Sons and Fathers in the Major Declamations Ascribed to Quintilian

1995 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 179-192 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lewis A. Sussman

Abstract: A major focus of the school themes in the collections of Roman declamations knowrn as controversiae (practice court cases) is the period of a young man's adolescence, and especially his relationship with his father during this period. In part this can be explained because teachers in the private schools of rhetoric selected themes that naturally appealed to their students——male adolescents in their mid and late teens. This focus is especially notable in the Major Declamations, and since they are the only full examples of controversiae,the phenomenon can most easily be explored in reference to this werk. In its nineteen declamations youths are generally portrayed sympathetically, in contrast to their fathers who are often cruel and harsh. Relations between the two are generally very strained. The themes were popular because they reflected the reality of growing up in a paternally dominated society where fathers had absolute power(even of life and death) over their sons. These declamations therefore had a cathartic effect and escapist value fer Roman teenaged boys,who could vent or explore in legitimate and acceptable ways their repressed, pent-up, and often hostile feelings toward their fathers. The declamations therefore provide an important resource, when used judiciously, for associating social history with the history of rhetoric.

Author(s):  
Miguel Alarcão

Textualizing the memory(ies) of physical and cultural encounter(s) between Self and Other, travel literature/writing often combines subjectivity with documental information which may prove relevant to better assess mentalities, everyday life and the social history of any given ‘timeplace’. That is the case with Growing up English. Memories of Portugal 1907-1930, by D. J. Baylis (née Bucknall), prefaced by Peter Mollet as “(…) a remarkably vivid and well written observation of the times expressed with humour and not little ‘carinho’. In all they make excellent reading especially for those of us interested in the recent past.” (Baylis: 2)


2010 ◽  
Vol 37 ◽  
pp. 83-106 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chima J. Korieh

I humbly lay my reputation on your verdict, and beg that your acute interest to help your subjects in this time of conflict mark you [as] an asset and real factor, helpful figure whose merciful eye would reflect upon my case which stands me a subject of compassion. — Odili Ezeoke to the Authority Controlling Food Supply, Aba, 9 July 1943.Historians have relied on a variety of sources to analyze Africa's encounter with Europe and response to colonialism. Several scholars, who have published in the Heinemann African Social History Series, have relied on oral accounts to add an indigenous perspective to the history of colonialism in Africa. African history nevertheless suffers from a lack of other sources, such as diaries, journals, and personal narratives, which can enrich the historical narrative. Letters of petitions provide one of the very few opportunities to locate African men and women's voices as they confronted the new political, economic, judicial and social system that emerged in the colonial context. Petitions were widely used by every class of the African population in the colonial period and can help to re-evaluate African-European interactions and dialogues in a colonial context. Their existence challenges the notion of colonial authorities as a hegemonic force in the making of colonized societies in light of new forms of evidence that redefine this encounter. Petitions were used by individuals as well as groups as a means to seek remedy for grievance for a number of types of actions, ranging from taxation, court cases and a variety of other issues.


Itinerario ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 19-44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hans Hägerdal

The history of slavery is by no means untouched, and there are now even ambitious global histories of the phenomenon in print. On the other hand, it is clear that much of the literature on this sombre side of human society has concentrated on the Transatlantic slave trade and non-free labour in the Americas. The relative wealth of documents in Western languages has presumably contributed to give the historiography of slavery a Western centre of gravity, coupled with the fact that the early modern Americas were restructured into settlement colonies. This made slavery a motor of socio-economic change in a more pronounced way than in Asian societies. Consequently, it comes as no surprise that the handling of slaves in an Asiatic context has been less thoroughly treated in the extant academic literature. It seems that aspects of Asian slavery have not fit well into the preconceptions of Asianists, or have at least been relegated to the margins of social history.


2020 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-9
Author(s):  
Marnie Hay

This article serves as an introduction to a special issue of Irish Economic and Social History (Volume 47) that illuminates the diversity of childhoods experienced by children growing up in Ireland and in the Irish diaspora between the mid sixteenth and the early twentieth centuries. The article explores the development of the history of children and childhood in Ireland as a growing area of academic enquiry and discusses the problems and challenges associated with studying children and childhood in the past. It also contextualises the articles included in the special issue of the journal, which demonstrate how age, class, gender, geography, religion and ethnicity combined with adult control to influence the lives of children ranging from infancy to early adolescence. Adult control was reflected in decisions made regarding the feeding, fostering, educating, employing, entertaining and punishing of children. Such decisions could have lifelong consequences for the children concerned. This introductory article highlights the central role of adults in influencing, controlling and representing children’s lives but also provides insight into the diverse experiences of Irish childhoods during five centuries.


1975 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 131-142
Author(s):  
Adah Maurer

Most of history has been written and sanctioned by men, about men, and for men. What do we know about the social history of women? Nothing and everything The nothing shows itself in the credits. The everything shows itself in the crucial role of women and what they, and only they, must have learned through their daily lives. Their wisdom came from direct experiences with the facts of life. They cared for the children, the sick, the aging, the injured, and from this came to learn about death differently from their male counterparts. For men, death was related to food for the tribe or a victory over an adversary, in short, something to be carried out. For women, death was presented, not as a killing, but as something taken away, thereby inducing them to contemplate mortality. Only now, in the upsurge of interest in the history of women so long neglected are we beginning to realize their impact on the discoveries in life and death.


Classics ◽  
2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefan Feddern

Though Seneca the Elder (c. 50 bce–c. 40 ce) is a person almost unknown to us, his extant work, the Oratorum et rhetorum sententiae divisiones colores (excerpts of the two kinds of declamation, controversiae and suasoriae), is exceedingly rich in information about the early imperial declamation and about the literary culture of that period in general. While his historiographical work, the Historiae, has not survived (apart from a few fragments), his declamation excerpts document not only the declamation as such; they also offer us an insight into the whole process of declamation and the declamation schools. This insight is highly important for the history of declamation because it is the first one we possess, despite the fact that declamation itself is a phenomenon that originated in Greece and has a centuries-long tradition. It is important also for the history of rhetoric and for Roman education and culture in general because declamation formed an integral part of the curriculum of higher education. In its original state, Seneca the Elder’s declamatory work consisted of ten books of excerpts from controversiae (fictitious court cases), and there may have been perhaps at least a second book of excerpts from suasoriae (fictitious speeches of advice to historical or mythical personages). It is not known whether each book was introduced by a preface addressed to his sons, but it is likely that more prefaces existed than we have today. Unfortunately, only parts of the original work survive. In the process of transmission, probably in Late Antiquity, excerpts were drafted of Seneca the Elder’s declamatory work. These excerpts are shortened versions of the excerpts from the controversiae (not from the suasoriae), and they contain some prefaces that otherwise would have been lost. What we possess today is the sum of both of the traditions: the controversiae books 1, 2, 7, 9, and 10 and one book of suasoriae in the form that Seneca the Elder gave to them (the mentioned books of controversiae additionally exist in the form of the excerpts made in Late Antiquity). The controversiae books 3, 4, 5, 6, and 8 have survived only in the shortened form that they received in Late Antiquity. Finally, we possess the prefaces to books 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 9, and 10 of the controversiae.


This collection of essays, drawn from a three-year AHRC research project, provides a detailed context for the history of early cinema in Scotland from its inception in 1896 till the arrival of sound in the early 1930s. It details the movement from travelling fairground shows to the establishment of permanent cinemas, and from variety and live entertainment to the dominance of the feature film. It addresses the promotion of cinema as a socially ‘useful’ entertainment, and, distinctively, it considers the early development of cinema in small towns as well as in larger cities. Using local newspapers and other archive sources, it details the evolution and the diversity of the social experience of cinema, both for picture goers and for cinema staff. In production, it examines the early attempts to establish a feature film production sector, with a detailed production history of Rob Roy (United Films, 1911), and it records the importance, both for exhibition and for social history, of ‘local topicals’. It considers the popularity of Scotland as an imaginary location for European and American films, drawing their popularity from the international audience for writers such as Walter Scott and J.M. Barrie and the ubiquity of Scottish popular song. The book concludes with a consideration of the arrival of sound in Scittish cinemas. As an afterpiece, it offers an annotated filmography of Scottish-themed feature films from 1896 to 1927, drawing evidence from synopses and reviews in contemporary trade journals.


2016 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 13-39 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Donnelly

Medieval Scottish economic and social history has held little interest for a unionist establishment but, just when a recovery of historic independence begins to seem possible, this paper tackles a (perhaps the) key pre-1424 source. It is compared with a Rutland text, in a context of foreign history, both English and continental. The Berwickshire text is not, as was suggested in 2014, a ‘compte rendu’ but rather an ‘extent’, intended to cross-check such accounts. Read alongside the Rutland roll, it is not even a single ‘compte’ but rather a palimpsest of different sources and times: a possibility beyond earlier editorial imaginings. With content falling (largely) within the time-frame of the PoMS project (although not actually included), when the economic history of Scotland in Europe is properly explored, the sources discussed here will be key and will offer an interesting challenge to interpretation. And some surprises about their nature and date.


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