Andrew Bell
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199242344
- eISBN:
- 9780191714092
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199242344.001.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, European History: BCE to 500CE
This book's analysis of the power of prestige in civic communities of the ancient world demonstrates the importance of crowds' aesthetic and emotional judgement upon leaders and their ambitious ...
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This book's analysis of the power of prestige in civic communities of the ancient world demonstrates the importance of crowds' aesthetic and emotional judgement upon leaders and their ambitious claims for immediate and lasting significance; and also finds consideration of this dynamic still to be valuable for modern citizens. An initial discussion of the fall of Ceauşescu in 1989 prompts theoretical considerations about the inseparability of authority and its manifestation; and scrutiny of Julius Caesar's gestures towards self-definition introduces the complexity of ancient political relations. The simultaneous presence of both popular affection for wondrous and kingly individuals, and also egalitarian suspicion of it, is detected in classical Athens, where an Alcibiades needed to manoeuvre craftily to achieve obvious and ritual pre-eminence in associating himself with age-old and Homeric models of distinction. Accordingly, the arrival of Hellenistic kingliness, such as that of Demetrios Poliorcetes, upon the political stage was neither wholly innovative nor unattractive. Yet such kings quite clearly articulated a new and grandiose majesty, as can be seen in parades in Egypt and Syria. With the growth of Roman imperialism, these stylings of personal power needed to be adapted to new realities and models, just as Romans of the later Republic increasingly found much to admire and emulate in others' spectacles. Thus, the book comes back to the end of the Republic and to Cicero's struggles to maintain traditional, republican dignities in civic ceremony while a new Roman kingliness, thoroughly attentive to spectacular politics, was dawning.Less
This book's analysis of the power of prestige in civic communities of the ancient world demonstrates the importance of crowds' aesthetic and emotional judgement upon leaders and their ambitious claims for immediate and lasting significance; and also finds consideration of this dynamic still to be valuable for modern citizens. An initial discussion of the fall of Ceauşescu in 1989 prompts theoretical considerations about the inseparability of authority and its manifestation; and scrutiny of Julius Caesar's gestures towards self-definition introduces the complexity of ancient political relations. The simultaneous presence of both popular affection for wondrous and kingly individuals, and also egalitarian suspicion of it, is detected in classical Athens, where an Alcibiades needed to manoeuvre craftily to achieve obvious and ritual pre-eminence in associating himself with age-old and Homeric models of distinction. Accordingly, the arrival of Hellenistic kingliness, such as that of Demetrios Poliorcetes, upon the political stage was neither wholly innovative nor unattractive. Yet such kings quite clearly articulated a new and grandiose majesty, as can be seen in parades in Egypt and Syria. With the growth of Roman imperialism, these stylings of personal power needed to be adapted to new realities and models, just as Romans of the later Republic increasingly found much to admire and emulate in others' spectacles. Thus, the book comes back to the end of the Republic and to Cicero's struggles to maintain traditional, republican dignities in civic ceremony while a new Roman kingliness, thoroughly attentive to spectacular politics, was dawning.
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/9780748619368.003.0004
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Archaeology: Classical
The démarche that led to the surprise capture of the office of pontifex maximus (high priest) in 63 bc was one of Caesar's most successful. Thanks to his efforts, the pontificate had again become an ...
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The démarche that led to the surprise capture of the office of pontifex maximus (high priest) in 63 bc was one of Caesar's most successful. Thanks to his efforts, the pontificate had again become an elected office — another blow against Sulla's constitutional reforms. This sacred office carried with it immense importance in Roman politics. Caesar, a sceptic ever close to the Epicureans in his beliefs, clearly did not hesitate for an instant to compete for the role of supreme guardian of the religion of the state, a post that by its nature stood above everyday political squabbles.Less
The démarche that led to the surprise capture of the office of pontifex maximus (high priest) in 63 bc was one of Caesar's most successful. Thanks to his efforts, the pontificate had again become an elected office — another blow against Sulla's constitutional reforms. This sacred office carried with it immense importance in Roman politics. Caesar, a sceptic ever close to the Epicureans in his beliefs, clearly did not hesitate for an instant to compete for the role of supreme guardian of the religion of the state, a post that by its nature stood above everyday political squabbles.
A. A. Long
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- January 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199279128
- eISBN:
- 9780191706769
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199279128.003.0015
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Ancient Philosophy
TheDe officiis(henceforthOff.) is one of the ‘great books’, but no one today perhaps can read it with fresh eyes. Less obvious aboutOff. is the work's radical nature in its effort to reform Roman ...
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TheDe officiis(henceforthOff.) is one of the ‘great books’, but no one today perhaps can read it with fresh eyes. Less obvious aboutOff. is the work's radical nature in its effort to reform Roman ideology. ApproachingOff., as Cicero encourages us to do via his adaptation of Panaetius, interpreters are tempted to read it as Greek philosophy in Roman dress, or — to cite Miriam Griffin — as ‘a fusion of Greek philosophical precepts with the traditional values of the great Roman statesmen of the past’. It is argued that this temptation should be resisted. It is too bland to represent Cicero's existential situation, at the time when he wrote. It is also too bland to register the problems Roman ideology had generated and Cicero's proposed solutions to them.Less
TheDe officiis(henceforthOff.) is one of the ‘great books’, but no one today perhaps can read it with fresh eyes. Less obvious aboutOff. is the work's radical nature in its effort to reform Roman ideology. ApproachingOff., as Cicero encourages us to do via his adaptation of Panaetius, interpreters are tempted to read it as Greek philosophy in Roman dress, or — to cite Miriam Griffin — as ‘a fusion of Greek philosophical precepts with the traditional values of the great Roman statesmen of the past’. It is argued that this temptation should be resisted. It is too bland to represent Cicero's existential situation, at the time when he wrote. It is also too bland to register the problems Roman ideology had generated and Cicero's proposed solutions to them.
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/9780748619368.003.0017
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Archaeology: Classical
Suetonius rejected all other explanations, including the one ‘frequently repeated’ by Pompey, that Caesar took the path to revolution because he could not complete what he had undertaken; that is, ...
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Suetonius rejected all other explanations, including the one ‘frequently repeated’ by Pompey, that Caesar took the path to revolution because he could not complete what he had undertaken; that is, finish the monuments and public works he had begun and satisfy the expectations he had aroused in the people. If Pompey really did say this it is clear that he understood nothing about his adversary's character. In reality, Pompey's remark was far less an attempt at analysis than a contemptuous judgement that reduced the figure of his opponent to the level of a party leader without prospects who was tormented by a pressing need for money, or rather, who was crushed by enterprises that were too great for him. This could describe ‘Catilinarian’ characters, and probably Clodius as well, but not an able career-builder like Caesar, who had derived an uncommon economic strength from the Gallic campaign. There is another explanation for Caesar's decision to face the risk of a breach: the ‘teleological’ image of a Caesar who from the outset of his career had one aim — a Caesar striving tirelessly to achieve ‘tyranny’.Less
Suetonius rejected all other explanations, including the one ‘frequently repeated’ by Pompey, that Caesar took the path to revolution because he could not complete what he had undertaken; that is, finish the monuments and public works he had begun and satisfy the expectations he had aroused in the people. If Pompey really did say this it is clear that he understood nothing about his adversary's character. In reality, Pompey's remark was far less an attempt at analysis than a contemptuous judgement that reduced the figure of his opponent to the level of a party leader without prospects who was tormented by a pressing need for money, or rather, who was crushed by enterprises that were too great for him. This could describe ‘Catilinarian’ characters, and probably Clodius as well, but not an able career-builder like Caesar, who had derived an uncommon economic strength from the Gallic campaign. There is another explanation for Caesar's decision to face the risk of a breach: the ‘teleological’ image of a Caesar who from the outset of his career had one aim — a Caesar striving tirelessly to achieve ‘tyranny’.
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/9780748619368.003.0022
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Archaeology: Classical
While Caesar was occupied with the difficult campaign in the Balkans, two episodes of particularly dramatic social unrest occurred in Rome; each ended in repression. The main player in the first was ...
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While Caesar was occupied with the difficult campaign in the Balkans, two episodes of particularly dramatic social unrest occurred in Rome; each ended in repression. The main player in the first was Marcus Caelius Rufus, one of the tribunes who in January 49 bc had found refuge with Caesar. Caelius Rufus had, on his return from the Spanish campaign against Afranius and Petreius, received the praetorship from Caesar for 48 bc, but not the urban praetorship, which Caesar entrusted to Trebonius. This humiliated Caelius and increased his sense of disillusionment. The second ‘sedition’ was that of Dolabella, on the eve of Pharsalus. Dolabella, a tribune of the plebs, took up the matter of the remission of debts, but the proposal was defeated by Antony, Caesar's magister equitum. Dolabella occupied the Forum with his followers to force the approval of his proposed law. The Senate did not hesitate to take extreme measures that had already been used on other occasions: they declared the senatus consultum ultimum, proclaimed the country in danger, and charged Antony (who held the highest authority in the absence of the dictator) with the task of suppressing the rebellion.Less
While Caesar was occupied with the difficult campaign in the Balkans, two episodes of particularly dramatic social unrest occurred in Rome; each ended in repression. The main player in the first was Marcus Caelius Rufus, one of the tribunes who in January 49 bc had found refuge with Caesar. Caelius Rufus had, on his return from the Spanish campaign against Afranius and Petreius, received the praetorship from Caesar for 48 bc, but not the urban praetorship, which Caesar entrusted to Trebonius. This humiliated Caelius and increased his sense of disillusionment. The second ‘sedition’ was that of Dolabella, on the eve of Pharsalus. Dolabella, a tribune of the plebs, took up the matter of the remission of debts, but the proposal was defeated by Antony, Caesar's magister equitum. Dolabella occupied the Forum with his followers to force the approval of his proposed law. The Senate did not hesitate to take extreme measures that had already been used on other occasions: they declared the senatus consultum ultimum, proclaimed the country in danger, and charged Antony (who held the highest authority in the absence of the dictator) with the task of suppressing the rebellion.
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/9780748619368.003.0035
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Archaeology: Classical
Plutarch presents the reconciliation of Brutus and Cassius in his Life of Brutus. Cassius is driven to make peace by one politically decisive consideration: everyone he approaches with the proposal ...
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Plutarch presents the reconciliation of Brutus and Cassius in his Life of Brutus. Cassius is driven to make peace by one politically decisive consideration: everyone he approaches with the proposal of a violent attempt to eliminate Caesar replies that he would be party to it only if Brutus were to take the lead. Should Brutus refuse, then any such enterprise must be considered a failure, precisely because Brutus had rejected it. This is why Cassius decided to restore the contact with Brutus that had been broken off when he found himself competing with him for the praetorship.Less
Plutarch presents the reconciliation of Brutus and Cassius in his Life of Brutus. Cassius is driven to make peace by one politically decisive consideration: everyone he approaches with the proposal of a violent attempt to eliminate Caesar replies that he would be party to it only if Brutus were to take the lead. Should Brutus refuse, then any such enterprise must be considered a failure, precisely because Brutus had rejected it. This is why Cassius decided to restore the contact with Brutus that had been broken off when he found himself competing with him for the praetorship.
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/9780748619368.003.0036
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Archaeology: Classical
Having related the reconciliation of Brutus and Cassius, Plutarch informs us that both began to get in touch with their friends. But he really only relates the steps taken by Brutus. According to ...
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Having related the reconciliation of Brutus and Cassius, Plutarch informs us that both began to get in touch with their friends. But he really only relates the steps taken by Brutus. According to Plutarch, Brutus received only two notes: both from persons who had had very close ties to Cato and would later die at Philippi in the republican ranks — Statilius and Favonius. Favonius, the fanatical Catonian, said that ‘civil war is worse than illegal monarchy’. Statilius was scornful, and said that ‘it did not become a wise and sensible man to be thrown into turmoil and peril for the sake of feeble and foolish folk’.Less
Having related the reconciliation of Brutus and Cassius, Plutarch informs us that both began to get in touch with their friends. But he really only relates the steps taken by Brutus. According to Plutarch, Brutus received only two notes: both from persons who had had very close ties to Cato and would later die at Philippi in the republican ranks — Statilius and Favonius. Favonius, the fanatical Catonian, said that ‘civil war is worse than illegal monarchy’. Statilius was scornful, and said that ‘it did not become a wise and sensible man to be thrown into turmoil and peril for the sake of feeble and foolish folk’.
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/9780748619368.003.0038
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Archaeology: Classical
Suetonius, who is well informed about reports of warnings reaching Caesar before the conspiracy, wonders whether Caesar actually wanted to die, given that exhaustion had led to physical decline — a ...
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Suetonius, who is well informed about reports of warnings reaching Caesar before the conspiracy, wonders whether Caesar actually wanted to die, given that exhaustion had led to physical decline — a question which, he says, has already been explored by others. Suetonius also records the view that Caesar felt safer after the senators had sworn to protect him, and therefore made the mistake — which made possible his murder — of dismissing his bodyguard. A third opinion, which Suetonius duly records, is actually very close to the theory of those who said ‘he wanted to die’: this view held that he preferred to confront those perils, once and for all, rather than live constantly in fear of them. It is probable that each one of these suggestions captures part of the truth and helps to understand Caesar's baffling decision to dismiss his armed escort.Less
Suetonius, who is well informed about reports of warnings reaching Caesar before the conspiracy, wonders whether Caesar actually wanted to die, given that exhaustion had led to physical decline — a question which, he says, has already been explored by others. Suetonius also records the view that Caesar felt safer after the senators had sworn to protect him, and therefore made the mistake — which made possible his murder — of dismissing his bodyguard. A third opinion, which Suetonius duly records, is actually very close to the theory of those who said ‘he wanted to die’: this view held that he preferred to confront those perils, once and for all, rather than live constantly in fear of them. It is probable that each one of these suggestions captures part of the truth and helps to understand Caesar's baffling decision to dismiss his armed escort.
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/9780748619368.003.0040
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Archaeology: Classical
Antony had been detained by Trebonius outside Pompey's Curia while Caesar's assassination was taking place inside. According to Cicero, some months earlier, while Caesar was in difficulty in Spain, ...
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Antony had been detained by Trebonius outside Pompey's Curia while Caesar's assassination was taking place inside. According to Cicero, some months earlier, while Caesar was in difficulty in Spain, Trebonius had been in contact with Antony — a fact that was potentially embarrassing to both parties, and for this reason Trebonius now had the task of keeping Antony away from the scene. To enter upon the minefield of conjecture would be futile, but it is very difficult to imagine a politician and man of action as experienced and circumspect as Antony suspecting nothing at all: it was far from normal for him to be stopped on some pretext on his way into the Senate, least of all on a day of great tension when Caesar himself, usually so contemptuous of superstition, had seemed reluctant to enter the Senate.Less
Antony had been detained by Trebonius outside Pompey's Curia while Caesar's assassination was taking place inside. According to Cicero, some months earlier, while Caesar was in difficulty in Spain, Trebonius had been in contact with Antony — a fact that was potentially embarrassing to both parties, and for this reason Trebonius now had the task of keeping Antony away from the scene. To enter upon the minefield of conjecture would be futile, but it is very difficult to imagine a politician and man of action as experienced and circumspect as Antony suspecting nothing at all: it was far from normal for him to be stopped on some pretext on his way into the Senate, least of all on a day of great tension when Caesar himself, usually so contemptuous of superstition, had seemed reluctant to enter the Senate.
T. P. Wiseman
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199239764
- eISBN:
- 9780191716836
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199239764.003.0011
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, European History: BCE to 500CE
This chapter offers a close reading of the narratives in Nicolaus of Damascus and Appian of the events of 15-19 March 44 BC. It is clear that both were using a well-informed source dependent on ...
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This chapter offers a close reading of the narratives in Nicolaus of Damascus and Appian of the events of 15-19 March 44 BC. It is clear that both were using a well-informed source dependent on eye-witness accounts, probably Asinius Pollio, and that Appian and the other later authors also used an influential narrative unknown to Nicolaus, probably Livy. It is suggested that the histrionic behaviour of Cornelius Cinna (culminating in the murder of ‘Cinna the poet’) and the brave speech of Lucius Piso were Livian elaborations of the story, possibly motivated by political considerations in 16-15 BC. Antony's conduct of the funeral is analysed as further evidence of the spectacle of public life, with the rostra used as a full-scale stage set. The narrative disproves Cicero's allegation that the Roman People approved of the killing of Caesar.Less
This chapter offers a close reading of the narratives in Nicolaus of Damascus and Appian of the events of 15-19 March 44 BC. It is clear that both were using a well-informed source dependent on eye-witness accounts, probably Asinius Pollio, and that Appian and the other later authors also used an influential narrative unknown to Nicolaus, probably Livy. It is suggested that the histrionic behaviour of Cornelius Cinna (culminating in the murder of ‘Cinna the poet’) and the brave speech of Lucius Piso were Livian elaborations of the story, possibly motivated by political considerations in 16-15 BC. Antony's conduct of the funeral is analysed as further evidence of the spectacle of public life, with the rostra used as a full-scale stage set. The narrative disproves Cicero's allegation that the Roman People approved of the killing of Caesar.
Damien Nelis
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199558681
- eISBN:
- 9780191720888
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199558681.003.0011
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, European History: BCE to 500CE
This chapter offers a study of some aspects of the structure of the first book of Vergil's Georgics. It attempts to explain the book's thematic coherence by looking at the ways in which the poet ...
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This chapter offers a study of some aspects of the structure of the first book of Vergil's Georgics. It attempts to explain the book's thematic coherence by looking at the ways in which the poet relates his description of the life and work of the Italian farmer to the movement of the solar year, to Roman history, and to contemporary politics. Particular attention is paid to the ways in which Vergil reacts to his predecessors in the didactic genre and to the ways in which he handles the themes of religion and knowledge and the role of the new divinity he refers to by the name ‘Caesar’. Study of the poem's intertextuality helps to illustrate his engagement with contemporary politics, civil strife and the Roman revolution.Less
This chapter offers a study of some aspects of the structure of the first book of Vergil's Georgics. It attempts to explain the book's thematic coherence by looking at the ways in which the poet relates his description of the life and work of the Italian farmer to the movement of the solar year, to Roman history, and to contemporary politics. Particular attention is paid to the ways in which Vergil reacts to his predecessors in the didactic genre and to the ways in which he handles the themes of religion and knowledge and the role of the new divinity he refers to by the name ‘Caesar’. Study of the poem's intertextuality helps to illustrate his engagement with contemporary politics, civil strife and the Roman revolution.
Jeffrey Green
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- February 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195372649
- eISBN:
- 9780199871711
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195372649.003.0004
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
This chapter revisits the overly maligned concept of plebiscitary democracy, reviewing its historical development, and arguing for its relevance as a present-day ethical paradigm. The chapter is ...
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This chapter revisits the overly maligned concept of plebiscitary democracy, reviewing its historical development, and arguing for its relevance as a present-day ethical paradigm. The chapter is organized as follows. Section 4.2 reviews the standard, purely pejorative interpretation of plebiscitary democracy that has arisen among contemporary political scientists: the understanding of plebiscitarianism as a politics of diremption. Against this reductive and negative interpretation of the meaning of plebiscitarianism, Section 4.3 returns to the theoretical origins of plebiscitarianism and recovers a forgotten, highly innovative, ethical component of plebiscitary democracy: namely, an ocular model of popular power whose basic features were introduced in Chapter 1. Finally, Section 4.4 turns to two of Shakespeare's Roman plays, Coriolanus and Julius Caesar, as concrete examples that illustrate the ocular model in action and that demonstrate the moral logic for wishing to revive a plebiscitarian alternative within contemporary democratic thought.Less
This chapter revisits the overly maligned concept of plebiscitary democracy, reviewing its historical development, and arguing for its relevance as a present-day ethical paradigm. The chapter is organized as follows. Section 4.2 reviews the standard, purely pejorative interpretation of plebiscitary democracy that has arisen among contemporary political scientists: the understanding of plebiscitarianism as a politics of diremption. Against this reductive and negative interpretation of the meaning of plebiscitarianism, Section 4.3 returns to the theoretical origins of plebiscitarianism and recovers a forgotten, highly innovative, ethical component of plebiscitary democracy: namely, an ocular model of popular power whose basic features were introduced in Chapter 1. Finally, Section 4.4 turns to two of Shakespeare's Roman plays, Coriolanus and Julius Caesar, as concrete examples that illustrate the ocular model in action and that demonstrate the moral logic for wishing to revive a plebiscitarian alternative within contemporary democratic thought.
T. P. Wiseman
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199239764
- eISBN:
- 9780191716836
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199239764.001.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, European History: BCE to 500CE
This book consists of ten linked studies of the political culture of the late Roman republic, all based on the premise that most recent scholarship has been over-influenced by the ideology of the ...
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This book consists of ten linked studies of the political culture of the late Roman republic, all based on the premise that most recent scholarship has been over-influenced by the ideology of the self-styled optimates, as transmitted above all in the letters and speeches of Cicero, and has largely ignored the interests and ideological standpoint of the Roman People as a whole. Rejecting the assumption that the republic was always and necessarily an oligarchy, and keeping open the possibility that the People had a strong egalitarian ethos of its own, normally in conflict with that of the optimates, the book investigates a series of political episodes which have not been satisfactorily explained, and brings out, as a counterweight to Cicero, the hitherto unexploited political character of his near-contemporary Marcus Varro. Among the other themes explored are the attitudes of two lost Roman historians, Licinius Macer and Asinius Pollio; the dramatic nature of Roman satire, consistently ignored by scholars of Latin literature; the inextricable interdependence of performance space and political space in Rome; the extraordinary justification of political murder in Cicero's philosophical dialogues; and the verdicts passed on Cicero and Caesar by a great 19th-century historian who was also an orator and an experienced politician.Less
This book consists of ten linked studies of the political culture of the late Roman republic, all based on the premise that most recent scholarship has been over-influenced by the ideology of the self-styled optimates, as transmitted above all in the letters and speeches of Cicero, and has largely ignored the interests and ideological standpoint of the Roman People as a whole. Rejecting the assumption that the republic was always and necessarily an oligarchy, and keeping open the possibility that the People had a strong egalitarian ethos of its own, normally in conflict with that of the optimates, the book investigates a series of political episodes which have not been satisfactorily explained, and brings out, as a counterweight to Cicero, the hitherto unexploited political character of his near-contemporary Marcus Varro. Among the other themes explored are the attitudes of two lost Roman historians, Licinius Macer and Asinius Pollio; the dramatic nature of Roman satire, consistently ignored by scholars of Latin literature; the inextricable interdependence of performance space and political space in Rome; the extraordinary justification of political murder in Cicero's philosophical dialogues; and the verdicts passed on Cicero and Caesar by a great 19th-century historian who was also an orator and an experienced politician.
Philip Lambert
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195390070
- eISBN:
- 9780199863570
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195390070.003.0002
- Subject:
- Music, Theory, Analysis, Composition, Popular
This chapter surveys the early professional careers of Sheldon Harnick and Jerry Bock in New York during the 1950s. Harnick wrote music for television and for cabaret singers. His earliest songs for ...
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This chapter surveys the early professional careers of Sheldon Harnick and Jerry Bock in New York during the 1950s. Harnick wrote music for television and for cabaret singers. His earliest songs for Broadway appeared in the revues New Faces of 1952 (1952), Two’s Company (1952), and John Murray Anderson’s Almanac (1953). He wrote lyrics for his first book show, Horatio (1954), with composer David Baker and librettist Ira Wallach. He was also on the creative staff of Green Mansions, an arts-oriented resort in the Adirondack Mountains of upstate New York. Bock and his lyricist-partner Larry Holofcener wrote music for television in the early 1950s, notably Sid Caesar’s Admiral Broadway Revue and Your Show of Shows. During summers they were on the songwriting staff of Camp Tamiment in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania. Bock made his Broadway debut with three songs in the revue Catch a Star! (1955), then wrote his first Broadway show, Mr. Wonderful (1956), with Larry Holofcener and George David Weiss.Less
This chapter surveys the early professional careers of Sheldon Harnick and Jerry Bock in New York during the 1950s. Harnick wrote music for television and for cabaret singers. His earliest songs for Broadway appeared in the revues New Faces of 1952 (1952), Two’s Company (1952), and John Murray Anderson’s Almanac (1953). He wrote lyrics for his first book show, Horatio (1954), with composer David Baker and librettist Ira Wallach. He was also on the creative staff of Green Mansions, an arts-oriented resort in the Adirondack Mountains of upstate New York. Bock and his lyricist-partner Larry Holofcener wrote music for television in the early 1950s, notably Sid Caesar’s Admiral Broadway Revue and Your Show of Shows. During summers they were on the songwriting staff of Camp Tamiment in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania. Bock made his Broadway debut with three songs in the revue Catch a Star! (1955), then wrote his first Broadway show, Mr. Wonderful (1956), with Larry Holofcener and George David Weiss.
Philip Lambert
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195390070
- eISBN:
- 9780199863570
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195390070.003.0008
- Subject:
- Music, Theory, Analysis, Composition, Popular
This chapter presents an overview and critical interpretation of the last show that Bock and Harnick brought to Broadway, The Rothschilds, based on a book by Frederic Morton and adapted by Sherman ...
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This chapter presents an overview and critical interpretation of the last show that Bock and Harnick brought to Broadway, The Rothschilds, based on a book by Frederic Morton and adapted by Sherman Yellen. Despite a difficult development process plagued by tension within the creative team, the musical played for more than a year on Broadway after it opened in 1970. It was in part a revisiting of issues of Jewish culture and identity that the team had previously addressed in Fiddler on the Roof (1964), although the contrasts between the world of a family of wealthy bankers and that of a poor dairyman and his wife and daughters could not be more pronounced. This chapter also considers other projects Bock and Harnick collaborated on in the late 1960s, including an ill-fated attempt to create a musical with playwright John Arden based on the life of Lord Nelson, and a minor contribution to a musical adaptation of George Bernard Shaw’s Caesar and Cleopatra.Less
This chapter presents an overview and critical interpretation of the last show that Bock and Harnick brought to Broadway, The Rothschilds, based on a book by Frederic Morton and adapted by Sherman Yellen. Despite a difficult development process plagued by tension within the creative team, the musical played for more than a year on Broadway after it opened in 1970. It was in part a revisiting of issues of Jewish culture and identity that the team had previously addressed in Fiddler on the Roof (1964), although the contrasts between the world of a family of wealthy bankers and that of a poor dairyman and his wife and daughters could not be more pronounced. This chapter also considers other projects Bock and Harnick collaborated on in the late 1960s, including an ill-fated attempt to create a musical with playwright John Arden based on the life of Lord Nelson, and a minor contribution to a musical adaptation of George Bernard Shaw’s Caesar and Cleopatra.
Anna J. Clark
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199226825
- eISBN:
- 9780191710278
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199226825.003.0006
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, European History: BCE to 500CE
This chapter looks again at the range of resources introduced in previous chapters and introduces some new ones, all in the context of the late Republic. It focuses in particular on the competition ...
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This chapter looks again at the range of resources introduced in previous chapters and introduces some new ones, all in the context of the late Republic. It focuses in particular on the competition between Cicero and Clodius over libertas, and especially that of Caesar and Pompey, explored through passwords, oratory, drama, colonies, building‐work, horti, speeches, and commentaries. The chapter argues that in the last decades of the Republic, as famous commanders gained ever‐increasing power to mobilize and control resources, their competition over divine qualities, especially fortuna, felicitas, and virtus, was played out in a number of fields which are most fruitfully considered together. Alternative meanings and associations could still be found by others, viewing Pompey's theatre complex for example, but this required a greater effort on the part of a viewer.Less
This chapter looks again at the range of resources introduced in previous chapters and introduces some new ones, all in the context of the late Republic. It focuses in particular on the competition between Cicero and Clodius over libertas, and especially that of Caesar and Pompey, explored through passwords, oratory, drama, colonies, building‐work, horti, speeches, and commentaries. The chapter argues that in the last decades of the Republic, as famous commanders gained ever‐increasing power to mobilize and control resources, their competition over divine qualities, especially fortuna, felicitas, and virtus, was played out in a number of fields which are most fruitfully considered together. Alternative meanings and associations could still be found by others, viewing Pompey's theatre complex for example, but this required a greater effort on the part of a viewer.
C. Kavin Rowe
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195377873
- eISBN:
- 9780199869459
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195377873.003.0003
- Subject:
- Religion, Early Christian Studies
In light of the findings of Chapter 2, this chapter argues that the culturally destabilizing character of the Christian mission entails the potential for outsiders to construe Christianity as ...
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In light of the findings of Chapter 2, this chapter argues that the culturally destabilizing character of the Christian mission entails the potential for outsiders to construe Christianity as sedition or treason. In order to counter such a perception, Luke explicitly raises these charges and repeatedly narrates the course of events so that the Christians—here in the mold of Jesus himself—are found “innocent” by the Romans of seditious criminal activity. In the terms of Roman jurisprudence, they are dikaios (iustus). Thus does Luke bring Paul, the representative of the Christians, before the Roman state in the officials that are its living agents: Gallio, Claudius Lysias, Felix, and Festus. With deft narrative development and considerable jurisprudential skill, Luke moves Paul through to Rome while concurrently negating the charges of his opponents on the basis of a revisionary reading of Roman law: the Christian mission is not a bid for political liberation or a movement that stands in direct opposition to the Roman government.Less
In light of the findings of Chapter 2, this chapter argues that the culturally destabilizing character of the Christian mission entails the potential for outsiders to construe Christianity as sedition or treason. In order to counter such a perception, Luke explicitly raises these charges and repeatedly narrates the course of events so that the Christians—here in the mold of Jesus himself—are found “innocent” by the Romans of seditious criminal activity. In the terms of Roman jurisprudence, they are dikaios (iustus). Thus does Luke bring Paul, the representative of the Christians, before the Roman state in the officials that are its living agents: Gallio, Claudius Lysias, Felix, and Festus. With deft narrative development and considerable jurisprudential skill, Luke moves Paul through to Rome while concurrently negating the charges of his opponents on the basis of a revisionary reading of Roman law: the Christian mission is not a bid for political liberation or a movement that stands in direct opposition to the Roman government.
T. P. Wiseman
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199239764
- eISBN:
- 9780191716836
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199239764.003.0006
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, European History: BCE to 500CE
So much of our detailed knowledge of late-republican politics comes from Cicero that there is a constant danger of being over-influenced by Cicero's own political views. In order to counter that, ...
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So much of our detailed knowledge of late-republican politics comes from Cicero that there is a constant danger of being over-influenced by Cicero's own political views. In order to counter that, this chapter draws attention to the judgements made on Cicero's life and work by Thomas Babington Macaulay in his letters, his journals, and the margins of his books. Macaulay constantly re-read the classical authors, and his phenomenal memory gave him an unrivalled mastery of the literary sources for the ancient world; as an orator and a statesman as well, he was ideally placed to give an informed judgement on Cicero's politics. He was critical of Cicero's cultivation of the optimates after 63 BC, and what shocked him most was Cicero's praise of the men who killed the Gracchi, and his delight at the murder of Caesar.Less
So much of our detailed knowledge of late-republican politics comes from Cicero that there is a constant danger of being over-influenced by Cicero's own political views. In order to counter that, this chapter draws attention to the judgements made on Cicero's life and work by Thomas Babington Macaulay in his letters, his journals, and the margins of his books. Macaulay constantly re-read the classical authors, and his phenomenal memory gave him an unrivalled mastery of the literary sources for the ancient world; as an orator and a statesman as well, he was ideally placed to give an informed judgement on Cicero's politics. He was critical of Cicero's cultivation of the optimates after 63 BC, and what shocked him most was Cicero's praise of the men who killed the Gracchi, and his delight at the murder of Caesar.
T. P. Wiseman
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199239764
- eISBN:
- 9780191716836
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199239764.003.0007
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, European History: BCE to 500CE
Cicero's correspondence with Varro in 46 BC gives the impression that they were friends whose interests and opinions were as one; on the other hand, his letters to Atticus about Varro in 59 and 45 BC ...
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Cicero's correspondence with Varro in 46 BC gives the impression that they were friends whose interests and opinions were as one; on the other hand, his letters to Atticus about Varro in 59 and 45 BC reveal how little they had in common. This chapter explores the differences between the two men, starting from Cicero's allusions to Homer and Euripides to describe Varro's temperament and political position. There is no reason to suppose that Varro's satire Tricaranos was critical of Caesar and Pompey; his use of the ‘helmsman’ metaphor in De lingua Latina shows how he distanced himself from the optimate views of Cicero's De republica; and a fragment of his lost De uita populi Romani evidently refers to a very un-Ciceronian policy of civil concord in the months after the Ides of March.Less
Cicero's correspondence with Varro in 46 BC gives the impression that they were friends whose interests and opinions were as one; on the other hand, his letters to Atticus about Varro in 59 and 45 BC reveal how little they had in common. This chapter explores the differences between the two men, starting from Cicero's allusions to Homer and Euripides to describe Varro's temperament and political position. There is no reason to suppose that Varro's satire Tricaranos was critical of Caesar and Pompey; his use of the ‘helmsman’ metaphor in De lingua Latina shows how he distanced himself from the optimate views of Cicero's De republica; and a fragment of his lost De uita populi Romani evidently refers to a very un-Ciceronian policy of civil concord in the months after the Ides of March.
T. P. Wiseman
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199239764
- eISBN:
- 9780191716836
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199239764.003.0009
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, European History: BCE to 500CE
Roman political life was a spectacle, not only for the magistrate on the rostra addressing the assembled People, but for prosecutors and defence counsel in the courts, and for other senators on great ...
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Roman political life was a spectacle, not only for the magistrate on the rostra addressing the assembled People, but for prosecutors and defence counsel in the courts, and for other senators on great occasions, such as Cicero on his return from exile in 57 BC. This chapter examines the evidence for the places in the Forum and elsewhere that were used by the People as vantage points, for the temporary stages and auditoria that were put up for the games, and for the use of magistrates' tribunals as stages for performance. In the light of this information, an examination of the evidence for Antony's behaviour at the Lupercalia of 44 BC, when Caesar was offered the crown, provides a vivid insight into the overlapping conceptual worlds of politics and spectacle at Rome.Less
Roman political life was a spectacle, not only for the magistrate on the rostra addressing the assembled People, but for prosecutors and defence counsel in the courts, and for other senators on great occasions, such as Cicero on his return from exile in 57 BC. This chapter examines the evidence for the places in the Forum and elsewhere that were used by the People as vantage points, for the temporary stages and auditoria that were put up for the games, and for the use of magistrates' tribunals as stages for performance. In the light of this information, an examination of the evidence for Antony's behaviour at the Lupercalia of 44 BC, when Caesar was offered the crown, provides a vivid insight into the overlapping conceptual worlds of politics and spectacle at Rome.
