Luciano Canfora and Julian Stringer (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748619368
- eISBN:
- 9780748670734
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748619368.003.0033
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Archaeology: Classical
The historian Arnaldo Momigliano claimed that persons of Epicurean belief dominated the conspiracy against Caesar, and that Epicureanism — creatively reformulated in the fifth book of Lucretius — ...
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The historian Arnaldo Momigliano claimed that persons of Epicurean belief dominated the conspiracy against Caesar, and that Epicureanism — creatively reformulated in the fifth book of Lucretius — underpinned the anti-monarchic rebellion of these ‘Epicureans in revolt’. His belligerent essay is compelling but largely unfounded, especially in its central tenets: that the conspirators and later republican fighters were mostly ‘unconventional’ (that is, politically committed) Epicureans, and that Lucretius was their formative reading. It remains a good article on the aesthetic level, extolling the ‘heroic’ nexus between Epicureanism in philosophy and militant libertarian republicanism in politics.Less
The historian Arnaldo Momigliano claimed that persons of Epicurean belief dominated the conspiracy against Caesar, and that Epicureanism — creatively reformulated in the fifth book of Lucretius — underpinned the anti-monarchic rebellion of these ‘Epicureans in revolt’. His belligerent essay is compelling but largely unfounded, especially in its central tenets: that the conspirators and later republican fighters were mostly ‘unconventional’ (that is, politically committed) Epicureans, and that Lucretius was their formative reading. It remains a good article on the aesthetic level, extolling the ‘heroic’ nexus between Epicureanism in philosophy and militant libertarian republicanism in politics.
Oswyn Murray
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- March 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780199687558
- eISBN:
- 9780191827266
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199687558.003.0012
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Archaeology: Classical
Arnaldo Momigliano was dismissed by the fascist government as a Jew in 1938 from his post as Professor in the University of Turin. He wrote in desperation to a colleague, Hugh Last at St John’s ...
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Arnaldo Momigliano was dismissed by the fascist government as a Jew in 1938 from his post as Professor in the University of Turin. He wrote in desperation to a colleague, Hugh Last at St John’s College, Oxford, for help in escaping Italy. Within three weeks of this appeal, a preliminary dossier of references and forms for an application to the SPSL had been collected, and it had, in principle, been decided to help him. He arrived in Oxford as a refugee in 1939. This chapter traces Momigliano’s relationship with Oxford, the ways in which his experience of Oxford and war influenced his intellectual thought and views of the ideal of European culture, and his legacy.Less
Arnaldo Momigliano was dismissed by the fascist government as a Jew in 1938 from his post as Professor in the University of Turin. He wrote in desperation to a colleague, Hugh Last at St John’s College, Oxford, for help in escaping Italy. Within three weeks of this appeal, a preliminary dossier of references and forms for an application to the SPSL had been collected, and it had, in principle, been decided to help him. He arrived in Oxford as a refugee in 1939. This chapter traces Momigliano’s relationship with Oxford, the ways in which his experience of Oxford and war influenced his intellectual thought and views of the ideal of European culture, and his legacy.
Arnaldo Momigliano
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748615650
- eISBN:
- 9780748650989
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Discontinued
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748615650.003.0032
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Ancient Religions
This chapter discusses Arnaldo Momigliano's ‘The Theological Efforts of the Roman Upper Classes in the First Century bc’, and merits his Roman writing in theology with sympathetic dispassion. As a ...
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This chapter discusses Arnaldo Momigliano's ‘The Theological Efforts of the Roman Upper Classes in the First Century bc’, and merits his Roman writing in theology with sympathetic dispassion. As a result, Momigliano sees with uncommon clarity the radical differences that characterise the writings on the gods of Marcus Tullius Cicero, Marcus Terentius Varro and Nigidius Figulus, and rejects the temptation to classify them all under ‘rationalism’ or ‘philosophy’. In speaking of the gods, Varro employs a cluster of terms that resonate in many fields, but two in particular. First, he assigns to gods and mortals specific duties in relation to each other and their communities; and, like Cicero, he charges them with cultivating each other, though for that action Varro and Cicero employ quite different terms.Less
This chapter discusses Arnaldo Momigliano's ‘The Theological Efforts of the Roman Upper Classes in the First Century bc’, and merits his Roman writing in theology with sympathetic dispassion. As a result, Momigliano sees with uncommon clarity the radical differences that characterise the writings on the gods of Marcus Tullius Cicero, Marcus Terentius Varro and Nigidius Figulus, and rejects the temptation to classify them all under ‘rationalism’ or ‘philosophy’. In speaking of the gods, Varro employs a cluster of terms that resonate in many fields, but two in particular. First, he assigns to gods and mortals specific duties in relation to each other and their communities; and, like Cicero, he charges them with cultivating each other, though for that action Varro and Cicero employ quite different terms.
