Niebuhr and Bachofen: New Forms of Evidence on Roman History

2020 ◽  
pp. 155-170
Author(s):  
Luigi Capogrossi Colognesi
Keyword(s):  
Roman History ◽  
Good Knowledge ◽  
Archaeological Remains ◽  
History Of ◽  
First Time

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.

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
Keyword(s):  
Roman History ◽  
Precise Statement ◽  
History Of ◽  
Age Limits ◽  
First Time ◽  
The Way

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.

Roman History

2015 ◽  
Vol 62 (2) ◽  
pp. 237-241
Author(s):  
Lucy Grig
Keyword(s):  
Literary Tradition ◽  
Roman History ◽  
Ancient History ◽  
Clear Case ◽  
Classical Studies ◽  
History Of ◽  
Lively Debate ◽  
First Time ◽  
Selection Of ◽  
Future Reference

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.

Adam Zalužanský’s “De sexu plantarum” (1592): an early pioneering chapter on plant sexuality

2013 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 244-256 ◽  
Author(s):  
Holger Funk
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
English Translation ◽  
History Of Botany ◽  
Main Work ◽  
Botanical History ◽  
History Of ◽  
The University ◽  
First Time

In the history of botany, Adam Zalužanský (d. 1613), a Bohemian physician, apothecary, botanist and professor at the University of Prague, is a little-known personality. Linnaeus's first biographers, for example, only knew Zalužanský from hearsay and suspected he was a native of Poland. This ignorance still pervades botanical history. Zalužanský is mentioned only peripherally or not at all. As late as the nineteenth century, a researcher would be unaware that Zalužanský’s main work Methodi herbariae libri tres actually existed in two editions from two different publishers (1592, Prague; 1604, Frankfurt). This paper introduces the life and work of Zalužanský. Special attention is paid to the chapter “De sexu plantarum” of Zalužanský’s Methodus, in which, more than one hundred years before the well-known De sexu plantarum epistola of R. J. Camerarius, the sexuality of plants is suggested. Additionally, for the first time, an English translation of Zalužanský’s chapter on plant sexuality is provided.

A Confrontation between Two Doctrines: The Birth of Struggle for Hegemony in Hebrew Children's Literature during the 1930s and 1940s

2008 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 139-155 ◽  
Author(s):  
YAEL DARR
Keyword(s):  
Children's Literature ◽  
Educational System ◽  
Single Channel ◽  
Children’S Literature ◽  
The Political ◽  
Literary Creation ◽  
History Of ◽  
High Level ◽  
First Time ◽  
Literary Quality

This article describes a crucial and fundamental stage in the transformation of Hebrew children's literature, during the late 1930s and 1940s, from a single channel of expression to a multi-layered polyphony of models and voices. It claims that for the first time in the history of Hebrew children's literature there took place a doctrinal confrontation between two groups of taste-makers. The article outlines the pedagogical and ideological designs of traditionalist Zionist educators, and suggests how these were challenged by a group of prominent writers of adult poetry, members of the Modernist movement. These writers, it is argued, advocated autonomous literary creation, and insisted on a high level of literary quality. Their intervention not only dramatically changed the repertoire of Hebrew children's literature, but also the rules of literary discourse. The article suggests that, through the Modernists’ polemical efforts, Hebrew children's literature was able to free itself from its position as an apparatus controlled by the political-educational system and to become a dynamic and multi-layered field.

Digging the history. Absolute chronology of the settlement complex at Czermno-Cherven’ (eastern Poland). Research status and perspectives

2020 ◽  
Vol 72 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tomasz Dzieńkowski ◽  
Marcin Wołoszyn ◽  
Iwona Florkiewicz ◽  
Radosław Dobrowolski ◽  
Jan Rodzik ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Interdisciplinary Research ◽  
Qualitative Change ◽  
Archaeological Research ◽  
Research Status ◽  
History Of ◽  
Absolute Dating ◽  
First Time ◽  
Radiocarbon Datings

The article discusses the results of the latest interdisciplinary research of Czermno stronghold and its immediate surroundings. The site is mentioned in chroniclers’ entries referring to the stronghold Cherven’ (Tale of Bygone Years, first mention under the year 981) and the so-called Cherven’ Towns. Given the scarcity of written records regarding the history of today’s Eastern Poland, Ukraine, and Belarus in the 10th and 11th centuries, recent archaeological research, supported by geoenvironmental analyses and absolute dating, brought a significant qualitative change. In 2014 and 2015, the remains of the oldest rampart of the stronghold were uncovered for the first time. A series of radiocarbon datings allows us to refer the erection of the stronghold to the second half/late 10th century. The results of several years’ interdisciplinary research (2012-2020) introduce qualitatively new data to the issue of the Cherven’ Towns, which both change current considerations and confirm the extraordinary research potential in the archeology of the discussed region.

A Well-Ordered Thing

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael D. Gordin
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
History Of Science ◽  
Periodic Table ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Classic Work ◽  
Hot Air ◽  
History Of ◽  
First Time

Dmitrii Mendeleev (1834–1907) is a name we recognize, but perhaps only as the creator of the periodic table of elements. Generally, little else has been known about him. This book is an authoritative biography of Mendeleev that draws a multifaceted portrait of his life for the first time. As the book reveals, Mendeleev was not only a luminary in the history of science, he was also an astonishingly wide-ranging political and cultural figure. From his attack on Spiritualism to his failed voyage to the Arctic and his near-mythical hot-air balloon trip, this is the story of an extraordinary maverick. The ideals that shaped his work outside science also led Mendeleev to order the elements and, eventually, to engineer one of the most fascinating scientific developments of the nineteenth century. This book is a classic work that tells the story of one of the world's most important minds.

Victorian Pain

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachel Ablow
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Victorian Literature ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Charles Darwin ◽  
Harriet Martineau ◽  
The Status ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Natural Philosophers ◽  
First Time

The nineteenth century introduced developments in science and medicine that made the eradication of pain conceivable for the first time. This new understanding of pain brought with it a complex set of moral and philosophical dilemmas. If pain serves no obvious purpose, how do we reconcile its existence with a well-ordered universe? Examining how writers of the day engaged with such questions, this book offers a compelling new literary and philosophical history of modern pain. The book provides close readings of novelists Charlotte Brontë and Thomas Hardy and political and natural philosophers John Stuart Mill, Harriet Martineau, and Charles Darwin, as well as a variety of medical, scientific, and popular writers of the Victorian age. The book explores how discussions of pain served as investigations into the status of persons and the nature and parameters of social life. No longer conceivable as divine trial or punishment, pain in the nineteenth century came to seem instead like a historical accident suggesting little or nothing about the individual who suffers. A landmark study of Victorian literature and the history of pain, the book shows how these writers came to see pain as a social as well as a personal problem. Rather than simply self-evident to the sufferer and unknowable to anyone else, pain was also understood to be produced between persons—and even, perhaps, by the fictions they read.

Thanato-Laboratorien. Theorien von Tod und Sterben und Elias Canettis Buch gegen den Tod

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-86
Author(s):  
Elisabeth Heyne
Keyword(s):  
Human Life ◽  
Death And Dying ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Visual Images ◽  
Elias Canetti ◽  
History Of ◽  
Series Of Experiments ◽  
First Time ◽  
Textual Form ◽  
Or History

AbstractAlthough visual culture of the 21th century increasingly focuses on representation of death and dying, contemporary discourses still lack a language of death adequate to the event shown by pictures and visual images from an outside point of view. Following this observation, this article suggests a re-reading of 20th century author Elias Canetti. His lifelong notes have been edited and published posthumously for the first time in 2014. Thanks to this edition Canetti's short texts and aphorisms can be focused as a textual laboratory in which he tries to model a language of death on experimental practices of natural sciences. The miniature series of experiments address the problem of death, not representable in discourses of cultural studies, system theory or history of knowledge, and in doing so, Canetti creates liminal texts at the margins of western concepts of (human) life, science and established textual form.

The Legal Status of Local Government in South Africa under the New Constitutional Dispensation

2018 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mbuzeni Mathenjwa
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Local Government ◽  
Legal Status ◽  
Case Law ◽  
The Status ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Republic ◽  
First Time

The history of local government in South Africa dates back to a time during the formation of the Union of South Africa in 1910. With regard to the status of local government, the Union of South Africa Act placed local government under the jurisdiction of the provinces. The status of local government was not changed by the formation of the Republic of South Africa in 1961 because local government was placed under the further jurisdiction of the provinces. Local government was enshrined in the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa arguably for the first time in 1993. Under the interim Constitution local government was rendered autonomous and empowered to regulate its affairs. Local government was further enshrined in the final Constitution of 1996, which commenced on 4 February 1997. The Constitution refers to local government together with the national and provincial governments as spheres of government which are distinctive, interdependent and interrelated. This article discusses the autonomy of local government under the 1996 Constitution. This it does by analysing case law on the evolution of the status of local government. The discussion on the powers and functions of local government explains the scheme by which government powers are allocated, where the 1996 Constitution distributes powers to the different spheres of government. Finally, a conclusion is drawn on the legal status of local government within the new constitutional dispensation.

The Russian Librarianship in Shanghai

2013 ◽  
pp. 93-96
Author(s):  
Amir A. Khisamutdinov
Keyword(s):  
Public And Private ◽  
History Of ◽  
First Time

The article is devoted to the history of librarianship in Shanghai in the Russian emigration community. For the first time there is described the activities of public and private libraries, and paid attention to the individuals who contributed to forming of these funds.

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