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"Livy"
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An Ocean Untouched and Untried
This is a study of the translation and reception of the Roman historian Livy in early-modern England. The work examines the four Tudor translations of Livy’s history of Rome, the Ab Urbe Condita, into the English vernacular during the sixteenth century and their engagements with the most pressing political and cultural debates of the day, from Henrician appropriations of Hannibal to arguments over the status of women. The first chapter examines Livy’s initial reception into print in Europe, outlining the attempts of his earliest editors to impose a critical order onto his enormous work. The subsequent chapters consider the respective translations undertaken by Anthony Cope, William Thomas, William Painter, and Philemon Holland, situating them among the wider trends in Classical Reception during the early-modern era. Each translation is compared in detail with the Latin original, highlighting the changes Livy’s history experienced in the process of translation. The study considers how these translations responded to and were shaped by the most recent developments in European scholarship on Livy’s history and classical historiography more generally. So too the study examines Livy’s impact on more popular forms of English literature during the Renaissance, especially the works of Shakespeare. Ultimately this research demonstrates that Livy played a fundamental though underexplored role in the development of vernacular literature, historiography, and political thought in early-modern England.
eBook
Rome
Michel Serres first book in his 'foundations trilogy' is all about beginnings. The beginning of Rome but also about the beginning of society, knowledge and culture. Rome is an examination of the very foundations upon which contemporary society has been built. With characteristic breadth and lyricism, Serres leads the reader on a journey from a meditation the roots of scientific knowledge to set theory and aesthetics. He explores the themes of violence, murder, sacrifice and hospitality in order to urge us to avoid the repetitive violence of founding. Rome also provides an alternative and creative reading of Livy's Ab urbe condita which sheds light on the problems of history, repetition and imitation. First published in English in 1991, re-translated and introduced in this new edition, Michel Serres' Rome is a contemporary classic which shows us how we came to live the way we do.
eBook
Livy's political philosophy : power and personality in early Rome
\"This volume explores the political implications of the first five books of Livy's celebrated history of Rome, challenging the common perception of the author as an apolitical moralist. Ann Vasaly argues that Livy intended to convey through the narration of particular events crucial lessons about the interaction of power and personality, including the personality of the Roman people as a whole. These lessons demonstrate the means by which the Roman republic flourished in the distant past and by which it might be revived in Livy's own corrupt time. Written at the precise moment when Augustus' imperial autocracy was replacing the republican system that had existed in Rome for almost 500 years, the stories of the first pentad offer invaluable insight into how republics and monarchies work. Vasaly's innovative study furthers the integration in recent scholarship of the literary brilliance of Livy's text and the seriousness of its purpose\"-- Provided by publisher.
Book
The Mystery Cults and the Latin Historians
Abstract
Historians writing in Latin show only intermittent interest in mystery cults; but when they do, their approach falls broadly into three different patterns. At times the cults are described in their local context, and treated as alien to a greater or lesser degree, though recognizable and sometimes acceptable to Roman participants. Secondly, they are sometimes treated as more or less indistinguishable from the rest of the religious landscape at Rome-but in those cases all sense of foreignness disappears, and there is no mention of initiation or anything distinctive about the experience of those cults. Thirdly, those more distinctive aspects may be emphasized, but only when the cults are treated as something dangerous and hostile to Rome, and are assimilated to ideas of secrecy and conspiracy.
Journal Article
The Nadir of Historiography?
Valerius Antias, a 1st century BCE Roman annalist, has often been accused of extensive fabrications. John Rich has recently tried to restore Antias’ reputation, suggesting that he used senatus consulta, but has faced a serious roadblock: Antias’ account of the senatus consultum freeing the Greeks in 196, preserved in Livy, contained clauses absent from Polybius’ version and which, therefore, have been rejected by scholarship. In contrast, this paper systematically evaluates these Valerian clauses and argues for their veracity. This has serious implications for the idea that annalists like Antias, and ultimately Livy, accurately conveyed senatorial decrees from the Middle Republic.
Journal Article
NATURE, LANDSCAPE AND IDENTITY IN SILIUS ITALICUS’ ACCOUNT OF THE BATTLE AT THE TREBIA
This article deals with the fight between the river Trebia and Scipio the Elder in Silius Italicus’ Punica (4.525–703), notoriously based on the Homeric battle between Achilles and Scamander (Il. 21.1–382). By means of a close reading of the geographical details of Silius’ account, this article aims at highlighting the peculiar role given to the landscape in this episode. By intertwining well-established epic topoi and historiographical reflections, the poet imbues Italy's landscape with a profound ideological meaning. His depiction of the natural environment thematizes key issues relating to the Second Punic War, such as the disruptive effects of Hannibal's invasion on the bond between Italian communities, the problematic nature of shared Italian identity, and the contagious nature of rebellion.
Journal Article
The Nadir of Historiography?
Valerius Antias, a 1st century BCE Roman annalist, has often been accused of extensive fabrications. John Rich has recently tried to restore Antias’ reputation, suggesting that he used senatus consulta, but has faced a serious roadblock: Antias’ account of the senatus consultum freeing the Greeks in 196, preserved in Livy, contained clauses absent from Polybius’ version and which, therefore, have been rejected by scholarship. In contrast, this paper systematically evaluates these Valerian clauses and argues for their veracity. This has serious implications for the idea that annalists like Antias, and ultimately Livy, accurately conveyed senatorial decrees from the Middle Republic.
Journal Article
Taxing Wealth in the Just City: Cicero and the Roman Census
Cicero claims that states were created for the protection of property, so a statesman should try to avoid levying property taxes. A contrary principle holds that, as long as the state is common to all, those who benefit from it most should compensate those who benefit least to maintain distributive justice. With this frame of reference, the article asks two related questions. First, to what extent does Cicero differ from Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Livy, and the Stoics, who describe compensation or common ownership as a principle of fiscal fairness? Second, how does Cicero's political theory reflect the misgivings of wealthy Romans about state power and redistribution in the absence of compensatory taxation from 167 to 43 b.c.e.? I argue that his interpretation of the Servian census entrenches the ‘pre-fiscal’ distribution of property in the Roman constitution, which compromises the impartiality of the state and weakens its ability to respond to fiscal crises.
Journal Article