It is almost a quarter of a century since this reviewer could observe that "Not another book on Philostratus!" was a cry unheard in Classical scholarship. Since then, one further general monograph by Alain Billault appeared in 2000. Now at last Bowie and Elsner have assembled a sixteen-strong team to take on this many-faceted author. The reasons that have deterred large-scale study are clear enough: the hitherto persistent problems of identifying the author among up to four Philostrati and the spread (...) of expertise necessary to face an author who can apply his sophistic talents to subjects as disparate as a Flavian holy man, the problems of third-century gymnastics, and the phenomenon he himself treacherously termed the Second Sophistic. The editors have rightly allowed their contributors to avoid the problem of attribution; safety in numbers provides the necessary spread of specializations. (shrink)

Claudian compares Eutropius in his consular robes to a monkey, dressed in silk to amuse dinner guests, but with his buttocks bare . The situation has not failed to attract the notice of scholars. Christiansen and Fargues called attention to the striking and original use of the monkey-simile . Alan Cameron has suggested that the present example is drawn from life: ‘Who can doubt that this was a typical dinner divertissement in the elegant circles of Claudian's day-or at least one (...) Claudian himself had witnessed?’ He cites E. R. Curtius's assertion that metaphorical apes are uncommon in ancient literature ; that may be relatively true, but when Demosthenes is entitled to address his opponent as similar licence in subsequent invective is unlimited. (shrink)