DOCSLIB.ORG

Numa and Jupiter: Whose Smile Is It, Anyway?

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Numa and Jupiter: Whose Smile Is It, Anyway? University of Calgary PRISM: University of Calgary's Digital Repository Arts Arts Research & Publications 2021-06-14 Numa and Jupiter: Whose Smile Is It, Anyway? Driediger-Murphy, Lindsay G. Cambridge University Press, Classical Association Driediger-Murphy, L. (2021). Numa and Jupiter: Whose Smile Is It, Anyway? The Classical Quarterly, 71(1), 259-275. doi:10.1017/S0009838821000227 http://hdl.handle.net/1880/113600 journal article https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0 This version is the Accepted Manuscript (a.k.a. Post-print), accepted for publication in the journal. This version has been revised following peer review but was subject to further editorial input by Cambridge University Press. This version is made available to this institutional repository on acceptance of publication, in accordance with the copyright terms and conditions of Cambridge University Press. The Version of Record (a.k.a. publisher's version) is available as a view-only file through Cambridge Core Share at this address: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/classical-quarterly/article/numa-and-jupiter-whose-smile-is-it-anyway/920201DB4C14523C3264EC3487533D85/share/f9f5662ce7ad1712f44dd4d00adfc73c54ee3fc5 . Unless otherwise indicated, this material is protected by copyright and has been made available with authorization from the copyright owner. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission. Downloaded from PRISM: https://prism.ucalgary.ca 1 NUMA AND JUPITER: WHOSE SMILE IS IT, ANYWAY? Roman tradition held that Numa and his people had once been terrified by frequent lightning bolts, signs of the wrath of Jupiter. Using a secret spell or ritual, the king called the god down to the Aventine Hill to ask how to expiate the portents. The god responded with what sounded like a demand for human sacrifice. The king, however, talked back. When Jupiter demanded a ‘head’ (caput, κεφαλή), Numa offered: ‘The head of an onion’ (caepa, capite caepicio, κρόµµυον). Jupiter rejoined, ‘Of a human being’; Numa supplied: ‘The hairs.’ Jupiter gave it one more try, clarifying ‘A life’ (anima); Numa responded: ‘Of a fish!’ Agreement was reached, and from then on Romans expiated lightning at the shrine of Jupiter Elicius with an onion, some human hairs, and a fish. This myth is probably early.1 It was known to the annalist L. Calpurnius Piso (writing probably in the last quarter of the second century B.C.),2 and a version of it is attributed to the Sullan annalist Valerius Antias, though this survives only in a quotation by the Christian polemicist Arnobius of Sicca.3 Livy alludes to the myth, though he does not provide a full telling of it.4 Complete versions survive in only three texts of markedly different dates and genres: 1 Wiseman posits a dramatic version predating our surviving references: T.P. Wiseman, ‘Tales Unworthy of the Gods’, in id., Roman Drama and Roman History (Exeter, 1998), 17–24, at 22; T.P. Wiseman, ‘Summoning Jupiter: Magic in the Roman Republic’, in id., Unwritten Rome (Exeter, 2008), 155–66, at 165–6. 2 Plin. HN 28.14 (L. Calpurnius Piso fr.13P=fr.15bCornell), with T.J. Cornell (ed.), The Fragments of the Roman Historians (Oxford, 2013), 3.200–1. 3 Arn. Adv. nat. 5.1 (Valerius Antias fr.6P=fr.8Cornell). 4 Livy 1.19.4; 20.7; 31.6–8. 2 Ovid’s Fasti (3.277–377, probably begun in the early years of our era and revised A.D. 14–17),5 Plutarch’s Life of Numa (15, written sometime after the death of Domitian in A.D. 96),6 and Arnobius’ Christian apologetic Against the Gentiles (5.1–4, composed between the 290’s and the early fourth century A.D.), which combines the aforementioned quotation from Antias with Arnobius’ comments in his own voice.7 Modern studies of this myth have proposed four main interpretations of it: 1) Jupiter is beaten or tricked by Numa; 2) Jupiter yields because he learns that there are limits to what a Roman god can ask from human beings; 3) Jupiter is testing Numa in the use of words to manage divine-human interactions; 5 For dating, see S.J. Green, Ovid, Fasti 1: A Commentary (Leiden and Boston, 2004), 15–23. The edition used here is that of E.H. Alton, D.E.W. Wormell, and E. Courtney (Teubner, 1997, 4th edition). Translations are my own unless otherwise noted. 6 For dating, cf. C.P. Jones, ‘Towards a Chronology of Plutarch’s Works’, JRS 56 (1966), 61– 74; C. Pelling, Plutarch: Caesar (Oxford, 2011), 2; Wiseman 2008 (n. 1), 159. The edition used here is that of K. Ziegler (Teubner, 1973); the section divisions and translation are those of B. Perrin (Loeb Classical Library, 1914). 7 I accept a date of composition from c. A.D. 303: M.B. Simmons, Arnobius of Sicca: Religious Conflict and Competition in the Age of Diocletian (Oxford, 1995), 47–93; T.D. Barnes, ‘Monotheists All?’, Phoenix 55.1/2 (2001): 142–62, at 152–3. The edition used here is that of C. Marchesi (Corpus Scriptorum Latinorum Paravianum, Turin, 1953, 2nd edition). Unless otherwise noted the translation follows that of H. Bryce and H. Cambell (Ante-Nicene Christian Library vol. 19, 1895). 3 4) Numa’s negotiation with Jupiter exemplifies a calm and unemotional kind of piety, which Romans saw as the ideal form of religiosity. Some scholars derive these interpretations from the particular versions of Antias, Arnobius, Ovid, or Plutarch, whilst others see one or more of these readings as applying to the myth in general. These interpretations have done important service in modern reconstructions of the character of Roman religion. In older work, Interpretations 1 (a ‘beaten Jupiter’) and 2 (a ‘yielding Jupiter’) were taken to epitomize a characteristically Roman style of legalistic bargaining with the gods (‘marchandage’), contributing to a long scholarly tradition of regarding Roman interactions with the divine as controlled and contractual.8 More recently, John Scheid and scholars following in his footsteps have used Interpretations 2 (a ‘yielding Jupiter’) and 4 (a ‘fearless Numa’) as evidence that Romans conceptualized divine-human interrelating as limited by a shared set of constraints, with gods expected to behave like citizens and humans expected to suppress their emotions through appropriate ritual practice.9 These scholarly treatments of the Aventine dialogue myth raise several questions. Firstly, are the four currently-prevalent interpretations actually supported by, or the most convincing way of reading, our surviving sources? If so, have they been correctly attributed? Why might a 8 E.g. J. Heurgon, Trois études sur le <<Ver sacrum>> (Brussels, 1957), 50–1; J. Bayet, Histoire politique et psychologique de la religion romaine (Paris, 1957), 141; G. Dumézil, La religion romaine archaïque (Paris, 1966), 53–4; G. Capdeville, ‘Substitution de victimes dans les sacrifices d’animaux à Rome’, MEFRA 83.2 (1971), 283–323, at 291; J. Poucet, Les origines de Rome: Tradition et histoire (Brussels, 1985), 197; R. Turcan, The Gods of Ancient Rome: Religion in Everyday Life from Archaic to Imperial Times (trans. A. Nevill) (Edinburgh, 2000), 4. 9 Refs. below in sections 2, 3, and 4. 4 specific ancient author present the myth of Numa and Jupiter in a manner which suggests one interpretation rather than another? What ideological and theological work does the story do for Ovid, for Plutarch, for Arnobius? Finally, can this myth, in whatever version, support the weight of the implications we have put on it for the character of Roman religion? Although valuable work has been done on some of these questions, they have seldom been considered holistically. Greater attention is needed, above all, to how the versions in our sources have been shaped by their authors’ goals, generic conventions, style, and religious beliefs. Steps in this direction have been taken for Ovid, but the results are often overlooked in studies of the Aventine dialogue specifically, whilst Plutarch and Arnobius remain underserved. Arnobius’ account, for example, is still often treated as a straightforward quotation from Valerius Antias, sometimes without any mention of Arnobius himself.10 In this paper, I endeavour to improve the accuracy of our understanding of this myth in its surviving versions, not just by analyzing the evidence for each of the four main interpretations, but also by considering why our ancient authors tell the myth of Numa and Jupiter the way they do. I will suggest that the ‘beaten 10 E.g. W. Krause, Die Stellung der frühchristlichen Autoren zur heidnischen Literatur (Vienna, 1958), 177; R. Schilling, Ovide: Les Fastes (Paris, 1992), 146; F. Mora, Arnobio e i culti di mistero: Annalisi storico-religiosa del V libro dell’Adversus Nationes (Rome, 1994), 68, 112– 13; M. Pasco-Pranger, ‘A Varronian vatic Numa? Ovid’s Fasti and Plutarch’s Life of Numa’, in D.S. Levene and D.P. Nelis (edd.), Clio and the Poets: Augustan Poetry and the Traditions of Ancient Historiography (Leiden, 2002), 291–312, at 297; F. Prescendi, Décrire et comprendre le sacrifice (Stuttgart, 2007), 195; D. Preseka, ‘Legendary Figures in Ovid’s Fasti’, AAntHung 48.1–2 (2008), 221–36, at 235; Wiseman 2008 (n. 1). Cornell et al. (n. 2), by contrast, exercise due caution, printing the purported quotation as a ‘reported or paraphrased version’ (see their typographical conventions). 5 Jupiter’ interpretation reveals new features of interest in Arnobius’ account, that the ‘yielding Jupiter’ sheds previously-unnoticed light on Plutarch’s philosophical commitments, that the ‘tested Numa’ of Ovid conceptualizes Jupiter as teacher and king rather than colleague, and that there are alternatives to the ‘fearless Numa’ proposed by Scheid.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • PDF Hosted at the Radboud Repository of the Radboud University Nijmegen
    PDF hosted at the Radboud Repository of the Radboud University Nijmegen The following full text is a publisher's version. For additional information about this publication click this link. http://hdl.handle.net/2066/79382 Please be advised that this information was generated on 2021-09-30 and may be subject to change. The Use of exempla in Roman Declamation Author(s): Marc van der Poel Reviewed work(s): Source: Rhetorica: A Journal of the History of Rhetoric, Vol. 27, No. 3, Special issue: An International Project on the Pseudo-Quintilianic Declamationes maioresSpecial issue: An International Project on the Pseudo-Quintilianic Declamationes maiores (Summer 2009), pp. 332-353 Published by: University of California Press on behalf of the International Society for the History of Rhetoric Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/RH.2009.27.3.332 . Accessed: 26/09/2012 10:21 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. University of California Press and International Society for the History of Rhetoric are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Rhetorica: A Journal of the History of Rhetoric. http://www.jstor.org Marc van der Poel The Use of exempla in Roman Declamation Abstract: In this paper I present a list of the exempla used in the four surviving ancient collections of declamations (see Appendix: checklist of exempla), with a brief survey of the theory of the exem- plum in rhetorical handbooks and discussion of a few samples from the Controversiae and the Declamationes maiores.Myobservations suggest that Seneca’s criticism of the use of exempla in declamations (Contr.
    [Show full text]
  • Valerius Maximus on Vice: a Commentary of Facta Et Dicta
    Valerius Maximus on Vice: A Commentary on Facta et Dicta Memorabilia 9.1-11 Jeffrey Murray University of Cape Town Thesis Presented for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Classical Studies) in the School of Languages and Literatures University of Cape Town June 2016 The copyright of this thesis vests in the author. No quotation from it or information derived from it is to be published without full acknowledgement of the source. The thesis is to be used for private study or non- commercial research purposes only. Published by the University of Cape Town (UCT) in terms of the non-exclusive license granted to UCT by the author. University of Cape Town Abstract The Facta et Dicta Memorabilia of Valerius Maximus, written during the formative stages of the Roman imperial system, survives as a near unique instance of an entire work composed in the genre of Latin exemplary literature. By providing the first detailed historical and historiographical commentary on Book 9 of this prose text – a section of the work dealing principally with vice and immorality – this thesis examines how an author employs material predominantly from the earlier, Republican, period in order to validate the value system which the Romans believed was the basis of their world domination and to justify the reign of the Julio-Claudian family. By detailed analysis of the sources of Valerius’ material, of the way he transforms it within his chosen genre, and of how he frames his exempla, this thesis illuminates the contribution of an often overlooked author to the historiography of the Roman Empire.
    [Show full text]
  • THE PONTIFICAL LAW of the ROMAN REPUBLIC by MICHAEL
    THE PONTIFICAL LAW OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC by MICHAEL JOSEPH JOHNSON A Dissertation submitted to the Graduate School-New Brunswick Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Program in Classics written under the direct of T. Corey Brennan and approved by ____________________________ ____________________________ ____________________________ ____________________________ New Brunswick, New Jersey October, 2007 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION The Pontifical Law of the Roman Republic by MICHAEL JOSEPH JOHNSON Dissertation Director: T. Corey Brennan This dissertation investigates the guiding principle of arguably the most important religious authority in ancient Rome, the pontifical college. Chapter One introduces the subject and discusses the hypothesis the dissertation will advance. Chapter Two examines the place of the college within Roman law and religion, giving particular attention to disproving several widely held notions about the relationship of the pontifical law to the civil and sacral law. Chapter Three offers the first detailed examination of the duties of the pontifical college as a collective body. I spend the bulk of the chapter analyzing two of the three collegiate duties I identify: the issuing of documents known as decrees and responses and the supervision of the Vestal Virgins. I analyze all decrees and responses from the point of view their content, treating first those that concern dedications, then those on the calendar, and finally those on vows. In doing so my goal is to understand the reasoning behind the decree and the major theological doctrines underpinning it. In documenting the pontifical supervision of Vestal Virgins I focus on the college's actions towards a Vestal accused of losing her chastity.
    [Show full text]
  • The Roman Army's Emergence from Its Italian Origins
    CORE Metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk Provided by Carolina Digital Repository THE ROMAN ARMY’S EMERGENCE FROM ITS ITALIAN ORIGINS Patrick Alan Kent A dissertation submitted to the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of History. Chapel Hill 2012 Approved by: Richard Talbert Nathan Rosenstein Daniel Gargola Fred Naiden Wayne Lee ABSTRACT PATRICK ALAN KENT: The Roman Army’s Emergence from its Italian Origins (Under the direction of Prof. Richard Talbert) Roman armies in the 4 th century and earlier resembled other Italian armies of the day. By using what limited sources are available concerning early Italian warfare, it is possible to reinterpret the history of the Republic through the changing relationship of the Romans and their Italian allies. An important aspect of early Italian warfare was military cooperation, facilitated by overlapping bonds of formal and informal relationships between communities and individuals. However, there was little in the way of organized allied contingents. Over the 3 rd century and culminating in the Second Punic War, the Romans organized their Italian allies into large conglomerate units that were placed under Roman officers. At the same time, the Romans generally took more direct control of the military resources of their allies as idea of military obligation developed. The integration and subordination of the Italians under increasing Roman domination fundamentally altered their relationships. In the 2 nd century the result was a growing feeling of discontent among the Italians with their position.
    [Show full text]
  • Roman Religion
    4 Roman Religion 1. “By pietas and fides the Romans Reached TheiR PResent eminence” the strength of Rome rested on a number of foundations. Among these were its extraordinarily vital political culture and its capacity to sustain warfare for extended periods of time. Previous chapters have emphasized these features, but in this chapter and the next, focus shifts to less obvious sources of Rome’s strength, namely the special character of its society whose dual foundations were the household and the civic religion of the city. Roman Religiosity during the period of the Republic, outsiders were struck by the religiosity of the Romans. In the second century b.c., Polybius, a Greek statesman and historian who lived much of his adult life in Rome, claimed that it was “scrupulous fear of the gods that kept the Roman commonwealth together” (6.56). A century or so later another expatriate Greek, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, was also impressed by the concern of Romans for religion. Writing about the second king of Rome, dionysius noted that as a result of Numa’s activities, Rome possessed more religious observances than any other city “Greek or non-Greek, even among those who thought of themselves as most god- fearing” (2.63). Needless to say, Romans themselves promoted the belief that fidelity to their oaths and treaties and their general reverence for the gods explained their imperial success. “the gods look kindly on these qualities, for it was by pietas and fides that Romans reached their present eminence” declared the consul Q. Marcius Philippus in 169 b.c.
    [Show full text]
  • WP2011.04 Lushkov, Citation and the Dynamics of Tradition in Livy
    Histos Working Papers . CITATION AND THE DYNAMICS OF TRADITION IN LIVY’S AUC In a recent article, titled “Historians without History: Against Roman Histo- riography”, J. E. Lendon provocatively decries the scholarly move towards seeing the Roman historians primarily as literary artists, complete with the poetic license to invent and distort: My contention here is that most contemporary writing in English about the Latin historians slights these historians’ concern for truth, and that indifference to so important a part of what the historians thought they were doing constitutes a pervasive affliction in the scholarship, infecting the cogency even of writing on topics – like the historians’ style – to which the truth or falsity of the historians’ report is strictly irrelevant. Lendon’s concern, that historiography somehow impoverishes history, de- rives at least in part from the notion that a literary approach to the Roman historians licenses a deep skepticism about their truthfulness, by analogy with poetry or the novel. As a consequence, he suggests, historiography has tended towards increasingly ingenious readings which identify the criterion of historical writing with a multitude of concepts in place of truth: probabili- ty, plausibility, verisimilitude, and so on. Literature has thus come to replace history as the template against which to read the historiographical output of the ancients, and with it follows a tendency towards seeing history as no dif- ferent than fiction. But if history remains different than fiction, it is nevertheless a literary genre, as Lendon fully appreciates. As Anthony Grafton has pointed out in a recent book on the footnote, history and literary art (as opposed to literary fiction ) are not easily decoupled: Historical texts are not simply narratives like any other; they result from the forms of research and critical argument that footnotes record.
    [Show full text]
  • Funerary Ritual and Urban Development in Archaic Central Italy by Jennifer Marilyn Evans a Disser
    Funerary Ritual and Urban Development in Archaic Central Italy By Jennifer Marilyn Evans A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Classical Archaeology in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor J. Theodore Peña, Chair Professor Christopher Hallett Professor Dylan Sailor Professor Nicola Terrenato Professor Carlos Noreña Spring 2014 Copyright 2014, Jennifer Marilyn Evans Abstract Funerary Ritual and Urban Development in Archaic Central Italy by Jennifer Marilyn Evans Doctor of Philosophy in Classical Archaeology University of California, Berkeley Professor J. Theodore Peña, Chair This dissertation examines the evidence for burial in archaic Rome and Latium with a view to understanding the nature of urban development in the region. In particular, I focus on identifying those social and political institutions that governed relations between city‐ states at a time when Rome was becoming the most influential urban center in the area. I examine the evidence for burial gathered primarily from the past four decades or so of archaeological excavation in order to present first, a systematic account of the data and second, an analysis of these materials. I reveal that a high degree of variation was observed in funerary ritual across sites, and suggest that this points to a complex system of regional networks that allowed for the widespread travel of people and ideas. I view this as evidence for the openness of archaic societies in Latium, whereby people and groups seem to have moved across regions with what seems to have been a fair degree of mobility.
    [Show full text]
  • Chapter Two: the Annalistic Form
    FORM, INTENT, AND THE FRAGMENTARY ROMAN HISTORIANS 240 to 63 B.C.E. By GERTRUDE HARRINGTON BECKER A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS OF THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2008 1 2008 Gertrude Harrington Becker 2 To Andy 3 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Many have helped me on my journey through the long Ph.D. process. Writing is often a lonely and isolating task but I was lucky never to feel alone. For that I owe thanks to a multitude of friends who cheered me, colleagues who read my work, my department (and Dean) at Virginia Tech which allowed me time off to write, and parents who supported my every step. I also thank the many women who showed me it was possible to complete schooling and a Ph.D. later in life, in particular my mother, Trudy Harrington, and my mother-in-law, Judith Becker. Above all, I thank my family: my children, Matt, Tim, and Trudy for their regular brilliance; and my husband, Andy, who is my center, cornerstone, and rock, this year, the past 21 years, and more to come. 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ...............................................................................................................4 ABSTRACT .....................................................................................................................................7 1 EARLY ROMAN HISTORIOGRAPHY: PAST AND PRESENT .........................................9 2 FOUNDERS AND FOLLOWERS: EARLY ROMAN ANNALISTS IN GREEK ..............37 Annales
    [Show full text]
  • Adriano La Regina, La Lancia E Il Toro
    LA CULTURA A CURA DI ENRICO NARCISO DELLA TRANSUMANZA GUIDA EDITORI Atti del Convegno promosso dal Comune di Santa Croce del Sannio dall'Istituto Storico « Giuseppe Maria Galanti» e dalla Comunità Montana « Alto Tammaro» 12-13 novembre 1988 LA CULTURA DELLA TRANSUMANZA a cura di Enrico Narciso Guida editori Il Convegno si è svolto con il contributo del Ministero ai Beni Culturali e Ambientali, della Regione Campania, della Comunità Montana « Alto Tammaro », del Comune di Santa Croce del Sannio. Copyright 1991 Guida editori Napoli Grafica di Sergio Prozzillo ISTITUTO STORICO « GIUSEPPE MARIA GALANTI» Comitato scientifico Raffaele Ajello, Raffaele Colapietra, Romeo De Maio, Giuseppe Galasso Giuseppe Giarrizzo, Marcello Gigante, Adriano La Regina Augusto Placanica, Fulvio Tessitore, Pasquale Villani ADRIANO LA REGINA La lancia e il toro I Sanniti hanno preso il nome dalle lane e che usavano portare e che i Greci chiamano saunia, oppure dal colle Sannio, ove si insediarono provenendo dalla Sabina. CosÌ viene riassunta da Paolo Diacono, contemporaneo di Carlo Magno, la voce Samnites nella sua epitome 1 del diziona­ rio De verborum significatu che Sesto Pompeo Festo aveva compilato nel II o nel III secolo d.C., riassumendo a sua volta l'enciclopedia omonima di Verrio FIacco, autore vissuto all' e­ poca e nella cerchia di Augusto. Coesistevano infatti, sulle origini dei Sanniti e del loro nome, due tradizioni distinte. La prima, formatasi in ambienti greci, è manifestamente infondata ma è tuttavia interessante, per comprendere i rapporti tra la Magna Grecia e il Sannio. L'altra, autoctona, è invece più aderente alla realtà, perché basata sulla evidente affinità etnica 1 Excerpta ex libris Pompei Festi de significatione verborum, Lindsay 1913, p.
    [Show full text]
  • Liberty and the People in Republican Rome Elaine Fantham Princeton University
    Liberty and the people in republican Rome Elaine Fantham Princeton University Why have I chosen to use our time together today on the theme of popular liberty at Rome? Certainly recent events have brought strongly to our minds the conflict between the values of liberty and security, but I do want to leave our present century behind, while concentrating on a value perhaps more talked about by politicians than interpreted. Many of us have at some time read and admired the monograph by Chaim Wirszubski, in which he carefully distinguished what the senatorial class meant by their own political liberty— freedom to govern—and that of the people, whose active exercise of liberty consisted largely in freedom to pass the laws recommended by their senatorial betters and to elect the magistrates whom the same elite governing class had kindly offered them. Instead I want to consider the personal liberty or free condition of the (adult male)Roman citizen, the man in the vicus: how it differed from that of non-citizens and slaves, and how he experienced the burdens and rights of citizenship. I have found one of the best guides is Claude Nicolet's le Métier de Citoyen, not least because Nicolet pays far more attention to the early and middle republic than most historians. But even Nicolet plays down the other aspects of citizenship when he discusses its implications in order to explain the half-way status Rome granted to the people of Caere, that is Roman citizenship without voting power. For myself I doubt that the power to vote, not just in elections but for legislation and in major popular trials, meant much to the average citizen: even if he lived near enough to come to the Comitium or the Campus, and could afford to leave his business untended, he would be voting in a mass unit which carried less weight than the many units of the elite knights and first class, a unit which might not even be called to vote if a majority had already been reached.
    [Show full text]
  • The Other Greeks: Metaphors and Ironies of Hellenism in Livy’S Fourth Decade
    THE OTHER GREEKS: METAPHORS AND IRONIES OF HELLENISM IN LIVY’S FOURTH DECADE DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of the Ohio State University By Douglas S. Freeble * * * * The Ohio State University 2004 Dissertation Committee: Professor Erik Gunderson, Adviser Approved by Professor Kirk Freudenburg, Co-Adviser ___________________________ Professor Sarah Iles Johnston Adviser Greek and Latin Graduate Program Copyright by Douglas Freeble 2004 ABSTRACT Already in the Praefatio of Livy’s work the metaphor of the importation of foreign influence is apparent. Livy chooses the annalistic narrative style as the most Roman form possible and a self -construction as an author who valorizes traditional Roman values. These authorial decisions on the modality of the narrative are intimately linked to tropology and the manufacturing of the metaphors and ironies that frame Livy’s text in books 31-45. Roman control in Thessaly is asserted by manufacturing communities in its image. These collapse miserably when the guiding Roman metaphors are questioned. The failure of Roman institutions is depicted as evidence of the restless nature of the Thessalians. A representative image of Thessaly is given in the character of Theoxena, a Thessalian exile who kills herself at a festival of Aeneas. Her story allows Romans to form an emotional bond with the Thessalians, although it maintains their essential alterity. The Galatian campaign of Manlius Vulso shows the dangers of Rome’s encounter with Hellenism. The Galatians are presented as Gallic-Greek hybrids who are no longer the great Gallic warriors of the past.
    [Show full text]
  • Tales of Rivalry in Rome
    Histos 9 (2015) LXX–XC REVIEW–DISCUSSION TALES OF RIVALRY IN ROME J. Neel, Legendary Rivals: Collegiality and Ambition in the Tales of Early Rome. Mne- mosyne Supplements. Monographs on Greek and Latin language and literature, 372. Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2014. Pp. x + 274. Hardcover, €114.00. ISBN 978-90-04-27269-9. omulus, Rome’s founder, had a twin brother, Remus. Since the broth- ers wished to found a city, and since only one of them could do that, R or at least only one of them could give his name to the city, the equality that came with being twins constituted a problem. This was solved by means of a competition, a competition that Romulus won (unambiguously, ambigu- ously, or just by cheating). At some stage afterwards, Remus was killed. This may have happened because Romulus’ victory was not certain, Remus’ men claimed victory for Remus, and a violent altercation ensued, or because Re- mus leapt over his brother’s walls. In some versions, it was Romulus himself who killed his brother, in others, a man called Celer, or, in one late version, an otherwise unknown and somewhat mysterious Fabius. And so on. But, if the city could only be founded by one individual, why should Rome’s founder have had a twin brother in the first place? The story is obvi- ously not historical, so Remus must have been invented for some reason; his existence must have served some purpose. For those who are prepared to draw comparisons with other mythological stories, ones broadly similar in nature, and to base arguments on those comparisons, the discerning of patterns and parallels may offer some explanation, or may simply move the problem into a much larger context where it may, or may not, be solved.
    [Show full text]