Storia della Filosofia Romana -- T. B. Trapp (Corpus Christi, Lit. Hum. Oxon).

Speranza

Drawing on unusually broad range of sources for this study of Imperial period philosophical thought, M. B. Trapp examines:

-- the central issues of personal morality, political theory, and social organization

--  philosophy as the pursuit of self-improvement and happiness

-- the conceptualization and management of emotion

-- attitudes and obligations to others

-- ideas of the self and personhood

-- constitutional theory and the rules

-- the constituents and working of the good community.

Texts and thinkers discussed range from

Alexander of Aphrodisias
Aspasius and Alcinous
via Hierocles
Seneca
Musonius
Epictetus
Plutarch
Diogenes of Oenoanda,
Dio Chrysostom,
Apuleius,
Lucian,
Maximus of Tyre,
Pythagorean pseudepigrapha,
The Tablet of Cebes.

The distinctive doctrines of the individual philosophical schools are outlined, but also the range of choice that collectively they presented to the potential philosophical 'convert', and the contexts in which that choice was encountered.

Trapp turns his
attention to the status of philosophy
itself as

 

"an element of the élite culture of the period"

and to the ways in which philosophical values may have posed a threat to other prevalent schemes of value.

Trapp argues that the idea of 'philosophical opposition', though useful, needs to be substantially modified and extended.

Contents:

  Preface;

Ethics -- MORALIA, philosophy and philosophia

Perfection and progress -- perfectio

The passions -- passio

Self, person and individual -- ego, persona, individuum

Self and others  -- ego et tu

Politics -- politica

Constitutions and the ruler -- constitutio

Good communities --

Philosophia in politics and the community

Philosophia and the mainstream

Appendix
BibliographyIndexes.

M. B. Trapp teaches at King's College London, UK.

He has previously published an edition and a translation of the Discourses of Maximus of Tyre, and a wide range of papers on the philosophy and philosphical literature of the Roman Imperial period.

His most recent works are  Latin Letters. An Anthology (CUP, 2003), and two volumes of edited papers on Socrates

An up-to-date, concise, nuanced analysis of the philosophical literature of the period…this book offers clear writing, anglicized transliterations, and a bio-bibliographic appendix that make it accessible…Highly recommended.’ Choice

‘Trapp's study of ethical thought in the continuations of the Roman schools and derivative contexts provides us with a reference work of lasting value – and much food for further thought’ Aestimation

‘This is the most stimulating and welcome book, taking, as it does, a synoptic view of the general thrust of philosophical discourse in the period of the Roman Empire.

All in all, a most refreshing and stimulating study, placing the philosophos securely in the society which he inhabited.’ Sehepunkte

‘[Trapp] has written a most readable and challenging guide to a complex and burgeoning period in the history of ancient philosophy…’

"Journal of Ancient Roman Studies"