Loeb Series

For philosophy, always buy the Hackett edition. Penguin is notoriously shit at translations.

Should I buy Loeb over Hackett?

I don't go to one first all the time. I always shop around and compare the offerings. Usually one will have a better price, longer intro, newer translation, or different offerings. For example penguin and oxford both offer Polybius' histories, but Oxford only gives books 1-4, 6, and 12, which are the most complete ones still extant, and the translator says something like "this will give you an idea of Polybius' overall plan." Penguin offers selections of maybe a dozen Polybius chapters to give a broader view. And of course Loeb offers everything, but in multiple volumes, which are each expensive.

Always compare penguin/owc selections with what they're actually drawing from, i.e., the loeb texts. Reference the loeb wiki page every time you buy an ancient work so you know what a specific writer actually has out there. Otherwise you'll never know that Appian has a whole ethnographic history that comes before his widely available books on Rome's civil wars.

Besides that you really can't go wrong with either penguin or owc. Both have recently made strides towards improving their translations, and both tend to have decent intros. As I said above owc often has overwhelming end notes, but that's personal preference. Try some from each publisher for sure. Hope that helps! Feel free to ask more questions if you have any; I'll check back in the morning.

Otherwise, good luck!

Not for philosophy.

The Loebs are for students of Greek and Latin.

Hackett for those who wish to master the philosophical content.

Norton Critical > Oxford

some norton critical are abridged, just for warning

Meh, who gives a fuck?

All those essays they put in and that I don't read increase my page count on Goodreads so I'm all for it.

Oxford World's Classics are generally fine; however, in line with the general trend also evident in Penguin, the more recent translations tend to have fuller notes.

It's hard to generalize about series with multiple contributing translators. In some cases, one or the other will have the better version (e. g., the Penguin volume of Lucian's Dialogues of the Courtesans is complete, the Oxford a selection), and what "better" means will depend on the readers priorities (e. g., Robin Waterfield, who translates a lot for Oxford, is not necessarily the best choice if you want technical accuracy, as opposed to a readable representation of the source text).

Listen to Loebs have been published for more than a century (since 1912). Some of the older ones are still good (e. g., Duff's translation of Lucan with a text based on Housman); some much less so (AS Way's versions of tragedy stick in my mind). Some old ones are simply out of date in scholarship or language, or reflect a tendency to expurgate that modern ones do not. Many have been replaced or revised, sometimes with much more content and information (e. g., Most and West's combined total of four new volumes replacing the old one-volume Hesiod, Homeric Hymns, and Homerica).

Loebs have also changed their focus. Originally, they were meant to be affordable editions providing original text, limited critical apparatus, and serviceable translations for a broad readership. Nowadays, as the audience for original language texts has shrunk, the Loebs aim at a more scholarly standard, which is reflected in texts, translations, and other matter.

The biggest advantages of Loeb remain quality of manufacture, and extensiveness: you will find not just texts that aren't readily or at all available in translation elsewhere, but also much fuller selections from fragmentary authors, such as the Greek lyric poets.

>But for popular works with many translation which publisher do you reccomend first?

You really cannot go by publisher. Most series have some outstanding volumes, some that are perfectly adequate, and some that are less good. Also, your priorities and interests as a reader will affect choice of translation: for example, some will want a version that has claims to literary or poetic qualities in English; some will be less interested in style and more in literal accuracy, even if that makes for a less fluid English text.

If you are interested in reading a widely translated author in translation, the best approach is to look for recommendations and reviews, and comments about the qualities of particular versions. For example, intriductions (like the Oxford Very Short Introductions series), handbooks or companions from major presses like Cambridge UP, that you should be able to find in libraries, will tend to have bibliographies and / or recommended reading. The major translations will have been reviewed or discussed in the mainstream literary press, and in specialized venues like Bryn Mawr Classical Review (bmcr.brynmawr.edu/).

If you are seriously interested in a particular work, it may also be worth using more than one version; or comparing multiple versions of particular passages; because each translation will tend to emphasize or reveal different aspects of the source text.