scholarly journals Res publica ciceroniana e ‘anarchia militare’ In margine a due Vitae della Historia Augusta

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antonio Pistellato
Keyword(s):  
Third Century ◽  
Imperial Rome ◽  
De Re ◽  
The Third ◽  
Historia Augusta ◽  
Key Factor ◽  
The Ideal ◽  
Res Publica

This paper sets out to elaborate on the persistence of the republican ideal in imperial Rome through the lens of historiography. The investigation – which is meant to be part of a wider workplan – is divided in two parts. Firstly, it focuses on what is believed to be a key-factor of such persistence: Cicero’s elaboration of the ideal government of the Roman state in his De re publica. Secondly, it highlights significant testimonies focusing on two momentous events of the third century, notably from the Historia Augusta, which suggest the persistence of Cicero’s assessment: the rise of Pupienus and Balbinus and the death of Maximinus (238), and the rise of Tacitus (275).

Justin on tribunates and generalships, Casares, and Augusti

2000 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
pp. 632-634 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. C. Yardley
Keyword(s):  
Third Century ◽  
The Third ◽  
Historia Augusta ◽  
History Of ◽  
Subsequent Literature

Little, if anything, in Justin scholarship has been as controversial as the dating of the so-called Epitome of the Philippic History of Pompeius Trogus. Suggested dates have varied from the time of Antoninus Pius through the third century to the end of the fourth. The latter was proposed in 1988 by Sir Ronald Syme, but has in fact received little support in subsequent literature on Justin, which has tended to accept the earlier dating (late second/early third centuries). An exception is T. D. Barnes, who has voiced support for a later dating based on a linguistic parallel to Justin in the Historia Augusta.Barnes observes that Oscar Hey, author of the article ducatus in TLL (5.2129.30–2131.42), drew attention to the similarity between Justin 30.2.5 Agathocles regis lateri iunctus civitatem regebat, tribunatus et praefecturas et ducatus mulieres ordinabant and HA Heliog. 6.2 militaribus… praeposituris et legationibus et ducatibus venditis. Hey, he notes, refers at the head of that particular section of the article (Section 2 [2130.5–63]) to Seeck's article on dux. Seeck had demonstrated—and this is now taken for granted by scholars—that from the time of Diocletian dux is used technically as a formal title, and, in drawing attention to the parallel between HA Heliog. 6.2 and Justin, Hey must have been intimating that Justin is, like the author of Heliog. 6.2, using ducatus as a (post-Diocletianic) formal title. He then seems to suggest that Hey was right and Justin is to be dated to at least some time after 260.

Overseeing res publica

2014 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 130-173
Author(s):  
Grant A. Nelsestuen
Keyword(s):  
Political Thought ◽  
Political Ideology ◽  
The State ◽  
De Re ◽  
Political Relations ◽  
Original Contribution ◽  
Conceptual Relationship ◽  
The Ideal ◽  
Res Publica

This article examines a simile preserved in the fragmentary book 5 of Cicero's De Re Publica, which figures the ideal statesman (rector rei publicae) in terms of a farm bailiff (vilicus) and a household steward (dispensator). Through a philological, philosophical, and socio-cultural explication of these similes and their context within De Re Publica, this article argues that Cicero draws upon Greek philosophical treatments of household and political relations and reworks traditional Roman political ideology so as to refigure the conceptual relationship between the statesman and the state: from the farmer of res publica to its subservient, yet still overseeing, bailiff. By casting the ideal statesman in the decidedly servile role of a public bailiff, Cicero subordinates his statesman to res publica, yet also empowers him to act as its jurisprudential overseer, and this change marks a significant and perhaps strikingly original contribution to Roman political thought.

Principes cum Tyrannis: Two Studies on the Kaisergeschichte and its Tradition

1993 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 491-500 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. W. Burgess
Keyword(s):  
Fourth Century ◽  
The Other ◽  
Third Century ◽  
Common Source ◽  
Single Source ◽  
Natural Assumption ◽  
Ammianus Marcellinus ◽  
The Third ◽  
Historia Augusta ◽  
Selection Of

The Kaisergeschichte (KG) was a set of short imperial biographies extending from Augustus to the death of Constantine, probably written between 337 and c. 340. It no longer exists but its existence can be deduced from other surviving works. Amongst the histories of the fourth century – Aurelius Victor, Eutropius, Festus, Jerome's Chronici canones, the Historia Augusta, the Epitome de Caesaribus, and, in places, even Ammianus Marcellinus and perhaps the Origo Constantini imperatoris (Anonymi Valesiani pars prior) – there is a common selection of facts and errors, and common wording and phrasing in their narratives between Augustus and the death of Constantine, especially in their accounts of the third century. A natural assumption is that later historians copied earlier ones, yet later historians include information not contained in earlier ones, and historians who could not have known each other's work share similarities. For example, it looks as though Aurelius Victor was copying Eutropius, yet Victor wrote before Eutropius, and Eutropius contains information not in Victor and does not reproduce Victor's peculiar style or personal biases, things which he could hardly have avoided. Therefore Eutropius cannot be copying Victor. Since neither could have copied the other, there must therefore have been a common source. In his Chronici canones Jerome appears at first to be simply copying Eutropius. Yet when he deviates from Eutropius, his deviations usually mirror other histories, such as Suetonius, Victor, Festus, even the Epitome and the Historia Augusta, two works that had not even been written when Jerome compiled his chronicle and that did not use, and would never have used, the Christian chronicle as a source. Jerome was hurriedly dictating to his secretary, he had no time to peruse four or five works at a time for his brief notices. There must have been a single source that contained both the Eutropian material and the deviations common to Jerome and the other works. That source was the KG. It is the purpose of this paper to add to the above list of authors who relied upon the KG two other writers whose work can be shown to have derived, either at first hand or later, from the KG: Polemius Silvius and Ausonius.

The Beginning of Narrative Art in the Greek Geometric Period

1972 ◽  
Vol 67 ◽  
pp. 25-58 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Carter
Keyword(s):  
Natural World ◽  
Third Century ◽  
Narrative Art ◽  
Imperial Rome ◽  
The Third ◽  
Organic Process ◽  
Technical Proficiency ◽  
Greek Art

The very familiarity of Greek art is apt to make us take its development very much for granted. It has a beginning in the isolated silhouettes and matchstick processions of Geometric art; progresses through an ever more faithful, that is to say illusionistic, rendering of the objects of the natural world to classic formalism; goes on to the remarkable technical proficiency of the third century B.C.; and finally declines in late Hellenistic sterilities before being absorbed and transformed by Imperial Rome and the Early Christians. It seems to be a sort of organic process: birth, flowering, and death follow in such a logical and apparently inevitable fashion that it is difficult not to be seduced by the metaphor.

scholarly journals The narrative and moral discourse regarding marriage in Tobit

Kairos ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 159-171
Author(s):  
Boris Beck
Keyword(s):  
Moral Discourse ◽  
Third Century ◽  
Central Theme ◽  
Important Condition ◽  
The Third ◽  
Moral Lesson ◽  
The Ideal ◽  
The Erotic

Tobit was written around the third century B.C. It is considered canonical by the Catholics and the Orthodox believers, but not by Protestants and the Jews. The story is not historical but fictional, with a very dynamic narrative, containing numerous lessons in the spirit of the OT, particularly those relating to Deuteronomy theology. The central theme of the book is marriage and the ideal marriage is portrayed in terms of physical purity, struggling against lust, faithfulness, monogamy, and the permanence of the marriage covenant. It is pointed out in many places that love, fondness, and consideration are necessary for a successful marriage. Another important condition is the endogamy of marriage, so that the spouses would be able to keep and practice their faith more easily. And finally, prayer as the expression of trust in God is posited as the foundation of a marriage whose purpose transcends the erotic and procreative functions and emphasis is also placed on the importance of consecration. So in a fun way, Tobit offers a moral lesson which ties in with Biblical morality.

Recent Excavations at Lepcis Magna

1995 ◽  
Vol 26 ◽  
pp. 101-104
Author(s):  
H. M. Walda
Keyword(s):  
North Africa ◽  
Second Century ◽  
First Century ◽  
Third Century ◽  
Growing Up ◽  
African City ◽  
The Third ◽  
Key Factor ◽  
Private Citizens ◽  
The City

Lepcis Magna is one of the best examples of an African city during the Roman period. Its importance lies in its location in relation to the Mediterranean and the well-watered hinterland of Tripolitania and its resources. The key factor in the development of the city was its position, sheltered by a promontory, at the mouth of Wadi Lebda. It displays the processes of growth which other Roman town-plans have made familiar: a nuclear chessboard with divergent though mostly rectilinear enlargements. Lepcis became more important than the other two ports of Oea and Sabratha.Wealthy private citizens contributed greatly toward the buildings of the first century. In the second century the Libyan S. Severus became Emperor at a time when a lively and independent culture was growing up in the western part of North Africa. Lepcis attained its greatest architectural glories under S. Severus and his two sons. With the decline of seaborne trade that followed the serious economic crises at the end of the third century, raids by the tribes of the interior became bolder and more ruthless.

Severan Art and Architecture at Lepcis Magna

1948 ◽  
Vol 38 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 59-80 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. B. Ward-Perkins
Keyword(s):  
New Age ◽  
Third Century ◽  
Monumental Architecture ◽  
Imperial Rome ◽  
The Third ◽  
Imperial Capital ◽  
Art And Architecture

To the student of the art of imperial Rome, and in particular to the student whose views are founded on the monuments of Rome itself, the age of the Severi is often felt to be one of promise rather than fulfilment. It is not until the latter part of the third century, on the eve of the new age, that the pagan architecture of the imperial capital comes to its final, rich flowering in such monuments as the Aurelian Walls, the Baths of Diocletian, and the Basilica of Maxentius. The Baths of Caracalla, the additions to the Flavian Palace on the Palatine and the vanished Septizonium remind us that in the meanwhile monumental architecture was dormant only; but the centre of interest and of experiment has shifted to more practical fields; and it is rather to the houses and warehouses of Ostia that we have to look for evidence of the continued development of Roman architectural ideas. In the field of sculpture we are somewhat better served.

Metus Persicus?

Millennium ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-72
Author(s):  
Wolfgang Havener
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Fourth Century ◽  
Radical Change ◽  
Third Century ◽  
Military Conflict ◽  
The Third ◽  
The People ◽  
Historia Augusta ◽  
The Moment

Abstract The Sasanians have been characterized as Rome’s enemy par excellence in the ancient sources as well as in modern scholarship. According to the Greek and Roman historians, from the moment of its emergence in the second decade of the third century CE, the new dynasty pursued an extremely aggressive policy towards the Western neighbour that resulted in fierce and renewed military conflict and brought the Roman Empire to the brink of desaster. However, a closer look on the respective historiographic and biographic texts from contemporary and later authors reveals a deeper meaning behind their depictions of Roman-Sasanian conflict in the third century. This article argues that authors like Cassius Dio, Herodian and the composer of the fourth-century Historia Augusta used these narrations in order to name and address severe problems within the Roman Empire. Their considerations focused on the mechanisms of imperial government and self-representation which underwent a profound and radical change in the course of the third century. The principate of the previous centuries with its perfectly balanced system of communication between the emperor, the senate, the people of Rome and the army was gradually transformed into an overt military monarchy in which the emperors ostentatiously displayed their exclusive reliance on the soldiers as the crucial foundation of their rule. Although the characterization of Sasanian politics and attitudes towards Rome in the historiographic and biographic texts was certainly not merely an interpretatio Romana, the conditions within the Roman empire have to be taken into account in order to fully understand the contemporary and later historians’ intentions and the specific thrust of their texts.

Praetorian Prefects’ Power and Senatorial Status in the Third Century: Re-evaluating Historia Augusta, Vita Alexandri 21.5

Mnemosyne ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 65 (4-5) ◽  
pp. 656-673
Author(s):  
Inge Mennen
Keyword(s):  
Third Century ◽  
The Third ◽  
Historia Augusta ◽  
Alternative Sources

Abstract In Vita Alexandri 21.5 the author of the Historia Augusta claims that praetorian prefects were elevated to the rank of senator by Severus Alexander to make sure that no Roman senator would be judged by someone who was not a senator. Most scholars agree that the writer of the Historia Augusta makes a muddle of truth, half truth and falsehood concerning the grant of senatorial dignity to praetorian prefects. Yet they pay little attention to the statement concerning the motive of the prefects’ status upgrade. Re-interpretations based on recent discoveries suggest that information from the Historia Augusta may contain elements of truth, which makes it worthwhile to re-evaluate cases for which alternative sources are available. In this article, the case of L. Petronius Taurus Volusianus, praetorian prefect under Gallienus and consul in AD 261, is discussed against the background of changing power and status relations in the third century, showing that Historia Augusta, Vita Alexandri 21.5 may contain more truth than is usually agreed upon.

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