Rhea Classical Reviews

An open-access book review journal prioritizing underrepresented scholarly voices in ancient Mediterranean studies.

Recent reviews

Keeping to the Point in Athenian Forensic Oratory: Law, Character and Rhetoric

Edward M. Harris and Alberto Esu, eds., Keeping to the Point in Athenian Forensic Oratory: Law, Character and Rhetoric (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2025). 9781399523899. Reviewed by Sidney Kochman, Independent Scholar, sidneykochman@gmail.com This edited volume is one of the newest additions to Edinburgh University Press’s series New Approaches to Ancient Greek Institutional History. With this…

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Reading the Letter to Titus in Light of Crete: Dynamics of Early Christian Identity Co

Michael S. Robertson, Reading the Letter to Titus in Light of Crete: Dynamics of Early Christian Identity Construction, Critical Approaches to Early Christianity 3 (Leiden: Brill, 2024). 9789004685710. Reviewed by John D. Doss, Asbury Theological Seminary, Asbury University, John.doss@asburyseminary.edu. As the title suggests, Michael Scott Robertson provides an important contribution to New Testament (hereafter NT)…

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Philip V of Macedon in Polybius’ Histories: Politics, History, & Fiction

Emma Nicholson, Philip V of Macedon in Polybius’ Histories: Politics, History, & Fiction (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2023). 9780192866769. Reviewed by Aaron L. Beek, Case Western Reserve University and North-West University,aaronlbeek@gmail.com. This work is a detailed examination of the Polybian view of Philip V of Macedon. One might readily ask whether this is a work…

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J.R.R. Tolkien’s Utopianism and the Classics

Hamish Williams, J.R.R. Tolkien’s Utopianism and the Classics, Classical Receptions in Twentieth-Century Writing (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2023). ISBN 9781350241459. Reviewed by Martha Shillaker, University of St Andrews, Martha.M.Shillaker@gmail.com. Hamish Williams’s monograph J.R.R. Tolkien’s Utopianism and the Classics explores how the Classical past is (re)used by Tolkien in the creation and development of his literary utopianism.…

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Rival Praises: Ovid and the Metamorphosis of the Hymnic Tradition

Celia M. Campbell, Rival Praises: Ovid and the Metamorphosis of the Hymnic Tradition (Madison, WI: The University of Wisconsin Press, 2024). 9780299348748. Reviewed by Daniel Libatique, Fairfield University, dlibatique@fairfield.edu. Ovid’s experiments with genre have provided fruitful material not only for scholars but also for Ovid himself. From the recusatio of Amores 1.1.1–4 where Cupid steals…

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