Oppian’s Marine Dialectic

Oppian’s Halieutica is at its heart a dialectic enterprise. Although it purports to impart technical information on zoology and fishing, in reality it probes and challenges ancient ideas about the position of humanity in the natural world, the psychology of non-human animals, and questions of virtue and vice. This monograph traces the poem’s process of inquiry through, among others, its engagement with the poetic tradition, natural philosophy and ancient zoology. In doing so, the book highlights the Halieutica’s polyphonic approach to the relationship between humans and other animals and its efforts to complicate what at first appears straightforward.