Compitum

Dylan Kelby Rogers, Water culture in Roman society, Leyde, 2018.

Éditeur : Brill
Collection : Ancient History
xii, 118 pages
ISBN : 9789004368941
70 €

Water played an important part of ancient Roman life, from providing necessary drinking water, supplying bath complexes, to flowing in large-scale public fountains. The Roman culture of water was seen throughout the Roman Empire, although it was certainly not monolithic and it could come in a variety of scales and forms, based on climatic and social conditions of different areas. This article seeks to define ‘water culture' in Roman society by examining literary, epigraphic, and archaeological evidence, while understanding modern trends in scholarship related to the study of Roman water. The culture of water can be demonstrated through expressions of power, aesthetics, and spectacle. Further there was a shared experience of water in the empire that could be expressed through religion, landscape, and water's role in cultures of consumption and pleasure.

Source : Brill

Chiara Croci et Vladimir Ivanovici (éd.), Entre terre et ciel. Les édifices à coupole et leur décor entre l'Antiquité tardive et le Moyen Âge, Lausanne, 2018.

Éditeur : Université de Lausanne
Collection : Etudes de lettres
188 pages
ISBN : 978-2-940331-68-0
22 CHF / 20 €

Couronnement des édifices les plus prestigieux, charnière entre l'espace architectural et le monde céleste, la coupole s'avère être un «système» crucial dans l'art de l'Antiquité tardive et du haut Moyen Âge. Signe de commandes très distinguées, elle caractérise des bâtiments de grande importance – mausolées, martyria et memoria, baptistères, églises impériales, chapelles palatines – et incarne des défis architecturaux et décoratifs majeurs. En raison de la complexité de leurs problématiques, les bâtiments à coupole ont rarement fait l'objet d'études d'ensemble. Durant ces quinze dernières années, toutefois, d'importantes recherches ont révolutionné l'état des connaissances d'une partie de ces bâtiments et ont fondé les présupposés d'une nouvelle étude d'ensemble. Dans ce volume anthologique, les bâtiments à coupole majeurs de l'Antiquité tardive et du haut Moyen Âge sont étudiés selon des perspectives variées, afin d'éclaircir la structure et la décoration de ces bâtiments par rapport à leur fonction et d'offrir ainsi une ouverture sur un tournant historique crucial.

Caitlin C. Gillespie, Boudica: Warrior Woman of Roman Britain, Oxford, 2018.

Éditeur : Oxford University Press
216 pages
ISBN : 9780190609078
47,99 £

In AD 60/61, Rome almost lost the province of Britain to a woman. Boudica, wife of the client king Prasutagus, fomented a rebellion that proved catastrophic for Camulodunum (Colchester), Londinium (London), and Verulamium (St Albans), destroyed part of a Roman legion, and caused the deaths of an untold number of veterans, families, soldiers, and Britons. Yet with one decisive defeat, her vision of freedom was destroyed, and the Iceni never rose again. Boudica: Warrior Woman of Roman Britain introduces readers to the life and literary importance of Boudica through juxtaposing her different literary characterizations with those of other women and rebel leaders. This study focuses on our earliest literary evidence, the accounts of Tacitus and Cassius Dio, and investigates their narratives alongside material evidence of late Iron Age and early Roman Britain. Throughout the book, Caitlin Gillespie draws comparative sketches between Boudica and the positive and negative examples with which readers associate her, including the prophetess Veleda, the client queen Cartimandua, and the rebel Caratacus. Literary comparisons assist in the understanding of Boudica as a barbarian, queen, mother, commander in war, and leader of revolt. Within the ancient texts, Boudica is also used as an internal commentator on the failures of the emperor Nero, and her revolt epitomizes ongoing conflicts of gender and power at the end of the Juilio-Claudian era. Both literary and archaeological sources point towards broader issues inherent in the clash between Roman and native cultures. Boudica's unique ability to unify disparate groups of Britons cemented her place in the history of Roman Britain. While details of her life remain elusive, her literary character still has more to say.

Daniel Hoyer, Money, Culture, and Well-Being in Rome's Economic Development, 0-275 CE, Leyde, 2018.

Éditeur : Brill
Collection : Mnemosyne, Supplements
xiii, 215 pages
ISBN : 978-90-04-35828-7
89 €

The Roman Empire has long held pride of place in the collective memory of scholars, politicians, and the general public in the western world. In Money, Culture, and Well-Being in Rome's Economic Development, 0-275 CE, Daniel Hoyer offers a new approach to explain Rome's remarkable development.
Hoyer surveys a broad selection of material to see how this diverse body of evidence can be reconciled to produce a single, coherent picture of the Roman economy. Engaging with social scientific and economic theory, Hoyer highlights key issues in economic history, placing the Roman Empire in its rightful place as a special—but not wholly unique—example of a successful preindustrial state.

Giorgio Bonamente, Roberto Cristofoli et Carlo Santini (éd.), Properzio fra repubblica e principato, Assisi - Turnhout, 2018.

Éditeur : Brepols
Collection : Studi di poesia latina - Studies in Latin Poetry 21
423 pages
ISBN : 978-2-503-58125-5
110 €

The 2016 conference's aim was to place Propertius in context. The papers focused on the compatibility between the choice of the elegiac form and the political framework, with special emphasis on Propertius' relationship to Tullus before his approach to Maecenas and the more direct contact with Augustus subsequent to Maecenas' removal. While not overstepping the bounds of the genre, the poet was able to contrive a set of references to the princeps and the political reality, thus originally achieving a balanced attitude. It is impossible, however, to grasp any growing alignment with Augustan policies. Rather, the recognition of the collective perception of the turning point marked by the victory of Actium, though within the patterns typical of the elegiac genre, can be perceived.

Milena Minkova, Florilegium recentioris Latinitatis, Leuven, 2018.

Éditeur : Leuven University Press
Collection : Supplementa Humanistica Lovaniensia, 43
304 pages
ISBN : 9789462701250
59,50 €

A comprehensive critical anthology of Neo-Latin texts.
Neo-Latin, a truly interdisciplinary and multicultural field of study, has become especially relevant in today's global age. Latin does not belong to any particular country, but to the Republic of Letters with its high aims and universal appeal. A comprehensive critical anthology of Neo-Latin would thus be useful in the classroom, both in secondary school and on university level, as well as for independent scholars. The present volume is comprised of about fifty texts pertaining to geographical areas all around the world, spanning the 14th to the 20th centuries, written in a wide range of genres by authors of varied backgrounds, and touching on topics of dramatic importance for today. The language of the anthology is Latin, in accordance with the universality it aims to represent by its selection of texts.