological links to the past; and, above all, the experience of empire, by which the Romans meshed the city state’s concept of time with those of the foreigners they encountered to establish a new worldwide web of time. Because this web of time was Greek before the Romans transformed it, the book is also a remarkable study in the cross-cultural interaction between the Greek and Roman worlds. Feeney’s skillful deployment of specialist material is engaging and accessible and ranges from details of the time schemes used by Greeks and Romans to accommodate the Romans’ unprecedented rise to world dominance to an edifying discussion of the fixed axis of B.C./A.D., or B.C.E./C.E., and the supposedly objective “dates” implied. He closely examines the most important of the ancient world’s time divisions, that between myth and history, and concludes by demonstrating the impact of the reformed calendar on the way the Romans conceived of time’s recurrence. Feeney’s achievement is nothing less than the reconstruction of the Roman conception of time, which has the additional effect of transforming the way the way the reader inhabits and experiences time.

Cæsar's Calendar: Ancient Time and the Beginnings of History (Volume 65)

Literature and Religion at Rome: Cultures, Contexts, and Beliefs (Roman Literature and its Contexts)

This book exploits recent reevaluations of Roman religion in order to argue in favor of taking the religious dimensions of Roman literature seriously, as important cultural work in their own right. Instead of seeing Roman religious and literary activity as derivative and parasitic upon Greek originals, the book questions the romanticizing biases of classical studies, and argues for the power and creativity of the Romans in their engagements with Greek culture.

History & Criticism

Cambridge University Press

Religion & Spirituality

Virgil, Ovid, Cicero, Horace, and other authors of ancient Rome are so firmly established in the Western canon today that the birth of Latin literature seems inevitable. Yet, Denis Feeney boldly argues, the beginnings of Latin literature were anything but inevitable. The cultural flourishing that in time produced the Aeneid, the Metamorphoses, and other Latin classics was one of the strangest events in history.
Beyond Greek traces the emergence of Latin literature from 240 to 140 BCE, beginning with Roman stage productions of plays that represented the first translations of Greek literary texts into another language. From a modern perspective, translating foreign-language literature into the vernacular seems perfectly normal. But in an ancient Mediterranean world made up of many multilingual societies with no equivalent to the text-based literature of the Greeks, literary translation was unusual if not unprecedented. Feeney shows how it allowed Romans to systematically take over Greek forms of tragedy, comedy, and epic, making them their own and giving birth to what has become known as Latin literature.
The growth of Latin literature coincides with a period of dramatic change in Roman society. The powerful but geographically confined Roman city-state of 320 BCE had conquered all of Italy just fifty years later. By the time Rome became the unquestioned dominant power in the Mediterranean over the course of the next century, its citizens could boast of having a distinct vernacular literature, as well as a historical tradition and mythology, that put them in a unique relationship with Greek culture.

Beyond Greek: The Beginnings of Latin Literature

Harvard University Press

Review\n“A magisterial and innovative study of the beginnings of Latin literature. It is sure to get noticed, to provoke, and to rankle. It will be the standard, go-to book on the topic for many years to come. Feeney does not hold back.”―Kirk Freudenburg, Yale University\n“By putting Roman literature into a global context, Denis Feeney shows that the Romans, far from being cultural imitators, were actually the innovators of a new form of cultural transmission. This is the study of world literature at its finest.”―Martin Puchner, Harvard University\n“Beyond Greek is a string of revelations about how the Romans busied themselves building a new literature for their new position on the world stage. It takes all the familiar characterizations of ancient Roman literature―as parvenu, as derivative, as a series of ham-handed imitations of a superior culture―and turns them inside-out in some wonderfully thoughtful ways.”―Steve Donoghue, Open Letters Monthly\n“[Feeney’s] bold theme and vigorous writing render Beyond Greek of interest to anyone intrigued by the history and literature of the classical world.”―The Economist\n“Feeney is to be congratulated on his willingness to put Roman literary history in a big comparative context… It is a powerful testimony to the importance of Denis Feeney’s work that the old chestnuts of classical literary history―how the Romans got themselves Hellenized, and whether those jack-booted thugs felt anxiously belated or smugly domineering in their appropriation of Greek culture for their own purposes―feel fresh and urgent again.”―Emily Wilson, Times Literary Supplement\n“Manages to make strange an entire narrative of Western literature. It takes an origin myth accepted as logical, ‘the creation of a Roman literature on Greek models,’ and through its patient, stylish, precise investigation demonstrates how in fact this was ‘one of the strangest and most unlikely events in Mediterranean history,’ a phenomenon of pure contingency.”―Adam Thirlwell, Times Literary Supplement\n“Formidably learned, but at the same time an exceptionally good read…Feeney shows mid-third century BC Romans undertaking a deliberate project of refashioning their world within international cultural networks. In so doing, he illustrates the value of cultural openness and multilingualism and the role of ‘cultural brokers.’ Committed supporters of an international outlook will find much of relevance here.”―Christopher Smith, History Today\nA History Today Best Book of the Year 
A Choice Outstanding Academic Title of the Year\nVirgil, Ovid, Cicero, Horace, and other authors of ancient Rome are so firmly established in the Western canon today that the birth of Latin literature seems inevitable. Yet, Denis Feeney boldly argues, the beginnings of Latin literature were anything but inevitable. The cultural flourishing that in time produced the Aeneid, the Metamorphoses, and other Latin classics was one of the strangest events in history.\n“Feeney is to be congratulated on his willingness to put Roman literary history in a big comparative context… It is a powerful testimony to the importance of Denis Feeney’s work that the old chestnuts of classical literary history―how the Romans got themselves Hellenized, and whether those jack-booted thugs felt anxiously belated or smugly domineering in their appropriation of Greek culture for their own purposes―feel fresh and urgent again.” 
―Emily Wilson, Times Literary Supplement\n“[Feeney’s] bold theme and vigorous writing render Beyond Greek of interest to anyone intrigued by the history and literature of the classical world.” 
―The Economist

Explorations in Latin Literature: Volume 2, Elegy, Lyric and Other Topics

Denis Feeney is one of the most distinguished scholars of Latin literature and Roman culture in the world of the last half-century. These two volumes conveniently collect and present afresh all his major papers, covering a wide range of topics and interests. Ancient epic is a major focus, followed by Latin lyric, historiography and elegy. Ancient literary criticism and the technology of the book are recurrent themes. Many papers address the problems of literary responses to religion and ritual, with an interdisciplinary methodology drawing on comparative anthropology and religion. The transition from Republic to Empire and the emergence of the Augustan principate form the background to the majority of the papers, and the question of how literary texts are to be read in historical context is addressed throughout. All quotations from ancient and modern languages have now been translated and Stephen Hinds has contributed a foreword.

Explorations in Latin Literature: Volume 2, Elegy, Lyric and Other Topics (Explorations in Latin Literature, 2)

Explorations in Latin Literature

Explorations in Latin Literature: Volume 1, Epic, Historiography, Religion

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Feeney, Denis. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Feeney, Denis

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Feeney, Denis. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Aeneid (Everyman)

Cæsar’s Calendar: Ancient Time and the Beginnings of History

Cæsar's Calendar: Ancient Time and the Beginnings of History (Volume 65)

Literature and Religion at Rome: Cultures, Contexts, and Beliefs (Roman Literature and its Contexts)

Literature and Religion at Rome: Cultures, Contexts, and Beliefs (Roman Literature and its Contexts)

Beyond Greek: The Beginnings of Latin Literature

Beyond Greek: The Beginnings of Latin Literature

Explorations in Latin Literature: Volume 2, Elegy, Lyric and Other Topics (Explorations in Latin Literature, 2)

Explorations in Latin Literature: Volume 1, Epic, Historiography, Religion

Explorations in Latin Literature: Volume 2, Elegy, Lyric and Other Topics