• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

Women in Antiquity: Tuesday 14 November 2017 Cleopatra — the impossible queen On the sources: - Propertius (c. 50-45 - 15 BCE), Latin elegiac poet during the Augustan era. Emblematizes the next generation of Latin poets following Catullus, the independence of the Latin poet tempered by the anxieties of the Augustan era. We possess four books of Propertius’ elegies. The first book, published in 28 BCE, is known also by the Greek name, transmitted by several manuscripts, of Monobiblos, “single book.” As for books 2 and 3, it is not certain whether these were published together or separately; separate publication of the two books, in around 25 and 22 BCE respectively is regarded as more likely. - Horace (65-8 BCE), Latin poet during the Augustan era. Composed in a number of metres: lyric, hexameter, iambic. Fought on the losing side of the Battle of Philippi in 42 BCE, was brought into the literary circle around Augustus by Maecenas. Reflects the tensions of Roman politics, the daily life of early imperial Rome, the tensions of aristocratic interests in the face of thinly veiled autocracy. - Virgil (70-19 BCE). Ancient Rome’s most famous poet, composed the pastoral Eclogues in hexameters (between 42 and 39 BCE); Georgics, a didactic poem in four books of hexameters (completed in 29 BCE); the Aeneid, an epic poem in twelve books of hexameters, published by the executors of his will. The Aeneid became Rome’s national epic. - Plutarch (c. 46-120 CE), Greek biographer and essayist, known for his Parallel Lives and Moralia. - Pliny the Elder (23-79 CE), Roman author, naturalist, natural philosopher. Composed the encyclopedic Naturalis Historia (Natural History), uncle of Pliny the Younger. Died during the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 CE. Paul Zanker, The Power of Images in the Age of Augustus, p62: 1 of 12 Propertius, Elegies 3.11 [edited and translated by G. P. Goold, 1990, Loeb Classical Library] Quid mirare, meam si versat femina vitam Why wonder that a woman governs my life, and hauls off et trahit addictum sub sua iura virum, a man in bondage to her sway? Why do you frame criminaque ignavi capitis mihi turpia fingis, shameful charges of cowardice against me because I quod nequeam fracto rumpere vincla iugo? cannot burst my bonds and break the yoke? The sailor ventorum melius praesagit navita morem, 5 best predicts the temper of the winds; the soldier has vulneribus didicit miles habere metum. learned from his wounds to feel fear. Words like yours I ista ego praeterita iactavi verba iuventa: used to utter in my bygone youth: learn now from my tu nunc exemplo disce timere meo. example to be afraid. The witch of Colchis forced the fire- Colchis flagrantis adamantina sub iuga tauros breathing bulls under a yoke of adamant, sowed the seed egit et armigera proelia sevit humo, 10 of battle for the soil to produce armed warriors, and shut custodisque feros clausit serpentis hiatus, the fierce jaws of the guardian serpent, that the golden iret ut Aesonias aurea lana domos. fleece might go to Aeson’s halls. Penthesilea, the fierce ausa ferox ab equo quondam oppugnare sagittis maid of Maeotis, once dared from horseback to attack the Maeotis Danaûm Penthesilea rates; ships of the Greeks with arrows, and when the golden aurea cui postquam nudavit cassida frontem, 15 helm was lifted to reveal her face, her shining beauty vicit victorem candida forma virum. conquered her male conqueror. Omphale, the Lydian girl Omphale in tantum formae processit honorem, who bathed in Gyges’ lake, won such renown for her Lydia Gygaeo tincta puella lacu, beauty that he who had set up his pillars in the world he ut, qui pacato statuisset in orbe columnas, had pacified plucked with his brute hands soft tasks of tam dura traheret mollia pensa manu. 20 wool. Semiramis built Babylon, the Persians’ capital, by Persarum statuit Babylona Semiramis urbem, rearing a solid edifice with wall of brick such that two ut solidum cocto tolleret aggere opus, chariots might be sent against each other along the et duo in adversum mitti per moenia currus ramparts and yet not scrape their sides with an axle’s nec possent tacto stringere ab axe latus; touch; and she channelled the Euphrates through the duxit et Euphraten medium, quam condidit, arcis, 25 middle of the citadel she founded and commanded iussit et imperio subdere Bactra caput. Bactra to bow its head to her sway. Enough, for why nam quid ego heroas, quid raptem in crimina divos? should I bring gods and heroes to trial on this account? Iuppiter infamat seque suamque domum. Jupiter shames himself and his whole house. What of her quid, modo quae nostris opprobria nexerit armis, who of late has fastened disgrace upon our arms, and, a et, famulos inter femina trita suos, 30 woman who fornicated even with her slaves, demanded coniugii obsceni pretium Romana poposcit as the price of her shameful union the walls of Rome and moenia et addictos in sua regna Patres? the senate made over to her dominion? Guilty Alexandria, noxia Alexandria, dolis aptissima tellus, land ever ready for treason, and Memphis, so often et totiens nostro Memphi cruenta malo, blood-stained at our cost, where the sand robbed Pompey tris ubi Pompeio detraxit harena triumphos, 35 of his three triumphs, no day shall ever wash you clean of tollet nulla dies hanc tibi, Roma, notam. this infamy, Rome. Better had your funeral processed issent Phlegraeo melius tibi funera campo, over the Phlegrean fields, or had you been doomed to vel tua si socero colla daturus eras. bow your neck to your father-in-law! To be sure, the scilicet incesti meretrix regina Canopi, harlot queen of licentious Canopus, the one disgrace una Philippeo sanguine adusta nota, 40 branded on Philip’s line, 2 of 12 ausa Iovi nostro latrantem opponere Anubim, dared to pit barking Anubis against our Jupiter and to et Tiberim Nili cogere ferre minas, force the Tiber to endure the threats of the Nile, to Romanamque tubam crepitanti pellere sistro, drive out the Roman trumpet with the rattling sistrum baridos et contis rostra Liburna sequi, and with the poles of her barge pursue the beaks of our foedaque Tarpeio conopia tendere saxo, 45 galleys, to stretch effeminate mosquito-nets on the iura dare et statuas inter et arma Mari! Tarpeian rock and give judgement amid the arms and quid nunc Tarquinii fractas iuvat esse secures, statues of Marius. What profit now is it to have broken nomine quem simili vita superba notat, the axes of that Tarquin whose proud life gave him a si mulier patienda fuit? cane, Roma, triumphum title derived from it, had we been fated to bear a et longum Augusto salva precare diem! 50 woman’s yoke? Sing out your triumph, Rome, and, fugisti tamen in timidi vaga flumina Nili, saved, pray long life for Augustus. Yet you fled to the nec cepere tuae Romula vincla manus. wandering outlets of the craven Nile—not that your bracchia spectasti sacris admorsa colubris, hands received Roman fetters. You endured the sight et trahere occultum membra soporis iter. of your arms bitten by the sacred asps and your limbs ‘Non hoc, Roma, fui tanto tibi cive verenda!’ 55 channelling the stealthy route of the numbing poison. dixit et assiduo lingua sepulta mero. ‘Having so great a citizen as this, O Rome, you need septem urbs alta iugis, toti quae praesidet orbi, not have feared me’: thus spoke even a tongue stat non humana deicienda manu. drenched in ceaseless toping. The city set high on haec di condiderunt, haec di quoque moenia servant: 65 seven hills which presides over the whole world stands vix timeat salvo Caesare Roma Iovem. 66 not to be destroyed by human hand. These walls the nunc ubi Scipiadae classes, ubi signa Camilli, 67 gods have founded, and these the gods also protect: aut modo Pompeia, Bospore, capta manu? 68 whilst Caesar lives Rome should hardly fear Jupiter. So Hannibalis spolia et victi monumenta Syphacis, what does Scipio’s armada count for now, what et Pyrrhi ad nostros gloria fracta pedes? 60 Camillus’ standards, or the recent capture of Bosporus Curtius expletis statuit monumenta lacunis, by Pompey’s might? What count the spoils won from admisso Decius proelia rupit equo, Hannibal, the trophies of conquered Syphax, and Coclitis abscissos testatur semita pontes, Pyrrhus’ glory shattered at our feet? Curtius by filling a est cui cognomen corvus habere dedit: chasm made himself a lasting memorial; spurring his Leucadius versas acies memorabit Apollo: 69 horse Decius broke the enemy’s line; the path of Cocles tanti operis bellum sustulit una dies. 70 still tells of the cutting of the bridge, and there is the at tu, sive petes portus seu, navita, linques, hero to whom a raven gave his name: Leucadian Apollo Caesaris in toto sis memor Ionio. will tell of a host turned in flight: one day put an end to a war of such vast array.But do you, sailor, whether you enter or leave harbour, remember Caesar over all the Ionian sea. 3 of 12 Horace, Epode 9 [edited and translated by Niall Rudd, 2004, Loeb Classical Library] Quando repostum Caecubum ad festas dapes When, happy Maecenas, shall I drink with you, in joy victore laetus Caesare at Caesar’s victory, in your high house (for that’s what tecum sub alta—sic Iovi gratum—domo, the god intends) the Caecuban that has been laid by beate Maecenas, bibam for a banquet of celebration, while the lyre sounds sonante mixtum tibiis carmen lyra, 5 forth its Dorian music12 mingled with the foreign hac Dorium, illis barbarum, notes of the pipe? That’s what we did, not long ago, ut nuper, actus cum freto Neptunius when the ships of Neptune’s general13 were burnt, dux fugit ustis navibus, and he fled, driven from the sea—the man who had minatus Urbi vincla, quae detraxerat threatened to fasten on the capital the chains he had servis amicus perfidis? 10 removed from the treasonous slaves whom he had Romanus, eheu,—posteri negabitis— befriended.

Load more

  12

Copy Link