Pamięć o złej pamięci [Rec. Dario Calomino, Defacing the Past: Damnation and Desecration in Imperial Rome, London 2016]

W artykule omówiono książkę Daria Calomino Defacing the Past: Damnation and Desecration in Imperial Rome. Jej autor prześledził zmiany wizerunku rzymskich władców i osób z ich kręgu nanoszone na różne nośniki, w tym zwłaszcza na numizmaty. Zmiany te mogły być rezultatem negatywnego osądu konkretnej postaci z przyczyn ideologicznych bądź politycznych, można je więc połączyć z procesem potępiania pamięci — damnatio memoriae. W drugiej części artykułu zaprezentowano skrótowo historię badań nad tym zjawiskiem, wskazując przy tym jego aktualność i atrakcyjność poznawczą.

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

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).

Quintilian and the Performing Arts

This chapter considers the relationship between Quintilian’s teachings on rhetoric and the artistic milieu of Imperial Rome at the time in which he was writing. It sketches out the deeply philhellenic culture of the Empire, which fostered admiration for the performing arts, and discusses to what extent the public spaces in which the art of rhetoric was performed influenced public oratory and the orators’ dramatic and vocal techniques themselves.

Roman and Christian Just War: A Re-Analysis

There is no denying that the early Catholic Church grew up in a climate predominated by a rich and broad religious pantheon. Emerging at first as a perceived outgrowth of Judaism, Christianity was exposed to, among other things, Roman culture. Roman religious practice, which was typically very open to adopting foreign cults, felt threatened by Christianity, resulting in periods of persecution. As a result, the early Christian community had a very complicated relationship with Imperial Rome. The Church stressed non-collaboration, but evidence points that there was a divide between teachings and practice on the topic of military service. The patristic writings of the Early Church fathers are noticeably sparse until Ambrose and Augustine, who present what can generally be called a theory of just war. They also waver between support and condemnation, reflecting the needs of their congregations. Despite this relative absence of discussion, the prevailing attitude in the historical scholarship of the Early Church was that the pre-Constantine Church pushed for non-collaboration with Roman society, i.e. not serving in public office or the army. After Constantine, that same scholarship points towards an about-face in Church teachings, and a co-opting of the burgeoning Christian community. What this paper seeks to address is that Roman iustum bellum, and Christian just war, were developments specific to their contemporary societies and, while there is definitely a link, the two form distinct systems of thought. One might even say that iustum bellum was more concerned with justifying war, than the moral quandaries of Christian just war.

THE PHENOMENON OF THE "GREEK RENAISSANCE" IN THE ARCHITECTURE OF IMPERIAL ROME

The article analyzes the phenomenon of borrowing forms of Greek architecture in the architecture of Ancient Rome of Emperor Hadrian's era (II century AD). This phenomenon is interpreted as the first representation of historicism in architecture – the use of elements of the former culture in actual project creativity to convey certain ideas and meanings. The article shows that the "Greek Renaissance" in the architecture of imperial Rome was an organic component of the general process of hellenophilism, characteristic of the general cultural development of that time.

Commending a freedman. Virtues and masculinities in the recommendation letters of Cicero and Pliny the Younger

This article explores Roman freedmen’s masculine positions expressed as virtues, qualities, and ideals in the recommendation letters of Cicero and Pliny the Younger. It discusses whether there were specific freedman virtues, qualities, and ideals and what consequences their existence or absence had for freedmen’s constructions of masculinity. A critical close reading of the texts is applied, combined with theories of masculinity, where hegemonic masculinity is a key concept. It is concluded that there were no virtues or qualities that were specific or exclusive to freedmen. A distinct set of virtues for freedmen did not exist in Late Republican and Early Imperial Rome, since much the same behaviour and qualities are seen as manly and desirable for freedmen as for freeborn male citizens of high birth. However, freedmen cannot comply with the hegemonic masculinity in full, since they cannot embody the Roman masculine ideal of the vir bonus and cannot be associated with the Roman cardinal virtue virtus, which was central in the construction of masculinity in the Roman world. This illustrates the complex Roman gender discourse and, on the whole, the social complexity of Roman society.