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The commentaries in the Oxford Greek and Latin College Commentaries series are designed for students in intermediate or advanced Greek or Latin at colleges and universities. Each volume includes, on facing pages, the ancient text, a running vocabulary, and succinct notes focusing on grammar and syntax, distinctive features of style, and essential context.
About the author
Christopher Brunelle has published articles on Ovid (including a chapter in Gendered Dynamics in Latin Love Poetry) and on teaching, along with a number of book reviews; he is joint author of Latin Laughs, a video and workbook on Plautus' Poenulus. He recently completed a commentary for Oxford University Press on Book 3 of the Ars amatoria.
Having studied with Fr. Reginald Foster in Rome, Brunelle is a fluent speaker of Latin and a composer of Latin poems, inscriptions, and documents. He taught for four years (three of them as a Mellon Fellow) at Vanderbilt University and a year at Gustavus Adolphus College before coming to St. Olaf. He is President of the Classical Association of Minnesota and a member of the Development Committee of the American Philological Association.
Summary
The commentaries in the Oxford Greek and Latin College Commentaries series are designed for students in intermediate or advanced Greek or Latin at colleges and universities. Each volume includes, on facing pages, the ancient text, a running vocabulary, and succinct notes focusing on grammar and syntax, distinctive features of style, and essential context. The Greek and Latin texts are based on the most recent Oxford Classical Text (OCT) editions whenever available; otherwise, other authoritative editions are used. Each volume features a comprehensive introduction intended to enhance utility in the classroom and student appreciation of the work at hand.
The series focuses on texts and authors frequently taught at the intermediate or advanced undergraduate levels, but also makes available some central works currently lacking an appropriate commentary. The primary purpose of this series is to offer streamlined commentaries that are up-to-date, user-friendly, and affordable. Each volume presents entire works or substantial selections which can form the basis for an entire semester's coursework. Each commentary's close attention to grammar and syntax is intended to address the needs of readers encountering a work or author for the first time.
In Ars amatoria, Book Three, the last and longest book of his guide to seduction, Ovid claims to teach women how to find, catch, and keep a male lover. The Ars itself is one of the brightest gems of Roman literature, and Book 3 is the most eye-catching of all. The text offers generous helpings of Ovidian wit and absurdity as well as a smorgasbord of references to Roman culture and society: architecture, theatres, gladiatorial spectacles, temples, baths, men's and women's clothing, hairstyles, cosmetics, music, poetry-reading, letter-writing, games, slavery, parties, sexuality, and sex. In short, there is nothing quite like it in ancient literature, and no other work opens the same sort of window onto Augustan culture. Ars amatoria, Book Three helps us see ancient Rome in a new light.
Additional text
Ovid's poem of erotic instruction addressed to the women of Rome is among his most significant and entertaining works, but its wide vocabulary and elegantly compressed syntax make it a challenging read. Christopher Brunelle's witty, illuminating, and concise commentary makes the text quickly accessible on every level, and provides constant stimulation while aiding comprehension.
