There is no modern commentary on the whole of Valerius Maximus' Facta et dicta memorabilia
though commentaries on books 1 and 2 have been published by respectively David Wardle (1998)
and Andrea Themann-Steinke. Progress is likely to be made by further commentaries on individual
books and John Briscoe contributes to this with a commentary on Book 8 of particular interest
because of the variegated nature of its subject matter. The commentary like those of Briscoe's
commentaries on Livy Books 31-45 (OUP 1973-2012) deals with matters of content textual
issues language and style and literary aspects. An ample introduction discusses what is known
about the author the time of writing the structure both of the work as a whole and of Book 8
itself Valerius' sources language and style the transmission of the text editions of
Valerius and the methods of citation used in the commentary. The commentary is preceded by a
text of Book 8 a slightly revised version of that in Briscoe's edition in the Bibliotheca
Teubneriana (1998) with an apparatus limited to passages where the commentary discusses a
textual problem. The book will give readers an understanding of an author once very popular
then long neglected and now enjoying a revival.
