Pub Date : 2023-12-08DOI: 10.1353/acl.2022.a914034
D. Blyth
ABSTRACT:Polemic in ancient philosophy must be understood in terms of the evolution of critical rationality from the Presocratics until the Hellenistic schools. I argue that it takes three forms, of varying importance at different times, that both helped to define philosophy as a distinct social practice and methodologically drove its internal evolution. These forms are criticism of non-philosophical ignorance, attacks on alternative cultural practices, and technical criticisms of other philosophers and schools of thought. Technical criticisms only become more prominent than polemic against ignorance and alternative sources of expertise with the evolution of oral dialectic, while subsequently in the imperial era a textual approach to philosophy subordinated criticisms of other schools to the common rhetorical norms of literary and historiographical polemic.
{"title":"The uses of polemic in Ancient Philosophy","authors":"D. Blyth","doi":"10.1353/acl.2022.a914034","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/acl.2022.a914034","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT:Polemic in ancient philosophy must be understood in terms of the evolution of critical rationality from the Presocratics until the Hellenistic schools. I argue that it takes three forms, of varying importance at different times, that both helped to define philosophy as a distinct social practice and methodologically drove its internal evolution. These forms are criticism of non-philosophical ignorance, attacks on alternative cultural practices, and technical criticisms of other philosophers and schools of thought. Technical criticisms only become more prominent than polemic against ignorance and alternative sources of expertise with the evolution of oral dialectic, while subsequently in the imperial era a textual approach to philosophy subordinated criticisms of other schools to the common rhetorical norms of literary and historiographical polemic.","PeriodicalId":41891,"journal":{"name":"Acta Classica","volume":"50 31","pages":"11 - 29"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2023-12-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138587981","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}
Pub Date : 2023-12-08DOI: 10.1353/acl.2022.a914037
Paul Burton
ABSTRACT:Polybius (c. 200–118 bc) is a notoriously combative historian, gleefully attacking his fellow historians for their moral failings and intellectual crimes, and their works for their misleading errors and grave distortions. But Polybius sometimes appears guilty himself of some of the same faults he finds in others. This paper aims to assess Polybius’ quality and reliability as a writer of history on his own terms, that is, according to the strict standards he sets for other historians, with the ultimate aim of determining whether his Histories marks a return to the high historiographical standards set by Polybius’ famous predecessor Thucydides, or perpetrates the same historiographical high crimes and misdemeanours he accuses his contemporary historical writers of committing.
{"title":"Polemic in Polybius","authors":"Paul Burton","doi":"10.1353/acl.2022.a914037","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/acl.2022.a914037","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT:Polybius (c. 200–118 bc) is a notoriously combative historian, gleefully attacking his fellow historians for their moral failings and intellectual crimes, and their works for their misleading errors and grave distortions. But Polybius sometimes appears guilty himself of some of the same faults he finds in others. This paper aims to assess Polybius’ quality and reliability as a writer of history on his own terms, that is, according to the strict standards he sets for other historians, with the ultimate aim of determining whether his Histories marks a return to the high historiographical standards set by Polybius’ famous predecessor Thucydides, or perpetrates the same historiographical high crimes and misdemeanours he accuses his contemporary historical writers of committing.","PeriodicalId":41891,"journal":{"name":"Acta Classica","volume":"34 50","pages":"60 - 75"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2023-12-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138588912","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}
Pub Date : 2023-12-08DOI: 10.1353/acl.2022.a914032
Michael Edward Stewart
ABSTRACT:When attacking their enemies late Roman and Byzantine intellectuals recognized that words could be effective and sometimes deadly weapons. These authors have left some memorable polemics. Of these, the most famous and widely read today is the sixth-century Anecdota or Secret History by Procopius. This article examines the role polemic plays in the Secret History and particularly Procopius’ hostile portrait of his former superior, the general Belisarius. Capitalizing upon recent advancements made in our understanding of the possible literary and political context behind the Secret History, I suggest that Procopius’ seeming turn against Belisarius in this work, which inverts the historian’s heroic characterization of Belisarius from his De bellis or On the Wars, is best seen as a calculated piece of political manoeuvring rather than as evidence of the historian’s ‘true’ animosity towards the general.
{"title":"Bashing Belisarius: polemical characterizations in Procopius’ Secret History","authors":"Michael Edward Stewart","doi":"10.1353/acl.2022.a914032","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/acl.2022.a914032","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT:When attacking their enemies late Roman and Byzantine intellectuals recognized that words could be effective and sometimes deadly weapons. These authors have left some memorable polemics. Of these, the most famous and widely read today is the sixth-century Anecdota or Secret History by Procopius. This article examines the role polemic plays in the Secret History and particularly Procopius’ hostile portrait of his former superior, the general Belisarius. Capitalizing upon recent advancements made in our understanding of the possible literary and political context behind the Secret History, I suggest that Procopius’ seeming turn against Belisarius in this work, which inverts the historian’s heroic characterization of Belisarius from his De bellis or On the Wars, is best seen as a calculated piece of political manoeuvring rather than as evidence of the historian’s ‘true’ animosity towards the general.","PeriodicalId":41891,"journal":{"name":"Acta Classica","volume":"8 10","pages":"265 - 284"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2023-12-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138589701","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}
Pub Date : 2023-12-08DOI: 10.1353/acl.2023.a914046
Arsenio Ferraces-Rodríguez
ABSTRACT:In his doctoral thesis, Wiedemann gave the editio princeps of a short medical writing entitled Epistula quod per omnes curas adhibenda sunt dei medicamenta. The article draws attention to the acephalous condition of this Epistula and relates it to the incomplete preface of a late antique medical recipe book called Teraupetica. This preface, in its incomplete form, and the so-called Epistula quod per omnes curas are two membra disiecta of the same text that would have been separated by accident. The unified text constituted the original preface of the Teraupetica, which is now presented for the first time in a complete critical edition, along with its translation into Spanish.
摘要:在他的博士论文中，Wiedemann给出了一篇名为《医学论》(Epistula quod per omnes curas adhibenda sunt dei medicamenta)的短篇医学著作的编辑原则。文章提请注意这个Epistula的头部状况，并将其与一本名为Teraupetica的晚期古董医学处方书的不完整序言联系起来。这篇不完整的序言，和所谓的《众神论》，是同一文本的两个学科，可能是偶然分开的。统一的文本构成了《Teraupetica》的原始序言，现在第一次以完整的批评版本呈现，同时还翻译成西班牙语。
{"title":"Una epistula acéfala restituida a su lugar: el verdadero prefacio (cristiano) de los Teraupetica","authors":"Arsenio Ferraces-Rodríguez","doi":"10.1353/acl.2023.a914046","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/acl.2023.a914046","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT:In his doctoral thesis, Wiedemann gave the editio princeps of a short medical writing entitled Epistula quod per omnes curas adhibenda sunt dei medicamenta. The article draws attention to the acephalous condition of this Epistula and relates it to the incomplete preface of a late antique medical recipe book called Teraupetica. This preface, in its incomplete form, and the so-called Epistula quod per omnes curas are two membra disiecta of the same text that would have been separated by accident. The unified text constituted the original preface of the Teraupetica, which is now presented for the first time in a complete critical edition, along with its translation into Spanish.","PeriodicalId":41891,"journal":{"name":"Acta Classica","volume":"86 20","pages":"48 - 61"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2023-12-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138586830","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}
Pub Date : 2023-12-08DOI: 10.1353/acl.2023.a914058
N. Baker-Brian
{"title":"Polemic in Ancient Historiography, Literature, and Culture ed. by T. Stevenson (review)","authors":"N. Baker-Brian","doi":"10.1353/acl.2023.a914058","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/acl.2023.a914058","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":41891,"journal":{"name":"Acta Classica","volume":"41 9","pages":"209 - 212"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2023-12-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138587175","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}
Pub Date : 2023-12-08DOI: 10.1353/acl.2023.a914048
John Hilton
ABSTRACT:The Emperor Julian and Heliodorus, the author of the Aethiopica, both claimed descent from Helios, the supreme god of Neoplatonic philosophy in Late Antiquity, to whom many of Julian's ancestors, most notably Constantius Chlorus, also professed devotion. In his Hymn to King Helios, the emperor claimed to have private proofs of this that he did not wish to make public, but which appear to have had nothing to do with the taboo on divulging the mysteries of Mithras. There is a wide range of suggestive evidence in the historical record, from the hostile post-mortem testimony of Gregory of Nazianzus, to the anonymous slurs of the people of Antioch, the adulation of his own uneducated troops, and the coinage issued during his reign, that points to some genetic abnormality in his physical nature, most probably a form of albinism (an unknown condition at the time), which the emperor took as proof of the supernatural guidance of Helios in his life.
{"title":"Nature and the supernatural: the hereditary allegiance of the Emperor Julian to Helios","authors":"John Hilton","doi":"10.1353/acl.2023.a914048","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/acl.2023.a914048","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT:The Emperor Julian and Heliodorus, the author of the Aethiopica, both claimed descent from Helios, the supreme god of Neoplatonic philosophy in Late Antiquity, to whom many of Julian's ancestors, most notably Constantius Chlorus, also professed devotion. In his Hymn to King Helios, the emperor claimed to have private proofs of this that he did not wish to make public, but which appear to have had nothing to do with the taboo on divulging the mysteries of Mithras. There is a wide range of suggestive evidence in the historical record, from the hostile post-mortem testimony of Gregory of Nazianzus, to the anonymous slurs of the people of Antioch, the adulation of his own uneducated troops, and the coinage issued during his reign, that points to some genetic abnormality in his physical nature, most probably a form of albinism (an unknown condition at the time), which the emperor took as proof of the supernatural guidance of Helios in his life.","PeriodicalId":41891,"journal":{"name":"Acta Classica","volume":"35 9","pages":"109 - 80"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2023-12-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138588905","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}
Pub Date : 2023-12-08DOI: 10.1353/acl.2023.a914051
Ekaterina But
{"title":"'Don't rock the boat': the politics of ἜΡΩΣ in Cercidas' fragment 2 (Livrea)","authors":"Ekaterina But","doi":"10.1353/acl.2023.a914051","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/acl.2023.a914051","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":41891,"journal":{"name":"Acta Classica","volume":"29 43","pages":"163 - 174"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2023-12-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138588948","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}
Pub Date : 2023-12-08DOI: 10.1353/acl.2023.a914050
G. Roskam
ABSTRACT:This article deals with the tension between two points of interest in Plutarch's Theseus–Romulus. On the one hand, the pair is part and parcel of the Parallel Lives and should thus be understood in light of their 'zetetic moralism'. On the other hand, Plutarch pays much attention to questions of historical criticism, not only in the two biographies but even in the programmatic proem. These two issues, and their mutual relation and interplay, are examined against the background of Plutarch's Platonism (particularly his reception of the Timaeus). The task which Plutarch has set himself in this pair indeed bears comparison with that of the Demiurge who brought order to chaos. In that sense, Theseus–Romulus can be characterized as a project of 'demiurgic moralism'.
{"title":"Plutarch's demiurgic moralism in his Theseus–Romulus","authors":"G. Roskam","doi":"10.1353/acl.2023.a914050","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/acl.2023.a914050","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT:This article deals with the tension between two points of interest in Plutarch's Theseus–Romulus. On the one hand, the pair is part and parcel of the Parallel Lives and should thus be understood in light of their 'zetetic moralism'. On the other hand, Plutarch pays much attention to questions of historical criticism, not only in the two biographies but even in the programmatic proem. These two issues, and their mutual relation and interplay, are examined against the background of Plutarch's Platonism (particularly his reception of the Timaeus). The task which Plutarch has set himself in this pair indeed bears comparison with that of the Demiurge who brought order to chaos. In that sense, Theseus–Romulus can be characterized as a project of 'demiurgic moralism'.","PeriodicalId":41891,"journal":{"name":"Acta Classica","volume":"26 8","pages":"139 - 162"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2023-12-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138589615","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}
Pub Date : 2023-12-08DOI: 10.1353/acl.2022.a914036
Tom Stevenson
ABSTRACT:Although neither Herodotus nor Thucydides is known for ad hominem attacks, it should not be concluded that they avoid polemic or aim for uncontroversial expression or somehow precede an age of polemic. They certainly reflect polemical debates on a variety of issues and hold sharp views of their own on numerous matters, including the particular topic of how to write history (Thucydides often seems to tilt at Herodotus). Polemic, then, is a fundamental and complex feature of their work, with a range of literary, political, and historiographical factors underpinning its operation.
{"title":"Polemic in Herodotus and Thucydides","authors":"Tom Stevenson","doi":"10.1353/acl.2022.a914036","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/acl.2022.a914036","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT:Although neither Herodotus nor Thucydides is known for ad hominem attacks, it should not be concluded that they avoid polemic or aim for uncontroversial expression or somehow precede an age of polemic. They certainly reflect polemical debates on a variety of issues and hold sharp views of their own on numerous matters, including the particular topic of how to write history (Thucydides often seems to tilt at Herodotus). Polemic, then, is a fundamental and complex feature of their work, with a range of literary, political, and historiographical factors underpinning its operation.","PeriodicalId":41891,"journal":{"name":"Acta Classica","volume":"91 7","pages":"45 - 59"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2023-12-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138586400","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}
Pub Date : 2023-12-08DOI: 10.1353/acl.2023.a914057
W. Bloomer
{"title":"Reading by Example: Valerius Maximus and the Historiography of Exempla ed. by J. Murray and D. Wardle (review)","authors":"W. Bloomer","doi":"10.1353/acl.2023.a914057","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/acl.2023.a914057","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":41891,"journal":{"name":"Acta Classica","volume":"5 6","pages":"203 - 207"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2023-12-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138589630","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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