The stated purpose of the Oxford Greek and Latin College Commentaries is ‘to offer streamlined commentaries that are up-to-date, user-friendly, and affordable’. B. accomplishes this goal admirably with his commentary on Ovid's third book of the Ars Amatoria, attending to practical matters that typically interfere with a novice reader's enjoyment of Latin poetry.
B. offers ample introductory remarks aimed at orienting students with no prior experience of Ovid to this most learned and witty poem. The introduction focuses on issues of genre, gender, biography, reception, myth, metre and style (including a list of figures of speech used in the poem). There is also a brief, but useful, annotated bibliography for further reading. Throughout B. combines cutting-edge critical insight and cultural context with lively and energetic prose that any student should find inviting.
Students will appreciate the abundant vocabulary help and consistent citation of relevant sections of Allen and Greenough's grammar for almost every construction found in the Latin. This means, however, that students will need to have A&G on hand to benefit the most from the notes. While this may seem to place the burden on the student to pursue an explanation, in almost every case an instructor can also use the citations for ‘teachable moments’ in class or as sites for spontaneous review. Etymological explanations add another layer to the learning opportunities that the notes offer. When translation is provided instead of comment, it is usually accompanied by a specific citation of the OLD to help a student understand where the translation comes from. In short, B. keeps the students’ needs in mind, but allows pedagogical space for instructors to amplify points of grammar and style, as well as theme.
The book's wide format is pleasingly substantial, allowing B. to squeeze lots of material into the commentary, while leaving the Latin text with abundant margins for student markings and notes. The text is also very well copy-edited. I found only one small error: at line 597 the text has suscitat, but the lemma is for excito, -are.
A short list of mild complaints from a novice reader might include: a lack of macrons on most vocabulary items to ease scansion (especially Greek names); no overall outline of the poem and its subsections (although section summaries do appear in the commentary); no treatment of the textual history of the poem in the introduction (although it plays an occasional part in the notes); some vocabulary items that are supplied ‘prospectively’ on a preceding page (consuescat, 493, for example) or are buried within notes without a lemma (aetheriis, 388). This last item is clearly a space-saving measure, but it does mean that a student needs to look very carefully at times to find a needed word.
All readers will enjoy the lively wit and playful puns that B. weaves into his comments. For example, at line 246, where the narrator finds his lover wearing her wig askew, B. notes: ‘Beauty requires care, or there'll be hell toupée’. Ovid would surely approve.
