Andrew Pettinger
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199601745
- eISBN:
- 9780191741524
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199601745.003.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, European History: BCE to 500CE
The introduction points out that the Principate established by Augustus is usually treated as a benign and popular political structure, but that the case of M. Scribonius Drusus Libo throws doubt on ...
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The introduction points out that the Principate established by Augustus is usually treated as a benign and popular political structure, but that the case of M. Scribonius Drusus Libo throws doubt on this view. The case is connected with the conspiracy of the pseudo Agrippa Postumus, (i.e. Clemens). Drusus Libo was chosen as heir to a political movement bent on denying Tiberius his right. Finally, the reader learns that the result of the book is a re-conception of the Principate: it was brutal, destructive and met with serious opposition.Less
The introduction points out that the Principate established by Augustus is usually treated as a benign and popular political structure, but that the case of M. Scribonius Drusus Libo throws doubt on this view. The case is connected with the conspiracy of the pseudo Agrippa Postumus, (i.e. Clemens). Drusus Libo was chosen as heir to a political movement bent on denying Tiberius his right. Finally, the reader learns that the result of the book is a re-conception of the Principate: it was brutal, destructive and met with serious opposition.
F. S. Naiden
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195183412
- eISBN:
- 9780199789399
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195183412.001.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Ancient Religions
This is the first book-length treatment of supplication, an important social practice in ancient Mediterranean civilizations. Despite the importance of supplication, it has received little attention, ...
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This is the first book-length treatment of supplication, an important social practice in ancient Mediterranean civilizations. Despite the importance of supplication, it has received little attention, and no previous study has explored so many aspects of the practice. This book investigates the varied gestures made by the suppliants, the types of requests they make, the arguments used in defense of their requests, and the role of the supplicandus, who evaluates and decides whether to fulfill the requests. Varied and abundant sources invite comparison between the societies of Greece, especially Athens, and the Roman Republic and Principate and also among literary genres such as epic and tragedy. Additionally, this book formulates an analysis of the ritual in its legal and political contexts.Less
This is the first book-length treatment of supplication, an important social practice in ancient Mediterranean civilizations. Despite the importance of supplication, it has received little attention, and no previous study has explored so many aspects of the practice. This book investigates the varied gestures made by the suppliants, the types of requests they make, the arguments used in defense of their requests, and the role of the supplicandus, who evaluates and decides whether to fulfill the requests. Varied and abundant sources invite comparison between the societies of Greece, especially Athens, and the Roman Republic and Principate and also among literary genres such as epic and tragedy. Additionally, this book formulates an analysis of the ritual in its legal and political contexts.
KATHERINE CLARKE
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780197262764
- eISBN:
- 9780191753947
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197262764.003.0005
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, European History: BCE to 500CE
In his Todd Memorial Lecture given in Sydney in 1997, Fergus Millar not only questioned the value of Tacitus as a source for the Principate, but also professed difficulty in discerning ‘what the ...
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In his Todd Memorial Lecture given in Sydney in 1997, Fergus Millar not only questioned the value of Tacitus as a source for the Principate, but also professed difficulty in discerning ‘what the purpose and subject of Tacitus's Annales really is’. This chapter responds to some of the issues raised by Millar both in his undergraduate lectures on Tacitus and in his Todd paper. It argues that one of Tacitus's preoccupations, particularly in the Annales, is a profound concern with the task in hand, a self-referential preoccupation not so much with the history of the Principate as an explicit theme, though that is undeniably one of Tacitus's self-imposed tasks, as with the writing of the history itself, the task of the imperial historian, and the possibilities for and limitations on historiography at this period.Less
In his Todd Memorial Lecture given in Sydney in 1997, Fergus Millar not only questioned the value of Tacitus as a source for the Principate, but also professed difficulty in discerning ‘what the purpose and subject of Tacitus's Annales really is’. This chapter responds to some of the issues raised by Millar both in his undergraduate lectures on Tacitus and in his Todd paper. It argues that one of Tacitus's preoccupations, particularly in the Annales, is a profound concern with the task in hand, a self-referential preoccupation not so much with the history of the Principate as an explicit theme, though that is undeniably one of Tacitus's self-imposed tasks, as with the writing of the history itself, the task of the imperial historian, and the possibilities for and limitations on historiography at this period.
Hunter H. Gardner
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199652396
- eISBN:
- 9780191745782
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199652396.001.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Poetry and Poets: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This project examines how and why time is gendered in Latin love elegy, so that it appears to affect men and women differently. Drawing on recent efforts to situate the elegies of Propertius, ...
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This project examines how and why time is gendered in Latin love elegy, so that it appears to affect men and women differently. Drawing on recent efforts to situate the elegies of Propertius, Tibullus, and Ovid in their social and political milieu, the book considers the genre’s brief flowering during the Augustan Principate. Part one argues that imperatives of the new regime, encouraging a younger generation of loyalists to participate in the machinery of government, put temporal pressures on the elite male that shape the amator’s (or “poet-lover’s”) resistance to entering a course of civil service and prompt his withdrawal into the arms of a courtesan, and therefore unmarriageable, beloved. Part two of the book examines the divergent temporal experiences of the amator and his beloved puella (“girl”) through the lens of “women’s time” (le temps des femmes) and the chora as theorized by psycholinguist Julia Kristeva. Kristeva’s model of feminine subjectivity as defined by repetition, cyclicality, and eternity allows us to understand better how the beloved’s marginalization from the realm of historical time proves advantageous to her amator wishing to defer entrance into civic life. The antithesis between the properties of “women’s time” and the linear momentum that defines masculine subjectivity, moreover, demonstrates how “women’s time” ultimately thwarts the amator’s often promised generic evolution.Less
This project examines how and why time is gendered in Latin love elegy, so that it appears to affect men and women differently. Drawing on recent efforts to situate the elegies of Propertius, Tibullus, and Ovid in their social and political milieu, the book considers the genre’s brief flowering during the Augustan Principate. Part one argues that imperatives of the new regime, encouraging a younger generation of loyalists to participate in the machinery of government, put temporal pressures on the elite male that shape the amator’s (or “poet-lover’s”) resistance to entering a course of civil service and prompt his withdrawal into the arms of a courtesan, and therefore unmarriageable, beloved. Part two of the book examines the divergent temporal experiences of the amator and his beloved puella (“girl”) through the lens of “women’s time” (le temps des femmes) and the chora as theorized by psycholinguist Julia Kristeva. Kristeva’s model of feminine subjectivity as defined by repetition, cyclicality, and eternity allows us to understand better how the beloved’s marginalization from the realm of historical time proves advantageous to her amator wishing to defer entrance into civic life. The antithesis between the properties of “women’s time” and the linear momentum that defines masculine subjectivity, moreover, demonstrates how “women’s time” ultimately thwarts the amator’s often promised generic evolution.
Andrew Pettinger
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199601745
- eISBN:
- 9780191741524
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199601745.001.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, European History: BCE to 500CE
M. Scribonius Drusus Libo has always been considered an inexplicable victim of predatory prosecutors, destroyed in the changed conditions of Tiberius’ succession to the founder of the Principate. ...
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M. Scribonius Drusus Libo has always been considered an inexplicable victim of predatory prosecutors, destroyed in the changed conditions of Tiberius’ succession to the founder of the Principate. This is wrong. Drusus Libo conspired with a group of Tiberius’ opponents to challenge Tiberius’ right. The senate’s investigation of Drusus Libo will be examined in Chapter One and Chapter Two. It will be shown that Drusus Libo was treated in a way reminiscent of Catiline’s associate P. Lentulus Sura in 63 BC. Drusus Libo’s collaborators are then identified as a group of persons who supported first Gaius Caesar, then L. Aemilius Paullus and finally Agrippa Postumus. It is argued that the relationship of this group to Tiberius was beyond repair long before he succeeded Augustus. Tiberius’ succession to the supreme power in AD 14 signalled, therefore, a decisive defeat for this group. The succession is thus reconsidered from a new point of view: it was by no means sewn up. Drusus Libo is central to our understanding of Tiberius’ behaviour at this time. This is what the book examines in detail. A new historical model for the years 6 BC to AD 16 is offered, which has repercussions for the study of both the preceding and subsequent periods. The book is therefore a contribution to the study of the invention of the Principate at Rome.Less
M. Scribonius Drusus Libo has always been considered an inexplicable victim of predatory prosecutors, destroyed in the changed conditions of Tiberius’ succession to the founder of the Principate. This is wrong. Drusus Libo conspired with a group of Tiberius’ opponents to challenge Tiberius’ right. The senate’s investigation of Drusus Libo will be examined in Chapter One and Chapter Two. It will be shown that Drusus Libo was treated in a way reminiscent of Catiline’s associate P. Lentulus Sura in 63 BC. Drusus Libo’s collaborators are then identified as a group of persons who supported first Gaius Caesar, then L. Aemilius Paullus and finally Agrippa Postumus. It is argued that the relationship of this group to Tiberius was beyond repair long before he succeeded Augustus. Tiberius’ succession to the supreme power in AD 14 signalled, therefore, a decisive defeat for this group. The succession is thus reconsidered from a new point of view: it was by no means sewn up. Drusus Libo is central to our understanding of Tiberius’ behaviour at this time. This is what the book examines in detail. A new historical model for the years 6 BC to AD 16 is offered, which has repercussions for the study of both the preceding and subsequent periods. The book is therefore a contribution to the study of the invention of the Principate at Rome.
Andrew Pettinger
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199601745
- eISBN:
- 9780191741524
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199601745.003.0013
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, European History: BCE to 500CE
Chapter Twelve offers a new interpretation for the destruction of Drusus Libo. It is argued that Drusus Libo was a problem for Tiberius in AD 14. He was wooed by Agrippa’s supporters, but finally ...
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Chapter Twelve offers a new interpretation for the destruction of Drusus Libo. It is argued that Drusus Libo was a problem for Tiberius in AD 14. He was wooed by Agrippa’s supporters, but finally accepted an offer from Tiberius to form a political alliance. Feeling more secure, Tiberius formally acknowledged his position as Princeps. The alliance was, however, awkward and unstable and fell apart in AD 16. Drusus Libo turned instead to Tiberius’ enemies, who were planning to overthrow the government using a pseudo-Agrippa (i.e. Clemens). It is proposed that the conspirators were planning to dismantle the Principate and call free elections: an open rebuke of Augustus’ legacy and Tiberius’ domination.Less
Chapter Twelve offers a new interpretation for the destruction of Drusus Libo. It is argued that Drusus Libo was a problem for Tiberius in AD 14. He was wooed by Agrippa’s supporters, but finally accepted an offer from Tiberius to form a political alliance. Feeling more secure, Tiberius formally acknowledged his position as Princeps. The alliance was, however, awkward and unstable and fell apart in AD 16. Drusus Libo turned instead to Tiberius’ enemies, who were planning to overthrow the government using a pseudo-Agrippa (i.e. Clemens). It is proposed that the conspirators were planning to dismantle the Principate and call free elections: an open rebuke of Augustus’ legacy and Tiberius’ domination.
Claude Eilers
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199248483
- eISBN:
- 9780191714641
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199248483.001.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, European History: BCE to 500CE
Patronage has long been an important topic of interest to ancient historians. It remains unclear what patronage entailed, however, and how it worked. Is it a universal phenomenon embracing all, or ...
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Patronage has long been an important topic of interest to ancient historians. It remains unclear what patronage entailed, however, and how it worked. Is it a universal phenomenon embracing all, or most, relationships between unequals? Or is it an especially Roman practice? In previous discussions of patronage, one crucial body of evidence has been under-exploited: inscriptions from the Greek East that borrow the Latin term ‘patron’ and use it to honour their Roman officials. The fact that the Greeks borrow the term patron suggests that there was something uniquely Roman about the patron-client relationship. Moreover, this epigraphic evidence implies that patronage was not only a part of Rome's history, but had a history of its own. The rise and fall of city patrons in the Greek East is linked to the fundamental changes that took place during the fall of the Republic and the transition to the Principate. Senatorial patrons appear in the Greek inscriptions of the Roman province of Asia towards the end of the 2nd century BC and are widely attested in the region and elsewhere for the following century. In the early principate, however, they become less common and soon more or less disappear. The author's discursive treatment of the origins, nature, and decline of this type of patronage, and its place in Roman practice as a whole, is supplemented by a reference catalogue of Roman patrons of Greek communities.Less
Patronage has long been an important topic of interest to ancient historians. It remains unclear what patronage entailed, however, and how it worked. Is it a universal phenomenon embracing all, or most, relationships between unequals? Or is it an especially Roman practice? In previous discussions of patronage, one crucial body of evidence has been under-exploited: inscriptions from the Greek East that borrow the Latin term ‘patron’ and use it to honour their Roman officials. The fact that the Greeks borrow the term patron suggests that there was something uniquely Roman about the patron-client relationship. Moreover, this epigraphic evidence implies that patronage was not only a part of Rome's history, but had a history of its own. The rise and fall of city patrons in the Greek East is linked to the fundamental changes that took place during the fall of the Republic and the transition to the Principate. Senatorial patrons appear in the Greek inscriptions of the Roman province of Asia towards the end of the 2nd century BC and are widely attested in the region and elsewhere for the following century. In the early principate, however, they become less common and soon more or less disappear. The author's discursive treatment of the origins, nature, and decline of this type of patronage, and its place in Roman practice as a whole, is supplemented by a reference catalogue of Roman patrons of Greek communities.
Hunter H. Gardner
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- August 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780198796428
- eISBN:
- 9780191837708
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198796428.001.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
Lucretius, Vergil, and Ovid developed important conventions of the Western plague narrative as a response to the breakdown of the Roman res publica in the mid-first century CE and the reconstitution ...
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Lucretius, Vergil, and Ovid developed important conventions of the Western plague narrative as a response to the breakdown of the Roman res publica in the mid-first century CE and the reconstitution of stabilized government under the Augustan Principate (31 BCE–14 CE). Relying on the metaphoric relationship between the human body and the body politic, these authors use largely fictive representations of epidemic disease to address the collapse of the social order and suggest remedies for its recovery. Plague as such functions frequently in Roman texts to enact a drama in which the concerns of the individual must be weighed against those of the collective. In order to understand the figurative potential of plague, this book evaluates the reality of epidemic disease in Rome, in light of twentieth-century theories of plague discourse, those of Artaud, Foucault, Sontag, and Girard, in particular. Pestilence and the Body Politic in Latin Literature identifies consistent features of the outbreaks described by Roman epic poets, charting the emergence of Golden-Age imagery, emphasis on bodily dissolution, and poignant accounts of broken familial bonds. Such features are expressed through Roman idioms that provocatively recall the discourse of civil strife that characterized the last century of the Roman Republic. The final chapters examine key moments in the resurgence of Roman plague topoi, beginning with early imperial poets (Lucan, Seneca, and Silius Italicus), and concluding with discussion of late antique Christian poetry, paintings of the late Italian Renaissance, and Anglo-American novels and films.Less
Lucretius, Vergil, and Ovid developed important conventions of the Western plague narrative as a response to the breakdown of the Roman res publica in the mid-first century CE and the reconstitution of stabilized government under the Augustan Principate (31 BCE–14 CE). Relying on the metaphoric relationship between the human body and the body politic, these authors use largely fictive representations of epidemic disease to address the collapse of the social order and suggest remedies for its recovery. Plague as such functions frequently in Roman texts to enact a drama in which the concerns of the individual must be weighed against those of the collective. In order to understand the figurative potential of plague, this book evaluates the reality of epidemic disease in Rome, in light of twentieth-century theories of plague discourse, those of Artaud, Foucault, Sontag, and Girard, in particular. Pestilence and the Body Politic in Latin Literature identifies consistent features of the outbreaks described by Roman epic poets, charting the emergence of Golden-Age imagery, emphasis on bodily dissolution, and poignant accounts of broken familial bonds. Such features are expressed through Roman idioms that provocatively recall the discourse of civil strife that characterized the last century of the Roman Republic. The final chapters examine key moments in the resurgence of Roman plague topoi, beginning with early imperial poets (Lucan, Seneca, and Silius Italicus), and concluding with discussion of late antique Christian poetry, paintings of the late Italian Renaissance, and Anglo-American novels and films.
Luuk de Ligt
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- July 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780198787204
- eISBN:
- 9780191829284
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198787204.003.0004
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, European History: BCE to 500CE
When the Law of the Twelve Tables was promulgated, the Roman economy was overwhelmingly agricultural. As social and economic conditions became more complicated, the formalistic law of early ...
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When the Law of the Twelve Tables was promulgated, the Roman economy was overwhelmingly agricultural. As social and economic conditions became more complicated, the formalistic law of early republican times no longer sufficed. The rise of the ius honorarium can be seen as a response to these new circumstances. While scholars have tended to assign all important developments to the praetors of the second and first centuries BC, at least some important changes in the law took place earlier. The bigger picture that emerges is that, contrary to the tenets of institutionalism, Roman law developed pari passu with the economy. Roman law functioned as an autonomous discipline, governed by its own rules and principles. Law-making magistrates and jurists certainly responded to new juridical challenges created by the emergence of an increasingly sophisticated economy, but their principal aim was not to create legal rules that were conducive to economic development or growth but to find practical solutions to juridical problems created by economic developments. Finally, the Principate, to which a large proportion of the surviving evidence belongs, saw far fewer legal innovations than the last centuries of the Republic. The explanation must be that there was less need for legal innovation because most of the economic developments creating a need for new legal remedies had already taken place. Ironically, the period in which the pace of legal change had slowed down has produced most of the surviving evidence.Less
When the Law of the Twelve Tables was promulgated, the Roman economy was overwhelmingly agricultural. As social and economic conditions became more complicated, the formalistic law of early republican times no longer sufficed. The rise of the ius honorarium can be seen as a response to these new circumstances. While scholars have tended to assign all important developments to the praetors of the second and first centuries BC, at least some important changes in the law took place earlier. The bigger picture that emerges is that, contrary to the tenets of institutionalism, Roman law developed pari passu with the economy. Roman law functioned as an autonomous discipline, governed by its own rules and principles. Law-making magistrates and jurists certainly responded to new juridical challenges created by the emergence of an increasingly sophisticated economy, but their principal aim was not to create legal rules that were conducive to economic development or growth but to find practical solutions to juridical problems created by economic developments. Finally, the Principate, to which a large proportion of the surviving evidence belongs, saw far fewer legal innovations than the last centuries of the Republic. The explanation must be that there was less need for legal innovation because most of the economic developments creating a need for new legal remedies had already taken place. Ironically, the period in which the pace of legal change had slowed down has produced most of the surviving evidence.
Keith Roberts
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780231153270
- eISBN:
- 9780231526852
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231153270.003.0010
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Economic History
This chapter focuses on the early empire under Augustus and his successors, a two-century period known as the Principate. Two developments during the Principate altered the history of business. ...
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This chapter focuses on the early empire under Augustus and his successors, a two-century period known as the Principate. Two developments during the Principate altered the history of business. First, Augustus created political changes that dramatically improved business conditions. Without his work, the provinces would have continued to be exploited, impoverished, and rebellious colonies. And Roman business would not have enjoyed the prolonged period of peace and security that was its most innovative and important business condition. Second, in Judea, part of the province of Syria, certain little-noted developments would later have an even more profound effect on business than Augustus's efforts. These include the formulation and dissemination of the idea of human equality, leading ultimately to modern consumer societies; the creation of Christianity and its powerful church, which would strongly influence the business environment for many centuries to come; and a dispersal of the Jews, which would position their communities to play a leading role in the trade and commerce of the Middle Ages.Less
This chapter focuses on the early empire under Augustus and his successors, a two-century period known as the Principate. Two developments during the Principate altered the history of business. First, Augustus created political changes that dramatically improved business conditions. Without his work, the provinces would have continued to be exploited, impoverished, and rebellious colonies. And Roman business would not have enjoyed the prolonged period of peace and security that was its most innovative and important business condition. Second, in Judea, part of the province of Syria, certain little-noted developments would later have an even more profound effect on business than Augustus's efforts. These include the formulation and dissemination of the idea of human equality, leading ultimately to modern consumer societies; the creation of Christianity and its powerful church, which would strongly influence the business environment for many centuries to come; and a dispersal of the Jews, which would position their communities to play a leading role in the trade and commerce of the Middle Ages.
Keith Roberts
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780231153270
- eISBN:
- 9780231526852
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231153270.003.0011
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Economic History
This chapter discusses key business conditions that impacted business life during the Principate. These include the demand for goods and services, fueled by private purchasing power in the empire's ...
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This chapter discusses key business conditions that impacted business life during the Principate. These include the demand for goods and services, fueled by private purchasing power in the empire's cities; the nature and operation of business enterprises, contracts, agents, and property transactions as molded by Roman law; the sources and conditions of labor; and the status of business and its practitioners. Roman wealth was a vital aspect of the Principate's business environment. By this time, Rome held much of the Western world's wealth. Some belonged to the state; most of the rest belonged to no more than 200,000 people. Roman law also had a major impact on business by reducing the cost of transactions among strangers. With regards to status, society tended to view businessmen with disdain. Business owners, however, did not share society's contempt for their work.Less
This chapter discusses key business conditions that impacted business life during the Principate. These include the demand for goods and services, fueled by private purchasing power in the empire's cities; the nature and operation of business enterprises, contracts, agents, and property transactions as molded by Roman law; the sources and conditions of labor; and the status of business and its practitioners. Roman wealth was a vital aspect of the Principate's business environment. By this time, Rome held much of the Western world's wealth. Some belonged to the state; most of the rest belonged to no more than 200,000 people. Roman law also had a major impact on business by reducing the cost of transactions among strangers. With regards to status, society tended to view businessmen with disdain. Business owners, however, did not share society's contempt for their work.
Keith Roberts
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780231153270
- eISBN:
- 9780231526852
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231153270.003.0013
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Economic History
This chapter first explains the downfall of business that occurred during the third century c.e.. It shows that the decline of business during and after the third century was not due to the plagues ...
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This chapter first explains the downfall of business that occurred during the third century c.e.. It shows that the decline of business during and after the third century was not due to the plagues and invasions that afflicted the empire, but rather, to policies chosen in response to the crises. The chapter then describes how the Principate became the Dominate, the restructured Roman state that emerged from the travails of the third century. While its institutions, including the church, once again relegated business to a marginal role, the foundations of Hellenistic and Roman business remained alive in the parts of the empire that fell to the Arab conquest in the seventh century.Less
This chapter first explains the downfall of business that occurred during the third century c.e.. It shows that the decline of business during and after the third century was not due to the plagues and invasions that afflicted the empire, but rather, to policies chosen in response to the crises. The chapter then describes how the Principate became the Dominate, the restructured Roman state that emerged from the travails of the third century. While its institutions, including the church, once again relegated business to a marginal role, the foundations of Hellenistic and Roman business remained alive in the parts of the empire that fell to the Arab conquest in the seventh century.
Christopher Koch and Philip Barnes
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748615650
- eISBN:
- 9780748650989
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Discontinued
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748615650.003.0056
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Ancient Religions
This chapter secures a hypothesis that in the late Republic and Augustan period, no individual priest of the state religion, coming from the educated class, could carry out his duties with the ...
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This chapter secures a hypothesis that in the late Republic and Augustan period, no individual priest of the state religion, coming from the educated class, could carry out his duties with the credulity of an archaic man. Each perceived the discrepancy between the extent of his own spiritual freedom and the world of ideas that he had to reproduce in worship. The state religion for the contemporary Roman was not identical with the entire complex of religious possibilities that could have occupied him. The question regarding the degree of substance or, more accurately, the decay of substance in belief in the maiores system of rituals, constitutes only a partial inquiry into the problematic of late Republican and Augustan religion. This was hardly the most burning question for the average individual if he was not a priest, but it was a serious, pressing concern for the leadership of the state at the beginning of the Principate.Less
This chapter secures a hypothesis that in the late Republic and Augustan period, no individual priest of the state religion, coming from the educated class, could carry out his duties with the credulity of an archaic man. Each perceived the discrepancy between the extent of his own spiritual freedom and the world of ideas that he had to reproduce in worship. The state religion for the contemporary Roman was not identical with the entire complex of religious possibilities that could have occupied him. The question regarding the degree of substance or, more accurately, the decay of substance in belief in the maiores system of rituals, constitutes only a partial inquiry into the problematic of late Republican and Augustan religion. This was hardly the most burning question for the average individual if he was not a priest, but it was a serious, pressing concern for the leadership of the state at the beginning of the Principate.
Saïd Amir Arjomand
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- January 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780226026831
- eISBN:
- 9780226026848
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226026848.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, Political History
The fall of Nero in 68 CE, followed by the "Year of the Four Emperors" ending with the victory of Vespasian, is not usually treated as a revolution, and this chapter is therefore an exception in ...
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The fall of Nero in 68 CE, followed by the "Year of the Four Emperors" ending with the victory of Vespasian, is not usually treated as a revolution, and this chapter is therefore an exception in doing so. It analyzes the political transformation that led to the fall of Nero as an integrative revolution which began with revolutionary mobilization in Gaul that was led by Julius Vindex, who had been given Roman citizenship by Julius Caesar and rose for the restoration of liberty, and quickly spread to Spain, also on the near periphery of the Roman empire of the Caesars. Furthermore, it ended with the victory of Vespasian in the eastern provinces on the farther periphery of the Roman Empire, notably including Egypt. The chapter also analyzes a major flaw in the authority structure of the so-called Principate or the Roman empire in that period that is considered a major cause of revolution. The flaw was rectified by the winner of the revolutionary power struggle among the legions of the Roman army, Vespasian, who consolidate the legal authority of the Caesars and thus laid the foundation of the imperial autocracy for the subsequent century.Less
The fall of Nero in 68 CE, followed by the "Year of the Four Emperors" ending with the victory of Vespasian, is not usually treated as a revolution, and this chapter is therefore an exception in doing so. It analyzes the political transformation that led to the fall of Nero as an integrative revolution which began with revolutionary mobilization in Gaul that was led by Julius Vindex, who had been given Roman citizenship by Julius Caesar and rose for the restoration of liberty, and quickly spread to Spain, also on the near periphery of the Roman empire of the Caesars. Furthermore, it ended with the victory of Vespasian in the eastern provinces on the farther periphery of the Roman Empire, notably including Egypt. The chapter also analyzes a major flaw in the authority structure of the so-called Principate or the Roman empire in that period that is considered a major cause of revolution. The flaw was rectified by the winner of the revolutionary power struggle among the legions of the Roman army, Vespasian, who consolidate the legal authority of the Caesars and thus laid the foundation of the imperial autocracy for the subsequent century.
Catalina Balmaceda
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781469635125
- eISBN:
- 9781469635132
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469635125.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, Ancient History / Archaeology
In chapter 5 Tacitus’ historical writings are divided into three units: 1) the Agricola and the Germania, 2) the Histories, and 3) the Annals, not to refer to successive stages in the evolution of ...
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In chapter 5 Tacitus’ historical writings are divided into three units: 1) the Agricola and the Germania, 2) the Histories, and 3) the Annals, not to refer to successive stages in the evolution of his understanding of virtus, but to stress the repeated insistence by which he delineates the expressions of virtus in three diferent periods of Roman history. By identifying what was essential to Roman virtus and what was superfluous and susceptible to change, Tacitus illustrates how, even though a certain degree of political freedom was lost, there were some Romans who could exercise a more ‘personal’ freedom which led to new manifestations of virtus. Tacitus’ perception of the nature of political change is one of the main themes used throughout the chapter to plot the barriers that virtus had to overcome in the new world of the principate.Less
In chapter 5 Tacitus’ historical writings are divided into three units: 1) the Agricola and the Germania, 2) the Histories, and 3) the Annals, not to refer to successive stages in the evolution of his understanding of virtus, but to stress the repeated insistence by which he delineates the expressions of virtus in three diferent periods of Roman history. By identifying what was essential to Roman virtus and what was superfluous and susceptible to change, Tacitus illustrates how, even though a certain degree of political freedom was lost, there were some Romans who could exercise a more ‘personal’ freedom which led to new manifestations of virtus. Tacitus’ perception of the nature of political change is one of the main themes used throughout the chapter to plot the barriers that virtus had to overcome in the new world of the principate.
Julia Hell
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- September 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780226588056
- eISBN:
- 9780226588223
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226588223.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
This chapter focuses on the scenographic architecture of Augustan era Rome. The author sees in this monumental architecture the foundations of the Romans’ concept of their imperial ruins. The urban ...
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This chapter focuses on the scenographic architecture of Augustan era Rome. The author sees in this monumental architecture the foundations of the Romans’ concept of their imperial ruins. The urban renewal program and buildings like Augustus’s mausoleum, the Ara Pacis, or the theater of Marcellus, turned Rome’s center into the empire’s theo-political stage. The new ornate scene-buildings, or scaenae frons, which decorated Rome’s first permanent theaters, were also part of the empire’s theatricality of politics. The iconic buildings of this architectural stage and their ruins would remain European imperialism’s literal and metaphorical core, a stage-in-ruins to be reconquered literally and metaphorically through the ages.Less
This chapter focuses on the scenographic architecture of Augustan era Rome. The author sees in this monumental architecture the foundations of the Romans’ concept of their imperial ruins. The urban renewal program and buildings like Augustus’s mausoleum, the Ara Pacis, or the theater of Marcellus, turned Rome’s center into the empire’s theo-political stage. The new ornate scene-buildings, or scaenae frons, which decorated Rome’s first permanent theaters, were also part of the empire’s theatricality of politics. The iconic buildings of this architectural stage and their ruins would remain European imperialism’s literal and metaphorical core, a stage-in-ruins to be reconquered literally and metaphorically through the ages.
Kit Morrell
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- June 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780198755142
- eISBN:
- 9780191816512
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198755142.003.0010
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, European History: BCE to 500CE
The conclusion draws together the main threads of the argument before considering, briefly, the ‘afterlife’ of republican reform efforts under the principate. It also reflects on some broader ...
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The conclusion draws together the main threads of the argument before considering, briefly, the ‘afterlife’ of republican reform efforts under the principate. It also reflects on some broader implications of this study for our understanding of Pompey and Cato, of reform and politics in the Roman republic, and of the very viability of republican government.Less
The conclusion draws together the main threads of the argument before considering, briefly, the ‘afterlife’ of republican reform efforts under the principate. It also reflects on some broader implications of this study for our understanding of Pompey and Cato, of reform and politics in the Roman republic, and of the very viability of republican government.
Hunter H. Gardner
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- August 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780198796428
- eISBN:
- 9780191837708
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198796428.003.0005
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
We can better understand Vergil’s equivocations toward plague and its remedies as a solution to civil war by turning to Ovid’s account of plague in Metamorphoses 7.490–660: in Ovid’s narrative the ...
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We can better understand Vergil’s equivocations toward plague and its remedies as a solution to civil war by turning to Ovid’s account of plague in Metamorphoses 7.490–660: in Ovid’s narrative the citizens of Aegina, nearly eradicated from a pestilence sent by Juno, are replaced by ant-born men, the Myrmidons, characterized in a manner reminiscent of collectively oriented, uniform apian community in the Georgics. I argue that the episode should be read as a reflection of Ovid’s cynical attitude toward Augustus’ attempt to restore a war-depleted population by replacing it with a new generation of loyalists. The ant-born population of Myrmidons, bound to serve as soldiers in the war between Athens and Crete, constitute a new citizenry dreamt into existence by king Aeacus after he receives signs from Jupiter in the form of ants filing up a nearby oak tree. The privileges (grants of land) and functions (serving in war) awarded to this new population effectively sort out the confused heaps of those rotting cadavera of kin and acquaintances left in the wake of contagion. The poet’s narrative of recovery thus broaches the political utility of pestilence, in such a way that not only confronts the open-ended post-apocalyptic visions of his predecessors, but also questions the rigorous mechanisms of recovery, often in the form of population controls, implemented by the Augustan Principate.Less
We can better understand Vergil’s equivocations toward plague and its remedies as a solution to civil war by turning to Ovid’s account of plague in Metamorphoses 7.490–660: in Ovid’s narrative the citizens of Aegina, nearly eradicated from a pestilence sent by Juno, are replaced by ant-born men, the Myrmidons, characterized in a manner reminiscent of collectively oriented, uniform apian community in the Georgics. I argue that the episode should be read as a reflection of Ovid’s cynical attitude toward Augustus’ attempt to restore a war-depleted population by replacing it with a new generation of loyalists. The ant-born population of Myrmidons, bound to serve as soldiers in the war between Athens and Crete, constitute a new citizenry dreamt into existence by king Aeacus after he receives signs from Jupiter in the form of ants filing up a nearby oak tree. The privileges (grants of land) and functions (serving in war) awarded to this new population effectively sort out the confused heaps of those rotting cadavera of kin and acquaintances left in the wake of contagion. The poet’s narrative of recovery thus broaches the political utility of pestilence, in such a way that not only confronts the open-ended post-apocalyptic visions of his predecessors, but also questions the rigorous mechanisms of recovery, often in the form of population controls, implemented by the Augustan Principate.
Laurens E. Tacoma
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- April 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780198850809
- eISBN:
- 9780191885679
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198850809.003.0002
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, European History: BCE to 500CE
This chapter analyses the first tension around which Roman political culture revolved: the restricted space for debate. The issue is discussed on the basis of Seneca’s Apocolocyntosis. With the ...
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This chapter analyses the first tension around which Roman political culture revolved: the restricted space for debate. The issue is discussed on the basis of Seneca’s Apocolocyntosis. With the coming of the Principate the number of issues on which the senate could take decisions was reduced, as was its capacity to debate them seriously. At the same time, the emperor positioned himself as the upholder of the social order and as protector of the state’s institutions. As the senate’s functioning was predicated on the voluntary behaviour of its members, this left the senators some agency. The result was a particular social dynamic in which debates were conducted as if nothing had changed, but where both emperor and senators were locked in expectations about each other’s behaviour. In reflecting on the ambiguities, there were two major themes to consider. The first was that there were situations in which the senate had to debate matters that pertained directly to the position of the emperor. The other occurred when the senate debated its own membership. Both not only revolved around the senate’s capacity to debate these matters in a serious way, but both also raised the issue of the role of imperial intervention. How much space for debate was left? The Apocolocyntosis brilliantly explored both.Less
This chapter analyses the first tension around which Roman political culture revolved: the restricted space for debate. The issue is discussed on the basis of Seneca’s Apocolocyntosis. With the coming of the Principate the number of issues on which the senate could take decisions was reduced, as was its capacity to debate them seriously. At the same time, the emperor positioned himself as the upholder of the social order and as protector of the state’s institutions. As the senate’s functioning was predicated on the voluntary behaviour of its members, this left the senators some agency. The result was a particular social dynamic in which debates were conducted as if nothing had changed, but where both emperor and senators were locked in expectations about each other’s behaviour. In reflecting on the ambiguities, there were two major themes to consider. The first was that there were situations in which the senate had to debate matters that pertained directly to the position of the emperor. The other occurred when the senate debated its own membership. Both not only revolved around the senate’s capacity to debate these matters in a serious way, but both also raised the issue of the role of imperial intervention. How much space for debate was left? The Apocolocyntosis brilliantly explored both.
Tom Geue
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- December 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780198814061
- eISBN:
- 9780191851711
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198814061.003.0006
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval, Poetry and Poets: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This chapter examines two exponents of satiric literature written under the politically fraught conditions of the Roman Principate, Phaedrus and Juvenal. It is unclear who (or what) both were; their ...
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This chapter examines two exponents of satiric literature written under the politically fraught conditions of the Roman Principate, Phaedrus and Juvenal. It is unclear who (or what) both were; their names, shorthands for de-authored texts rather than stand-ins for historical individuals. The literal self-effacement at work here creates a paradoxical authority: the words on the page, loosened from a definite first-person speaker identity, slip and slide easily from person to person, yet the concealment wreaks havoc with the readerly desire to know the source behind the words, generating an energetic ‘erotics’ of the weaker voice. This chapter analyses their shared yet distinctive strategies of authorial self-erasure, arguing that both not only render key markers of Roman elite male identity—name, body, and autobiography—ineffective, but that, in doing so, they also foreground and relish the particular potential of literature as the written word in its supposed inferiority to author-bound speech.Less
This chapter examines two exponents of satiric literature written under the politically fraught conditions of the Roman Principate, Phaedrus and Juvenal. It is unclear who (or what) both were; their names, shorthands for de-authored texts rather than stand-ins for historical individuals. The literal self-effacement at work here creates a paradoxical authority: the words on the page, loosened from a definite first-person speaker identity, slip and slide easily from person to person, yet the concealment wreaks havoc with the readerly desire to know the source behind the words, generating an energetic ‘erotics’ of the weaker voice. This chapter analyses their shared yet distinctive strategies of authorial self-erasure, arguing that both not only render key markers of Roman elite male identity—name, body, and autobiography—ineffective, but that, in doing so, they also foreground and relish the particular potential of literature as the written word in its supposed inferiority to author-bound speech.