Catullus and the Traditions of Ancient Poetry (Sather Classical Lectures)

Sather Classical Lectures

by Arthur Leslie Wheeler

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1934.

304 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 1934

About the author

Wheeler was a leading critic of Latin poetry whose specialty, like that of his near-contemporary Kirby Flower Smith, was the Roman elegists. His work was marked by more than usual (even for his era) attention to precise scholarship and modest good sense, perhaps owing to his early interest in grammar, fostered by Edward Parmelee Morris. His impact on the study of Roman poetry was to set the elegists in the context of the history of their genres, with particular attention to their Greek forebears. In this regard, his Sather Lectures on Catullus' performance in his various genres are still of value. Though he did not have the range or depth of K. F. Smith, his solid and sensible approach influenced the subsequent work of his many students. Wheeler was an avid hiker and amateur sportsman in the best sense, leading him to contribute articles to Forest and Stream magazine.