Critical Essays, Volume I: Ancient Orators. Lysias.
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Dionysius ong>ofong> Halicarnassus / Dionysius / Dionysius ong>ofong> Halicarnassus, ong>Ofong> Halicarnassus, PUBLISHER: Harvard University Press, Dionysius ong>ofong> Halicarnassus had migrated to Rome by 30 BCE, where he lived until his death some time after 8 BCE, writing his "Roman Antiquities" and teaching the art ong>ofong> rhetoric and literary composition. Dionysius's purpose, both in his own work and in his teaching, was to re-establish the classical Attic standards ong>ofong> purity, invention and taste in order to reassert the primacy ong>ofong> Greek as the literary language ong>ofong> the Mediterranean world. He advocated the minute study ong>ofong> the styles ong>ofong> the finest prose authors ong>ofong> the fifth and fourth century BCE, especiong>allong>y the Attic orators. His critical ong>essaysong> on these and on the historian Thucydides represent an important development from the somewhat mechanical techniques ong>ofong> rhetorical handbooks to a more sensitive criticism ong>ofong> individual authors. Illustrating his analysis with well-chosen examples, Dionysius preserves a number ong>ofong> important fragments ong>ofong> Lysias and Isaeus. The ong>essaysong> on those two orators and on Isocrates, Demosthenes and Thucydides comprise Volume I ong>ofong> this edition. Volume II contains three letters to his students; a short essay on the orator Dinarchus; and his finest work, the essay "On Literary Composition, " which combines rhetoric, grammar and criticism in a manner unique in ancient literature. The Loeb Classical Library also publishes a seven volume edition ong>ofong> "Roman Antiquities, " by Dionysius ong>ofong> Halicarnassus, a history from earliest times to 264 BCE.