Roman History Books and More

who, catiline, can boast a nobler line

Juvenal Satires, Book III, Satire 8

[...]

Who, Catiline, can boast a nobler line
Than thy lewd friend Cethegus's and thine?
Yet you took arms, and did by night conspire
To set our houses and our gods, on fire
(An enterprise which might indeed become
Our enemies the Gauls, not sons of Rome;
To recompense whose barbarous intent,
Pitch'd shirts would be too mild a punishment)
But Cicero, our wise consul, watch'd the blow,
With care discover'd, and disarm'd the foe:
Cicero, the humble mushroom, scarcely known,
The lowly native of a country town
(Who, till of late, could never reach the height
Of being honour’d as a Roman knight),
Throughout the trembling city placed a guard,
Dealing an equal share to every ward;
And by the peaceful robe got more renown
Within our walls than young Octavius won
By victories at Actium, or the plain
Of Thessaly, discolour’d by the slain:
Him, therefore, Rome in gratitude decreed
The father of his country, which he freed.

(from Juvenal and Persius by G. G. Ramsay)

Satires of Juvenal

In Print:  Sixteen Satires (Penguin Classics)
by Juvenal (Author), Peter Green (Translator, Introduction)

Peter Green

more jstor on catilina – sallust's catiline: date and purpose

An excellent commentary on The Conspiracy of Catiline.

Sallust's "Catiline": Date and Purpose
Author(s): L. A. MacKay
Source: Phoenix, Vol. 16, No. 3 (Autumn, 1962), pp. 181-194
Published by: Classical Association of Canada
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1086814

[...]  Some scholars, disheartened by the variety and inadequacy [of] explanations, have renounced the search for a topical explanation entirely; they are content with a literary justification:  the theme offered a promising field for the display of Sallust's literary talent, for criticism of a regime that had not given him the recognition he felt he deserved, and for playing the moralist at a time when he had nothing to lose by it.  This seems a frivolous explanation.  Whatever one may think of Sallust's intellectual qualifications and achievements, he saw himself as a serious and devoted patriot, whose writings were a valuable service to the community.  He was not composing belles lettres.  The subjects he chose were not indifferent;  they were intimately relevant to the problems of Roman political society that were particularly occupying his mind at the time he wrote.  We are justified in asking, rather we are obliged to ask, what particular aspects of the contemporary situation dominated his thinking at the time of writing.

[...]  To what particular situation was the Catiline relevant?  In the search for an answer, Sallust offers us little explicit help. He chose the theme, he says, because he thought it in primis memorabile sceleris atque periculi novitate.  What are we to understand by this?  read all

the conspiracy of catiline as seen by contemporaries and historians, updated

 (by no means complete)

The contemporaries:

The Catiline Orations, with text links (Cicero, of course)

Sallust: Conspiracy of Catiline  (e-text)
The Jugurthine War & The Conspiracy of Catiline (print)

The ancient historians/biographers:

Update 1

Appian
Bellum Civile II, 2 ff

Suetonius, De Vita Caesarum, Divus Iulius, Chapter XIV.

---

Casssius Dio, Roman History
Book 37, Chapter 29 ff

Florus, Epitome de Tito Livio II.xii

Plutarch

Life of Cicero, Chapter 10 ff
Life of Cato Minor, Chapter 22 ff
Life of Caesar, Chapter 7 ff
Life of Crassus, Chapter 13

tacitus annals now on lacuscurtius

Tacitus
The Annals • The Histories

via A glut of Tacitus

more catilinaria: an 1853 novel, 'the roman traitor'

A commenter points me to The Roman Traitor or the Days of Cicero, Cato and Cataline: A True Tale of the Republic by Henry William Herbert. It's a novel.

It's available at the Internet Archive:

THE ROMAN TRAITOR:  OR, THE DAYS OF CICERO, CATO AND CATALINE.
A TRUE TALE OF THE REPUBLIC. (1853)
BY HENRY WILLIAM HERBERT (1807–1858)
AUTHOR OF "CROMWELL," "MARMADUKE WYVIL/ BROTHERS," ETC.

Why not a Borgia or a Catiline? POPE.

MIDNIGHT was over Rome. The skies were dark and lowering, and ominous of tempest ; for it was a sirocco, and the welkin was overcast with sheets of vapory cloud, not very dense, indeed, or solid, but still sufficient to intercept the feeble twinkling of the stars, which alone held dominion in the firmament; since the young crescent of he moon had sunk long ago beneath the veiled horizon.

The air was thick and sultry, and so unspeakably oppressive, that for above three hours the streets had been entirely deserted. In a few houses of the higher class, lights might be seen dimly shining through the casements of the small chambers, hard beside the doorway, appropriated to the use of the Atriensis, or slave whose charge it was to guard the entrance of the court. But, for the most part, not a single ray cheered the dull murky streets, except that here and there, before the holy shrine, or vaster and more elaborate temple of some one of Rome's hundred gods, the votive lanthorns, though shorn of half their beams by the dense fog-wreaths, burnt perennial. The period was the latter time of the republic, a few years after the fell democratic persecutions of the plebeian Marius had drowned the mighty city oceans-deep in patrician gore; after the awful retribution of the avenger Sylla had rioted in the destruction of that guilty faction.

Have fun!

Also as Google Book

myth of sacred prostitution

In or recent book chat about the novel Winter Quarters by Alfred Duggan, the question came up whether there was really a temple prostitution, as is so often implied.

Now, thanks to a comment elsewhere by Judith Weingarten, "… we may finally (finally!) be able to put the myth of sacred prostitution to bed: see the BMCR review of Stephanie Budin’s new book, The Myth of Sacred Prostitution in Antiquity."

The Myth of Sacred Prostitution in Antiquity
by Stephanie Budin
Hardcover, Cambridge University Press, 2008.

From the review by Vinciane Pirenne-Delforge:

the transition to late antiquity on the lower danube, lecture series

Update 1:  Adrian now has actually blogged it and comments:

All of it looks good, but noteworthy is Poulter's article "The Transition to Late Antiquity", Peter Heather's "Goths in the Roman Balkans c.350–50"; Peter Guest's "Coin Circulation in the Balkans in Late Antiquity" and Neil Christie's "From the Danube to the Po: the Defence of Pannonia and Italy in the Fourth and Fifth Centuries AD". 

---

(Hat tip Adrian Murdoch via Twitter)

Proceedings of the British Academy, Volume 141
The Transition to Late Antiquity on the Lower Danube
Volume published 2007

A lecture series available as free PDF files.

cicero on the monograph, and on a history about himself: letter to lucceius

Sir Ronald Syme, in Sallust (Sather Classical Lectures), in the chapter "From Politics to History," talks about Sallust and the monograph, and notes that  "By good fortune a kind of disquisition on the monograph happens to be extant" in the letter of 56 from Cicero to L. Lucceius, "carefully stylised, and, in places, artful from informality."  Lucceius by then had nearly finished a work on the Bellum Italicum and Cicero suggests a new subject,  Cicero's life from the inception of Catilina's conspiracy to his return from exile.  Syme then continues,

Cicero adduces Greek precedents for the monograph.  He explains that concentration on one person and a single theme will make all things more rich and splendid, "uberiora atque ornatiora."

and

[Cicero's] fortunes are a kind of stage play, "quasi fabula." And finally, genre and subject are far from forbidding a favourable presentation.  Such was the monograph, in Cicero's conception: drama, colour, concentration, and a theme of high politics.

Here is the letter in question at Perseus:
CVIII (F V, 12) TO L. LUCCEIUS
M. Tullius Cicero, Letters (ed. Evelyn Shuckburgh)

sallust in high flight …

… but can he keep this up?

1  It becomes all men, who desire to excel other animals, to strive, to the utmost of their power, not to pass through life in obscurity, like the beasts of the field, which nature has formed groveling and subservient to appetite. All our power is situate in the mind and in the body. Of the mind we rather employ the government; of the body, the service. The one is common to us with the gods; the other with the brutes. It appears to me, therefore, more reasonable to pursue glory by means of the intellect than of bodily strength, and, since the life which we enjoy is short, to make the remembrance of us as lasting as possible. For the glory of wealth and beauty is fleeting and perishable; that of intellectual power is illustrious and immortal.

Yet it was long a subject of dispute among mankind, whether military efforts were more advanced by strength of body, or by force of intellect. For, in affairs of war, it is necessary to plan before beginning to act, and, after planning, to act with promptitude and vigor. Thus, each being insufficient of itself, the one requires the assistance of the other.

De coniuratione Catilinae.
edited by Jared W. Scudder (Boston: Allyn & Bacon, 1900).
Conspiracy of Catiline.
literally translated by the Rev. John Selby Watson.
New York: Harper & Brothers, 329 & 331 Pearl Street (1867).

Gaius Sallustius Crispus

'encyclopaedia romana'

Bill Thayer gently chided me in two comments of his that I mistook him for Jim Grout in posts of mine. 
So here are my apologies and Jim's website, which has the same host as Bill Thayer's:

ENCYCLOPÆDIA ROMANA
ROME. THE HOME OF EMPIRE AND ALL PERFECTION

Enjoy the site and the photos!

more jstor: was sallust fair to cicero? was catiline a madman? was cicero the saviour of the state?

Was Sallust Fair to Cicero?
Author(s): T. R. S. Broughton
Source: Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association, Vol. 67, (1936), pp. 34-46
Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/283225

Abstract:
After bringing forward some additional arguments to refute the older view that Sallust was belittling Cicero and whitewashing Caesar in his monograph on the Cartilinarian conspiracy I suggest that he was influenced by the growth of the Cato legend in his account of the debate on the nones of December and that elsewhere his covert way of giving the consul his due indicates that he wrote his monograph after the second triumvirate was formed and chose to be discreet.

for jstor users: 'plutarch and catiline' (c.b.r. pelling)

For those lucky enough to have access to JSTOR, there is an article on how Plutarch treats the Catiline conspiracy over four biographies, as well as a discussion of Plutarch's working methods and the various styles he applied in the Lives:

Plutarch and Catiline
Author(s): C. B. R. Pelling
Source: Hermes, Vol. 113, No. 3 (3rd Qtr., 1985), pp. 311-329
Published by: Franz Steiner Verlag
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4476443

Alas, I had to skip over the Greek words …

Pelling has written more about Plutarch: Plutarch and History (Classical Press of Wales), however, the price is way out of range for most of us. (ISBN: 0715631284)

Another even more expensive – at this reading – book that has Spelling as a contributor is Essays on Plutarch's Lives, Barbara Scardigli (ed.),  Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995 (ISBN: 0198140762).  Here is a Bryn Mawr Classical Review.

Inter-Library Service to the rescue!

Christopher B. R. Pelling is the Regius Professor, Faculty of Classics, Christ Church.

rome’s 2762nd birthday …

… and games honoring it

Games in Honor of Rome’s 2762nd Birthday!

On 21st April, Rome will celebrate its 2762nd birthday–she’s looking good for her age, wouldn’t you say?
In honor of this big event, a long series of concerts, historic reenactments, speeches, and inaugurations began today and will continue through Tuesday.

   image courtesy idcrome at eternallycool.net

a terse statement by ronald syme on catilina

Without a party, a statesman is nothing. He sometimes forgets that awkward fact.  If the leader or principal agent of a faction goes beyond the wishes of his allies and emancipates himself from control, he may have to be dropped or suppressed. The reformer Ti. Gracchus was put up by a small group of influential consulars. These prudent men soon refused further support to the rash, self-righteous tribune when he plunged into illegal courses. The political dynast Crassus used Catilina as his agent. Catilina could not, or would not, understand that reform or revolution had no place in the designs of his employer. Crassus drew back, and Catilina went on, to his ruin.
The Roman Revolution, Page 60. (Google Book)

The Roman Revolution by Ronals Syme (Print)

ostia antica

David Meadows tweeted Berlin-Kent Ostia Excavations, a nice blog, whence I got to this extensive and very active site:

Ostia, Harbour City of Ancient Rome (Ostia antica)

This website is dedicated to Ostia, the harbour city of ancient Rome.  Here you will find information for professional archaeologists and historians, for students of Roman archaeology and history, and for interested lay-people. The site is maintained by the Internet Group Ostia.

There are lots of things to explore, from the introduction with time line, history and maps to ancient texts, an amazing topographical dictionary, computer reconstructions, virtual museum, videos, Yahoo group, and more.

mary beard on publishing in ancient rome

Illustration by Greg Clarke, New York Times

Mary Beard has an essay in this weekend's Books section at the New York Times:

Essay
Scrolling Down the Ages
By MARY BEARD

Published: April 19, 2009

There’s a lot in the Roman literary world that seems familiar: money-making booksellers, exploited authors.

“My book is thumbed by our soldiers posted overseas, and even in Britain people quote my words. What’s the point? I don’t make a penny from it.”  This is not the complaint of some young American author who has suddenly discovered that his contract pays him nothing for foreign sales.  These are the words of the Roman poet Martial, first-century satirist and defender of authors’ rights.   read on

Hat tip to David Meadow, who adds   [...]  If I think about it too hard, I start thinking of the ancient literate slave as the Roman equivalent of an iPod Touch, with a longer battery life.

Marcus Didius Falco, in Lindsey Davis' Ode to a Banker (just reissued) has plenty of experience with Roman Publishers.

circus maximus ilustrations from around 1600

BibliOdyssee has a marvelous post on a 1600 depiction of the Circus Maximus, with images and links:

De Ludis Circensibus
(The Circus Games)

Onofrio Panvinio (1530-1568) was an Augustinian monk and one of the most important Renaissance historians of early Rome. He arrived there from Verona in 1549 and obtained degrees in liberal arts and theology while cultivating a deep interest in archaeology. He was appointed to the position of Corrector and Reviser of the books of the Vatican Library in 1556.

[...] 'De Ludis Circensibus' was thought to have been first published in 1600 and features etched and engraved illustrations by Étienne Dupérac, who collaborated with Panvinio for the last three years of Panvinio's life. The plates are often reworkings of earlier designs by Pirro Ligorio that were included in the eclectic assortment of material associated with Antonio Lafreri's so-called 'Speculum Romanae Magnificentiae', an everchanging collection of Roman antiquities prints, assembled and published from the mid-16th century onwards.

 
Etched and engraved illustration by Étienne Dupérac

Creative Commons license

Hat tip Adrian Murdoch

o tempora o mores! (audio)

 O tempora, o mores!

Cicero, In Catilinam, I.1-3, read in the restored pronunciation of classical Latin by Robert P. Sonkowsky, University of Minnesota.  Listen to the recording: Cicero (Real Player required)

To any purists out there: Please forgive me, but I had to giggle through the whole thing …

SOCIETY FOR THE ORAL READING OF GREEK AND LATIN LITERATURE (SORGLL)

The comic history of Rome (1852), Page 296
image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

margu – a place in 'winter quarters' (alfred duggan)

In Winter Quarters, the protagonist Camul tells us in the Prologue that he eventually comes to live in a place called Margu.

Vicki C. did some sleuthing and found a Wikipedia link (as usual handle with care): Margu.  The Greek name is Margiana, and Jona Lendering has an entry Margiana:

Margiana (Old Persian Marguš): oasis in the Karakum desert, modern Mary (or Merv) in the southeast of Turkmenistan.

Margiana was situated on the boards of the river Murghab; this river, which was called Margos by the ancient Greeks, has its sources in the mountains of Afghanistan and flows to the north, into the Karakum desert, where it divides into several branches that disappear in the desert sands. The fertile delta (satellite photo) was called Margiana and was already occupied by farmers in about 2200-1700 BCE; their Bronze Age culture is known as the "Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex".

[...]  In 53 BCE, Antiochia in Margiana received new settlers: ten thousand Roman soldiers, taken captive by the Parthians at Carrhae. They must have found the conditions of their captivity easier than they expected; a few years later, the Greek topographer Strabo of Amasia praises Margiana as a country especially blessed by nature, and he must have received this information from the captives.   more

plutarch's 'life of crassus'

Our second chat in April (Winter Quarters by Alfred Duggan) and to a very brief extent the ones in May (Literature on Catilina from Sallust to modern fiction) have Marcus Licinius Crassus as secondary subject.

Here is Plutarch: Life of Crassus on LacusCurtius.

With regard to Winter Quarters, go to Chapter 15, where Crassus gets allotted Syria province, and read on.

The Catilinian Conspiracy is briefly touched upon in Chapter 13:

[...]  2 In the affair of Catiline, which was very serious, and almost subversive of Rome, some suspicion attached itself to Crassus, and a man publicly named him as one of the conspirators, but nobody believed him. 3 Nevertheless, Cicero, in one of his orations, plainly inculpated Crassus and Caesar. This oration, it is true, was not published until after both were dead; but in the treatise upon his consulship, Cicero says that Crassus came to him by night with a letter which gave details of the affair of Catiline, and felt that he was at last establishing the fact of a conspiracy. 4 And Crassus, accordingly, always hated Cicero for this, but was kept from doing him any open injury by his son. For Publius Crassus, being given to literature and learning, was attached to Cicero, so much so that he put on mourning when Cicero did at the time of his trial, and prevailed upon the other young men to do the same. And finally he persuaded his father to become Cicero's friend.

Mestrios Plutarchos