The Limits of Ancient Biography: Genre And Technique

by Brian McGing, Judith Mossman (Editor)

The genre of biography in the ancient world is interestingly diverse and permeable and deserves intensive study, bearing as it does on ideas of characterization and the individual. This volume considers both the form and the content of biography across the ancient world, and is particularly interested in the frontiers with other related genres, such as history. The papers range from the Old Testament to the Arab world, from the New Testament to the Lives of Saints, from the classic Greek and Roman biographers to less well known practitioners of the art.

447 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 2006

About the author

Brian C. McGing (who also publishes as B.C. McGing) is Regius Professor of Greek in the Department of Classics of the School of Histories and Humanities at Trinity College Dublin, where he was elected a Fellow in 1989 and is now Fellow Emeritus. He was Elected Member of the Royal Irish Academy in 2004, and Foreign Member, Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium, in 2008. He describes himself as "primarily a Greek papyrologist and historian of the Hellenistic period."