Longus' Daphnis and Chloe is arguably our finest surviving Greek novel. Written under the Roman Empire and engaging with romantic, pastoral and rhetorical themes, the story and characterisation have captured the imaginations of artists over the centuries. Despite a growing interest in ancient novels over the past half-century, this is the first full commentary to address Longus' linguistic texture and its implications for his literary aspirations, as well as his narrative skills and intertextuality with earlier Greek writers. The commentary provides a detailed analysis of Longus' Greek and its relation to other Greek prose and poetry of the second century AD and earlier, and emphasises the construction and style of the original text, drawing out key points for clarification and discussion. A wide-ranging introduction ensures that this book will be an indispensable guide for teachers and students of all levels who are looking to engage with Longus' writing.

Ewen Bowie is Emeritus Fellow and E. P. Warren Praelector in Classics at Corpus Christi College, Oxford and Emeritus Professor of Classical Languages and Literature at the University of Oxford, where he taught for forty-two years on numerous subjects including early elegiac and iambic poetry, Old Comedy, Hellenistic poetry and the ancient novel. He is editor of a volume on Herodotus (2018) and co-editor of volumes on archaic Greek poetry (2011) and Philostratus (Cambridge, 2009), as well as the author of eighty articles on the Greek literature and culture of the Roman Empire, including twenty on the Greek novel, among many other publications.