Roman History and Historiography

Sign in Modify your search

Perform this search in

Narrow Your Choices

Availability

Subject

 1-9 of 9 Results  for:

  • Roman History and Historiography x
  • Roman Myth and Religion x
Clear all

Article

collegium  

Piero Treves, Cyril Bailey, and Andrew Lintott

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Roman History and Historiography
  2. Roman Law
  3. Roman Material Culture
  4. Roman Myth and Religion
(1) Magisterial or priestly: a board of officials. (2) Private: any private association of fixed membership and constitution (see clubs, roman).The principle of collegiality was a standard feature of republican magistracies at Rome. Although in some cases the common status of colleagues did not exclude seniority (originally one *consul may have been superior to the other and the consuls as a whole were senior colleagues of the *praetors), the principle in general was to avoid arbitrary power by ensuring that every magistracy should be filled by at least two officials, and in any case by an even number. They were to possess equal and co-ordinate authority, but subject to mutual control. Thus a decision taken by one consul was legal only if it did not incur the veto (*intercessio) of the other. This principle led to alternation in the exercise of power by the consuls each month. Under the Principate emperors might take as a colleague in their tribunician power (see tribuni plebis) their intended successors, who in many cases were co-emperors.

Article

Divitiacus (1), Aeduan Druid, 1st cent. BCE  

John Frederick Drinkwater

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Roman History and Historiography
  2. Roman Myth and Religion
Divitiacus (1) (1st cent. bce), an Aeduan Druid, whose career typifies the political division that exposed Gaul to conquest. His policy of inviting Roman aid against aggressors (unsuccessfully in 61 bce against *Ariovistus alone, successfully in 58 against both the Helvetii and Ariovistus) enabled him to emerge victorious over his bitter rival, his brother *Dumnorix.

Article

drama, reception of  

Emma Cole

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
27 October 2020
Subjects:
  1. Greek History and Historiography
  2. Greek Myth and Religion
  3. Reception
  4. Roman History and Historiography
  5. Roman Myth and Religion

Ancient drama has had a vast influence upon the literary, performance, and intellectual culture of modernity. From ancient Greece thirty-two tragedies, eleven comedies, and one satyr play survive, and from ancient Rome ten tragedies and twenty-seven comedies remain, alongside countless fragments from all genres. Many of the surviving plays are staged in contemporary theatre in both literal translation and more liberal adaptation, and today more ancient drama is seen in professional theatres than at any point since antiquity. Although all ancient dramatic genres have a rich reception history, Greek tragedy dominates the field, particularly in the 20th and 21st centuries. Productions of Greek tragedy today range from masked performances in the original language through to radical, avant-garde, immersive, and postdramatic reinventions. Greek tragedy is also frequently used as a touchstone within literary theory and broader intellectual discourse, from the theorisation of the ideal form of performance (Wagner’s Gesamtkuntswerk) to the development of psychoanalytic theory (Freud’s Oedipus complex) and structuralism (Lévi-Strauss). Ancient drama has also provided inspiration for entirely new dramatic forms; the influence of Roman tragedy, for example, can be felt within the revenge tragedies of the Elizabethan and Jacobean eras, while traces of Roman comedy can be felt in slapstick comedy and Italian commedia dell’arte. Current growth areas within both artistic practice, and academic research into the reception of ancient drama, include the performance reception of dramatic fragments, an increased interest in forms such as burlesque and pantomime, and the use of ancient drama as a tool of resistance against oppressive political regimes.

Article

Honos and Virtus  

Nicholas Purcell

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Roman History and Historiography
  2. Roman Myth and Religion
Deities at Rome personifying military courage and its reward; their cult was selected for two major commemorative temples by successful generals: M. *Claudius Marcellus(1) after his conquest of *Syracuse (dedicated after some controversy by his son in 205 bce), and C. *Marius(1) after the Cimbric War. We know little of the latter (though it was large enough to hold the senate-meeting at which *Cicero was recalled from exile, Cic.

Article

Julian 'the Apostate', Roman emperor  

Rowland Smith

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Roman History and Historiography
  2. Roman Myth and Religion
Julian ‘the Apostate’ (Iulianus, Flavius Claudius), emperor 361–3 ce, was born at *Constantinople in 331, the son of a half-brother of *Constantine I, Julius Constantius. After his father's murder in dynastic intrigues of 337, Julian was placed by *Constantius II in the care of an Arian bishop (see arianism) and from 342 was confined for six years on an imperial estate in Cappadocia. He impressed his Christian tutors there as a gifted and pious pupil (see christianity), but his reading of the Greek classics was inclining him in private to other gods. In 351, as a student of philosophy, he encountered pagan Neoplatonists (see neoplatonism) and was initiated as a theurgist by *Maximus (3) of Ephesus. For the next ten years Julian's *pagan ‘conversion’ remained a prudently kept secret. He continued his studies in Asia and later at Athens until summoned to Milan by Constantius to be married to the emperor's sister Helena and proclaimed Caesar with charge over Gaul and Britain (6 November 355).

Article

pomerium  

Ian Archibald Richmond, John North, and Andrew Lintott

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Roman History and Historiography
  2. Roman Material Culture
  3. Roman Myth and Religion
Pomerium—explained in antiquity as meaning what comes after, or before, the wall—was the line demarcating an augurally constituted city. It was a religious boundary, the point beyond which the auspicia urbana (see auspicium) could not be taken (Varro, Ling. 5. 143), and was distinct both from the city-wall and the limit of actual habitation, although it might coincide with the former and was often understood as the strip inside or outside the wall (cf. Livy 1. 44; Plut.Rom. 11). Almost every aspect of the history of the pomerium of Rome is debatable. Our sources refer to an original Palatine pomerium, later extended by Servius *Tullius and then unchanged until *Sulla’s day (sources in Lugli, Fontes 2. 125 ff.); Tacitus (Ann. 12. 24), perhaps following the emperor *Claudius, describes a circuit round the *Palatine. Although this circuit has been thought to result from confusion with the circuit of the *Lupercalia, recent excavations on the north-east slope of the Palatine have revealed a series of ditches and walls from the regal period, which seem from their size to be more of symbolic value than a real system of defence and thus perhaps confirm the literary tradition.

Article

Pompilius, Numa, king of Rome  

Andrew Drummond

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Roman History and Historiography
  2. Roman Myth and Religion
Numa Pompilius, legendary second king of Rome (traditionally 715–673 bce), from whom the Aemilii, Calpurnii, Marcii, Pinarii, and Pomponii later claimed descent. Reputedly a Sabine (see sabini) from Cures, our sources schematically attribute to him much of the basic framework of Roman public religion through his institution of cults, rituals, priesthoods, and calendar reforms (so Ennius, Ann. 113–19 Skutsch). Already in Ennius he claimed to have received instruction from *Egeria and (an originally distinct?) Greek or Grecizing tradition, going back at least to 181 bce (when alleged ‘books of Numa’ were discovered and destroyed), made him a pupil of *Pythagoras. Rationalistic historians reinterpreted Egeria as a political fiction and the discarding of the Pythagoras story on chronological grounds enables *Cicero (Rep. 2. 28 f.) and *Livy (1. 18. 2 ff.) to stress Numa's native credentials. Accounts of Numa's reforms (including, e.g., the encouragement of settled agriculture) are equally unhistorical and are elaborated according to individual taste: Livy (1. 18 ff.), for example, discards stories of divine instruction and miraculous encounters with deities (*Valerius Antias fr.

Article

saeculum  

Susan Bilynskyj Dunning

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
20 November 2017
Subjects:
  1. Roman History and Historiography
  2. Roman Myth and Religion
In Roman conceptions of time, the saeculum became the longest fixed interval, calculated as a period of 100 or 110 years (as opposed to, e.g., a lustrum of only five years; cf. “census”). The term originally indicated a “generation” or “lifetime,” but greater significance developed through its association with the Ludi Saeculares (Secular Games), which were performed to celebrate the advent of a new saeculum in Rome. Through the Secular Games, the emperor advertised his role in establishing his dynasty and ushering in an age of peace; emperors who wished to capitalize on this expression of authority made official references to the saeculum in coinage and inscriptions if they were unable to hold the Games during their reigns, thus creating a close link between the saeculum, imperial families, and political control. In Late Antiquity, the Christianization of the empire led to other usages. Because of its association with political power, the saeculum came to signify “the present age of the world,” in contrast with an eternal, heavenly realm; it could also be applied to a new, Christian era.

Article

tabularium  

Janet DeLaine

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Roman History and Historiography
  2. Roman Material Culture
  3. Roman Myth and Religion
(1) The record-office at Rome (see archives (Roman)), possibly serving the adjacent *aerarium (treasury) of Saturn and built according to CIL 12. 737 by Q. *Lutatius Catulus(1) in 78 bce, but not mentioned in literary sources. It is traditionally associated with the trapezoidal building lying between the two summits of the *Capitol with its main front towards the Campus Martius. On the opposite side, closing the west end of the *forum Romanum, the elevation consisted of a massive substructure of ashlar masonry with an arcade of eleven arches flanked by Doric half-columns above it. A second storey of Corinthian columns, now disappeared, was probably added in Flavian times. A stairway from the Forum climbed through the ground floor of the substructure to the front hall of the building. The first floor contained a service corridor, leading from the top of the porticus Deorum Consentium to two floors of eastern strong-rooms.