Roman History Books and More

dream of scipio – roman background

Much of the Roman story takes place in and around Vasio or Vaison-la-Romaine as it is now called. The green arrow on this map shows where Vaison-la-Romaine is.  Livius.org has a gallery of photos of the Roman remains in Vaison-la-Romaine.  This touristy site gives more background information and has many photos. The town used to be called Vaison, but was given the name Vaison-la-Romaine after many Roman remains were excavated by Joseph Sautel, the priest-cum-archaeologist Julien Barneuve meets as a young boy.

There is a useful summary of the history of the period in Chapter 10 of Bury's History of the Later Empire, particulary sections 2 (part of which covers Majorian, the emperor supported by Manlius' father -- see also DIR ) and 5.

Sidonius  is mentioned in the first Roman scene of The Dream of Scipio as being under siege in Clermont (Augustonemetum). This translation of Sidonius Apollinaris' letters (scroll down if necessary) has a good introduction on his career and the life of the social milieu he and Manlius shared in Southern Gaul.

the dream of scipio – the title

The Scipio in question is Publius Cornelius Scipio Aemilianus Africanus (c. 185 BC - 129 BC), who defeated and oversaw the destruction of Carthage, and later Numantia in Spain. He is the main speaker in Cicero's philosophical dialogue De Republica. In a passage from the last book of De Republica, Scipio, as an old man, describes a dream he had as a young man in Africa (Latin text, English translations by Hooker (starts just before the end of the second paragraph of the Latin text linked above) and Peabody (with rather portentous introduction and notes)).

De Republica was almost completely lost until a palimpsest manuscript of about a third of it was found in the 1820s. However, the Dream of Scipio had been known through Macrobius' commentary on it, which survived through the Middle Ages to modern times (Latin, no English translation that I can find but Google Books has a French translation (starts on page 9 of the book)).

For further details, including some rather nice mediaeval illustrations of Macrobius' commentary, see the wikipedia entry (usual caveats apply).

gone fishing…

… for the next ten days or so.

There may be sporadic blogging.

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  . . .

next book: the dream of scipio

Our next book after The Grass Crown is the novel  The Dream of Scipio by Iain Pears, on May 16 and June 6.

From this book review, it appears that it is not an easy read, though quite interesting.  Therefore, I suggest to all those participating in the chat:  If you not own the book, get it sooner rather than later from your public library.  Mine lets me have a book for six week if I tell them that it's for a book discussion group.

OTOH, Amazon.com has cheap used copies available (scroll down to the relevant box).

More to come.

Enjoy!

more on the met’s greek and roman galleries

Sara Krulwich/The New York Times

Art Review

Classical Treasures, Bathed in a New Light

By MICHAEL KIMMELMAN

Published: April 20, 2007

With the Metropolitan Museum’s fine, new light-washed galleries for Greek and Roman art, Western antiquity from the Bronze Age through the reign of Constantine now unfolds in logical, stately order.

briefly: sulla and fascism

Very briefly:  I was searching JSTOR for Sulla and ‘March on Rome’.  The results naturally address both the first march on Rome in 88, which is among the subjects of the final installment of our current read  The Grass Crown, and the second one, actually the conclusion of the civil war after Sulla’s return from Greece in 82. (Covered by Colleen McCullough in the third volume of her Masters of Rome novel series, Fortune’s Favorites.)

Maybe not surprisingly, about half of the entries – by a quick estimate – concern themselves with fascism, mostly of the Italian version.

I may explore this at a later time.

OUP – “what were they thinking?”

Another rant!

Last month our local historical society, The Stamford Historical Society, belatedly received a copy of a book into which we had input:  Escaping Salem: The Other Witch Hunt of 1692 by Richard Godbeer. (book description below)

This is the first volume in a newish series of small books from Oxford University Press called “New Narratives in American History.”

It's handsomely put together and nicely illustrated; HOWEVER:  There is no index!  So I'm asking: What were they thinking?

early relationships between cicero and pompey

When did Cicero and Pompey first meet?

Biographies in my library are either silent (Gelzer), or report it happened during the Social War, when in 89 they were both on Gn. Pompeius Strabo's staff.  Pat Southern in Pompey the Great even then hedges and writes that they may have met.

Allen M. Ward, in The Early Relationships between Cicero and Pompey until 80 B. C., Phoenix, Vol. 24, No. 2 (Summer, 1970), pp. 119-129 (JSTOR, limited access), argues that it could have been earlier than that:

THE TENDENCY HAS often been to ignore or discount the possibility of any personal contact between Cicero and Pompey in their early years.  Richard Johannemann vigorously maintained that Cicero first came into personal contact with Pompey only in 71. A re-examination of the evidence will show, however, that Cicero and Pompey probably did have contact with each other well before 71 and possibly from a very early date.

new greek and roman galleries at the met open

The new Greek and Roman Galleries at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City open on Friday, April 20.  Can't wait to get there!

The current museum page, with history.

The New York Times has an article on the life and times of the galleries and their designer:

Arts / Art & Design

Redesigning the Met’s Home for Greek and Roman Art

By ROBIN POGREBIN

Published: April 18, 2007

Over the last several years, architect Kevin Roche has been busy transforming the Met’s southernmost wing, which will officially open on Friday.

Next entry

the social war and the mccullough novel, plus some resources

Again I must say I'm impressed how well – and vividly – Colleen McCullough recreates the Social or Marsic War in  The Grass Crown, our current read.  Her extensive bibliography, which I sent for years ago, includes Arthur Keaveney's excellent Rome And The Unification Of Italy, so this should come as no surprise.  Her major novelist's artistic license, assisted by gaps in history, evolves around Sulla's last year of the war – before he was elected consul.  It does not seem clear what Sulla's actual position was in the scheme of things, nor the one of Cosconius and whether or not there was more than one Cosconius.  However, the story of Cosconius sailing around Italy with his legions on the q.t. and creating a new front that way makes for a good story indeed.

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.

barthold georg niebuhr (1776-1831), german statesman, diplomat, and historian

While googling for Gn. Pompeius Strabo for our current book chat, The Grass Crown – with not much success – I found these Google Books:

Lectures on the history of Rome (from the earliest times to the fall of the Western empire), Volume I and Volume II by Barthold Georg Niebuhr, Taylor and Walton, London 1844.  (There is obviously more to come.)

The lectures were first published between 1811 and 1832. 

Barthold Georg Niebuhr (1776-1831) was a German statesman, diplomat, and historian.

kurt vonnegut, writer of classics of the american counterculture, dies at 84

Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times

Kurt Vonnegut, Writer of Classics of the American Counterculture,
Dies at 84

By DINITIA SMITH, New York Times

Published: April 11, 2007

Kurt Vonnegut, whose dark comic talent and urgent moral vision in novels like "Slaughterhouse-Five,"  "Cat's Cradle" and "God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater" caught the temper of his times and the imagination of a generation, died last night when in Manhattan. He was 84.  more…

Books by Kurt Vonnegut.

gaius valerius catullus in words and music

N.S. Gill at Ancient/Classical History in today's blog takes National Poetry Month as an occasion to honor the 1st century BC Roman poet Catullus.  Go take a look.

She also wrote on Carmen 85, Odi et Amo in the past.

All 116 extant poems can be found in translation online.  In print, we have  The Poems of Catullus, Peter Whigham, translator.  More Catullus editions.  And here is more on the poet from the University of Saskatchewan.

For a general overview, there is Catullus and his World : A Reappraisal by T. P. Wiseman.  Our group has discussed this book in the past.  Wiseman's writing is always clear, and here, he is often quite amusing to boot.

There is also a musical treatment: One of my favorite oratorial pieces is Carl Orff's Catulli Carmina which can be found here together with Trionfo di Aphrodite, and samples can be listened to.

And from an earlier entry of mine:  Chris Weimer of  Thoughts on Antiquity has taken a fresh look at Catullus’ poems and has translated  two of them here, and added a poem of his own, addressed to Catullus.

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.

did marius junior murder the consul cato?

In The Grass Crown, Colleen McCullough has an elaborate story about Marius Junior having killed his commander, the consul L. Porcius Cato, during a battle, and the consequent machinations by Marius Senior to get young Marius out of this mess, let alone the “heroics” of young Caesar.  This of course makes for a good story inasmuch as it puts Cinna into debt to Marius, thus preparing their future sordid cooperation.

Arthur Keaveney, in Rome And The Unification Of Italy, p. 152, brings up the subject.  He writes that it may well be that Cato, who had disciplinary problems with his troops, had been murdered by his unruly troops in the battle in which he was defeated by the Marsi.  Keaveney then continues to say that whether the assassin was young Marius – who is said to have been incensed about the consul disparaging his father – would always remain a subject of debate;  however that prominence should be given to the “savage nature” of young Marius and the family’s notorious touchiness about its “rights,” when considering the issue.  He talks of  “according to one story,” but his endnote and list of sources relates to more than just the murder, so I don't know who the source would be, except to say that is is not any of the ancient sources that I have access to.

A note on Keaveney’s book:  It's a thorough and fascinating evaluation of the history of the unification of Italy, from early in the second century B.C. to Sulla’s final affirmation of the general franchise.  However, it pre-supposes a certain knowledge by the reader of the chain of events and the major players ,and magistracies during crucial years.

on the pitfalls of dating events (for JSTOR readers) – plus plutarch on marius & sulla, with excerpts

First, let me recommend Google Scholar as a search base with nice cross linkings, although the latter branch out so much that they are sometimes not relevant.

For the enquiring minds of lucky JSTOR readers:  A. N. Sherwin-White discusses dating for Sulla's early doings in Asia and the sequence of events for Ariobarzanes in Ariobarzanes, Mithridates, and Sulla, The Classical Quarterly ,New Series, Vol. 27, No. 1 (1977), pp. 173-183, mainly in response to an article by Ernst Badian, which I could not find online:

Sherwin-White branches out into unreliable dating by Plutarch for Sulla (reportedly based on Sulla’s memoirs)

For those not so lucky:  With regard to our current read, The Grass Crown, this gives me the occasion to copy excerpts here from Plutarch's biographies of Marius and Sulla in the narrow confines of our first chat on the book (on LacusCurtius):