DOCSLIB.ORG

Download File

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Download File Cicero Among the Stars: Natural Philosophy and Astral Culture at Rome Ashley Ariel Simone Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy under the Executive Committee of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 2020 © 2020 Ashley A. Simone All Rights Reserved ABSTRACT Cicero Among the Stars: Natural Philosophy and Astral Culture at Rome Ashley Ariel Simone This dissertation examines Cicero’s contribution to the rise of astronomy and astrology in the literary and cultural milieu of the late Republic and early Empire. Chapter One, “Rome’s Star Poet,” examines how Cicero conceives of world building through words to connect Rome to the stars with the Latin language. Through a close study of the Aratea, I consider how Cicero’s pioneering of Latin astronomical language influenced other writers, especially his contemporaries Lucretius and Catullus. In Chapter Two, “The Stars and the Statesman,” I examine Cicero’s attitudes towards politics. By analyzing Scipio’s Dream and astronomy in De re publica, I show how Cicero uses cosmic models to yoke Rome to the stars. To understand the astral dimensions of Cicero’s philosophy, in Chapter Three, “Signs and Stars, Words and Worlds,” I provide a close reading of Cicero’s poetic quotations in context in the De natura deorum and De divinatione to show how Cicero puts the Aratean cosmos to the test in Academic fashion. Ultimately, I argue that Cicero profoundly shaped the Roman view of the stars and cemented the link between cosmos and empire. TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Tables and Figures…………………………….…………………………………….….…ii Acknowledgments………………………………………………………………………..………iii Dedication……………………………………………………………………………………..….iv Introduction………………………………………………………………………………..………1 Chapter 1: Rome’s Star Poet……………………………………………………………………..13 1.1 Introduction………………………………………………………………………..………13 1.2 Aratus at Rome…………………………………………………………………………….17 1.3 Translation as Creation ……………………………………………………………..……..29 1.4 Lucretius and the Aratea….……………………………………………………………….49 Chapter 2: The Stars and the Statesman…………………………………………………………66 2.1 Introduction………………………………………………………………………………..66 2.2 The Horizontal and the Vertical ……………………………………………………….…..71 2.3 Archimedes’ Celestial Spheres ……….……………………………………………….…..90 2.4 Planetary Motion and Political Cycles ……………………………………………..……100 2.5 The Static Sphere and the Beauty of the Cosmos……………………………………..….104 2.6 The Invocation of Aratus…………………………………………………………….……112 2.7 The Dream of Scipio…………………… ………………………………………………..120 Chapter 3: Signs and Stars, Words and Worlds………………………………………..…….….134 3.1 Introduction……………………………………………………………………………….134 3.2 De natura Deorum and the Beauty of Art……………………..…………………………139 i 3.3 Balbus’ Aratea……………………………………………………………………………147 3.4 Latin Stars………………………………………………………………….…………..…152 3.5 Seeing the Stars……………………………………………………………………..……160 3.6 The Cosmos as a Celestial Model…………………………………………………….…..171 3.7 Skepticism and the Art of the Dialogue………………………………………..…………179 3.8 Reading the Signs of De divinatione………………………………………………..……185 3.9 Cosmic Semiotics…………………………………………………………………………190 3.10 De consulatu suo and Physics’ Preamble to Politics……………………………………197 3.11 Caesar and the Skeptical Statesman’s Path to Heaven…………………………………..206 Epilogue………………………………………………………………………………………..217 Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………………220 ii LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES Figure 1……………………………………………………………………………………………2 Table 1………………………………………………………………………………………..….85 Figure 2…………………………………………………………………………………………107 Figure 3…………………………………………………………………………………..…….108 Table 2………………………………………………………………………………………167–71 iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Thanks first and foremost goes to my supervisor Katharina Volk, who first taught me to love the stars in a graduate seminar on Star Poetry my very first semester at Columbia. Her passion for the stars in ancient literature sparked my own imagination, and has profoundly shaped my current project. Katharina has been an extremely patient, persistent, prompt, and thorough reader, combing through multiple rounds of drafts and shaping the project with her expert insight. I am also deeply indebted to the other members of my committee: James Zetzel, Gareth Williams, Raphael Woolf, and Wolfgang Mann. Jim taught me how to read Latin literature deeply and thoroughly my very first semester at Columbia and introduced me to Roman law. Gareth has generously made himself available over the years, always willing to make time to read a text with me, and Wolfgang has been an exceptional interlocutor and mentor, whose intellectual kindness and acuity have made me a stronger scholar. I will always look back on our seminar on the Timaeus with fond memories. Special thanks goes to Raphael, who permitted me to adopt him as a mentor after we connected over Cicero and Plato at a Timaeus conference in Edinburgh. In addition to my dissertation committee, I have several professors and colleagues I would like to thank. Elizabeth Scharffenberger taught me discipline while I was a student in her Greek Prose Composition class, and she never let up on me. My Greek is the better for it. Marcus Folch has on many occasions offered a friendly ear and insightful advice, and Nancy Worman has been an incredible encourager and insurmountable Director of Graduate Studies for the past couple years. Julie Crawford and Joanna Stalnaker have taught me much about teaching Literature Humanities. I am especially thankful for Helene Foley, whose kindness, generosity, iv and huge heart have shown me what kind of teacher and scholar I aspire to become. My deep gratitude goes to my mentors and friends from the Advanced Seminar in the Humanities at Venice International University, which was the highlight of my academic career to date. Special gratitude goes to Alessandro Schiesaro, Alessandro Barchiesi, David Sider, Del Maticic, Martina Russo, Stephanie Crooks, Il-Kweon Sir, and Enrico Prodi. At Columbia, I am incredibly grateful for the colleagues and friends I’ve had over the years, including Isaia Crosson, Anna Conser, Simone Oppen, Elizabeth Heintges, Cait Morgan, Kate Brassel, Joe Sheppard, Shulamit Shinnar, Usha Nathan, Jonathan Fine, Samuel McVane, Michael West, Mathias Hanses, Caleb Dance, Jane and Nathaniel Peters, Luke Foster, Lingzi Zhuang, and Eyvana Bengochea. I must also thank the administrative staff at Columbia: in Classics, Geraldine Visco, Selina Rivera, and Juliana Driever; in the Core Curriculum, Christine Butcher, Lidibeth Inoa, and Toni Gunthrope- Hardee. Outside of Columbia, my thanks are due to Chris Waldo, Angeline Chiu, David West, Leah Kronenberg, Cynthia Liu, David Konstan, Laura Viidebaum, Caroline Bishop, Hannah Čulík-Baird, David Levene, and James Uden. I would also like to take the opportunity to acknowledge my friends and mentors from Baylor, especially Julia Hejduk, Alden Smith, and K. Sarah-Jane Murray, all of whom have continued to mentor and shape me into the young scholar that I am today in various ways. Beyond academic circles, I must give my deepest thanks to my family and my church community at Emmanuel Anglican Church. My spouse and colleague Caleb Simone has been a huge encouragement over our years at Columbia, and I would not be where I am without his love and support. Our two children, Aidan and Alistair, have endured far too many viewings of various Disney movies while their parents worked on their graduate education, and I am so v thankful for their unconditional love and sweet embraces that always awaited me at the end of a long day. My mother and father Gary and Jeanie, as well as my parents-in-law Ken and Brenda, have my deepest gratitude for their love and support. Emmanuel Anglican Church has been one of the most important parts of our life in New York City while at Columbia, nurturing us and equipping us to do the work in the city we are called to do. Huge thanks goes to Jim and Amber Salladin, Iain and Maggie Atkinson, Edmond Rochat, Allegra Fisher, Sarah Bailey, Lydia Dugdale, Laura Childers, Clint and Laura Werezak, and Julia Hembree Smith. vi INTRODUCTION pronaque cum spectent animalia cetera terram, os homini sublime dedit caelumque videre iussit et erectos ad sidera tollere vultus Although other animals gaze downwards at the earth, he gave to humankind a sublime visage and ordered them to lift their faces aloft to the stars.1 Ov. Met. 1.84–6 People have always looked to the sky for inspiration, imagining a world that is above our own. Looking at the stars reminds us that the world is more marvelous, more ordered yet more mysterious than we often recognize in the bustle of day-to-day life, even as its operation of days and nights rely on the stars above as the cosmic markers of our own daily rhythms. Yet the omnipresence of hand-held devices and digital clocks has made us forgetful of this reality, and thanks to the effects of the light of electric cities (as well as environmental pollution), most of us have very little sense of what the night sky must have looked like to people before such inventions of the industrial and digital revolution. Yet for the ancients, the sky’s sweeping expanse held a more definitive and immediate role. The structure of the cosmos represented stability and order. By the time of Aristotle (4th c. BCE), a two-sphere model of the universe was dominant,2 in which the earth lies at the center of the cosmos (the first sphere) and a second hollow celestial shell, inscribed with the constellations (the second sphere) encloses the entire 1 All translations are mine unless otherwise noted.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Enthymema XXIII 2019 the Technê of Aratus' Leptê Acrostich
    Enthymema XXIII 2019 The Technê of Aratus’ Leptê Acrostich Jan Kwapisz University of Warsaw Abstract – This paper sets out to re-approach the famous leptê acrostich in Aratus’ Phaenomena (783-87) by confronting it with other early Greek acrostichs and the discourse of technê and sophia, which has been shown to play an important role in a gamut of Greek literary texts, including texts very much relevant for the study of Aratus’ acrostich. In particular, there is a tantalizing connection between the acrostich in Aratus’ poem that poeticized Eudoxus’ astronomical work and the so- called Ars Eudoxi, a (pseudo-)Eudoxian acrostich sphragis from a second-century BC papyrus. Keywords – Aratus; Eudoxus; Ars Eudoxi; Acrostichs; Hellenistic Poetry; Technê; Sophia. Kwapisz, Jan. “The Technê of Aratus’ Leptê Acrostich.” Enthymema, no. XXIII, 2019, pp. 374-89. http://dx.doi.org/10.13130/2037-2426/11934 https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/enthymema Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported License ISSN 2037-2426 The Technê of Aratus’ Leptê Acrostich* Jan Kwapisz University of Warsaw To the memory of Cristiano Castelletti (1971-2017) Λεπτὴ μὲν καθαρή τε περὶ τρίτον ἦμαρ ἐοῦσα εὔδιός κ’ εἴη, λεπτὴ δὲ καὶ εὖ μάλ’ ἐρευθὴς πνευματίη· παχίων δὲ καὶ ἀμβλείῃσι κεραίαις 785 τέτρατον ἐκ τριτάτοιο φόως ἀμενηνὸν ἔχουσα ἠὲ νότου ἀμβλύνετ’ ἢ ὕδατος ἐγγὺς ἐόντος. (Arat. 783-87) If [the Moon is] slender and clear about the third day, she will bode fair weather; if slender and very red, wind; if the crescent is thickish, with blunted horns, having a feeble fourth-day light after the third day, either it is blurred by a southerly or because rain is in the offing.
    [Show full text]
  • Macedonian Kings, Egyptian Pharaohs the Ptolemaic Family In
    Department of World Cultures University of Helsinki Helsinki Macedonian Kings, Egyptian Pharaohs The Ptolemaic Family in the Encomiastic Poems of Callimachus Iiro Laukola ACADEMIC DISSERTATION To be publicly discussed, by due permission of the Faculty of Arts at the University of Helsinki in auditorium XV, University Main Building, on the 23rd of September, 2016 at 12 o’clock. Helsinki 2016 © Iiro Laukola 2016 ISBN 978-951-51-2383-1 (paperback.) ISBN 978-951-51-2384-8 (PDF) Unigrafia Helsinki 2016 Abstract The interaction between Greek and Egyptian cultural concepts has been an intense yet controversial topic in studies about Ptolemaic Egypt. The present study partakes in this discussion with an analysis of the encomiastic poems of Callimachus of Cyrene (c. 305 – c. 240 BC). The success of the Ptolemaic Dynasty is crystallized in the juxtaposing of the different roles of a Greek ǴdzȅǻǽǷȏȄ and of an Egyptian Pharaoh, and this study gives a glimpse of this political and ideological endeavour through the poetry of Callimachus. The contribution of the present work is to situate Callimachus in the core of the Ptolemaic court. Callimachus was a proponent of the Ptolemaic rule. By reappraising the traditional Greek beliefs, he examined the bicultural rule of the Ptolemies in his encomiastic poems. This work critically examines six Callimachean hymns, namely to Zeus, to Apollo, to Artemis, to Delos, to Athena and to Demeter together with the Victory of Berenice, the Lock of Berenice and the Ektheosis of Arsinoe. Characterized by ambiguous imagery, the hymns inspect the ruptures in Greek thought during the Hellenistic age.
    [Show full text]
  • CYCLOPEDIA of BIBLICAL, THEOLOGICAL and ECCLESIASTICAL LITERATURE Astruc, Jean - Azzur by James Strong & John Mcclintock
    THE AGES DIGITAL LIBRARY REFERENCE CYCLOPEDIA of BIBLICAL, THEOLOGICAL and ECCLESIASTICAL LITERATURE Astruc, Jean - Azzur by James Strong & John McClintock To the Students of the Words, Works and Ways of God: Welcome to the AGES Digital Library. We trust your experience with this and other volumes in the Library fulfills our motto and vision which is our commitment to you: MAKING THE WORDS OF THE WISE AVAILABLE TO ALL — INEXPENSIVELY. AGES Software Rio, WI USA Version 1.0 © 2000 2 Astruc, Jean an eminent French physician, was born at Sauve, in Languedoc, March 19, 1684. His father was a Protestant minister, who, on the revocation of the edict of Nantes, became a Roman Catholic. The son studied in the University of Montpellier, and became M.D. in 1703. In 1710 he was made professor of anatomy and medicine in Toulouse; and he was called to Montpellier in 1715, where he remained until 1728. In 1731 he was appointed professor of medicine in the College of France, and he remained in Paris until his death, May 5, 1766. In his profession Astruc was very eminent as teacher, practitioner, and writer; but he is entitled to a place here from a work published in 1753, entitled Conjectures sur les Memoires originaux dont il parait que Moise s’est servi pour conmposer le livre da la Genese (Bruxelles and Paris, 1753, 12mo), in which he started for the first time the theory now so prevalent, that the fact that Moses compiled Genesis, in part at least, from pre-existing documents, is shown by the distinction in the use of the two names Elohim and Jehovah in the different parts of the book.
    [Show full text]
  • The Holy See
    The Holy See BENEDICT XVI GENERAL AUDIENCE Paul VI Audience Hall Wednesday, 27 August 2008 Saint Paul (2) Life of Saint Paul before and after Damascus. Dear Brothers and Sisters, In the last Catechesis before the holidays - two months ago, at the beginning of July - I began a new series of topics on the occasion of the Pauline Year, examining the world in which St Paul lived. Today I would like to resume and continue the reflection on the Apostle to the Gentiles, presenting a brief biography of him. Since we shall be dedicating next Wednesday to the extraordinary event that occurred on the road to Damascus, Paul's conversion, a fundamental turning point in his life subsequent to his encounter with Christ, let us briefly pause today on his life as a whole. We find Paul's biographical details respectively in the Letter to Philemon, in which he says he is "an old man" (Phlm 9: presbytes) and in the Acts of the Apostles in which, at the time of the stoning of Stephen, he is described as "a young man" (7: 58: neanías). Both these expressions are obviously generic but, according to ancient calculations, a man of about 30 was described as "young" whereas he would be called "old" by the time he had reached the age of about 60. The date of Paul's birth depends largely on the dating of the Letter to Philemon. He is traditionally supposed to have written it during his imprisonment in Rome in the mid-60s. Paul would have been born in approximately the year 8.
    [Show full text]
  • Hedging Our Bets” a Sermon by Judy E
    FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 305 EAST MAIN STREET DURHAM, NC 27701 PHONE: (919) 682-5511 “Hedging Our Bets” A sermon by Judy E. Pidcock April 27, 2008 Acts 17:22-31 It is spring and the welcome April showers have brought us green grass and budding trees. But the real sign of spring in the Triangle, I have come to believe, is the flurry of school assignment letters that come through the mail. We live in Raleigh and our sons attend Wake County Schools, which means that we have just come through the season of school assignments, which began in February. Maybe you have, too. For some of us, this is a season more dreaded than pollen and more anticipated than flowers. Futures dangle in mid-air while the process unfolds. Don’t get me wrong: we love our schools and we wholeheartedly support the priorities of our school district, but my heart does beat a little faster when school assignment materials come home in the backpacks. Those papers command the respect usually reserved for tax returns and W-2 forms. After four years of careful observation I see that there are strategies for getting through this season of school assignments. What they all amount to is called “hedging our bets.” We’re trying to spread out the risk, make some commitments but no lasting commitments, until all options are on the table. Then we’ll assess the benefits, liabilities and risks. One mother recently explained their highly-developed approach to the middle school assignment: “We’ve entered the lotteries for three charter schools, applied on-line for two magnet middle schools but not the magnet school that his magnet elementary school feeds into, toured his base school and one private school and then applied for a year-round middle, which we’ll only take if he gets track one or track four - but those are the tracks that everyone wants so we’ll probably only get offered track two or three - which we wouldn’t take.” I am breathless just listening to this roll-out of plans, but I understand every impulse behind every move, because we’ve done it ourselves.
    [Show full text]
  • Paul's Speech Before the Areopagus and the Evangel for Today
    MINISTRY EVANGEL Autumn 1992 69 THE GOSPEL FROM ATHENS: PAUL'S SPEECH BEFORE THE AREOPAGUS AND THE EVANGEL FOR TODAY John Proctor This article illustrates the way the apostles contextualised their messages. Paul's address to the Areopagus court in Athens the perceptions and preconceptions of contemporary (Acts 17:22-34) represents a carefully targetted and Britain. thoughtful presentation of the Christian message to a particular audience in a unique setting. In a centre 1. Religion of the Greek Gods outstanding for the visible expression-in art and architecture--of Greek religion, Paul engages with 'The city was full of idols' (16). 'Men of Athens. the folk-belief, the popular religious perceptions, of you are very religious. For as I passed along, and the day and the place. Among an audience versed in observed the objects of your worship, I found also an philosophical thought and learning, he interacts with altar with this inscription, "To an unknown god." , their intellectual perspectives and their outlook on (22f) Athens was splendidly endowed with buildings the ultimate issues of life. He takes on their world­ and statues to the pagan deities of Greece, which view, and meets it with the Christian proclamation­ from an aesthetic perspective were (and are) rated as or, more particularly, with selected elements of the objects of merit and magnificence, 'among the artistic Christian message, chosen because they address the masterpieces of the world'. 2 Although the religion of need of the situation. He speaks in a way that both the ancient deities had declined somewhat under the latches onto and challenges the way his hearers have influence of philosophy, and had been replaced by been accustomed to look at life.
    [Show full text]
  • The Magic of the Atwood Sphere
    The magic of the Atwood Sphere Exactly a century ago, on June Dr. Jean-Michel Faidit 5, 1913, a “celestial sphere demon- Astronomical Society of France stration” by Professor Wallace W. Montpellier, France Atwood thrilled the populace of [email protected] Chicago. This machine, built to ac- commodate a dozen spectators, took up a concept popular in the eigh- teenth century: that of turning stel- lariums. The impact was consider- able. It sparked the genesis of modern planetariums, leading 10 years lat- er to an invention by Bauersfeld, engineer of the Zeiss Company, the Deutsche Museum in Munich. Since ancient times, mankind has sought to represent the sky and the stars. Two trends emerged. First, stars and constellations were easy, especially drawn on maps or globes. This was the case, for example, in Egypt with the Zodiac of Dendera or in the Greco-Ro- man world with the statue of Atlas support- ing the sky, like that of the Farnese Atlas at the National Archaeological Museum of Na- ples. But things were more complicated when it came to include the sun, moon, planets, and their apparent motions. Ingenious mecha- nisms were developed early as the Antiky- thera mechanism, found at the bottom of the Aegean Sea in 1900 and currently an exhibi- tion until July at the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers in Paris. During two millennia, the human mind and ingenuity worked constantly develop- ing and combining these two approaches us- ing a variety of media: astrolabes, quadrants, armillary spheres, astronomical clocks, co- pernican orreries and celestial globes, cul- minating with the famous Coronelli globes offered to Louis XIV.
    [Show full text]
  • Magic and the Roman Emperors
    1 MAGIC AND THE ROMAN EMPERORS (1 Volume) Submitted by Georgios Andrikopoulos, to the University of Exeter as a thesis/dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Classics, July 2009. This thesis is available for Library use on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement. I certify that all material in this thesis which is not my own work has been identified and that no material has previously been submitted and approved for the award of a degree by this or any other University. ..................................... (signature) 2 Abstract Roman emperors, the details of their lives and reigns, their triumphs and failures and their representation in our sources are all subjects which have never failed to attract scholarly attention. Therefore, in view of the resurgence of scholarly interest in ancient magic in the last few decades, it is curious that there is to date no comprehensive treatment of the subject of the frequent connection of many Roman emperors with magicians and magical practices in ancient literature. The aim of the present study is to explore the association of Roman emperors with magic and magicians, as presented in our sources. This study explores the twofold nature of this association, namely whether certain emperors are represented as magicians themselves and employers of magicians or whether they are represented as victims and persecutors of magic; furthermore, it attempts to explore the implications of such associations in respect of the nature and the motivations of our sources. The case studies of emperors are limited to the period from the establishment of the Principate up to the end of the Severan dynasty, culminating in the short reign of Elagabalus.
    [Show full text]
  • Lucretius's Atomic Soul
    Searching for Answers: Lucretius’s Atomic Soul Katherine McCreery [email protected] Dartmouth College, Class of 2019 Economics Major, Classics Minor 4 April 2018 McCreery 2 In his De Rerum Natura, Lucretius strives to scientifically explain several aspects of the natural world. In fact, he focuses so heavily on science that the text often reads more like an ancient scientific textbook than a philosophical work. Given the considerable attention paid to science, and given the modern practice of science as the basis for all further intellectual exploration, one may assume that scientific phenomena make up the essential building blocks that define Epicurean philosophy. However, several descriptions in De Rerum Natura seem like leaps not fully supported by science that are added in order to explain a pre-constructed Epicurean principle. While Lucretius includes more than one problematic scientific account, I will focus on his handling of the soul. His description of the soul is unsatisfactory in several ways, and the inconsistencies that arise from it call into question the assumption that science shapes Epicurean principles. In fact, his explanation for the soul only makes sense if one assumes that Epicurean principles precede Epicurean science. Given this new understanding, Lucretius’s scientific description of the soul becomes a product of a preconceived idea rather than the foundation from which the nature of the soul arises. The Epicurean approach to science has previously been met with skepticism. Cicero challenges
    [Show full text]
  • 2019 Stanford CERTAMEN ADVANCED LEVEL ROUND 1 TU
    2019 Stanford CERTAMEN ADVANCED LEVEL ROUND 1 TU 1. Translate this sentence into English: Servābuntne nōs Rōmānī, sī Persae īrātī vēnerint? ​ WILL THE ROMANS SAVE US IF THE ANGRY PERSIANS COME? B1: What kind of conditional is illustrated in that sentence? FUTURE MORE VIVID B2: Now translate this sentence into English: Haec nōn loquerēris nisi tam stultus ​ essēs. YOU WOULD NOT SAY THESE THINGS IF YOU WERE NOT SO STUPID TU 2. What versatile author may be the originator of satire, but is more famous for writing fabulae praetextae, fabulae palliatae, and the Annales? ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ (QUINTUS) ENNIUS B1: What silver age author remarked that Ennius had three hearts on account of his trilingualism? AULUS GELLIUS B2: Give one example either a fabula praetexta or a fabula palliata of Ennius. AMBRACIA, CAUPUNCULA, PANCRATIASTES TU 3. What modern slang word, deriving from the Latin word for “four,” is defined by the Urban Dictionary as “crew, posse, gang; an informal group of individuals with a common identity and a sense of solidarity”? SQUAD B1: What modern slang word, deriving from a Latin word meaning “bend”, means “subtly or not-so-subtly showing off your accomplishments or possessions”? FLEX B2: What modern slang word, deriving from a Latin word meaning “end” and defined by the Urban Dictionary as “a word that modern teens and preteens say even though they have absolutely no idea what it really means,” roughly means “getting around issues or problems in a slick or easy way”? FINESSE TU 4. Who elevated his son Diadumenianus to the rank of Caesar when he became emperor in 217 A.D.? MACRINUS B1: Where did Macrinus arrange for the assisination of Caracalla? CARRHAE/EDESSA B2: What was the name of the person who actually did the stabbing of Caracalla? JULIUS MARTIALIS TU 5.
    [Show full text]
  • MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO, Cato Maior De Senectute
    MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO, Cato Maior de senectute [On Old Age]; Paradoxa stoicorum [Stoic Paradoxes]; Somnium Scipionis [The Dream of Scipio] In Latin, decorated manuscript on parchment Northern Italy, c. 1440-1470 ii (parchment) + 32 + ii folios on parchment, a palimpsest, parchment reused from fourteenth-century documents (under-text is perpendicular to the present text), and at least one other source, probably fifteenth-century, where the under-text and present text have the same orientation (under-text scrubbed away but partially visible in margins, see especially ff. 2v, 8v-9, 11, 12v-13, 15, 17, and 18v; on f.18v, a previous cataloguer read “Johannes de V” in Cremona, dated 1[3]53; there is a notary mark on f. 19), modern foliation in pencil top outer corner recto, wanting an unknown number of quires at the end (only the first page of the Somnium Scipionis present), else complete (collation: i12, ii- iii10), horizontal catchwords center lower margin, no leaf or quire signatures, ruled very lightly in lead or brown crayon with single vertical bounding lines, some prickings remain top and bottom margins (justification, 138 x 82-80 mm.), written in an accomplished humanist bookhand in twenty-nine long lines, red rubrics on f. 32v only, blank lines for rubrics, three large six- to four-line red initials with delicate contrasting penwork in brown, some folds from vellum’s original use, discoloration to first and last leaves, and some worm holes in the closing leaves, but overall in good condition. Bound in modern blue morocco over pasteboard by Bernard Middleton (b.
    [Show full text]
  • Cicero on the Philosophy of Religion
    CICERO ON THE PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION: DE NATURA DEORUM AND DE DIVINATIONE. A Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Cornell University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy by John Patrick Frederick Wynne January 2008 CICERO ON THE PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION: DE NATURA DEORUM AND DE DIVINATIONE. John Patrick Frederick Wynne, Ph. D. Cornell University, 2008 Cicero wrote de Natura Deorum (dND), de Divinatione (Div.) and de Fato (Fat.) in succession and describes the latter two as continuations of the first. I argue that the three dialogues form a trilogy, in which Cicero as author indicates a stance on the material he presents (but that too little of the fragmentary Fat. remains to be useful for my purposes). There are much-debated attributions of preferences to Cicero’s propriae personae at the conclusions of dND and Div.; I take these preferences to express Cicero’s authorial stance. I examine relevant parts of the speeches to which they react and, first, make philosophical interpretations of each (often comparing other sources for Hellenistic thought) and, second, pay attention to the interaction of Cicero’s characterization of each speaker with the arguments the speaker gives. I find that Balbus in dND advocates the avoidance of superstition and the reform of religious beliefs in line with Stoic physics and that Cotta has a strong commitment to traditional Roman religious views consistent with his sceptical epistemology. Cotta’s scepticism is elusive in its details but perhaps yields a kind of fideism. I find that Quintus Cicero’s advocacy in Div.
    [Show full text]