Roman History Books and More

Next book after Sulla: Old Bones

Upcoming book chat:

Old Bones: A Marcus Corvinus Mystery (Marcus Corvinus Mysteries)
by David Wishart

A Marcus Corvinus mystery from the times of Tiberius. Marcus, Perilla and family are vacationing in the country...

Details & Background     Reading List for 2006  PDF

lament on the demise of footnotes

This I my lament…I do bemoan the end of footnotes.

Pages may have looked more cluttered, and there have been instances where there are more footnotes than text space on any given page – the worst example in my library is Joachim Marquardt's Das Privatleben der Römer, 1886 (reprography by Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt, 1990); in the olden days, I guess, publishers did do anything a learned author wanted.

However, I resent having to go to the back of a book for endnotes all the time, the more so when there are no page number references on top of the endnote pages. The latter should not be difficult in today's age of electronic type-setting. One pays enough for university press books and such anyway…

cursus honorum (and Sulla)

Roman politicians had a distinct career path, the cursus honorum. When Sulla had gained his dictatorship, he put his attention not only to reforming the laws, he also tightened the cursus honorum. livius.org gives an overview of the cursus over time, including the principate and the empire. The site does not mention Sulla's changes to the tribunate, which, however, did not outlast him by much. [Pompey, Cn. Pompeius  Magnus, however circumvented all, and without any prior offices managed to get some form of imperium -- L. Marcius Philippus cracked: non pro consule sed pro consulibus -- to join Metellus Pius in the war against Sertorius in Spain, and on his return successfully ran for consul.]

Smith's Dictionary at Lacus Curtius has more on the cursus honorum and related posts:

quaestor
aediles (optional & potentially expensive)
praetor, propraetor
consul, proconsul
censor
princeps senatus

interrex
dictator (who had a master of the horse, wikipedia)

tribunus

praefectus (see above cursus honorum for the various positions, most were created in the principate though)

tribunus militaris [Exercitus, pp503, 504.]
legatus

Sulla also put restrictions on functions assigned to the equites; however, like the tribunate, this too was reversed soon after his death.

book review: Soldiers and Ghosts

Soldiers and Ghosts : A History of Battle in Classical Antiquity
by E. Lendon (Yale University Press 2005)

A Review by Jim Bloom

Jim Bloom characterizes the book as "…a marvelous survey of ancient warfare. Narrative, that is, chronologically sequential history of 'the old school,' is still best for doing the 'story' part of history. However, it often misses significant ideas elucidated by the conceptual analysts: leadership, social class differences, motivation, finance, and weapons performance. Lendon does not sacrifice the breadth of coverage embodied in the narrative framework – he manages to cover all the important episodes and periods – while presenting his arguments along thematic lines. He does so while demonstrating how ancient combat incorporated technological and tactical innovations incrementally even as they evoked ancient, even legendary, traditions to encourage heroic, fierce rivalry throughout all ranks and formations."

Read the entire review

This article was originally published on H-Net Reviews.

Note: The book will soon be out in paperback.

Pliny the Younger, Caius Plinius Caecilius Secundus

Pliny the Younger (c.62 - c.113) was the nephew and heir of the historian and naturalist Pliny the Elder, who perished in the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 CE. After the latter's death, presumably because he was adopted in the will, he changed his name from Caius Caecilius to Caius Plinius Caecilius Secundus. The famous Verginius Rufus was his guardian.

Originally from Comum in Northern Italy and quite well to do through land holdings, he enjoyed an illustrious legal and administrative career, becoming consul in 100 CE at the age of 39, and finally going to Bithynia on a special commission from the emperor Trajan, where he is supposed to have died. Among his literary friends were Tacitus and Suetonius, and he was a patron of the poet Martial. livius.org has an illustrated biography. And I found this delightful entry from Lippincott's Magazine Of Popular Literature And Science, 1873.

the library of the villa dei papiri

The so-called Villa of the Papyri (wikipedia), which may have been owned at one time by L. Calpurnius Piso Caesoninus, consul in 58 BCE, father-in-law of G. Julius Caesar, and patron of the Epicurean philosopher Philodemus, was situated in Herculaneum and buried in the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 CE. It was located and identified around 1750 by the Swiss excavator Karl Weber. It contained a large library, much of which has been discovered in form of carbonized papyrus rolls. It is assumed that many more are still buried.

The recent publication, The Library of the Villa dei Papiri at Herculaneum (Getty Trust Publications: J. Paul Getty Museum), is discussed in Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2006.01.41.The book, with 42 color and 40 black & white illustrations and described as "a very readable account", sounds like an interesting read. Moreover, the reviewer comments:

"[It is] a useful introduction to a much neglected area of philology, if only because in that area an aspect of typical classical scholarship (i.e., paleography) is mixed with the practical application of highly sophisticated technical methods and devices, useful even for some whose interest goes further than that of the general public. Especially the notes offer interesting additional information."

Ancient/Classical History at About.com has several links on the subject. Googling shows that roguesclasscism did some blogging on the villa about a year ago.

A book (very costly!) about Karl Weber, Rediscovering Antiquity : Karl Weber and the Excavation of Herculaneum, Pompeii and Stabiae, is also reviewed at Bryn Mawr: Bryn Mawr Classical Review 96.12.10.

Pompeii : A Novel by Robert Harris is a recent, well researched; fictional treatment of the eruption of Vesuvius, featuring among other historic characters the two Plinys. I never got around to writing a review, but I can recommend it as an entertaining read.

Pliny the Younger's eyewitness account: Letter to Tacitus 6.16 (about the death of his uncle), Letter to Tacitus, 6.20. He was about 17 years old at the time of the event, although the letters were written much later.

Atellan farces

Atellan farces, Atellanae, were the Roman equivalent of commedia dell'arte of the modern age.

(Unfortunately in JSTOR − check your local university or public library for access) I found this fascinating article: Sulla and the Theatre, Charles Garton, Phoenix, Vol. 18, No. 2 (Summer, 1964) , pp. 137-156.

It discusses not only Sulla and theatre but also the theatre in general in the first century BCE, tragedy, farce, mime, etc., theatre structures, and so on. Sulla's relationship with Metrobius is discussed briefly, but also his patronage of the comic actor Q. Roscius Gallus. New to me was that not only Sulla but also Catulus (Q. Lutatius Catulus Caesar, consul in 102) had an interest in the theatre and that Catulus' step-brother − shouldn't that be natural brother, since Catulus was adopted out? − C. Julius Caesar Strabo, wrote tragedies. Catulus seems to have been an early patron of Roscius. Another section discusses Sulla and the theatre in Greece. The article intimates that Sulla tried his hand on Atellan farces:

"…at some period he tried his hand at writing Latin sketches. They seem to have been atellans, a form which sometime in the past had provided a vent for histrionic high spirits of the ruling classes. Hitherto they had mostly been quite understudied or at any rate unpublished, but in Sulla's time literati began to take them up and make something better of it."

JSTOR is an independent not-for-profit organization dedicated to creating and preserving a digital archive of scholarly journals. For more information regarding JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

More on Atellan farces, named after the Oscan town of Atella, "[featuring] the 'crazy' people who lived in Atella, a place where things were purported to happen backwards", can be read at ROMAN DRAMA, Chapter 13: Early Roman Drama and Theatre*. On Sulla: 

"…After the fall of palliatae during the early decades of the first century BCE, Atellan farce rose again to prominence, especially in the hands of two pre-eminent dramatists, Novius and Pomponius. These contemporaries of Sulla, who is said have composed Atellanae himself, wrote 'literary' Atellan farces, if such a thing is imaginable."

*Classical Drama and Theatre

Mithridates VI Eupator

Mithridates (also spelled Mithradates) VI Eupator (132-63 BCE), King of Pontus from 120 to 63, was a competing power with the Romans in what the latter called "Asia," due to expansionist aims on both sides. At the height of his power, in the spring of 88, he had almost all Romans and Italians in Asia Province killed, with figures told between 80,000 and 100,000. Few escaped the massacre; the best known survivor was P. Rutilius Rufus, the exiled consul and historian who lived out a long age in Smyrna -- modern historians mourn the loss of his Historiae and autobiography (De vita sua). In all, it took a time span of 26 years and three wars to defeat the king.

The First Mithridatic War was fought by Sulla and concluded in 85, with the Peace of Dardanus, which basically was an armistice, as Sulla had to rush back to Rome to try and regain his power. The Second (83-82) amounted to not much and really does not deserve its name. The Third Mithridatic War lasted ten years from 73-63 and was conducted on the Roman side by M. Aurelius Cotta, L. Licinius Lucullus, Sulla's able lieutenant in the First War, and eventually Cn. Pompeius Magnus (Pompey the Great). The latter, in many people's mind, simply conducted a mopping-up operation. However that may be, Pompey reorganized the eastern provinces and kingdoms. 

Mithridates, finally cornered through defeat, loss of power, and intrigues by his adversaries, died by committing suicide. There were many stories about of his ruthless hold onto power by killing numerous of his relatives, and his taking increasing doses of poisons until he was able to tolerate lethal doses, which supposedly made his suicide a prolonged affair. The alleged practice resulted in the term mithridatism.

An online biography of Mithridates
Appian's History of Rome: The Mithridatic Wars
(both at livius.org)
Mithridates VI of Pontus at Wikipedia
Mithridates at Ancient/Classical History at About.com

Again, we also have an opera, as a matter of fact Mozart's first opera seria, Mozart - Mitridate / Bartoli, Dessay, Sabbatini, Asawa, Piau, Flórez, Les talens lyriques, Rousset. (DECCA 1999.) Source: Mithridate, tragedy by Racine, in Italian translation of Giuseppe Parini / First performance: Teatro Regio Ducal, Milano, 26 December 1770. Other editions are also available on CD.

The opera will be performed at this year's Salzburg Festival.

For those who have access to JSTOR (check your local university or public library), there is a discussion of the opera, which Mozart composed at the age of 14: A Note on Mozart's First Serious Opera, Stanley Sadie, The Musical Times, Vol. 113, No. 1547 (Jan., 1972), pp. 41-42.

the battle of Chaeronea, 86 BC

Ancient military historian and wargamer Greg Pitts, of whom you can find more in the Introductions folder, kindly provided me with a wargame scenario of the Second Battle of Chaeronea, pitting Sulla against an army of Mithradates in 86 BC. (PDF file)

The First Battle of Chaeronea took place in 383 BC, when Philip of Macedonia defeated the Athenians and Thebans. Here is Dioderus Siculus.

G.P. Baker's life & a book review

At the chat last Wednesday, we wondered about G.P. Baker's life, because all we knew was that he was deaf from age 8 on.

Here is the answer, part of a book review by a friend which I just received: Hannibal by G.P. Baker, reviewed by Jim Bloom:

<snip>

George Philip Baker (1879-1951) wrote numerous books of popular history in the 1920s and 1930s. This era, it seems, demanded more of historians catering to the rank and file than is expected today. His output included works on Sulla, Hannibal, Tiberius, Constantine, Justinian, Charlemagne, the soldier-kings of Wessex in the twilight of Roman rule, and a "decisive battles" compendium. The term "popular history" should here be written with an asterisk. Baker always took care to read up on his topic in the then-current learned writings. He didn't merely cut and paste from the secondary accounts, but weighed their relative merits and let the reader in on his choices. He emphasized political and economic development as underlying the military capacity effecting the rise and fall of great powers. His 1935 Book of Battles was reprinted several times and is still regarded as a stimulating review of military turning points in the manner of Sir Edward Creasy's The Decisive Battles of History. His The Fighting Kings of Wessex is a discerning interpretation of the beginnings of modern Europe, and an explanation of the strategic thinking that lay behind the military campaigns of Dark Age England. His biographies of Roman emperors have attracted a wide reading audience as well.

Baker was an avid student of military history. Unable to serve in his native England's armed forces due to his total deafness, he worked as a civilian official for the Royal Artillery for much of his life. He was neither professor nor soldier-scholar; his works strove to enlighten his lay audience as well as to tell an adventure story of strong leaders struggling against economic and political inevitability. Baker usually accentuates the military aspects of his subjects. He has taken the time to read the specialist accounts of tactics and strategies developed by the respective antagonists. He likes to contemplate the options open to the commanders on the spot and their decision cycle.

This article was originally published on H-Net Reviews.

search here for books by G.P. Baker

the laws of Sulla: leges corneliae

LEʹGES CORNEʹLIAE. Various laws passed in the dictatorship of Sulla and by his influence.

Read about them in detail in Smith's Dictionary.

Sulla also effected a sweeping reform of the courts, making them standing ones and dividing them into probably eight quaestiones perpetuae:

ambitus (electoral corruption)
de falsis (forgery and counterfeiting)
iniuriarum (libel)
maiestas (treason)
peculatus (embezzlement)
repetundae (extortion)
de sicariis et veneficis (murder)
vis (public violence)

I have seen ten quaestiones mentioned, but can't find any details. Comments are invited.

The most famous repetundae trial was against Gaius Verres in 70 BC with Cicero as prosecutor -- the only time he prosecuted. Against Verres, Orationes in C. Verrem.

M. Tullius Cicero actually first came to fame during Sulla's dictatorship, successfully defending Sextus Roscius against the accusation of murdering his father, who had been killed in the proscription. Oration for Sextus Roscius of Ameria, pro Sex. Roscio Amerino Oratio.

amphictyons, amphictyonic league

Sulla, during the first Mithridatic War, ruthlessly cleaned out Greece in order to finance his campaign. As Plutarch writes:

And a vast sum of money being wanted to carry on the war, he broke into the sanctuaries of Greece, that of Epidaurus and that of Olympia, sending for the most beautiful and precious offerings deposited there.  He wrote, likewise, to the Amphictyons, at Delphi, that it were better to remit the wealth of the god to him, for that he would keep it more securely, or in case he made use of it, restore as much.  He sent Caphis, the Phocian, one of his friends, with this message, commanding him to receive each item by weight.  Caphis came to Delphi, but was loath to touch the holy things, and with many tears, in the presence of the Amphyctyons, bewailed the necessity.  And on some of them declaring they heard the sound of a harp from the inner shrine, he, whether he himself believed it, or was willing to try the effect of religious fear upon Sylla, sent back an express.  To which Sylla replied in a scoffing way, that it was surprising to him that Caphis did not know that music was a sign of joy, not anger; he should, therefore, go on boldly, and accept what a gracious and bountiful god offered.

The Amphictyonic League (Wikipedia):

The Amphictyonic League (Amphictyony) was a form of Greek Hellenic religious organization that was formed to support specific temple or sacred place. Members met at stated times in the same sanctuary to keep religious festivals and conduct other matters as well. The most famous was the Delphic or Great Amphictyonic League that was formed to support greater temples of Apollo and Demeter. League council had religious authority and power to declare punishment against offenders. Punishment could range from fines to expulsion to sacred war. read on

Hamilton & Madison refer to the League in Federalist No. 18.

Sulla the Fortunate: suggested discussion points

Sulla the Fortunate: Roman General and Dictator

1. G.P. Baker's writing style.
2. Can we discern his thought processes? How much did the 1920s geopolitical events shape his overall view?
3. Baker's introduction to his story, i.e. what ancient Britons would have seen if they had traveled to Early Rome
4. Assessment of Sulla, p. 36 (X.)
5. Events that shaped Sulla
6. "The Astute Psychologist"
7. Sulla's addiction to drama (Baker writes on Sulla's taking of Athens: The emperor Nero must often have regretted that he had neither the opportunity nor the ability to take Athens.)
8. As the story is told from the Gracchi to Sulla's death, it seems to unfold as a series of dramas in the Greek sense
9. The character of Marius
10. Under: Sulla Comes Home, II: Baker's thoughts on the later "first triumvirate", and "The Perfect Aristocrat"
11. Baker's defense of the proscription, does he have a point?
12. Aim of Sulla's dictatorship, but also: comparatively brief treatment of Sulla's reforms
13. "The Death of Sulla's World", Baker's assessment of Sulla

Karl Christ closes his biography, Sulla, eine Römische Karriere, with this paragraph (my translation): 

With his last, comprehensive systemization of the dominance of the Roman aristocracy, Sulla stands at the zenith of the history of the late Roman republic. His shadow looms over the entire subsequent era, however much his pre-eminent successors, Caesar and Augustus, might have distanced themselves from him.

A. Keaveney, in Sulla; The Last Republican:

[It] is impossible not to conclude that Sulla, despite all his great talents and all he accomplished, is nevertheless one of the great failures of history ... As he himself would probably agree, [all his achievements] were surely nought when set against the fact that the last republican, who had both the will and the means, could not, for all his striving, save the Roman Republic.

March 15 & April 5, 2006 Background   2006 Reading List   PDF

(updated April 2, 2006)

update on June/July read: Pride of Carthage

Our June/July book is now available as paperback:

Pride of Carthage: A Novel of Hannibal
by David Anthony Durham

Also, Bingley pointed out to me today that there are two e-book editions out now, for Adobe & Microsoft Readers, which you can find on Amazon.com here.

2006 Reading List    PDF

my review

dictator

Lucius Cornelius Sulla Felix was dictator of Rome from late 82 - 79 BC, however not in the sense of the original meaning of 'dictator':

William Smith, D.C.L., LL.D.: A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, John Murray, London, 1875. (Smith's Dictionary) explains at length:

DICTAʹTOR, an extraordinary magistrate at Rome. The name is of Latin origin, and the office probably existed in many Latin towns before it was introduced into Rome (Dionys. v.74). We find it in Lanuvium even in very late times (Cic. pro Mil. 10). At Rome this magistrate was originally called magister populi and not dictator, and in the sacred books he was always designated by the former name down to the latest times (Cic. de Rep. i.40, de Leg. iii.3, de Fin. iii.22; Var. L.L. v.82, ed Müller; Festus, s.v. optima lex, p198, ed. Müller).

Read on

proscriptio

Sulla the dictator became [in]famous for his proscription, giving the term a new -- and lethal -- meaning.

William Smith, D.C.L., LL.D.: A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, John Murray, London, 1875. (Smith's Dictionary) adresses the subject best:

PROSCRIPTIO. The verb proscribere properly signifies to exhibit a thing for sale by means of a bill or advertisement: in this sense it occurs in a great many passages. But in the time of Sulla it assumed a very different meaning, for he applied it to a measure of his own invention (Vell. Pat. ii.28), namely, to the sale of the property of those who were put to death at his command, and who were themselves called proscripti. Read on

The only other systematic proscription happened 40 years later under the triumvirate of Gaius Julius Caesar (Octavianus), Marcus Antonius, and Marcus Aemilius Lepidus. Newer scholarship disputes the number of their victims listed in the above article.

Sulla in opera

Syllecta Classica at the Classics Department of the University of Iowa is a journal for interdisciplinary approaches to classics and its related disciplines. In a 1997 conference transcribed in Syllecta Classica vol. 10, two opera libretti with the subject of Sulla are discussed, with an abstract, Seneca and the "Sulla" Operas of Handel and Mozart, available. Sulla is called "the tyrannical and nearly irredeemable figure."

The operas are Silla by Giacomo Rossi with music by Händel, and Lucio Silla by Giovanni de Gamerra with music by Mozart.

The conference as such is reviewed in Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2000.06.30: John Porter, Eric Csapo, C.W. Marshall, Robert C. Ketterer, Crossing the Stages: The Production, Performance and Reception of Ancient Theater. Syllecta Classica, Volume 10, 1999.   Pp. xii + 282.

  Mozart Libretto in English. Synopis. 

Johann Christian Bach, at about the same time as Mozart, composed an opera also called Lucio Silla, with the same plot that Mozart used.

Theodor Mommsen (1817-1903)

Theodor Mommsen, the eminent 19th century German philologist, legal scholar and historian, gained his early reputation through the collecting of Latin inscriptions, Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum (see also) as source work for the until then almost exclusive ancient literary knowledge of the Roman antiquity, as well as coins. His two major works in his prime were Roman Constitutional Law and Roman Criminal Law. He was a foremost innovator in the study of Roman history, which would never be the same thereafter.

Roman History before Sulla

To understand the actions and career of Sulla, one must also consider political events that took place during his youth, i.e. the initiatives and fate of the Gracchi -- especially of Gaius Gracchus, when Sulla would have been about 17 years old.

While historians differ on when the "Roman Revolution" began, it might be useful for the upcoming book chat on Sulla, the Fortunate by G.P. Baker -- especially as Baker presents us with a highly individualistic rambling through history -- to familiarize oneself again with the Gracchi, or even going back a further, as Baker indeed does. A convenient place would be From the Gracchi to Nero by H.H. Scullard which we recently read, and, if you have easy access to the earlier volume: A History of the Roman World 753 to 146 BC.

I happen to own a small German biography, Sulla, Eine Politische Karriere by Karl Christ, München: Beck 2002, ISBN 3406492851. Christ is firmly grounded in the Mommsen "Revolution" camp. Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2003.03.08.

The only other biography which I could find on Sulla, Sulla; The last Republican by A. Keaveney (Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2006.01.13), is still in the mail.

                

Mestrios Plutarchos (Plutarch)

Mestrios Plutarchos (Mestrius Plutarchus), c.46 CE - c.122 CE, the Greek historian, biographer, and essayist, is best known for his Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans, also known as Parallel Lives, intended as pared moralistic Lives rather than biographies of famous Greeks and Romans.