The book under review appears as a result of a Symposium Cumanum, organised by Gellar-Goad and Polt in 2018, under the compelling title ‘Rerum cognoscere causas: Learning in the Late Republic and Augustan Age’. As the editors state in the introduction, they gathered ten of the papers presented (readers may find some themes surprising) to enhance discussion on Roman didactic literature: ‘the scholars whose work is assembled herein demonstrate the relevance of their texts to the questions we address’ (pp. 3–4). For the originality in the treatment given to (un)known texts, this is surely a most valuable contribution to the existing bibliography on Roman didactic literature, as the contributions presented offer new and insightful visions of not only canonical didactic poems, such as Lucretius’ De rerum natura or Virgil's Georgics, but also on other (more unknown or often disregarded) names such as Varro or Hyginus Gromaticus.

The volume is divided into three parts of approximately three chapters each: ‘Teaching Philosophies’; ‘Erotodidaxis’; and ‘Metadidaxis’. In a short but acute introduction, the editors engage with the best and most canonical scholarship on didactic in the Graeco-Roman world, regarding the nature of this kind of literature, whether it should be called a genre. They also state the importance of the Greek (didactic) tradition to the Roman world, and how Roman didactic texts of the end of the Republic and of the early Empire become involved in the needs of the time in which they were written. A helpful and detailed summary of each chapter is also offered.

Part 1 comprises three chapters exploring Lucretius, Epicureanism and Virgil's Georgics. M. Paschalis, in ‘Lucretius’ DRN and Callimachus’ Hymn to Zeus: Comparing and Contrasting Didactic Projects’, deals with the reception of Callimachus’ Hymn to Zeus in Lucretius, pointing out the main differences and visions between both authors in what concerns the Callimachean aesthetic of greatness in Lucretius’ poem, thus noting the clash between both authors. A. Keith's chapter, ‘Epicurean Codas in Vergil's Georgics’, studies the Epicureanism of the final lines of Georgics 1–3. To strengthen the argument, Keith adduces the Epicurean influence on the first Eclogue concerning the iuvenis and the otia; also Philodemus’ treatise On Property Management, regarding the relation between the life of the philosopher and that of the farmer; finally the account of the Noric plague in relation to Epicurus’ philosophy. P. Heslin, in ‘Fortunatus et ille: Vergil's Ironic Epicureanism’, continues the Epicurean studies of the Georgics, although focusing on an ironic reading. Heslin starts with Philodemus’ and Horace's Epicurean influences and irony, and then proceeds to a brief analysis of G. 2.458–74, 2.475–89, 2.490–512 and 2.513–42, thus noting the limitations of Lucretius’ philosophy in a complex and irregular world. As Heslin notes, ‘Vergil is exposing one of the limitations of Lucretius’ system, but is doing so in the voice of an author known to be a genuine disciple of Epicurus’ (p. 62).

Part 2 contains three chapters dealing mostly with Virgil and other poets producing didactic literature, namely Grattius and Ovid, but also with unsuspected names such as Propertius. L. Kronenberg's contribution, ‘Idle Hands: The Poetics of Masturbation in the Winter Scenes of Hesiod (Op. 493–563) and Vergil (G. 1.291–310)’, takes the influence of Hesiod's Works and Days on Virgil's Georgics a step further by exploring the sexual meanings present in these winter scenes of both poets. Kronenberg points out the sexual subtext in Hesiod by observing the nuances of the vocabulary employed, thus noting a ‘poetics of masturbation’ (p. 82). In what concerns the Georgics, Kronenberg places this episode in the light of the Hellenistic tradition of Callimachus and Aratus, and notes the sexual innuendo deployed by Virgil, regarding the contrast between the ‘procreative summer’ and the ‘masturbatory winter’ (p. 86). S.J. Green, in ‘Animal Love from Vergil: Contesting Marital Propriety in the Age of Augustus’, devotes a chapter to the study of animals’ sexual behaviour in Virgil, Grattius, Ovid and Germanicus, comparing it in the light of Augustan legislation towards marriage. Green analyses briefly G. 3.60–5, especially regarding elements of anthropomorphism in animals, in opposition to Varro's descriptions of animal mating. Green sheds light on two excerpts (161–6; 279–85) of Grattius’ poem, concerning Hyrcanian dogs, and considers peculiar terms such as blando foedere and adulter. This leads the discussion to Ovid's Ars am. 2.477–88, with the use of the word adulterium at 484, and finally to Germanicus’ poem, through an analysis of a few passages concerning adultery. Finally, M. Racette-Campbell's chapter, ‘The Language of Teaching and Learning in Propertius’, deals with Propertian elegies and the particularities of vocabulary linked to teaching and learning. Racette-Campbell looks closely at Propertius’ engagement with the Georgics, and then examines the uses of docere and discere throughout the Propertian books, and the poet's relation with elegy, Cynthia, love and Rome.

Part 3 contains four chapters engaging, mostly, with underrated texts. J. McAlhany, in ‘Buried in Books: Varro's Papia Papae in the Shade of Scholarship’, offers a philological study about a Varronian Menippean satire, noting parallels with Catullus (for example poems 11, 61 and 62), Varro (Res Rusticae) and Columella (Book 10) in order to correct some points of the text. McAlhany notes that modern scholars have given a conservative treatment to this text and that there is ‘the tendency to read Varronian satire with the Ciceronian Varro already in mind’ (p. 142). S. Culpepper Stroup, in ‘Si Est Homo Bulla: Writing between the Lines in Varro's de Rebus Rusticis’, focuses on Varro's treatise not as a mere didactic text on farming, but as one that strongly resonates with the historical environment in which it was produced, especially having Cicero and his writings in mind. When Varro reworks Cicero's expressions and vocabulary, he is thus alluding to his fellow writer and to what he represented. The third chapter, ‘The Shadows of Archimedes: Intertextual Anxieties in Hyginus Gromaticus’ Constitutio Limitum’, by Del A. Maticic, deals with the not-so-known work of Hyginus Gromaticus and the particular use he makes of quotations of Virgil (Georgics) and Lucan, and how these serve the purposes of Hyginus’ treatise. Moreover, Maticic contradicts scholars’ optimistic views of this work and calls attention to Hyginus’ pessimism through his intertext. J.J. O'Hara is the author of the final chapter, dedicated to Horace (‘Satire, Didactic, and New Contexts for Problems in Horace's Ars Poetica’). O'Hara builds on the complexity of Horace's poem regarding its own nature, reading it in the light of what was perceived as didactic poetry in antiquity. To undertake the analysis, O'Hara focuses on the opening of the Ars Poetica and on the central part, concerning drama, and places the poem in the tradition of ancient satirical and didactic poetry.

These chapters do not offer an extensive analysis of all Roman didactic literature, as they tend to focus on the most ‘canonical’ authors, especially Virgil, which is understandable since the book arises from a Symposium Cumanum. However, I felt the absence, for example, of a chapter dealing in more detail with Ovid's didactic works, as the only exception to this is Green's short discussion of the Ars Amatoria concerning adultery. Nonetheless, the ten chapters that comprise the book are a most valuable contribution to the existing bibliography on the didactic ‘genre’ in Latin literature, as they offer new and insightful readings and perspectives on the texts and themes under discussion. As stated in the introduction, ‘[a] primary goal of this volume is to add further nuance and complexity to ongoing conversations about what it means to be a teacher and a student’ (p. 8); however, I believe the content readers will see here is more than just ‘nuance’. Therefore, the editors are to be congratulated for putting together a coherent group of essays, thus enhancing discussion on such a difficult topic.

Finally, this is a very well-produced book, and scholars of ancient literature, not just Roman, will find very fruitful and useful reading.