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edited by Stratis Kyriakidis and Francesco De Martino, ottobre 2004, pp. 429, € 44,00

The middle of a work had its importance for the arts and literature of the ancient world. In Latin literature, modelled on the works of the Archaic, Classical and Hellenistic period of Greek litearture, the middle gains prominence as the literary locus where the dynamics of a work converge, or organise and/or reorganise themselves and where too, tensions are resolved or (re)formed. The middle of a poetic work becomes the conspicuous place where personal poetics resonate and the authorial presence is often evident. A turning point in this development is Ovid's Metamorphoses, in which, in a variety of ways, the poet deliberately subverts any metaliterary and authorial value the middle might have, as a means of indicating ceaseless and perpetual flux. The poets who follow either accentuate or undermine the function of this literary locus in their works. Whether projected or understated, the middle as a structural and literary feature retains its importance in the history of Latin literarture from Lucretius to Silius Italicus.

This volume is dedicated to the memory of Don Fowler, a scholar who enthusiastically embraced the efforts embodied in this present work, and who, with his insight, was able to see the significance of 'the middle' for the writing as well as the reading of a literary work.

Sommario: List of Contributors - 1. Stratis Kyriakidis and Francesco De Martino, Introduction - 2. Philip Hardie, Don Fowler and Middles - 3. Stratis Kyriakidis, Middles in Lucretius'DRN: The poet and his work - 4. Michael Paschalis, Middles in Catullus 64: The pivotal vestis - 5. Stephen Harrison, Lyric Middles: The Turn at centre in Horaces' Odes - 6. Robert Maltby, The wheel of Fortune, Nemesis and the central Poems of Tibullus I and II - 7. Richard Thomas, "Stuck in the Middle with You": Virgilian Middles - 8. Philip Hardie, Ovidian Middles - 9. Charles Tesoriero, The Middle of Lucan - 10. Niklas Holzberg, Illud Quod Medium Est: Middles in Martial - 12. Charles McNelis, Middle-March: Statius' Thebaid 7 and the Beginning of Battle Narrative - 13. Andrew Zissos, Terminal Middle: the Argonautica of Valerius Flaccus - 14. Ben Tipping, Middling Epic?: Silius Italicus' Punica - 15. Francesco De Martino, In itinere - Bibliography - Index nominum et rerum - Index locorum.

ISNN 1723-4891