This is an eclectic but thought-provoking array of studies on the differing manifestations of prose literature of the late Hellenistic and early Roman imperial periods, in both Latin and Greek. The underlying premise for the volume is the assertion that the prose works which survive from this period have many of the hallmarks and functions previously reserved only for poetry, namely that these texts are just as playful, literary and self-reflective as their poetic forebears. The tension and interplay evident in the historical definitions of poetry versus prose are recurrent throughout this book. Each of the nine essays focuses not only on the literariness of key prose authors (from Cicero to Horace to Strabo to Philostratus, among numerous others), but on what these very texts have to say about the nature of the prose form in which they are written.

The arrangement of the essays follows a more or less chronological pattern, beginning with an essay on Latin (and especially Ciceronian and Senecan) prose style and ending with two studies on the Greek novel. The opening essay by F. Delarue focuses on expressions used to designate prose in Latin, and on the aesthetic implications which such terms carry. Taking the nomenclature applied by Isidore of Seville as his starting point, Delarue discusses (diachronically) the development of two distinct phenomena, soluta oratio / prosa and oratio vincta / numerosa, and concludes with an overview of the admixture of those styles characterised and theorised by the imperial prose writers Seneca the Elder and Quintilian. G. follows with an excellent, and what will prove to be an important, analysis of early imperial authors and the metaphors so often applied to describe the complex relationship of prose with poetry, above all ‘inspiration’, ‘the chariot or cart (le char)’ and ‘flight (l'envol)’. G. finds that in Strabo, Plutarch and Aelius Aristides the same metaphors are applied to describe the nature of prose, termed ὁ πεζὸς λόγος and etymologised as ‘on foot’ because it has descended from the poetic chariot of the Muses, a clichéd idea in the imperial period and just as common as the notion of appropriation of poetic-ness in prose by way of the idea of ‘inspiration’. G. illustrates, too, the role of Plato, and particularly the Symposium and the Phaedrus, for the predominance of prose over poetry as the new hymnic vehicle in the imperial period. G. then uses Lucian and Philostratus to put his findings to the test with a lucid analysis of key passages.

The next two contributions have similar aims, to establish the continuity of poetry and poetic attributes within imperial prose. P. Chiron offers a very useful study of the stylistic rhetoricians ps.-Demetrius and Hermogenes, in which he proves that Homer was not only a comparandum for political discourse, but an indispensable repository of models for style and rhythm reflected in the evolution of prose style. E. Oudot provides a fascinating study of Aelius Aristides and in particular the Panathenaic Oration and the intersection it exhibits between epideictic oratory and poetic composition. The hybrid nature of the oration, a hymn in prose, exemplifies Aristides’ appropriation of the hymnic genre in prose, and acts as a suitable locus to investigate open and discrete intertextuality with poetic predecessors. Oudot's investigation opens up a whole horizon of references and gives much insight into the nature of hymnic prose of the imperial period, a poetic langage through rhetorical prose.

The volume then moves to Latin prosimetric texts of Late Antiquity (fifth and sixth centuries). J.-B. Guillaumin divides his chapter into two parts: the first section gives an outline of the prosimetric works of this period and attempts to provide a definition of the corpus through discussion of their thematic similarities, whereas the second section analyses the different modalities of interaction between the verse and the prose sections of the texts and their effects on the reader. He shows that such texts cannot be reduced to a single theme, but that they contain sufficient similarity in formal features to justify categorisation as a group. According to Guillaumin, these philosophical texts, prosimetric forms appropriated from the literary tradition of Menippean satire, the genre's established origin, are now discourses in search of universal truths. The inclusion of poems within prose works permits a ‘cyclic’, interruptive, approach which constantly serves to remind the reader of the fundamental issues at stake in the linear prose narrative. The chapter by J.-P. De Giorgio similarly treats the relationship between prose and verse, and in particular the dialogical genre, translated in Latin as Sermo. He shows lucidly that Horace's Satires cross the line between prose and poetry, and that the Roman poet appropriates all the ‘prosaic’ characteristics of Sermo in verse, the vehicle for the poet's own Musa pedestris.

Three further chapters make up the volume. The first of these, by K., concerns Dio of Prusa's reflections on the purpose of language. Dio seeks a ‘zero degree of language’, the ultimate vehicle to aid philosophical enquiry, and one which shuns elaborate rhetoric. As K. shows, through his rejection of the beautiful style Dio reveals the connection that takes place between prose and poetry in the imperial period: prose requires a poetic usage of language, but one which he presents himself as failing to attain, in his status as a layman. For Dio, his prose has an ethical priority, where meaning is more important than the signifier carrying the meaning, yet, as K. shows clearly, the ‘golden-mouthed’ Dio's representation of such ideals is through the most poetic of prose. É. Prioux's chapter on metapoetic gardens in Achilles Tatius, Longus and Philostratus is also concerned with reflections on style. Gardens play an important role in the Greek novel, especially in Longus, and as Prioux shows in a careful and convincing philological study, particular words in the garden ecphraseis of each author recur as metaphors for literary texture, style, genre and subject matter, and which in each case lead back to Homer as a common poetic font for imperial prose. M. Biraud concludes the volume with a detailed metrical analysis of the prose rhythm of the prefaces of two prose works, Erotica Pathemata by Parthenius and Chaereas and Callirhoe by Chariton. It would be a useful exercise to bring his conclusions, namely that the quantitative pronunciation is combined with the accentual in a doubling of rhythmic effects reflecting a doubly faceted learning, to the prefaces of the other Greek novels.

This is a short but very useful book, well produced and full of new discoveries, covering as it does a wide range of authors of both languages.