Germania de Tácito: en los límites del género literario

This article proposes a new generic label for Tacitus’ Germania as “frontier ethnography”. Our reading is supported by Germania’s textual instability, due to its topical originality and compositive innovation. Although these features place Germania in a disruptive positioning face of historiographical tradition of Monography, it is consistent with the particular rhetorical situation of the late first century AD, traversed by the mixture of genres and the inversion of center-periphery relationships, and with the rise of a new dynasty as well. These characteristics are found in the two main text features of Germania. On the one hand, Ethnography, which was traditionally relegated to the excursus, is used here as the text’s main narrative device, whereas historical discourse is relocated to the digression. On the other hand, Barbaric periphery beyond the frontier becomes the central narrative matter of the text. Therefore, these textual features allow us to state that Germania insinuates a discourse move towards the limits of Roman generic and geographical space. Hence, Tacitus’ Germania can be interpreted as a literary exercise representing a new space within its sociopolitical context: the frontier.

¿Por qué no hay variaciones en el eterno retorno? Notas sobre el pensamiento divino en la cosmología estoica

In this article, I offer an analysis of the Stoic theory of everlasting recurrence and especially of the thesis that the infinite recurrence of the cosmos admits no variation whatsoever, and focus on the hypothesis advanced by Francis Henry Sandbach and David Furley to explain it. As I intend to reveal, this hypothesis is not adequately supported by the evidence if we take into account Stoic axiology. I argue that, in order to solve this difficulty, we need to explore Stoic theology and, in particular, the nature of Stoic divine thinking.

Aelredo de Rivelaux e Goderico de Finchale: austeridade e observância monástica em pespectiva (século XII)

In the course of the 12th century, with the emergence of new monastic orders, including that of Cistercian (1098 AD), the theme of austerity became central to the discussion on the best way of observing the Rule of Saint Benedict, a canonical document on regular life from the 6th century. Conceptions about austerity can be verified, on the one hand, in the Mirror of Charity, by the Cistercian abbot Aelredo de Rivelaux (1110-1167 AD), and, on the other, in the hagiography The Life of Saint Godric, whose socio-cultural place is the priory from Durham, also in Anglia. Thus, this article intends to prove that there were approaching and distancing concerning the best way to carry out monastic austerity in northern Anglia, at the center of religious renewal in the course of the 12th century.

Historia de los textos, crítica textual y filología, o caminar de la Antigüedad al siglo XXI con un verso de Virgilio (Ecl., 4, 62)

This paper provides a brief historical overview on the genesis of a Virgilian locus criticus (Ecl., 4, 62), comments on some aspects of its philological discussion from Antiquity to the 21st century, and contributes some elements concerning the reading offered by the codices vetustissimi of the direct tradition.

Los estereotipos étnicos en Ab urbe condita: un estado de la cuestión

This paper proposes a state of the matter on the scholarship about ethnic stereotypes in Ab urbe condita from the classic work by Walsh written in 1961 to nowadays. With this goal in mind, the paper is divided in five parts. The first part shows how the analyses of the subject matter became more complex as the ethnographic tradition with which Livy dealt, as well as the Roman identity and the notion itself of stereotype became an issue. In the second part, this article criticizes binary conceptions of otherness and suggests a wider gradation of it. The third part deals with some interesting observations made by Moore in 1989 that were later disregarded. In the fourth, it reviews Levene’s suggestion based on ethnic identity studies that we should look for a non-Romancentric view within Livy’s work. Finally, it studies the relevance of considering three kinds of contexts —the genre of the work, episodic and temporal frameworks— while analyzing the ethnic stereotypes in Ab urbe condita.

La temporalidad del Treno: el lamento de la Musa en Reso (890-982)

The scene of the Muse’s Lament in the exodus of the polemic tragedy Rhesus stands out for its compositional features. In this article I analyse verses 890-982 and its thrênos, as a kind of a singular poetry in terms of its type and function, and the controversial reading of those textual models postulated as underlying, with special attention to its temporality. In this way, I attempt to show there is a compositional matrix of the funeral lament reformulated and reworked significantly new.

L’elmo di Telesilla

This contribution examines the poetess Telesilla of Argo, as one of the few names that came from female Greek lyric, in which we can find precise information, despite the small number of verses that have come. Through the testimonies, we focus here on the myths mentioned by the poetess as a precious documentation of the Cults practiced in the Peloponnese’s area, often linked to the Apollo. The image of the warrior woman who saves her city is contextualized, more realistically, in a frame of female ritual performances. The contribution concludes with some indications on the well-known battle of Sepeia, fought against Sparta (6th-5th century) according to different versions. The sources are Herodoto and Pausanias, as well as the entry “Telesilla” of the Suda lexicon. The historicity of the battle remains problematic, but especially compelling for the question of the Argive women, who have the protection of an armed and bearded, almost masculine Aphrodite.

La cleruquía ateniense en Lesbos: distribución de la tierra y explotación de los nativos

This article analyzes the establishment of the Athenian cleruchy in the island of Lesbos in 427 BC. From the available evidence and research, the existence of a plot distribution pattern based on land use conditions previously developed by the Lesbians is conjectured. The permanence of the latter as tenants of these plots was subordinated to the extraction of an annual rent by the Athenians, similar to the income obtained by those belonging to hoplite status.