Latin Literature in Translation

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  1. Achilleid

    Statius
    Translated by Stanley Lombardo
    Introduction by Peter Heslin

    "One of the most entertaining short narratives of all time, the Achilleid is a stand-alone work of compelling contemporary interest that moves with great rapidity and clarity. Its compact narrative, which encompasses a brutish childhood, an overprotective mother, temporary gender bending, sexual violence, and a final coming to manhood with the promise of future military prowess, may be unparalleled in a single narrative of such brevity. . . . Until now, however, it has been virtually impossible to get a sense of the work if one did not know Latin—recent translations notwithstanding. Stanley Lombardo’s translation of the Achilleid is a dream: it’s sound, enthralling, and will fully engage readers with this enticing, perplexing, at times distressing, but ultimately rewarding work."
        —Marjorie Curry Woods, The University of Texas at Austin

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  2. Aeneid (Lombardo Edition)

    Virgil
    Translated by Stanley Lombardo
    Introduction by W. R. Johnson

    "Crisp, idiomatic, and precise, this is a translation for our era. The list of further reading, grounded in the writings of W.R. Johnson (who also wrote the Introduction) and Michael C. J. Putnam, suggests the context that informs the translation: here, as the translator says in the Preface, you will find an Aeneid that works more in the shadows than in the light. . . . This translation would be excellent for classroom use: not only would it incite fascinating discussions about issues of war and empire, but it also reads well aloud. . . . Together with Johnson's Introduction, this volume offers the Aeneid in terms that will resonate strongly with the general reader of today." —Sarah Spence, New England Classical Journal 

    "Adapting words of the ancient critic Longinus, [Lombardo] refers to the intense light of noon of the Iliad, the magical glow of the setting sun in the Odyssey, and the chiaroscuro of the Aeneid, a darkness visible. This latter phrase is the title of a famous interpretation of the Aeneid by W. R. Johnson, who contributes a splendid essay to the translation. Whether recited or read, the present volume stands as another fine performance on Lombardo's part. Summing up: Highly recommended." 
    —C. Fantazzi, CHOICE

    "Lombardo...tends to let Virgil be Virgil, and so avoids imposing unwarranted interpretation on the unwary reader. . . . [W.R. Johnson's] introduction is masterful and illuminating." —Hayden Pelliccia, The New York Review of Books

     

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  3. Aeneid, A Prose Translation

    Vergil
    Edited and Translated by Richard Caldwell

    An exciting prose translation of the epic poem, beautifully illustrated by Merle Mianelli Poulton, with all the right pedagogical apparatus to make reading this important work a joy for any modern college or high school student. The text is complete with notes, introductory essay, glossary, and an appendix detailing the tabulation of the gods.

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  4. Anthology of Classical Myth (Second Edition)

    Edited and Translated by Stephen M. Trzaskoma, R. Scott Smith, and Stephen Brunet, with an Appendix on Linear B Sources by Thomas G. Palaima

    This new edition of Anthology of Classical Myth offers selections from key Near Eastern texts—the Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh, Epic of Creation (Enuma Elish), and Atrahasis; the Hittite Song of Emergence; and the flood story from the book of Genesis—thereby enabling students to explore the many similarities between ancient Greek and Mesopotamian mythology and enhancing its reputation as the best and most complete collection of its kind. Click here to see the full Table of Contents (PDF) for Anthology of Classical Myth (Second Edition).

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  5. Apollodorus' Library and Hyginus' Fabulae

    Apollodorus & Hyginus
    Translated, with Introduction, by Stephen M. Trzaskoma & R. Scott Smith

    "To refer to this volume as just a translation is misleading, because Smith and Trzaskoma have provided much more, most notably the best short introduction to ancient mythography—and these particular authors—available in English. . . . The translations themselves are clear and accurate.  [An] admirable volume.  Smith and Trzaskoma are to be commended."
         —Kris Fletcher, Bryn Mawr Classical Review

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  6. Civil War

    Lucan
    Translated by Brian Walters
    Introduction by W.R. Johnson

    "Brian Walters has given us what too few translators of classical poetry do—an authorial presence. Here is Lucan himself in all his drastic modes—everything from his enraged indignation to his paradoxical aphorisms—recreating the ruptured Neronian world he lived in as he recounts the nefarious civil war that destroyed the Roman Republic."
         —Stanley Lombardo, University of Kansas

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  7. Confessions (Sheed, Second Edition)

    Augustine
    Translated by F. J. Sheed
    Introduction by Peter Brown, Notes by Michael Foley

    "This translation is already a classic. It is the translation that has guided three generations of students and readers into a renewed appreciation of the beauty and urgency of a masterpiece of Christian autobiography. This is largely because the translator has caught not only the meaning of Augustine’s Confessions, but a large measure of its poetry.  It makes the Latin sing in English as it did when it came from the pen of Augustine, some sixteen hundred years ago. Deeply rooted in the tradition of which Augustine was himself a principal founder, this translation is not only modern: it is a faithful echo, in a language that has carried throughout the ages, of its author’s original passion and disquiet."  —Peter Brown

    "To my ears, Sheed’s translation is the most beautiful English translation available. The same electric current that runs through Augustine’s original can be felt in this translation, which combines a slightly elevated style (more elevated in direct prayers) combined with the immediacy and transparency of a street preacher (not that different from Augustine’s own style). The latest edition includes an introduction by Peter Brown, the best biographer of Augustine, and notes and commentary by Michael Foley, a truly excellent reader of Augustine." —Jared Ortiz, Hope College, in Catholic World Report

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  8. Golden Prose in the Age of Augustus

    Paul Alessi

    Golden Prose in the Age of Augustus is an anthology containing fresh, accurate and readable translations of the seven great prose writers from the Augustan period and covers a broad range of prose writing with introduction, maps, chronology, glossary, bibliography and notes. 

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  9. Golden Verses: Poetry of the Augustan Age

    Paul Alessi

    An anthology containing fresh and rhythmic translations of the great poets from the Augustan period, Golden Verses covers a broad range of verse with introduction, maps, chronology, glossary, bibliography and notes. Alessi's text is designed specifically for the college market, providing students with access to the thought and context at the roots of our culture. Designed to be read in conjunction with major works of the Augustan Age—Ovid's Metamorphosis and Vergil's Aeneid.

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  10. Metamorphoses (Ambrose Edition)

    Ovid
    Translated, with Introduction and Notes, by Z. Philip Ambrose

    This complete verse translation of Ovid's classical work is illustrated with extensive notes, an index, and glossary. To help the reader contend with Ovid's frequent leaps both ahead and back in time, the principle episodes are listed at the beginning of each book and the subsections and digressions marked with indentations. Some footnotes also refer to mythological material Ovid has derived from Greek epic or drama or, occasionally, from later sources. Specific authors referred to in these notes are briefly identified in the index and glossary.

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  11. Metamorphoses (Lombardo Edition)

    Ovid
    Translated by Stanley Lombardo
    Introduction by W. R. Johnson

    "Stanley Lombardo successfully matches Ovid’s human drama, imaginative brio, and irresistible momentum; and Ralph Johnson’s superb Introduction to Ovid's 'narratological paradise' is a bonus to this new and vigorous translation that should not be missed. Together, Introduction and text bring out the delightful unpredictability of Ovid’s 'history of the world' down to his times."
         —Elaine Fantham, Giger Professor of Latin, Emerita, Princeton University

    "Lombardo’s translation is the most readable I’ve seen. . . . Its language is modern, accessible, and unpretentious. . . . I can imagine reading all the way through this version with students. I also admire the catalog of transformations . . . and, as usual, an Introduction by Ralph Johnson is worth the price of the book." —Margaret Musgrove, University of Central Oklahoma

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  12. Odes: With Carmen Saeculare

    Horace
    Translated by Stanley Lombardo
    Introduction and notes by Anthony Corbeill

    "Yet again, Stanley Lombardo has produced a superb translation, this time of the Odes of Horace. The greatest virtue of his translation is that he represents the stanzas of Horace's lyric stanzas with his own poetic version, closely hewing to the stanzas of the Horatian original. The translation, with the Latin text facing—the first time he has given us the original language in a translation from classical antiquity—will instantly become the go-to text for courses in translation and will also be a resource for anyone interested in Rome’s greatest lyric poet." —Richard F. Thomas, George Martin Lane Professor of the Classics, Harvard University

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  13. Plautus: Casina, Amphitryon, Captivi, & Pseudolus

    Plautus
    Edited and translated by David Christenson

    "Christenson has offered readers a useful and informative edition of four Plautine plays in neutral, accessible English that, unlike some recent Plautus translations, reaches out to a wide modern audience, both classicist and general, both in Anglophone countries and elsewhere in the world. Within the range of Plautus translations as currently available, this is certainly a most welcome contribution. Christenson's thematical focus on some of Plautus' more serious plays, in which he seems almost like a social critic, is interesting and provides food for thought."
          —Vincent Hunink, in Bryn Mawr Classical Review

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  14. Roman Comedy: Five Plays by Plautus and Terence

    Plautus & Terence
    Edited and Translated, with Introduction and notes, by David Christenson

    This anthology contains English translations of five plays by two of the best practitioners of Roman comedy, Plautus and Terence. The plays MenaechmiRudensTruculentusAdelphoe, and Eunuchus, provide an introduction to the world of Roman comedy. As with all Focus translations, the emphasis is on a handsomely produced, inexpensive, readable edition that is close to the original, with an extensive introduction, notes and appendices.

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  15. Roman Sports and Spectacles

    Anne Mahoney

    Roman Sports and Spectacles: A Sourcebook contains numerous translations from the Latin, including famous authors, such as Cicero, Seneca, Tertullian and Augustine, and the not so famous, including graffiti, advertisements and tombstones to paint a world view of what sports Romans played and what they thought of them. The world of Roman sports was similar in many ways to our own, but there were significant differences. For one thing Roman sports centered during religious festivals and the participants were most often slaves. Roman sports were not team sports, but individual competitions. And sports like chariot racing and gladiatorial competitions were very dangerous. Each document includes an introduction to the source material.

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  16. Terence: Brothers

    Terence
    Edited and Translated by Charles Mercier

    This is an English translation of Terence's Roman comedy that deals with questions of perennial interest: "How best to raise children?" and "How to give self-disinterested moral advice?"

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  17. The Essential Aeneid

    Virgil
    Translated and Abridged by Stanley Lombardo
    Introduction by W. R. Johnson

    Stanley Lombardo's deft abridgment of his 2005 translation of the Aeneid preserves the arc and weight of Virgil's epic by presenting major books in their entirety and abridged books in extended passages seamlessly fitted together with narrative bridges. W. R. Johnson's Introduction, a shortened version of his masterly Introduction to that translation, will be welcomed by both beginning and seasoned students of the Aeneid, and by students of Roman history, classical mythology, and Western civilization.

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  18. The Golden Ass

    Apuleius
    Translated, with Introduction, by Joel C. Relihan

    "This is easily the best English translation of The Golden Ass. I find that undergraduates with little or no knowledge of classical literature or the Greco-Roman world can readily read and enjoy it—as accessible as Graves or Ruden, but much more true to Apuleius's text and sensibility. Relihan's introduction is a great distillation of scholarly commentary—superb in all aspects." —Robin Walz, University of Alaska Southeast

    "Relihan is an American Euphues. I like everything about this edition from the title page to the index. The translation is magnificent." —Stanley Lombardo, University of Kansas

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  19. The Letters and Other Writings

    Abelard & Heloise
    Translated, with Introduction and Notes, by William Levitan
    Selected Songs and Poems Translated by Stanley Lombardo and by Barbara Thorburn

    The most comprehensive compilation of the works of Abelard and Heloise ever presented in a single volume in English, The Letters and Other Writings features an accurate and stylistically faithful new translation of both The Calamities of Peter Abelard and the remarkable letters it sparked between the ill-fated twelfth-century philosopher and his brilliant former student and lover—an exchange whose intellectual passion, formal virtuosity, and psychological drama distinguish it as one of the most extraordinary correspondences in European history. Thanks to this edition, Latin-less readers will be better placed than ever to see why this undisputed milestone in the intellectual life of medieval France is also a masterpiece of Western literature.

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  20. The Tale of Cupid and Psyche

    Apuleius
    Translated, with Introduction, by Joel C. Relihan

    "Joel Relihan's playful and exuberant translation of Apuleius' Golden Ass has already won admiration for its ability to give an English-reading audience some sense of what it's like to experience this often astonishing writer in the original Latin. By presenting The Tale of Cupid and Psyche with its narrative frame and by supplementing it with key passages from other writers, he here provides the reader with the materials needed for an informed and complex engagement with this text; his carefully nuanced 'Afterthoughts' enrich that process further. This volume will appeal to anyone with interests in myth, religion, and folklore, and will surely find its place in a wide range of courses."
         —James B. Rives, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

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