T.P. Wiseman
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780859898225
- eISBN:
- 9781781385500
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9780859898225.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Ancient History / Archaeology
The earliest evidence for the occupation of the site of Rome dates to the 13th century BC; the earliest evidence for written literature at Rome dates to the third century BC. How can we ever be in a ...
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The earliest evidence for the occupation of the site of Rome dates to the 13th century BC; the earliest evidence for written literature at Rome dates to the third century BC. How can we ever be in a position to understand the intervening thousand years of Rome's prehistory± Since our earliest historical sources date from the first century BC, it is obvious that neither they nor their earliest sources could have had authentic knowledge of early Rome. The essays in this book address the problem both directly and indirectly, firstly by scrutinising the material our sources present, in the hope of identifying genuinely early elements; secondly by analysing the evidence for institutions that may presuppose early conditions, in particular religious rituals and the stories told to account for them; thirdly by focussing on the origins and development of the annual ‘stage games’ (ludi scaenici), which not only entertained the Roman People but also taught them what they needed to know about their gods and the deeds of their ancestors; and finally by exploring how Roman history-writing first developed, to try to understand some of the ways in which the various quasi-historical narratives of early Rome may have been constructed.Less
The earliest evidence for the occupation of the site of Rome dates to the 13th century BC; the earliest evidence for written literature at Rome dates to the third century BC. How can we ever be in a position to understand the intervening thousand years of Rome's prehistory± Since our earliest historical sources date from the first century BC, it is obvious that neither they nor their earliest sources could have had authentic knowledge of early Rome. The essays in this book address the problem both directly and indirectly, firstly by scrutinising the material our sources present, in the hope of identifying genuinely early elements; secondly by analysing the evidence for institutions that may presuppose early conditions, in particular religious rituals and the stories told to account for them; thirdly by focussing on the origins and development of the annual ‘stage games’ (ludi scaenici), which not only entertained the Roman People but also taught them what they needed to know about their gods and the deeds of their ancestors; and finally by exploring how Roman history-writing first developed, to try to understand some of the ways in which the various quasi-historical narratives of early Rome may have been constructed.
T.P. Wiseman
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780859898225
- eISBN:
- 9781781385500
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9780859898225.003.0009
- Subject:
- History, Ancient History / Archaeology
Among the stage games (ludi scaenici) that in the late republic accounted for about 49 days of theatre performance each year, the ludi Florales were famously licentious, involving actresses ...
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Among the stage games (ludi scaenici) that in the late republic accounted for about 49 days of theatre performance each year, the ludi Florales were famously licentious, involving actresses performing naked. Three examples are offered of stories that may have originated as scenarios for Flora's games: the escape of Cloelia and her fellow-hostages by swimming the Tiber, as told by Dionysius and Plutarch; the invasion of the Good Goddess's precinct by the thirsty Hercules, as told by Propertius; and the story of the nymph Lara, mother of the twin Lares, as told by Ovid. The festivals of the Good Goddess and of the Lares both fell on 1 May, during the ludi Florales (28 April – 2 May).Less
Among the stage games (ludi scaenici) that in the late republic accounted for about 49 days of theatre performance each year, the ludi Florales were famously licentious, involving actresses performing naked. Three examples are offered of stories that may have originated as scenarios for Flora's games: the escape of Cloelia and her fellow-hostages by swimming the Tiber, as told by Dionysius and Plutarch; the invasion of the Good Goddess's precinct by the thirsty Hercules, as told by Propertius; and the story of the nymph Lara, mother of the twin Lares, as told by Ovid. The festivals of the Good Goddess and of the Lares both fell on 1 May, during the ludi Florales (28 April – 2 May).
T. P. Wiseman
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780198718352
- eISBN:
- 9780191787645
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198718352.003.0003
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
Attic, Apulian, Campanian, and Etruscan red-figure vase painting, and engraved bronze mirrors and cistae from Latium, attest the cultural milieu of fourth-century Italy and the ubiquity of its ...
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Attic, Apulian, Campanian, and Etruscan red-figure vase painting, and engraved bronze mirrors and cistae from Latium, attest the cultural milieu of fourth-century Italy and the ubiquity of its Dionysiac imagery. The ‘tragic fooleries’ (phlyakes) of Rhinthon of Tarentum and Blaisos of Capri, known as ‘Italian comedy’, may have featured in the Romans stage-games (ludi scaenici), for which contemporary evidence—from Fabius Pictor, quoted by Dionysius of Halicarnassus—becomes available in the late third century. Meanwhile, the defeat of Carthage in 241 and the establishment of relations with Ptolemaic Egypt made it possible to preserve poetry and performance on papyrus; the beginning of ‘Latin literature’, in the plays and poems of Livius Andronicus, was evidently influenced by the collection of texts in the Alexandrian library. But texts were not widely circulated. Naevius’ Bellum Punicum evidently existed only in the poet’s own prompt-copy, as was probably the norm.Less
Attic, Apulian, Campanian, and Etruscan red-figure vase painting, and engraved bronze mirrors and cistae from Latium, attest the cultural milieu of fourth-century Italy and the ubiquity of its Dionysiac imagery. The ‘tragic fooleries’ (phlyakes) of Rhinthon of Tarentum and Blaisos of Capri, known as ‘Italian comedy’, may have featured in the Romans stage-games (ludi scaenici), for which contemporary evidence—from Fabius Pictor, quoted by Dionysius of Halicarnassus—becomes available in the late third century. Meanwhile, the defeat of Carthage in 241 and the establishment of relations with Ptolemaic Egypt made it possible to preserve poetry and performance on papyrus; the beginning of ‘Latin literature’, in the plays and poems of Livius Andronicus, was evidently influenced by the collection of texts in the Alexandrian library. But texts were not widely circulated. Naevius’ Bellum Punicum evidently existed only in the poet’s own prompt-copy, as was probably the norm.
T. P. Wiseman
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780198718352
- eISBN:
- 9780191787645
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198718352.001.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
The book proposes the following hypothesis: that non-technical literature in the Roman world, both poetry and prose, was composed in the first instance for oral delivery to a large public audience, ...
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The book proposes the following hypothesis: that non-technical literature in the Roman world, both poetry and prose, was composed in the first instance for oral delivery to a large public audience, and that the copying and circulation of written texts was only a secondary stage in the ‘publication’ process. The hypothesis is tested by a systematic survey of the evidence for a thousand years of Roman history, from the formation of Rome as a city-state (late seventh century BC) to the final establishment of a Christian culture (late fourth century AD). For the first four centuries of this period the contemporary evidence is necessarily indirect, by analogy with archaic Greek society and by inference from the iconography of terracotta reliefs, painted pottery and engraved bronzes; but once literary texts become available about 200 BC, close reading provides increasingly reliable information about the circumstances of literary production and dissemination. Particular attention is paid to the annual ‘stage-games’ (ludi scaenici), which enabled authors to reach an audience notionally coextensive with the Roman People. No clear distinction should be drawn between literature and drama, and some literary genres, in particular satire and ‘epyllion’, are best understood as part of a performance tradition involving actors and dancers. The whole argument treats literary history as part of the political and social realities of Roman popular culture, and examines the effect of the creation of large permanent theatres in Rome in the first century BC.Less
The book proposes the following hypothesis: that non-technical literature in the Roman world, both poetry and prose, was composed in the first instance for oral delivery to a large public audience, and that the copying and circulation of written texts was only a secondary stage in the ‘publication’ process. The hypothesis is tested by a systematic survey of the evidence for a thousand years of Roman history, from the formation of Rome as a city-state (late seventh century BC) to the final establishment of a Christian culture (late fourth century AD). For the first four centuries of this period the contemporary evidence is necessarily indirect, by analogy with archaic Greek society and by inference from the iconography of terracotta reliefs, painted pottery and engraved bronzes; but once literary texts become available about 200 BC, close reading provides increasingly reliable information about the circumstances of literary production and dissemination. Particular attention is paid to the annual ‘stage-games’ (ludi scaenici), which enabled authors to reach an audience notionally coextensive with the Roman People. No clear distinction should be drawn between literature and drama, and some literary genres, in particular satire and ‘epyllion’, are best understood as part of a performance tradition involving actors and dancers. The whole argument treats literary history as part of the political and social realities of Roman popular culture, and examines the effect of the creation of large permanent theatres in Rome in the first century BC.
