Thucydides: Man's Place in History

Stahl's classic book on Thucydides is one of the most profound and widely respected modern studies of the Athenian historian. Published in German in 1966 as Thukydides: Die Stellung des Menschen im geschichtlichen Prozess , it has not been available in English until now. For this new edition, the original has been revised and enlarged by two chapters which reflect the author's subsequent work. Stahl's achievement is, first, to free Thucydides from the nationalist limits which modern interpreters imposed, then to demonstrate the technique whereby Thucydides constructs his work as an interplay, using narrative to comment on the speeches of politicians, to confirm or, more often, to refute his speakers' analysis.

Biographies & Memoirs

Hans-Peter Stahl

Historical

Classical Press of Wales

A collection of 14 papers in which contributors use diverging critical methods on a selection of extracts from Vergil's epic, with the examination of political references in the work being prominent, as well as the question of the Aeneid 's central meaning. Contents include: Vergil announcing the Aeneid. On Geo. 3.1-48 ( Egil Kraggerud ); The Peopling of the Underworld ( Anton Powell ); Vergil as a Republican ( Eckard Lefevre ); The Sword-Belt of Pallas: Moral Symbolism and Political Ideology ( Stephen Harrison );The Isolation of Turnus ( Richard F. Thomas ) and The End and the Meaning ( David West ).

Vergil's Aeneid: Augustan Epic and Political Context

Literature & Fiction

History & Criticism

In recent decades, international research on Virgil has been marked, if not dominated, by the ideas of the 'Harvard school' and similar trends, according to which the poet was engaged in an elaborate work of subtle subversion, directed against the new ruler of the Roman world, Octavian-Augustus. Much of Virgil's oeuvre consists prima facie of eulogy of the ruler, and of emphatic prediction of his enduring success: this is explained by numerous modern critics as generic convention, or as studied ambiguity, or as irony.This paradoxical position, which runs against ancient - as well as much modern - interpretation of the poet, continues to create widespread unease. Stahl's new monograph is the most thorough study so far to question modern Virgilian criticism on philological grounds. He bases himself on the internal logic and rhetoric of the Aeneid, and considers also political, historical, archaeological and philosophical subjects addressed by the poem. He finds that the poet has so presented the morality of his central figure, Augustus' supposed ancestor Aeneas, and of those who (eventually) clash with him, Turnus and Dido, as to make it certain that Roman readers and hearers of the poem were meant to conclude in Aeneas' favour. Virgil's intention emerges from Stahl's thorough, ingenious and original argumentation as decisively pro-Augustan. Stahl's work, in short, will not only enliven debate on current critical hypotheses but for many will enduringly affect their credibility.

Poetry Underpinning Power: Vergil's Aeneid: The Epic for Emperor Augustus

The Classical Press of Wales

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Books by Hans-Peter Stahl