Seven years on from his 1987 ARCA commentary on the Phaedra, A.J. Boyle (henceforth B.) has returned to Senecan tragedy and produced a text, translation and commentary of the Troades. B.’s preface rightly acknowledges the “distinguished edition” of the Troades of Elaine Fantham. While B. does not seek to rival Fantham in depth of scholarship, he emphasises the greater accessibility of his own work: a verse translation that can serve for students of classics in translation, a considerably lower price. For Latinists, meanwhile, B. includes a selective critical apparatus (pp. 124-8) and appendices on metre and on variants from the Oxford text of Zwierlein (pp. 235-9). The work also differs from Fantham in one critical respect: B’s emphasis on the performability of Senecan drama.
The first thing to say is that B. and his editors have indubitably identified a hole in the market. There exist a number of editions of Senecan dramas aimed at undergraduate Latinists, but too many are marred by a limited intellectual approach or an ill-disguised distaste for the author. Even as exemplary a study as Tarrant’s Thyestes is rendered inaccessible to a large part of B.’s target audience by its want of a translation. Whether B.’s work is truly suitable for all or even part of that audience is another matter—certain sections of this work are of considerably greater value than the rest.
The 101 pages of commentary on the text (pp. 133-234) are by far the most successful part of this work. B.’s English is relatively sober, his notes consistently aimed at answering the questions students raise. This is as true of his elucidation of points of grammar as it is of his explanation of geographical references and proper names. B. also identifies and discusses important themes and ideas: the problem of the two Senecas, the metatheatrical emphasis on viewing and spectacle, the symbolism of the tragic wedding (though a reference to Seaford, JHS 1987 would help). A number of notes are particularly helpful and go beyond what is found in Fantham: 298f. on human sacrifice at Rome; 329 on the tyrant’s refusal to kill an opponent; 613f. on Ulysses as a comic slave; 892f. on the function of plague in Roman political rhetoric. The following observations might be added: