Compitum

Guido Magli, Antonio César González-García, Juan Antonio Belmonte Aviles et Elio Antonello (éd.), Archaeoastronomy in the Roman World, Bâle, 2019.

Éditeur : Springer International Publishing AG
205 pages
ISBN : 978-3-319-97007-3
104 €

This book explores the insights that Cultural Astronomy provides into the classical Roman world by unveiling the ways in which the Romans made use of their knowledge concerning the heavens, and by shedding new light on the interactions between astronomy and heritage in ancient Roman culture. Leading experts in the field present fascinating information on how and why the Romans referred to the sky when deciding upon the orientation of particular monuments, temples, tombs and even urban layouts. Attention is also devoted to questions of broader interest, such as the contribution that religious interpretation of the sky made in the assimilation of conquered peoples.
When one considers astronomy in the Roman world it is customary to think of the work and models of Ptolemy, and perhaps the Julian calendar or even the sighting of the Star of Bethlehem. However, like many other peoples in antiquity, the Romans interacted with the heavens in deeper ways that exerted a profound influence on their culture. This book highlights the need to take this complexity into account in various areas of research and will appeal to all those who wish to learn more about the application of astronomy in the lives and architecture of the Romans.

Source : Springer

Michael Winterbottom, Papers on Quintilian and Ancient Declamation. Edited by Antonio Stramaglia, Francesca Romana Nocchi, and Giuseppe Russo, Oxford, 2019.

Éditeur : Oxford University Press
400 pages
ISBN : 9780198836056
$ 115.00


Declamation - the practice of training young men to speak in public by setting them to compose and deliver speeches on fictional legal cases - was central to the Greek and Roman educational systems over many centuries and has been the subject of a recent explosion of scholarly interest. The work of Michael Winterbottom has been seminal in this regard, and the present volume brings together a broad selection of his scholarly articles and reviews published since 1964, creating an authoritative and accessible resource for this burgeoning field of study.

Simon Lentzsch, Roma victa. Von Roms Umgang mit Niederlagen, Stuttgart, 2019.

Éditeur : JB Metzler Verlag
484 pages
ISBN : 978-3-476-04831-8
58 €

Die Geschichte der römischen Republik war eine militärische Erfolgsgeschichte. Texte, Monumente und Rituale erinnerten an die Siege Roms, und diese Betonung der eigenen Triumphe bildete eine Grundlage des Führungsanspruchs der römischen Nobilität. Allerdings erlitten die Römer in der Zeit der Republik auch zahlreiche schwere Niederlagen. Die Studie untersucht erstmals umfassend, wie Roms Niederlagen gegen Kelten, Samniten und Karthager in der Geschichtskultur der Republik und frühen Kaiserzeit erklärt und gedeutet wurden. Zum Vorschein kommt so eine spezifisch römische Kultur des Umgangs mit Niederlagen, die den Römern half, Sinn in den Geschichten ihrer Misserfolge zu finden und ihnen einen Platz in der eigenen Vergangenheit zuzuweisen.

Source : Springer

Matthew P. Loar, Sarah C. Murray et Stefano Rebeggiani (éd.), The Cultural History of Augustan Rome. Texts, Monuments, and Topography, Cambridge, 2019.

Éditeur : Cambridge University Press
204 pages
ISBN : 9781108480604
£ 75.00

This volume wades into the fertile waters of Augustan Rome and the interrelationship of its literature, monuments, and urban landscape. It focused on a pair of questions: how can we productively probe the myriad points of contact between textual and material evidence to write viable cultural histories of the ancient Greek and Roman worlds, and what are the limits of these kinds of analysis? The studies gathered here range from monumental absences to monumental texts, from canonical Roman authors such as Cicero, Livy, and Ovid to iconic Roman monuments such as the Rostra, Pantheon, and Solar Meridian of Augustus. Each chapter examines what the texts in, on, and about the city tell us about how the ancients thought about, interacted with, and responded to their urban-monumental landscape. The result is a volume whose methodological and heuristic techniques will be compelling and useful for all scholars of the ancient Mediterranean world.

Source : Cambridge University Press

Hans-Joachim Gehrke et Helmut Schneider (éd.), Geschichte der Antike. Ein Studienbuch. 5. Auflage, Stuttgart, 2019.

Éditeur : JB Metzler Verlag
672 pages
ISBN : 978-3-476-04761-8
29 €

Alles Wissenswerte zur Geschichte der Griechen und Römer. Vom Alten Orient bis zur Spätantike zeichnet das anschaulich aufbereitete Studienbuch die politischen, gesellschaftlichen, rechtlichen, wirtschaftlichen und kulturellen Entwicklungen nach. Die Beziehungen der Griechen zum Vorderen Orient und zu Ägypten, die Rolle der Etrusker, der Phönizier und Karthagos erhalten besondere Aufmerksamkeit. Im Text sind die Nummern des ergänzenden Quellenbandes verzeichnet für eine optimale parallele Benutzung. Abgerundet wird das Werk durch den aktuellen und umfangreichen Anhang, unter anderen mit Zeittafel, Angaben zu Maßen, Geldsystemen und zum Geldwert, mit Quelleneditionen, Abkürzungen, Bibliografie, Glossar, Stammtafeln, Karten und einer Aufstellung römischer Kaiser.

Source : Springer

Sander M. Goldberg (éd.), Fragmentary Republican Latin, Volume II: Ennius, Dramatic Fragments. Minor Works, Cambridge (Ma), 2018.

Éditeur : Harvard University Press
Collection : Loeb Classical Library 537
450 pages
ISBN : 9780674997141
21 €

Quintus Ennius (239–169 BC), widely regarded as the father of Roman literature, was instrumental in creating a new Roman literary identity and inspired major developments in Roman religion, social organization, and popular culture. Brought in 204 to Rome in the entourage of Cato, Ennius took up residence on the Aventine and, fluent in his native Oscan as well as Greek and Latin, became one of the first teachers to introduce Greek learning to Romans through public readings of Greek and Latin texts.
Best known for domesticating Greek epic and drama, Ennius also pursued a wide range of literary endeavors and found success in almost all of them. His tragedies were long regarded as classics of the genre, and his Annals gave Roman epic its canonical shape and pioneered many of its most characteristic features. Other works included philosophical works in prose and verse, epigrams, didactic poems, dramas on Roman themes (praetextae), and occasional poetry that informed the later development of satire.