Columnar translation: an ancient interpretive tool that the Romans gave the Greeks

Dickey, E. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4272-4803 (2015) Columnar translation: an ancient interpretive tool that the Romans gave the Greeks. Classical Quarterly, 65 (2). pp. 807-821. ISSN 0009-8388 doi: 10.1017/S0009838815000087

Abstract/Summary

Among the more peculiar literary papyri uncovered in the past century are numerous bilingual texts of Virgil and Cicero, with the Latin original and a Greek translation arranged in distinctive narrow columns. These materials, variously classified as texts with translations or as glossaries, were evidently used by Greek-speaking students when they first started to read Latin literature. They thus provide a unique window into the experience of the first of many groups of non-native Latin speakers to struggle with reading the classics of Latin literature.