Brill’s Companion to Valerius Flaccus is the first English-language survey on all key aspects of this Flavian poet and his epic
Argonautica (1st century CE). A team of international specialists offers both an account of the state of the art and new insights. Topics covered include textual transmission, language, poetic techniques, main themes, characters, relationship to intertexts and reception. This will be a standard point of departure for anyone interested in Valerius Flaccus or Flavian epic more generally.
Contributors are: Antony Augoustakis, Michael Barich, Neil Bernstein, Emma Buckley, Cristiano Castelletti, James Clauss, Robert Cowan, Peter Davis, Alain Deremetz, Attila Ferenczi, Marco Fucecchi, Randall Ganiban, Mark Heerink, Alison Keith, Helen Lovatt, Gesine Manuwald, Ruth Parkes, Tim Stover, Ruth Taylor-Briggs, and Andrew Zissos.
Mark Heerink is Associate Professor of Latin at the University of Amsterdam and VU University Amsterdam. He is the author of the forthcoming book
Echoing Hylas. A Study in Hellenistic and Roman Metapoetics, and has published articles on Hellenistic, Augustan and Flavian poetry.
Gesine Manuwald is Professor of Latin at University College London. Her research interests include Flavian epic, Roman drama, Cicero’s speeches and the reception of the classical world. She has published widely on Flavian epic and Valerius Flaccus in particular.
"Heerink and Manuwald’s volume provides not only a comprehensive and stimulating introduction to the Argonautica, but also an invaluable starting point for future research. As Valerian scholarship continues to grow, this companion showcases the excellent work currently being done and the different, fruitful, methods that they employ, offering new models for the evaluation of a belated work in the epic tradition. It attests to the richness of Valerius's poem: its generic and allusive interplay, incorporation of contemporary political and philosophical discourses, and impact on the literary tradition, both in the short term and at a remove." – Jessica R. Blum, in:
Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2015.03.42
Anyone interested in classical antiquity in general and Roman literature in particular. As the volume offers both a survey and original research pieces, it will benefit both scholars and advanced students.