Philodemus: On Poems, Book 1

The treatise On Poems by Philodemus, a Greek philosopher and poet who influenced the poets of Augustan Rome, is our main source for the literary theory of the Hellenistic Age. In Book 1, a major new addition to the corpus of classical literature, Philodemus summarises several previously unknown poetic theories. This is the first volume in a series of new texts and translations with commentary of the aesthetic works of Philodemus rescued from the lava of Vesuvius.