Compitum

Roberta Franchi, Dalla Grande Madre alla madre: la maternità nel mondo classico e cristiano. Vol. II, Roma, Alessandria, 2019.

Éditeur : Edizioni dell'Orso
Collection : Hellenica
X-390 pages
ISBN : 978-88-6274-889-6
48 €

Nella Roma di III secolo a.C., durante gli anni della seconda guerra punica, che mette a dura prova la città, i Romani decidono di consultare i Libri sibillini: per salvare Roma c'è bisogno della protezione di un'antica divinità anatolica: la Magna Mater Cibele. E così, dall'Oriente Cibele giunge a Roma per offrire sostegno a una città stremata. Significativo è il risalto dato nelle fonti antiche al ruolo giocato dalle matrone romane in occasione dell'arrivo della Grande Madre. Roma, fondata sulla figura preminente del paterfamilias, riconosce un certo prestigio alle matrone. E proprio la maternità è al centro della storia romana. Una serie di madri minori e surrogate, umane e divine, appartenenti al mondo animale o vegetale, si staglia con forza: da Rea Silvia, madre di Romolo e Remo, alla lupa che allatta i due gemelli; dalla dea Rumina alla casta Lucrezia. Nonostante l'indiscussa autorità del padre, alla madre è affidato l'importante compito di educare i figli. Donna colta e di stirpe illustre, Cornelia, madre dei Gracchi, diventa la madre per eccellenza. Accanto a lei, spiccano madri non meno famose: Aurelia, madre di Giulio Cesare; Servilia, madre di Marco Giunio Bruto; Azia, madre di Augusto; Elvia, madre di Seneca. A Roma le madri hanno un nome e un volto: non tanto il mito, quanto la storia con madri ‘in carne e ossa'. Una storia minore, forse, ma non meno appassionante, fatta di sentimenti, intrighi e lotte per il potere. Con l'avvento di Augusto, la maternità, la castità e la nobiltà trovano un modello concreto in Livia e Ottavia. Astute, scaltre e simulatrici, a partire da Livia molte madri dei futuri imperatori manipolano la vita dei figli. Il potere della maternità viene alla ribalta: la maternità è giunta al potere.

Source : Edizioni dell'Orso

Friedrich Meins, Paradigmatische Geschichte: Wahrheit, Theorie und Methode in den "Antiquitates Romanae" des Dionysios, Stuttgart, 2019.

Éditeur : Franz Steiner Verlag
Collection : Palingenesia
169 pages
ISBN : 978-3-515-12250-4
44 €

Was ist Wahrheit? Auf diese zentrale Frage jeder wissenschaftlichen Methodendiskussion kannte schon die Antike höchst unterschiedliche Antworten – auch die Historiographie bildet hier keine Ausnahme. Vor dem Hintergrund der Frage nach dem Wesen historischer Wahrheit widmet sich Friedrich Meins den Antiquitates Romanae des Dionysios von Halikarnassos. Während diese lange als Beispiel einer kolportageartigen "rhetorischen Geschichtsschreibung" ohne Quellenwert galten, rücken sie als Zeugnis ihres Entstehungsumfeldes nun wieder vermehrt in den Fokus. Im Zuge dessen lässt sich auch eine gewisse Rehabilitierung ihres spezifischen Wahrheitsanspruches ausmachen: in Form einer Neubewertung von Dionysiosˈ Forschungsbemühungen, unter Heranziehung narrativistischer Konzepte historischer Wahrheit oder durch den Verweis auf Vorstellungen allgemeiner Wahrheiten des Historischen. Meins diskutiert diese Ansätze und formuliert die These, dass Dionysiosˈ paradigmatische Geschichte ihren Anspruch auf Wahrheit sowohl aus der sehr eigenen Vorstellung wissenschaftlicher Erkenntnis als auch aus dem Anspruch der praktischen Anwendbarkeit historischen Wissens ableitet.

Source : Franz Steiner Verlag

Leofranc Holford-Strevens, The disputatio Chori et Praetextati. The Roman Calendar for Beginners, Turnhout, 2019.

Éditeur : Brepols
Collection : Studia Traditionis Theologiae 32
X+141 p. pages
ISBN : 978-2-503-58423-2
€45 (excl. TVA + shipping)

The first book of Macrobius' Saturnalia, written probably in the 430s AD, includes a historical exposition of the Roman calendar with a dramatic date some fifty years earlier, set in the mouth of the learned senator Vettius Agorius Praetextatus, followed by more technical detail at the request of an Egyptian named Horus, who as a foreigner is allowed to seek elementary information for which no one brought up in Roman culture would need to ask.
This text was excerpted in early medieval Ireland, with some but by no means all its pagan matter excised, to provide an introduction for those who at best understood the rules of this recent import but not the rationale for them; it is quoted by Bede as Disputatio Chori et Praetextati, Chorus being a corrupted form of Horus.
The excerpt took on a textual life of its own, which the present edition, the first devoted to the Disputatio rather than Macrobius, seeks to clarify; it examines the manuscripts and the relations between them, presents a critical edition with apparatus criticus and translation, and attaches a full-scale commentary concerned above all with the information provided in the text.

Source : http://www.brepols.net

Katharina Pohl, Dracontius: De raptu Helenae. Einleitung, Edition, Übersetzung und Kommentar, Stuttgart, 2019.

Éditeur : Franz Steiner Verlag
Collection : Palingenesia
571 pages
ISBN : 978-3-515-12216-0
86 €

An der Schwelle vom 5. zum 6. Jahrhundert prägte der Anwalt und Dichter Dracontius die literarische Landschaft im vandalischen Nordafrika. Er verfasste sowohl christliche als auch kleinere profane Gedichte verschiedenster Gattungen, teils mythologischen Inhalts. Dieses Nebeneinander von christlichem und traditionell paganem Dichten macht Dracontius zu einem besonders interessanten Forschungsgegenstand. Herausragende Stücke sind seine Epyllia – eine dichterische Form, die im vandalischen Afrika wohl einen besonderen Höhepunkt erreichte, heute jedoch beinahe ausschließlich durch Dracontiusˈ Dichtungen repräsentiert wird. Der Raptus Helenae ist das wahrscheinlich am deutlichsten in der Tradition des Epos stehende Werk des Dichters. Katharina Pohl legt mit diesem Band einen Kommentar dieses letzten bisher unkommentiert gebliebenen Epyllions vor. Neben der detaillierten philologischen Erschließung des 655 Verse umfassenden Gedichts bietet der Band zudem erstmals eine deutsche Übersetzung, eine Edition auf der Grundlage des codex unicus N sowie eine Gesamtinterpretation.

Source : Franz Steiner Verlag

Cristina Rosillo López, Communicating Public Opinion in the Roman Republic, Stuttgart, 2019.

Éditeur : Franz Steiner Verlag
Collection : Historia - Einzelschriften
304 pages
ISBN : 978-3-515-12172-9
59 €

From assemblies to courts of justice, from the Senate to the battlefield, from Rome to the provinces: public opinion could vary and take many guises. Roman politicians were aware of its existence and influence, and engaged with it.
This book offers a study of public opinion in the Roman Republic, with an emphasis from the 3rd to 1st centuries BC. It focusses on four main issues: nature and components of public opinion; public opinion in relation to military and administrative questions; the interaction between public opinion and public dialogue and, finally, the transmission of public opinion. It furthermore asks the following question: Who was the populus Romanus? How did public opinion influence specific political or military decisions? Can Habermas' view of public opinion be applied to the Roman Republic? How was the rhetoric of fear applied to public opinion?
Drawing on the more recent interpretations of Roman Republic, this volume studies the mechanisms that make public opinion and politics work at many different levels. It provides an engaging view on political communication and the interaction between the elite and the people.

Source : Historia

Laura Pfuntner, Urbanism and Empire in Roman Sicily, Austin, 2019.

Éditeur : University of Texas Press
Collection : Ashley and Peter Larkin Endowment in Greek and Roman Culture
320 pages
ISBN :
55 $

Sicily has been the fulcrum of the Mediterranean throughout history. The island's central geographical position and its status as ancient Rome's first overseas province make it key to understanding the development of the Roman Empire. Yet Sicily's crucial role in the empire has been largely overlooked by scholars of classical antiquity, apart from a small number of specialists in its archaeology and material culture.
Urbanism and Empire in Roman Sicily offers the first comprehensive English-language overview of the history and archaeology of Roman Sicily since R. J. A. Wilson's Sicily under the Roman Empire (1990). Laura Pfuntner traces the development of cities and settlement networks in Sicily in order to understand the island's political, economic, social, and cultural role in Rome's evolving Mediterranean hegemony. She identifies and examines three main processes traceable in the archaeological record of settlement in Roman Sicily: urban disintegration, urban adaptation, and the development of alternatives to urban settlement. By expanding the scope of research on Roman Sicily beyond the bounds of the island itself, through comparative analysis of the settlement landscapes of Greece and southern Italy, and by utilizing exciting evidence from recent excavations and surveys, Pfuntner establishes a new empirical foundation for research on Roman Sicily and demonstrates the necessity of including Sicily in broader historical and archaeological studies of the Roman Empire.