Roman History Books and More

update on tiberius biographies: g.p. baker online

An update to modern biographies of tiberius:

Robert found the G.P. Baker one on the Internet Archive

Tiberius Caesar

Enjoy!

another horace biography

Earlier on, I bemoaned the fact that there are so few Horace biographies around.  Well, N.S. Gill found one:

The next Roman history book chat will discuss Horace. On Irene Hahn's blog, she mentions there is a shortage of biographical information on Horace. The Internet Archive provides a wealth of out-of-copyright material, including an old-fashioned biography of Horace: Horace by Wm. Tuckwell (1829-1919). London: G. Bell & sons. 1905. There are others to search for, but this first one I looked at seems to have the info.

read on

Author: Tuckwell, William, 1829-1919
Subject: Horace
Publisher: London : G. Bell & sons

It's  a concise (87 pages) introduction to Horace, nicely illustrated too.  And with a chapter on wine …

The Internet Archive (subscription is free)

seguing from horace into tiberius (our recent and upcoming book chats)

Horace wrote an Ode to Drusus and Tiberius

(Update July 4:  Oops, wrong Latin one)

Odes, Book 4, XIV

Quae cura patrum quaeue Quiritium
plenis honorum muneribus tuas,
     Auguste, uirtutes in aeuum
     per titulos memoresque fastus

aeternet, o qua sol habitabilis               5
inlustrat oras maxime principum?
     quem legis expertes Latinae
     Vindelici didicere nuper

quid Marte posses. Milite nam tuo
Drusus Genaunos, inplacidum genus,               10
     Breunosque uelocis et arces
     Alpibus impositas tremendis

deiecit acer plus uice simplici.
Maior Neronum mox graue proelium
     commisit immanisque Raetos               15
     auspiciis pepulit secundis,

continue reading Odes, Book 4, XIV, in Latin

What care the Citizens and the Senators
shall take in immortalising your virtues,
granting you full honours, Augustus,
with titles and memorial plaques, O,

greatest of princes, wherever the sun shines
over the countries where people can live, you,
whose power in war the Vindelici
free of our Roman laws, till now, have learnt.

For, with your army, brave Drusus, demolished
the Genauni, that implacable race, in more
direct retaliation, the swift
Breuni, and their defences, established

on the formidable Alpine heights:
and soon Tiberius, the elder Nero, entered
that fierce fight, with his favourable
omens, defeating the wild Rhaetians:

continue reading Odes, Book 4, XIV, in English translation

Original text:  Latin Library:  Q. HORATIVS FLACCVS
Translation:  A.S. Kline, Poetry in Tranlation: Horace

ancient historians on tiberius (a.d. 14-37)

DIR Tiberius says:

The main ancient literary sources for the reign of Tiberius are: Tac. Ann. 1-6; Dio 57-59; Suetonius, Tiberius and Gaius; Josephus BJ 2.204-17 and AJ 18.181-87, 205-25; Velleius Paterculus, esp. 2.94-131. References to Tiberius are also found in Pliny the Elder, Philo, Seneca and others.

Tacitus Annals, Books 1-6
http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/tac/index.htm
or Wikisource:

• Book 1: 14-15 C.E.
• Book 2: 16-19 C.E.
• Book 3: 20-22 C.E.
• Book 4: 23-28 C.E.
• Book 5: 29-31 C.E.
• Book 6: 32-37 C.E.

be happy wherever you are (i'm on a roll tonight)

Horace: Epistles, Book 1, XI

Quid tibi uisa Chios, Bullati, notaque Lesbos,
quid concinna Samos, quid Croesi regia Sardis,
Zmyrna quid et Colophon? Maiora minoraue fama,
cunctane prae Campo et Tiberino flumine sordent?
An uenit in uotum Attalicis ex urbibus una?               5
An Lebedum laudas odio maris atque uiarum?
Scis Lebedus quid sit: Gabiis desertior atque
Fidenis uicus; tamen illic uiuere uellem,
oblitusque meorum, obliuiscendus et illis,
Neptunum procul e terra spectare furentem.               10
Sed neque qui Capua Romam petit, imbre lutoque
aspersus uolet in caupona uiuere; nec qui
frigus collegit, furnos et balnea laudat
ut fortunatam plene praestantia uitam;
nec si te ualidus iactauerit Auster in alto,               15
idcirco nauem trans Aegaeum mare uendas.
Incolumi Rhodos et Mytilene pulchra facit quod
paenula solstitio, campestre niualibus auris,
per brumam Tiberis, Sextili mense caminus.
Dum licet ac uoltum seruat Fortuna benignum,               20
Romae laudetur Samos et Chios et Rhodos absens.
Tu quamcumque deus tibi fortunauerit horam
grata sume manu neu dulcia differ in annum,
ut quocumque loco fueris uixisse libenter
te dicas; nam si ratio et prudentia curas,               25
non locus effusi late maris arbiter aufert,
caelum, non animum mutant, qui trans mare currunt.
Strenua non exercet inertia; nauibus atque
quadrigis petimus bene uiuere. Quod petis, hic est,
est Vlubris, animus si te non deficit aequus.               30

horace: more carpe diem

Epistles, Book 1, IV

Albi, nostrorum sermonum candide iudex,
quid nunc te dicam facere in regione Pedana?
Scribere quod Cassi Parmensis opuscula uincat,
an tacitum siluas inter reptare salubris,
curantem quicquid dignum sapiente bonoque est?               5
Non tu corpus eras sine pectore; di tibi formam,
di tibi diuitias dederunt artemque fruendi.
Quid uoueat dulci nutricula maius alumno,
qui sapere et fari possit quae sentiat, et cui
gratia, fama, ualetudo contingat abunde,               10
et mundus uictus non deficiente crumina?
Inter spem curamque, timores inter et iras
omnem crede diem tibi diluxisse supremum;
grata superueniet quae non sperabitur hora.
Me pinguem et nitidum bene curata cute uises,               15
cum ridere uoles, Epicuri de grege porcum.

back to horace: carpe diem

Odes, Book 1, XI

Tu ne quaesieris (scire nefas) quem mihi, quem tibi
finem di dederint, Leuconoe, nec Babylonios
temptaris numeros. Vt melius quicquid erit pati!
Seu pluris hiemes seu tribuit Iuppiter ultimam,
quae nunc oppositis debilitat pumicibus mare               5
Tyrrhenum, sapias, uina liques et spatio breui
spem longam reseces. Dum loquimur, fugerit inuida
aetas: carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero.

Leuconoë, don’t ask, we never know, what fate the gods grant us,
whether your fate or mine, don’t waste your time on Babylonian,
futile, calculations. How much better to suffer what happens,
whether Jupiter gives us more winters or this is the last one,
one debilitating the Tyrrhenian Sea on opposing cliffs.
Be wise, and mix the wine, since time is short: limit that far-reaching hope.
The envious moment is flying now, now, while we’re speaking:
Seize the day, place in the hours that come as little faith as you can.

Original text:  Latin Library:  Q. HORATIVS FLACCVS
Translation:  A.S. Kline, Poetry in Tranlation: Horace

another online translation of horace

Update:  Robert found the same translation at Wikisource: The Works of Horace, translated by By C. Smart. No date given though either, but looks like it's this Christopher Smart (1722 - 1771).  (Works by Christopher Smart).

• First Book of Satires
• Second Book of Satires

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At Authorama: 

Horace: The Works of Horace  (no translator name given)

• The First Book of the Satires of Horace
• The Second Book of the Satires of Horace

reading horace satires (ctd.)

Now here is a true satire!

Book II Satire V – Legacy Hunting

BkIISatV:1-22 Ulysses questions Tiresias. 4

BkIISatV:23-44 The path to riches. 4

BkIISatV:45-69 Will-hunting!5

BkIISatV:70-88 Try every trick, but be careful!6

BkIISatV:89-110 Be discrete even after inheriting

reading horace satires (ctd.)

Comparing Horace with Juvenal, I perceive Horace' Satires much less over the top, which when he describes scenes, gives us moderns a pretty good first hand impression of life in the Rome of his times.  A good example, I think, is Satire 1, V – Journey to Brundisium:

BkISatV:1-33 Off to meet Maecenas, going to Brindisi4

BkISatV:34-70 Onward to supper at Cocceius’ villa. 4

BkISatV:71-104 And so by stages to journey’s end

Of course, one has to chuckle quite a bit over Satire 2, VIII – A Dinner Party:

BkIISatVIII:1-19 Nasidienus’ dinner-party. 4

BkIISatVIII:20-41 The guests. 4

BkIISatVIII:42-78 The trials of being a host5

BkIISatVIII:79-95 The guests disperse!

Texts from A.S. Kline (Poetry in Translation)

reading horace satires …

… sitting outside on a nice summer day, with some iced tea by my side, reading Horace.  But a bit unhappy, as most translations of the Satires don't read well … Going back to A.S. Kline (Poetry in Translation) online, still the best (it also has the advantage of a linked glossary).  Somewhere I read that Horace is most difficult to translate.

Anyway, here is what Horace has to say about satire:

polyaenus: strategemata, 'on strategems'

When reading Adrienne Mayor's Greek Fire, Poison Arrows, and Scorpion Bombs: Biological & Chemical Warfare in the Ancient World,  December 2008 paperback edition – a fascinating, gruesome read – I found a very different take from the usual on Caesar and the pirates, and it comes from Polyaenus who wrote Strategemata,

… which was presented to Lucius Verus on the occasion of his war against the Parthian Empire.  According to the author himself, the dedicatees did indeed read the books, and there is some evidence that Marcus Aurelius had the Strategemata with him during his Marcomannic war.

Polyaenus is interested in the technique of war, not in history for its own sake. Therefore, he often carelessly confuses the names of the generals. Yet, there is some structure.

(Polyaenus: Greek-Roman author (second century CE) of a collection of stratagems at livius.org)

next book discussion, july 1: the satires by horace

Update June 23: Google Books has limited previews of The Cambridge Companion to Horace and The Cambridge Companion to Roman Satire.

Scroll down here.

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Next we are going back to Roman satires, it's Quintus Horatius Flaccus this this time.

In print:  The Satires by Horace.  There are plenty more editions.

An excellent companion book is The Cambridge Companion to Roman Satire (Cambridge Companions to Literature), summarized in this BMCR review:

In sum, this volume proves to be a worthy companion.  Each author hands the traveler on to the next author, never isolating the reader but always providing connections by which to find a way back and to make the current scenery familiar.  Egressum magna me accepit Freudenburg Roma hospitio magno ...

looking ahead: the satires by horace a.s. kline's online translation – update & correction

Update:  I originally downloaded the wrong file   :(

Our next read on July 1 is Horace: The Satires.

A.S. Kline (Poetry in Translation) translated the entire Horace and put it online:

HORACE (Quintus Horatius Flaccus)
Translated by A. S. Kline © 2003, All Rights Reserved
This work may be freely reproduced, stored, and transmitted, electronically or otherwise, for any non-commercial purpose.

Those of you who like me prefer reading a PDF file rather than a browser file can download the entire file, and here it is for your convenience:

Download Horace: THE SATIRES, EPISTLES AND ARS POETICA (fully interactive)

There are other download options of the above file too.  Google Books has various editions of the Satires – look for "full view;" or you could search the Internet Archive if you like flipbooks.

apuleius' metamorphoses in jstor

For those readers who are able to access JSTOR:

Searching for "Metamorphoses AND Apuleius," and selecting "Review," generates 32 pages of articles.  Much too much to sort out.  However, sorted by relevance, maybe the first couple of pages will be sufficient for any reader who wants to delve more into The Golden Ass, finding articles by title of possible interest.

I might modestly cull the search results in another post.

Of immediacy, this might be helpful:

Apuleius' The Golden Ass: The Demands on the Reader
James T. Svendsen
Pacific Coast Philology, Vol. 13, (Oct., 1978), pp. 101-107
Published by: Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1316370

next book chat: the golden ass by apuleius

Join us on June 3 for our chat on The Golden Ass or The Metamorphoses (also Transformations of Lucius).

The Golden Ass
(Oxford World Classcics) 
P.G. Walsh, translator

The Golden Ass: The Transformations of Lucius, Robert Graves, translator

Online translations:

William Adlington, 1566
    Internet Archive
    Google Books
    Ancient/Classical History at About.com
E.J. Kenney, 1998 (visually hard to read!)

public libraries in ancient rome

Robert blogged this yesterday and I find this very appropriate for our blog and reading group: we do rely heavily on public libraries. Robert writes:

Although Julius Caesar had planned to build a public library in Rome, he was assassinated before he could put his plan into operation. It fell to one of his adherents, Asinius Pollio, to build a public library in the Atrium Libertatis financed from the spoils of his 39 BC war against an Illyrian tribe, the Parthini. His library contained both Greek and Latin works, possibly in separate wings. Augustus, Octavia, and Tiberius also founded public libraries.

Unfortunately, we don't know precisely how the libraries worked: whether people were allowed to borrow books or only read them in the library, who was allowed to use the libraries and many other details. We do know that an east facing room was recommended to take advantage of the light, so presumably opening hours were in the morning rather than the late afternoon or evening.

Two general articles on libraries in the ancient world, one in French and one in English. An article on the location of the public libraries in Rome.

Go to Matters Arising

fiction and drama featuring lucius sergius catilina I

Update for May 20

The second of our two chats featuring Lucius Sergius Catilina centers on fiction.  These are the fictional treatments I'm aware of – any further suggestions are greatly appreciated:

Novels

• Imperium:  A Novel of Ancient Rome by Robert Harris (p. 223 ff, but the novel ends when Cicero is elected consul)
• Caesar's Women by Colleen McCullough  (Part V IV ff)

Mysteries

• SPQR II:  The Catiline Conspiracy by John Maddox Roberts
• Catilina's Riddle by Steven Saylor

            

stuff you usually only find on jstor: 'the antiquary's shoebox'

The Antiquary's Shoebox
A Selection of Articles from Various Journals in the Fields of Classics and Archaeology

Courtesy Bill Thayer, who writes:  "The thumbnail I use to indicate this subsite is a colorized version of a drawing that seemed appropriate to me; I found it in Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, on p978, s.v. Pyxis."

Hat tip Adrian Murdoch

syme and sallust, and demolishing the 'first catilinarian conspiracy'

"the evidence is so inconclusive, and the story, as told, contains so many contradictions and improbabilities, that I prefer to pass it over as wholly or almost wholly apocryphal" (James Leigh Strachan-Davidson)

I'm now at Sallust (Sather Classical Lectures) by Sir Ronald Syme (2002 reprint).  There is a preview in Google Books, and while there is not much text available of the book, the Foreword to the 2002 edition by Ronald Mellor, Life and Scholarship, is worth reading.  It's a biography of Syme, and discusses his life and entire work.

As to Syme on Sallust, Mellor writes:

[...]  Sallust is not Tacitus, but Syme is as loyal to him as if he were as great as his imperial successor. He aggressively defends Sallust against charges of avarice, corruption, and hypocrisy.  Even when Sallust's account is wrong, Syme's explanation excuses him from malicious misrepresentation.  Such is the case of the "First Catilinarian Conspiracy";  Syme demolishes Sallust's version and shows that the conspiracy was spurious.  Although Sallust "comes out of this sorry affair not at all well" (101) as a historian, Syme demonstrates that his problem is credulity—being taken in by Cicero—rather than mendacity.  In any event, after Syme's demolition, no historian can now resurrect that bogus conspiracy.  (emphasis mine)