'This is the most extensive and elaborate edition of a Senecan tragedy known to me in any language, and it shout be said at once that it maintains the generally higs standard of the series to which it belongs. (...) T.'s stated aim is twofold: 'to discuss what Seneca wrote and what his words mean, and to place his work in a wider context'(p.VII) - the context here being earlier Greek and Latin drama, Augustan poetry, and declamatory rhetoric. (...) The most extensive and valuable part of the introduction is the 64-page section devoted to an account of the manuscript tradition. (...) After this careful homework on the manuscripts one expects and finds a sensible and readable text - 'readable' is not an otiose term here, for one of the most teasing problems in editing Seneca's tragedies is, quite simply, punctuating them (...) and this has been achieved here with general success. (...) The commentary is expansive and detailed, each episode and chorus having an introductory note before the line-by-line comments. T.'s discussions maintain throughout a fair balance between grammatical, rhetorical, and dramatic elements, while the declaired aim of relating the play to earlier drama is not forgotten (...). He is on the whole judicious and persuasive and avoids the temptation to overload his notes with references to views he rejects, while being fair to those he thinks worth mentioning. (...) At his allowed level of detail T.'s commentary is a pioneer work in the field, and for years to come others will be glad to quarry his meaterial.' (C.D.N. COSTA in The Classical Review (New Series), 1978, pp.254-56).