Roman Literature

Epicurean Ethics in Horace: The Psychology of Satire by Sergio Yona: Oxford (2018) h/b pp.ix + 348: £70. (ISBN 978-0-19-878655-9) Horace famously claimed (Epistles 1.1.14) to be nullius addictus iurare in verba magistri— but he also mocked himself (Epistles 4.16) as Epicuri de grege porcum. This book helps to uncover and analyse this contradiction—one of several—at the heart of Horace's early work. Satire is not perhaps the obvious genre for Epicurean writers, as satirical indignatio which fumes with a mixture of bile and disgust at the world around us is not conducive to the pursuit of ataraxia. It has often been noted that Horace's Satires are gentler and more self-deprecating than other Roman verse satirists, and that his stance of ridentem dicere verum is closer to the smiling philosopher figure of a Democritus than to the snarling bile of (say) early Juvenal. Epicurus advocated the unseen life and withdrawal from active politics, and his hedonic calculus of pleasure over effort would have probably declared that trying to rid the city of its ills by mockery and anger was not really worth the trouble. The classic Epicurean answer to the corrupt world—rise above it and retire to the garden—would leave little room for satire except as grist to the mill, good reason for seeking happiness in one's immediate company, and 'proof' that the happy life is only possible in λάθε βιώσας seclusion. So how can Horace be both an Epicurean and a satirist? Epicurus was also hostile to poetry—so how can Horace be both an Epicurean and a poet? The originality of this book lies mostly in the examination of the influence of Philodemus, a Greek Epicurean (and poet) and associate of rich Romans in the period when Horace was cutting his own poetic teeth. He is (Y. claims) a writer whose work can serve 'as a road-map that can guide readers through the many twists, turns and apparent dead-ends of Horace's two books of Satires' (p.302). Y. shows how Philodemus developed Epicurean thinking to fit the social world of the late Roman republic. The victus tenuis is still there, for example, but Philodemus modified the parvum quod satis est economics of the master into a more liberal attitude towards wealth—more SW1 than south west Athens. The philosopher can pimp out his ideas to rich men for money (p.78) and may even be a 'house sage'—but he does so with friendly advice and not flattery, with one-to-one personal life-coaching rather than barking at people on street corners like Bion and the Cynics. Affluence is now good, if it allows us to enjoy pleasant surroundings without working for them and thus passes the 'hedonic calculus' test. Y. uses two key texts of Philodemus—on wealth and on free-spech—as organising principles for much of this book and applies both constantly to close readings of Horace's Satires.

Plinius der Jüngere (61/62-113 n. Chr.) verlieh als senatorischer homo novus durch die Epistulae, den Panegyricus sowie einige Inschriften seiner aristokratischen Existenz dauerhaften Ausdruck. Diese literarischen und epigraphischen Zeugnisse ermöglichen aber nicht nur tiefgehende Einblicke in die sozialen, politischen und kulturellen Entwicklungen seiner Zeit. Sie belegen zugleich Plinius’ Bestreben, die eigene Person als in überragendem Maße wert- und normerfüllend zu präsentieren, um auf diese Weise sowohl soziopolitische Anerkennung als auch den eigenen Tod überdauernde memoria zu erlangen.

Insbesondere in seinen Briefen thematisiert Plinius dabei zahlreiche Bestandteile eines idealen aristokratischen Lebensentwurfes. Ihre systematische Auswertung ermöglicht es, die konstituierenden Betätigungs- und Bewährungsfelder der römischen Aristokratie zu identifizieren sowie die Werte, Normen und Handlungsmaximen zu bestimmen, nach denen Plinius wie auch seine Standesgenossen ihr Leben ausrichteten – oder doch ausrichten sollten.

Der zeitgenössische Diskurs über den idealen Aristokraten in der Kaiserzeit und dessen Habitus gewinnt in der vorliegenden Studie schärferes Profil.

Lindow Man, the British Bog Body discovered in 1984, and the Danish examples Tollund and Grauballe Men, discovered in 1950 and 1952, represent quite literally the violent face of a confrontational past. But what exactly do the archaeological narratives say? When presented with the forensic evidence can we explicitly conclude they were murdered as human sacrifices to appease the Germanic and Celtic gods and goddesses during times of affliction? Or are they simply an example of our own imposition of modern assumptions onto the past in a flare of sensationalism and mystical dramatization of the tumultuous affairs of noble savages? How have these narratives played out in the public sphere, particularly museum and heritage, and in modern culture such as the Irish poet Seamus Heaney’s bog poems. Do they reinforce harmful myths of an excessively violent past dominated by innately uncivilized natives? Who does the past really belong to and who has the authority to voice it? Many facets of b...

Nella biblioteca dei Girolamini, a Napoli, uno studioso scopre misteriosamente un antico codice miniato che riporta il diario degli ultimi quattro giorni di vita di Plinio il Vecchio, comandante della flotta imperiale misenate e autore della celebre Naturalis Historia. Il racconto di Plinio prende le mosse dall’antico porto militare di Misenum e si svolge nella magica cornice del golfo di Napoli in epoca imperiale. La quiete di città animate ed eleganti, come Napoli, Baia, Cuma, Puteoli, Ercolano e Pompei, e di lussuose residenze d’ozio, è sconvolta da strani fenomeni tellurici, premonitori di una tragedia imminente. La consapevolezza di quanto sta per compiersi prende Plinio un po’ alla volta, mentre si documenta su volumi scientifici, si reca a un inquietante incontro con la Sibilla cumana e perfino in un lupanare, dove conosce una ragazza bellissima, dal passato enigmatico. L’eruzione del Vesuvio lo porterà ad impegnarsi in una pericolosa missione militare, il cui scopo è il salvataggio degli abitanti delle città minacciate, ma Plinio è mosso anche da altre motivazioni: studiare scientificamente il fenomeno, recuperare due misteriose opere filosofiche, i cui contenuti hanno influenzato la sua stessa vita, e mettere in salvo la donna amata. Rivelando perspicue doti narrative, l’autore attinge alla sua vasta conoscenza del mondo greco-romano per delineare costumi, caratteri e ambienti di una vicenda straordinaria, che il lettore rivive come a vederla svolgersi sotto i suoi occhi.

Julius Caesar, one of the protagonists of Lucan’s Pharsalia, disappears from the scene for a long time after the Battle of Pharsalus. He reappears at the end of Book 9, when he pays a visit to the ruined city of Troy. The function and the source of this historically unsupported scene are both worth examining. Earlier research disclosed as the literary source of the Troy scene the episode in Aeneid Book 8, when Evander shows Aeneas the future site of Rome. While fully accepting that, I would like to present another possible source that might have as much effect on the constructing of Lucan’s Troy as the Evander–scene: the katabasis in Book 6 of the Aeneid. Definite parallelisms can be identified between the two scenes on both motivic and textual levels. Furthermore, the connection between these three scenes can be proved on the level of content, since by examining them together the real purpose of the Troy scene can be decoded: Lucan predicts Rome’s destruction in this episode.

Na podejście starożytnych Rzymian do przeszłości zwykło sią patrzeć jedynie przez pryzmat źródeł historiograficznych. Często pomija się tymczasem to, jak na tę samą przeszłość patrzono po za kontekstem historiografii, jak historia była odbierana przez ludzi zajmujących się na co dzień innymi dziedzinami wiedzy, jak postrzegali ją gramatycy, encyklopedyści, autorzy podręczników szkolnych, czy traktatów rolniczych, wreszcie dlaczego, w  jaki sposób i w jakim zakresie w ogóle autorzy tego typu dzieł odwoływali się do zamierzchłych wydarzeń i postaci.

Gives an overview of the Greek-language literature of the Flavian period (AD 69-96) and considers (1) to what extent the dynastic changes of the period make themselves felt in that literature (mainly Plutarch and Dio Chrysostom) and (2) whether the emergence at this time of the so-called "Second Sophistic" can be connected with specifically Flavian cultural-political phenomena. Also includes contrasts between the resonance of "Flavian" themes in Plutarch and Dio and in Josephus.

The scholarly community has become increasingly aware of the differences between Roman myths and the more familiar myths of Greece. Early Rome: Myth and Society steps in to provide much-needed modern and accessible translations and commentaries on Italian legends.

This work examines the tales of Roman pre- and legendary history, discusses relevant cultural and contextual information, and presents author biographies. This book offers updated translations of key texts, including authors who are often absent from classical mythology textbooks, such as Dionysius of Halicarnassus and Servius. Jaclyn Neel debunks the idea that Romans were unimaginative copyists by spotlighting the vitality and flexibility of Italian myth — particularly those parts that are less closely connected to Greek tales, such as the story of Caeculus of Praeneste. Finally, by calling attention to the Italian rather than Roman nature of the collection, this book suggests that Roman culture was broader than the city itself. This important work offers:

    * Up-to-date and accessible translations of Roman and Italic legends from authors throughout antiquity
    * Examination of compelling tales that involve the Roman equivalent of Greek “heroes”
    * Unique view of the strength and plasticity of Roman and Italic myth, particularly the parts less closely connected to familiar Greek tales
    * Intelligent discussion of relevant cultural and contextual information
    * Argument that Roman culture reached far beyond the city of Rome

Fresh and readable, Early Rome: Myth and Society offers essential reading for students of ancient Rome as well as those interested in Roman and Greek mythology.

http://ca.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-1119083796.html

http://earlyrome.omeka.net/

Memory was a major issue in education and civic life in ancient Rome. It mostly preserved the city’s moral tradition through the imitation of exemplary behaviors within political and social interactions. Thus, memory was a pivotal feature of Roman identity, which was closely related to the regulation of power, knowledge and speech. The literary reconstructions of the later Republic’s civil wars make clear the link between memory and the collective past. Moreover, early on internal struggle became a cultural theme associated with the mythical motif of katabasis: the symbolic topography of the underworld and its traditional topoi provided useful material for the narration of social disorder. In the Neronian age, Lucan’s Bellum Ciuile exploited the foundational Roman myth of fratricide. Indeed, Lucan’s poem reshaped some martial epic topoi and the conventional underworld imagery in order to stress the horror of a historical sacrilege. This essay analyses how Lucan’s description of the battle at Pharsalus in book VII (460‒646) presents the civil war as a metaphorical deathscape. The blurring of boundaries between human and hellish spheres in the battleground aims to underline the unnatural confusion between identity and otherness (Romanus and hostis) in a military event. Lucan refuses to comply with Rome’s official, forgetful self-narrative. Instead, he gathers memories of the past and retells the city’s history from a perspective critical of Roman power. His ‘poetic journey’ into the underworld of history functions simultaneously as a metaphor for identity reconstruction and generic experimentation.

In this essay on Virgil's Aeneid, I explore the role of memory and historical consciousness as the basis for the general formation of the epic and the outcome of the interpersonal events between Aeneas and Dido, and Aeneas and Turnus. More specifically, I argue that the image on the shield of Aeneas forged by Vulcan is the key to understanding the imagery and story arc of Virgil's grand epic.

Detailed notes on Virgil's epic. The notes cover the overall relation of Virgil's work to the Homeric epics, the historical context of the Aeneid in the decline of the Roman Republic and the civil strife of the 1st Century BCE, the ambiguity of Virgil's relation to the Greek tradition and to philosophy, and the question of Virgil's attempt to celebrate the Roman achievement and the "way of the ancestors".

Greek and Roman literature give a modern audience a privy look into ancient cultures and, more specifically, gender norms and expectations of these societies. When examining Homer’s The Iliad as well as Euripides’ The Trojan Women and Lysistrata by Aristophanes we are able to compare and contrast these three ancient works to better understand the role of gender within greek and roman society and its effect on notions of heroism.

Persians, Medes and Parthians in Horace’s Carmina

The kingdom of Parthia which came into being in the 3rd century BC in the eastern frontiers of the Seleucid monarchy became the great power in the course of time. In the 1st century BC the Parthians met on their way the Romans expanding East. In the next three hundred years those empires were fighting each other in the great competition on Imperium Orientis. The Roman men of letters made a lot of references to this conflict, especially in the Augustan Age. In my paper, I would like to analyze references to the Iranian world which appear in Horace’s Carmina. Horace (65-8 BC), the greatest Latin lyric poet, supported the reforms carried out by emperor Augustus and his politics. It refers
also to the relations with Parthia. In spite of the fact that Horace did not focus on the Iranian matters, he treated them in an original way drawing both from the Greek tradition and from the current political relations between Rome and Arsacid monarchy.

This book of satires from the Roman poet Horace was his first published work. Rather than a collection of satirical sideswipes, as the genre might have dictated, the book is a wiry, tight, muscular, interlaced hexameter artwork of enormous originality and as far removed from the established legacy of satirical writing as one can imagine. It is the work of a young twenty-nine-year-old grappling with issues of personal and poetic identity during one of the most important and pivotal times in European history. Geographically, socially and genetically an outsider, Horace earned himself a seat at Rome’s top creative table and at the heart of the political engine that was to change Rome forever. It is a transformational journey from ‘nobody’ to ‘somebody’ and a simultaneous invention of poet and reinvention of poetic genre

The Satires have floated in and out of fashion ever since they first appeared, regularly eclipsed by the Odes. Today, rehabilitated, they find space in the higher levels of the school curriculum. This book can be read by all classicists as well as students studying core influences on European literature.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Translation-Interpretation-Horaces-Sermones-Book/dp/1527565831/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=1527565831&qid=1616674845&s=books&sr=1-1

The noticeable analogies between the funeral laments of Anna and Juturna in the Aeneid have been often explained as a means of linking the sisters of the two main Aeneas’ opponents. But the common features of the two passages (and their differences) become more clear if we trace back them to the tradition of the historical funeral lament, already included in the Iliad and used by Virgil to represent nature and feelings of these two sad characters.

Presentation slides for a series of lectures on Virgil's epic. The lectures cover the overall relation of Virgil's work to the Homeric epics, the historical context of the Aeneid in the decline of the Roman Republic and the civil strife of the 1st Century BCE, the ambiguity of Virgil's relation to the Greek tradition and to philosophy, and the question of Virgil's attempt to celebrate the Roman achievement and the "way of the ancestors".

Esta obra trata acerca del mayor poeta de Roma, pero también sobre el
valor que tiene la gran literatura a la hora de enseñarnos a saber quiénes
somos. Recorre, en primer lugar, los aspectos biográficos e históricos de
Virgilio, repasando el misterio que supone, en gran medida, su vida y la
huella que de su persona puede encontrarse dentro de su obra. En la segunda parte, se aborda la singular cuestión del mito del poeta, a quien la Edad Media convirtió en mago y talismán, hasta que Dante recuperó su esencial condición de maestro y guía. La tercera y última parte del libro repasa someramente, ayudándose de ejemplos significativos, la historia de la recepción de Virgilio desde el Renacimiento hasta el mismo siglo XXI. En esta parte, veremos cómo las nuevas estéticas van renovando y recreando la lectura del poeta, desde la serenidad renacentista y el desengaño barroco hasta el moderno simbolismo o la propia posmodernidad. Este libro constituye, asimismo, un intenso viaje sentimental por Italia que comienza en Mantua y termina en Nápoles.

V. G. Borukhovich regarded the classics as a complex of different disciplines. In this he followed not only his university teacher S.Ya. Lurie, but also the St. Petersburg school of history and philology as a whole, to which he undoubtedly belonged. As a researcher and creative person, S. Ya. Lurie influenced many aspects of V. G. Borukhovich, namely: on the problems of his works, on his translations of the works of ancient authors into Russian, on the methods and principles of his research. S. Ya. Lurie and V. G. Borukhovich were both historians and philologists. In V. G. Borukhovich’s research activities history and philology formed a close unity and, in many respects, determined not only his specifics as a researcher of the ancient world as a whole, but also his approach to the study of ancient literature. V. G. Borukhovich studied the history of Greek literature during all periods of his life as a researcher: in Leningrad (St. Petersburg), Gorky (Nizhny Novgorod) and Saratov. He explored in detail the most important genres of Greek literature: epic, lyric, drama, philosophical and historical prose, oratory and mythography. V. G. Borukhovich investigated development of the literary process like a historian, and in the study of historical problems he widely used the methods of philology.

The question of the relation between Juvenal and Quintilian is still unanswered: the reconstruction of their possible biographical and literary connections is very uncertain. The Life of Juvenal does not mention Quintilian; its author only states that Juvenal spent a significant part of his life declaiming. Their personal acquaintance is not confirmed by any ancient source, and the views of modern research are not univocal either; however, most scholars leave the question undecided. On the grounds of the biographical data, it cannot even be proven with certainty that Juvenal known Quintilian, thus we have to find evidence in the texts of the two authors. In this paper, I examine the possible influence of Quintilian on Juvenal’s Satires, highlight textual and thematic parallels as well as common motifs in order to unfold the relation between the two authors.

The thesis reviews the techniques employed by Latin authors up to the second century A.D. to report the spoken words and articulated thoughts of their characters. The study is principally devoted to continuous narratives of a fictitious kind: epic, 'epyllia' and prose fiction, although some consideration has been given to narratives in other genres for comparative purposes.
Several means are at the disposal of a narrator for presenting the discourse of his or her characters. What is supposed to have been said or thought may be conveyed by quotation in direct speech, some form of indirect or free indirect discourse, or by the simple mention that a speech act has occurred.
The Introduction sets out the terminology used in this enquiry and surveys the modes of reporting speech in Latin. Some attention is given to the views of ancient literary critics and theorists on speech presentation.
The first chapter on martial epic examines the reporting of speech in Virgil and Lucan in particular.
The second chapter on poetry reviews epyllion and Ovidian narrative, and compares the practices of authors working in different genres. Divergences in style between authors working in the same genre are also considered: the techniques of four poets who report speech in scenes involving the dictation and delivery of messages are compared.
The final chapter treats the prose fiction of Petronius and Apuleius.
For all the texts taken into account, it will be shown that concentration on speech presentation can broaden our insight into some fundamental features of Latin narrative.

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.

“Following in the footsteps” of a predecessor was a common metaphor of imitation and succession in ancient Greece and Rome. In this chapter, I explore how Greek and Latin authors are often described, or describe themselves, as following their predecessors' tracks. But many poets also feel the need to break free from the literary past and to strive for originality by pursuing 'untrodden' paths, a paradoxically 'unoriginal' motif – most poetic composition involves an ambiguous mix of both tradition and innovation. I end by exploring how Greek and Latin poets used ἴχνια and vestigia as implicit markers of intertextual connections, a means to signpost both allusive debts and innovative departures.

Maîtrise en Études anciennes, concentration littératures anciennes, Maître ès arts (M.A.) Québec, Canada

Sous la direction du professeur Alban Baudou

Perse débute son œuvre en rejetant systématiquement toutes les sources inspiratrices traditionnelles, dont la fontaine d'Hyppocrène, ce qui lui donne l'occasion de traiter Pégase de « canasson ». Alors que les interprétations d'ensemble réalisées par le passé sont faussées par une appréciation minimisant la construction systématique des « Satires », l'objectif de cette étude est de démontrer que leur thème unificateur est la critique de la production / transmission et de la consommation de la littérature à l'époque néronienne.

Dans le premier chapitre, en démontrant l'omniprésence des processus d'imitation et d'émulation dans le texte, puis en mettant au jour leur complexité et leur richesse sémantique, nous exposons la métatextualité des « Satires », confirmant notre hypothèse de départ. L’analyse des « Satires » dans le cadre théorique du grotesque bakhtinien conduit dans un deuxième temps à révéler que le vice et la vertu y sont appariés respectivement à la mauvaise et à la bonne littérature et que Perse vise à détruire la première grâce à la philosophie. Par l'analyse de ce message subversif sous-jacent, nous expliquons quels sont les effets négatifs de la mauvaise littérature et les façons dont il faut s'y prendre pour la contrer. Dans le troisième chapitre enfin, grâce aux énoncés programmatiques et à diverses analyses stylistiques, nous donnons à connaître la cible de Perse: les poètes urbains philhellènes, cancres littéraires avides et présomptueux. Le style de Perse, en revanche, se distingue par son audace, son aspect « mordax », sa modestie et sa romanité issue du « mos maiorum ». 

Grâce à notre étude, la cohérence des « Satires », trop souvent tenues pour composites, apparaît nettement.

(Master's Thesis)

Nine of Cicero’s letters requesting Atticus to buy sculptures on his behalf, and another to Marcus Fadius Gallus in 46, are the only extant first-hand accounts of a Roman caught up in the commercial dealings of art. We art historians make a big deal about them, for they offer a unique heuristic for reconstructing to some degree the ancient experience of wanting, receiving, displaying, and enjoying works of art when at home. Yet, we read Cicero’s voracious appetite as indiscriminate, or we misconstrue his interest in iconography as preclusive of other considerations. Either way, the stereotype we lay upon poor Cicero is that he cared not for the aesthetic merits of the works he purchased: Cicero, we say, did not care about art qua art. However, expressed no where in his epistulae is the aesthetic apathy of which we accuse him.

This fallacy is interwoven with a misconstrued but established definition of decorum—itself extrapolated in part from a misreading of these letters—and an inflated impression of its role as a precondition of domestic display since the Late Republic. When applied specifically to objets d’art (a modern invention), we define decorum as the precept that certain subjects of representation were considered most appropriate for certain domestic spaces, based on the function of those spaces. This definition omits any appreciation of formal qualities, which are more difficult to assess with modern eyes but which were surely critical for decisions of acquisition and display. It alienates viewers from any fundamental experience of aesthetic pleasure and results in a lopsided understanding of how decorum functioned in visual terms. Showing that Cicero was not as disinterested as we currently imagine him clears the way for a more calibrated lens through which to look at Romans looking at and living with their sculptures.

A reexamination of Cicero’s letters reveals that allusive iconographic content was not the only—or even, at times, the primary—desideratum behind his acquisition of and appreciation for sculptural works: Cicero also cared about art qua art. Moreover, our misconceptions both of Cicero’s apathy and of decorum stems from the impression that the epistolary language of his requests is haphazardly vague; but I argue the morphological generalities are not symptoms of disinterest, but precisely choreographed gestures of intimacy: Cicero’s appeals to Atticus and Gallus to buy art on his behalf, and their fulfilments of that task, are transactions of amicitia.

De band tussen historiografie en poëzie is een reële band, zo stelde Quintilianus. Als een dichter zonder metrum streeft de historicus hetzelfde na als de poëet: de nagedachtenis van het nageslacht en eeuwige roem (Quint. 10, 1, 31). Daarnaast is de geschiedschrijving chronologisch verwant aan de tragedie: beide laten de maatschappij loskomen van hun mythische verleden. Dit betekent dat we antieke historiografie geenszins mogen vergelijken met moderne geschiedschrijving. Antieke historiografie werd immers gezien als didactische literatuur. Geschiedschrijving moest plezier wekken bij de lezer en hem ontroeren. Dit kon men bv. doen door zijn geschiedenis te kruiden met retorische of tragische elementen om medelijden of afschuw te wekken.

The following is a brief discussion of Emperor Hadrian's hellenized cultural influence on Rome. Surely Rome had had extensive contact with Greece previously, as reflected in their art, literature, and other forms of cultural expression. Under Hadrian, however, Greek culture experienced a renaissance in Rome and Hadrianic hellenism influenced Roman art, culture, and attitudes for centuries afterward.

The association between Achilles and Alexander the Great has been accepted based on a few slim pieces of literary evidence. By looking at the work of Andrew Stewart who reaffirms that Alexander imitated Achilles, and by picking apart the sources which he uses, as well as those which were overlooked or discarded, it becomes clear that there were later figures who would benefit from cultivating this association between leaders and Homeric heroes.

Popular Spectacles in Rome  from the Late Republic to the Early Imperial Age.
The aim of the present contribute is to provide an outline of the theatralical forms in Rome during the first century BC, collecting literary texts with contemporary archaeological sources, epigraphic documents and papyri. The data are framed in the social context in which the traditional forms of theatre - tragedy and comedy - and other entertaining shows, such as pantomime and mime have developed.
Keywords
Roman theater, Tragedy, Comedy, Mimes, Pantomime, Recitals and Reperformances. Archaeological and papyrological documents.

The royal Piso family of Rome performed "miracles" by creating them in the form of literary works. This paper explains not only what they did, but how and why they did it and more. There are many items in ancient texts that have baffled scholars for a long time; this sheds light upon a few of those. Please share this information. TY

Ce lexique, destiné prioritairement aux étudiants en histoire et en lettres classiques, entend livrer un ensemble de définitions précises, contextualisées et accessibles sur le vocabulaire latin relatif à l’histoire de l’Antiquité romaine. De nombreuses définitions sont reprises du dictionnaire Gaffiot et du Guide romain antique de Georges Hacquard, tandis que d’autres, mobilisant des réalités plus larges ou plus complexes, ont été développées de manière synthétique avec l’aide d’autres références et ressources didactiques. Par souci de commodité, plusieurs entrées ont été regroupées par thèmes, pour limiter la dispersion inhérente à l’ordre purement alphabétique. Par ailleurs, les entrées relatives aux noms propres autres que ceux des pays ont été réduites au minimum, de telle sorte que ce glossaire se concentre sur les notions et les termes techniques de l’univers romain, laissant dès lors quelque peu de côté la prosopographie et la biographie des personnages, la géographie historique, l’histoire des villes et des monuments. En dépit de leur pertinence à l’égard de la place de l’hellénisme dans le monde dominé par Rome, les concepts grecs n’ont pas été intégrés dans les définitions, ou bien marginalement, de même que les mots originaires d’autres cultures coexistant au sein ou aux côtés du monde romain, là encore par souci de ne pas faire doublon avec d’autres projets de lexiques dédiés à ces champs spécifiques de l’histoire ancienne. Mis à jour le 14 juillet 2023.

Who was Flavius Josephus? Answering this one question, leads to answers to virtually all other questions about ancient history. The answer is that he was Arrius Calpurnius Piso, a royal Roman. He wrote under the alias of Flavius Josephus and pretended to be a Jew. He was of Jewish descent, on his mother's side. Please read on and learn.