The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Biography

by Koen De Temmerman (Editor)

Overview

Biography is one of the most widespread literary genres worldwide. Biographies and autobiographies of actors, politicians, Nobel Prize winners, and other famous figures have never been more prominent in book shops and publishers' catalogues. This Handbook offers a wide-ranging, multi-authored survey on biography in Antiquity from its earliest representatives to Late Antiquity. It aims to be a broad introduction and a reference tool on the one hand, and to move significantly beyond the state-of-the-art on the other. To this end, it addresses conceptual questions about this sprawling genre, offers both in-depth readings of key texts and diachronic studies, and deals with the reception of ancient biography across multiple eras up to the present day. In addition, it takes a wide approach to the concept of ancient biography by examining biographical depictions in different textual and visual media (epigraphy, sculpture, architecture) and by providing outlines of biographical developments in ancient and late antique cultures other than Graeco-Roman. Highly accessible, this book aims at a broad audience ranging from specialists to newcomers in the field. Chapters provide English translations of ancient (and modern) terminology and citations. In addition, all individual chapters are concluded by a section containing suggestions for further reading on their specific topic.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780191007521
Publisher:	OUP Oxford
Publication date:	12/10/2020
Series:	Oxford Handbooks
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	704
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Koen De Temmerman is a Professor of Classics and European Literature at Ghent University, Belgium. He is the author of Crafting Characters: Heroes and Heroines in the Ancient Greek Novel (OUP 2014) and the co-editor of Writing Biography in Greece and Rome: Narrative Technique and Fictionalization (Cambridge 2016, with K. Demoen) and Characterization in Ancient Greek Literature (Leiden 2018, with E. van Emde Boas).

Table of Contents

Part I. Introduction
1. Writing (About) Ancient Lives: Scholarship, Definitions and Concepts, Koen De Temmerman
2. What are Bioi/Vitae? Generic Self-Consciousness in Ancient Biography, Sean A. Adams
3. Individual and Collected Lives in Antiquity, Jeffrey Benecker
4. Popular Biography, Ioannis M. Konstantakos
5. Jewish Biography, Joseph Geiger
6. Christian Biography, Scott Fitzgerald Johnson
Part II. Reading Biographies
7. Fifth-Century Preliminaries, Christopher Pelling
8. Isocrates' Evagoras: The Educational Ends of the 'First' Biography in Classical Greece, Takis Poulakos
9. Xenophon of Athens, Noreen Humble
10. Ex uno fonte multi rivuli? Unity and Multiplicity in Hellenistic Biography, Tiziano Dorandi
11. Nepos' Life of Atticus, Nicolaus' Life of Caesar and the Genre of Political Biography in the Age of Augustus, Rex Stem
12. Biography and Praise in Trajanic Rome: Tacitus' Agricola and Pliny's Panegyricus, Christopher Whitton
13. Plutarch's Parallel Lives, Aristoula Georgiadou and Michele A. Lucchesi
14. Plutarch: Lives of the Caesars (Galba, Otho) and Lives of Aratus and Artaxerxes, Luc Van der Stockt
15. Types of Life-Writing in Suetonius' Lives of the Caesars and Illustrious Men, Dennis Pausch
16. The Alexander Romance, Corinne Jouanno
17. Lucian: Satirical and Idealising Lives (Peregrinus, Alexander, Demonax), Graham Anderson
18. The Biographer as Literary Artist: Form and Content in Philostratus' Apollonius, Adam Kemezis
19. Diogenes Laertius and Philosophical Lives, Stephen White
20. A Bishop's Biography: Eusebius of Caesarea and The Life of Constantine, James Corke-Webster
21. Augustine's Confessions as Autobiography, Michael Stuart Williams
22. Solitude and Biography in Jerome's Life of Hilarion, Jason K nig
Part III. Tracing Biographees
23. Homer, Suzanne Sa d
24. Statesmen, Jacqueline Klooster
25. Sophists, Kendra Eshleman
26. Philosophers, Graeme Miles
27. Holy Men: Wonderworkers, Apostles and Saints, Danny Praet
28. Martyrs, Koen De Temmerman and Danny Praet
29. Monks, Mark Edwards
Part IV. Cultures
30. Syriac, Muriel Debi
31. Coptic, Arietta Papaconstantinou
32. Armenian, S. Peter Cowe
33. Arabic, Faustina Doufikar-Aerts
Part V. Media
34. Biographical Monuments: Displaying Selves and Lives in Ancient Egypt, Elizabeth Frood
35. Engraved Lives: Biographical Material in Epigraphical Sources, Christof Schuler and Florian R. Forster
36. Depicted Lives: The Role of The Visual Arts in Sophistic Self-Representation, Zahra Newby
37. Triumphant Lives: Portraits, Statues and Triumphal Arches in Imperial Rome, Eric Varner
Part VI. Reception
38. Byzantium, Martin Hinterberger
39. The Medieval West, Lars Boje Mortensen
40. The Italian Renaissance, Thomas Hendrickson
41. The 17th and 18th Centuries, Enrica Zanin
42. After-Lives: Biographical Receptions of Greek and Roman Poets in the Long Twentieth Century, Nora Goldschmidt

Editorial Reviews

"This comprehensive volume offers an excellent background survey for all discussions of teh genre of the canonical Gospels and encourages a fresh appraisal of the often neglected late ancient Christian biographical tradition which, in all its variety has much to offer." — C. Stenschke, Ephemerides Theologicae Lovanienses

"This is a fine work and will be the standard point of reference on ancient 'biography' for decades." — John M. Rist, Augustiniana

From the Publisher