Compitum

Lauren Kinnee, The Greek and Roman Trophy From Battlefield Marker to Icon of Power, Londres-New York, 2018.

Éditeur : Routledge
162 pages
ISBN : 9780415788380
115 £

In The Greek and Roman Trophy: From Battlefield Marker to Icon of Power, Kinnee presents the first monographic treatment of ancient trophies in sixty years. The study spans Archaic Greece through the Augustan Principate. Kinnee aims to create a holistic view of this complex monument-type by breaking down boundaries between the study of art history, philology, the history of warfare, and the anthropology of religion and magic. Ultimately, the kaleidoscopic picture that emerges is of an ad hoc anthropomorphic Greek talisman that gradually developed into a sophisticated, Augustan sculptural or architectural statement of power. The former, a product of the hoplite phalanx, disappeared from battlefields as the Macedonian cavalry grew in importance, shifting instead onto coins and into rhetoric, where it became a statement of military might. For their part, the Romans seem to have encountered the trophy as an icon on Syracusan coinage. Recognizing its value as a statement of territorial ownership, the Romans spent two centuries honing the trophy-concept into an empire-building tool, planted at key locations around the Mediterranean to assert Roman presence and dominance.

Rafael Domingo, Roman Law: An Introduction, Londres-New York, 2018.

Éditeur : Routledge
238 pages
ISBN : 9780815362777
29,99 £

Roman Law: An Introduction offers a clear and accessible introduction to Roman law for students of any legal tradition. In the thousand years between the Law of the Twelve Tables and Justinian's massive Codification, the Romans developed the most sophisticated and comprehensive secular legal system of Antiquity, which remains at the heart of the civil law tradition of Europe, Latin America, and some countries of Asia and Africa. Roman lawyers created new legal concepts, ideas, rules, and mechanisms that most Western legal systems still apply. The study of Roman law thus facilitates understanding among people of different cultures by inspiring a kind of legal common sense and breadth of knowledge.

Peter J. Heslin, Propertius, Greek Myth, and Virgil. Rivalry, Allegory, and Polemic, Oxford, 2018.

Éditeur : Oxford University Press
320 pages
ISBN : 9780199541577
$ 85.00

This volume offers a strikingly innovative account of Propertius' relationship with Virgil, positing a keen rivalry between two of the greatest poets of Latin literature, contemporaries within the circle of Maecenas. It begins by examining all of the references to Greek mythology in Propertius' first book; these passages emerge as strongly intertextual in nature, providing a way for the poet to situate himself with respect to his predecessors, both Greek and Roman. More specifically, myth is also the medium of a sustained polemic with Virgil's Eclogues, published only a few years earlier. Virgil's response can be traced in the Georgics, and subsequently, in his second and third books, Propertius continued to use mythology and its relationship to contemporary events as a vehicle for literary polemic. This volume argues that their competition can be seen as exemplifying a revised model for how the poets within Maecenas' circle interacted and engaged with each other's work - a model based on rivalry rather than ideological adhesion or subversion - while also painting a revealing picture of how Virgil was viewed by a contemporary in the days before his death had canonized his work as an instant classic. In particular, its novel interpretation offers us a new understanding of Propertius, one of the foundational figures in Western love poetry, and how his frequent references to other poets, especially Gallus and Ennius, take on new meanings when interpreted as responses to Virgil's changing career.

Source : Oxford University Press

Adam Serfass, Views of Rome: A Greek Reader, Norman [OK], 2018.

Éditeur : University of Oklahoma Press
Collection : Oklahoma Series in Classical Culture
336 pages
ISBN : 9780806157931
29,95 $

Who were the ancient Romans? Views of Rome addresses this question by offering a collection of thirty-five annotated excerpts from Greek prose authors. As Adam Serfass explains in his introduction, these authors' characterizations of the Romans run the gamut from fellow Hellenes, civilizers, and peacemakers to barbarians, boors, and warmongers.
Although many of the authors featured in this volume—including Augustus, Cassius Dio, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Eusebius, Josephus, Julian, Libanius, Plutarch, Polybius, Strabo, and the writers of the New Testament—are important sources for Roman civilization, their written works are rarely presented in accessible Greek-language editions. These authors wrote in a variety of styles and dialects, and this collection enables readers to experience the range of expression the Greek language makes possible.
Views of Rome is divided into five parts spanning early Rome through late antiquity. Within these parts, each prose selection is prefaced with a description of the featured author and the larger work from which the excerpt is drawn, as well as suggestions for further reading in English. The Greek passages themselves are accompanied by notes that provide crucial assistance for understanding grammar and vocabulary, thus enabling students to read the language with greater speed, accuracy, and nuance.
Designed for advanced undergraduate- and graduate-level readers of Greek, this student-friendly book bridges the worlds of Greece and Rome and inspires discussion of identity, empire, religion, and politics—matters much debated in classical antiquity and in the present day.

Source : University of Oklahoma Press

Johan Vekselius, Weeping for the res publica : Tears in Roman political culture, Lund, 2018.

Éditeur : Media-Tryck, Lund University
237 pages
ISBN : 978-91-88473-77-6
gratuit (téléchargement)

The thesis explores the meaning and function of tears in Roman political culture during the Republic and the Early Empire in various historical settings: mourning, the law court, and in different political contexts where power, authority, and subjection were expressed or exercised. This is carried through by reading representations of weeping in Greek and Latin literary works in different genres, written by different authors. The study demonstrates that while tears and weeping were a common occurrence in Roman politics, the appropriateness and meaning of tears varied by literary context and variables in the historical context (like status, gender, and communicative context). The study also discusses the question of change over and time and argues that the advent of the Emperor impacted weeping and that both an increased appreciation of tears as well as self-control were available as responses for the elite.

Source : Lund University

José Sánchez Herrero (éd.), San Isidoro de Sevilla en Sevilla, Séville, 2018.

Éditeur : Editorial Universidad de Sevilla
Collection : Historia y Geografía
324 pages
ISBN : 978-84-472-1950-6
15 €

El presente volumen, San Isidoro de Sevilla en Sevilla, ofrece una serie de trabajos científicos que versan bien sobre la figura de San Isidoro, bien sobre algunos de los temas investigados y tratados por San Isidoro en sus obras.
En primer lugar y para llamar la atención de manera especial a los sevillanos -San Isidoro nació en Sevilla y vivió toda su vida en Sevilla-, aparecen dos trabajos muy importantes: el de José Roda Peña, que reúne todo lo que en arquitectura -la iglesia de San Isidoro-, escultura y pintura de San Isidoro se encuentra en la ciudad de Sevilla, y el Esperanza Bonilla, que se hace eco de todas las ediciones de las obras de San Isidoro, desde algunas manuscritas del siglo XIV actualmente custodiadas en la Biblioteca Colombina hasta las últimas ediciones críticas que están apareciendo en nuestros días, pasando por incunables y ediciones de los siglos XVI al XXI, que se encuentran en las bibliotecas de la ciudad de Sevilla.