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 "Romong>anong> ong>Anong>tiquities" ong>anong>d teaching the art ong>ofong> rhetoric ong>anong>d literary composition. Dionysius's purpose, both in his own work ong>anong>d in his teaching, was to re-establish the classical Attic stong>anong>dards ong>ofong> purity, invention ong>anong>d taste in order to reassert the primacy ong>ofong> Greek as the literary long>anong>guage ong>ofong> the Mediterrong>anong>eong>anong> world. He advocated the minute study ong>ofong> the styles ong>ofong> the finest prose authors ong>ofong> the fifth ong>anong>d fourth century BCE, especially the Attic orators. His critical ong>essayong>s on these ong>anong>d on the historiong>anong> Thucydides represent ong>anong> importong>anong>t development from the somewhat mechong>anong>ical techniques ong>ofong> rhetorical hong>anong>dbooks to a more sensitive criticism ong>ofong> individual authors. Illustrating his ong>anong>alysis with well-chosen examples, Dionysius preserves a number ong>ofong> importong>anong>t fragments ong>ofong> Lysias ong>anong>d Isaeus. The ong>essayong>s on those two orators ong>anong>d on Isocrates, Demosthenes ong>anong>d Thucydides comprise Volume I ong>ofong> this edition. Volume II contains three letters to his students; a short ong>essayong> on the orator Dinarchus; ong>anong>d his finest work, the ong>essayong> "On Literary Composition, " which combines rhetoric, grammar ong>anong>d criticism in a mong>anong>ner unique in ong>anong>cient literature. The Loeb Classical Library also publishes a seven volume edition ong>ofong> "Romong>anong> ong>Anong>tiquities, " by Dionysius ong>ofong> Halicarnassus, a history from earliest times to 264 BCE.