Classicists and others with an opinion, what do you think of the Loeb Classical Library?

Answer 1

The Loeb classical library comes out of Harvard. I believe the Harvard graduate students work on these? There is nothing wrong with the texts themselves. I think the greatest problem with the Loeb series is that people - particularly students who are first learning Greek and Latin - sometimes succumb to the temptation of using the facing translations as a crutch. Generally when given a choice, I prefer something like the Cambridge Green and Gold series, since they provide copious commentary that goes beyond just grammar and syntax - there is that, too - and delve into the historical, social, and political contexts of each work. For academic papers, most classicists use the Teubner and OCT (Oxford Classical Texts).