L. J. D. Richardson, the historian of the Classical Association, has recorded how at a general meeting held on 3 January 1930 a resolution was passed requesting the Council of the Association ‘to consider the possibilities of instituting, and, if possible, to institute, a New Journal suited primarily to the needs of the Schools’. If any individual was responsible for the birth of Greece & Rome, that person was R. H. Barrow, who introduced the discussion leading to this resolution, and who served for many years as the chairman of the Board of Management subsequently established. The purpose of the journal was indicated by the inclusion on the Board of Management of representatives drawn from each of the four School Teachers' Associations and by the appointment as joint editors of the Rev. C. J. Ellingham from City of London School and A. G. Russell of St Olave's.

Imitation, in the sense of the conscious adaptation and transference of an idea, a phrase, or a passage, from one poetical context to another, was a recognized procedure of ancient poetry, as it still is of modern. It is however a difficult art and on occasion, as we shall see, the re-working of alien material, though it may be poetically successful, is none the less achieved at some cost of clarity, accuracy, or literal truth.

These are the opening words of Aristotle's Poetics, generally recognized as the most influential work in the history of Western European drama and poetic theory since the Renaissance. The initial statement of the scope of the inquiry is a formidable one; but a reader coming to it for the first time might well be forgiven for concluding that it promises far more than it achieves. Is it possible, he might ask, that all this is contained in a slim volume occupying no more than 47 pages in the Oxford Classical Text and 45 in the Penguin translation? Reading further, he might become even more disillusioned: what he discovers is that, after a very brief and perfunctory introduction on poetry as a form of mimesis or artistic representation, Aristotle limits himself to a discussion of tragedy, a cursory treatment of epic, and a few passing references to comedy, and that, even in the case of tragedy, by far the major part of the argument is devoted to an examination of plot. Can this really be the work which excited scholars in the Renaissance, inspired Milton to write Samson Agonistes, an Aristotelian drama if there ever was one, provided the structural pattern and dramatic conventions for the plays of Racine and Corneille, gave Fielding the principles on which he based his Tom Jones, influenced Goethe and Lessing and, through Lessing, Coleridge, and has won the attention and admiration of critics writing in English from James Harris at the end of the eighteenth century to Richard MacKeon in the second half of the twentieth? And, if so, why?

The later books of the Annals exhibit a sharp divergence in structure and emphasis from the first hexad. Following upon Seianus and the sombre aftermath of Seianus in Book 6, the new epoch gave Tacitus welcome relief, with scope for colour and variety — and for dramatic effects of a different kind. The women of the Palace are on high show; and episodes like the follies and the fall of Messallina and the end of Nero's mother are accorded a treatment which some critics find lavish and disproportionate.

The imperium populi Romani was the power Romans exercised over other peoples, viewed in its widest sense. What we call the Roman empire, that is the empire viewed as a political entity, was usually conceived by the Romans in terms of people, the populus Romanus and its sodi et amid. The latter were differentiated into various categories according to their form of government and the terms of their association with Rome, but they were united in being regarded as contributors to Roman power and proper subjects for Roman concern.

The autobiography of the personified yacht (Catullus 4. 2–24) yields not only a curriculum vitae but also a vivid impression of personality. Catullus' phaselus sounds very human. If the persona can be identified, its literary ancestors and the tone of the poem may also emerge.

Conceived by Nero and born in the heat of the civil wars of A. D. 68–9, I Adjutrix was an extraordinary legion. Composed of former seamen, non-citizens from Pannonia, Egypt, Syria, and Greece, it possessed a character all its own, an ambition which at the outset prompted it to mob Galba while demanding legion status, and an enthusiasm which in its first formal battle caused it seriously to disconcert the veteran apax legion by its dash and bravery.

Most biblical commentators, and those writers on Roman history who bother to mention it, have placed the nativity at some time around 7 B.C. The problems associated with the date of the nativity have been aired and debated at great length in theological and historical journals for decades, but recently new light has been thrown on the subject, and in this article we shall consider the state of the debate as it stands at the moment.