Loeb Classical Library...suggestions needed!

Textkit Community Open Board
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After searching in vain for the better part of two years I finally located a bookstore in Toronto that regularly carries Loeb’s. I was estatic until I started adding up totals and realized that I’d either have to become a millionaire or selectively choose which to purchase. I believe there are close to 500 titles currently available and sadly I only own four.

Martial Epigrams I (1947) trans. Walter C. A. Ker
Suetonius II (1950) trans. J.C. Rolfe
Caesar Gallic War (1979) trans. H. J. Edwards
Livy VII (?) trans. Frank Gardner Moore

I will of course purchase the preceeding or following titles from those four authors but aside from that I’m quite open to suggestions.

This bookstore (Atticus Books for anyone in the Toronto area) also carries many Oxford Classical Texts so suggestions are welcome for those too.

For those of you (whiteoctave!) who own either Loebs or OCT’s which translations have you found to be superior and/or more enjoyable? I’m going to focus solely on Latin titles for now, specifically historical accounts.

What are the pros/cons between Loeb & OCT’s? I’m aware Loeb’s lack the extensive scholarly commentary and textual notes as well as being occasionally outdated. Aside from that I’m quite clueless.

Thanks and I’m looking forward to purchasing whatever is highly recommended.

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i’m glad to hear you’re so excited about classics books - c’est l’esprit du corps!
in general terms, i much prefer OCTs to Loebs, simply because you get a lot more text for your money, the fact that i have perhaps eighty OCTs against some twenty Loebs may serve as an indication of my preference. indeed Loeb’s do lack a full critical apparatus, though newer editions do seem to strive to print important textual variants, for instance in Smith’s reworking of Rouse’s Lucretius. Loeb seem to be aiming to milk as many volumes from a given author, which is unfortunate for it means one has to purchase more books to access the same amount of text, but a benefit of this is that large, and often rather good, introductions are appended to each text. the (relatively) new Martial by ‘The Shack’, springs to mind. both editions however are sine commentariis, as you have surely noticed.
i rarely buy either OCT or Loeb new, but there are some things that you certainly must own. (obiter dicta: if you ever find a copy of Postgate’s (NOT Walker’s or Weber’s) two vol. Corpus Poetarum Latinorum, whether online or on the street, make sure you purchase it -it contains the complete works of Ennius, Catullus, Horace, Propertius, Lucretius, Virgil, Tibullus, Ovid, Grattius, Manilius, Phaedrus, Aetna, Persius, Lucan, Val. Flaccus, Siculus, Columella, Silius Italicus, Statius, Martial, Juvenal and Nemesianus. it came out originally in 1895, and my copy is from Glasgow Uni, but i imagine some must have travelled across the pond. similarly, if you do Greek, Dindorf’s Poetarum Scenicorum Graecorum is not to be passed over).
you should have RAB’s virgili opera OCT, it gives in the one book the finest edition of the text to date, and is an indispensable resource. i have also found Lindsay’s two Plautus vol.s and the Terence od very high quality. other Latin OCTs that you should own, though perhaps best bought second hand are the Carmina of Propertius, Tibullus and Catullus, and Kenney’s work on Ovid’s amatory poems has not been surpassed. if i were you, i would track these down online, where a few pounds or dollars or whathaveyou will cover the cost.
Smith’s revision of the De Rerum Natura, Duff’s Lucan, Shack’s Martial and Showerman’s Amores and Heroide’s are all Loebs that ought be owned.

~D

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As always a comprehensive reply, I thank you and will make good use of your recommendations. Thanks again!