The History of the Extortion Court at Rome, 123–70 b.c.

1938 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
pp. 98-114 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. P. V. D. Balsdon

The available evidence concerning the history of the Extortion Court, the quaestio repetundarum, at Rome is tabulated opposite page 114. In view of the bulk of this evidence, it is at first sight surprising that this should be one of the most confused chapters of Roman history. Indeed, it is improbable that all Roman historians would agree upon any more precise statement of certainty than the following: that C. Gracchus, whether by a lex Sempronia iudiciaria, or by a lex Sempronia de repetundis, or by a lex Acilia de repetundis which may, or may not, be reproduced in the lex repetundarum, fragments of which are preserved at Naples and at Vienna (CIL i, 583), established equites (selected either from owners and past owners, within certain age limits, of the equus publicus, or from all those who possessed the equestrian census) either in place of, or in association with, senators as jurors in the quaestio de repetundis; that Q. Servilius Caepio, probably in his consulship in 106 B.C., proposed, and perhaps carried, a judiciary law in the interest of the Senate; that C. Servilius Glaucia either in m (Mommsen), 108 (Carcopino) 104 (Last) or 101 B.C. (Niccolini) carried a lex repetundarum and perhaps other judiciary laws in which he possibly either gave for the first time, or restored, to the equites complete possession of the juries and certainly effected two reforms in procedure, (a) by legalising the prosecution not only of recent magistrates and pro-magistrates, but also of their accomplices and (b) by introducing the form of ‘double action’ known as comperendinatio; that M. Livius Drusus, as tribune in 91 B.C., endeavoured unsuccessfully to establish, or to re-establish, as the case may be, mixed juries of senators and equites, and to make equestrian as well as senatorial jurors liable to prosecution for accepting bribes; that in 89 B.C. by a lex Plautia of the tribune M. Plautius Silvanus mixed juries were established, certainly for trials of maiestas, and perhaps for repetundae too. After this, the way is clearer, Sulla re-established senatorial juries, which survived until 70 B.C., when, by the lex Aurelia, jurors were selected from three panels—from senators, equites and tribuni aerarii.

2018 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 132-145
Author(s):  
Gyula Szvák

It would be too early to try and summarize the way in which the issue of Russia’s “state historical and remembrance policy” has evolved or foresee its possible outcomes, as the standard uniform set of schoolbooks has not yet been approved. The media-voting competitions presented in this essay, however, clearly demonstrate the national social climate and its trends, which would have to be moulded into some form of an “all-Russian socium” by such a new approach to history. As contemporaries we might curiously await the next rounds of the “identity battle,” but as historians we must give voice to scepticism in regards to hopes of any form of quick success. Yet most of all, we have to stand by the deep conviction that only a pluralistic approach to history based on free research and the freedom to present freely conceived alternatives can help in the crystallization of a realistic national self-image. P.S.: For the first time in the history of Russia a statue has been erected for Ivan IV (the Terrible, the Fearsome) in the city of Oryol on 15 October 2016. The countdown has begun.


2017 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 421-450
Author(s):  
Richard A. Keogh

The passage of the Emancipation Act in 1829 presented an opportunity for Catholics to reimagine their loyalty as equal subjects for the first time under the union between Great Britain and Ireland. This article explores the way Catholic loyalty was conceived in the decades that followed the act of 1829 through to the mid 1870s, when there was renewed focus on the civil allegiance of Catholics following the declaration of Papal infallibility. Historians are increasingly exploring a range of social, political and religious identities in nineteenth century Ireland, beyond the rigid binary paradigm of Catholic nationalisms and Protestant loyalisms that has dominated Irish historiography. However, Catholic loyalty in particular remains an anachronism and lacks sufficient conceptual clarity. Our understanding of a specifically Catholic variant of loyalty and its public and associational expression, beyond a number of biographical studies of relatively unique individuals, remains limited. By providing an exposition of episodes in the history of Catholic loyalty in the early and mid-Victorian years this article illuminates the phenomenon. It demonstrates that Irish Catholic loyalty took on different expressive forms, which were dependent on the individuals proclaiming their loyalty, their relationship to the objects of their loyalty, and its reception by the British state and Protestant establishment.


2015 ◽  
Vol 62 (2) ◽  
pp. 237-241
Author(s):  
Lucy Grig

Let's start at the very beginning: that is, at the beginning of the history of Rome. This latest volume of the Oxford Readings in Classical Studies makes a clear case for the virtue of reprinting old articles even in an age of supposedly wide digital availability. An obvious virtue here is the fact this collection includes no fewer than seven articles that have been translated into English for the first time. In making this collection, the editors hope to show the continuing lively debate on the nature of the ancient historiographical tradition. Rather than taking a particular editorial line, the collection includes scholars with differing views as to the reliability of this tradition when it comes to early Roman history. That being said, it is not surprising that scholarship that aims wholeheartedly to uphold the historicity of the traditional accounts is definitely outnumbered by studies demonstrating instead the construction of historiographical tradition(s). Nonetheless, Andrea Carandini begins the collection by arguing once more for the congruence of the archaeological evidence and the literary tradition. The articles that follow vary somewhat in approach and in degrees of scepticism – for instance, Fausto Zevi admits a historical core to stories about Demoratus and the Tarquins, whereas Michael Crawford is forthright in his rejection of historicity in the earliest list of Roman colonies. The editors have taken the helpful decision to focus rather more on ‘stories’ than individual authors and this certainly helps shape a thought-provoking collection that can be read with profit rather than just put on the shelf for future reference. In particular, the editors’ suggestion that this volume could profitably be given to students in place of a single ‘authoritative’ version of the history of early Rome, so that they can see that there are indeed different ways of ‘doing’ ancient history, is persuasive. Finally, any selection of papers is, of course, subjective but an article focusing rather more particularly on non-literary historical traditions might have rounded out the picture more fully.


Author(s):  
Luigi Capogrossi Colognesi

In 1816, B.G. Niebuhr, having already published his important History of Rome, was appointed by his king to be the Prussian ambassador in Rome, where he remained for some years in that office. In that period he had the opportunity to acquire a good knowledge of the Roman Campagna. With reference to the Roman (and Greek) archaeological remains which he came across in his journeys, he proposed the hypothesis that the remains of ancient centuriatio could be found in that part of Italy. Some years later, in his Italienische Reise, J.J. Bachofen, for the first time, began to consider the symbolic elements in the Roman tombs as the evidence of a stadium of ancient civilisations older than that of Roman and Greek patriarchal societies in classical times. Some years later he published his famous Mutterrecht, one of the first important works of modern anthropology.


STADION ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 99-114
Author(s):  
Udi Carmi

In the early 1970s, the German fencing coach Emil Beck invented a new training model that deviated from the traditional French and Italian schools. Beck's model, named for the fencing club he established, Tauberbischofsheim, revolutionized the way fencing was taught. It was a rational, formal system based on McDonaldization - the economic consumption paradigm developed by sociologist George Ritzer. This article studies the Tauberbischofsheim training model as a turning point in the history of fencing. It analyzes the core principles of the system and the revolution it brought about. The McDonaldization paradigm applied to fencing undermined the basic tenets of fencing instruction, introducing a rational coaching plan and individualized lessons chosen from a pre-set menu. The coach became more of a guide than a trainer. For the first time, it was possible to teach fencing without being a consummate professional or an expert in the traditional instruction methods. The success of Beck's students has been unprecedented in the world of fencing.


2003 ◽  
Vol 33 ◽  
pp. 32-50

This chapter broadens the basis of the discussion in three respects. Firstly, the discussion will include examples which show how the history of reception of ancient texts and ideas is intermingled with and to some extent shaped by the artistic forms and cultural politics of receiving traditions. This means that in looking at examples of modern reception it is necessary to consider the routes through which the ancient text or idea itself has passed and the way in which subsequent cultural assumptions filter modern representations. Secondly, I have deliberately chosen examples which engage with the claim that the ancient world provides models, either in the sense of examples of how human beings might behave or, more subtly, ways in which Greek or Roman history or culture has been presented as a base from which subsequent generations might analyse and critique not just the ancient world, but also their own. In this aspect of the discussion I shall challenge the notion, put forward by a number of critics and most recently fostered by Page du Bois, that those looking to the ancient world as a source of insight, whether artistic, moral or political, are necessarily conservatives. Thirdly, in pursuing this argument I shall also begin to scrutinize and revise any easy assumptions that may linger concerning underlying differences in the ways in which it is possible to characterize Greek and Roman material and its reception or about restrictions in the variety and potential of either. The focus here will be on Roman ideas and texts. The next chapter will concentrate on Greek examples.


1972 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 131-151 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roderick W. Home

Benjamin Franklin's enunciation of his so-called ‘one-fluid’ theory of electricity in the period 1747–55 nas often been hailed as an important milestone in the history of physics. So indeed it was, for, with the rapid and widespread acceptance of the new theory, the science of electricity became based for the first time on the view that the electrification of a body involved the accumulation of a ‘charge’ from elsewhere, rather than the excitation of matter already present in the body. Only a little more remotely, the triumph of Franklin's theory over the rival ‘excitation’ theory espoused by the Abbé Nollet paved the way for the more sophisticated fluid theories propounded by Aepinus, Cavendish, and Coulomb in the years that followed.


2021 ◽  
Vol 122 ◽  
pp. 04007
Author(s):  
Marina Alexandrovna Kindzerskaya ◽  
Tatyana Ivanovna Marmazova ◽  
Stanislav Alexandrovich Ruzanov ◽  
Pyotr Alekseevich Kostin ◽  
Ilona Vladislavovna Tarasova

The article deals with the problem of a person’s conscious choice between happiness and suffering. At first glance, happiness and suffering are two different paths, and one should choose which road to take. On the one hand, suffering is an obstacle on the way to oneself, to a happy existence. On the other hand, one chooses suffering and happiness willingly, happiness is proportionate to suffering. One should not forget that existence has no meaning if it brings merely pain and dissatisfaction, so it is very important to strive to be happy. Throughout the entire history of humanity, the problem of happiness and the search for the best way to be released from suffering is a pressing issue. The relevance of the problem is determined by the particular significance of the concepts under study, because every person’s natural desire, regardless of the era and area of residence, is to be happy and free. The concepts of “happiness” and “suffering” are not only philosophical but also sociocultural phenomena that expound the axiological and spiritual and moral aspects of human existence. The study features quotes from thinkers of different ages and cultures that to an extent engaged in interpreting the content of the phenomena of happiness and suffering. The purpose of the study is to expound the sociocultural content of the phenomena of “happiness” and “suffering”, their causes, and the conditions for coexistence. The main methods of the study are the method of systemic analysis, the comparative method, and the typological method. The novelty of the study consists in the fact that the authors examine the phenomena of “happiness” and “suffering” together for the first time. Although the phenomena are an integral part of human activity.


Early China ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 40 ◽  
pp. 63-88 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam D. Smith

AbstractThe graph used to write the name of the mythical emperor Shun 舜 in received texts is a puzzling one. It is not obvious that any component in the graph, as it appears today, is semantically motivated, nor is there any element well suited to representing the name Shun phonetically. Texts like theShuowen jiezi說文解字 preserve an alternate writing of the name under the rubric “guwen古文,” but this too is hard to analyze in terms of the semantic and phonological motivation of the graph components. Without a clear understanding of why the name Shun is written the way it is, a reliable reconstruction of its Old Chinese pronunciation is difficult, and many of the graphic and phonological associations with “Shun” and related words made by early Chinese script, texts, and commentaries would be opaque.A graph that is clearly writing the name Shun, seen for the first time in two of the Warring States-period manuscripts from Guodian 郭店, partially resolved these difficulties, and in particular the question of the phonological spelling of the name. This in turn allows a series of interesting textual problems to be resolved. This article presents a selection of these, and discusses their implications for the history of the Chinese script and for textual transmission.


Author(s):  
David Ephraim

Abstract. A history of complex trauma or exposure to multiple traumatic events of an interpersonal nature, such as abuse, neglect, and/or major attachment disruptions, is unfortunately common in youth referred for psychological assessment. The way these adolescents approach the Rorschach task and thematic contents they provide often reflect how such experiences have deeply affected their personality development. This article proposes a shift in perspective in the interpretation of protocols of adolescents who suffered complex trauma with reference to two aspects: (a) the diagnostic relevance of avoidant or emotionally constricted Rorschach protocols that may otherwise appear of little use, and (b) the importance of danger-related thematic contents reflecting the youth’s sense of threat, harm, and vulnerability. Regarding this last aspect, the article reintroduces the Preoccupation with Danger Index ( DI). Two cases are presented to illustrate the approach.


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