Liar, Liar, Rome on Fire! Seneca’s Philosophy of Deception
Introduction 1§1 In our surviving accounts of the Neronian period (AD 54-AD 68), we find a Rome brimming with deception in the highest political offices. The Roman historian Suetonius, among his many...
View ArticleThe Tragic Burp: Satire in Seneca’s Thyestes
1§1 The climactic feast in Seneca’s Thyestes is described to the audience by the character Atreus in lines 908–919. As he gazes upon his brother Thyestes gobbling down a sumptuous meal made from the...
View ArticleThe Threatening Pardon: Moderation, Mercy, and Cruelty in the Political...
1§1 Mercy and cruelty are opposing forces often found within one’s character. Their Roman counterparts clementia and crudelitas are held in a similar view albeit a different context. Seneca writes at...
View ArticlePliny II the Hero
1§1 In Epistula 6.20, Pliny the Younger recounts his escape from the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius at the age of 17. He also writes about his uncle, Pliny the Elder’s mission to rescue the people of...
View ArticleThe Clemency and Cruelty of Tiberius in Tacitus’ Annals
1§1 Prior to Augustus’ reign, sovereignty and influence were largely distributed throughout the offices of the cursus honorum, Senate, and the Curiate, Centuriate, Plebeian, and Tribal Assemblies.[1]...
View ArticleIdealized and Barbarous Rome: Militarism in Tacitus’ Germania
Introduction[1] 1§1 Tacitus reexamines Roman stereotypes about the Germanic tribes in his ethnographical work, Germania. The Romans considered the German tribes a primitive and savage people, like many...
View ArticleDead Dramatists Society
1§1 In his cycle of five epigrams on dramatic poets, Dioscorides assembles a “dead dramatists society” whose curious and unprecedented inclusion of both archaic and contemporaneous figures—Thespis,...
View ArticleThe Writing on the Walls: Reading the Sexual Passivity of the Women of...
1§1 Ancient graffiti– drawings and text inscribed onto the face of a wall– are increasingly acknowledged as valuable sources for studying the daily lives of the ancients. Unlike monumental inscriptions...
View ArticleAn Unidentifiable Icon: Nikolaos Gyzis
1§1 Some artists defy all artistic labels. They bounce from named style to named style, never staying long enough to fully earn the title of adherent. These artists synthesize the various styles they...
View ArticleHeavenly Haircuts & Missing Bodies: An Examination of Berenice’s Absence from...
1§1 The narrative, fantasy, and representation of Berenice II continue to provide a sense of mystery and intrigue. In the third century BCE, Callimachus forever repositioned perceptions and receptions...
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