scholarly journals Once Again on Claudian's Egyptian Origin

2021 ◽  
Vol 24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tomasz Babnis
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Textual Evidence

The life of Claudius Claudian (c. 370 – c. 404 AD), the great Latin poet active during the reign of Honorius, is unknown, especially the years before his great debut in 395 AD. Communis opinio holds that he was a pagan Egyptian Greek born in Alexandria c. 370 AD, who having come to Italy in 394 AD started a career of a political poet in the service of the elites of the Western Roman Empire. This view codified by Alan Cameron (1970) was challenged by Peder G. Christiansen (1997), who asserted that Claudian was actually a Westerner. The thesis of the poet’s Egyptian origin was defended by Bret Mulligan (2007) and then again attacked by Christiansen and Christiansen (2009). This article aims to reconsider the scarce textual evidence and to put an emphasis on some points that have been underestimated so far: the possibility of Claudian’s early connections with Constantinople and the ruling circles of the eastern capital.

Commemoration and Élite Benefaction of Buildings and Spectacles in the Roman World

2015 ◽  
Vol 105 ◽  
pp. 101-123 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diana Ng
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Textual Evidence ◽  
Roman World ◽  
Motivating Factor ◽  
Epigraphic Evidence

AbstractCurrent scholarship on élite munificence in the Roman Empire often sees architectural benefactions as being at least partially driven by the élite desire for personal commemoration. I use juristic opinions from theDigestand other textual evidence related to building gifts to argue that there was an ancient understanding of the physical and symbolic ephemerality of architectural benefactions. In contrast, I present legal and epigraphic evidence to argue that there was an explicit expectation for gifts of spectacles and monetary distributions to be lasting memorials for their donors, and that the perpetuation of identity was also a motivating factor in the euergetic choice of a spectacle.

How Sincere Was Leibniz’s Criticism of Hobbes’s Political Thought?

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 ◽  
pp. 29-60
Author(s):  
Fiorenza Manzo ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
Holy Roman Empire ◽  
Political Anthropology ◽  
Theoretical Ground ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
Textual Evidence

This paper focuses on Leibniz’s engagement with Thomas Hobbes’s political anthropology in the Mainz-period writings, and demonstrates that Leibniz tried to construct an alternative to the English philosopher by conceiving of a physically- and ontologically-grounded psychology of actions. I provide textual evidence of this attempt, and account for Leibniz’s rejection of Hobbes’s political theory and anthropological assumptions. In doing so, I refer to diverse aspects of Leibniz’s work, thereby highlighting his aspiration to congruity and consistency between different areas of investigation. Furthermore, Leibniz’s political writings and letters will reveal another—sometimes neglected—aspect of the issue: his concern to defend and legitimize the existence of pluralist and collective constitutional political systems like the Holy Roman Empire by providing the theoretical ground of their ability to last.

A JOURNEY TO THE AFTERLIFE UNDER THE PROTECTION OF THE MISTRESS OF NAVIGATION: A ‘NEW’ FUNERARY BELIEF FROM ROMAN MEMPHIS

2017 ◽  
Vol 64 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-38
Author(s):  
Jónatan Ortiz-García
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Third Century ◽  
Cultural Encounters ◽  
Textual Evidence ◽  
The Third

The study of Egyptian personal religiosity during the third century ad presents an interesting opportunity to explore the processes of cultural encounters between Egypt and the Roman Empire. The religious situation was more complicated and variegated than the textual evidence seems to suggest; sometimes one becomes aware of the existence of certain beliefs only through their iconographic record. For this reason, decorated stelae, coffins, and mummy wrappings are crucial materials for research into questions of religious exchange. This article presents the case of a third-century ad shroud from Memphis painted with a woman's portrait and funerary scenes, along with a representation of Isis navigans.

Medicine

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia Baker
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Material Culture ◽  
The Body ◽  
Ancient Medicine ◽  
Medical Practices ◽  
Textual Evidence ◽  
Roman World ◽  
Roman Medicine ◽  
Ancient Texts

The study of ancient medicine has grown in popularity over since the early 1990s in a variety of fields, including ancient texts, epigraphy, osteology, and archaeology. Many of the studies have demonstrated that there were a diversity of medical practices and concepts throughout the Graeco-Roman world. In this chapter it is shown that the evidence for medical practices in the province of Britannia indicates there are likely to have been a combination of indigenous, Roman and, possibly, Gallic conceptions of the body and its care. Hence, through an examination of material culture, inscriptions, and some textual evidence from Vindolanda, it is argued that the term Romano-British medicine is more appropriate than Roman medicine as a means of noting the heterogeneity in healthcare found in the Roman Empire.

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