Samedi, 02 Juin 2018 16:13
Florence Bertholet
Chiara Croci et Vladimir Ivanovici (éd.), Entre terre et ciel. Les édifices à coupole et leur décor entre l'Antiquité tardive et le Moyen Âge, Lausanne, 2018.
Éditeur : Université de Lausanne
Collection : Etudes de lettres
188 pages
ISBN : 978-2-940331-68-0
22 CHF / 20 €
Couronnement des édifices les plus prestigieux, charnière entre l'espace architectural et le monde céleste, la coupole s'avère être un «système» crucial dans l'art de l'Antiquité tardive et du haut Moyen Âge. Signe de commandes très distinguées, elle caractérise des bâtiments de grande importance – mausolées, martyria et memoria, baptistères, églises impériales, chapelles palatines – et incarne des défis architecturaux et décoratifs majeurs. En raison de la complexité de leurs problématiques, les bâtiments à coupole ont rarement fait l'objet d'études d'ensemble. Durant ces quinze dernières années, toutefois, d'importantes recherches ont révolutionné l'état des connaissances d'une partie de ces bâtiments et ont fondé les présupposés d'une nouvelle étude d'ensemble. Dans ce volume anthologique, les bâtiments à coupole majeurs de l'Antiquité tardive et du haut Moyen Âge sont étudiés selon des perspectives variées, afin d'éclaircir la structure et la décoration de ces bâtiments par rapport à leur fonction et d'offrir ainsi une ouverture sur un tournant historique crucial.
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Samedi, 02 Juin 2018 08:15
Guillaume Flamerie de Lachapelle
Caitlin C. Gillespie, Boudica: Warrior Woman of Roman Britain, Oxford, 2018.
Éditeur : Oxford University Press
216 pages
ISBN : 9780190609078
47,99 £
In AD 60/61, Rome almost lost the province of Britain to a woman. Boudica, wife of the client king Prasutagus, fomented a rebellion that proved catastrophic for Camulodunum (Colchester), Londinium (London), and Verulamium (St Albans), destroyed part of a Roman legion, and caused the deaths of an untold number of veterans, families, soldiers, and Britons. Yet with one decisive defeat, her vision of freedom was destroyed, and the Iceni never rose again. Boudica: Warrior Woman of Roman Britain introduces readers to the life and literary importance of Boudica through juxtaposing her different literary characterizations with those of other women and rebel leaders. This study focuses on our earliest literary evidence, the accounts of Tacitus and Cassius Dio, and investigates their narratives alongside material evidence of late Iron Age and early Roman Britain. Throughout the book, Caitlin Gillespie draws comparative sketches between Boudica and the positive and negative examples with which readers associate her, including the prophetess Veleda, the client queen Cartimandua, and the rebel Caratacus. Literary comparisons assist in the understanding of Boudica as a barbarian, queen, mother, commander in war, and leader of revolt. Within the ancient texts, Boudica is also used as an internal commentator on the failures of the emperor Nero, and her revolt epitomizes ongoing conflicts of gender and power at the end of the Juilio-Claudian era. Both literary and archaeological sources point towards broader issues inherent in the clash between Roman and native cultures. Boudica's unique ability to unify disparate groups of Britons cemented her place in the history of Roman Britain. While details of her life remain elusive, her literary character still has more to say.
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Vendredi, 01 Juin 2018 08:08
Guillaume Flamerie de Lachapelle
Daniel Hoyer, Money, Culture, and Well-Being in Rome's Economic Development, 0-275 CE, Leyde, 2018.
Éditeur : Brill
Collection : Mnemosyne, Supplements
xiii, 215 pages
ISBN : 978-90-04-35828-7
89 €
The Roman Empire has long held pride of place in the collective memory of scholars, politicians, and the general public in the western world. In Money, Culture, and Well-Being in Rome's Economic Development, 0-275 CE, Daniel Hoyer offers a new approach to explain Rome's remarkable development.
Hoyer surveys a broad selection of material to see how this diverse body of evidence can be reconciled to produce a single, coherent picture of the Roman economy. Engaging with social scientific and economic theory, Hoyer highlights key issues in economic history, placing the Roman Empire in its rightful place as a special—but not wholly unique—example of a successful preindustrial state.
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Mercredi, 30 Mai 2018 20:16
Bram Roosen
Giorgio Bonamente, Roberto Cristofoli et Carlo Santini (éd.), Properzio fra repubblica e principato, Assisi - Turnhout, 2018.
Éditeur : Brepols
Collection : Studi di poesia latina - Studies in Latin Poetry 21
423 pages
ISBN : 978-2-503-58125-5
110 €
The 2016 conference's aim was to place Propertius in context. The papers focused on the compatibility between the choice of the elegiac form and the political framework, with special emphasis on Propertius' relationship to Tullus before his approach to Maecenas and the more direct contact with Augustus subsequent to Maecenas' removal. While not overstepping the bounds of the genre, the poet was able to contrive a set of references to the princeps and the political reality, thus originally achieving a balanced attitude. It is impossible, however, to grasp any growing alignment with Augustan policies. Rather, the recognition of the collective perception of the turning point marked by the victory of Actium, though within the patterns typical of the elegiac genre, can be perceived.
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Lundi, 28 Mai 2018 08:17
Jacques Elfassi
Milena Minkova, Florilegium recentioris Latinitatis, Leuven, 2018.
Éditeur : Leuven University Press
Collection : Supplementa Humanistica Lovaniensia, 43
304 pages
ISBN : 9789462701250
59,50 €
A comprehensive critical anthology of Neo-Latin texts.
Neo-Latin, a truly interdisciplinary and multicultural field of study, has become especially relevant in today's global age. Latin does not belong to any particular country, but to the Republic of Letters with its high aims and universal appeal. A comprehensive critical anthology of Neo-Latin would thus be useful in the classroom, both in secondary school and on university level, as well as for independent scholars. The present volume is comprised of about fifty texts pertaining to geographical areas all around the world, spanning the 14th to the 20th centuries, written in a wide range of genres by authors of varied backgrounds, and touching on topics of dramatic importance for today. The language of the anthology is Latin, in accordance with the universality it aims to represent by its selection of texts.
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Samedi, 26 Mai 2018 14:03
Marc Cholvy
Efthymios Rizos (éd.), New Cities in Late Antiquity. Documents and Archaeology, Turnhout, 2017.
Éditeur : Brepols
Collection : Bibliothèque de l'Antiquité Tardive (BAT 35)
297 pages
ISBN : 978-2-503-55551-5
80 €
The beginning of Late Antiquity was marked by the foundation of Constantinople, the largest city ever founded by the Romans. Yet this was also the dawn of an era of hardships which undermined the ability, and perhaps need, of the Roman Empire to found new cities in its provinces. Active urbanisation after the late third century AD may appear paradoxical or unexpected to those who associate Late Antiquity with urban recession. Yet new cities continued to be founded, asserting the urban character of the late Roman state and society, which knew no better way of ruling and defending their lands than through cities. Foundations, re-foundations, relocations, or expansions of cities are particularly important events in urban history, encapsulating with clarity the realities, needs, and ideals of urbanism in each historical period. What was necessary for a settlement in order to be called a city? What were the functions a city was expected to perform? For the late antique period, answers to these questions tend to be sought for in the transformations of pre-existing Greco-Roman urban environments.
This volume offers a different perspective on the debate, exploring the application of late antique urban ideals ‘on virgin ground'. Based on recent archaeological fieldwork and synthetic studies, twenty papers outline the state of research and discuss the motives and products of city-building from the late third to the seventh centuries AD.
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