Who did the Romans think they were? They were a people scattered round the ancient Mediterranean world, yet they imagined a common identity for themselves, particularly through shared myths and history. This book shows how ancient means of constructing identity compare with modern means, especially that of `race'.
Modern treatments of Rome have projected in highly emotive terms the perceived problems, or the aspirations, of the present: 'race-mixture' has been blamed for the collapse of the Roman empire; more recently, Rome and Roman society have been depicted as 'multicultural'. Moving beyond these and beyond more traditional, juridical approaches to Roman identity, Emma Dench focuses on ancient modes of thinking about selves and relationships with other peoples, including descent-myths, history, and ethnographies. She explores the relative importance of sometimes closely interconnected categories of blood descent, language, culture and clothes, and territoriality. Rome's creation of a distinctive imperial shape is understood in the context of the broader ancient Mediterranean world within which the Romans self-consciously situated themselves, and whose modes of thought they appropriated and transformed.
In contrast to the claim that refugee law has been a key in guaranteeing a space of protection for refugees, this book argues that law has been instrumental in eliminating spaces of protection, not just from one’s persecutors but also from the grasp of sovereign power. By uncovering certain fundamental aspects of asylum as practised in the past and in present day social movements, namely its concern with defining space rather than people and its role as a space of resistance or otherness to sovereign law, this book demonstrates that asylum has historically been antagonistic to law and vice versa. In contrast, twentieth-century refugee law was constructed precisely to ensure the effective management and control over the movements of forced migrants. To illustrate the complex ways in which these two paradigms – asylum and refugee law – interact with one another, this book examines their historical development and concludes with in-depth studies of the Sanctuary Movement in the United States and the Sans-Papiers of France. The book will appeal to researchers and students of refugee law and refugee studies; legal and political philosophy; ancient, medieval and modern legal history; and sociology of political movements.
The Arms of Quirinus spins the tale of young Romulus, Rome's first king, who took the rulership and built Mars' own city, calling his people Romans after his own name and fostering the nation that wore the toga. This fresh retelling of a classic story brings to life immortal Rome's pastoral beginnings as a craggy, wooded hilltop beside an ancient river crossing and weaves a tale that might have been told by the very people who lived the incredible adventure that fostered the nation destined to extend its rule over the earth. The author's Seven Kings of Rome Novels will appeal to readers with inquiring minds who have a love of history and a fascination for the cultural roots of civilization, as well as to readers looking simply for an entertaining junket in the form of a novel that can bring to vivid life another time, another place. "The Arms of Quirinus would be a respectable work on any shelf with The Bull from the Sea or Whom the Gods Would Destroy. What Mary Renault, Robert Graves, and others did so skillfully, Goff is emulating in her own distinct way in her Seven Kings novels." - William Howard Denson III (Writers Festival)
An innovative and intriguing look at the foundations of Western civilization from two leading historians; the first volume in the Penguin History of Europe The influence of ancient Greece and Rome can be seen in every aspect of our lives. From calendars to democracy to the very languages we speak, Western civilization owes a debt to these classical societies. Yet the Greeks and Romans did not emerge fully formed; their culture grew from an active engagement with a deeper past, drawing on ancient myths and figures to shape vibrant civilizations. In The Birth of Classical Europe, the latest entry in the much-acclaimed Penguin History of Europe, historians Simon Price and Peter Thonemann present a fresh perspective on classical culture in a book full of revelations about civilizations we thought we knew. In this impeccably researched and immensely readable history we see the ancient world unfold before us, with its grand cast of characters stretching from the great Greeks of myth to the world-shaping Caesars. A landmark achievement, The Birth of Classical Europe provides insight into an epoch that is both incredibly foreign and surprisingly familiar.
The Roman foundation myth has been the subject of classical scholarship for centuries. But much in the story of Romulus and Remus remains unexplained. This is the first English language book-length study of the Lupercalia, a religious festival central to understanding both the Roman foundation myth and the history of Rome. The festival of the Lupercalia was a male initiation ritual and shares a number of traits with similar rituals across the world. The agonistic elements in the story of Romulus and Remus and the Lupercalia can be compared to a number of Vedic rituals and traced back to a common Indo-European prehistory. The Lupercalia celebration remained a central annual event throughout the history of Rome and reflected political and social life in the city. Caesar used it to stage a refusal of kingship and Augustus restored its initiatory aspect, which continued in the period of the Empire. It survived all attempts of Christian prohibition to appear in the form of a carnival that criticized the pope in the late 5th century. In sum, the book offers a new interpretation of the Roman foundation myth and the Lupercalia. It follows the transformation of a unique ritual from its Indo-European roots through Roman history to late antiquity.
The first comprehensive history of seventeenth-century London, told through the lives of those who experienced it The Gunpowder Plot, the Civil Wars, Charles I’s execution, the Plague, the Great Fire, the Restoration, and then the Glorious Revolution: the seventeenth century was one of the most momentous times in the history of Britain, and Londoners took center stage. In this fascinating account, Margarette Lincoln charts the impact of national events on an ever-growing citizenry with its love of pageantry, spectacle, and enterprise. Lincoln looks at how religious, political, and financial tensions were fomented by commercial ambition, expansion, and hardship. In addition to events at court and parliament, she evokes the remarkable figures of the period, including Shakespeare, Bacon, Pepys, and Newton, and draws on diaries, letters, and wills to trace the untold stories of ordinary Londoners. Through their eyes, we see how the nation emerged from a turbulent century poised to become a great maritime power with London at its heart—the greatest city of its time.
This volume takes as its subject one of the most important Greek poems of the Hellenistic period: the Alexandra attributed to Lykophron, probably written in about 190 BC. At 1474 lines and with a riddling narrative and a preponderance of unusual vocabulary it is a notoriously challenging prospect for scholars, but it also sheds crucial light on Greek religion (in particular the role of women) and on foundation myths and myths of colonial identity. Most of the poem purports to be a prophecy by the Trojan princess, Kassandra, who foretells the conflicts between Europe and Asia from the Trojan Wars to the establishment of Roman ascendancy over the Greek world in the poet's own time. The central section narrates in the future tense the dispersal of returning Greek heroes throughout the Mediterranean zone, and their founding of new cities. This section culminates in the Italian wanderings and foundational activity of the Trojan refugee Aineias, Kassandra's own kinsman. Following Simon Hornblower's detailed full-length commentary on the Alexandra (OUP 2015; paperback 2017), this monograph asserts the poem's importance as not only a strongly political work, but also as a historical document of interest to cultural and religious historians and students of myths of identity. Divided into two Parts, the first explores Lykophron's geopolitical world, paying special attention to south Italy (perhaps the bilingual poet's own area of origin), Sicily, and Rhodes; it suggests that the recent hostile presence of Hannibal in south Italy surfaces as a frequent yet indirectly expressed concern of the poem. The thematic second Part investigates the Alexandra's relation to the Sibylline Oracles and to other apocalyptic literature of the period, and argues for its cultural and religious topicality. The Conclusion puts the case for the 190s BC as a turning-point in Roman history and contends that Lykophron demonstrates a veiled awareness of this, especially of certain peculiar features of Roman colonizing policy in that decade.
This volume provides a portion of the original text of Ciceros speech in Latin, a detailed commentary, study aids and a translation. Ingo Gildenhards commentary will be of particular interest to students of Latin at both high school and undergraduate level. It will also be of help to Latin teachers and to anyone interested in Cicero, language and rhetoric, and the legal culture of Ancient Rome. A free online interactive edition is also available.
This is a full-scale edition (the first in nearly 70 years) of the first book of Lucan's De Bello Civili, an important and influential epic poem written in the 60s AD, which recounts the civil war between Julius Caesar and Pompey in the years 49-45 BC. The volume includes an introduction, text with apparatus criticus, and commentary. The introduction provides the reader with a number of the most important contexts for understanding Lucan's subject matter and his approach to this material. The commentary pays particular attention to interpretative, linguistic, literary, historical, social, and philosophical issues arising from the narrative of Book 1.