Roman History Books and More

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who was mormolyce?

In Caesar's Women, Servilia, after the affair of the infamous letter, is telling at Brutus that Cato "is not all there. He never was, even as a baby.  Mormolyce got at him."

Who was Mormolyce? The Greek Myth Index tells us,

MORMOLYCE  Or Mormolyceion (Mormolukeion), the same phantom or bugbear as Mormo, and also used for the same purpose. (Philostr. Vit. Apollon. iv. 25; Menandr. Reliq. p. 145, ed. Meineke; Aristoph. Thesm. 417 Strab. i. p. 19; Stob. Eclog. p. 1010.)

MORMO was

A female spectre, with which the Greeks used to frighten little children. (Aristoph. Acharn. 582, Pax, 474.) Mormo was one of the same class of bugbears as Empusa and Lamia.

According to the OCD, Mormo was the the queen of the frightful Laestrygones who lost her own children and so murders other children.  The Laestrygones are known to us from the Odyssey.

Odysseus at the Laestrygonians
Courtesy Wikimedia Commons

second of three chats on 'caesar's women'

The second of our three chats on Caesar's Women, on Wednesday, covers two more chapters:  Parts IV and V.

A quite entertaining rendition of the Catilinarian conspiracy … Servilia's letter to Caesar and and its consequences … the trial of Rabirius (see McCullough's note on this) … the Senate tries to disbar Caesar … Caesar and the Vestals … enter Publius Vatinius … the Bona Dea scandal … Pompey returns  … and much more … enjoy!

Join us here.

were gladiators vegetarians?

 
Gladiator Mosaic, Bad Kreuznach, from my 1999 visit

Although not new, this story related to the by now famous gladiator cemetery in Ephesus has hit the blogosphere and Twitter this week:

The Gladiator Diet, How to eat, exercise, and die a violent death by Andrew Curry (Abstract, Archaeology Magazine, Volume 61 Number 6, November/December 2008) is quite entertaining and nicely illustrated with pop boxes,

[…] Contemporary accounts of gladiator life sometimes refer to the warriors as hordearii--literally, "barley men." Grossschmidt* and collaborator Fabian Kanz subjected bits of the bone to isotopic analysis, a technique that measures trace chemical elements such as calcium, strontium, and zinc, to see if they could find out why. They turned up some surprising results. Compared to the average inhabitant of Ephesus, gladiators ate more plants and very little animal protein.  The vegetarian diet had nothing to do with poverty or animal rights. Gladiators, it seems, were fat.  Consuming a lot of simple carbohydrates, such as barley, and legumes, like beans, was designed for survival in the arena. Packing in the carbs also packed on the pounds. "Gladiators needed subcutaneous fat," Grossschmidt explains. "A fat cushion protects you from cut wounds and shields nerves and blood vessels in a fight." Not only would a lean gladiator have been dead meat, he would have made for a bad show. Surface wounds "look more spectacular," says Grossschmidt. "If I get wounded but just in the fatty layer, I can fight on," he adds. "It doesn't hurt much, and it looks great for the spectators."  read on

new at lacus curtius: plutarch on talkativeness

Bill Thayer: It's bad.

de garrulitate by Plutarch

It is a troublesome and difficult task that philosophy has in hand when it undertakes to cure garrulousness. For the remedy, words of reason, requires listeners; but the garrulous listen to nobody, for they are always talking. And this is the first symptom of their ailment: looseness of the tongue become impotence of the ears.  For it is a deliberate deafness, that of men who, I take it, blame Nature because they have only one tongue, but two ears. If, then, Euripides was right when he said with reference to the unintelligent hearer,

          I could not fill a man who will not hold
          My wise words flooding into unwise ears,

it would be more just to say to the garrulous man, or rather about the garrulous man,

          I could not fill a man who will not take
          My wise words flooding into unwise ears,

or rather submerging, a man who talks to those who will not listen, and will not listen when others talk. For even if he does listen for a moment, when his loquacity is, as it were, at ebb, the rising tide immediately makes up for it many times over.

They give the name Seven-voiced to the portico at Olympia which reverberates many times from a single utterance; and if but the least word sets garrulousness in motion, straightway it echoes round about on all sides,

          Touching the heart-strings never touched before.

read on

Mestrios Plutarchos (Plutarch)

'the best book loan in literary history?' courtesy peter stothard

I can't resist posting this literary history of a book loan, via Peter Stothard's blog:

The best book loan in literary history?

did cicero coin the term populares? not

In Caesar's Women, Colleen McCullough has Caesar intimate that Cicero coined the term Populares, but did he?  That question arose during tonight's book chat.  Though the word seems almost a fixation of Cicero's, the answer is no and can be found at JSTOR:

Cicero and the Word Popvlaris [Cicero and the Word Popularis]
Robin Seager
The Classical Quarterly, New Series, Vol. 22, No. 2 (Nov., 1972), pp. 328-338
Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Classical Association
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/638213

It has by now become a commonplace among the historians of the republic that optimates and populares were not political parties in any modern sense. Nevertheless the ghost of the 'popular party' still lingers in subtle disguises, the most insidious of which is donned whenever populares is translated as 'the populares', with all that the definite article may imply.  It is the aim of this paper to catalogue the principal functions and connotations of the word popularis in Cicero, with illustrative material from other sources, in the hope that such a demonstration may contribute to the final laying of the ghost. The first section is essentially a commentary on the definition of populares given in the Pro Sestio;  the second attempts to expound the various techniques that Cicero uses to combat an opponent who claims to be popularis.
read on

2010 reading list for book chats

As we like to plan ahead, here, as usual, is next year's reading list for our book chats:

Roman History Reading Group
Reading List for 2010

January 6	The Eagle of the Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliff
January 20, February 3 & 17	Tacitus, Histories (Penguin Classics; Revised edition, August 25, 2009) Histories Online
March 3 & 17	Ancient Rome on Five Denarii a Day by Philips Matyzcak  (Irene's review) Working IX to V: Orgy Planners, Funeral Clowns, and Other Prized Professions of the Ancient World by Vicki Leon
April 7	Lavinia by Ursula K. Leguin
April 21	Marcus Aurelius: Meditations (Penguin Classics; annotated edition edition, 2006) Online: The Meditations with background: Marcus Aurelius by Anthony Birley / related blogs, etc., to follow
May 5 & 19	Augustus, A Novel by John Williams, which interested parties could combine with Massie’s Augustus as a contrast.
June 2	The Roman Way by Edith Hamilton
June 16	Martial (selections to come)
July 7	SPQR III: The Sacrilege by John Maddox Roberts
July 21	The Fires of Vesuvius: Pompeii Lost and Found by Mary Beard This may be carried over into August for those interested.
August Recess
September 1	Kleopatra by Karen Essex (Irene's review) / (N.S. Gill's review)
September 15, October 6 & 20	Sections of The Aeneid (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition) by Virgil Dryden Translation
November 3, 17	The Spartacus War by Barry Strauss
December 1	Last Act in Palmyra by Lindsey Davis
December 15	Get Out or Die (Aurelia) by Jane Finnis