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Oxford Classical Texts, also known as Scriptorum Classicorum Bibliotheca Oxoniensis, provide authoritative, clear, and reliable editions of ancient texts, with apparatus criticus on each page. In this revised critical edition of Caesar's account of his civil war against Pompey during 49-48 BC, Damon allows readers to get closer to the renowned author's original writings than ever before. Based on a new collation of the ancient manuscripts and on a stemma that permits the reconstruction of the archetype more frequently than has previously been possible, the text is suitable for classroom use in upper-level Latin classes, as well as for reading and research purposes.
A comprehensive English preface is followed by a conspectus editionum, which lists the 300+ places where modern editions of the text differ from each other, while the Latin text is complemented by an expanded and up-to-date critical apparatus. Also included are an appendix critica which allows readers to gauge the character of the manuscript witnesses to the text, and an appendix orthographica which explains the orthographical principles underlying the printed text. This Oxford Classical Text is also accompanied by a companion volume, Studies on the Text of Caesar's Bellum civile, which presents the detailed philological arguments underpinning this revised edition.
List of contents
- PREFACE
- I. History of the Text
- II. The Stemma
- III. The Witnesses
- A. The Archetype
- B. The Hyperarchetypes
- C. The Extant Manuscripts
- IV. Using this Edition
- V. Acknowledgements
- VI. Bibliography
- A. Editions Consulted
- B. Sources of Emendations
- C. Other Works Cited in the Preface
- VII. Conspectus editionum
- THE TEXT
- Liber I
- Liber II
- Liber III
- Appendix orthographica
- Appendix critica
- Index nominum
About the author
Cynthia Damon is Professor of Classical Studies at the University of Pennsylvania.
Summary
A revised critical edition of all three books of Caesar's Bellum civile, an account of his civil war against Pompey during 49-48 BC, based on a new collation of the ancient manuscripts and featuring an expanded and up-to-date critical apparatus.
Additional text
This excellent edition makes serious contributions to the reconstruction of the text, and its careful and deep reading of the text of BC and the close study of its textural tradition is accompanied by an insightful commentary on troublesome passages that brings to light the enormous complexity of a text that has been transmitted in such a deficient way, offering suggestive new proposals that will encourage reflection on the reading and interpretation of the work of Caesar.
Report
This excellent edition makes serious contributions to the reconstruction of the text, and its careful and deep reading of the text of BC and the close study of its textural tradition is accompanied by an insightful commentary on troublesome passages that brings to light the enormous complexity of a text that has been transmitted in such a deficient way, offering suggestive new proposals that will encourage reflection on the reading and interpretation of the work of Caesar. Antonio Moreno Hernández, Bryn Mawr Classical Review
