Emperor Claudius

The paper focuses on Tacitus’ account of the speech made by Claudius in 48 CE in favour of the admission of the primores of ‘long-haired’ Gaul to the senate, examining arguments used by the historian to clarify the reactions to their request and the reasoning adopted by the emperor to convince the senators to accept it. Besides expressing awareness of the efficacy of the criteria used by Romans to create a supranational imperial order, the passage shows Tacitus’ ability to highlight the political meaningfulness of Claudius’ intervention, making it a model worthy of surviving and being mentioned many centuries later in modern culture. In this vein, the second part of the paper analyzes some 16th and early 17th century references to the emperor’s speech in authors such as Justus Lipsius, Scipione Ammirato, Jean Bodin, Traiano Boccalini, Hugo Grotius. Within their works, also dedicated to examining the birth, development and decline of States, we see that besides recalling an episode occurring many centuries before, some key-intellectuals made utilized the story into a valid exemplum to promote a model of efficacious government favouring integration as a means of consolidating modern states.

Da sempre considerato un imperatore sciocco, incapace e succube delle mogli e dei potentissimi liberti di corte, Claudio si può ritenere senza alcun dubbio una vittima della storiografia senatoria a lui ostile e, soprattutto, degli studi scientifici pubblicati a partire dalla fine dell’Ottocento. La sua fama di homo philologus e di storico è troppo riduttiva e deve essere necessariamente associata con l’immagine di un raffinato politico capace di comprendere a fondo le dinamiche di corte. Consapevole di dover costruire un solido consenso al suo potere, Claudio promuove la carriera dei suoi uomini più fidati e anche l’ascesa di alcune comunità provinciali come, per esempio, i Galli. I fenomeni di mobilità sociale e di integrazione sono, quindi, la cifra distintiva della politica del penultimo imperatore giulio-claudio e ci permettono di riconsegnare al pubblico l’immagine di quello che possiamo definire, forse ancor più di Caracalla, il “principe dell’integrazione”.

Campaigns of Germanicus, AD 13-16 describes briefly the campaigns, joint and combined ops., tactics, strategy, foreign policy, espionage, intelligence gathering, and strategy between ca. 60 BC and AD 150 with particular focus on Germanicus' campaigns.

The BBC series I, Claudius, after the novels by Robert Graves, is now 40 years old and the performance of the cast still stands, even if the style now seems out of date. It came at a time when Hollywood had completely given up on antiquity, and sparked a decade of historical miniseries. But I, Claudius was not entirely without predecessors itself. Despite talk of a remake, no other film or series has attempted to enter this territory since.
Hermeneus 89.3, 119-125
July 2017
ISSN 0165-8158

This is my translation of Seneca from a class I had with the late Dr. Charles Murgia in 1994 or so.  I hope that all the skipped bits have been restored and errors corrected.  Let me know if you find anything that needs fixing.  This is fun reading.  As a note, its popularity eliminated the benefits Nero sought to gain as a divi filius because it makes Claudius out to be a fool, not a god.

Articol apărut în Buletinul Cercurilor Științifice Studențești, Arheologie – istorie – muzeologie, nr. 23, Editura Mega, 2017, Universitatea „1 Decembrie 1918” din Alba Iulia, ISSN 1454-8097, pp. 33-54.

Messalina’s Portrait: between ancient sources and contemporary rehabilitation efforts

Abstract:

Valeria Messalina was the third wife of Emperor Claudius. She was characterized by strange, impudent behavior, modest obscenity, and sexual hyperesthesis; a beautiful, intelligent woman, among other things, who used her qualities as dictated by her senses and sexual stimuli. Empress Messalina was passionate for money, she had the ambition of leadership and she was dominated by the thirst for revenge and blood.

This paper deals in parallel with the way in which the writings of the Roman authors – especially Tacit, Suetonius, Juvenal, and Cassius Dio, constructed Messalina’s portrait, and the current discourse of the scholarly literature proposing a rehabilitation of the image of the Empress. For example, researcher Kristen A. Hosack casts doubt on the ancient description of Messalina and presents a series of arguments designed to change this image of the empress that has been passed on to us, that of a woman who was easily engaged in activities that contravened Roman morals. One reasoning in this direction is that Tacit, interested in Roman morality, wanted to offer a series of lessons to his readers and thus exaggerates the portrait of Messalina. Senatorial tradition was hostile to Claudius; the presentation of Messalina supported the unfavorable image that Tacit wished to make to Claudius, the historian choosing to depict Claudius negatively through his wife. We notice, in an entirely new way in the Romanian historiographical landscape, how ancient writers manipulated the historical events and the language, in order to distort the public's perception of Messalina.

Keywords: Romans, Principate, Julio-Claudian dynasty, domus Augusta, adultery.

Lollia Paulina, qui était la petite-fille de Marcus Lollius et la belle-soeur de Decimus Valerius Asiaticus, épousa en premières noces Memmius Regulus, un légat au service du pouvoir, avant d'être forcée de s'unir à Caligula. Vraisemblablement à la fin de l'an 39, le couple impérial se sépara, la jeune femme n'ayant pas pu tomber enceinte rapidement. Après son divorce de l'empereur, Lollia Paulina fut, une fois encore, contrainte de respecter les impératifs fixés par Caligula. Le choix de Claude de privilégier sa nièce à Lollia est moins empreint de rationalité. En effet, au lendemain de la mort de Messaline, alors qu'elle avait été pressentie pour devenir la nouvelle impératrice, elle fut finalement évincée par Claude, au profit d'Agrippine pour des motifs obscurs. La « mortelle ennemie de Lollia », avec l'accord tacite de son oncle et nouveau mari, s'acharna contre elle au point de la faire exiler, puis assassiner. Abstract Lollia Paulina, who was the granddaughter of Marcus Lollius and the sister-in-law of Decimus Valerius Asiaticus, married at first marriage Memmius Regulus, a legate in the service of power, before being forced to unite with Caligula. Presumably at the end of the year 39, the imperial couple separated, the young woman could not get pregnant quickly. After her divorce from the emperor, Lollia Paulina was, once again, forced to respect the imperatives set by Caligula. Claudius' choice of privileging his niece to Lollia is less marked by rationality. Indeed, the day after the death of Messaline, when she had been approached to become the new empress, she was finally ousted by Claudius, for the benefit of Agrippina for obscure reasons. The " deadly enemy of Lollia " , with the tacit consent of her uncle and new husband, fought against her to the point of exile, then murder.

A new reading of Suetonius' De Vita Caesarum as source for emperors' lives and Roman social history. The focus is on how Suetonius used his own memory and those of others. Paper given at the Oxford Food Symposium and published in its proceedings

A lo largo de sus tres siglos de historia en la época imperial romana, la función principal de la Guardia Pretoriana fue la protección de la figura del emperador allí donde este se encontrara, ya fuera actuando permanentemente como su escolta y guardia personal  en el palacio imperial o como última línea de defensa en el ámbito militar. Pero como cuerpo de élite del ejército romano acantonado en la capital del Imperio también se les encomendó el mantenimiento y, en su caso, restablecimiento del orden allí donde fuera necesario. Así, la Guardia Pretoriana se conformaría como una de las piezas clave en la historia imperial romana como uno de los actores principales no solo a nivel militar sino también a nivel político, papel este último muy alejado de las funciones iniciales para las que fue creada pero que poco a poco fue cobrando especial relevancia tanto por su cercanía a la figura de los sucesivos emperadores como por su acantonamiento en la capital imperial. Consciente de su poder, no fueron pocas las ocasiones en que los pretorianos utilizaron su posición e influencias para dirigir y aprovechar los habituales cambios políticos en la cúspide del poder . Pero, aun siendo menos conocida, no sería menor la importancia bélica que en los campos de batalla protagonizarían los pretorianos en numerosas ocasiones como unidad militar y que a la postre les consagraría como uno de los pilares fundamentales del régimen imperial prácticamente desde su creación, en tiempos de Augusto , hasta su desmantelamiento llevado a cabo por el emperador Majencio.
Como cuerpo de élite del ejército, reconocidos como los mejor entrenados y preparados como demostraron en no pocas ocasiones, y en base a su especial misión recibían una paga superior al del resto de soldados; y su tiempo de servicio era varios años menor, por lo que resultaban ser la envidia del resto de unidades militares y en particular de aquellos que servían en el limes del imperio . Es por ello que trataremos aquí de realizar un estudio esquemático sobre su formación, estructura, actuaciones, etc. con el fin de ahondar en el conocimiento de esta institución muchas veces denostada por algunas de sus intervenciones.

L'imperatore Claudio, nato a Lione il primo agosto del 10 a.C., fu discendente in linea retta di Marco Antonio e in linea collaterale di Augusto. Visse sessantaquattro anni, dei quali quasi quattordici come imperatore, succedendo al nipote Caligola nel gennaio del 41. Per molti anni una salute malferma lo aveva confinato nelle anticamere del potere, ma un'accorta rete di relazioni politiche e la sua raffinata formazione gli spalancarono, a più di cinquant'anni, le porte del potere imperiale. Per amministrare l'impero si servì di una rete di collaboratori molto articolata, nella quale spiccarono i suoi liberti e pochi senatori di grande rilievo. Ebbe quattro mogli e sei figli, uno dei quali adottivo (Nerone). Morì avvelenato per mano dell'ultima moglie, sua nipote Agrippina, il 13 ottobre del 54. Il colpo di mano con il quale Claudio si impadronì dell'impero arrivò la sera del 24 gennaio 41. Caligola era stato ucciso da po-che ore e il senato arrancava sulla decisione da assumere. Tiberio Claudio Nerone Germanico fu salutato imperatore dai pretoria-ni, che lo condussero al castro. Dopo alcune ore di tensione, il senato dovette cedere e conferirgli formalmente il potere. Iniziava un principato inatteso, ma non imprevedibile. Del resto per formazione, vincoli familiari e legami politici, quella di Clau-dio era la candidatura più forte per la successione. Di certo una soluzione più credibile del ripristino della libertas repubblicana, che solo pochi idealisti in fondo volevano, ma che nessuno di quanti sedevano in senato aveva mai conosciuto. Claudio governò oltre tredici anni, vissuti sotto ripetute minacce di congiure e rovesciamenti di sorte. Nonostante lo sfavore di Seneca e poi della storiografia senatoria, che ce lo consegnano come un debole soggiogato da donne e liberti, Claudio ampliò i confini dell'impero, ne ammodernò le strutture amministrative e modificò profondamente quelle istituzionali, quasi sempre però in nome di una pretesa continuità con i modelli della tradizione.

This thesis covers Romano-British history from AD 39 to 84 through the works of the Tacitus, Suetonius Tranquillus, and Dio Cassius Cocceianus. In recent years, the sources have been mined for their historical 'facts' and those 'facts'  weighed against the growing accumulation of archaeological data. I argue that a more nuanced reading of the classical authors, one which takes into account their historical agenda, their rhetorical methodology, and their influence on the reader (listener) , is vital for a fuller understanding of Roman Britain in the first century AD.

La monografia "L'opera dell'imperatore Claudio", pubblicata in italiano originariamente nel 1932 (e subito tradotta in inglese), è un lavoro giovanile dello studioso, con spunti e osservazioni che mantengono intatta tutta la loro validità. L'erudito pedante, il principe illuminato, ma anche il dinasta spietato e accentratore, sono solo alcuni dei tratti di un Claudio che qui ci appare dipinto secondo i toni della contraddizione, costantemente in bilico tra l'inevitabile compimento di un'autocrazia imperiale, cosmopolita e universale, e la vaga nostalgia di un passato oligarchico, romano e «nazionale». Il "Claudio", nel suo caratteristico taglio panflettistico tanto caro all'antichistica italiana tra le due guerre, rimane pur a così grande distanza dalla sua prima apparizione un saggio imprescindibile della storiografia del Novecento sul mondo classico.

Nei mesi che intercorsero fra la presa di Alessandria, nell’agosto del 30 a.C., e la redazione dell’iscrizione di Philae, nell’aprile dell’anno successivo, Ottaviano elaborò ed istituì lontano da Roma una carica che ebbe un’importanza epocale per lo sviluppo delle istituzioni romane: la praefectura Aegypti. Per la prima volta si assegnò in modo perenne l’amministrazione di una provincia ad un membro dell’ordine equestre, abbattendo di fatto le barriere che sino allora avevano visto le magistrature tradizionali, di esclusiva competenza senatoriale, come unica forma possibile per il governo provinciale. Partendo da questo evento, il volume si propone di analizzare la genesi e lo sviluppo degli istituti presidiali equestri nel primo Principato, dalle esperienze distrettuali minori, quali la nota e discussa Iudaea di Ponzio Pilato, sino alla piena affermazione delle province «procuratorie» ad opera dell’imperatore Claudio. Attraverso un’analisi delle fonti letterarie e documentarie, epigrafiche su tutte, l’opera ricostruisce la natura, i poteri, gli ambiti di impiego, spesso tra loro assai dissimili, in cui queste figure furono chiamate ad operare. In questa prospettiva, praefectus, procurator, praeses, al di là dall’essere semplicemente titoli, risultano lo specchio di diversi momenti dell’autocrazia imperiale. Un’appendice prosopografica dedicata ai governatori delle massime province procuratorie sino a tutta l’epoca severiana chiude e completa il volume.

Catalogo della mostra all'Ara Pacis, Roma
Anno di Edizione: 2019
Edizione: L'ERMA di BRETSCHNEIDER
ISBN: 978-88-913-1816-9
Rilegatura: Brossura
Pagine: 320, 80 ill. B/N, 1 ill. Col.
Formato: 24,5 x 28 cm
La figura di Tiberio Claudio Druso, rimasto per anni nell' ombra rispetto ai numerosi studi su altri imperatori, è stata riscoperta
soltanto negli ultimi decenni. Si è dovuto prima fare i conti con alcune importanti testimonianze archeologiche, che
hanno reso evidente la portata delle sue scelte politiche e l' incidenza delle sue riforme amministrative, spingendo anche a
una rilettura critica delle fonti della storiografia di matrice senatoria, a lui troppo spesso ostili.
Per comprendere fino in fondo il regno del discusso imperatore, occorre metterne in luce la personalità, l' operato politico e
amministrativo, il legame con Augusto e con il celebre fratello Germanico, nonché il tragico rapporto con le mogli Messalina e
Agrippina, sullo sfondo della corte imperiale romana e delle controverse vicende della dinastia giulio-claudia.
Importante è il legame con la figura di Augusto, al quale chiaramente Claudio sempre guardò con il suo riformismo di stampo
formalmente tradizionalista, che emerge non solo dalle decisioni politiche, ma anche dalla comunicazione per immagini della produzione
artistica e della scultura di epoca claudia.
Per capire le forme della propaganda dinastica e le dinamiche della successione post-tiberiana, occorre soffermarsi sulle figure
di Germanico e di Agrippina Maggiore un matrimonio fondamentale, che determinerà personaggi di cerniera dinastica come
Caligola e Agrippina Minore e su Caligola stesso, la cui violenta fine, il 24 gennaio del 41 d.C., apre la strada al regno di Claudio.
Tra gli aspetti che caratterizzano la sua storia e la sua esperienza al potere, fondamentale è l' inquadramento della famiglia di
Claudio all' interno del progetto augusteo di costruzione della dinastia. L' importanza dell' unione tra Antonia Minore e Druso
Maggiore fu soprattutto legata alla nascita di veri e propri personaggi di cerniera dinastica tra i due rami della famiglia giulio-claudia:
Germanico, Claudia Livia Giulia (Livilla) e Claudio stesso. Quest' ultimo è un discendente di Augusto più che legittimo, ma
non è mai stato ufficialmente adottato e, quindi, formalmente non legittimato ad assumere il potere.
L' esistenza di Claudio, dalla nascita a Lugdunum (odierna Lione) il 1 agosto del 10 a.C. fino alla morte a Roma nel 54 d.C., è
segnata da un destino singolare, che lo pone di fronte ad avvenimenti eccezionali, fatti di sangue, intrighi di corte, scelte politiche
ardite. L' eccezionalità della sua vicenda umana si legge sin dall' inizio della sua vita: non sarà favorito da Augusto nella carriera
politico-militare, come invece Germanico, ma proprio per questo potrà assecondare i suoi interessi antiquari e dedicarsi agli studi.
Probabilmente una conoscenza profonda della Storia di Roma e del Mediterraneo (scrisse opere storiche sia su Roma augustea che
sulle popolazioni degli Etruschi e dei Fenici) si dimostrò uno strumento utile a fondare la sua capacità politico-amministrativa.
Primo imperatore a nascere fuori dal territorio italico, era un candidato improbabile al comando dell' impero. Augusto, che dubitava
delle sue attitudini politiche, gli avrebbe preferito di gran lunga il fratello Germanico, che tuttavia morì prematuramente in circostanze
sospette. Come successore, il popolo e l' esercito avevano poi scelto il giovane Caligola, che di Germanico era il figlio e che
aveva ereditato la fama del padre. Ma l' assassinio di Caligola, accoltellato nel suo stesso palazzo, metteva necessariamente Claudio al
centro della successiva crisi politica. Tiberio Claudio Cesare Augusto Germanico diventava così, all' avanzata età di cinquant' anni,
il primo imperatore acclamato, dopo una lunga trattativa politico-economica, da un corpo militare, i pretoriani.
La sua acclamazione rappresenta un momento di grande importanza per la storia dell' Impero, poiché in contrasto con il dibattito,
debole, che in Senato si svolgeva contemporaneamente sul ripristino della res publica. Questa ferita nel rapporto con l' aristocrazia
senatoria non sarà mai sanata e diventerà anzi più profonda a causa della riorganizzazione amministrativa che Claudio porterà
avanti negli affari interni.[...]

Paul has been regarded as being uncritical of the Roman Empire for a long time, not least because of his apparent call to obey the state in Rom 13:1-7. However, recent scholarship has questioned this assumption by pointing to "hidden criticism" in the letters of the apostle. But how can we decide, in a methodologically sound way, whether such a counter-imperial message lies beneath the surface of the text? On the basis of insights from the philosophy of science, Christoph Heilig suggests several analytical steps for examining this paradigm. He concludes that the hypothesis that we can identify critical "echoes" of the Roman Empire in Paul's letters needs to be modified for it to be maintained. In particular, concern over the danger of overt criticism and subsequent persecution do not sufficiently justify this interpretative hypothesis. Nevertheless, Heilig concludes that the search for a counter-imperial subtext in Paul could turn out to be heuristically fruitful so long as the limitations of the approach are heeded. Hence, a re-evaluation of Pauline passages in light of Paul's engagement with ideas from his Roman environment is encouraged.

Die Quintilier sind zweifellos die berühmteste und am besten dokumentierte Familie aus Alexandria Troas. Insbesondere die letzten vier Generationen haben durch ihre Tätigkeit in der römischen Reichsverwaltung, ihre engen Verbindungen zu den Kaisern und Geistesgrößen ihrer Zeit, ihr literarisches Wirken sowie ihren ausgedehnten Villenbesitz mannigfaltige Spuren hinterlassen. Eine willkommene Bereicherung fand unser Quellenmaterial vor Kurzem durch drei neue Inschriften vom alexandrinischen Forum, die 2008 und 2016 von E. Schwertheim veröffentlicht wurden und Auskunft über zwei frühe, zuvor unbekannte Quintilier geben sowie einen nicht näher zu greifenden Κυιντίλ[ιος] der hohen Kaiserzeit nennen. +++ Damit sind inzwischen acht Familienmitglieder sicher bekannt: ein P. Quintilius Maximus und seine Tochter Quintilia Apphia in iulisch-claudischer Zeit, ein Sex. Quintilius Valerius Maximus und sein gleichnamiger Sohn in der Zeit von den Flaviern bis Hadrian sowie die beiden nachfolgenden und bekanntesten Generationen mit jeweils einem Sex. Quintilius Valerius Maximus und einem Sex. Quintilius Condianus in der Antoninenzeit. Hinzu kommt der Vater des ältesten Sex. Quintilius Valerius Maximus, von dem aber leider nur sein Vorname Sextus überliefert ist. +++ Die epigraphischen Neufunde nahm ich zum Anlass, die Familiengeschichte erneut aufzurollen und erstmals einen ausführlichen Gesamtüberblick in deutscher Sprache vorzulegen. Der bislang ungeklärten Frage nach der origo der Quintilier widmet sich der erste Abschnitt, der zwar keine eindeutige Antwort zu liefern vermag, aber zumindest drei mögliche Szenarien aufzeigt und diese hinsichtlich ihrer Plausibilität überprüft. Die nachfolgenden Ausführungen orientieren sich an der chronologischen Abfolge, wobei der fünfte Abschnitt auch eine Darstellung zum reichen Familienbesitz enthält. Die Schlussbemerkung richtet ihren Blick schließlich auf das Verhältnis zwischen den Quintiliern und ihrer langjährigen Heimatgemeinde Alexandria Troas.

Thebes (modern Luxor) was a popular tourist destination during the Roman Period, receiving the likes of Strabo, Germanicus, and Hadrian. Yet while its international fame rested on its royal tombs and the Memnon colossus, Thebes was also a vibrant religious center with over a dozen active temples. The purposefully archaizing inscriptions and architecture attracted both Egyptians and Romans in search of ancient traditions and millennial wisdom, influencing intercultural and multilingual texts produced in the region, including Gnostic, Hermetic, and magical writings.

This book surveys epigraphic and archaeological evidence for temple construction and renovation throughout the Theban nome during the Roman Period, studying the new inscriptions within their ritual and theological contexts. It also contains the first comprehensive treatment of the greater Theban Pantheon during the Graeco-Roman era, cataloguing over fifty local divinities and establishing their roles in various cosmogonies and mythological traditions.  The concluding chapter reconstructs the religious life of the district, tracking annual festival processions which united the multiple temples and their communities.

Since I have been studying so many different areas of ancient history, particularly that of ancient Rome, this subject has been of some interest to me and others for a number of reasons. It has been apparent that the decline in the content of silver in Roman coinage directly related to various factors within the Roman Empire over the course of several centuries; namely, through the First Century AD/CE to the Fourth Century AD/CE. The examination of the part that coins played in history is crucial in helping to make important determinations in a number of areas of the study. For instance, the names used by various emperors, their family members, wives, and sometimes, relatives. It is for much more than simple interest or trivia that we, as historians, examine ancient coins. We find many things of interest and importance, that is, of value to us in our quest to learn more about the people and times in which they lived. Coins of the various emperors contain information. They give us portraits of the emperors which give us some idea as to how they looked. They tell us things from what they chose to include on their coins, such as symbols, gods and/or goddesses, motto and more. And, at times, we may even find examples of propaganda and historical reference. But in this instance, we are examining the silver content or the amount of silver contained within the silver denarius (or "denarii" in plural) as minted under the various emperors. Which, may tell us a few things or at least indicate or support various views of certain emperors at particular points in the historical timeline of the Roman Empire. One of the first things that comes to mind is that as the Roman Empire was expanding and more people and territory was being added to it, the demand for more coinage became a priority. And, one of the easiest ways to make silver coinage 'stretch' is to "water it down" so to speak. Or, in other words, reduce the silver content rather than the size of the coins-which, by the way, was another thing that we see happening as time went on (a good example of this can be seen in the reduction of size in both the denarius and the tetradrachm over the course of time). Coins which were produced under the Emperor Augustus were virtually as pure as they could make them, about 98 percent pure. We see, as time went on, that the silver coins minted under later emperors were reduced to 'billon' (a token amount of silver) and essentially copper coins with a silver wash to make them appear to be silver. Of course, with use, the silver washed coins would begin to show the copper as the silver wore off. Basically, the coins which were produced by the Julian Emperors remained for the most part, stable. The exception to that (and remember, we are focused primarily upon the denarius in this paper), could be coins produced for the various Roman territories in the form of coinage issued for use in the provinces. Once the rule of the Julian Emperors ended with the death of Nero, we begin to see where the rule of successive emperors changed the content of silver in their coins. The Silver Content In The Denarius Under Various Emperors*: [Again, remember that we find silver reduction in coins produced for the provinces] Augustus (ruled : 27 BC/BCE-14 AD/CE) 97/98%. Claudius (ruled : 41-54 AD/CE) 97%.

22 portraits of the Roman emperor Claudius are known from Asia Minor and the Aegean islands. All three known portrait types can be detected, while the majority represents the emperor in the main type. The corresponding statues are not preserved; only three naked ideal representations are extant on the reliefs from the Sebasteion in Aphrodisias and a fragmentary, reworked statue. Therefore, the well known ancestor- or statue-galleries from other parts of the Imperium Romanum are only indirectly deducible for Asia Minor. 50 inscriptions indicate that statues of the emperor were erected in almost every major city in Asia Minor. The difference between the number of the preserved portraits and the statue bases can be explained by circumstances of preservation, especially for bronze statues. While in the first years of his reign corporations and officials primarily donated, later mostly individuals predominated. Causes are the grant of Roman citizenship, manumissions, or serving as priest in the imperial cult.

Ovaj rad bavi se životom i djelovanjem treće žene cara Klaudija, Valerije Mesaline, jedne od najfatalnijih žena staroga Rima. Autor objašnjava je li ona zaista bila tako pohotna i razvratna ili je ocrnjena zbog ideoloških i/ili ostalih razloga. Polazišna točka je njezin raniji život, pa brak sa Klaudijem, gdje se ukratko opisuje tko je bio Klaudije, zatim kakav je život vodila i zašto se u povijesti spominje kao okrutna i razvratna. Prikazat će se sve njezine navodne žrtve i razloge zbog kojih ih je dala pogubiti, posredno ili neposredno. Nakon njezinog pada, autor objašnjava jesu li antički izvori vjerodostojni u svojim tvrdnjama, pošto prema njoj gaje velike predrasude što se i vidi u opisima njezinog lika i djela. Nakraju se nalaze prikazi Mesaline u umjetnosti: slike, skulpture, kazališne predstave, filmovi, televizijske serije te književna djela.

Paul’s metaphorical language in Second Corinthians 2:14 has troubled exegetes for a long time. Does the verb 'thriambeuein' indicate that Paul imagines himself as being led to execution in the Roman triumphal procession? Or is, by contrast, the victory in view that the apostles receive themselves? Maybe the Roman ritual does not constitute the background of this metaphor at all? Clarity with regard to these questions is a pressing issue in Pauline studies, given the fact that this metaphor introduces a central passage in the Pauline corpus that is of crucial importance for reconstructing the apostle’s self-understanding. Heilig demonstrates that, if all the relevant data are taken into account, a coherent interpretation of Paul’s statement is possible indeed. Moreover, Heilig brings the resulting meaning of Paul’s statement into dialogue with the political discourse of the time, thus presenting a detailed argument for the complex critical interaction of Paul with the ideology of the Roman Empire.

Aşağıdaki makale Arkhe Sayı 11'de (2020) yayınlanmıştır. Ne yazık ki dergiyi çıkartan arkadaşlarımız nezaketen derginin bir kopyasını göndermedikleri için makalenin basılmış halini ben de görmüş değilim. The following article was published in Arkhe mag no. 11 in 2020. Unfortunately I was not sent a copy by the publishers and I have not seen the article in published form.

The paper focuses on the representation of the British leader Caratacus in the twelfth book of the Annals by Tacitus. Within this context the historian attributes two different speeches to the leader of the Catuvellauni. In contrast with the first, held in Britannia, aimed at persuading the local tribes to fight against the Romans, which follows the conventions of military oratory, the second, pronounced in the presence of Emperor Claudius, after Caratacus was paraded through Rome, following his capture, contains an explicit accusation of the Roman way of conquering in order to obtain property and possessions, taking advantage also of the support of local tribes. In addition to this argument showing a further example of Tacitus’ interest in expressing the perspective of the oppressed, Claudius’ decision to concede Caratacus his life, after having him paraded as prisoner through the streets of Rome, provides a further example of his strategic skill in exploiting the propaganda value of the successes in Britain achieved under his leadership.

Reviewing the rather ahistorical theory of Bakhtin’s carnivalesque, I argue that Seneca used the Saturnalia as a concrete cultural and anthropological model from ritual daily life for his Apocolocyntosis. Despite the aggressive passions against the deceased Claudius the emotions are to be seen in the liminal framework of the festival of reversal. Seneca does not aim at accurately portraying a foolish dead princeps or at taking posthumously revenge through a sarcastic invective, rather with this totally Saturnalian text he playfully helps come to terms with the severe crisis of the transition from Claudius to Nero. The Saturnalia inscribes itself in the text and playfully experiments with casting out the old princeps, stylized as a foolish mock king and negative, dystopian monster of atavistic Cronian times, as well as enthusiastically embracing the new era, portrayed as the return of the Saturnian utopia. Under these circumstances it would be misleading to criticize Seneca, who as Stoic pontificated against every engagement with emotion, for the passion, hate and bitterness harbored against Claudius. Similar to his tragedies, Seneca invents a Stoic scenario of the crazy world as a madhouse filled with intense affects in order to make the reader first experience the crisis and then render him resistant to the emotional turbulences.


Keywords: Seneca’s Apocolocyntosis, Bakhtin and the carnivalesque literature, Saturnalia, carnival, cultural and anthropological model of festivals of reversal, mythic-ritual poetics, liminality, ludic experiment to overcome the crisis of transition, from Claudius to Nero, totally Saturnalian meta-discourse, passions framed.

Articol apărut în Revista Hiperboreea, Vol. 1, nr. 1, iunie 2014, București, ISSN 2284 – 5666 ISSN – L 2284 – 5666, pp. 28-46.

This article discusses the death of the Roman emperor Claudius, which occurred at the ides of October 54 A.D. The testimonies of ancient authors about this episode are being analyzed, the conclusions of contemporary scholars based on those written records are being presented and probably, the most interesting part of this research rests in the displaying and discussing of the opinions and approaches of medical specialists, to which this case is also of interest.

It is written in Romanian language.

A well-known series of coins minted in the name of Claudius (AD 41- 54) at a certain Caesarea have for over a century perplexed numismatists who were unable to identify the mint among the several Caesareas located in Cappadocia, Cilicia and Syria, although findspot evidence pointed to eastern Cilicia and northern Syria. This study argues that the
coins should be attributed to Mopsuestia, temporarily renamed Caesarea.

In Narona and in Ravenna exist two important monuments relating to the imperial cult in Julio-Claudian era. In this paper that I submitted in a Conference mainly dedicated to the recent discovery of the Augusteum in Narona, the personality of P. Cornelius Dolabella, the procos. who posed a dedication in the temple of Narona, is re-enacted. What we know about him mainly from Tacitus is the story of one of the members of the “faction of the flatterers” i.e. of the filo-tiberian senators, who had unconditionally embraced the imperial ideology imposed by Augustus and Tiberius.
The well-known relief of the Apotheosis of Augustus in the National Museum of Ravenna is dated to 42. A new proposal for the identification of all the characters in the scene — 10 people altogether, but only 5 are preserved — is provided. This sequence is of the highest importance for the self-representation of the domus Augusta by Claudius himself, shortly after his ascent to the throne.
The last testimony about the activities of the old P. Cornelius Dolabella in the senate of Rome dates back to 47. Both monuments in Narona and Ravenna allow us an in depth analysis of the imperial cult in that crucial half century.