Showing papers in "Phoenix in 1995"
TL;DR: In this paper, Whittaker examines the Roman frontiers both in terms of what they meant to the Romans and in their military, economic, and social function, and concludes that the very success of the frontiers as permeable border zones sowed the seeds of their eventual destruction.
Abstract: Although the Roman empire was one of the longest lasting in history, it was never ideologically conceived by its rulers or inhabitants as a territory within fixed limits. Yet Roman armies clearly reached certain points - which today we call frontiers - where they simply stopped advancing and annexing new territories. In "Frontiers of the Roman Empire", Whittaker examines the Roman frontiers both in terms of what they meant to the Romans and in their military, economic, and social function. Whittaker begins by discussing the Romans' "ideological vision of geographic space" - demonstrating, for example, how an interest in precise boundaries of organized territories never included a desire to set limits on controls of unorganized space beyond these territories. He then describes the role of frontiers in the expanding empire, including an attempt to answer the question of why the frontiers stopped where they did. He examines the economy and society of the frontiers. Finally, he discusses the pressure hostile outsiders placed on the frontiers, and their eventual collapse. Observing that frontiers are rarely, if ever, static, Whittaker concludes that the very success of the Roman frontiers as permeable border zones sowed the seeds of their eventual destruction. As the frontiers of the late empire ceased to function, the ideological distinctions between Romans and barbarians became blurred. Yet the very permeability of the frontiers, Whittaker contends, also permitted a transformation of Roman society, breathing new life into the empire rather than causing its complete extinction.
256 citations
TL;DR: The Search for the Ancient Novels as mentioned in this paper is a collection of essays from a distinguished group of scholars to examine every aspect of ancient Greek and Roman novelists, from anonymous authors of "Apolioniiis King of Tyre" and "The Apochryphal Acts of Peter" to Tasso, Cervantes, and Rabelais, from Lucian, Heliodorus, and Petronius to Chretien de Troye and Samuel Richardson, from "Dictys of Crete" (overseas correspondent during the Trojan War) to Har
Abstract: "At once youthful and venerable," writes James Tatum, "ancient novels do not lack for their evangelists. In one communication after another, the hope is expressed that those not yet acquainted with them will eventually come to know this oxymoronic subject, the newest chapter in ancient literature". In "The Search for the Ancient Novel", Tatum brings together a distinguished group of scholars to examine every aspect of ancient Greek and Roman novelists-the recovery of their texts, their reception, ancient and modern, and their place in literary theory and history. The contributors explore subjects ranging from antiquity to the present, from the anonymous authors of "Apolioniiis King of Tyre" and "The Apochryphal Acts of Peter" to Tasso, Cervantes, and Rabelais, from Lucian, Heliodorus, and Petronius to Chretien de Troye and Samuel Richardson, from "Dictys of Crete" (overseas correspondent during the Trojan War) to Harlequin Romance writer "Margery Hilton". Of interest not only to classicists but also to comparatists and historians of the novel, this work offers a variety of scholarly perspectives on a topic that has increasingly become the focus of critical attention and debate.
106 citations
TL;DR: In the fourth century A.D. as mentioned in this paper, a discussion of the desirability of public blood sacrifice in the Roman Empire is presented. But the main focus of the discussion is on what we might call "normative" public paganism in the larger towns and cities of the Eastern Empire.
Abstract: IT HAS ALWAYS BEEN A PARADOX that in a predominantly pagan empire the Emperor Julian (A.D. 360-363) did not meet with immediate success in his efforts to revive paganism. Contemporary pagans felt uneasy with Julian's attempt to make the gods live again in the public consciousness through the rebuilding of temples, the revival of pagan priesthoods, the restoration of ancient ceremonies, and most importantly, the revival of blood sacrifices. Historians have long pointed out that Christian emperors had permitted other elements of pagan festivals to continue while forbidding blood on the altars, since blood sacrifice was the element of pagan cult most repugnant to Christians. Thus, blood sacrifice, although linked to the fate of pagan cults in general, poses special problems precisely because it was regarded as the most loathsome aspect of cult and aroused the greatest amount of Christian hostility. The present article explores Julian's motives in reviving public blood sacrifices and the reasons for his apparent failure to mobilize immediate, strong support. By "public," I mean not only sacrifices in public cults, but more generally, sacrifices conducted in the public eye. My principal interest is in what we might call "normative" public paganism in the larger towns and cities of the Eastern Empire in the fourth century A.D. Asia Minor, Syria, and Greece figure prominently in the discussion, since these regions were for Julian the heartland of Hellenism, the regions that could be counted on to respond to the call for a pagan revival, and they are also the regions where we find clustered much of the evidence about sacrifice in the Roman imperial period. I begin by setting out the debate within Neoplatonism about the desirability of sacrifices and Julian's own place in the debate. I then examine the status of sacrifices in the cities of the Greek East in the generation before Julian's reign and contemporary reaction to Julian's conduct during the pagan revival. Finally, I examine
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TL;DR: The authors explored the dramatic context of references to divorce in three Plautine comedies: the Amphitruo, Casina, and Trinummus, and argued that the mimetic construct of the stage alone was not enough of a barrier to disrupt or cancel the legal implications of the divorce formula, a phrase which actually enacted the law at the moment of its utterance.
Abstract: This paper explores the dramatic context of references to divorce in three Plautine comedies: the Amphitruo, Casina, and Trinummus. I will suggest that for Plautus, the mimetic construct of the stage alone was not enough of a barrier to disrupt or cancel the legal implications of the divorce formula, a phrase which actually enacted the law at the moment of its utterance. Although my argument necessarily entails a consideration of the legal and social conventions of divorce in the late third and early second century B.C. at Rome, my goal here is primarily literary rather than historical, linguistic rather than legal. It is Plautus' presentation of language in the theater, specifically the formulaic language used to dissolve a marriage, that will be the subject of the following pages.
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TL;DR: The last love story of Ovid's Metamorphoses, the tale of Pomona and Vertumnus as mentioned in this paper, has been interpreted as an example of seduction rather than of mutual love and as a contribution to the theme of love as a destructive force.
Abstract: The tale of Pomona and Vertumnus in Book 14 occupies a significant place in Ovid's Metamorphoses as the last love-story of the poem. It has also been called the first exclusively Latin tale.1 This tale has been interpreted by David Littlefield as representing the movement from rape to mutual desire effected through an ordered Italian setting. He finds in it the disavowal of rape, fraud, and the arts as means of winning amorous consent.2 Similarly, others, such as Fantazzi, read the tale as a final affirmation of mutual love.3 Yet, I propose that the diction, the imagery, and the narrative strategies employed argue for a new interpretation. The dominant presence of deception, of metamorphosis as a means of persuasion, of images of violation, and of the threat of violence encourages us to read this tale as an example of seduction rather than of mutual love and as a contribution to the theme of love as a destructive force. In this final amatory tale landscape and character merge via diction and imagery. Pomona, a hamadryad, becomes part of the landscape of fruit trees which she tends. Through the sexual images of the enclosed garden and of ripe apples, Pomona is made synonymous with the landscape. Significantly, Pomona herself is objectified through the tale and never speaks. The ability of man to control nature and to subjugate it to his wishes, as in Vergil's Georgics, finds an analog in Vertumnus' seduction of Pomona.4 The theme expressed here is that of the violent and destructive nature of love-one at the heart of many tales in the poem.5 This theme as it appears in Ovid's Pomona and Vertumnus tale is reinforced by the story of Iphis and Anaxarete told by Vertumnus to Pomona. The inset tale affords a vivid example, both literally and figuratively, of narrative as seduction.6 Vertumnus' narrative does not persuade Pomona but instead focuses our attention on parallels between the failed strategies of both lovers. The dangers of excessive passion are illustrated both in the
21 citations
TL;DR: In the case of the ancient orators, the same line between fact and fiction is not always easily drawn, since many of the anecdotes told by biographers about ancient writers seem to have been fabricated from references in their writings as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: LITTLE HAS BEEN DONE in the way of evaluating the lives of the ancient orators. In the case of the ancient poets scholars like M. LefkowitzI and J. Fairweather2 have conclusively demonstrated that their lives often contain details simply inferred by biographers from the text of their poetry. Athough the line between fact and fiction is not always easily drawn, many of the anecdotes told by biographers about ancient writers seem to have been fabricated from references in their writings.3 In the lives of the ancient orators, by contrast, the same line of demarcation is far more difficult to draw, since, unlike the writings of poets or philosophers, their speeches were partly biographical and autobiographical through the many references to themselves and their opponents. When this evidence concerned public affairs, it could be combined with other testimony, particularly that of
18 citations
TL;DR: Achilleus intervenes and offers as prize to Agamemnon "an unfired cauldron with patterns / of flowers on it, the worth of an ox" and to Meriones "a farshadowing spear" as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: THE FINAL SCENE of the funeral games for Patroklos in Iliad 23 is generally considered one of the poem's less controversial episodes. Two heroes, Agamemnon and Meriones, present themselves for the spear-throwing competition, but before the competition has even begun Achilleus intervenes and offers as prize to Agamemnon "an unfired cauldron with patterns / of flowers on it, the worth of an ox" (23.885-886), and to Meriones "a farshadowing spear" (23.885).1 The spear-throwing is the only competition in which prizes are awarded without a contest taking place, although Nestor is generously awarded a two-handled jar by Achilleus despite being prevented by age from taking an active part in the games (23.616-623). Similar generosity is normally attributed to Achilleus' words as he proposes the allocation of prizes to Agamemnon and Meriones:
TL;DR: The avoidance of a proper name is well attested in classical literature as discussed by the authors, where it may arise from a variety of motives: ignorance of the name (Ter. 1.327-328), the desire to suppress a name potentially offensive to the listener or addressee (Juv. 13.248-249), the need for discretion (Soph. 6.3, 6.5.4, 7, 12).
Abstract: THE DELIBERATE AVOIDANCE of a proper name is well attested in classical literature, where it may arise from a variety of motives: for example, ignorance of the name (Ter. Ad. 891, Vergil Aen. 1.327-328), the desire to suppress a name potentially offensive to the listener or addressee (Juv. 13.248-249), the need for discretion (Soph. Phil. 852-853, Cic. Att. 6.4.3, 6.5.1-3), guilt, hatred, or other strong feelings associated with the bearer of the name (Eur. Hipp. 350-352, Cat. 8.4, 7, 12). Sometimes only the fact of the avoidance of the name is striking; in other cases the name substitute itself is rhetorically pointed.1 It is normal in Greek tragedy (as in epic) for characters to address and refer to one another for the most part by periphrases once they have been introduced to the audience.2 In Senecan tragedy too, the proper names of dramatis personae occur relatively infrequently, considering that in declaimed drama3 one might expect more proper names as an aid to identification, since the audience cannot see the characters. Although Seneca uses periphrases freely, there are instances in Senecan (as in Greek) tragedy of a character's deliberate avoidance of a proper name. In Agamemnon, for example, Clytemnestra appears deliberately to avoid using Agamemnon's name as being painful or abhorrent to her, referring to him rather as vir (156, 201, 265, 579),4 ille (164, 178), pater (166), victor (262), coniunx
TL;DR: The length of the stade, the longest unit of Greek linear measurement, is one of the vexed issues of classical metrology, with stades of various lengths being attributed to geographical writers such as Eratosthenes, Polybios, Artemidoros, Poseidonios and Strabo.
Abstract: THIS ARTICLE CONCERNS the length of the stade as used by Greek geographical writers, in particular Polybios and Strabo. The length of the stade, the longest unit of Greek linear measurement, is one of the vexed issues of classical metrology, with stades of various lengths being attributed to geographical writers such as Eratosthenes, Polybios, Artemidoros, Poseidonios and Strabo respectively. While the question of the length of the geographical stade in itself is a metrological issue, it does have ramifications beyond those narrow bounds. Strabo, in his Geography, refers frequently to stade distances given earlier by Eratosthenes, Polybios, Artemidoros and Poseidonios, without betraying any awareness that the stades in question are of varying lengths. Are we then to deduce that Strabo was either a happy ignoramus, who simply did not know that these distances were based on variant stades,' or a careless scholar who realised the situation but brazenly did not care? One or other of these two views is implicit in the work of all scholars who adhere to the theory of different stades in use among the geographical writers on whom Strabo draws.2 On the other
TL;DR: The Atthidographers sources and influences character of the Atthis relationship of Androtion's "Atthis" to other works are discussed in this article. But this work is not related to our work.
Abstract: Title form style content Atthidographers sources and influences character of the "Atthis" relationship of Androtion's "Atthis" to other works. Testimonia. Translation (text).
TL;DR: In this article, a focalisation aussi rigoureuse, commune aux trois auteurs qui sinteressent a cette aire du bassin mediterraneen, invite a penser que le Nil participe d'une faqon particuliere a l')conomie des romans grecs.
Abstract: LE NIL OCCUPE une place de choix dans les romans grecs. Son avocation vaut pour celle de lFgypte, lieu de passage oblige de la fiction chez Xenophon d'Ephs n'a designe que le Nil.2 Mais il est surprenant de constater que les romanciers grecs negligent les nombreux autres thames relatifs & l'Egypte, depuis longtemps deja int6gr6s a la litt6rature grecque,3 au profit presque exclusif du Nil ou de la r6gion du Delta. Une focalisation aussi rigoureuse, commune aux trois auteurs qui s'interessent a cette aire du bassin mediterraneen, invite a penser que le Nil participe d'une faqon particuliere a l')conomie des romans grecs. Il n'est pas question, dans le cadre de cette etude, de confronter systimatiquement la vision du Nil dans les romans avec celle des historiens,4 ni d'examiner dans quelle mesure elle est fidele au r6f6rent geographique en cause. Une telle approche conduit du reste a une appreciation en termes de rdalisme, d6plac~e pour parler de litterature ancienne oii ce projet esth6tique n'existe pas.5 I1 s'agit plutot d'observer les modalit6s du
TL;DR: In fact, some scholars, faced by the absolute dearth of physical evidence, have felt bound to dismiss the possibility that any fortification walls were erected at Athens between LH III and 479/8 B.c. as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: IT IS DIFFICULT TO DESCRIBE the putative Archaic wall around Athens since not a stone of it has been found. In fact, some scholars, faced by the absolute dearth of physical evidence, have felt bound to dismiss the possibility that any fortification walls were erected at Athens between LH III and 479/8 B.c.1 But the balance of opinion has now reversed itself, and most modern authorities are convinced that a circuit wall of some sort stood around Athens before the time of the Persian Wars.2 This paper will review the basis for this modern scholarly consensus as a prelude to a discussion of certain characteristics of that wall, i.e., its construction, course, and date. It will also suggest a reason for the mysterious absence of any trace of the wall from the material record. The consensus rests on a few well-known testimonia to a wall around
TL;DR: In this article, the inheritance of the consulate in the Antonine period is investigated and it is shown that the hypothesis that the consulate was hereditary in this period is unwarranted, and a method of treating this problem which is logically and statistically superior to the rather cursory analysis in Death and Renewal is presented.
Abstract: SOME YEARS AGO two contrasting analyses (the first by Professor Keith Hopkins and myself, the second by Professor Geza Alf6ldy) of the social composition of the imperial senate and of the inheritability of the consulate were promulgated. In a recent article in this journal Johannes Hahn and Paul M. M. Leunissen returned to the fray.1 Their interesting and thoughtful critique has prompted me to reconsider the question of the inheritance of the consulate in the period A.D. 138-180. In this article I will try again to show that the hypothesis that the consulate was hereditary in the Antonine period is unwarranted. The argument of this article proceeds in four stages. First, "Background," I rehearse the two contrasting hypotheses. Secondly, "A Critique of a Critique," I examine the strengths and weaknesses of the analysis put forward by Hahn and Leunissen. Thirdly, "Sons and Fathers," I re-examine the problem of gaps in our surviving data, especially the problem of suffect consuls whose names do not survive (the ignoti). Here I hope to provide a method of treating this problem which is logically and statistically superior to the rather cursory analysis in Death and Renewal. Fourthly, "Brothers," I re-emphasize the significance of the relative paucity of brothers attested as consuls who were, in turn, the sons of consuls.
TL;DR: In the last Neoplatonists, most philosophers were men as discussed by the authors, and they almost invariably depicted a woman, a young and beautiful maiden, a mother, nurse, or teacher and guide.
Abstract: FROM THE LEGENDARY SEVEN SAGES to the last Neoplatonists one can find but few women among the well-known philosophers of antiquity. Like orators and historians, most philosophers were men.1 Nonetheless, when they personified Philosophy or Wisdom these philosophers almost invariably depicted her as a woman, a young and beautiful maiden, a mother, nurse, or teacher and guide.2 As such, Lady Philosophy took her place among a multiplicity of well-known mythical and religious female figures like Gaia, Athena, and the Muses, personifications of abstract concepts like
TL;DR: In the De pace, Andocides urges the assembly to accept the terms proposed at a peace conference at Sparta, at which he himself had been present as a member of the Athenian embassy as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: ANDOCIDES' DE PACE MARKS an interlude of diplomacy towards the end of the first decade of the fourth century, interrupting briefly the course of the Corinthian War. Didymus cites Philochorus for the condemnation of Andocides and the other ambassadors in the archonship of Philocles, that is, the Attic year 392/1 (FGrHist 328 F 149a).1 In the De pace, Andocides urges the Athenian assembly to accept the terms proposed at a peace conference at Sparta, at which he himself had been present as a member of the Athenian embassy.2 We learn from Philochorus (FGrHist 328 F 149a), De-
TL;DR: The relation between the Alexandrian poets and their works is maddeningly uncertain, and seldom has there been much agreement among scholars as mentioned in this paper, since there are numerous instances where an intertextual relationship is obvious, yet it is impossible to determine conclusively which poet has adapted the other's work.
Abstract: THE RELATIVE CHRONOLOGY of the Alexandrian poets and their works is maddeningly uncertain, and seldom has there been much agreement among scholars. This is unfortunate, since there are numerous instances where an intertextual relationship is obvious, yet it is impossible to determine conclusively which poet has adapted the other's work. Callimachus' treatment of the Argonauts in the first book of his Aetia and Apollonius' Argonautica have such a relationship. In the middle of this century, Rudolph Pfeiffer declared, Apollonium Callimachi vestigia pressisse nunc constat.1 While many have followed Pfeiffer's opinion, there has been dissent.2 Barring some truly extraordinary papyrological discovery, the question will never find a definitive answer. The available evidence allows only for speculative arguments, largely based on scholarly intuition and arbitrary judgements.
TL;DR: A re-examination of the structure of Catullus 62 in light of the conventions of amoebean poetry and consideration of certain features of Roman wedding ritual enable us to identify the speaker of the final lines and also shed new light on the text and interpretation of this poem as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: POEM 62 Is ONE of two wedding poems composed by Catullus: equally important for our purposes, it is also one of Catullus' two amoebean poems, the other being, of course, poem 45. A re-examination of the structure of Catullus 62 in light of the conventions of amoebean poetry and consideration of certain features of Roman wedding ritual enable us to identify the speaker of the final lines and also shed new light on the text and interpretation of this poem. In addition to poems 45 and 62 of Catullus, we have Latin amoebean poems from Vergil (Eclogues 3, 7, 8), Horace (Odes 3.9), Calpurnius Siculus (2 and 4), and Nemesianus (2 and 4); in Greek we have Theocritus Idylls 5 and 8. Two features are characteristic of these poems: (i) two speakers engage in a singing contest in which the second tries to "cap" the first by variation on the words and/or ideas of the first, and (ii) although the amount of introductory material may vary, in the contest itself the two speakers are each given the same number of lines.1 In Theocritus Idyll 5 the contest proper involves Comatas and Lacon. Each sings fourteen couplets. Comatas then sings a fifteenth but Morson cuts the contest short and does not allow Lacon to respond. In Idyll 8 Menalcas and Daphnis first sing four 4-line stanzas apiece, followed by two transitional lines; and then each singer has a section of eight lines. In both of these Idylls there is a considerable amount of introductory material which is arranged with no strict symmetry. For Vergil the same "rules" apply. In Eclogue 3 Damoetas and Menalcas, after a certain amount of preliminary abuse, call on Palaemon to be the judge of their contest. They then each sing twelve couplets alternately. The poem ends with Palaemon declaring the match a draw. Meliboeus recounts the contest between Corydon and Thyrsis in Eclogue 7: each competitor sings six 4-line stanzas and Meliboeus concludes the poem with a couplet.
TL;DR: The NATURE of the lost books of the Res Gestae of Ammianus Marcellinus is one of the best-known problems in late Roman historiography.
Abstract: THE NATURE OF THE LOST BOOKS of the Res Gestae of Ammianus Marcellinus is one of the best-known problems in late Roman historiography.1 His lost first thirteen books discussed events from the principate of Nerva (A.D. 96-98) up through the middle of the reign of Constantius ii (A.D. 353).2 With the exception of a possible letter from Libanius and one citation by Priscian,3 all knowledge of the text of the lost books of Ammianus comes
TL;DR: Micaela Janan as discussed by the authors proposes an original and provocative feminist reading of Catullus, a reading informed by theories of consciousness and desire as ancient as Plato and as contemporary as Freud and Lacan.
Abstract: The poetry of the Late Roman Republican poet Gaius Valerius Catullus, a rich document of the human heart, is the earliest-known reasonably complete body of erotic verse in the West.Though approximately 116 poems survive, uncertainties about the condition of the fragmented manuscript and the narrative order of the poems make the Catullan text unusually problematic for the modern critic. Indeed, the poems can be arranged in a number of ways, making a multitude of different plots possible and frustrating the reader s desire for narrative closure.Micaela Janan contends that since unsatisfied desire structures both the experience of reading Catullus and its subject matter, critical interpretation of the text demands a "poetics of desire." Furthermore, postmodern critical theory, narratology, and psychoanalysis suggest a flexible concept of the "subject" as a site through which a multitude of social, cultural, and unconscious forces move. Human consciousness, Janan contends, is inherently incomplete and in a continuous process of transformation. She therefore proposes an original and provocative feminist reading of Catullus, a reading informed by theories of consciousness and desire as ancient as Plato and as contemporary as Freud and Lacan.The Late Roman Republic in which Catullus lived, Janan reminds us, was a time of profound social upheaval when political and cultural institutions that had persisted for centuries were rapidly breaking downa time not unlike our own. Catullus poetry provides an unusually honest look at his culture and its contradictory representations of class, gender, and power. By bringing to the study of this major work of classical literature the themes of consciousness and desire dealt with in postmodern scholarship, Janan s book invites a new conversation among literary disciplines."
TL;DR: The so-called "Arco di portogallo" in Rome as mentioned in this paper was a late construction, probably dating from the fifth century A.D., which was assembled by taking elements from earlier structures.
Abstract: THE SO-CALLED ARCO DI PORTOGALLO in Rome spanned the ancient Via Flaminia/Lata, the modern Via del Corso, not far from the Ara Pacis of Augustus. Pope Alexander vii ordered its removal in 1662 and hence it is known only from early drawings and from the fragments which survive. All the evidence suggests that it was a late construction, probably dating from the fifth century A.D., which was assembled by taking elements from earlier structures.1 The two features of the arch which have drawn the most interest are a pair of panel reliefs, originally incorporated in the north side of the structure, which are now displayed in the Palazzo dei Conservatori in Rome.2 One of the reliefs shows the apotheosis of Hadrian's wife Sabina; the second is a scene with the emperor standing on a suggestus delivering a speech. Both have a number of parts restored, but there is general agreement that the emperor represented in each of these reliefs is Hadrian, and that the work is either late Hadrianic or early Antonine.3