Download or read book Roman Augural Lore in Greek Historiography written by Jyri Vaahtera and published by Franz Steiner Verlag. This book was released on 2001 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The augurs, the official Roman diviners, had a significant role in the public life of the Roman Republic. However, to recover the facts concerning their rites and doctrine is a difficult task because of the defectiveness and the fragmentary nature of our sources. This book offers the first thorough examination of the ways in which the augural doctrine has been treated by the Greek historians who have written about Rome. The main bulk of its material derives from four prominent writers of the Roman period: Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Plutarch, Appian and Cassius Dio. Analysing the Greek sources from the point of view of language, style, bilingualism, and cultural context, the author not only sheds light on disputed matters of augural doctrine and Roman constitution, but also offers a good deal of new material that in various ways clarifies the meeting of the two cultures.

Download or read book The Religious History of the Roman Empire written by J. A. North and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2023-04-13 with total page 417 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Religious History of the Roman Empire: The Republican Centuries is the second Oxford Readings in Classical Studies volume on the religious history of the Roman Empire, accompanying the volume on paganism, Judaism, and Christianity. This volume presents fourteen chapters dealing with aspects of the religious life of Republican Rome between c. 500 BCE and the fall of the Republican constitution in c. 30 BCE. The topics covered include Iron Age rituals (Christopher Smith); Roman Priesthood (John Scheid; Mary Beard); religion and war (Jörg Rüpke); religious behaviour in the context of polytheism (Andreas Bendlin); religious ritual in early and middle Republic (John North); Italian warfare practices (Olivier de Cazanove); the role of women (Rebecca Flemming); sacrificial ritual in Roman poetry (Denis Feeney); the centuriation-ritual (Daniel Gargola); Roman divination (Mary Beard); Augustan Peace and the stars (Alfred Schmid); the great cult-places of Italy (John Scheid); the grove of Pesaro (Filippo Coarelli). Originally published between 1981 and 2011, these chapters provide a vivid picture of key issues under discussion in this period, providing a missing link in the historiography of Roman republican religion. A central question concerns the balance to be found between ritual and belief, both problematic concepts in interpreting this religious tradition. While there can be no question that the performance of rituals was a regular traditional activity to which Romans attached great significance, particularly those who were in a responsible position as priests or senators, the later years of the Republic increasingly saw religious issues taken as matters for debate, and books on religious themes, unknown before the age of Cicero and Varro, began to appear.

Download or read book Birds in Roman Life and Myth written by Ashleigh Green and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2023-03-03 with total page 195 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores the place of birds in Roman myth and everyday life, focusing primarily on the transitional period of 100 BCE to 100 CE within the Italian peninsula. A diverse range of topics is considered in order to build a broad overview of the subject. Beginning with an appraisal of omens, augury, and auspices – including the ‘sacred chickens’ consulted by generals before battle – it goes on to examine how Romans farmed birds, hunted them, and kept them as pets. It demonstrates how the ownership and consumption of birds were used to communicate status and prestige, and how bird consumption mirrored wider economic and social trends. Each topic adopts an interdisciplinary approach, considering literary evidence alongside art, material culture, zooarchaeology, and modern ornithological knowledge. The inclusion of zooarchaeology adds another dimension to the work and highlights the value of using animals and faunal remains to interpret the past. Studying the Roman view of birds offers great insight into how they conceived of their relationship with the gods and how they stratified and organised their society. This book is a valuable resource for bird lovers and researchers alike, particularly those studying animals in the ancient world.

Download or read book Ancient Rome written by Matthew Dillon and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-10-28 with total page 808 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A companion volume to the highly successful and widely used Ancient Greece, this Sourcebook is a valuable resource for students at all levels studying ancient Rome. Lynda Garland and Matthew Dillon present an extensive range of material, from the early Republic to the assassination of Julius Caesar. Providing a comprehensive coverage of all important documents pertaining to the Roman Republic, Ancient Rome includes: source material on political developments in the Roman Republic (509–44 BC) detailed chapters on social phenomena, such as Roman religion, slavery and freedmen, women and the family, and the public face of Rome clear, precise translations of documents taken not only from historical sources, but also from inscriptions, laws and decrees, epitaphs, graffiti, public speeches, poetry, private letters and drama concise up-to-date bibliographies and commentaries for each document and chapter a definitive collection of source material on the Roman Republic. All students of ancient Rome and classical studies will find this textbook invaluable at all levels of study.

Download or read book A Companion to Roman Religion written by Jörg Rüpke and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2011-04-18 with total page 578 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A comprehensive treatment of the significant symbols and institutions of Roman religion, this companion places the various religious symbols, discourses, and practices, including Judaism and Christianity, into a larger framework to reveal the sprawling landscape of the Roman religion. An innovative introduction to Roman religion Approaches the field with a focus on the human-figures instead of the gods Analyzes religious changes from the eighth century BC to the fourth century AD Offers the first history of religious motifs on coins and household/everyday utensils Presents Roman religion within its cultural, social, and historical contexts

Download or read book The Augustan Succession written by Peter Michael Swan and published by Oxford : Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2004 with total page 449 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This commentary pays close critical attention to Dio's historical sources, methods, and assumptions as it also strives to present him as a figure in his own right. During a long life (ca. 164-after 229), Dio served as a Roman senator under seven emperors from Commodus to Severus Alexander, governed three Roman provinces, and was twice consul."--BOOK JACKET.

Download or read book Rome Global Dreams and the International Origins of an Empire written by Sarah Davies and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2019-10-14 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Rome, Global Dreams, and the International Origins of an Empire, Sarah Davies explores how the Roman Republic evolved, in ideological terms, into an “Empire without end.” This work stands out within Roman imperialism studies by placing a distinct emphasis on the role of international-level norms and concepts in shaping Roman imperium. Using a combination of literary, epigraphic, and numismatic evidence, Davies highlights three major factors in this process. First is the development, in the third and second centuries BCE, of a self-aware international community with a cosmopolitan vision of a single, universalizing world-system. Second is the misalignment of Rome’s polity and concomitant diplomatic practices with those of its Hellenistic contemporaries. And third is contemporary historiography, which inserted Rome into a cyclical (and cosmic) rise-and-fall of great power.

Download or read book Roman Gods written by Michael Lipka and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2009-04-24 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Drawing exclusively on the evidence from urban Rome up to the age of Constantine, the book analyzes the pagan, Jewish, and Christian concepts of "god" along the lines of space, time, personnel, function, iconography and ritual.

Download or read book A Companion to the Roman Republic written by Nathan Rosenstein and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2011-09-07 with total page 769 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This Companion provides an authoritative and up-to-date overview of Roman Republican history as it is currently practiced. Highlights recent developments, including archaeological discoveries, fresh approaches to textual sources, and the opening up of new areas of historical study Retains the drama of the Republic’s rise and fall Emphasizes not just the evidence of texts and physical remains, but also the models and assumptions that scholars bring to these artefacts Looks at the role played by the physical geography and environment of Italy Offers a compact but detailed narrative of military and political developments from the birth of the Roman Republic through to the death of Julius Caesar Discusses current controversies in the field

Download or read book Inside the Roman Legions written by Kathryn Milne and published by Pen and Sword Military. This book was released on 2024-06-13 with total page 371 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Takes the career of Spurius Ligustinus, detailed by the Roman historian Livy, as a focus, giving a very human and empathetic approachability to the author’s lucid and thorough analysis. Inside the Roman Legions aims to tell the story of the Roman soldier through a holistic, empathetic examination of what the experience of military service in the Middle Republic was really like. It traces real examples of soldiers described in the ancient sources to reveal how they traveled, how they were organized and what campaign objectives they faced. Specifically, the author follows the ordinary soldier Spurius Ligustinus, whose life is related by the historian Livy, as an example, detailing the experiences of his career. The book begins by discussing the young future soldier’s background and what military values were conveyed to him through the prevailing culture of the time. It then follows him through a range of potential experiences, examining camp conditions and training with various types of weapons and armor, and proceeds to take the reader through the experience of fighting in a pitched battle step by step. It also addresses experiences that only some soldiers would have had, such as escaping a total defeat, deserting, or being subject to unusual punishments. Throughout, the focus of the book is on how the individual might be shaped by the experiences as they are described.

Download or read book Belief and Cult written by Jacob L. Mackey and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2025-01-28 with total page 496 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A groundbreaking reinterpretation that draws on cognitive theory to show that belief wasn’t absent from—but rather was at the heart of—Roman religion Belief and Cult argues that belief isn’t uniquely Christian but was central to ancient Roman religion. Drawing on cognitive theory, Jacob Mackey shows that despite having nothing to do with salvation or faith, belief underlay every aspect of Roman religious practices—emotions, individual and collective cult action, ritual norms, social reality, and social power. In doing so, he also offers a thorough argument for the importance of belief to other non-Christian religions. At the individual level, the book argues, belief played an indispensable role in the genesis of cult action and religious emotion. However, belief also had a collective dimension. The cognitive theory of Shared Intentionality shows how beliefs may be shared among individuals, accounting for the existence of written, unwritten, or even unspoken ritual norms. Shared beliefs permitted the choreography of collective cult action and gave cult acts their social meanings. The book also elucidates the role of shared belief in creating and maintaining Roman social reality. Shared belief allowed the Romans to endow agents, actions, and artifacts with socio-religious status and power. In a deep sense, no man could count as an augur and no act of animal slaughter as a successful offering to the gods, unless Romans collectively shared appropriate beliefs about these things. Closely examining augury, prayer, the religious enculturation of children, and the Romans’ own theories of cognition and cult, Belief and Cult promises to revolutionize the understanding of Roman religion by demonstrating that none of its features makes sense without Roman belief.

Download or read book Institutions and Ideology in Republican Rome written by Henriette van der Blom and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2018-05-17 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume brings together a distinguished international group of researchers to explore public speech in Republican Rome in its institutional and ideological contexts. The focus throughout is on the interaction between argument, speaker, delivery and action. The chapters consider how speeches acted alongside other factors - such as the identity of the speaker, his alliances, the deployment of invective against opponents, physical location and appearance of other members of the audience, and non-rhetorical threats or incentives - to affect the beliefs and behaviour of the audience. Together they offer a range of approaches to these issues and bring attention back to the content of public speech in Republican Rome as well as its form and occurrence. The book will be of interest not only to ancient historians, but also to those working on ancient oratory and to historians and political theorists working on public speech.

Download or read book Divination Prediction and the End of the Roman Republic written by Federico Santangelo and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2013-05-09 with total page 371 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book offers a comprehensive assessment of the intersection between Roman politics, culture and divination in the late Republic. It discusses how the practice of divination changed at a time of great political and social change and explores the evidence for a critical reflection and debate on the limits of divination and prediction in the second and first centuries BC. Divination was a central feature in the workings of the Roman government and this book explores the ways in which it changed under the pressure of factors of socio-political complexity and disruption. It discusses the ways in which the problem of the prediction of the future is constructed in the literature of the period. Finally, it explores the impact that the emergence of the Augustan regime had on the place of divination in Rome and the role that divinatory themes had in shaping the ideology of the new regime.

Download or read book A Companion to the Political Culture of the Roman Republic written by Valentina Arena and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2022-01-25 with total page 628 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An insightful and original exploration of Roman Republic politics In A Companion to the Political Culture of the Roman Republic, editors Valentina Arena and Jonathan Prag deliver an incisive and original collection of forty contributions from leading academics representing various intellectual and academic traditions. The collected works represent some of the best scholarship in recent decades and adopt a variety of approaches, each of which confronts major problems in the field and contributes to ongoing research. The book represents a new, updated, and comprehensive view of the political world of Republican Rome and some of the included essays are available in English for the first time. Divided into six parts, the discussions consider the institutionalized loci, political actors, and values, rituals, and discourse that characterized Republican Rome. The Companion also offers several case studies and sections on the history of the interpretation of political life in the Roman Republic. Key features include: A thorough introduction to the Roman political world as seen through the wider lenses of Roman political culture Comprehensive explorations of the fundamental components of Roman political culture, including ideas and values, civic and religious rituals, myths, and communicative strategies Practical discussions of Roman Republic institutions, both with reference to their formal rules and prescriptions, and as patterns of social organization In depth examinations of the 'afterlife' of the Roman Republic, both in ancient authors and in early modern and modern times Perfect for students of all levels of the ancient world, A Companion to the Political Culture of the Roman Republic will also earn a place in the libraries of scholars and students of politics, political history, and the history of ideas.

Download or read book The War with God written by Pramit Chaudhuri and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 403 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: By examining literary accounts of theomachy (literally "god-fight"), The War With God provides a new perspective on the canonical literary traditions of epic and tragedy, and will be of great interest to scholars in Classics as well as those working on the European epic and tragic traditions. The struggle between human and god has always held a prominent place in classical literature, especially in the closely related genres of epic and tragedy, ranging from the physical confrontation of Achilles with the river-god Scamander in Iliad 21 to Pentheus' more figurative challenge to Dionysus in Euripides' Bacchae. Yet perhaps the most intense engagement with theomachy occurs in Latin literature of the 1st century AD, which included not only the overreachers of Ovid's Metamorphoses and Hannibal's assault on Capitoline Jupiter in Silius Italicus' Punica, but also, in the richest and most extended treatments of the theme, the transgressive figures of Hercules in Seneca's Hercules Furens and Capaneus and Hippomedon in Statius' Thebaid. This book, therefore, explores the presence of theomachy in Roman imperial poetry, focusing on Seneca and Statius, and sets it within a tradition going back through the Augustan age all the way to archaic Greece. The central argument of the book is that theomachy symbolizes various conflicts of authority: the poets' attempts to outdo their literary predecessors, the contentions of rival philosophical views, and the violent assertions of power that characterized both autocratic authority and its opposition. By drawing on evidence from literature, politics, religion, and philosophy, this project reveals the various influences that shaped the intellectual and cultural significance of theomachy: from Stoic and Epicurean debates about the gods to the divinization of the emperor, from poetic competition with Vergil and Homer to tyranny and revolution under the Julio-Claudian and Flavian dynasties.

Download or read book Roman Republican Augury written by Lindsay G. Driediger-Murphy and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2019-03-07 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Roman Republican Augury: Freedom and Control proposes a new way of understanding augury, a form of Roman state divination designed to consult the god Jupiter. Previous scholarly studies of augury have tended to focus either upon its legal-constitutional effects or upon its role in maintaining and perpetuating Roman social and political structures. This volume makes a new contribution to the study of Roman religion, politics, and cultural history by focusing instead upon what augury can tell us about how Romans understood their relationship with their gods. Augury is often thought to have told Romans what they wanted to hear. This volume argues that augury left space for perceived expressions of divine will which contradicted human wishes, and that its rules and precepts did not permit human beings to create or ignore signs at will. This analysis allows the Jupiter whom Romans approached in augury to emerge as not simply a source of power to be channelled to human ends, but a person with his own interests and desires, which did not always overlap with those of his human enquirers. When human will and divine will clashed, it was the will of Jupiter which was supposed to prevail. In theory as in practice, it was the Romans, not their supreme god, who were bound by the auguries and auspices.

Download or read book The Challenge to the Auspices written by Christoph F. Konrad and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2022-08-25 with total page 363 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: No public action of the Roman state, the populus Romanus, at home or at war, was to be carried out without prior permission from Iuppiter Optimus Maximus. Permission was obtained, in a procedure known as auspices, by the magistrate in charge of the intended action-usually a Consul, Praetor, or Dictator. Auspices thus occupy a fundamental place in the-unwritten-constitution of the Roman State. Yet especially in the 3rd century BCE, acceptance of the principle was not always universal. The Challenge to the Auspices presents an investigation into the interaction of Roman magistrates during the Middle Republic with the practice of auspices, with a focus on attempts to avoid, ignore, or resist this requirement. Proceeding from an examination of the Roman concepts of imperium and auspices (auspicia), especially as they relate to the realm of war, and of the constitutional position and powers of the Dictator and the Master-of-Horse (magister equitum) relative to each other and to the Consuls and lower magistrates, the work offers six case studies in which Roman commanders questioned, violated, or openly rejected the need for auspices. It is argued that these instances reflect a not insignificant minority view within the Roman ruling class regarding the efficacy of auspices and the necessity of observing them. The catastrophic outcome in several of these events, particularly during the early years of the Second Punic War, rendered further resistance to the practice politically unsustainable, and by the second century resulted in its universal acceptance, regardless of personal belief.