Compitum

Jussi Rantala, The Ludi Saeculares of Septimius Severus: The Ideologies of a New Roman Empire, Londres, 2017.

Éditeur : Routledge
220 pages
ISBN : 9781138290143
95 £

This is the first monograph to examine in detail the Ludi Saeculares (Secular Games) of Septimius Severus and argues that the games represented a radical shift from Antonine imperial ideology. To garner popular support and to legitimise his power, Severus conducted an intensive propaganda campaign, but how did he use the ludi to strengthen his power, and what were the messages he conveyed through them? The central theme is ritual, and the idea of ritual as a process that builds collective identity. The games symbolised the new Severan political and social vision and they embodied the idea of Roman identity and the image of Roman society which the emperor wished to promote. The programme of the games was recorded in a stone inscription and this text is analysed in detail, translated into English and contextualised in the socio-political aims of Septimius Severus.

Pieter De Leemans et Michèle Goyens (éd.), Translation and Authority - Authorities in Translation, Turnhout, 2016.

Éditeur : Brepols
Collection : The Medieval Translator (TMT 16)
391 pages
ISBN : 978-2-503-56676-4
85 €

The question about the relation between medieval translation practices and authority is a complex and multifaceted one. Depending on one's decision to focus on the authority of the source-text or of the translated text itself, on the author of the original text, on the translator, or on the user of the translation, it falls apart in several topics to be tackled, such as, just to name a few: To what extent does the authority of the text to be translated affect translational choices? How do translators impose authority on their text? By lending their name to a translation, do they contribute to its authoritative status?
After two introductory essays that set the scene for the volume, addressing the above questions from the perspective of translations of authoritative texts into Dutch and French, the focus of the volume shifts to the translators themselves as authorities. A next section deals with the choices of texts to be translated, and the impact these choices have on the translation method. A third part is dedicated to papers that examine the role of the users of the translations.
The selection of papers in the present volume gives a good indication of the issues mentioned above, embedded in a field of tension between translations made from a learned language to a vernacular language, translations from one vernacular to another, or even from a vernacular to the Latin language.

Sheila Dillon et Sharon L. James (éd.), Women in the Classical World, Londres, 2017.

Éditeur : Routledge
Collection : Critical Concepts in Classical Studies
1580 pages
ISBN : 9781138890527
800 £

The study of women in Graeco-Roman antiquity has a long history but many recent developments—prominent among which are the rise of feminist theory and theoretical and interpretive work in material culture—have transformed approaches to the study of women's lived experiences in antiquity. This four-volume collection brings together the best scholarship that has both established the field and moved it forward.
The articles collected here are interdisciplinary, bringing into conversation the full range of evidence for women in the classical world: historical, literary, legal, medical, inscriptional, mythic, artistic (e.g., sculpture, frescoes, paintings, terracottas), and the material found in archaeological excavations, including evidence from burials, finds from houses, and the remains of food processing and textile production. Ideology is relevant to each volume, as both Greek and Roman societies had highly developed ideologies and cultural ideals that exercised profound and pervasive influence over women's lives. Social class is implicated in these ideologies in ways that are made evident in every genre of source material.
Women in the Classical World, edited by two of the leading scholars in the field, presents in one reference source a complete picture of women in Ancient Greece and Rome, based on a vast of array of sources. This material has not been collected together in one place before.

Mark Hebblewhite, The Emperor and the Army in the Later Roman Empire, AD 235–395, Londres, 2017.

Éditeur : Routledge
240 pages
ISBN : 9781472457592
105 £

With The Emperor and the Army in the Later Roman Empire, AD 235–395 Mark Hebblewhite offers the first study solely dedicated to examining the nature of the relationship between the emperor and his army in the politically and militarily volatile later Roman Empire. Bringing together a wide range of available literary, epigraphic and numismatic evidence he demonstrates that emperors of the period considered the army to be the key institution they had to mollify in order to retain power and consequently employed a range of strategies to keep the troops loyal to their cause. Key to these efforts were imperial attempts to project the emperor as a worthy general (imperator) and a generous provider of military pay and benefits. Also important were the honorific and symbolic gestures each emperor made to the army in order to convince them that they and the empire could only prosper under his rule.

Jean-Baptiste Renault (éd.), Originaux et cartulaires dans la Lorraine médiévale (XIIe - XVIe siècles). Recueil d'études, Turnhout, 2016.

Éditeur : Brepols
Collection : Atelier de recherche sur les textes médiévaux (ARTEM 24)
245 pages
ISBN : 978-2-503-56756-3
75 €

Entourés des attentions des médiévistes, les cartulaires sont devenus un objet d'histoire. Ces recueils, résultant de la compilation d'actes par une institution ou une personne juridique, entretiennent des relations complexes avec les originaux, sources directes ou indirectes mises en œuvre par les cartularistes. Qu'il s'agisse de la sélection des matériaux ou du transfert d'informations du modèle à la cible, le travail accompli est affaire de choix, divers et multiples, dont il faut retrouver les logiques pour espérer comprendre les objectifs des hommes qui ont commandités et réalisés ces manuscrits. Même soumis à des contingences matérielles, les copistes conservent une certaine marge de manœuvre dans le traitement de leur documentation. Ils trient, classent ou reclassent les documents qu'ils accueillent et enfin transcrivent les actes en adoptant certains principes. Ce recueil d'études a pour but de renouveler la confrontation originaux-cartulaires, à travers l'analyse d'un recueil et de son chartrier ou grâce à l'exploration d'une question liée à la transcription, à travers plusieurs cartulaires.
La question est ici approchée dans un cadre régional, en l'occurrence la Lorraine médiévale, principalement constituée des diocèses de Metz, Toul et Verdun – et occasionnellement étendue à l'ancienne Lotharingie. La chronologie est délibérément large (XIIe - XVIe siècle), donnant toute leur place aux expériences, parfois négligées, de la fin du Moyen Âge. À défaut d'aborder systématiquement le phénomène de la « mise en cartulaire », les dossiers ici réunis voudraient en enrichir les données et questionnements.

Rosa Rita Marchese, Uno sguardo che vede: L'idea di rispetto in Cicerone e in Seneca , Palerme, 2016.

Éditeur : Palumbo
Collection : Letteratura classica
183 pages
ISBN : 9788868893354
25 €

Il “rispetto” appartiene, senza ombra di dubbio, al sistema degli atteggiamenti che consideriamo necessari alla convivenza pacifica, e d'altro canto la sua mancanza è percepita come una violazione che mette a rischio la pienezza della condizione umana; esso quindi costituisce una tema sensibile del tempo in cui viviamo. Questo libro prova a tracciare una mappa linguistica delle rappresentazioni culturali del rispetto in Roma antica, entro la quale inquadrare lo studio del de officiis di Cicerone e del de beneficiis di Seneca, per scoprire come, e in quale misura, nella tarda repubblica e in età neroniana due intellettuali che erano anche uomini pubblici, esposti in politica e sensibili alla riflessione sul potere, siano arrivati a ripensare lo scambio di prestazioni obbligatorie e volontarie di cui si nutriva la vita sociale e comunitaria in Roma antica introducendo in esse, come deterrente alle frizioni sempre più dolorose e conflittuali tra cittadini prima, e tra sudditi poi, dinamiche di rispetto interpersonale. Mentre prova a riportare alla luce quanto di significativo la cultura romana ha saputo produrre per esprimere il riconoscimento dell'integrità altrui nello spazio di valutazione e di azione di ogni uomo, in un'epoca che era ben lungi dall'approdare a una riflessione sull'eguaglianza dei diritti, l'autrice arriva in conclusione a formulare, in tutta la sua difficoltà, la domanda “Qual è il senso di quelle operazioni per noi, qui e ora?”, nel duplice intento di restituire, per quanto possibile, chiarezza alle voci dei testi antichi studiati, e insieme chiamare in causa le idee e le immagini del rispetto che abitualmente utilizziamo.

Source : Palumbo