Roman History Books and More

cartimandua

In their series of articles for May 2008, the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography has an article on Cartimandua, queen of the Brigantes, mainly based on Tacitus' account.

posidonius (poseidonius) of apamea

It is only lately that I have come across Posidonius of Apamea (ca. 135 - 51 BCE), Stoic philosopher and acclaimed as the greatest polymath of his age.  What an interesting personality!  And what a shame that we have his work only in fragments.  He lived during the final era of the Roman republic and was supposedly a friend of  the exiled Rutilius Rufus, though I haven't found anything concrete yet on that issue.  Cicero claims to have studied with him during his stay in Rhodes.  Posidonius was the Rhodian ambassador to Rome in 87 - 86 BCE.

Wikipedia (as usual handle with care) has an extensive page on him.  Jona Lendering has a brief note.  The OCD, very informative, devotes several columns to Posidonius. (It also also contains the revealing tidbit that Cicero wanted Posidonius to write up his consulate, which the latter diplomatically declined.)

prosopography

Ronald Syme's The Roman Revolution, our upcoming chat subject, makes extensive use of prosopography (from prosopon, the Greek word for "character" or "person," together with graphein, the Greek verb "to write"), as defined by G.W. Bowersock:

"the cumulative study of the careers of individual people as a means of escaping from a more abstract, impressionistic, and doctrinaire historiography."

Dictionaries describe it as "a study that identifies and relates a group of persons or characters within a particular historical or literary context," or "a collection of biographical sketches used by social and political historians studying a particular historical period."

major characters in 'the ides of march' – cytheris, lucius mamilius turrinus

There are two more characters of note in the 'fantasia' The Ides of March by Thornton Wilder.

Lucius Mamilius Turrinus is a fictional friend of Caesar, maimed in the Gallic Wars and living in seclusion on Capri.  Never appearing in person nor in writing, he is the dictator's confidant, and The Journal to him is the vehicle of Caesar's thoughts, which do drive the novel.  As posted before, the playwright Edward Sheldon (1886-1946) was the inspiration for the character of Turrinus.

The courtesan Cytheris has a brief mention in Smith, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology:

CYTHERIS, a celebrated courtezan of the time of Cicero, Antony, and Gallus. She was originally the freedwoman and mistress of Volumnius Eutrapelus, and subsequently she became connected in the same capacity with Antony, and with Gallus the poet, to whom, however, she did not remain faithful.  Gallus mentioned her in his poems under the name of Lycoris, by which name she is spoken of also by the Scholiast Cruquius on Horace. (Sat. i. 2. 55, 10. 77 ; comp. Serv. ad Virg. Eclog. x. 1; Cic. Phil. ii. 24, ad Att. x. 10, 16, ad Fain. ix. 26 ; Plut. Ant. 9; Plin. //. N. viii. 16.) [L. S.]

major characters in 'the ides of march' – julia marcia, cleopatra

Bust of  Cleopatra from the Altes Museum in Berlin, Germany.

Julia Marcia (Julia Caesaris), aunt of Julius Caesar and widow of Gaius Marius, is portrayed as the typical staunch Roman matron.  In real life long deceased, in the novel she is Caesar's contact to the Vestal Virgins with regard to the Bona Dea rites, this particular one, also anachronistically, a part of Wilder's 'fantasia.'

Smith, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology has not much to say of her:

major characters in 'the ides of march' – clodia, catullus

Clodia Pulchra, widow of Metellus Celer, is a major character in The Ides of March, Thornton Wilder's "fantasia" about the last nine months of Caius Julius Caesar's life.  Her brother, the famous/infamous Publius Clodius Pulcher, also makes appearances.

Smith, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology has the stemma claudiorum, a brief entry on Clodia and a lengthy one on Clodius, as well as on the poet Caius Valerius Catullus, a biography cum assessment.

Clodia was Cicero's bête noire and appears in a number of novels/mysteries about Roman history, with various interpretations of her persona.  Probably her most sympathetic treatment is in the Roma Sub Rosa series by Steven Saylor.

reprise: late antiquity

I posted this in June 2007, and it might be timely again:

late antiquity, spätantike: when did it happen?

quintus sertorius

In Colleen McCullough's Fortunes Favorites, we read about Quintus Sertorius' final stand in Spain. I was asked for more information on Sertorius, and here is our friend Bingley with Quintus Sertorius at  Ancient/Classical History at about.com.

Plutarch: The Life of Sertorius and Comparison of Sertorius with Eumenes
Appian: The Civil Wars

More links

marcus terentius varro, antiquarian, 'most learned of the romans'

We meet Varro as Pompey's intimate in Fortune's Favorites by Colleen McCullough, the subject our current book chat.

Marcus Terentius Varro, "whose vast and varied erudition in almost every department of literature earned for him the title of the " most learned of the Romans" (Quintil. x. 1. § 95 ; Cic. Acad. i. 2, 3 ; Augustin. de Civ. Dei, vi. 2), was born b. c. 116, being exactly ten years senior to Cicero, with whom he lived for a long period on terms of close intimacy and warm friendship. (Cic. ad Fam. ix. 1—8.) He was trained under the superintendence of L. Aelius Stilo Praeconinus, a member of the equestrian order, a man, we are told (Cic. Brut. 56), of high character, familiarly acquainted with the Greek and Latin writers in general, and especially deeply versed in the anti­quities of his own country, some of which, such as the hymns of the Salii and the Laws of the Twelve Tables, he illustrated by commentaries. Varro, having imbibed from this preceptor a taste for these pursuits, which he cultivated in after life with so much devotion and success, completed his education by attending the lectures of Antiochus (Acad. iii. 12), a philosopher of the Academy, with a leaning perhaps towards the Stoic school, and then embarked in public life ..."

q. caecilius metellus pius

Q. Caecilius Metellus Pius (Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology) was a scion of the prolific gens caecilia, ally of Sulla, proconsul in Spain fighting Sertorius, and Pontifex Maximus.

I have blogged him and them in the past: the gens caecilia and the metelli – metellus pius, so consider that post a refresher as we read Fortune's Favorites by Colleen McCullough.

cn. pompeius magnus (pompey)

Cn. Pompeius Magnus (better known to the English speaking world as Pompey), the unofficial "first triumvir" and later adversary of C. Julius Caesar, is one of the more intriguing, exasperating, and tragic figures of the late republic.

Our current read, Fortune's Favorites by Colleen McCullough, opens with a young and cocky Pompey  eagerly offering his troops to Sulla to march against Rome and follows his career through March 69 BCE, when he becomes consul for the first time, side-stepping the cursus honorum in typical Pompey fashion.

Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology has a lenghty discourse on him, beginning here.  N.S. Gill has a number of links at Pompey - Cn. Pompeius Magnus, such as Pompey's Wives.

In print there is Pompey the Great: A Political Biography by Robin Seager.

jacquetta hawkes

The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography website has a biography of the archaeologist Jacquetta Hawkes, which should be available at least until the end of this month, if not into January 2008 as well.

november at the dnb

The free online Oxford DNB currently has a special article on coin images, with four of the illustrations  (showing Carausius, Allectus, Constantine III, and Magnus Maximus) coming from our period. Click on the image of the coin to read the associated biographical article.

the silver age of latin literature

In the literature about Juvenal, it is almost always mentioned that he wrote in the "Silver Age."  This is a notch down from the "Golden Age" of the Augustan era.

N.S. Gill at About.com has a list of authors that reaches chronologically from Seneca to Apuleius. (There is also a link Satire's Roots, of interest to our current read. More here, which I missed.)

persona in roman satire

Googling for "persona", I found this definition of persona in Roman Satire in this JSTOR (limited access) article/review:

Review: Themes in Roman Satire
Author(s) of Review: S. H. Braund
Reviewed Work(s): Themes in Roman Satire by Niall Rudd
The Classical Review > New Ser., Vol. 37, No. 2 (1987), pp. 207-209

A fundamental aspect of the study of Roman verse satire [is] the concept of the persona. By persona I mean the mouthpiece created by the poet, whose voice is the voice we hear in the satires;  sometimes we are invited to identify the persona with the poet, as for example in the case of Horace; sometimes the persona is given a different identity. either named (e.g. Juvenal's Umbricius in Satire 3) or left anonymous.  The chief significance of the persona concept is that it frees us from the biographical fallacy of relating the satires - to the poet's own life and experiences on a crude. literal basis (for exposition of the persona approach to satire. see W. S. Anderson, Essays on Roman Satire. Princeton. 1982)

marcus aemilius lepidus (triumvir)

Wiki Classical Dictionary has a nice write-up on the Triumvir Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, which helps as background for our current read, Three's Company.

More can be found in Appian (beginning here) and Cassius Dio (beginning here).

Bingley in his post below has more sources:

 52/17  the burning of the senate-house, and the attack on Lepidus' house.

varronian chronology

H.H. Scullard in his History of the Roman World: 753 to 146 BC frequently invokes the historian Marcus Terentius Varro (Wikipedia, handle with care).

I found this article by Jona Lendering:

Varronian chronology.
name of the chronology of the early Roman republic, which is several years 'out of step' with the common (or Christian) chronology

smith's dictionary of greek and roman antiquities now available as google book

Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities is now available at Google Books:

A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities By Sir William Smith

There are also

• A School Dictionary of Greek & Roman Antiquities By William Smith
• A Dictionary of the Bible: Comprising Its Antiquities, Biography, Geography By Sir William Smith, John Mee Fuller

a dormouse record

In Gibbon's chapter XXXI, I was surprised to read this sentence and the accompanying footnote:

At the Roman tables the birds, the squirrels, (45) or the fish, which appear of an uncommon size are contemplated with curious attention; a pair of scales is accurately applied to ascertain their real weight and, while the more rational guests are disgusted by the vain and tedious repetition, notaries are summoned to attest by an authentic record the truth of such a marvellous event.

apelles of kos, greek painter, fourth century b.c.

In his delightful travel guide for time-travelers to Ancient Rome, Ancient Rome on Five Denarii a Day, Philip Matyszak writes (describing Caesar’s Temple):  “… And among the numerous statues and works of art are two paintings by Apelles, one of the greatest artists of  antiquity.”

This painting, a mural from Pompeii, is believed to be based on Apelles’ Venus Anadyomene, brought to Rome by Augustus.

late antiquity, spätantike: when did it happen?

As a member of the "educated public" (see below), I have been struggling lately with this question:  What is Late Antiquity/Spätantike, and how is it framed?  There are so many different views out there.

Therefore, it was comforting to read yesterday in A Greek Roman Empire: Power and Belief under Theodosius II, 405-450 (Sather Classical Lectures),  Table of Content, University of California Press 2006, by Fergus Millar:

It is a matter of pure choice, convention, or convenience to what periods we apply the terms "Late Empire," "Byzantium," or "Late Antiquity."   We can, for instance, quite reasonably choose to use "Byzantine" only for the period after the loss of Syria, Egypt, and Libya to Islam.  But we could also choose to see the long and stable reign of Theodosius II as the beginning of "Byzantium:"  the first extended reign by an Emperor born in Constantinople;  the first regime conducted from there (allowing for occasional mi­nor excursions) continuously for four decades;  the reign most emphatically marked by Christian piety;  and the one for which our evidence allows us to see, far more fully and clearly than any other, the intimate relations between the Emperor and the Greek-speaking Church.  (emphasis mine)

boudicca podcast

Not only does the Oxford DNB put up regular biographies and articles for a week or a month at a time, but it also has audio files of biographies being read out loud which you can download and listen to. They seem to stay on the site for much longer. The latest one is their biography of Queen Boudicca. Scroll down to the list of biographies at the bottom of the page: they are in broadcast order, with the most recent at the top.

roman britain at the DNB

The Dictionary of National Biography magazine for June (it seems to have come out a few days early) includes an article on Roman Britain covering the Roman occupation of Britain and its 'recovery' by historians and archaeologists. Unfortunately, although you can read the article, you can't read the linked biographies unless you or your library has a subscription.

historical figures in “the dream of scipio” – II : the cathars

In the 14th century part of our current read, The Dream of Scipio, Olivier de Noyen encounters two “heretics” and learns of their beliefs, one of which is reincarnation.  In the novel, this is traced back to the 5th century protagonist Manlius, his philosophical treatise on The Dream of Scipio, and his philosopher friend Sophia.

As in so much in the novel, there is a grain of truth to it, and we were reminded of the Cathars, which were quite familiar to some in our reading group.  Wikipedia (handle with care as usual) has an extensive article on Catharism, with a number of external links, one of which is Cathars and Cathar Beliefs in the Languedoc  (Cathars and the Cathar Crusade: history, cathar theology, crusade leaders, explanations, maps and source documents).

lemuria, lemuralia – feast of the lemures

In Rosemary Rowe's latest mystery novel, A Coin for the Ferryman, Libertus has to solve a murder within two days, before the Lemuralia, the Feast of the Lemures, to avert evil spirits affecting the building of a new roundhouse. (Things are getting worse by the hour, but of course he comes through … review of the book forthcoming)

According to Smith's Dictionary  (via LacusCurtius):

LEMURA'LIA or LEMU'RIA, a festival for the souls of the departed, which was celebrated at Rome every year in the month of May. It was said to have been instituted by Romulus to appease the spirit of Remus whom he had slain (Ovid. Fast. V.473, &c.), and to have been called originally Remuria. It was celebrated at night and in silence, and during three alternate days, that is, on the ninth, eleventh, and thirteenth of May.  During this season the temples of the gods were closed, and it was thought unlucky for women to marry at this time and during the whole month of May, and those who ventured to marry were believed to die soon after, whence the proverb, mense Maio malae nubent. 

anicius manlius severinus boethius

(I do so wish historical novels had an index!)  Anyway, the name of Boethius crops up occasionally in our current read, the novel  The Dream of Scipio.

“Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius (born: circa 475–7 C.E., died: 526? C.E.) has long been recognized as one of the most important intermediaries between ancient philosophy and the Latin Middle Ages and, through his Consolation of Philosophy, as a talented literary writer, with a gift for making philosophical ideas dramatic and accessible to a wider public.”  Read more at Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosphy.

At Wikipedia, nicely illustrated (as usual, handle with care).
Consolatio Philosophiae (Latin and English)
Texts at Project Gutenberg:

The Consolation of Philosophy (English)
The Theological Tractates and The Consolation of Philosophy (English)
The Theological Tractates and The Consolation of Philosophy (Latin)

In print:  The Consolation of Philosophy: Revised Edition (Penguin Classics)

more on sidonius apollinaris

Gaius Sollius Modestus Sidonius Apollinaris (c. 430 – after 489), poet, diplomat, bishop, is “the single most important surviving author from fifth-century Gaul” according to Eric Goldberg (see below).  He was one of four late antiquity Gallo-Roman aristocrats whose letters survive in quantity.  His letters have been compared to a literary Herculaneum, preserving under the accumulated centuries the most varied evidences of late Roman provincial life. (wikipedia and O.M. Dalton)

Bingley already briefly blogged Sidonius below, with his letters at the Early Church Fathers site.  (Click on the page symbol at top and bottom to continue the letters content.)

The Fall of the Roman Empire Revisited: Sidonius Apollinaris and His Crisis of Identity Eric J. Goldberg.  (Essays in History, The Corcoran Department of History at the University of Virginia).

lewis & short online, plus other dictionaries / perseus back up?

In the current absence of the Perseus program, and the Perseus dictionary version of Lewis & Short being available sporadically only, here is a scaled down version of Lewis & Short Latin Dictionary, via David Meadows' rogueclassicism and Stephen Carlson (see below):

Archimedes Project Dictionary Access, containing a number of dictionaries of interest to people interested in the classics.

More on the Archimedes Project  can be found in this blog by Stephen C. Carlson.  According to this, as of April 20,  Perseus is back up.  However, I'm still having problems  . . .

the gens caecilia and the metelli – metellus pius

Ancient Library is up and running again including Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology by William Smith (1867).

Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius, thus cognomated because of his love for his exiled father Quintus Caecilius Metellus Numidicus, is featured in the early volumes of Colleen McCullough's Masters of Rome series, nicknamed The Piglet.

Smith's Dictionary, apart from a short piece on the Gens Caecilia, devotes a lot of space to the Caecilii Metelli, who, like so many republican Roman family branches, can be rather confusing.

corona (wreath)

Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities at LacusCurtius has this entry:

Corona

COROʹNA (στέφανος), a crown, that is, a circular ornament of metal, leaves, or flowers, worn by the ancients round the head or neck, and used as a festive as well as funeral decoration, and as a reward of talent, military, or naval prowess, and civil worth. It includes the synonymes of the species, for which it is often used absolutely, στεφάνη, στέφος, στεφάνωμα, corolla, sertum, a garland or wreath.

pliny the elder on the corona graminea and how it relates to sulla

Or: Was Sulla’s grass crown a fake?

Pliny the Elder in his Natural History has a chapter on the corona graminea, The Grass Crown: How Rarely It Was Awarded, Book XXII, Chap. 4. (3.)  Google Books.

If you scroll down to Page 394, you see that Pliny casts some doubt on Sulla’s veracity on receiving the grass crown, “if there is any truth in this statement.”

Paul Moore in Two Notes on Pliny's Natural History, The Classical Review, New Ser., Vol. 23, No. 1 (Mar., 1973), pp. 13-14, (JSTOR, limited access) discusses this and a similar comment by Pliny on Varro and the corona navalis, which Varro supposedly won from Pompey during the war against the pirates (N.H. vii. 115 and xvi. 7), whereas other ancient sources say that Agrippa, who received the corona navalis from Augustus,was the only one to have  done so.  This latter information, according to Moore, came possibly from Varro's autobiography.  (These texts are supposedly at Perseus, but as so often, I can't access them, nor are they on Eason.)

Moore writes that “both of the instances focus attention on the credibility of claims made in autobiographies,” and in Sulla’s case he notes “the silence of the authorities on any serious difficulties faced by the Romans at Nola.”

Gellius (Book V, 6, 9) too mentions only Fabius Maximus in connection with the grass crown.

publicani, tax farming

In Roman Asia Province, more than in any other part of the late republic, tax farming brought great grief to the populace.  In our current read, The Grass Crown, both Mithridates and Gaius Marius in his Asian travels are told about this problem, the latter by Rutilus Rufus, then legate to the governor Quintus Mucius Scaevola.  These two officials exposed the scandal and rectified the situation, to the dismay of the equites tax farmers back in Rome.  Scaevola survived relatively unscathed, but Rutilius Rufus, lacking connections, was tried for and convicted of extortion and had to go into exile.  For this he choose the very place of his alleged crimes, Asia Province, where he was warmly welcomed and spent the rest of his life.  More on this from Mommsen in my earlier post.

Smith's Dictionary at LacusCurtius of course covers the Publicani.  Most of the linked citations are in Latin though.

gladiators: the thracian (thraex)

Quintus Honorius Romanus aka Taurus, our hero in James Duffy's Sand of the Arena, mostly fights as a Thracian.  This fighter is described in Duffy's introduction to his book (Download duffy_intro.pdf), as

A lightly armored fighter carrying a small square shield (parmula) and curved sword (sica). His helmet crest often bore the image of a griffin fixed to the front.

Roman Gladiatorial Games from CUNY shows an image on this page, the third one down on the right.  If you click on it, you can clearly see the crested helmet.  This image is also on the informative  Culture I page at the same website.

venatio, venator, bestiarius

In our current read, Sand of the Arena, the Ethiopian venator Lindani spectacularly saves the lives of the proconsul’s family in the arena at Londinium, after an antelope buck crashes into the audience.

[As it so happens, Mary Beard today reports on a field trip with her Roman Britain class to London and links to a nice page of the London amphitheatre.]

The venatio (hunt) was a popular spectacle during gladiatorial games, usually as a warm-up to the main event.  The trained hunter, like our Lindani, was called venator, as opposed to the bestiarus, who was mainly animal fodder.

naumachia

A naumachia was the reenactment of a naval battle in a basin or on a lake, a popular albeit costly – and for the participants deadly – entertainment of the masses in ancient Rome.  The term naumachia was also used for the location at which the games took place.

Our current read, Sand of the Arena, opens with an imaginative happening of the naumachia of Nero – “…he also exhibited a naval battle in salt water with sea monsters swimming about in it”  according to Suetonius’ Life of Nero.

the flamen dialis

In The Legatus Mystery by Rosemary Rowe, the chief priest of Jupiter in the Roman colonia of Glevum, an elderly eccentric, aspires to the post of flamen dialis, chief priest of Jupiter of Rome, the most distinguished of the priesthoods after the pontifex maximus.  In fact, he practices already at being so by observing all the rituals and restrictions of that position and requires his young wife to do the same as flaminica dialis.

Here is Cicero outlining these rules:

A great many ceremonies are imposed upon the Flamen Dialis [the priest of Jupiter], and also many restraints, about which we read in the books On The Public Priesthoods and also in Book I of Fabius Pictor's work.  Among them I recall the following:  1) It is forbidden the Flamen Dialis to ride a horse;  2) It is likewise forbidden him to view the classes arrayed outside the pomerium [the sacred boundary of Rome], i.e., armed and in battle order---hence only rarely is the Flamen Dialis made a Consul, since the conduct of wars is entrusted to the Consuls;  3) It is likewise forbidden for him ever to take an oath by Jupiter;  4) It is likewise forbidden for him to wear a ring, unless it is cut through and empty;  5) It is also forbidden to carry out fire from the flaminia, i.e., the Flamen Dialis’ house, except for a sacral purpose;  6) if a prisoner in chains enters the house he must be released and the chains must be carried up through the opening in the roof above the atrium or living room onto the roof tiles and dropped down from there into the street;

julius who?

The February issue of the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography magazine has a feature Six Degrees of Julius Caesar (scroll down to the bottom half of the page), linking two people called Julius Caesar, one we've all heard of and one most of us probably haven't heard of before (well, I certainly hadn't anyway). The links in the chain will all be open for free reading during February.

gaius ofonius (sophonius) tigellinus

In The Kingdom of the Wicked, Gaius Ofonius Tigellinus is the most vicious enabler of the emperor Nero. 

Tigellinus was indeed a historical figure.  He became Praetorian Prefect in AD 62, survived the initial civil war after Nero’s death, but was eventually forced to commit suicide in 69 by Otho. 

 Jona Lendering (livius.org) maintains that “history has been unkind towards Tigellinus, who was one of the closest and most loyal advisers of the emperor Nero (54-68) during the second half of his reign” – read more.