Anton Bierl (Hrsg.), Sappho, Lieder Herausgegeben und übersetzt sowie mit Anmerkungen und Nachwort versehen von Anton Bierl

Bierl, A. (Hrsg.) (2021). Sappho, Lieder. Herausgegeben und übersetzt sowie mit Anmerkungen und Nachwort versehen von Anton Bierl. Stuttgart: Reclam, pp. 448

Cicerone e la geografia dellʼimpero nellʼorazione De imperio Cn. Pompei

In his De imperio Cn. Pompei (66 BCE), Cicero supports the law proposal by the tribune C. Manilius to entrust Pompey with an extraordinary command over the third Mithridatic war. The article analyses the importance of geography in the orator’s argumentation for its economical and political implications. First, by sketching a centre-periphery dynamic, Cicero stresses the vital role of the provinces (especially Asia that is now under attack) for Rome’s own welfare and supply with goods; then, in his celebration of Pompey’s military achievements, Cicero insists on their worldwide extent, presenting him as the only one who can bring the Pontic war to an end.

La rappresentazione dell’intervento di Cesare in battaglia come strategia narrativa nel De bello Gallico: un’analisi stilistica

The article scrutinises Cae­sar’s De bello Gallico narrative through offering an exhaustive analysis of one of the most relevant narrative strategies the Cae­sarian storytelling relies on: the artful representation of Cae­sar’s intervention in battle. The paper firstly illustrates how the accounts of Cae­sar’s activities during the combat are always depicted, across the seven books, as the turning point of a difficult situation for the Romans. Moreover, the article clarifies that these scenes share not only the exceptional results achieved by the commander, but also significant similarities on the diegetic, stylistic and rhetorical level. On this basis, the article argues that such analogies are part of a narrative strategy operating whenever the text describes Cae­sar’s action in a combat. A stylistic and rhetorical investigation on four exemplary cases is undertaken (Gall. 2.15-28, 3.14-15, 6.8 and 7.87); these passages are representative of the De bello Gallico general trend in depicting the author’s efforts during a struggle. The enquiry reveals that the Latin text always presents a comparable sequence of events preceding and following the account of Cae­sar’s accomplishments in battle and that similar lexicon and rhetorical figures are employed to support Cae­sar’s self-presentation as infallible commander.

Drawing Imperial Lines: Sovereignty and Tacitus’ Germanicus

This essay focuses on Germanicus’ performance of sovereign power in Tacitus’ Annales 1-2. That power is seen in the differentiation of citizen from non-citizen and Roman territory from non-Roman territory. Roman violence in Germany contrasts with Germanicus in the East. There he recognised a shared history and community. Sovereign power required a recognition of the sovereign by the citizen and of the citizen by the sovereign. An individual’s membership and a territory’s place within the Roman Empire depended not on innate characteristics but political negotiation. Ancient political geographies gave primacy to the political rather than the territorial in determining citizenship.

Spigolature stesicoree II Osservazioni critico-esegetiche su alcuni frammenti

The paper concerns some textual and exegetical problems in Stesichorean fragments. In fr. 1 ἔν τινι πέτρᾳ, ὡς is to be read for transmitted ἔν τινι πετραίῳ; the phrase probably refers to Amycus’ punishment, who according to some textual and iconographic sources was bound by Pollux to a tree or rock; in fr. 2a Ποδάργη means ‘swift-footed’ rather than ‘white-footed’, as shown by comparison with the proper nouns Ὠκυπόδη and Ἀελλόπους. In fr. 85 κούραις should be preferred to κόραις/κόρας, because it is closer to epic diction; in fr. 89 the silver-like basin implies a hospitality scene, but probably in a humble social context. In fr. 100.7 χρυσ[ολύρα, even if the feminine of the adjective is never used elsewhere, may be a suitable supplement; at v. 9 καλλιρόου (Σιμόεντος) is better than καλλιρόους (δίνας). At fr. inc. 270a one might restore τε]ύ̣-/ χεσι λαμπομέν[α τό]θ’. Finally, at fr. inc. 303a πυλαμάχε transmitted by Athenaeus may be right and seems to be echoed in the hapax θυραμάχος found in Pratinas.

Livy’s Cato and Commodities at Centre and Periphery

This paper is part of a larger project on how Livy represents the Elder Cato, from his entrance into the text in Book 29 to his last witticism preserved in the summary of Book 50, the longest biographical arc in this first third of Livy’s text. It views Cato through the lens of his relationship with objects, and with Livy’s narrative as an object as well. This paper focuses on one episode in the life of Livy’s Cato, the debate over the repeal of the Lex Oppia, and builds on previous scholars’ work to unite three arguments: 1) Livy weaves together textual space and Roman topography so as to emphasise the simultaneous marginality and centrality of this debate; 2) Livy’s Cato and Valerius fill Rome’s urban topography with images of things so as to draw attention via women’s bodies to the relationship between luxury and Rome’s imperium; 3) Livy uses this episode to make an argument about his own historical writing and its active relationship to the expansion of empire. This project focusing on Livy’s Cato is itself part of an even larger reexamination of how we read, and might read, Livy.

Andrea Balbo, Auctores Latini Pedemontani: un’antologia degli scrittori in lingua latina in Piemonte fra Ottocento e Novecento | Luigi Luciano: poesia ed erudizione latina tra Ottocento e Novecento

Balbo, A. (2019). Auctores Latini Pedemontani: un’antologia degli scrittori in lingua latina in Piemonte fra Ottocento e Novecento. Alessandria: Edizioni dell’Orso, pp. 159 | Balbo, A. (2019). Luigi Luciano: poesia ed erudizione latina tra Ottocento e Novecento. Traduzioni degli Elegidia a cura di Dante Salmé; con la revisione di Andrea Balbo; con un capitolo a cura di Beatrice Bersani. Alessandria: Edizioni dell’Orso, pp. 73.

Valéry Laurand, Ermanno Malaspina, François Prost (éds), Lectures plurielles du “De ira” de Sénèque. Interprétations, contextes, enjeux

Laurand, V.; Malaspina, E.; Prost, F. (éds) (2021). <i>Lectures plurielles du “De ira” de Sénèque. Interprétations, contextes, enjeux</i>. Berlin; Boston: De Gruyter, 429 pp.

„Vom Zentrum an die Peripherie – und umgekehrt“ Zu Ausonius, Ordo Urbium Nobilium, und Prudentius, Peristephanon

This article deals with the relationship between an urban center and peripheries in two Latin pieces of ʻcollected poetry’: Ausonius’ catalogue of cities of the Empire, Ordo urbium nobilium, and Prudentius’ cycle of hymns on Christian martyrs of the Western Romania, the Peristephanon. In both collections Rome, diametrically opposed in the initial and final positions, points to the geometric center of the orbis terrarum, in each poem for both an objective and a subjective reason: Ausonius was writing as a former consul in ca. 389, Prudentius as a pilgrim in ca. 399. The latter may have compiled his cycle as a Christian counterpart to Ausonius’ Ordo, starting with the Passio of the ideal Christian Roman by name, Romanus, and ending in historical Rome at the tomb of Agnes.