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Lee Fratantuono’s recent Bloomsbury edition of Book XVI of Tacitus’ Annals is a very good choice for undergraduate or graduate students studying this text in the original Latin for the first time. This edition demonstrates considerable scholarly erudition without getting bogged down. Fratantuono’s commentary elucidates Tacitus’ difficult grammatical constructions without providing excessive translation assistance for Latin students, and he discusses many textual quandaries … Fratantuono’s edition makes a strong and accessible contribution to the Tacitean scholarship on Book XVI of the Annals.
Lee Fratantuono’s recent Bloomsbury edition of Book XVI of Tacitus’ Annals is a very good choice for undergraduate or graduate students studying this text in the original Latin for the first time. This edition demonstrates considerable scholarly erudition without getting bogged down. Fratantuono’s commentary elucidates Tacitus’ difficult grammatical constructions without providing excessive translation assistance for Latin students, and he discusses many textual quandaries … Fratantuono’s edition makes a strong and accessible contribution to the Tacitean scholarship on Book XVI of the Annals.
This handy guide to book XVI of the Annals offers easier access to a difficult but important author of the Silver Age and of Roman historiography through copious lexical, textual, and grammatical notes, and by providing a rich bibliography that encourages further curiosity about Tacitean studies … Fratantuono’s reminders in his introduction and throughout the commentary of how Tacitus’ text incorporates epic flavor or relates to the works of Virgil or Lucan, for example, make this a particularly interesting and fun commentary to read.
Fratantuono writes with verve and enthusiasm. His brief general introduction to the author and his times is as good as any I have read.
The 35 extant chapters of Annals XVI come alive in this new commentary. Fratantuono’s energetic and insightful guidance makes the text accessible to students new to Tacitus, while providing ample resources for the more advanced scholar.
With its convenient format, its concise and clear style, the occasional wit, and the rigorous scholarship, this commentary promises to become one of the best available tools in rendering Tacitus more accessible to intermediate and advanced students.
Lee Fratantuono is Professor of Classics and William Francis Whitlock Professor of Latin at Ohio Wesleyan University, USA. His books include editions of Virgil, Aeneid 5 (2015), Ovid Metamorphoses X (Bloomsbury, 2014) and A Commentary on Virgil, Aeneid XI (2009).