Athenaeus and his world: reading Greek culture in the Roman Empire.

JAMES, N. ; BRODIE, NEIL ; STODDART, SIMON 等

DAVID BRAUND & JOHN WlLKINS (ed.). Athenaeus and his world: reading Greek culture in the Roman Empire. xxii+625 pages, 13 plates. 2000. Exeter: University of Exeter Press; 0-85989-661-7 hardback 45 [pounds sterling].

Forty-seven authors from seven countries contribute to the encyclopaedia on Greek thought first published in French, English and Italian five years ago. They cover 62 topics grouped as philosophy, politics, the nature of knowledge, currents of thought, and major figures (19, in alphabetic order). The articles are very substantial but approachable, pithy and coherent. The book has been produced to suitable standards. It is outstanding value for the price. It is complemented by the six case studies in L'espace on ancient geographical descriptions in texts (including theatre) and maps, covering the Romans as well as the Greeks. The authors identify didactic and ideological effects as well as revealing the development of empirical description and explanation (compare the review of The first fossil hunters (pp. 239, below)). Turning back to Greek thought, it is surprising that the index lists just people, with themes and topics only appearing as sub-headings, but the book is organized clearly enough to lead one quickly to articles on `geography', for instance, or `images of the world'. J.E. RAVEN'S Gray Lectures at Cambridge (1976) are accompanied by his lecture to the Alpine Garden Society (1971), notes by Alice Lindsell (1937) and appreciations of both authors' work by the editor and three others, including Peter Warren. The book is specialized but fascinating and most attractively produced.

Athenaeus, who, in the late 2nd century AD, compiled a very large corpus of ancient literature which scholars have used extensively, has been too much taken for granted, considers Prof. BRAUND. The 41 papers on Athenaeus by scholars from a dozen countries, assess the history of his texts, his assumptions and methods, his uses of Homer, Plato and other Greek authors and his principles of taste and ethics. No doubt, he remains unoriginal but Athenaeus is shown here as all the more valuable an exponent of the `high culture' of his age.