Pub Date : 2023-10-01DOI: 10.1353/tcj.2023.a909264
Joseph Diproperzio
Abstract: Pompey’s character in Lucan’s Bellum Civile provokes the same emotions as the tragic hero. Like an Aristotelian tragic hero, Pompey is condemned by fate but also exhibits certain defects which lead to his defeat and murder. Lucan focuses on the flaws of indecision and ambition which contribute to the general’s fall from his illustrious position. Although Pompey is intellectually and morally imperfect after the Battle of Pharsalus, he shows signs of improvement in both respects. At his assassination, moreover, Pompey accepts his place within fate, faces death magnanimously, and carries on the resistance against Caesar even after death.
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Pub Date : 2023-10-01DOI: 10.1353/tcj.2023.a909268
Kathleen Burt
Reviewed by: Author Unknown: The Power of Anonymity in Ancient Rome by Tom Geue Kathleen Burt Author Unknown: The Power of Anonymity in Ancient Rome. By Tom Geue. Cambridge, MA and London, UK: Harvard University Press, 2019. Pp. i-xii + 364. Hardback, $48.00. ISBN: 978–0-67–498820–0. Author Unknown takes as its central premise the idea that unknown, un-named or otherwise unclear authors and subjects have considerably more meaning and power in ancient texts than most philologists and literary scholars have historically wanted to admit. The author uses readings of several texts notorious for ambiguity or uncertainty of authorial attribution, audience or subject definition, to demonstrate various ways in which the obscuring or omission of names and labels can actually create meaning. The book consists of an introduction, three sections, each with a brief introduction of their own and containing two to three chapters (totaling eight main chapters), a conclusion, acknowledgements, notes, references, a general index and an index locorum. The introduction, subtitled “Literature Unmastered,” argues for the utility of key terms such as “anonymity” and “authority” that inform the central approach. It also offers an overview of the rest of the book, explaining the three thematic sections, and how the various chapters and authors examined therein contribute to the theme under which it is placed and to the overall thesis. The introduction concludes with some explanation of the overall style and approach, noting, “This is a risky book. I don’t expect it to win over many readers. But I hope it will continue the important work of shepherding these texts more into the mainstream of a community… that had often not known what to do with them, apart from exercise a scholarly mastery over them and work to put them in their place[1]” (25). While the author is clear about focusing largely on a close-reading strategy, he also acknowledges risks that come with engaging exclusively with the literary text (21) when there is basis in previous scholarship, a hazard he mitigates with the twenty-page long references section. Thematic section one, “The Power of the Name,” addresses the “politics of anonymity from various angles” (22). Chapter 1 examines the Res Gestae of Augustus, alongside works of Suetonius, to argue that Augustus strategically includes and excludes names to bolster his own imperial authority, while Suetonius includes the power of using names but also makes use of universal nameless knowledge to similar effect. Chapter 2 takes a similar idea but applies it to Ovid’s Ibis and how both text and author use anonymity against their victims. Chapter 3 continues with the examination of antonomasia in the Octavia and how the erasure of names results in multiple possibilities for the author, main character, context, date and audience; the “everyman” possibilities of the effect of removing names creates “a true play of the Unknown” (114). [End Page 118] The second thre
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Pub Date : 2023-10-01DOI: 10.1353/tcj.2023.a909269
Jo-Marie Claassen
Reviewed by: Land Expropriation in Ancient Rome and Contemporary Zimbabwe: Veterans, Masculinity and War by Obert Bernard Mlambo Jo-Marie Claassen Land Expropriation in Ancient Rome and Contemporary Zimbabwe: Veterans, Masculinity and War. By Obert Bernard Mlambo. London, UK: Bloomsbury Academic, 2022. Pp. xxvi + 246. Hardcover, $103.50. ISBN: 978–1-3502–9185–0. Should military veterans be rewarded with land, and, if so, where? These questions are of particular importance within an agrarian (pre-industrial) economy. The author of this book is from Zimbabwe. He here attempts a comparison between military veterans as agents of land expropriation as he experienced it at first hand in his own country and similar activities in late Republican Rome. His explicit intention is to clarify readers’ understanding of ancient forces in play under various Roman generals such as Sulla, Julius Caesar and Octavian by illuminating similarities and differences with his own lived reality, at times citing the experiences of his own sister and father during the War of Liberation in Zimbabwe and its aftermath, also quoting copiously from the writings of African contemporaries. A variety of ancient sources is consulted, including, among others, Vergil, Appius and Dio Cassius. Mlambo’s exposition is well founded on theory and extremely persuasive. He starts by arguing for the validity of such a comparative approach, quoting a variety modern approaches, even some aspects of feminist theory. Using these as points of departure, Mlambo looks at points of similarity (and some, remarkably few, differences) between the many land expropriations perpetrated by Roman generals to reward veterans’ loyalty or to ensure their continued fealty to their leaders and a similar process in his native country under Robert Mugabe. In the latter case, a sense of entitlement and bitterness against the white farmers, who from the 1890s onwards had taken their ancestors’ lands, fuelled the violent expropriation of (mostly) agricultural [End Page 120] land by Zimbabwean veterans. In many cases the latter dispossessed even fellow-Africans working on white-owned farms, causing new hardship in the country. In the first of eight chapters, Mlambo discusses the theoretical underpinnings of his approach, including thorough exploration of the concept of masculinity as a factor in veterans’ world-view, which involved both natural biology and culture. He also explains his own application of “practice theory” and his use of ancient sources. He cites Appian for a definition of war veterans as “those who fought on behalf of another” (30). Veterans were clients and instruments of the elite of both societies, who used both their clients’ bodies and their desire for land in order to achieve their own ends. Chapter 2 draws a detailed comparison between ancient Rome and modern Zimbabwe, with emphasis on both differences and similarities in the concept of “war veteran” in the two societies, the role of colonization
《古罗马土地征用与当代津巴布韦:退伍军人、男子气概与战争》作者:Obert Bernard Mlambo Jo-Marie Claassen罗伯特·伯纳德·姆兰博著。伦敦，英国:布卢姆斯伯里学院，2022年。第二十六页+ 246页。精装书,103.50美元。ISBN: 978-1-3502-9185-0。退伍军人应该得到土地奖励吗?如果应该，在哪里?这些问题在农业(工业化前)经济中尤为重要。这本书的作者来自津巴布韦。在这里，他试图将退伍军人作为土地征用的代理人进行比较，因为他在自己的国家亲身经历了这一点，而在共和后期的罗马，他也经历了类似的活动。他的明确意图是通过阐明与他自己生活的现实的异同，阐明读者对在苏拉、朱利叶斯·凯撒和屋大维等各种罗马将军统治下的古代力量的理解，有时引用他自己的妹妹和父亲在津巴布韦解放战争及其后果中的经历，也大量引用非洲同时代人的著作。参考了各种古代资料，其中包括维吉尔、阿皮乌斯和迪奥·卡修斯。姆兰博的论述有很好的理论基础，非常有说服力。他首先论证了这种比较方法的有效性，引用了各种现代方法，甚至是女性主义理论的一些方面。以这些为出发点，姆兰博着眼于罗马将军为奖励退伍军人的忠诚或确保他们继续忠于他们的领导人而实施的许多土地征用与他的祖国罗伯特·穆加贝(Robert Mugabe)统治下的类似过程之间的相似点(以及一些明显的差异)。在后一种情况下，一种权利意识和对白人农民的怨恨，这些白人农民从19世纪90年代开始夺取了他们祖先的土地，助长了津巴布韦退伍军人对(主要是)农业土地的暴力征用。在许多情况下，后者甚至剥夺了在白人拥有的农场工作的非洲同胞，给这个国家带来了新的困难。在八章的第一章中，Mlambo讨论了他的方法的理论基础，包括深入探索作为退伍军人世界观因素的男子气概概念，这涉及自然生物学和文化。他还解释了自己对“实践论”的运用和对古代资料的使用。他引用了阿皮安对老兵的定义:“那些为他人而战的人”(30)。退伍军人是两个社会精英的客户和工具，他们利用客户的身体和对土地的渴望来达到自己的目的。第二章对古罗马和现代津巴布韦进行了详细的比较，重点是两个社会中“退伍军人”概念的异同，殖民在两者中的作用(罗马是积极的殖民者，津巴布韦是被动的殖民受害者)，对尸体和伤口的“操纵”，社会上的伤疤和津巴布韦退伍军人背景下的“女性阳刚之气”与罗马女性的相对无助(有一些例外，比如马克·安东尼的妻子富尔维亚)。第三章讨论了土地所有权、男子气概(再次)和战争，特别引用了迪奥·卡修斯(Dio Cassius)对反对成功的罗马将军的城市公民的剥夺，而在津巴布韦，士兵，因此退伍军人，认为自己重新拥有了19世纪后期被英帝国主义殖民时期强行占领的土地。退伍军人是“夺回”祖先土地的斗争英雄，强调他们的英雄气概和权利意识，与罗马退伍军人的个人权利意识相比较，他们认为土地是对他们在为各自的将军战斗时所忍受的英勇苦难的奖励。第四章致力于姆兰博所称的“战争疯狂”——一种无意识的愤怒，这种愤怒会推动激烈的战斗，通常是肆意的破坏，正如卢坎、迪奥和阿皮安等作家所描述的那样，津巴布韦游击队也表现出来。在这两个社会中，女性往往是这种对战士的男子气概的断言的受害者。第五章的主题是……
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Pub Date : 2023-10-01DOI: 10.1353/tcj.2023.a909266
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Pub Date : 2023-10-01DOI: 10.1353/tcj.2023.a909265
David Woods
Abstract: Suetonius records that Augustus had predicted to the child Galba that he would taste imperial power, while Tacitus and Dio attribute a similar address to Tiberius. In this article I argue that Augustus addressed Galba as Suetonius claims, but that he did not intend his words to be understood in the way that they were, as a prediction that Galba would rise to the throne. I also argue that Tiberius was quoting Augustus when he addressed Galba in similar fashion, and that he did so to signify his belief that he had fulfilled the alleged ominous significance of Augustus’ words to him by his recent promotion of him.
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Pub Date : 2023-10-01DOI: 10.1353/tcj.2023.a909262
Ábel Tamás
Abstract: In the first seven lines of his opening proem, where we notoriously find a Hymn to Venus, Lucretius compensates the Muses with an invocative Muse-telestich spelling MuSAS/MuSIS, which is signposted by caeli … labentia signa and thus connected to the Aratean tradition of both heavenly and written “signs”. Moreover, Lucretius’ telestich establishes a firm tradition including (so far) Catullus, Vergil, Horace, Ovid, and Lucan, who mark some of their most emphatic—predominantly, but not exclusively, proemial—passages with variants of the Lucretian Muse-telestich and adjust them to their respective poetic programs. The Muse-telestich thus became a textual device by which Latin poets watermarked their highest poetic aspirations in exceedingly creative ways.
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Pub Date : 2023-10-01DOI: 10.1353/tcj.2023.a909263
Joshua M. Paul
Abstract: I argue that Ovid depicts Rome as a Golden Age at the beginning of Book 1 of the Ars Amatoria, long before he makes the comparison explicit in Books 2 and 3. My approach is largely comparative, as I consider motifs common across various representations of the aurea aetas , such as commerce between gods and men and the absence of sailing. I then consider this new vision of paradise on earth in the context of the four long-recognized treatments of the Golden Age in the Ars Amatoria. Ovid’s sense of irony exposes faults in supposed Golden Ages and instead praises modernity for reasons completely counter to the moralizing of the Augustan regime.
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Pub Date : 2023-10-01DOI: 10.1353/tcj.2023.a909267
Peter Edwell
Reviewed by: Rome, Parthia, and the Politics of Peace: The Origins of War in the Ancient Middle East by Jason M. Schlude Peter Edwell Response to Everett L. Wheeler’s review of Jason M. Schlude, Rome, Parthia, and the Politics of Peace: The Origins of War in the Ancient Middle East (London and Routledge, 2020) (CJ 118.4). It is not my usual practice to engage with claims made in book reviews but the publication of a review by Everett Wheeler of J. Schlude, Rome, Parthia and the Politics of Peace (Routledge, 2020) in the Classical Journal in 2022 requires a response for a number of reasons. One could legitimately argue that the whole tone of Wheeler’s review is problematic with its inclusion of sarcastic statements designed to do little more than denigrate their target but most readers would agree that they reflect more on Wheeler than the book under review. An egregious claim in the review, however, must be refuted as it is not only insulting to Dr Schlude but has implications for my own reputation. Wheeler claims “Much of the work’s (Schlude’s) first half is recycled from published articles and a 2017 anthology (often touted) of dubious merit, whereas the second half relies on a revised 2005 Macquarie dissertation with its own problems.” The footnote in the review refers to the monograph I published in 2008, which was based on the PhD I completed at Macquarie University, Sydney in 2006; P.M. Edwell, Between Rome and Persia: The Middle Euphrates, Mesopotamia and Palmyra and the coming of Rome. There is no elaboration of [End Page 116] what the problems are that Wheeler identifies in my book but it is clear even from a cursory investigation of Dr Schlude’s book that the second half of it does not “rely” on my book and there is no reason why it would. If Wheeler had read my book in any detail he would know that. Between Rome and Persia is principally a regional study focussed on Palmyra and the Middle Euphrates (with a detailed analysis of Dura Europos) during Rome’s rivalry with the later Parthian rulers and the early Sasanians. The extent to which my book was of benefit to Dr Schlude’s much broader study of the political function of Rome’s rivalry with the Parthian Empire is accurately reflected in the endnotes to Dr Schlude’s book. There is one reference to my book in the Introduction and no other references to it until chapter 7 (of an 8 chapter book) and the most detailed reference only relates to the location of the Roman legions on the Upper Euphrates from Vespasian to the early 3rd century (Chapter 7, endnote 8, p. 152; see also chapter 8, endnote 1, p.177). In the last three chapters of Dr Schlude’s book there are some references to a chapter I published in the 2017 volume edited by Dr Schlude (with Dr Benjamin Rubin, Arsacids, Romans and Local Elites: Cross-Cultural Interactions of the Parthian Empire) that similarly incensed Wheeler but these are not numerous. Wheeler’s claim regarding Dr Schlude’s reliance on my book is not only incorre
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Abstract:In this article I examine Philostratus’ engagement with the Indographic tradition in books 2 and 3 of the Vita Apollonii. A number of interconnected arguments are presented here. The main argument is that Philostratus carefully adapted details from the Indographic and paradoxographical traditions, allowing him to make witty allusions, both explicit and oblique, to them. This also allowed him to parody the critical doxographic habit of later commentators. Similarly, he sought to invert expectations when it came to the presentation of Alexander and the mythic heroes Dionysus and Heracles, as well as India more broadly. In doing so, Philostratus was able to present a utopian land of the Sophoi (within India) grounded in time and space that could ironically act as source of true Hellenism which Apollonius spread to the West (rather than Alexander spreading it to the East).
{"title":"Apollonius in India: The Vita Apollonii and the Indo-Graphic Tradition","authors":"M. Cobb","doi":"10.1353/tcj.2023.0011","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/tcj.2023.0011","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:In this article I examine Philostratus’ engagement with the Indographic tradition in books 2 and 3 of the Vita Apollonii. A number of interconnected arguments are presented here. The main argument is that Philostratus carefully adapted details from the Indographic and paradoxographical traditions, allowing him to make witty allusions, both explicit and oblique, to them. This also allowed him to parody the critical doxographic habit of later commentators. Similarly, he sought to invert expectations when it came to the presentation of Alexander and the mythic heroes Dionysus and Heracles, as well as India more broadly. In doing so, Philostratus was able to present a utopian land of the Sophoi (within India) grounded in time and space that could ironically act as source of true Hellenism which Apollonius spread to the West (rather than Alexander spreading it to the East).","PeriodicalId":35668,"journal":{"name":"CLASSICAL JOURNAL","volume":"19 1","pages":"440 - 473"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2023-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"75653379","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Inscribed Athenian Laws and Decrees in the Age of Demosthenes: Historical Essays by Stephen D. Lambert (review)","authors":"B. Cook","doi":"10.1353/tcj.2023.0017","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/tcj.2023.0017","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":35668,"journal":{"name":"CLASSICAL JOURNAL","volume":"396 1","pages":"490 - 492"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2023-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"86826579","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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