The Characterization of Thrasea Paetus in the Tacitean Narrative
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Load more
Recommended publications
-
Vestal Virgins and Their Families
Vestal Virgins and Their Families Andrew B. Gallia* I. INTRODUCTION There is perhaps no more shining example of the extent to which the field of Roman studies has been enriched by a renewed engagement with anthropology and other cognate disciplines than the efflorescence of interest in the Vestal virgins that has followed Mary Beard’s path-breaking article regarding these priestesses’ “sexual status.”1 No longer content to treat the privileges and ritual obligations of this priesthood as the vestiges of some original position (whether as wives or daughters) in the household of the early Roman kings, scholars now interrogate these features as part of the broader frameworks of social and cultural meaning through which Roman concepts of family, * Published in Classical Antiquity 34.1 (2015). Early versions of this article were inflicted upon audiences in Berkeley and Minneapolis. I wish to thank the participants of those colloquia for helpful and judicious feedback, especially Ruth Karras, Darcy Krasne, Carlos Noreña, J. B. Shank, and Barbara Welke. I am also indebted to George Sheets, who read a penultimate draft, and to Alain Gowing and the anonymous readers for CA, who prompted additional improvements. None of the above should be held accountable for the views expressed or any errors that remain. 1 Beard 1980, cited approvingly by, e.g., Hopkins 1983: 18, Hallett 1984: x, Brown 1988: 8, Schultz 2012: 122. Critiques: Gardner 1986: 24-25, Beard 1995. 1 gender, and religion were produced.2 This shift, from a quasi-diachronic perspective, which seeks explanations for recorded phenomena in the conditions of an imagined past, to a more synchronic approach, in which contemporary contexts are emphasized, represents a welcome methodological advance. -
Pliny the Elder and the Problem of Regnum Hereditarium*
Pliny the Elder and the Problem of Regnum Hereditarium* MELINDA SZEKELY Pliny the Elder writes the following about the king of Taprobane1 in the sixth book of his Natural History: "eligi regem a populo senecta clementiaque, liberos non ha- bentem, et, si postea gignat, abdicari, ne fiat hereditarium regnum."2 This account es- caped the attention of the majority of scholars who studied Pliny in spite of the fact that this sentence raises three interesting and debated questions: the election of the king, deposal of the king and the heredity of the monarchy. The issue con- cerning the account of Taprobane is that Pliny here - unlike other reports on the East - does not only use the works of former Greek and Roman authors, but he also makes a note of the account of the envoys from Ceylon arriving in Rome in the first century A. D. in his work.3 We cannot exclude the possibility that Pliny himself met the envoys though this assumption is not verifiable.4 First let us consider whether the form of rule described by Pliny really existed in Taprobane. We have several sources dealing with India indicating that the idea of that old and gentle king depicted in Pliny's sentence seems to be just the oppo- * The study was supported by OTKA grant No. T13034550. 1 Ancient name of Sri Lanka (until 1972, Ceylon). 2 Plin. N. H. 6, 24, 89. Pliny, Natural History, Cambridge-London 1989, [19421], with an English translation by H. Rackham. 3 Plin. N. H. 6, 24, 85-91. Concerning the Singhalese envoys cf. -
Brutus, Cassius, Judas, and Cremutius Cordus: How
BRUTUS, CASSIUS, JUDAS, AND CREMUTIUS CORDUS: HOW SHIFTING PRECEDENTS ALLOWED THE LEX MAIESTATIS TO GROUP WRITERS WITH TRAITORS by Hunter Myers A thesis submitted to the faculty of The University of Mississippi in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College. Oxford, Mississippi May 2018 Approved by ______________________________ Advisor: Professor Molly Pasco-Pranger ______________________________ Reader: Professor John Lobur ______________________________ Reader: Professor Steven Skultety © 2018 Hunter Ross Myers ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Dr. Pasco-Pranger, For your wise advice and helpful guidance through the thesis process Dr. Lobur & Dr. Skultety, For your time reading my work My parents, Robin Myers and Tracy Myers For your calm nature and encouragement Sally-McDonnell Barksdale Honors College For an incredible undergraduate academic experience iii ABSTRACT In either 103 or 100 B.C., a concept known as Maiestas minuta populi Romani (diminution of the majesty of the Roman people) is invented by Saturninus to accompany charges of perduellio (treason). Just over a century later, this same law is used by Tiberius to criminalize behavior and speech that he found disrespectful. This thesis offers an answer to the question as to how the maiestas law evolved during the late republic and early empire to present the threat that it did to Tiberius’ political enemies. First, the application of Roman precedent in regards to judicial decisions will be examined, as it plays a guiding role in the transformation of the law. Next, I will discuss how the law was invented in the late republic, and increasingly used for autocratic purposes. The bulk of the thesis will focus on maiestas proceedings in Tacitus’ Annales, in which a total of ten men lose their lives. -
The Eleven Caesars Sample Question Paper
Oxford Cambridge and RSA A Level Ancient History H407/22 The Eleven Caesars Sample Question Paper Date – Morning/Afternoon Time allowed: 2 hours 30 minutes You must have: the OCR 12-page Answer Booklet (OCR12 sent with general stationery) Other materials required: None INSTRUCTIONS Use black ink. Complete the boxes on the front of the Answer Booklet. There are two sections in this paper: Section A and Section B. In Section A, answer Question 1 or 2 and Question 3. In Section B, answer Question 4 and Question 5 or 6. Write the number of each question clearly in the margin. Additional paper may beSPECIMEN used if required but you must clearly show your candidate number, centre number and question number(s). Do not write in the bar codes. INFORMATION The total mark for this paper is 98. The marks for each question are shown in brackets [ ]. Quality of extended response will be assessed in questions marked with an asterisk (*) This document consists of 4 pages. © OCR 2016 H407/22 Turn over 603/0805/9 C10056/3.0 2 Section A: The Julio-Claudian Emperors, 31 BC–AD 68 Answer either question 1 or question 2 and then question 3. Answer either question 1 or question 2. 1* To what extent was there discontent with the emperors during this period? You must use and analyse the ancient sources you have studied as well as your own knowledge to support your answer. [30] 2* How important a role did imperial women play during the reigns of Claudius and Nero? You must use and analyse the ancient sources you have studied as well as your own knowledge to support your answer. -
Tacitus on Marcus Lepidus, Thrasea Paetus, and Political Action Under the Principate Thomas E
Xavier University Exhibit Faculty Scholarship Classics 2010 Saving the Life of a Foolish Poet: Tacitus on Marcus Lepidus, Thrasea Paetus, and Political Action under the Principate Thomas E. Strunk Xavier University - Cincinnati Follow this and additional works at: http://www.exhibit.xavier.edu/classics_faculty Part of the Ancient History, Greek and Roman through Late Antiquity Commons, Ancient Philosophy Commons, Byzantine and Modern Greek Commons, Classical Archaeology and Art History Commons, Classical Literature and Philology Commons, Indo-European Linguistics and Philology Commons, and the Other Classics Commons Recommended Citation Strunk, Thomas E., "Saving the Life of a Foolish Poet: Tacitus on Marcus Lepidus, Thrasea Paetus, and Political Action under the Principate" (2010). Faculty Scholarship. Paper 15. http://www.exhibit.xavier.edu/classics_faculty/15 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Classics at Exhibit. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Scholarship by an authorized administrator of Exhibit. For more information, please contact [email protected]. SYLLECTA CLASSICA 21 (2010): 119–139 SAVING THE LIFE OF A FOOLISH POET: TACITUS ON MARCUS LEPIDUS, THRASEA PAETUS, AND POLITICAL ACTION UNDER THE PRINCIPATE Thomas E. Strunk Abstract: This paper explores Tacitus’ representation of Thrasea Paetus. Preliminary to analyzing this portrayal, I discuss two pas- sages often cited when exploring Tacitus’ political thought, Agricola 42.4 and Annales 4.20. I reject the former’s validity with regard to Thrasea and accept the latter as a starting point for comparing Tacitus’ depictions of Marcus Lepidus and Thrasea. Tacitus’ char- acterizations of Thrasea and Lepidus share the greatest resemblance in the trials of Antistius Sosianus and Clutorius Priscus, both of whom wrote verses offensive to the regime. -
Calendar of Roman Events
Introduction Steve Worboys and I began this calendar in 1980 or 1981 when we discovered that the exact dates of many events survive from Roman antiquity, the most famous being the ides of March murder of Caesar. Flipping through a few books on Roman history revealed a handful of dates, and we believed that to fill every day of the year would certainly be impossible. From 1981 until 1989 I kept the calendar, adding dates as I ran across them. In 1989 I typed the list into the computer and we began again to plunder books and journals for dates, this time recording sources. Since then I have worked and reworked the Calendar, revising old entries and adding many, many more. The Roman Calendar The calendar was reformed twice, once by Caesar in 46 BC and later by Augustus in 8 BC. Each of these reforms is described in A. K. Michels’ book The Calendar of the Roman Republic. In an ordinary pre-Julian year, the number of days in each month was as follows: 29 January 31 May 29 September 28 February 29 June 31 October 31 March 31 Quintilis (July) 29 November 29 April 29 Sextilis (August) 29 December. The Romans did not number the days of the months consecutively. They reckoned backwards from three fixed points: The kalends, the nones, and the ides. The kalends is the first day of the month. For months with 31 days the nones fall on the 7th and the ides the 15th. For other months the nones fall on the 5th and the ides on the 13th. -
The Sophistic Roman: Education and Status in Quintilian, Tacitus and Pliny Brandon F. Jones a Dissertation Submitted in Partial
The Sophistic Roman: Education and Status in Quintilian, Tacitus and Pliny Brandon F. Jones A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Washington 2015 Reading Committee: Alain Gowing, Chair Catherine Connors Alexander Hollmann Deborah Kamen Program Authorized to Offer Degree: Classics ©Copyright 2015 Brandon F. Jones University of Washington Abstract The Sophistic Roman: Education and Status in Quintilian, Tacitus and Pliny Brandon F. Jones Chair of Supervisory Commitee: Professor Alain Gowing Department of Classics This study is about the construction of identity and self-promotion of status by means of elite education during the first and second centuries CE, a cultural and historical period termed by many as the Second Sophistic. Though the Second Sophistic has traditionally been treated as a Greek cultural movement, individual Romans also viewed engagement with a past, Greek or otherwise, as a way of displaying education and authority, and, thereby, of promoting status. Readings of the work of Quintilian, Tacitus and Pliny, first- and second-century Latin prose authors, reveal a remarkable engagement with the methodologies and motivations employed by their Greek contemporaries—Dio of Prusa, Plutarch, Lucian and Philostratus, most particularly. The first two chapters of this study illustrate and explain the centrality of Greek in the Roman educational system. The final three chapters focus on Roman displays of that acquired Greek paideia in language, literature and oratory, respectively. As these chapters demonstrate, the social practices of paideia and their deployment were a multi-cultural phenomenon. Table of Contents Acknowledgements ........................................................................... 2 Introduction ....................................................................................... 4 Chapter One. -
The Educational Theory of Plutarch
A\. U. C. t A. <h. JC. DEPT. THE LffiRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES Digitized by tine Internet Arciiive in 2007 with funding from IVIicrosoft Corporation http://www.archive.org/details/educationaltlieorOOwestiala THE EDUCATIONAL THEORY OF PLUTARCH PQR REVIEW THE EDUCATIONAL THEORY OF PLUTARCH K. M. WESTAWAY, D.Lit. (Lond.) STAFF LECTURER IN CLASSICS, ROYAL HOLLOWAY COLLEGE FORMERLY CLASSICAL SCHOLAR, AND LATER MARION KENNEDY STUDENT, OF NEWNHAM COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE LONDON UNIVERSITY OF LONDON PRESS, LTD. 17 WARWICK SQUARE, E.C.4 1922 U. C. L. A. EDUC. DEPT. U. C. L A. EDLC. DEPT. Education library LB ovroi KOt KoivQ ^vcX^dvT€? airap^v T^ <to^hxk aviOtfTov Tw 'AttoAAwvi cts rof vcwv tov iv ^€\<t}OLS, ypd.\j/avT€9 ravra, a 5^ ttoitcs v/avowii', yvwdi crauTov Kai firfiev ayav, Plato, ProtagoraSy 343 B. opa §€ KOt Tttin"! Ttt irpoypd/xfJuiTa, to 'yvto^i cravTov' Kai to ^/ir)8eva.yav.' oaa^^rjTtj(T€i^ kckcVi/kc <fiiko<r6^ovs Koi o<rov Xoywv jrXrjOo'i &<f> cxaoTOV Kadairtp otto (rirepfxaTO^ avair€<f>VKev. Plutarch, Z)^ E apud Delpbos, 385 D. 827732 PREFACE The popularity of Plutarch as the author of the Parallel Lives has never really waned. It is thus surprising that the other half of his extant work, the essays generally called by the collective title of the Moralia, should for long periods together be almost unread and unremembered. I have found in these essays an interest even greater than I had been led to expect from my love of the " Lives." In the Moralia Plutarch, the philosopher, the priest, the citizen, the father, reveals himself with an intimacy rare among the ancient Greeks. -
Roman Literature Under Nerva, Trajan and Hadrian
Roman Literature under Nerva, Trajan and Hadrian Literary Interactions, ad 96–138 Edited by Alice König and Christopher Whitton ROMAN LITE·RATURE UNDER NERVA, TRAJAN AND HADRIAN Literary Interactions, AD 96-I38 for John Henderson EDITED BY ALICE KÖNIG Univenity ofSt And~s, Scotland CHRISTOPHER WHITTON Univenity of Cambridge EI CAMBRIDGE ~ UNIVERSITY PRESS 20 /18 ROMAN LITERATURE UNDER NERVA, TRAJAN AND HADRIAN This volume is the first holistic investigation of Roman liceracure and literary culture under Nerva, Trajan and Hadrian (AD 96-138). Wich case scudies from Frontinus, Juvenal, Martial, Pliny the Younger, Plutarch, Quintilian, Suetonius and Tacitus among others, the eigh teen chapters offer not just innovative readings ofliterary (and some 'less literary') texts, but a collaborative enquiry into the networks and culcure in which they are embedded. The book brings together estab lished and novel methodologies to explore the connections, conver sations and silences between these texts and their authors, both on and off the page. The scholarly dialogues that result not only shed fresh light on the dynamics of literary production and consumption in the 'High Roman Empire', but offer new provocations to students ofintercextuality and interdiscursivity across classical literature. How can and should we read textual interactions in their social, literary and cultural contexts? ALICE KÖNIG is Senior Lecturer in Classics at the University of St Andrews. Her research focuses on ancient technical literature and the history of science, and the relationship between politics, society and literature in the early principate. She is preparing a monograph on ehe author and statesman Sextus Julius Frontinus, and has published a series of articles on Vitruvius, Frontinus and Tacitus. -
Roman Embassies and Flavian Generals: Tacitus, Histories 3.80-81 Kathryn F
Roman Embassies and Flavian Generals: Tacitus, Histories 3.80-81 Kathryn F. Williams (Canisius College) During the empire, the Roman Senate sent embassies to welcome new emperors and on rare occasions to negotiate with foreigners (Talbert, Senate of Imperial Rome, 408-11). Tacitus’ Histories 3.80-81 provides an account of a third mission for senatorial envoys – as negotiators with adversaries during civil war. In these chapters, Tacitus writes that envoys were selected to go to the two Flavian generals, Petilius Cerialis and Antonius Primus, during the last chaotic hours of Vitellius’ reign. Tacitus’ account of the circumstances surrounding the embassies, their composition, and their results, illustrates his use of envoys to explore the extraordinary dynamics which developed in the course of civil war and to characterize major figures. Vitellius’ northern troops shifted their allegiance to Vespasian in the second half of 69. When Vespasian’s brother and prefect of the city, Flavius Sabinus, offered Vitellius the opportunity to abdicate peacefully, he initially agreed. Soon afterward, however, Sabinus had been beheaded and the Capitol set ablaze. The Roman people displayed resurgent support for their emperor by taking up whatever weapons they could find in order to face Cerialis and Primus, Vespasian’s generals who were looming near the gates of Rome. Vitellius encouraged the crowd’s enthusiasm, but the senate was also called and envoys selected to undertake diplomatic negotiations with the two enemy generals. Embassies were sent to both; neither proved successful. Vitellius was dead within hours. Tacitus gives us the fullest account of these diplomatic undertakings during Vitellius’ final days. -
Tacitus, Stoic "Exempla", and the "Praecipuum Munus Annalium"
Swarthmore College Works Classics Faculty Works Classics 10-1-2008 Tacitus, Stoic "Exempla", And The "Praecipuum Munus Annalium" William Turpin Swarthmore College, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://works.swarthmore.edu/fac-classics Part of the Classics Commons Recommended Citation William Turpin. (2008). "Tacitus, Stoic "Exempla", And The "Praecipuum Munus Annalium"". Classical Antiquity. Volume 27, Issue 2. 359-404. DOI: 10.1525/ca.2008.27.2.359 https://works.swarthmore.edu/fac-classics/13 This work is brought to you for free by Swarthmore College Libraries' Works. It has been accepted for inclusion in Classics Faculty Works by an authorized administrator of Works. For more information, please contact [email protected]. WILLIAM TURPIN Ta c i t u s , S t o i c exempla,andthepraecipuum munus annalium Tacitus’ claim that history should inspire good deeds and deter bad ones (Annals 3.65) should be taken seriously: his exempla are supposed to help his readers think through their own moral difficulties. This approach to history is found in historians with clear connections to Stoicism, and in Stoic philosophers like Seneca. It is no coincidence that Tacitus is particularly interested in the behavior of Stoics like Thrasea Paetus, Barea Soranus, and Seneca himself. They, and even non-Stoic characters like Epicharis and Petronius, exemplify the behavior necessary if Roman freedom was to survive the monarchy. Exsequi sententias haud institui nisi insignes per honestum aut notabili dedecore, quod praecipuum munus annalium reor, ne virtutes sileantur utque pravis dictis factisque ex posteritate et infamia metus sit. Tac. Ann. 3.65.11 The claim that history should inspire good deeds and deter bad ones has often been seen as purely conventional; scholars like Bessie Walker and Ronald Syme saw Tacitus as more interested in hard-nosed analysis, and dismissed his remark as a mere relic of tradition.2 But T. -
Jakub Pigon, Reviewing Jacqueline M. Carlon, Pliny's Women
Jacqueline M. Carlon, Pliny’s Women: Constructing Virtue and Creating Identity in the Roman World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009. Pp. x + 270. Cloth, $85. The book under review is yet another proof of the growing interest in Pliny the Younger, an author who, only some twenty years ago, seemed rather neglected by classical scholars. Since the late nineties, a number of book-length treatments of his work have appeared, including monographs by Ludolph (1997), Hoffer (1999), Beutel (2000), Henderson (2002), Méthy (2007), Marchesi (2008) and, most recently, Lefèvre (2009), as well as two conference volumes edited by, respectively, Castagna and Lefèvre (2003) and Morello and Gibson (as a special issue of Arethusa 36 [2003], 2). Here we have a book which, to my knowledge, is the first full-length study on Pliny’s representation of women (another book, by Jo-Ann Shelton, is announced for January 2011 by Routledge). Women play, at least by Roman standards, quite an important role in Pliny’s correspondence. According to Carlon’s own figures (p. 8), out of the 368 letters of the whole corpus (books 1–10) no less than 72 contain some references to women (see the table in Appendix B, pp. 223–226); within this group, women appear as the main or significant subject in 38 letters. In this rewritten version of a Boston University PhD thesis (supervised by Ann Vasaly), Jacqueline Carlon (henceforth, C.) shows how more or less detailed descriptions of, and references to, women in Pliny’s correspondence serve what she identifies as the overriding goal of his literary pursuits, namely the securing of his own aeternitas (this key term is, characteristically, the last word of her book).