Michael Lapidge
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199239696
- eISBN:
- 9780191708336
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199239696.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, History of Ideas
By the time the first Anglo-Saxon libraries were assembled, during the course of 7th century AD, libraries both public and private had been a significant feature of Mediterranean civilization for ...
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By the time the first Anglo-Saxon libraries were assembled, during the course of 7th century AD, libraries both public and private had been a significant feature of Mediterranean civilization for more than a thousand years. This chapter considers Mediterranean libraries under three headings: Alexandria and the libraries of the Greek world, the libraries of Ancient Rome, and the Christian libraries of the patristic period.Less
By the time the first Anglo-Saxon libraries were assembled, during the course of 7th century AD, libraries both public and private had been a significant feature of Mediterranean civilization for more than a thousand years. This chapter considers Mediterranean libraries under three headings: Alexandria and the libraries of the Greek world, the libraries of Ancient Rome, and the Christian libraries of the patristic period.
Anthony Corbeill
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691163222
- eISBN:
- 9781400852468
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691163222.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, Ancient History / Archaeology
This chapter examines the role of grammatical gender in daily religious experience by focusing on androgynous gods in ancient Rome. It shows that the grammatical gender of a god's name matches the ...
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This chapter examines the role of grammatical gender in daily religious experience by focusing on androgynous gods in ancient Rome. It shows that the grammatical gender of a god's name matches the perceived sex of its imagined incarnation. This observation is extended to an analysis of the indigetes, a set of minor deities who seem to have ruled every aspect of daily life, and to whom the Romans appealed, in particular at significant transitional stages such as birth, marriage, and death. A tendency to group gods in sexed pairs is evident in the numerous extant allusions to these deities, as well as to other divine powers. The chapter concludes by showing how this originary state of divine androgyny—whether historical or the product of intellectual speculation—collapses over time in ways analogous to the loss of fluid gender for nouns.Less
This chapter examines the role of grammatical gender in daily religious experience by focusing on androgynous gods in ancient Rome. It shows that the grammatical gender of a god's name matches the perceived sex of its imagined incarnation. This observation is extended to an analysis of the indigetes, a set of minor deities who seem to have ruled every aspect of daily life, and to whom the Romans appealed, in particular at significant transitional stages such as birth, marriage, and death. A tendency to group gods in sexed pairs is evident in the numerous extant allusions to these deities, as well as to other divine powers. The chapter concludes by showing how this originary state of divine androgyny—whether historical or the product of intellectual speculation—collapses over time in ways analogous to the loss of fluid gender for nouns.
Simon Goldhill
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691149844
- eISBN:
- 9781400840076
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691149844.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
How did the Victorians engage with the ancient world? This book is an exploration of how ancient Greece and Rome influenced Victorian culture. Through Victorian art, opera, and novels, the book ...
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How did the Victorians engage with the ancient world? This book is an exploration of how ancient Greece and Rome influenced Victorian culture. Through Victorian art, opera, and novels, the book examines how sexuality and desire, the politics of culture, and the role of religion in society were considered and debated through the Victorian obsession with antiquity. Looking at Victorian art, it demonstrates how desire and sexuality, particularly anxieties about male desire, were represented and communicated through classical imagery. Probing into operas of the period, the book addresses ideas of citizenship, nationalism, and cultural politics. And through fiction—specifically nineteenth-century novels about the Roman Empire—it discusses religion and the fierce battles over the church as Christianity began to lose dominance over the progressive stance of Victorian science and investigation. Rediscovering some great forgotten works and reframing some more familiar ones, the book offers extraordinary insights into how the Victorian sense of antiquity and our sense of the Victorians came into being. With a wide range of examples and stories, it demonstrates how interest in the classical past shaped nineteenth-century self-expression, giving antiquity a unique place in Victorian culture.Less
How did the Victorians engage with the ancient world? This book is an exploration of how ancient Greece and Rome influenced Victorian culture. Through Victorian art, opera, and novels, the book examines how sexuality and desire, the politics of culture, and the role of religion in society were considered and debated through the Victorian obsession with antiquity. Looking at Victorian art, it demonstrates how desire and sexuality, particularly anxieties about male desire, were represented and communicated through classical imagery. Probing into operas of the period, the book addresses ideas of citizenship, nationalism, and cultural politics. And through fiction—specifically nineteenth-century novels about the Roman Empire—it discusses religion and the fierce battles over the church as Christianity began to lose dominance over the progressive stance of Victorian science and investigation. Rediscovering some great forgotten works and reframing some more familiar ones, the book offers extraordinary insights into how the Victorian sense of antiquity and our sense of the Victorians came into being. With a wide range of examples and stories, it demonstrates how interest in the classical past shaped nineteenth-century self-expression, giving antiquity a unique place in Victorian culture.
Thomas A. J. McGinn
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195161328
- eISBN:
- 9780199789344
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195161328.003.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This introduction discusses the subject of the book, namely the legal rules affecting the practice of female prostitution in Rome during the central part of its history, a period extending from ...
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This introduction discusses the subject of the book, namely the legal rules affecting the practice of female prostitution in Rome during the central part of its history, a period extending from approximately 200 BC to AD 250. The book looks at the origins and content of the legal norms created for prostitution. The aim is to examine these norms in relation to the wider social context, discuss how the legal and political authorities were able to adapt this to society's needs, and illustrate crucial issues relating to marginal groups, marriage, sexual behavior, the family, slavery, and citizen status, especially the status of women. Prostitution, for years a marginal theme in historiography, stands at the center of some fundamental modern concerns with past societies.Less
This introduction discusses the subject of the book, namely the legal rules affecting the practice of female prostitution in Rome during the central part of its history, a period extending from approximately 200 BC to AD 250. The book looks at the origins and content of the legal norms created for prostitution. The aim is to examine these norms in relation to the wider social context, discuss how the legal and political authorities were able to adapt this to society's needs, and illustrate crucial issues relating to marginal groups, marriage, sexual behavior, the family, slavery, and citizen status, especially the status of women. Prostitution, for years a marginal theme in historiography, stands at the center of some fundamental modern concerns with past societies.
Anthony Corbeill
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691163222
- eISBN:
- 9781400852468
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691163222.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Ancient History / Archaeology
From the moment a child in ancient Rome began to speak Latin, the surrounding world became populated with objects possessing grammatical gender—masculine eyes (oculi), feminine trees (arbores), ...
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From the moment a child in ancient Rome began to speak Latin, the surrounding world became populated with objects possessing grammatical gender—masculine eyes (oculi), feminine trees (arbores), neuter bodies (corpora). This book surveys the many ways in which grammatical gender enabled Latin speakers to organize aspects of their society into sexual categories, and how this identification of grammatical gender with biological sex affected Roman perceptions of Latin poetry, divine power, and human hermaphrodites. Beginning with the ancient grammarians, the book examines how these scholars used the gender of nouns to identify the sex of the object being signified, regardless of whether that object was animate or inanimate. This informed the Roman poets who, for a time, changed at whim the grammatical gender for words as seemingly lifeless as “dust” (pulvis) or “tree bark” (cortex). The book then applies the idea of fluid grammatical gender to the basic tenets of Roman religion and state politics. It looks at how the ancients tended to construct Rome's earliest divinities as related male and female pairs, a tendency that waned in later periods. An analogous change characterized the dual-sexed hermaphrodite, whose sacred and political significance declined as the republican government became an autocracy. The book shows that the fluid boundaries of sex and gender became increasingly fixed into opposing and exclusive categories.Less
From the moment a child in ancient Rome began to speak Latin, the surrounding world became populated with objects possessing grammatical gender—masculine eyes (oculi), feminine trees (arbores), neuter bodies (corpora). This book surveys the many ways in which grammatical gender enabled Latin speakers to organize aspects of their society into sexual categories, and how this identification of grammatical gender with biological sex affected Roman perceptions of Latin poetry, divine power, and human hermaphrodites. Beginning with the ancient grammarians, the book examines how these scholars used the gender of nouns to identify the sex of the object being signified, regardless of whether that object was animate or inanimate. This informed the Roman poets who, for a time, changed at whim the grammatical gender for words as seemingly lifeless as “dust” (pulvis) or “tree bark” (cortex). The book then applies the idea of fluid grammatical gender to the basic tenets of Roman religion and state politics. It looks at how the ancients tended to construct Rome's earliest divinities as related male and female pairs, a tendency that waned in later periods. An analogous change characterized the dual-sexed hermaphrodite, whose sacred and political significance declined as the republican government became an autocracy. The book shows that the fluid boundaries of sex and gender became increasingly fixed into opposing and exclusive categories.
Glenn W. Most
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199588541
- eISBN:
- 9780191741845
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199588541.003.0020
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This concluding chapter reconsiders some of the main claims of the volume by emphasizing the importance of the ancient Romans for German and British Romanticism. It then surveys some of the reasons ...
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This concluding chapter reconsiders some of the main claims of the volume by emphasizing the importance of the ancient Romans for German and British Romanticism. It then surveys some of the reasons why subsequent scholarship and literature has tended to focus so much more on Romantic images of ancient Greece than on those of ancient Rome. From there, it illustrates the fascinating complicities, but also the tensions, between Rome and Romanticism by considering the examples of the Römische Geschichte of the German professor Barthold Georg Niebuhr (1776–1831) and the Lays of Ancient Rome by the English poet, historian, and politician Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800–59).Less
This concluding chapter reconsiders some of the main claims of the volume by emphasizing the importance of the ancient Romans for German and British Romanticism. It then surveys some of the reasons why subsequent scholarship and literature has tended to focus so much more on Romantic images of ancient Greece than on those of ancient Rome. From there, it illustrates the fascinating complicities, but also the tensions, between Rome and Romanticism by considering the examples of the Römische Geschichte of the German professor Barthold Georg Niebuhr (1776–1831) and the Lays of Ancient Rome by the English poet, historian, and politician Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800–59).
Thomas A. J. McGinn
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195161328
- eISBN:
- 9780199789344
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195161328.003.0007
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
The tax on prostitutes instituted by Caligula provides solid evidence on its economic importance and the attitude of the imperial administration to it. The scattered and fragmentary nature of this ...
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The tax on prostitutes instituted by Caligula provides solid evidence on its economic importance and the attitude of the imperial administration to it. The scattered and fragmentary nature of this evidence is given close attention here so we can extracat the true significance of the tax. This chapter examines the information given by Suetonius and Dio and discusses the motives for its introduction, methods of collection and calculation, later history and eventual abolition, and, finally, the provincial evidence for details of administration. The aim is to assess not only the success of the tax in terms of the original motives for its introduction but also the other effects of the tax, for it has some important implications for Roman public policy toward prostitution in general.Less
The tax on prostitutes instituted by Caligula provides solid evidence on its economic importance and the attitude of the imperial administration to it. The scattered and fragmentary nature of this evidence is given close attention here so we can extracat the true significance of the tax. This chapter examines the information given by Suetonius and Dio and discusses the motives for its introduction, methods of collection and calculation, later history and eventual abolition, and, finally, the provincial evidence for details of administration. The aim is to assess not only the success of the tax in terms of the original motives for its introduction but also the other effects of the tax, for it has some important implications for Roman public policy toward prostitution in general.
Thomas A. J. McGinn
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195161328
- eISBN:
- 9780199789344
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195161328.003.0005
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This chapter examines the ancient Roman law lex Iulia de adulteriis coercendis, a companion statute to the lex Iulia de maritandis ordinibus that was brought before the concilium plebes by Augustus ...
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This chapter examines the ancient Roman law lex Iulia de adulteriis coercendis, a companion statute to the lex Iulia de maritandis ordinibus that was brought before the concilium plebes by Augustus acting once more on the authority of his tribunicia potestas. The lex Iulia de adulteriis coercendis had as its principal aim the repression of those forms of non-marital sexual relations considered unacceptable by Roman society, particularly adultery. Aside from adultery and criminal fornication, there is disagreement as to what the adultery law punished. There is controversy over whether it punished incest, but the late classical jurists treat this as a separate crime, to the extent that even incestuous marriages might in some cases receive protection under the adultery statute. Before the passage of the lex Iulia, the repression of sexual misbehavior was generally conceded to the private sphere.Less
This chapter examines the ancient Roman law lex Iulia de adulteriis coercendis, a companion statute to the lex Iulia de maritandis ordinibus that was brought before the concilium plebes by Augustus acting once more on the authority of his tribunicia potestas. The lex Iulia de adulteriis coercendis had as its principal aim the repression of those forms of non-marital sexual relations considered unacceptable by Roman society, particularly adultery. Aside from adultery and criminal fornication, there is disagreement as to what the adultery law punished. There is controversy over whether it punished incest, but the late classical jurists treat this as a separate crime, to the extent that even incestuous marriages might in some cases receive protection under the adultery statute. Before the passage of the lex Iulia, the repression of sexual misbehavior was generally conceded to the private sphere.
Thomas A. J. McGinn
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195161328
- eISBN:
- 9780199789344
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195161328.003.0002
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
The disabilities that were imposed on prostitutes and pimps constitute infringements on their rights and their standing as Roman citizens. This chapter examines a segment of these: disabilities ...
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The disabilities that were imposed on prostitutes and pimps constitute infringements on their rights and their standing as Roman citizens. This chapter examines a segment of these: disabilities relating to political and social life, on the one hand, and to the operation of the courts, on the other. Citizenship is an ambiguous concept, one of whose basic functions is to discriminate. Like many such definitions ancient and modern, that of Roman citizenship was informed by certain criteria that excluded individuals from the category that it defined. The definition is of necessity complicated by the fact that, once the dividing line between citizen and non-citizen was drawn, the definition did not stop there but articulated a range of differences on the citizen side of the line.Less
The disabilities that were imposed on prostitutes and pimps constitute infringements on their rights and their standing as Roman citizens. This chapter examines a segment of these: disabilities relating to political and social life, on the one hand, and to the operation of the courts, on the other. Citizenship is an ambiguous concept, one of whose basic functions is to discriminate. Like many such definitions ancient and modern, that of Roman citizenship was informed by certain criteria that excluded individuals from the category that it defined. The definition is of necessity complicated by the fact that, once the dividing line between citizen and non-citizen was drawn, the definition did not stop there but articulated a range of differences on the citizen side of the line.
Thomas A. J. McGinn
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195161328
- eISBN:
- 9780199789344
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195161328.001.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This book is a study of the legal rules affecting the practice of female prostitution at Rome from approximately 200 BC to AD 250. It examines the formation and precise content of the legal norms ...
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This book is a study of the legal rules affecting the practice of female prostitution at Rome from approximately 200 BC to AD 250. It examines the formation and precise content of the legal norms developed for prostitution and those engaged in this profession, with close attention to their social context. The book explores the “fit” between the law system and the socio-economic reality, shedding light on important questions concerning marginal groups, marriage, sexual behavior, the family, slavery, and citizen status, particularly that of women.Less
This book is a study of the legal rules affecting the practice of female prostitution at Rome from approximately 200 BC to AD 250. It examines the formation and precise content of the legal norms developed for prostitution and those engaged in this profession, with close attention to their social context. The book explores the “fit” between the law system and the socio-economic reality, shedding light on important questions concerning marginal groups, marriage, sexual behavior, the family, slavery, and citizen status, particularly that of women.
Mark Golden and Peter Toohey
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748613199
- eISBN:
- 9780748651016
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748613199.003.0021
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, European History: BCE to 500CE
This book offers a selection of scholarship on sex and gender in ancient Greece and ancient Rome, beginning from the end of the eighteenth century, a time of turmoil and ferment. The model of ...
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This book offers a selection of scholarship on sex and gender in ancient Greece and ancient Rome, beginning from the end of the eighteenth century, a time of turmoil and ferment. The model of separate spheres – women relegated to private sphere, men to public sphere – never worked particularly well for Rome. Men, especially citizen men, occupied the public sphere of the community, both literally – they alone ranged freely throughout the Greek and Roman worlds – and metaphorically, as participants in politics, litigants in courts, theater audiences. Women, contrariwise, were restricted to the home. Meanwhile, sex occupied a separate sphere of its own, sometimes the province of specialists in ancient medicine, at others the pastime of collectors of curiosa, of investigators into sexual positions, sex sellers, the erotic vocabulary. These fields have been transformed by the work of the past forty years, first Kenneth Dover's, then, following in his footsteps, that of Michel Foucault. This book explores sexuality and gender in the ancient world, focusing on how the roles and spheres of the sexes were divided.Less
This book offers a selection of scholarship on sex and gender in ancient Greece and ancient Rome, beginning from the end of the eighteenth century, a time of turmoil and ferment. The model of separate spheres – women relegated to private sphere, men to public sphere – never worked particularly well for Rome. Men, especially citizen men, occupied the public sphere of the community, both literally – they alone ranged freely throughout the Greek and Roman worlds – and metaphorically, as participants in politics, litigants in courts, theater audiences. Women, contrariwise, were restricted to the home. Meanwhile, sex occupied a separate sphere of its own, sometimes the province of specialists in ancient medicine, at others the pastime of collectors of curiosa, of investigators into sexual positions, sex sellers, the erotic vocabulary. These fields have been transformed by the work of the past forty years, first Kenneth Dover's, then, following in his footsteps, that of Michel Foucault. This book explores sexuality and gender in the ancient world, focusing on how the roles and spheres of the sexes were divided.
Bertrand Lancon
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748612390
- eISBN:
- 9780748651009
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748612390.001.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, European History: BCE to 500CE
This is an account of life in ancient Rome from the end of the third century to the beginning of the seventh. At the beginning of the period Rome was an imperial power and the centre of a classical ...
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This is an account of life in ancient Rome from the end of the third century to the beginning of the seventh. At the beginning of the period Rome was an imperial power and the centre of a classical civilisation, albeit with a growing Christian minority. By its end, Rome was a Papal power, the centre of western Christianity – the Pantheon itself was being transformed into a church. The book charts the change in terms of its effect on the city and its environs (the destruction of temples, the building of St Peter’s), the nature and consequences of Vandal and Gothic invasions, the survival and conversion of the nobility and the plebes, and the long struggle between ancient religions and rituals and Christianity and its consequences for the social and physical fabric of the city. There are chapters on the family and life cycle, the changing measurement of time (a crucial cultural revolution), education, the final years of the games, and the early years of the papacy. The book provides a social history of the city of Rome during a period when its role as the centre of western civilisation was transformed yet, against considerable odds, maintained.Less
This is an account of life in ancient Rome from the end of the third century to the beginning of the seventh. At the beginning of the period Rome was an imperial power and the centre of a classical civilisation, albeit with a growing Christian minority. By its end, Rome was a Papal power, the centre of western Christianity – the Pantheon itself was being transformed into a church. The book charts the change in terms of its effect on the city and its environs (the destruction of temples, the building of St Peter’s), the nature and consequences of Vandal and Gothic invasions, the survival and conversion of the nobility and the plebes, and the long struggle between ancient religions and rituals and Christianity and its consequences for the social and physical fabric of the city. There are chapters on the family and life cycle, the changing measurement of time (a crucial cultural revolution), education, the final years of the games, and the early years of the papacy. The book provides a social history of the city of Rome during a period when its role as the centre of western civilisation was transformed yet, against considerable odds, maintained.
Anthony Corbeill
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691163222
- eISBN:
- 9781400852468
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691163222.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, Ancient History / Archaeology
This book presents some evidence from ancient Rome to dispute the notion that the grammatical gender of inanimate objects is a convenient linguistic convention, having no correspondence with any sort ...
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This book presents some evidence from ancient Rome to dispute the notion that the grammatical gender of inanimate objects is a convenient linguistic convention, having no correspondence with any sort of imagined sexual characteristics of those objects in the real world. It argues that in the world of Latin grammatical gender, the sex and sexuality behind a given gender was always available for exploitation by the learned speaker. The book provides a historical perspective to the ongoing debate over the extent to which the structure of language affects perception of the world. Using the stable data of the Latin language and Latin literature, it examines the consistent overlap, and even occasional identification, of grammatical gender with biological sex by speakers in ancient Rome, and shows that this overlap finds an analogue in the Latin nouns commonly used to denote “gender” and “sex.”Less
This book presents some evidence from ancient Rome to dispute the notion that the grammatical gender of inanimate objects is a convenient linguistic convention, having no correspondence with any sort of imagined sexual characteristics of those objects in the real world. It argues that in the world of Latin grammatical gender, the sex and sexuality behind a given gender was always available for exploitation by the learned speaker. The book provides a historical perspective to the ongoing debate over the extent to which the structure of language affects perception of the world. Using the stable data of the Latin language and Latin literature, it examines the consistent overlap, and even occasional identification, of grammatical gender with biological sex by speakers in ancient Rome, and shows that this overlap finds an analogue in the Latin nouns commonly used to denote “gender” and “sex.”
Anthony Corbeill
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691163222
- eISBN:
- 9781400852468
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691163222.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, Ancient History / Archaeology
This chapter examines selected instances of grammatical gender-bending that occur in extant poetic texts, for most of which instances scholars both ancient and modern have largely chosen not to offer ...
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This chapter examines selected instances of grammatical gender-bending that occur in extant poetic texts, for most of which instances scholars both ancient and modern have largely chosen not to offer explanations. The passages chosen are meant to demonstrate the potential range of approaches that the poets could apply to the manipulation of grammatical gender. The chapter begins with a survey of visual evidence from antiquity to demonstrate that, with only apparent exceptions, personifications in ancient Rome are depicted with the sex that corresponds to the grammatical gender of the noun that describes them. It then considers poetic texts that provide various examples in which a poet plays with the notion of personification through the exploitation of a noun's gender. It concludes with an analysis of Catullus 6, where sensitivity to grammatical gender contributes to the riddling nature of the poem.Less
This chapter examines selected instances of grammatical gender-bending that occur in extant poetic texts, for most of which instances scholars both ancient and modern have largely chosen not to offer explanations. The passages chosen are meant to demonstrate the potential range of approaches that the poets could apply to the manipulation of grammatical gender. The chapter begins with a survey of visual evidence from antiquity to demonstrate that, with only apparent exceptions, personifications in ancient Rome are depicted with the sex that corresponds to the grammatical gender of the noun that describes them. It then considers poetic texts that provide various examples in which a poet plays with the notion of personification through the exploitation of a noun's gender. It concludes with an analysis of Catullus 6, where sensitivity to grammatical gender contributes to the riddling nature of the poem.
Kathryn Lomas
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780198152804
- eISBN:
- 9780191715143
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198152804.003.0004
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Prose and Writers: Classical, Early, and Medieval
In the aftermath of the bitter Social War between ancient Rome and the Italians, ending in the extension of Roman citizenship to all Italians, the competing claims of existing local loyalties and the ...
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In the aftermath of the bitter Social War between ancient Rome and the Italians, ending in the extension of Roman citizenship to all Italians, the competing claims of existing local loyalties and the new demands made by integration into the Roman State, created an intense debate amongst the Italian nobility about the nature of regional identity and how to reconcile this with the profound changes in the relationship of Italian states to Rome. This chapter examines two interconnected themes: first, the Italians who were defended by Cicero or otherwise appear prominently in his forensic speeches, their background and the municipalities from which they originated, and Cicero's connections with them; second, how the Italian clients are characterised in the speeches, the role they play, and what this implies about Roman and Italian identity in the generation after the Social War.Less
In the aftermath of the bitter Social War between ancient Rome and the Italians, ending in the extension of Roman citizenship to all Italians, the competing claims of existing local loyalties and the new demands made by integration into the Roman State, created an intense debate amongst the Italian nobility about the nature of regional identity and how to reconcile this with the profound changes in the relationship of Italian states to Rome. This chapter examines two interconnected themes: first, the Italians who were defended by Cicero or otherwise appear prominently in his forensic speeches, their background and the municipalities from which they originated, and Cicero's connections with them; second, how the Italian clients are characterised in the speeches, the role they play, and what this implies about Roman and Italian identity in the generation after the Social War.
Richard Bonney
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198204022
- eISBN:
- 9780191676093
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198204022.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, Economic History
This introductory chapter sets out the purpose of the book, which is to study the rise of the ‘fiscal state’ in Europe through a series of case studies. It also considers the effectiveness of the ...
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This introductory chapter sets out the purpose of the book, which is to study the rise of the ‘fiscal state’ in Europe through a series of case studies. It also considers the effectiveness of the fiscal system of Ancient Rome, and the extent to which the period between the fall of Rome and the gradual emergence of settled dynastic monarchies after c.1000 had led to fiscal reversion.Less
This introductory chapter sets out the purpose of the book, which is to study the rise of the ‘fiscal state’ in Europe through a series of case studies. It also considers the effectiveness of the fiscal system of Ancient Rome, and the extent to which the period between the fall of Rome and the gradual emergence of settled dynastic monarchies after c.1000 had led to fiscal reversion.
John T. Hamilton
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691157528
- eISBN:
- 9781400846474
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691157528.003.0004
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
What does the term “security” express? What are or have been its semantic functions: its shifting cultural connotations and its divergent discursive values? This chapter examines the figures and ...
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What does the term “security” express? What are or have been its semantic functions: its shifting cultural connotations and its divergent discursive values? This chapter examines the figures and metaphors that have been deployed to think about security across the ages. It outlines the main stations along the word's complex itinerary through historical usage. It begins with a cursory overview that marks the major turning points of this history, beginning with ancient Rome and concluding with seventeenth-century Europe. Among the topics covered is the positive sense of security that established its position as a central topic in political philosophy in the work of Thomas Hobbes. Throughout, the affirmation of security as a good is fundamentally connected with the power of sovereignty to alleviate the cares and concerns of its subjects. The state emerges as an institution that protects its citizens from all varieties of existential threats, from external aggression as well as from internal discord.Less
What does the term “security” express? What are or have been its semantic functions: its shifting cultural connotations and its divergent discursive values? This chapter examines the figures and metaphors that have been deployed to think about security across the ages. It outlines the main stations along the word's complex itinerary through historical usage. It begins with a cursory overview that marks the major turning points of this history, beginning with ancient Rome and concluding with seventeenth-century Europe. Among the topics covered is the positive sense of security that established its position as a central topic in political philosophy in the work of Thomas Hobbes. Throughout, the affirmation of security as a good is fundamentally connected with the power of sovereignty to alleviate the cares and concerns of its subjects. The state emerges as an institution that protects its citizens from all varieties of existential threats, from external aggression as well as from internal discord.
Jörg Rüpke
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9781501704703
- eISBN:
- 9781501706264
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9781501704703.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion in the Ancient World
Was religious practice in ancient Rome cultic and hostile to individual expression? Or was there, rather, considerable latitude for individual initiative and creativity? This book demonstrates that ...
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Was religious practice in ancient Rome cultic and hostile to individual expression? Or was there, rather, considerable latitude for individual initiative and creativity? This book demonstrates that it was a lived religion with individual appropriations evident at the heart of such rituals as praying, dedicating, making vows, and reading. The book dismantles previous approaches that depicted religious practice as uniform and static. Juxtaposing very different, strategic, and even subversive forms of individuality with traditions, their normative claims, and their institutional protections, this text highlights the dynamic character of Rome's religious institutions and traditions. In the view expressed in this book, lived ancient religion is as much about variations or even outright deviance as it is about attempts and failures to establish or change rules and roles and to communicate them via priesthoods, practices related to images or classified as magic, and literary practices. The text analyzes observations of religious experience by contemporary authors including Propertius, Ovid, and the author of the “Shepherd of Hermas.” These authors, in very different ways, reflect on individual appropriation of religion among their contemporaries, and they offer these reflections to their readership or audiences. The book also concentrates on the ways in which literary texts and inscriptions informed the practice of rituals.Less
Was religious practice in ancient Rome cultic and hostile to individual expression? Or was there, rather, considerable latitude for individual initiative and creativity? This book demonstrates that it was a lived religion with individual appropriations evident at the heart of such rituals as praying, dedicating, making vows, and reading. The book dismantles previous approaches that depicted religious practice as uniform and static. Juxtaposing very different, strategic, and even subversive forms of individuality with traditions, their normative claims, and their institutional protections, this text highlights the dynamic character of Rome's religious institutions and traditions. In the view expressed in this book, lived ancient religion is as much about variations or even outright deviance as it is about attempts and failures to establish or change rules and roles and to communicate them via priesthoods, practices related to images or classified as magic, and literary practices. The text analyzes observations of religious experience by contemporary authors including Propertius, Ovid, and the author of the “Shepherd of Hermas.” These authors, in very different ways, reflect on individual appropriation of religion among their contemporaries, and they offer these reflections to their readership or audiences. The book also concentrates on the ways in which literary texts and inscriptions informed the practice of rituals.
Thomas A. J. McGinn
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195161328
- eISBN:
- 9780199789344
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195161328.003.0010
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This conclusion reviews the topics discussed. Firstly it presents an analytical summary of the findings contained in all the chapters and then in brings together a synthetic conclusion for the book.
This conclusion reviews the topics discussed. Firstly it presents an analytical summary of the findings contained in all the chapters and then in brings together a synthetic conclusion for the book.
Jonathan Powell and Jeremy Paterson
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780198152804
- eISBN:
- 9780191715143
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198152804.003.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Prose and Writers: Classical, Early, and Medieval
Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC) was a competent in ancient Rome, acknowledged as the leading Roman advocate of his time. According to Quintilian, he was said to be king of the lawcourts, a ...
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Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC) was a competent in ancient Rome, acknowledged as the leading Roman advocate of his time. According to Quintilian, he was said to be king of the lawcourts, a reputation that could not have been achieved and maintained without continuous success in individual cases. Cicero aimed to win, and much of the time, he did. This book considers Cicero's forensic speeches as examples of advocacy. It compares ancient advocacy with modern advocacy and looks at Cicero and the morality of advocacy, the Roman courts, advocacy in Cicero's career, rhetoric, argument, and style, and publication of Cicero's speeches.Less
Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC) was a competent in ancient Rome, acknowledged as the leading Roman advocate of his time. According to Quintilian, he was said to be king of the lawcourts, a reputation that could not have been achieved and maintained without continuous success in individual cases. Cicero aimed to win, and much of the time, he did. This book considers Cicero's forensic speeches as examples of advocacy. It compares ancient advocacy with modern advocacy and looks at Cicero and the morality of advocacy, the Roman courts, advocacy in Cicero's career, rhetoric, argument, and style, and publication of Cicero's speeches.
