DOCSLIB.ORG

Pliny the Elder and His Place in Antique and Mediaeval Writings on Architecture

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Pliny the Elder and His Place in Antique and Mediaeval Writings on Architecture Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-07986-1 — Pliny the Elder and the Emergence of Renaissance Architecture Peter Fane-Saunders Excerpt More Information CHAPTER ONE PLINY THE ELDER AND HIS PLACE IN ANTIQUE AND MEDIAEVAL WRITINGS ON ARCHITECTURE efore embarking on a study of the renaissance response B to Pliny the Elder’s passages on architecture in the Naturalis historia, let us briefly consider the content and scope of his account, its place in the classical literary tradition, and its relationship to other writings covering architecture, above all to De architectura by Vitruvius.1 Pliny is unique among those ancient authors who describe buildings and the art of building. As we shall see, his text combines material from the architectural marvel tradition with information on proportions and construction typically found in technical treatises; his often breathless accounts of the Wonders of the World – stunning architectural set pieces erected around the Mediterranean basin to honour gods, heroes, and kings – are set alongside cool analyses of different building fabrics and structural elements. What is more, Pliny cleverly shapes these two strands to promote his overarching thesis: the world is rich in remarkable phenomena, both natural and manmade, but most of these have been assimilated, conquered, or surpassed by imperial Rome. De architectura inspires this argument, yet much of its theoretical material and terminology is jettisoned to suit Pliny’s audience of non-specialists. Perhaps as a result of this general appeal, Pliny’s curious account of architecture would remain influential well into late antiquity and the Middle Ages, more so than the strictures of Vitruvius’s work. 11 © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-07986-1 — Pliny the Elder and the Emergence of Renaissance Architecture Peter Fane-Saunders Excerpt More Information 12 PLINY THE ELDER AND HIS PLACE IN WRITINGS ON ARCHITECTURE the marvel tradition, its sources, and pliny’s foreign architectural marvels Pliny was by no means the first author to record instances of remarkable architecture. A rich vein of literature dealing with the Wonders of the World flourished in antiquity. The first signs can be observed in the work of Herodotus and fragments from Ctesias of Cnidus dating to the fifth century BC.2 While both authors would subsequently gain the unenviable soubriquet Father of Lies, their interest in the great and marvellous works of Asia –“ἔργα μεγάλα τε καὶ θωμαστά”3 – sparked the interest of subsequent generations. The tradition reached its apogee some two centuries later during the mid-Hellenistic period in the wake of Alexander the Great’s conquest of Egypt and the East.4 Callimachus of Cyrene (310/05–240 BC), a poet-scholar at the famed Library of Alexandria, composed a now-lost commentary, “ϑαυμάτων τῶνεἰς ἅπασαν τὴνγῆνκατὰ τόπους ὄντων συναγωγή,” or “Collection of Wonders across the Whole World [Listed] by Place.” The theme was continued in a later poem by Antipater of Sidon describing θεάματα, “things to be seen” (second century BC), fortunately preserved by a Byzantine scribe in the Anthologia Palatina, where we find the first surviving canon of seven buildings: the Walls of Babylon; the statue of Zeus at Olympia; the Hanging Gardens; the Colossus of Rhodes; the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus; the Pyramids; and, most impressive of all, the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus.5 The tradition continued in the writings of Greek and Roman authors closer to Pliny’s time, such as Diodorus Siculus,6 Strabo,7 Pausanias,8 Vitruvius,9 Propertius,10 and Martial.11 There were, in fact, two traditions that ran in tandem.12 The first was a canon of seven monuments, most of which are still familiar to modern readers, the original idea for which has been credited to Ctesias. The second group is less clearly defined and arose from political wrangling between cities, resulting in further marvels being added; by late antiquity this parallel collection included as many as thirty structures.13 The early canonical Seven, as given in Antipater, are all mentioned at some point in the Naturalis historia: from the Walls of Babylon (praised in Book VI on Near Eastern geography)14 to the Colossus of Rhodes and the chryselephantine statue of Olympian Zeus (both located in Book XXXIV on metals),15 then on to the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus,16 the Pyramids at Giza,17 the Hanging Gardens of Babylon,18 and the Temple of Diana (Artemis) at Ephesus19 (all four scattered around Book XXXVI).20 But judging from his use of language, Pliny subscribed to the second tradition as well;21 his descriptions of lesser-known structures are often prefaced by a verb that denotes communication –“legitur” (“it is read”), for instance, or “dicun- tur” (“they are said”) – suggesting that here, again, he relied on pre-existing written accounts.22 Consulting this more expansive list led Pliny to include © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-07986-1 — Pliny the Elder and the Emergence of Renaissance Architecture Peter Fane-Saunders Excerpt More Information PLINY THE ELDER AND HIS PLACE IN WRITINGS ON ARCHITECTURE 13 many more wonders than the canonical septem miracula. Indeed, some are known from his text alone.23 Pliny’s literary sources on marvellous architecture are many and varied. In Book I, he lists the subjects that he covers in each volume, followed by the authors that he consulted, both foreign and Roman.24 Afewofthenamesarestill familiar to us, but many more are obscure, their works extant only in fragments or known solely through Pliny. Of the foreign authorities, the best known are Herodotus and Theophrastus; others such as Juba, Demoteles, and Apion less so. Pliny does not name Strabo in his list of authors, but the brief description of early imperial Rome found in Strabo’s Geographia – perhaps derived from a common source – proved influential on his vision of Rome: both writers admire the sewers and aqueducts that had been cut through mountains, feats of engineering that they regard as utilitarian ornament to the city.25 Pliny was well versed, too, in Latin literature on the subject. In fact, the Naturalis historia contains excerpts about remarkable architecture taken from a wide range of Roman texts, most of which no longer survive. One of his most important sources was the republican-era polymath, Marcus Terentius Varro (116–27 BC); from various references and quotations in Book XXXVI, it is clear that Pliny turned to Varro’streatiseDe novem disciplinis, a composition that considered architecture worthy of being studied as a liberal art alongside grammar, dialectic, rhetoric, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, music, and medicine. Several of Pliny’s passages on exceptional marble sculpture, as well as his description of the peculiar tomb of the Etruscan king Lars Porsenna, derive from Varro’slostwork.26 Also prominent is Gaius Licinius Mucianus, one of Pliny’s contemporaries.27 Governor of Lycia, then of Syria, where he failed to put down the Jewish revolt and was replaced in 69 AD by Vespasian, Mucianus compiled a treatise – now lost – on the natural history and geography of the East that covered the miraculous events, architecture, and phenomena that he had either encountered directly or heard others recollect. Pliny incorporates a number of Mucianus’s observations on a variety of topics, from the petrification of funerary goods28 to the vast numbers of statues on the island of Rhodes.29 Not surprisingly, given this rich seam of source material, Pliny’s catalogue of ancient architectural marvels is the most varied to have survived from the antique world. Book I lists a series of overseas structures, the opera mirabilia in terris (“marvellous works in foreign lands”), a lively selection of monuments made from various types of stone that is as diverse as any presented by a Greek historian and, for the most part, unavailable in other classical sources: The Egyptian Sphinx The Pyramids The Pharos [Lighthouse at Alexandria] Labyrinths [Egyptian; Cretan; Lemnian; Etruscan] © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-07986-1 — Pliny the Elder and the Emergence of Renaissance Architecture Peter Fane-Saunders Excerpt More Information 14 PLINY THE ELDER AND HIS PLACE IN WRITINGS ON ARCHITECTURE Hanging Gardens A hanging city [Thebes in Egypt] The Temple of Diana at Ephesus Remarkable aspects of other temples [buildings at Cyzicus] The fugitive stone The sevenfold echo Buildings without nails30 These headings relate to a substantial section that begins roughly a third of the way into Book XXXVI. For compositional reasons, two other structures are located slightly earlier in the same book: the “Mausoleum of Caria”–that is, the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus – features in connection with artists working in marble; while the discussion of obelisks, including “the one that acts as the upright pin of an astronomical device [gnomon] in the Campus Martius,” is incorporated into a previous chapter dealing with the applications of red granite.31 pliny, vitruvius, and the glories of ancient rome To counterbalance the presence of so many far-off monuments in what was, after all, a composition aimed at a Roman audience, Pliny offers an immediate corrective: “eighteen wondrous works at Rome” (“Romae miracula operum XVIII”), a large section in Book XXXVI that is devoted solely to Roman architectural achievements. Linking the two parts – metaphorically and physi- cally – is the Sublician Bridge, which, in common with one famous foreign structure, had been erected in wood but without the use of nails.32 The choice is apt since the bridge had, by merit of its design, prevented Lars Porsenna from fording the Tiber, thus preserving Rome’s integrity from harmful foreign influ- ences – not least, the Etruscan passion for building outlandish monuments, notably the type of labyrinth-tomb that Porsenna had raised to his personal glory.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • 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.
    [Show full text]
  • Supplied Through the Parthians) from the 1St Century BC, Even Though the Romans Thought Silk Was Obtained from Trees
    Chinese Silk in the Roman Empire Trade with the Roman Empire followed soon, confirmed by the Roman craze for Chinese silk (supplied through the Parthians) from the 1st century BC, even though the Romans thought silk was obtained from trees: The Seres (Chinese), are famous for the woolen substance obtained from their forests; after a soaking in water they comb off the white down of the leaves... So manifold is the labor employed, and so distant is the region of the globe drawn upon, to enable the Roman maiden to flaunt transparent clothing in public. -(Pliny the Elder (23- 79, The Natural History) The Senate issued, in vain, several edicts to prohibit the wearing of silk, on economic and moral grounds: the importation of Chinese silk caused a huge outflow of gold, and silk clothes were considered to be decadent and immoral: I can see clothes of silk, if materials that do not hide the body, nor even one's decency, can be called clothes... Wretched flocks of maids labour so that the adulteress may be visible through her thin dress, so that her husband has no more acquaintance than any outsider or foreigner with his wife's body. -(Seneca the Younger (c. 3 BCE- 65 CE, Declamations Vol. I) The Roman historian Florus also describes the visit of numerous envoys, included Seres (perhaps the Chinese), to the first Roman Emperor Augustus, who reigned between 27 BCE and 14 CE: Even the rest of the nations of the world which were not subject to the imperial sway were sensible of its grandeur, and looked with reverence to the Roman people, the great conqueror of nations.
    [Show full text]
  • Ancient Authors 297
    T Ancient authors 297 is unknown. His Attic Nights is a speeches for the law courts, collection of essays on a variety political speeches, philosophical ANCIENT AUTHORS of topics, based on his reading of essays, and personal letters to Apicius: (fourth century AD) is the Greek and Roman writers and the friends and family. name traditionally given to the lectures and conversations he had Columella: Lucius Iunius author of a collection of recipes, heard. The title Attic Nights refers Moderatus Columella (wrote c.AD de Re Coquinaria (On the Art of to Attica, the district in Greece 60–65) was born at Gades (modern Cooking). Marcus Gavius Apicius around Athens, where Gellius was Cadiz) in Spain and served in the was a gourmet who lived in the living when he wrote the book. Roman army in Syria. He wrote a early first centuryAD and wrote Cassius Dio (also Dio Cassius): treatise on farming, de Re Rustica about sauces. Seneca says that he Cassius Dio Cocceianus (c.AD (On Farming). claimed to have created a scientia 150–235) was born in Bithynia. He popīnae (snack bar cuisine). Diodorus Siculus: Diodorus had a political career as a consul (wrote c.60–30 BC) was a Greek Appian: Appianos (late first in Rome and governor of the from Sicily who wrote a history of century AD–AD 160s) was born in provinces of Africa and Dalmatia. the world centered on Rome, from Alexandria, in Egypt, and practiced His history of Rome, written in legendary beginnings to 54 BC. as a lawyer in Rome.
    [Show full text]
  • Pliny's "Vesuvius" Narratives (Epistles 6.16, 6.20)
    Edinburgh Research Explorer Letters from an advocate: Pliny's "Vesuvius" narratives (Epistles 6.16, 6.20) Citation for published version: Berry, D 2008, Letters from an advocate: Pliny's "Vesuvius" narratives (Epistles 6.16, 6.20). in F Cairns (ed.), Papers of the Langford Latin Seminar . vol. 13, Francis Cairns Publications Ltd, pp. 297-313. Link: Link to publication record in Edinburgh Research Explorer Document Version: Early version, also known as pre-print Published In: Papers of the Langford Latin Seminar Publisher Rights Statement: ©Berry, D. (2008). Letters from an advocate: Pliny's "Vesuvius" narratives (Epistles 6.16, 6.20). In F. Cairns (Ed.), Papers of the Langford Latin Seminar . (pp. 297-313). Francis Cairns Publications Ltd. General rights Copyright for the publications made accessible via the Edinburgh Research Explorer is retained by the author(s) and / or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing these publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. Take down policy The University of Edinburgh has made every reasonable effort to ensure that Edinburgh Research Explorer content complies with UK legislation. If you believe that the public display of this file breaches copyright please contact [email protected] providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 29. Sep. 2021 LETTERS FROM AN ADVOCATE: Pliny’s ‘Vesuvius’ Narratives (Epp. 6.16, 6.20)* D.H. BERRY University of Edinburgh To us in the modern era, the most memorable letters of Pliny the Younger are Epp. 6.16 and 6.20, addressed to Cornelius Tacitus.
    [Show full text]
  • Under the Influence of Art: the Effect of the Statues of Horatius Cocles and Cloelia on Valerius
    Under the Influence of Art: The Effect of the Statues of Horatius Cocles and Cloelia on Valerius Maximus’ Facta et Dicta Memorabilia In his work, Facta et Dicta Memorabilia, Valerius Maximus stated in the praefatio of his chapter “De Fortitudine” that he will discuss the great deeds of Romulus, but cannot do so without bringing up one example first; someone whose similarly great deeds helped save Rome (3.2.1-2). This great man is Horatius Cocles. Valerius Maximus noted that he must next talk about another hero, Cloelia, after Horatius Cocles because they fight the same enemy, at the same time, at the same place, and both perform facta memorabilia to save Rome (3.2.2-3). Valerius Maximus mentioned Horatius Cocles and Cloelia together, as if they are a joined pair that cannot be separated. Yet there is another legendary figure, Mucius Scaevola, who also fights the same enemy, at the same time, and also performs facta memorabilia to save Rome. It is strange both that Valerius Maximus seemed compelled to unite Cloelia with the mention of Horatius Cocles, and also that he did not include Mucius Scaevola. Instead, Scaevola’s story is at the beginning of the next chapter (3.3.1). Traditionally these three heroes, Horatius Cocles, Cloelia, and Mucius Scaevola, were mentioned together by historians such as Livy and Dionysius of Halicarnassus, whose works predate Valerius Maximus’ (Ab Urbe Condita 2.10-13, Roman Antiquities 5.23-35). Valerius Maximus was able to split up the triad, despite the tradition, without receiving flack because it had already been done by Virgil in the Aeneid, where he described the dual images of Cocles and Cloelia on Aeneas’ shield, but Scaevola is absent (8.646-651).
    [Show full text]
  • Pliny's Poisoned Provinces
    A DANGEROUS ART: GREEK PHYSICIANS AND MEDICAL RISK IN IMPERIAL ROME DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Molly Ayn Jones Lewis, B.A., M.A. ********* The Ohio State University May, 2009 Dissertation Committee: Duane W. Roller, Advisor Approved by Julia Nelson Hawkins __________________________________ Frank Coulson Advisor Greek and Latin Graduate Program Fritz Graf Copyright by Molly Ayn Jones Lewis 2009 ABSTRACT Recent scholarship of identity issues in Imperial Rome has focused on the complicated intersections of “Greek” and “Roman” identity, a perfect microcosm in which to examine the issue in the high-stakes world of medical practice where physicians from competing Greek-speaking traditions interacted with wealthy Roman patients. I argue that not only did Roman patients and politicians have a variety of methods at their disposal for neutralizing the perceived threat of foreign physicians, but that the foreign physicians also were given ways to mitigate the substantial dangers involved in treating the Roman elite. I approach the issue from three standpoints: the political rhetoric surrounding foreign medicines, the legislation in place to protect doctors and patients, and the ethical issues debated by physicians and laypeople alike. I show that Roman lawmakers, policy makers, and physicians had a variety of ways by which the physical, political, and financial dangers of foreign doctors and Roman patients posed to one another could be mitigated. The dissertation argues that despite barriers of xenophobia and ethnic identity, physicians practicing in Greek traditions were fairly well integrated into the cultural milieu of imperial Rome, and were accepted (if not always trusted) members of society.
    [Show full text]
  • Rev6. Doody Ch
    Authority and Authorship in the Medicina Plinii1 Aude Doody Authority is central to the practice of medicine. In antiquity, in the absence of strong institutional frameworks guaranteeing a doctor’s credentials, creating the right impression of knowledge, skill and moral character was a serious concern for the individual practitioner. The instructions on everything from bedside manner to personal morality contained in ancient medical texts from the Hippocratic Corpus to Galen bear witness to the pressing nature of the doctor’s efforts to establish an authoritative persona which would encourage trust between himself and his patients. But if persuading the patient of his authority was important to the individual doctor, claims to authority were also central to the project of producing a medical text. A medical text needed to persuade the reader that its information was accurate and effective, and, as in the case of the doctor, this persuasion rested not just on proven results, but on persuasive strategies employed by the text’s author. As the articles in this volume demonstrate, these strategies vary from text to text and from author to author. Galen, for instance, claims authority through his engagement with philosophical concerns, the emphasis on the physician’s practical experience, his polemical and doxographical approach to earlier authorities, but he also relies on the creation of a strong authorial persona, his demonstration of careful philological practice, and the interplay between the many texts he has written.2 My aim here is to explore the specific problems that confront the author of a pseudonymous book of extracts, the Medicina Plinii, and the peculiar set of difficulties that its genre and its pseudonymity pose for how authority can be established.
    [Show full text]
  • A Reconsideration of Giovanni Vendramin's Architectural
    “The Triumph of the Text:” A Reconsideration of Giovanni Vendramin’s Architectural Frontispieces Lisandra Estevez Giovanni Vendramin (active 1466-1508) was one of the most emphasizes the treatment of the text as a monumental cul- distinguished Paduan miniaturists of the Quattrocento.1 Many tural artifact, evoking an idealized realm of classical learn- of the manuscripts that he illustrated were commissioned by ing, where the primacy of the written word is heralded. The Bishop Jacopo Zeno of Padua (r. 1460-1481), an important colossal architectural forms employed to construct an illus- humanist and patron of the arts.2 This paper will consider the trated frame for a particular passage are removed from their role of classicism and antiquarianism in the architectural fron- functional purpose and are converted to an ornamental scheme tispieces that Vendramin painted as a prominent introduction that ultimately serves as a support for a given text, highlight- to many of the books he decorated and suggest a new source ing the text as the central figural component. The addition of for them. These frontispieces are a major marker of the fasci- a monumental form in service of the text, thus, transformed nation with the revival of the Greco-Roman tradition during the character of the architectural frontispiece.3 the Renaissance, but have been less studied than related phe- Now let us compare the frontispieces to canon tables. The nomena in the monumental arts, for example, Mantegna’s canon table was developed in the fourth century by bishop paintings. The development of the new type of frontispiece Eusebius of Caesarae.4 It served as a concordance for the Gos- coincided with the publication of newly translated, edited, or pels in Byzantine manuscripts and functioned primarily within discovered classical texts such as Pliny the Elder’s Natural a religious context.
    [Show full text]
  • Pliny, the Eruption of Vesuvius
    CSCP Support Materials: Notes and Commentary Eduqas GCSE Latin Component 3A Latin Literature (Narratives) Pliny, The Eruption of Vesuvius For examination in 2020 and 2021 PUBLISHED BY THE CAMBRIDGE SCHOOL CLASSICS PROJECT Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge, 184 Hills Road, Cambridge, CB2 8PQ, UK http://www.CambridgeSCP.com © University of Cambridge School Classics Project, 2019 Copyright In the case of this publication, the CSCP is waiving normal copyright provisions in that copies of this material may be made free of charge and without specific permission so long as they are for educational or personal use within the school or institution which downloads the publication. All other forms of copying (for example, for inclusion in another publication) are subject to specific permission from the Project. Image Acknowledgments Image on pg. 9 ‘Vesuvius Looms’ courtesy of Paull Young [http://www.flickr.com/photos/paullyoung/429923584/in/photostream/] Images on pg. 15 courtesy of Big Albert [https://www.flickr.com/photos/52948047@N05/24356049443] and Andrea Schaffer from Sydney, Australia [CC BY 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)] Image on pg. 26 courtesy of Wellcome Images [CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0)] All other images taken from Cambridge Latin Course resources. First published 2019 version date: 14/08/2019 Contents Introduction .............................................................................................................. 1 Pliny the Younger ..................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • A Close Study of Pliny the Elder's Naturalis Historia
    SUMMA ABSOLUTAQUE NATURAE RERUM CONTEMPLATIO: A CLOSE STUDY OF PLINY THE ELDER’S NATURALIS HISTORIA 37 by EMILY CLAIRE BROWN B.A., The University of British Columbia, 2010 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES (Classics) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) December 2012 © Emily Claire Brown, 2012 ABSTRACT The focus of modern scholarship on Pliny the Elder’s Naturalis Historia tends towards two primary goals: the placement of the work and the author within the cultural context of late 1st century CE Rome and, secondly, the acknowledgement of the purposeful and designed nature of Pliny’s text. Following this trend, the purpose of this study is to approach Book 37, in which Pliny lists and categorizes the gems of the world, as a deliberately structure text that is informed by its cultural context. The methodology for this project involved careful readings of the book, with special attention paid to the patterns hidden under the surface of Pliny’s occasionally convoluted prose; particular interest was paid to structural patterns and linguistic choices that reveal hierarchies. Of particular concern were several areas that appealed to the most prominent areas of concern in the book: the structure and form of the book; the colour terminology by which Pliny himself categorizes the gems; the identification of gems as objects of mirabilia and luxuria; and the identification of gems as objects of magia and medicina. These topics are all iterations of the basic question of whether gems represent to Pliny positive growth on the part of the Roman Empire, or detrimental decline.
    [Show full text]
  • A Close Study of Pliny the Elder's Naturalis Historia
    SUMMA ABSOLUTAQUE NATURAE RERUM CONTEMPLATIO: A CLOSE STUDY OF PLINY THE ELDER’S NATURALIS HISTORIA 37 by EMILY CLAIRE BROWN B.A., The University of British Columbia, 2010 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES (Classics) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) December 2012 © Emily Claire Brown, 2012 ABSTRACT The focus of modern scholarship on Pliny the Elder’s Naturalis Historia tends towards two primary goals: the placement of the work and the author within the cultural context of late 1st century CE Rome and, secondly, the acknowledgement of the purposeful and designed nature of Pliny’s text. Following this trend, the purpose of this study is to approach Book 37, in which Pliny lists and categorizes the gems of the world, as a deliberately structure text that is informed by its cultural context. The methodology for this project involved careful readings of the book, with special attention paid to the patterns hidden under the surface of Pliny’s occasionally convoluted prose; particular interest was paid to structural patterns and linguistic choices that reveal hierarchies. Of particular concern were several areas that appealed to the most prominent areas of concern in the book: the structure and form of the book; the colour terminology by which Pliny himself categorizes the gems; the identification of gems as objects of mirabilia and luxuria; and the identification of gems as objects of magia and medicina. These topics are all iterations of the basic question of whether gems represent to Pliny positive growth on the part of the Roman Empire, or detrimental decline.
    [Show full text]
  • Ancient Concrete Works
    Ancient concrete works Amelia Carolina Sparavigna Dipartimento di Fisica Politecnico di Torino It is commonly believed that the ancient Romans were the first to create and use concrete. This is not true, as we can easily learn from the Latin literature itself. For sure, Romans were able to prepare high-quality hydraulic cements, comparable with the modern Portland cements. In this paper, we will see that the use of concrete is quite older, ranging back to the Homeric times. For instance, it was used for the floors of some courts and galleries of the Mycenaean palace at Tiryns. Introduction On April 12, 2011, in concurrence with an exhibition in the Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum of some ancient treasures of Greece, the BBC announced that Macedonians created cement three centuries before the Romans [1]. Unearthing some tombs of a royal complex belonging to Alexander the Great and his father Philip, at Vergina, archaeologists determined that Macedonians were “not only great warriors but revolutionary builders as well“, since they used concrete before the Romans. This information is quite interesting because shows the location of an early use of concrete. Unfortunately, if we want to shed light on the origin of the material, this simple comparison between Macedonian and Roman concretes is a little bit misleading. Moreover, it is raising another question: were Macedonians the first people using concrete? The answer is negative. Concrete was older even than Alexander the Great. Let me show you how we can deduce this fact from some Latin essays and their English translations and from the reports of Schliemann’s excavations of Mycenaean archaeological sites.
    [Show full text]