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1
Challis, Deborah Joy. "Collecting classics : the reception of classical antiquities in public museums in England, 1830-1890." Thesis, Birkbeck (University of London), 2005. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.417268.
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Edgar, K. "Edward Daniel Clarke (1769-1822) and the collecting of classical antiquities." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2000. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.598748.
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This thesis describes the collecting activities of Clarke, travel writer and Professor of Mineralogy. It argues that disciplinary changes led to failure to understand Clarke's activities. By attempting to understand him his proper intellectual context rather than dismissing him as eccentric, we attain a fuller comprehension of the history of collecting and archaeology. The first chapter examines Clarke's education, challenging the usefulness of the standard biography by William Otter. Otter's text is constrained by the teleological conventions of biography into presenting Clarke's early life as prefiguring his later achievements. Despite the mathematical curriculum of late eighteenth century Cambridge, the university afforded opportunities to pursue antiquarian activity. Clarke also travelled as a private tutor; thus the Grand Tour served a generally overlooked function in enabling the educated but impoverished to travel. The second and third chapters examine Clarke's 1799-1802 travels. Clarke's collecting of antiquities was part of a wider collecting project including botanical and mineralogical material and non-physical data. Returning Clarke's collecting to its original context helps dispel the myth of collectors as "mere" treasure hunters. Clarke's attacks on Lord Elgin did not express hostility to all collecting, but invoked a supra-national ideal of collecting as rescue of valuable material for the benefit of mankind. The fourth chapter examines Clarke's Eleusinian "Ceres" and the collection of marbles displayed in the Cambridge University library. It analyses successive accounts of the acquisition of the statue, showing how facts are altered to suit rhetorical purposes; greater circumspection is needed in using travel accounts as sources for collecting. The identification of the piece has been wrongly represented as a story of smooth progress. The chapter explores and contextualises Clarke's decision not to restore the statue and reconstructs the display of the collection.
3
Adamo, Mario. "Sedes et rura : landownership and the Roman peasantry in the Late Republic." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2016. https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:0ebb3b79-9299-467c-ae10-8b700c24b8ef.
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This thesis reconsiders the cultural and economic relevance of landownership for the Roman republican peasants. In the Introduction, I define direct agricultural producers (hereafter 'peasants') as the object of my investigation. In Chapter 1, I argue that throughout the republic peasants owned little or no land, and private landholdings had a marginal role in peasants' production strategies. The frequent land schemes did not make the distribution of property more egalitarian, because they were not designed for that purpose, and due to their poverty peasants were unable to maintain control of the allotments. In Chapter 2, I explain that in ancient literature peasants were idealized as symbols of complete independence and self-sufficiency, and in political reflection they were considered the most perfect citizens. In accordance with the widespread view that Roman power had peaked and was now declining, already by the time of Fabius Pictor early and middle republican Rome was idealized as a society of peasants, whose supposed decline was threatening the republic. I conclude that in the Gracchan period peasants' discontent may have been a consequence of growing inequality, rather than utter impoverishment. In Chapter 3, I argue that in order to understand whether the free peasantry was actually declining we should consider variations in peasants' opportunities for dependent labour on the one hand, marketing on the other. Therefore, I reconsider the available data on the demography of Roman Italy and on commercial agriculture. I conclude that, while peasants could profit from increased access to markets, there is no conclusive evidence that competition for labour grew. In Chapter 4 I explain that the late republican peasants were perfectly aware that land had an economic value, and were even able to carry out evaluations. I suggest that this was a consequence of census procedures.
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Tsirogiannis, Christos. "Unravelling the hidden market of illicit antiquities : the Robin Symes-Christos Michaelides network and its international implications." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2013. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.648271.
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Meyer, Hans-Caspar. "The discovery, collection and scholarship of classical Greek and Greco-Scythian antiquities in imperial Russia." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2006. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.439815.
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Donnellan, V. C. "The role of collections of classical antiquities in UK regional museums : visitors, networks, social contexts." Thesis, University College London (University of London), 2015. http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/1469499/.
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This thesis explores the role of collections of classical antiquities in UK regional museums through qualitative research in six case study museums, with a focus on previously under-researched collections outside London, Oxford and Cambridge. First, an analysis of their history and intended role provides new insights into the broad picture of the development of foreign classical archaeological collections, in a range of contexts: two municipal museums; two university museums; and two galleries founded by private art collectors. The collections' contemporary role is analysed through the related concepts of outputs, benefits and meaning, situated within an exploration of the personal, physical, and socio-cultural contexts. Despite evidence of under-use, in some contexts, classical collections are shown to be made accessible in multiple ways. Focusing on casual visitors to permanent exhibitions, and drawing on interviews with museum visitors, staff members and stakeholders, I use the categories of the Generic Learning Outcomes and Generic Social Outcomes to analyse the perceived benefits of encounters with classical collections. I also discuss the wide range of meanings made from classical antiquities, presenting categories of meaning which emerged from analysis of the interview data. In the final chapter, I discuss the role of collections of classical antiquities, both within the specificity of each case study context, and also drawing general conclusions. I compare their intended role with the role they are expected to play today, and trace some effects of their history on the ways they are now perceived and used. I point, in particular, to tensions between the elite associations of classics and the socially-engaged, inclusive, post-modern museum, and between the foreign origins of classical antiquities and the local focus of many regional museums. I suggest that, within this context, interpreting the history of classical collections offers a productive means of enhancing their role in contemporary society.
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Tekkök-Biçken, Billur. "The Hellenistic and Roman pottery from Troia : second century B.C. to sixth century A.D. /." free to MU campus, to others for purchase, 1996. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/mo/fullcit?p9737882.
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Lodwick, Marcus Vale. "The monumental architecture of the Cyclades in the classical and Hellenistic periods." Thesis, University of Oxford, 1996. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:7df6aa69-4e56-42b7-a581-e786507467a1.
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The aim of this study is to establish the existence of a distinct regional architecture on the Cycladic islands during the Classical and Hellenistic periods. It presents a record of materials and of certain constructional techniques, proportions and forms of Cycladic monumental architecture, from which it is possible to establish and explain the differences and similarities of Cycladic practice with other Greek architectural traditions. It is based on a close examination of all the known major buildings and many fortifications on the Cyclades and Thasos, a colony of Pares with certain similar architectural traits. The first section of the thesis (Chapters 2-4) treats the principal constructional techniques, with separate detailed examinations of the various materials employed, the types and nature of foundation, euthynteria and wall construction. The materials available to the builders played a major part in the nature of these parts, all of which display a pronounced conservatism in technique despite strong influences from outside the archipelago. The second section (Chapters 5-6) looks at a number of significant proportions within Doric colonnades and entablatures, principally outlining the Cycladic tendency for slender columns and a less well established tendency for relatively low architraves throughout the Archaic, Classical and Hellenistic periods; accompanying tables and graphs detail and illustrate the proportions discussed. The final section (Chapters 7-8) studies two particular architectural forms - the tops of triglyphs and Ionic capitals; in the former, particular regional preferences of form are noted, while in the latter there are both conservative and innovative tendencies, as well as strong outside influences. There emerges from this study a local architecture that is conservative in many aspects of its architecture while being receptive to outside influences and even having a certain notable originality of its own. Appendix 1 lists many of the typical traits of essentially Archaic Cycladic architecture, some of which continue into the Classical period. Appendix 2 includes graphs detailing the effect of lower column diameter and column height upon column slenderness. A Catalogue of the Classical and Hellenistic Cycladic and Thasian monuments, together with their bibliography, is included at the end of Volume I.
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Grove, Jennifer Ellen. "The collection and reception of sexual antiquities in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century." Thesis, University of Exeter, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10871/15064.
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Sexually themed objects from ancient Greece and Rome have been present in debates about our relationship with the past and with sexuality since they were first brought to modern attention in large numbers in the Enlightenment period. However, modern engagement with this type of material has very often been characterised as problematic. This thesis pushes beyond the story of reactionary censorship of ancient depictions of sex to demonstrate how these images were meaningfully engaged with across intellectual life in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Britain and America. It makes a significant and timely contribution to our existing knowledge of a key historical period for the development of the modern understanding of sexuality and cultural representations of it, and the central role that antiquity played in negotiating this fundamental aspect of modernity. Crucially, this work demonstrates how sexual antiquities functioned as symbols of pre-Christian sexual, social and political mores, with which to think through, and to challenge, contemporary cultural constructions around sexuality, religion, gender roles and the development of culture itself. It presents evidence of the widespread and prolific acquisition of sexually themed artefacts throughout private and institutional collecting culture. This deliberate seeking out of ancient images of sex is shown to have been motivated by debates on the universal human connection between sex and religion, as part of wider constructions of notions such as ‘culture’ and ‘primitivism’, with Classical material maintaining a central position in these ideas, despite research into increasingly diverse cultures, past and present. The purposeful engagement with sexual imagery from antiquity is also revealed as having acted as a valuable new source of knowledge about ancient sexual life between men which gave new impetus to the negotiation, defence, celebration and promotion of homoerotic desire in contemporary turn of the twentieth century, Western society.
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Vaughan, Gerard. "The collecting of classical antiquities in England in the 18th century : a study of Charles Townley (1737-1805) and his circle." Thesis, University of Oxford, 1988. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.239427.
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Plagens, Emily S. Hafertepe Kenneth. "Collecting Greek and Roman antiquities remarkable individuals and acquisitions in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the J. Paul Getty Museum /." Waco, Tex. : Baylor University, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/2104/5259.
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Sheedy, Kenneth A. "The archaic and early classical coinages of the Cyclades." London : Royal Numismatic Soc, 2006. http://bvbr.bib-bvb.de:8991/F?func=service&doc_library=BVB01&doc_number=016094867&line_number=0002&func_code=DB_RECORDS&service_type=MEDIA.
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Pollard, Alison. "Carmen heroum : Greek epic in Roman friezes." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2017. https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:1bd394a8-200e-48c7-b7b4-e1e7cabd39e0.
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Roman wallpainting has been the subject of innumerable studies from the eighteenth century to the present day, but the epic-themed friezes of Late Republican and Early Imperial Italy have been comparatively neglected throughout this history of scholarship. This thesis therefore seeks to examine the three painted and stucco Iliad friezes from Pompeii, all found on the Via dell'Abbondanza, and the Odyssey frescoes from a house on the Esquiline in Rome, as four examples of a type which had a long history in the Graeco-Roman world, even if their survival in the archaeological record is scant. The primary aim of the study is to understand each frieze in the knowledge of how they might have been regarded in antiquity, as elucidated in Pausanias' commentaries on Polygnotus' Iliupersis and Nekyia frescoes in Delphi, and to understand their extra-textual insertions and spelling discrepancies not as artistic errors but as reflections of the geographical and chronological contexts in which the friezes were displayed. Through detailed study of their iconography and epigraphy, alongside contemporary writers' discussion of the epic genre and its specific concerns for a Roman audience, this study aims to show that the most fruitful course of enquiry pertaining to the friezes lies not in an argument about whether they are entirely faithful to the Homeric epics or depart from them in puzzling ways, but in the observation that reliance on the text and free play on it go hand in hand as part of the epic reception-culture within which these paintings belong.
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Chalazonitis, Ioannis. "The north-eastern Aegean, 1050-600 BC." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2017. https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:2f15b253-cc97-4e65-98cf-657a203bfc3e.
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This thesis aims to construct a historical narrative for the region of the north-eastern Aegean (NEA) during the Early Iron Age (1050-700 BCE) and the early Archaic period (7th century BCE) based primarily on archaeological evidence. Its goals are to investigate the most distinctive material culture elements for the studied period; to explore themes of continuity and connectivity between regions; to trace large- and smaller-scale population movements; to discuss how early communities perceived themselves and each other; and to investigate the social structure and organisation of these communities. Evidence from settlement sites, funerary contexts, and sanctuaries are presented in the first three chapters in that order. Following that, the final chapter presents the primary, overarching conclusions of the thesis, in four sub-chapters. Firstly, it is argued that the NEA was characterised by relative cultural continuity from the Late Bronze Age to well within the Archaic period: when new elements were introduced, they were, generally, integrated into earlier paradigms. Secondly, evidence is provided for an increase in connectivity and maritime traffic peaks during the late 8th century BCE; shortly afterwards, new population groups from the central and southern Aegean arrived in the NEA, and seem to have cohabited relatively peacefully with earlier populations. Thirdly, it is posited that there is little evidence for overarching NEA regional identities before the 6th century BCE: communities appear to have developed local identities, through association with specific sites and through references to the communal past in cult practice and funerary contexts. Finally, it is argued that social elites were markedly active in NEA communities of studied period: there is considerable evidence for socially exclusive groups, primarily in funerary and ritual contexts. The thesis concludes with a short chapter containing the author's closing remarks.
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West, Nicholas J. "Hellenistic and Roman bronze statuettes in the Ashmolean Museum." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2016. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:9040b5bf-05db-4524-8ec5-f0e00a77fa86.
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This thesis is an aetiological investigation of the Hellenistic and Roman figural bronze statuettes in the round that form part of the Ashmolean Museum's antiquities collection. The collection serves as a lens through which to study aspects of ancient and modern receptions of Classical sculptural forms. This approach is based on the premise that the collection's composition has been historically determined not only by how the modern parties responsible for its creation and growth responded to the sculptural forms and images recovered from antiquity, but also by how sculptural forms developed in Greece during the Classical and early Hellenistic periods were received by makers and users of bronze statuettes in antiquity. The thesis has three primary objectives: firstly, to produce a useful and informative catalogue of the Ashmolean Museum's collection of Hellenistic and Roman figural anthropomorphic bronze statuettes in the round; secondly, to determine not only how that collection came to have the characteristics that it does, but also how the reception of ancient sculpture has historically affected the formation of collections of bronze statuettes and their compositions; thirdly, to use archaeological evidence of bronze statuettes to reconstruct possible contexts and to determine in greater detail the reception of canonical sculptural figure types in the form of small bronzes during the Hellenistic and Roman periods. Part I of the thesis deals with the modern contexts for the statuettes, investigating the collection history, pulling out its salient characteristics and then comparing these to other major collections to make informed observations about how and why specific types of statuettes have survived from antiquity and the roles that modern reception of antiquity has played in shaping collections. This leads to Part II, which attempts to reconstruct possible ancient contexts for the Ashmolean bronzes by looking at the archaeological evidence for their production, movement use and display. Part III uses some of the figures of dwarfs, Herakles and Hermes in the collection to develop case studies that examine aspects of the visual relationships that existed between small bronzes and classical sculpture from the Classical and early Hellenistic periods.
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Koenig, Charlou. "Commentary on book II of the Roman antiquities of Dionysius of Halicarnassus." Diss., University of Iowa, 2013. https://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/6162.
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Only two ancient historians have written comprehensive histories of Rome that survive in more than fragments, Livy and Dionysius of Halicarnassus, both working in the years after Augustus came to power. Of the original twenty books of Dionysius' Roman Antiquities, which covered the history of Rome from pre-history to the beginning of the First Punic War, we have the first ten, substantial parts of the eleventh and fragments of the rest. But although Dionysius has been well received for his works of literary criticism, his historical work has been comparatively neglected. There are two recent commentaries on selected portions of the Antiquities, but only one commentary for a complete book, an unpublished dissertation commentary for Book I. A French translation with notes exists for Books 1 and 2, but the notes, though useful, are intended for the general reader, not the scholarly community. Dionysius' history, which parallels the work of his greater contemporary Livy, deserves more attention, hence this dissertation, a scholarly commentary on Book II of the Roman Antiquities covering the reigns of Romulus and Numa, the first two kings of Rome.
The purpose of this dissertation is, simply stated, to give a scholarly explanation of the text, to elucidate matters of interest to a careful reader. The method used (again, simply stated) was to carefully read the text and ask the basic question: what does this passage mean? Other questions followed. The result is primarily an explication of antiquarian, historical and historiographical matters; textual and linguistic matters were rarely considered.
The antiquarian and historical explications are useful for promoting a further understanding of early Roman history. But the examination of Dionysius' historiography shows other points of interest which include the following: Dionysius is adept at thematic development, for example of realistic narrative detail in contrast to Livy's artistic idealization of the Roman experience; in important ways he exhibits a historiography that differs from Livy's, as when he portrays early Rome as cautious, moderate and somewhat defensive in contrast to Livy's confident and aggressive city on the way to fulfilling a pre-ordained glory. The book contains numerous evidences of Augustan influence, and includes Dionysius' thoughts on the use of myth in historical writing. The most significant discovery is that the entire book is the most comprehensive description we have in antiquity of an actual, not theoretical, constitution as Dionysius understood and presented it; that Dionysius thought of the Roman constitution as the creation of Rome's first two kings, who based it upon Socratic virtues; and that he describes a working constitution as no other writer of antiquity did, integrating the virtues into an enduring system of laws and customs that goes beyond a mere rehearsal of ordinances in place at any given time. It is hoped that this commentary will prompt further research and insight into the historical and literary world in which Dionysius worked.
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Faedda, Simona. "Analisi di due domus tardo antiche a nord del Foro di Traiano (Roma): Stratigrafia e studio del materiale ceramico." Doctoral thesis, Universitat de Barcelona, 2019. http://hdl.handle.net/10803/669945.
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Gli scavi archeologici, promossi dalla Città Metropolitana di Roma Capitale, hanno portato alla luce due complessi abitativi edificati tra metà del I e il II sec. d.C., largamente modificati nel corso del IV e, infine abbandonati nel V/VI sec. e che attualmente si conservano nel loro aspetto tardo antico.
Del più antico, la domus A, restano un peristilio e un piccolo triclinio ricoperti da preziosi tappeti musivi e affacciati a Ovest su un’area aperta, molto probabilmente pertinente all’abitazione; la domus B, edificata alla fine del II sec. d.C., presenta una grande aula absidata riccamente decorata da rivestimenti in opus sectile di marmi colorati, interpretabile come sala di rappresentanza. Un vano scala di notevoli dimensioni permette di intuire l’esistenza di un secondo piano; infine, un cortile interno a Nord-Est ha conservato una sequenza stratigrafica di notevole interesse.
L’analisi dei contesti e lo studio dello straordinario campione di classi e produzioni ceramiche imperiali e tardo antiche rinvenuto nelle domus ha consentito di ripercorrere il lungo e articolato excursus temporale delle due abitazioni, dalla loro prima edificazione passando per la ristrutturazione e la probabile unificazione delle due fabbriche nel IV sec., fino al loro definitivo abbandono.
I materiali presi in esame ci hanno permesso, inoltre, di identificare e interpretare gli spazi delle domus, i gusti dei loro abitanti, le modalità di abbandono, e infine, di ravvisare, pur nei limiti di una dimensione privata, quelle che erano le tendenze economiche generali, seguendo passo a passo i momenti di sviluppo, di crisi e di cambiamento dell’economia imperiale.The archeological excavations carried out in 2005 in the subterranean area of Palazzo Valentini have led us to the discovery of two housing complexes built between the 1st and the 2nd century AD, modified throughout the 4th century and abandoned in the 5th/6th century. The analysis of the ceramic contexts and of the stratigraphy have led us to study the articulated temporary excursus of both houses, from their first construction to the renovation and their likely unification through the 4th century to their final abandonment. The examined materials have also led us to interpret the Domus spaces, their abandon forms, and finally, identify, even though inside the limit of a private dimension, what the tendencies were, following the different stages of development, crisis and imperial economy changes progressively.
Las excavaciones arqueológicas llevadas a cabo en el 2005 en el area subterránea del Palazzo Valentini han permitido descubrir dos complejos de viviendas construidos entre los siglos I y II d.C., modificado durante el siglo IV y abandonado en el siglo V/VI. El análisis de los contextos cerámicos y de la estratigrafía han permitido estudiar el articulado excursus temporal de las dos casas, desde su primera construcción hasta la renovación y la probable unificación durante el siglo IV, hasta su abandono definitivo. Los materiales examinados también nos han permitido interpretar los espacios de las Domus, las formas de abandono, y finalmente, identificar, incluso dentro de los límites de una dimensión privada, cuáles fueron las tendencias siguiendo los momentos de desarrollo, crisis y cambio de la economía imperial paso a paso.
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Hogg, Daniel A. W. "Speech and action in the Antiquitates Romanae of Dionysius of Halicarnassus : the question of historical change." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2008. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:30012af0-0ba8-46cd-a9d8-d53d8d3f73c1.
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This thesis examines the relationship between speech and action in Dionysius' Antiquitates Romanae. It consists of five main chapters, an introduction and a conclusion. In the introduction I establish the status quaestionis and consider different modes of presenting discourse. Chapter 2 is an intertextual analysis of Dionysius' first preface, AR I.1-8, exploring Dionysius' engagement with his Greek and Roman predecessors. I take one modern theory, concerning Dionysius apparent 'idealisation' of the Roman past, in order to examine the relationship between the Antiquities and Dionysius' rhetorical works. In the four chapters that follow, I trace the changing texture of narrative across the Antiquities, sinking shafts at moments to examine closely what is going on. First (ch. 3), I analyse speech in the Regal Period, focusing on the story of Lucretia and Brutus (AR IV.64-85), and the way that Herodotean allusion meshes with intratextual devices to narrate the fluctuations of the Regal Period. Chapter 4 is a paired reading of (4a) the story of Coriolanus' trial (VII.21-66) and (4b) the story of Coriolanus' encounter with his mother (VII.39-62). Ch. 4a concentrates on Thucydides and Isocrates, and how Coriolanus' trial binds the Greek literary past to the first-century Roman present. In 4b, I examine how Dionysius manages the shift between high politics and family relationships. Chapter 5, on the decemvirate (X.50-XI.44), explores again Roman tyranny, this time in a Republican frame; the power of the senate is consequently in point here. Chapter 6, on AR XIV-XX, probes the questions of Greek and Roman ethnicity and the individual which had arisen in the earlier chapters. In the conclusion I consider the precise question of Dionysius' Augustanism, relating it to Dionysius' apparent status in Rome.
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Tucker, G. H. "A Frenchman's Rome, in Rome : Joachim Du Bellay's Antiquitez de Rome in the light of his poetic development to Classical, Medieval Latin and Renaissance literature and scholarship." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 1987. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.234114.
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MANGIAFESTA, MARIA. "La fortuna delle Vestali tra il 1400 e il 1600." Doctoral thesis, Università degli Studi di Roma "Tor Vergata", 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/2108/942.
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Viene qui indagata la dinamica della fortuna del tema di Vesta, nume tutelare
focolare sacro, e delle sue sacerdotesse, le Vestali. Partendo dagli scritti di
eruditi, quali Pirro Ligorio e Ulisse Aldrovandi, passando per l’analisi di alcuni
repertori figurativi rinascimentali, grazie anche allo spoglio degli inventari, si sono
rintracciate Vesta e Vestali nelle principali collezioni: Colonna, Porcari, Mattei,
Pichi, Paluzzi Albertoni, Farnese, Lisca, Belvedere Vaticano, Cesi, Orsini, Soderini,
Medici, Altieri, Ludovisi, Giustiniani, Pamphilj, Massimo, Chigi, Carpegna.
Nel Cinquecento le grandi opere di scavo promosse da personaggi influenti
portarono alla scoperta di sculture, monete e rilievi riconosciute come tali anche
grazie alla riscoperta dei testi classici utili a ricostruire la storia antica di Roma, e al
sito di rinvenimento.
Nel Seicento i dettami suggeriti per il restauro da Orfeo Boselli portarono ad
integrare le statue oltre che come Vestali anche come Muse o Igea etc.
Solo gli scavi, condotti nell’Atrium Vestae da Rodolfo Lanciani alla fine
dell’Ottocento, hanno permesso di far luce sullo spazio dedicato alle Vestali e sul
loro aspetto.
Altre utili precisazioni sono emerse dalla riconsiderazione della storia degli
scavi a Roma dal XV al XVII secolo, nel Campo Marzio, sull’Esquilino, nell’area
degli Horti Asiniani e di Porta Capena, sull’Aventino, nell’area Lateranense e sul
Gianicolo, siti di provenienza di molte delle antichità considerate.
Inoltre il ritrovamento nel XIX secolo, nell’area delle Terme di Caracalla, di
una statua di divinità seduta, che è stata messa a confronto con la Vesta del
Dodekatheon di Ostia e con la statua seduta del boschetto del Belvedere, può forse
contribuire a far luce sulla statua che Plinio vide negli Horti di Asinio Pollione.
Prendendo a confronto l’affresco con Vesta ritrovato a Pompei nel pistrinum
una casa privata, si potrebbe infine avanzare l’ipotesi che anche a Roma in ambiti
privati possa essere stato creato uno spazio celebrativo, consacrato alla divinità del
focolare, nel quale forse trovarono posto alcune delle sculture considerate o anche i
rilievi con offerenti provenienti dall’area del Laterano.Here we wish to study the fortunate dynamic of the “theme” of Vesta, tutelary divinity of the sacred hearth, and of her priestesses, the Vestals. Beginning with the literary sources of Pirro Ligorio and Ulisse Aldrovandi, continuing through the analysis of various Renaissance sketchbooks, and thanks also to the perusal of the inventories of the various collections, Vesta and the Vestal Virgins have been found in all of the most important collections of antiquities, as for example, those of the Colonna, Porcari, Mattei, Pichi, Paluzzi Albertoni, Farnese, Lisca, Belvedere Vaticano, Cesi, Orsini, Soderini, Medici, Altieri, Ludovisi, Giustiniani, Pamphilj, Massimo, Chigi, Carpegna. In the 16th century the great archaeological excavations, promoted by influential personalities, brought about the discovery of sculptures, coins and reliefs, recognized like that, thanks also to the rediscovery of the classical texts, useful for the reconstruction of the history of ancient Rome, and to the sites of discovery. On the other hand, during the 17th century, changes were felt in the artistic climate, so Orfeo Boselli suggested the restorations of statues like Vestals or Muses or Igea. Only through Lanciani’s excavations in the Atrium Vestae, at the end of the 19th century, we have been able to shed light on the area dedicated to the Vestal Virgins and on their appearance. Other useful information emerged thanks to the re-examination of the history of the archaeological excavations conducted in Rome, from the 15th to the 17th centuries, in Campo Marzio, the Esquiline Hill, the Horti Asiniani, Porta Capena, the Aventine Hill, the Lateran zone, and the Janicolo Hill, sites from which many of the antiquities being studied were excavated. In addition, the rediscovery in the 19th century, in the Baths of Caracalla, of a statue with a seated deity, which has been compared with the Vesta on Dodekatheon and with the seated statue in the Vatican Gardens, can perhaps contribute to shed light on the statue which Pliny saw in the Horti Asiniani When we consider the fresco showing Vesta, found in a pistrinum in a private home in Pompei, we can advance the hypothesis that also in Rome, in private residences, there may have been created sacred areas, dedicated to Vesta, the divinity of the hearth, where perhaps some of the sculptures we have taken into consideration, or perhaps the reliefs that come from the Lateran area showing the faithful bearing offerings, may have been placed.
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Bodenstein, Felicity. "L’histoire du Cabinet des médailles et antiques de la Bibliothèque nationale (1819-1924) : un Cabinet pour l’érudition à l’âge des musées." Thesis, Paris 4, 2015. http://www.theses.fr/2015PA040071.
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Le Cabinet des médailles et antiques de la Bibliothèque nationale conserve les « bijoux savants » aux origines du collectionnisme occidental avec son médaillier universel, des pierres gravées et des collections d’antiques d’une diversité étonnante. Si celles-ci proviennent pour les parties les plus anciennes, des collections de la maison royale et de trésors ecclésiastiques, cette thèse ne remonte pas aux origines du département mais s’occupe de son destin à l’âge des musées, entre la Restauration, avec l’arrivée au département en 1819 de Désiré Raoul-Rochette (1789-1854) et la période qui suit la première guerre mondiale jusqu’à la mort d’Ernest Babelon (1854-1924). Elle cherche à comprendre, comment ce « parangon des cabinets d’amateurs de jadis » s’est développé, pris comme il l’était entre une tradition antiquaire aristocratique et les exigences de la modernité, républicaine et spécialiste. Elle aborde les différents aspects de la vie du département à l’intérieur du quadrilatère Richelieu. Tout d’abord, comme le portrait d’un lieu d’histoire d’un point de vue institutionnel et architectural qui permet de comprendre la place accordée historiquement à la culture matérielle au sein de la Bibliothèque nationale. Ensuite l’histoire du développement des collections et puis celle de leur valorisation muséographique et scientifique sont examinées au prisme de l’expansion du domaine de l’archéologie et de l’essor des sciences auxiliaires de l’histoire au XIXe siècleThe Cabinet des médailles et antiques in the French National Library holds a particular place in the vast constellation of Parisian museums. Home to the so-called « bijoux savants » that founded western collecting culture since the Renaissance, it is at once a universal coin cabinet, one of the worlds foremost collections of cut stones and gems, but also a miscellaneous collection of antiquities representing all periods and places. As described in 1930 by one of its curators, it represents a « parangon of amateur cabinets from another time ». This thesis does not directly deal with its prestigious origins but tells one chapter of its long history, looking at how, from the period of the Restoration onwards (beginning with the direction of Désiré Raoul-Rochette in 1819) until the passing of Ernest Babelon in 1924, this cabinet of antiquarian culture and collections adapted and developed to the modern Republican museum age. The life of the department is first considered as a means of understanding the role of material culture and the place of the museum inside France’s national library in the nineteenth century. It then goes on to consider the development of the collections themselves and their scientific and museological exploitation in light of the rapidly expanding practice of archaeology and highly specialised auxiliary sciences of history
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Febvey, Agnes. "Apollon Pythien à Délos." Thesis, Lyon 2, 2013. http://www.theses.fr/2013LYO20081.
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Le sanctuaire d'Apollon à Délos accueillit en son sein, dès la fin du IVe s., un Pythion, bâtiment consacré à l'Apollon de Delphes, désigné dans les comptes des hiéropes sous le nom de Pythion, ou de « naos aux trois statues ». Les mentions répétées de ce nom dans l'épigraphie délienne, ainsi que les dépenses engagées dans divers travaux de restauration et d'aménagement, témoignent de l'importance de cet édifice. On sait qu'il possédait un lanterneau et abritait trois statues, un palmier et un foyer qui brûlait en permanence. Sa localisation, liée à celle de l'Autel de cornes, a longtemps fait problème, mais elle semble probable maintenant que le Kératôn est identifié de façon certaine : le Pythion correspondrait à l'édifice ionique construit par les Athéniens au IVe s, dont les vestiges sont visibles au Nord-Ouest de la plaine du Hiéron d'Apollon, entre l'Artémision au Nord et le Kératôn au Sud. L'examen des ruines de l'édifice, fondé sur un raisonnement purement architectural, puis l'analyse des sources épigraphiques concernant le Pythion, de manière à mettre à l'épreuve les apports des textes et ceux de l'étude architecturale, permettent d'établir l'identification de l'édifice ionique et du Pythion et d'apporter une synthèse sur l'architecture et l'histoire du Pythion de DélosFrom the end of the 4th century AC, the sanctuary of Apollo in Delos took in a Pythion, a building consecrated to the Delphian Apollo, known in the account of the Delian hieropes as Pythion, or "naos with the three statues". The repeated mentions of this name in the Delian inscriptions, as well as the expenses involved in various restoration works or alterations, bear witness to the importance of the building. We know that it possessed a lantern and sheltered three statues, a palm tree and an hearth that burned continuously. Its location, linked to the one of the Altar of Horns, was a issue for a long time, but it seems probable now that the Keraton is certainly identified : the Pythion could correspond to the ionic edifice built by the Athenians in the 4th century AC, which remains can be seen North-West of the plain of Apollo's Hieron, between the Artemision to the North and the Keraton to the South. The correspondance between the ionic building and the Pythion is based on the study of the ruins, from a purely architural point of view, then on the exam of the epigraphic sources, in such a way that we put to the test the contributions from the texts and the architectural study, before proposing a synthesis on the architecture and the history of the Pythion
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Algrain, Isabelle. "L'alabastre attique: origine, forme et usages." Doctoral thesis, Universite Libre de Bruxelles, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/2013/ULB-DIPOT:oai:dipot.ulb.ac.be:2013/209979.
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L’alabastre attique est une forme de vase à parfum en céramique produite à Athènes entre le milieu du VIe s. av. J.-C. et le début du IVe s. av. J.-C. L’objet de cette thèse est de présenter une étude globale, inexistante à ce jour, sur l’alabastre attique. En plus d’un examen typologique de la forme, généralement mené dans le cadre de ce type de recherche, nous avons voulu proposer une lecture économique, culturelle et sociale de l’alabastre.La première partie de cette thèse est consacrée à l’identification de l’origine de l’alabastre et à sa diffusion en Méditerranée orientale. L’alabastre est originaire d'Égypte, où les premiers exemplaires en albâtre se développent à partir du VIIIe s. av. J.-C. Après avoir tracé son évolution morphologique, la thèse met en évidence les diverses régions de la Méditerranée orientale telles que le Levant, la Mésopotamie ou la Perse, où la forme est exportée et copiée, le plus souvent par des ateliers qui produisent des vases en pierre. Cette première partie met également l’accent sur le statut particulier de l’alabastre en pierre en Orient et en Égypte, où il restera longtemps associé au pouvoir royal ou aristocratique. Elle traite enfin de l’apparition de l’alabastre et de son statut dans le monde grec oriental. Ces importations déclenchent une réaction presque immédiate chez les artisans de ces régions qui produisent des alabastres en argent, en verre, en faïence, en ivoire, en bois et en céramique.
La seconde partie de cette étude aborde la production de l’alabastre attique en céramique qui s’étend du VIe s. av. J.-C. au début du IVe s. av. J.-C. Un premier chapitre est consacré à l’étude de son introduction dans le répertoire formel au milieu du VIe s. av. J.-C. par l’atelier d’Amasis et aux inspirations probables de cet artisan. Cette section s’est également penchée sur le difficile problème des phases de la production et de l’organisation interne des différents ateliers. Pour ce faire, nous avons élaboré une méthode d’analyse basée à la fois sur l’examen minutieux du travail du potier grâce aux variations dans les profils des vases et sur les données obtenues par les études ethno-archéologiques pour tenter de différencier les alabastres produits au sein d’ateliers différents et d’identifier, quand cela s’avérait possible, différents potiers au sein d’un même atelier. Cette étude formelle a distingué trois phases différentes de production qui présentent des caractéristiques typologiques distinctes. L’examen de l’organisation interne des ateliers a également mis en évidence les caractéristiques morphologiques des vases et a identifié les potiers les plus importants. L’examen attentif des pièces céramiques a permis de regrouper au sein d’un même atelier des artisans dont les liens étaient jusqu’alors insoupçonnés. Enfin, la deuxième partie se clôture par une analyse de la carte de distribution des alabastres attiques
La troisième partie de ce travail porte sur la fonction et les différents usages de l’alabastre sur base des sources littéraires, épigraphiques, iconographiques et archéologiques. Cette section se penche plus particulièrement sur l’identification des utilisateurs privilégiés des alabastres. En effet, de nombreuses études lient, de manière presque systématique, l’alabastre au monde féminin. Ce propos mérite d’être nuancé car, si le vase apparaît à maintes reprises dans des contextes féminins tels que ceux de la toilette et de la parure, il ne constitue pas exclusivement un symbole du monde des femmes. Cette troisième partie met en évidence le fait que l’alabastre est également utilisé dans un grand nombre d’autres contextes, notamment rituels, et représente souvent un symbole de luxe et de raffinement à l’orientale.
Doctorat en Histoire, art et archéologie
info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished
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Takimoto, Miwa. "Représenter l’espace habité par les dieux ? La Méditerranée de la mosaïque aux Îles d’Ammaedara (Haïdra, Tunisie)." Thesis, Paris 4, 2017. http://www.theses.fr/2017PA040006.
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Que cherchent à représenter et à percevoir les Romains, lorsqu’ils décrivent un parcours topographique ou géographique dans le cadre de l’art figuré ? Comment construisent-ils mentalement les déplacements géographiques réels ou imaginaires ? Comment se construit la carte mentale entre l’image et le récit ? La « mosaïque aux Îles » d’Haïdra est un parfait exemple qui nous permet de réfléchir sur ces questions. Elle a été découverte en 1995 sur le sol d’une pièce d’un grand édifice dans le quartier suburbain de la cité antique d’Ammaedara en Afrique proconsulaire. Attribuée à la fin du IIIe ou au début du IVe siècle, cette mosaïque offre la vue d’un espace insulaire avec une série de quinze îles et villes de la Méditerranée orientale et de la Sicile dont douze sont désignées par une légende en latin : Cnidos, Cnossos, Cypros, Cytherae, Egusa, Erycos, Idalium, Lemnos, Naxos, Paphos, Rhodos et Scyros. La représentation des îles et des villes ainsi que la manière de restituer leur succession ne correspondent pas à la réalité géographique, alors que ces zones ont été décrites par les auteurs anciens. Ce travail se propose d’étudier la structuration spatiale, la coordination et le montage des éléments réalistes et imaginaires des lieux dans l’art romain, à partir de cette mosaïque. Il s’agira d’analyser les différentes images qui rendent compte de la dualité à la frontière entre la notion de paysage figuré et celle de la cartographie ; il s’agira également de recueillir dans les sources écrites les descriptions spatiales de la géographie physique et littéraire évoquant un paysage culturelWhat do the Romans aim to represent and perceive when they describe a topographical or geographical trajectory within the framework of figurative art? How do they mentally build real or imagined geographical journeys? How is the mental path created from the image and the narrative? The "Mosaïque aux Îles" of Haidra is a perfect example that allows us to think about these issues. It was discovered in 1995 on the floor of a room in a large building in the suburban district of the ancient city of Ammaedara in Africa Proconsularis. Attributed to the end of the 3rd or the beginning of the 4th century, this mosaic offers the view of an insular space with a series of fifteen islands and cities of the eastern Mediterranean and Sicily, twelve of which are designated by an inscription in Latin: Cnidos, Cnossos, Cypros, Cytherae, Egusa, Erycos, Idalium, Lemnos, Naxos, Paphos, Rhodos, and Scyros. Therepresentation of islands and cities as well as the manner of reconstructing their succession do not correspond to the geographical reality, although ancient authors have described these areas. This work aims to study the spatial structuring, the coordination, and the assembly of the realistic and imaginary elements of places in Roman art, on the basis of this mosaic. The different images that represent the duality at the boundary between the notion of landscape painting and that of cartography have been analysed. Also, the spatial descriptions of the physical and literary geography evoking a cultural landscape have been collected in the written sources
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Ruffieux, Philippe. "Égyptiens et Nubiens à Kerma : la céramique de Doukki Gel (Soudan) au Nouvel Empire." Thesis, Sorbonne université, 2018. http://www.theses.fr/2018SORUL092.
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Les temples égyptiens de Doukki Gel, à Kerma (Soudan), ont été bâtis sous le règne de Thoutmosis Ier, au centre d’un ensemble religieux et cérémoniel du Kerma Classique. Les fouilles du site ont livré de grandes quantités de céramiques, dont l’étude constitue la matière de cette thèse. De concert avec l’analyse stratigraphique et l’épigraphie, l’approche typologique de la poterie, premier axe de recherche, a contribué à la datation de nombreux contextes archéologiques. Par ailleurs, six phases de développement ont été mises en évidence, au sein du corpus céramique du Nouvel Empire, depuis la fin du Kerma Classique. Le second axe de recherche, l’analyse technologique, basée principalement sur le système dit « de Vienne », a permis de définir des variantes locales des pâtes de tradition égyptienne, alors que la tradition Kerma a fait l’objet d’un système de classification particulier. L’étude indique que la grande majorité du matériel des deux traditions était fabriqué localement, et révèle des influences réciproques entre Nubiens et Égyptiens, dues à la situation singulière de ce site. Une analyse des données quantitatives du matériel récolté dans différents secteurs permet en outre de proposer une identification fonctionnelle des espaces et de la circulation des denrées dans le cadre des activités cultuelles, au sein de trois organisations architecturales successives. Ces données suggèrent également une longue survivance de la tradition Kerma déclinante, à l’échelle locale ou régionale, pendant le Nouvel EmpireThe Egyptian temples at Dokki Gel, Kerma (Sudan), were built during the reign of Thutmose I, in the heart of a Classic Kerma religious and ceremonial compound. The excavations of the site have yielded a huge number of potsherds whose study constitute the focus of this thesis. The typological approach, combined with stratigraphic analysis and epigraphy, has allowed the dating of many archaeological contexts. Moreover, six development phases within the New Kingdom ceramic corpus were identified, starting at the end of the Classic Kerma. The technological analysis, relying mainly on the so-called « Vienna System », led to the definition of local variants of egyptian pottery fabrics, whereas the Kerma material had to be classified separately. A large majority of pottery from both traditions was most likely produced locally and shows signs of mutual influences between Nubians and Egyptians. Analysis of the quantitative data of ceramic assemblages gathered from various sectors brings us to an identification of probable space functions, and movement of commodities within the framework of temple cult ativities and according to three successive architectural organizations. They also suggest a long period of survival of the declining Kerma pottery tradition, during the New Kingdom
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Labrude, Angélique. "Dynamiques funéraires et affirmations identitaires en Crète à l'est du Lassithi (XIVe - Ve siècles av. J-C.)." Thesis, Strasbourg, 2014. http://www.theses.fr/2014STRAG044.
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Nous avons poursuivi plusieurs desseins dans cette étude portant sur les dynamiques funéraires à l’est du Lassithi, du XIVe au Ve siècle av. J.-C. L’identification, au travers des traces matérielles, des pratiques collectives et codifiées que constituent les rituels funéraires, empreints d’une forte dimension identitaire, a constitué un premier objectif. Nous avons également cherché à saisir les stratégies territoriales de mise en place des sites funéraires parallèlement aux changements sociopolitiques majeurs qui affectent la Crète durant la délicate période transitionnelle que constitue le passage de l’âge du Bronze à l’âge du Fer. Dans un premier temps, après une présentation du contexte spatiotemporel et du vocable propre à l’archéologie de la mort, nous avons focalisé notre travail sur la description systématique de chaque sépulture dans son environnement propre. Dans un second temps, nous avons procédé en croisant les données matérielles, à une analyse thématique et comparative des nécropoles. La dimension systémique des dynamiques funéraires à l’est du Lassithi a enfin été envisagée à l’aune du contexte chrono-culturel égéenThis doctoral thesis examining funerary dynamics in the east of Lassithi from the fourteenth to the fifth century B.C.E. has several aims. In the first instance, I seek to identify through the material vestiges the collective and codified practices that constitute the funerary rituals marked by a strong identitarian dimension. I also endeavour to grasp the territorial strategies used in the organisation of funerary sites in parallel to the major socio-political changes affecting Crete during the delicate transitional period marking the passage from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age. After an initial presentation of the spatio-temporal context and the vocabulary specific to the archaeology of death, the thesis turns towards the systematic description of each sepulchre in its own environment. This material data is subsequently combined with a thematic and comparative analysis of the necropolis. Finally, the systematic dimension of funerary dynamics in the east of Lassithi is considered in light of the Aegean chrono-cultural context
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Uden, James. "The Invisibility of Juvenal." Thesis, 2011. https://doi.org/10.7916/D83X8DKW.
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This dissertation offers a reading of Juvenal's Satires. It maintains that Juvenal consciously frustrates readers' attempts to identify his poetic voice with a single unitary character or persona. At the same time, it argues that Juvenal's poems are influenced in both form and theme by cultural trends in the early second century. The arguments staged in these poems constitute a critique of aspects of Roman intellectual culture in the reigns of Trajan and Hadrian.
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Glauthier, Patrick. "Science and Poetry in Imperial Rome: Manilius, Lucan, and the Aetna." Thesis, 2011. https://doi.org/10.7916/D8057NWX.
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This dissertation examines the relationship between scientific inquiry and hexameter poetry at Rome in the first century CE. It focuses on three poetic texts: Manilius' Astronomica, Lucan's Civil War, and the anonymous Aetna. It argues that despite generic and thematic differences, these works participate in a common dialogue and therefore can benefit from being read side by side. In particular, the dissertation demonstrates that all three authors reflect on the ability of poetry to communicate scientific knowledge, and that they simultaneously question or undermine the practical value of that knowledge. As a result, it allows us to see that scientific inquiry itself constitutes a dynamic and multifaceted area of creative literary activity in Early Imperial Rome.
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Hellstrom, Monica. "Public Construction under Diocletian. A study of State Involvement in Construction in Roman Era Towns in Present Day Tunisia and Eastern Algeria." Thesis, 2014. https://doi.org/10.7916/D8W37T9R.
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This study traces the development of building inscriptions in Roman North Africa, in order to understand the rich epigraphic record testifying to public construction during the reign of Diocletian. In particular, it examines the role of the imperial government in construction, both in how it itself built and how it related to locals who did. Treating construction as a form of communication between builder and society, I have examined the claims made by the state as it took on the role of builder, and to what social groups these claims were directed. A wide approach has been called for to understand the role played by public construction - and by broadcasting it through inscriptions - for the negotiation of influence in the province. I have examined the activities of both imperial and local builders, which has revealed well defined conventions as to what and where to build, and how to communicate it. Against this backdrop, I have traced the relations of the Diocletianic government to a number of social strata, as expressed through building inscriptions, from rural entrepreneurs and small town councilors to Carthaginian senators. An image has emerged of a government that was keenly aware of the social makeup of the province, and deeply invested in its economic fabric, concerned with maintaining a viable, small scale network of independent municipalities as a counterweight to the interests of the highest elites, while at the same time maintaining stable relations to said elites.
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Myers, Tobias Anthony. "Models of Reception in the Divine Audience of the Iliad." Thesis, 2011. https://doi.org/10.7916/D8QC09GB.
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The Iliad in certain key passages construes the Olympian gods as an internal epic audience offering and exploring multiple configurations of audience response to the poem. Chapter 1 explores the special features of the divine audience in general terms and considers previous scholarship. Chapter 2 reads Zeus' provocation of Hera and Athena in Book 4 as a "metaperformative" provocation of the poet's audience. Chapters 3 argues that the audience's mental "viewing" experience is construed as attendance at a live spectacle where the gods also attend, a spectacle for which the duel in Book 3 provides a paradigm. Chapter 4 interprets the duel in Book 7 as a reevaluation of that paradigm, motivated intratextually by the internal audience of Apollo and Athena. Chapter 5 shows that the climactic duel in Book 22, and especially the passage describing Hector and Achilles circling Troy as the gods watch and discuss, problematizes the ethical stance of the extratextual audience. Chapter 6 argues that in the Iliad as a whole the poet uses "the gods" to model a shift in audience sympathy from pro-Achaean bias to pity for the Trojans.
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Chen, Howard Shau-Hao. "Breakthrough and Concealment: The Formulaic Dynamics of Character Behavior in Lucan." Thesis, 2012. https://doi.org/10.7916/D8833Q3Q.
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This dissertation analyzes the three main protagonists of Lucan's Bellum Civile through their attempts to utilize, resist, or match a pattern of action which I call the "formula." Most evident in Caesar, the formula is a cycle of alternating states of energy that allows him to gain a decisive edge over his opponents by granting him the ability of perpetual regeneration. However, a similar dynamic is also found in rivers, which thus prove to be formidable adversaries of Caesar in their own right. Although neither Pompey nor Cato is able to draw on the Caesarian formula successfully, Lucan eventually associates them with the river-derived variant, thus granting them a measure of resistance (if only in the non-physical realm). By tracing the development of the formula throughout the epic, the dissertation provides a deeper understanding of the importance of natural forces in Lucan's poem as well as the presence of an underlying drive that unites its fractured world.
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Martinez, Susana Isabel. "Socratic Ethics in the Protagoras, Gorgias, and Republic." Thesis, 2013. https://doi.org/10.7916/D8GT5V8G.
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This dissertation analyzes Socratic ethics in three Platonic dialogues: the Protagoras, the Gorgias, and the Republic. The purpose is twofold: 1) to question the standard view that what is the defining characteristic of Socratic ethics in the Protagoras and the Gorgias is its intellectualism and that the Republic represents a correction to, or deviation from, such intellectualism, and 2) to offer an alternative account of Socratic ethics in these dialogues. The alternative account this dissertation proposes is that what makes Socrates a compelling ethical figure is his unique understanding of what constitutes an agent's self-interest. Moreover, the contention will be that the uniqueness of Socrates' ethical views comes into focus when we consider them vis-à-vis the views and concerns of his interlocutors, particularly the sophists.
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SanPietro, Irene. "Money, Power, Respect: Charity and the Creation of the Church." Thesis, 2014. https://doi.org/10.7916/D80C4SXZ.
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Despite the long-recognized connection between poverty and charity, and the scholarly attention paid to the culture of charity, there have been very few studies that have yielded the kind of quantitative results that would enable scholars of antiquity to assess the sources and impact of church wealth gained from non-elites. I ask three questions: (1) Who was asked to give? (2) Who could afford to give? (3) Who did, in fact, give? Three bodies of evidence offer answers: (1) The the patristic corpus suggests targets of solicitation as well as a rhetorical strategy for encouraging donation, (2) household economic models give a sense of how potential donors could generate disposable in- come through ascetic practice, and (3) a selection of small donations, specifically Christian small silvers, can be valued in a way that permits conjecture regarding the social profile of donors in late antiquity. Pursuing charity in this way offers the opportunity to get past ecclesiastical self- representation and gaps in evidence by looking at the underlying structures of the phenomenon. This in turn promises a clearer idea of the relationship between charity and philanthropy, placing church institutions back in their social context.
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Webster, Colin. "Technology and/as Theory: Material Thinking in Ancient Science and Medicine." Thesis, 2014. https://doi.org/10.7916/D8J101B7.
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Multiple natural philosophers in antiquity proposed that nature possessed considerable technical skill. Yet, the specific conceptual implications of this assertion were quite different in fourth century BCE Athens--with its pots, bronze tools and cisterns--than in second century CE Rome--where large-scale aqueducts, elaborate water machines and extensive glassworks were commonplace. This dissertation assesses the impact that these different technological environments had on philosophical and scientific theories. In short, it argues that contemporary technologies shaped ancient philosophers' physical assumptions by providing cognitive tools with which to understand natural phenomena. As a result, as technologies evolved--even in relatively modest ways--so too did conceptual models of the natural world. To explore these assertions, this dissertation focuses on two main fields of explanation, the vascular system and vision, and includes investigations of such technologies as pipes, pumps, mirrors, wax tablets, diagrams and experimental apparatuses. It demonstrates the ways in which scientific theorists use the specific material technologies around them as heuristics to conceptualize physical processes.
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Simone, Caleb. "Enchanted Bodies: Reframing the Culture of Greek Aulos Performance." Thesis, 2020. https://doi.org/10.7916/d8-gbs6-4g39.
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The double-pipe reed woodwind known as the aulos was the most pervasive instrument in ancient Greek life. Despite recent attention to affect and the senses and advancements in ancient musicology, there remains no comprehensive study of this cultural phenomenon. Bringing the burgeoning field of sound studies to bear on the diverse range of evidence, this dissertation offers the first cultural history of aulos performance, focusing on a crucial period of its activity spanning the sixth through fourth centuries BCE. I propose an interpretive model that works across textual and material sources to account for the ineffable, affective ways in which the instrument acts upon the embodied listener. When we consider the aulos as a sonic medium that works beyond the structural and semantic boundaries of music and language, we can identify how the instrument communicates across contexts through certain structures of feeling its sound. By exploring the world-building capacities of the instrument’s sound effects and harmonics, I chart the history of these embodied ways of knowing its sound. I argue that the aulos operates through a culturally conditioned interface with the body, exerting an agency that impacts social and civic identity, drives musical innovation, and poses a cultural threat to discursive ways of knowing and rational persuasion. The five chapters identify the interplay of tradition and innovation across the contexts of aulos performance, between musical and theatrical genres as well as civic practices involving corporate movement. Meanwhile, with the rise of prose, the emerging critical discourse on the aulos analyzes its effect on the body specifically and aims to expose how the listener is tricked into the “enchanting” soundworlds it constructs. This interdisciplinary media-based approach to ancient Greek performance thus presents a new register of meaning-making that articulates unexplored aspects of the artistic, literary, and philosophical works that preserve this culture.
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Tan, James. "Competition Between Public and Private Revenues in Roman Social and Political History (200-49 B.C.)." Thesis, 2011. https://doi.org/10.7916/D8X06F02.
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This dissertation applies the principles of fiscal dissertation to the study of the Roman Republic. I argue that the creation of a profitable empire allowed the ruling elite to end their reliance on domestic taxation to fund state activity, and that Rome's untaxed citizens were effectively disenfranchised as a result. They therefore lacked the bargaining power to prevent aristocrats from enriching themselves at the expense of the state. The result was a set of leading individuals whose resources could overwhelm those of communal, public institutions. This wealth allowed them to control the distribution of economic resources within Roman society, reinforcing hierarchies and forcing less fortunate citizens to tie themselves to patronage networks instead of state institutions. This state, unable to command the respect of its constituents, was eventually picked off in the competition between great individuals.
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Ratzan, David Martyn. "Contract Norms and Contract Enforcement in Graeco-Roman Egypt." Thesis, 2011. https://doi.org/10.7916/D8NZ8G0D.
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This dissertation explores the ethics and norms associated with contracting in Ptolemaic and Roman Egypt as a contribution to the institutional study of ancient contract and its relationship to the economic history of the Roman world. Although ancient contracts in the Hellenistic tradition (i.e., non-Roman law contracts) have been studied rigorously from a legal perspective, there has been no systematic study of contract as an economic institution in the eastern half of the ancient Mediterranean. The first three chapters argue that such a study is a historical desideratum and seek to establish the theoretical and methodological basis and scope of such a project. Theoretically, the most decisive factor in determining the nature, extent, and success of contract as an economic institution is actual enforcement, as opposed to mere legal "enforceability." While the modern (Western) state has been justly credited with having had a transformative effect on contract by publishing clear rules (i.e., contract law) and providing effective "third-party" enforcement, even modern contracts depend on the enforcement activities of the individual parties and the power of social norms. Historically, there is no question that the ancient state, Rome included, was less invested and less effective in its support and promotion of private contracting than its modern counterparts. Ethics and norms therefore played a larger and more important role in ancient contracting than they have in the last century and as such need to be studied in their own right. The nature of the project also argues for Egypt being the primary locus of study, since the papyri afford us the most complete access to ancient individuals and organizations using contracts to organize transactions. After the theoretical and methodological discussion, there follow explorations of several important social values and norms with respect to contracting in Graeco-Roman Egypt, including trust (pistis), "respect" (eugnōmosynē), and "breach." The results show how "personal" contracting was and reveal some of the ways in which individuals bridged the inevitable "trust gaps" in their efforts to build credible commitments with those outside the immediate circle of their trusted intimates. It also illuminates the discourse of reputation, a key lever in ancient contract formation and enforcement. Finally, the notion of breach is shown to have become both more common and to have evolved conceptually in written contracts over time. It is argued that these changes in the idea and drafting of breach should be interpreted in light of a larger pattern of historical and legal development spanning the second century BCE to the second century CE, a period which witnessed an increasing "moralization" of contract, itself an adaptation to an enforcement regime heavily dependent on ethics and norms. The last chapter offers a synthesis of the findings and a prospectus of the next phase of the project, which turns to the role of the state, arguing that it was generally more effective and activist than the current opinion allows.
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Allen, Molly Evangeline. "Portraits of Grief: Death, Mourning and the Expression of Sorrow on White-Ground Lêkythoi." Thesis, 2017. https://doi.org/10.7916/D8KD296M.
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In Athens in the early 5th century BCE, a new genre of funerary vase, the white-ground lêkythos, appeared and quickly grew to be the most popular grave gift for nearly a century. These particular vases, along with their relatively delicate style of painting, ushered in a new funerary scene par excellence, which highlighted the sorrow of the living and the merits of the deceased by focusing on personal moments of grief in the presence of a grave. Earlier Attic funerary imagery tended to focus on crowded prothesis scenes where mourners announced their grief and honored the dead through exaggerated, violent and frenzied gestures. The scenes on white-ground lêkythoi accomplished the same ends through new means, namely by focusing on individual mourners and the emotional ways that mourners privately nourished the deceased and their memory. Such scenes combine ritual activity (i.e. dedicating gifts, decorating the grave, pouring libations) with emotional expressions of sadness, which make them more vivid and relatable. The nuances in the characteristics of the mourners indicate a new interest in adding an individual touch to the expression, which might “speak” to a particular moment or variety of sadness that might relate to a potential consumer. To facilitate a meaningful discussion of the range of ways that white-ground painters articulated grief and lament in their vases, the dissertation is divided into six chapters, each of which concentrates on a particular type of mourner: women, men, elderly men, infants, vocal visitors and the deceased. Discussing the visual iconography across these different groups demonstrates that the shared and individual, public and private, intentional and candid aspects of grief and mourning can be shown simultaneously and that it was of interest to the Athenians to look at images that incorporated all of these aspects.
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Fowler, Michael Anthony. "Human Sacrifice in Greek Antiquity: Between Myth, Image, and Reality." Thesis, 2019. https://doi.org/10.7916/d8-y3vy-5j71.
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This dissertation offers an archaeologically and art historically grounded inquiry into the actuality, form, and meaning of human sacrifice from the Bronze Age through the Hellenistic period. It opens with a critical, up-to-date review of the corpus of proposed archaeological evidence for human sacrifice in the Minoan, Mycenaean, and Greek civilizations, wherein it is argued that rituals of this kind were rare but nevertheless a historical reality, performed in special or extraordinary circumstances at least until the Late Archaic period. The rarity of human sacrifice in the archaeological record is a direct expression of its exceptional nature; the unmatched potency of sacrificing a human being was necessitated only in the most unusual or extreme situations: to quell the unyielding wrath of the gods or to honor a deceased person who was imagined as possessing superhuman stature. The evidence of individual cases of human sacrifice indicates that the ritual could take a variety of forms, some involving heightened degrees of violence. After arguing for the historicity of human sacrifice, the dissertation shifts to a comprehensive analysis of artistic representations of human sacrifice, with a particular interest in their ritual aspect. These images, it is argued, should be interpreted in several, mutually inclusive ways – not only as metaphors or conceptual foils to sacrificial norms, but also as ritually plausible representations of a phenomenon that seems to have existed at least into the later sixth century BCE. Apart from a small group of Bronze Age seals decorated with motifs possibly associated with human sacrifice, the first secure evidence of human sacrificial representations date to the seventh century BCE and continue through to the end of the Hellenistic period. Like the archaeological cases, the visual sources form a comparatively small corpus. The subject matter is exclusively mythical and almost entirely drawn from myths of Polyxena and Iphigeneia; only rarely do artists explicitly represent the bloody violence of sacrifice. Images of the death blow are almost exclusively produced in the Archaic era – a time during which there is contemporary archaeological evidence for human sacrifices in funereal contexts – and involve only Polyxena. Interestingly, the cessation of material evidence is contemporaneous with a shift in the iconography toward the emotionally pregnant moments leading up to the sacrifice. The roughly 100-year overlap between the archaeological and visual evidence presents the possibility that artists drew upon elements of known instances of human sacrifice, or at the very least the two forms of evidence are indirectly related, in that both are inspired by myth. While human sacrifice does not seem to have persisted into the Classical period and beyond, artists continued, as they had in the Archaic period, to construct ritually plausible images with compositional analogues in other, highly codified iconographies, most notably those of animal sacrifice and the wedding. In this way, even as artists began to explore ever more the conceptual and symbolic dimensions of these sacrificial myths, they continued to invest them with a reality and an immediacy that far outlived the ritual’s practical existence.
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Elias, Christine. "Discovering Egypt: Egyptian antiquities at the University of Melbourne." 2010. http://repository.unimelb.edu.au/10187/8544.
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This Master of Arts thesis presents the results of research undertaken on two collections of Egyptian antiquities held at the University of Melbourne. The first collection belongs to Queen’s College and is known as the Dodgson Collection. The second collection, known as the Petrie Collection, forms a small part of the larger Classics and Archaeology Collection, belonging to the Centre for Classics and Archaeology and is housed at the Ian Potter Museum of Art.Prior to undertaking the research for this thesis little was known of these collections and their origins. Through consultation and analysis of archival sources and published material it was possible reconstruct the genesis and history of these two collections of Egyptian antiquities.
The Dodgson Collection was bequeathed to Queen’s College in 1892 by the Reverend James Dodgson. This much was known, however it was unclear as to how James came to posses the material. My research has uncovered that the collection was created by Aquila Dodgson, brother of James, who lived in England. Aquila was greatly interested in ancient Egypt and became a friend of the English Egyptologist, Flinders Petrie. It was through this friendship that Aquila was able to acquire ancient Egyptian artefacts, some of which now reside in the Dodgson Collection at Queen’s College.
Equally under recognised, very little was known about the second collection, comprising thirty two Egyptian artefacts, commonly referred to as the Petrie Collection. It was assumed the collection had been acquired from Flinders Petrie as a result of a list and a number of handwritten notes found in the Classics and Archaeology Collection archive. My research into the collection and the archive material has discovered that the collection had been created by two brothers, Edward Eustace Miller and Everard Studley Miller. Some items had been acquired whilst on a trip to Egypt during the Australian summer of 1910–1911, although the bulk of the collection was given to Everard (living in Melbourne) by his brother Edward (living in London), who had acquired the material while working for Flinders Petrie in Egypt in 1920. The collection made its way to the University of Melbourne in 1957 after the death of Everard, who had bequeathed the material to the Classical Association of Victoria in 1956. The Association gave the collection to the then Classics Department in early 1957.
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Davis, Todd. "Archery in Archaic Greece." Thesis, 2013. https://doi.org/10.7916/D8QF912R.
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Despite a renewed interest in scholarship about archaic warfare, hoplites, Homeric society, and several other related areas, archery in Archaic Greece has managed to escape comprehensive study for half a century. Scholarship on the subject stands in urgent need of update and revision. Certain erroneous beliefs about archery have become canonical and are dangerous impediments to academic progress in those areas of study that require an accurate and nuanced understanding of archers or archery. I conclude that, contrary to popular opinion, there was no point in Greek history when the bow was not used. Rather, it was used in a variety of ways to support, supplement, and complement heavily armed infantrymen. Although archery could be effective, especially against horses and light-armed men, the bow was not as effective against heavily armed infantrymen for the simple reason that arrows would not often have been able to penetrate Greek armor. This factor did not, however, mean that the bow was impotent or "the feeble weapon of a worthless man." My study of wounds, their treatment, infection, and the potential use of arrow toxins adds a fruitful and previously unexplored perspective on the risks involved with facing an archer and some of the psychological considerations of doing so. In a form of warfare wherein armies were so heavily dependent upon morale and so easily compromised by fear, an arrow was a weapon of terror. Moreover, dying six days after a battle of tetanus did not accord with the hoplites' ideal of a `beautiful death' - one of the prospects that fortified a warrior as he girded himself for what was surely a horrifying ordeal. I also argue that the identity of archers changed over time. Early on, warriors might use a variety of weapons and the bow might have been used by just about anyone. Later, with the advent of the hoplite phalanx, archers became light-armed specialists. While convention holds that these archers were Scythian or Cretan mercenaries, I prove that there is no compelling reason to believe that this was so. The archers were Greek and likely derived from the lower classes of citizens. Moreover, despite its ideological demotion among the elite, the bow did not carry an actively negative association until the Persian Wars in the early 5th century B.C.E. In sum, the treatment of archery in the Archaic period is considerably more nuanced than many scholars have allowed.
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McNamara, Charles Joseph. "Quintilian's Theory of Certainty and Its Afterlife in Early Modern Italy." Thesis, 2016. https://doi.org/10.7916/D8KP8293.
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This dissertation explores how antiquity and some of its early modern admirers understand the notion of certainty, especially as it is theorized in Quintilian's Institutio Oratoria, a first-century educational manual for the aspiring orator that defines certainty in terms of consensus. As part of a larger discussion of argumentative strategies, Quintilian turns to the “nature of all arguments,” which he defines as “reasoning which lends credence to what is doubtful by means of what is certain” (ratio per ea quae certa sunt fidem dubiis adferens: quae natura est omnium argumentorum, V.10.8). These certainties, he later specifies, include not matters of scientific demonstration or objective fact, but the agreements of various communities: the laws of cities, local customs, and other forms of consensus. As the foundation of persuasive rhetoric, these consensus-based certainties situate argumentation as the practice of crafting agreements rather than demonstrating necessary conclusions.
Taking as its point of departure Quintilian's novel understanding of certainty, this study looks to some of Quintilian's intellectual forebears as well as his later readers to show how his work is both a nexus of earlier intellectual developments as well as an important inspiration for later accounts of certainty, even into the early modern period. After illustrating in the first chapters of this dissertation how Quintilian's manual incorporates elements from Aristotelian notions of dialectic and rhetoric as well as from Ciceronian skeptical approaches to epistemology, I show how Quintilian's curriculum for the orator shapes the thought of Italian humanists, especially that of Lorenzo Valla (1406–1457), a reformer of scholastic logic and dialectic, and Giambattista Vico (1668–1744), an influential Neapolitan jurist. Adopting Quintilian's rendering of certainty as a matter of agreements and conventions, these later authors elaborate their own novel approaches to various fields—including law, language, and logic—through this ancient understanding of certum. Contrary to modern notions of certainty as objective or scientific fact, Quintilian's humanist readers continue to root this concept in consensus, both within the courtroom and without.
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Crowley, Patrick Robert. "Forms of Spectrality in Ancient Rome." Thesis, 2011. https://doi.org/10.7916/D86972XK.
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This dissertation explores what images of ghosts in Roman art can reveal about the very limits of representation and the act of seeing itself. My approach differs from that of many previous studies on the supernatural, therefore, in that it ultimately has little to do with the question of whether or not the ancients were truly convinced that ghosts exist. While not discounting the importance of belief, I am interested rather in how modalities of belief (or unbelief) developed within a prescribed framework of possibilities--particularly with regard to the historical transformation of ideas about the nature of vision and representation--in which images played a crucial role. While much work has been done on aspects of death that touch upon the supernatural in discrete areas of research on folklore, magic, religion, or theater, for example, the ghost itself has never been the focus of a synthetic study in Roman art. This project is therefore intended to cut across these discussions to arrive at a more rounded picture of how the Romans went on living with the dead.
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Carbone, Lucia Francesca. "‘Romanizing’ Asia: the impact of Roman imperium on the administrative and monetary systems of the Provincia Asia (133 BC – AD 96)." Thesis, 2016. https://doi.org/10.7916/D8222TP0.
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The impact of Roman power on the pre-existing administrative and economic systems of the conquered provinces has been a significant issue of scholarly debate for decades. In the last two decades attention has shifted from the idea of Romanization as a top-down phenomenon to a much more articulated process, in which the element of cultural interaction between the conquering power and the conquered populations was central and led to the creation of locally hybrid cultural forms.
This dissertation analyzes the ways in which local cultures and identities interacted with Roman ones in the years between Attalus III’s testament and the end of the Flavian age. I chose to focus my research on these centuries as they include four key moments for the Provincia Asia: 1) the moment of its institution in 129/6 BC with the related issues due to Aristonicus’ rebellion and the necessity of establishing effective provincial administrative and economic structures; 2) the years between the Mithridatic wars and Caesar, when the province spiraled into debt and the Asian monetary system had to adapt to the extra taxation requested by Sulla and then to the change in the role of the societates publicanorum, who were deprived of the farming of the decuma by Caesar; 3) the years of the Civil War between Antony and Octavian and its aftermath, which gave increasing importance to the conventus and to the introduction of Roman currency into the province, both in the circulating monetary pool and as an account unit; 4) the post-Augustan age, which saw an increasing standardization in the ‘local’ monetary systems of the province, with respect to both silver and bronze coinage, and the final ‘victory’ of the conventus over the pre-existing administrative structures, as shown by the fact that even municipal taxation and local cults were by then organized according to the conventus system.
The model of ‘middle-ground imperialism’ is useful for understanding the process of progressive standardization of Asian administrative structures and monetary system, not as a top-down process but rather as a bilateral interaction between Roman and local cultures, as I have shown in the case of the progressive standardization of Asian provincial administrative structures (Chapters 1 and 2) and monetary systems (Chapters 3, 4, 5, 6).
According to this research the transformative age for the Romanization of the Provincia Asia was not the Augustan Age, but the Second Triumviral Age.
The main heuristic tools for drafting the picture of the administrative and economic life of Provincia Asia are a database of Asian civic issues (both silver and bronze) between 133 BC and AD 96 that I have constructed out of the data in BMC, SNG Copenhagen and SNG Deutschlands – van Aulock (for pre-Antonian issues) and in RPC I-II (from Mark Antony up to the Flavians), and three epigraphic databases that include the epigraphic attestations of denarii, assaria and drachmae in the province of Asia between the 2nd century BC and the 2nd century AD, for a total of 372 inscriptions. All these databases are included here as Appendices (I – X).
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Simmons, Jeremy A. "Beyond the Periyar: A History of Consumption in Indo-Mediterranean Trade (100 BCE – 400 CE)." Thesis, 2020. https://doi.org/10.7916/d8-fwdq-ga41.
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This dissertation draws inspiration from one of most iconic exchanges across the Indian Ocean in antiquity: that of Indian spices for Roman gold coins on the Periyar River in Malabar. While previous scholarship has outlined how these goods arrived at various entrepots like that on the Periyar, the larger impacts of Indian Ocean imports within new socio-cultural environments have yet to be explored. "Beyond the Periyar" articulates these impacts from a new perspective, the commodities themselves and the rippling patterns of consumption and industries that contribute to or arise from their importation. Roman coins changed functions as they changed hands, and surviving specimens often show the multiple stages of their long lives as objects through physical adaptations by Indian consumers. Their superficial design further held aesthetic value, provided useful idioms for Indian die-cutters, and inspired an industry of high-quality imitations. Indian spices like black pepper, cinnamon leaf, and ginger contributed to Roman culinary and cosmetic practices, as attested by Roman authors and associated utensils. These products have been discussed in the context of notions of “luxury” in reactionary texts—however, such critiques must be balanced against larger considerations of literary genre and known economic factors like prices vis-à-vis real wages. A hive of human activity throughout the Indian Ocean world underpinned these acts of consumption, which often stands behind the veil of consumer apathy. Human agents range from the investors financing transoceanic ventures and the traders manning oceangoing vessels, to state interests and regional security personnel, to the processors, craftsmen, and vendors who marketed these products to consumers. When we look beyond the Periyar, the consumption of long-distance imports appears not as a marginal force, but as a transformative component of ancient economies and societies with a far wider reach than previously assumed.
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Conradie, Dirk Philippus. "Unknown provenance : the forgery, illicit trade and looting of ancient near eastern artifacts and antiquities." Diss., 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/10500/21707.
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The archaeology of the region, referred to in scholarly lexicon as the Ancient Near East, is richly endowed with artefacts and monumental architecture of ancient cultures. Such artefacts, as a non-renewable resource are, therefore considered to be a scarce commodity. So also is the context and the provenance of these objects. Once an object’s provenance has been disturbed, it is of no further significant use for academic research, except for aesthetic value. Historically, as well as in the present, we see that humans have exploited this resource for various reasons, with very little regard given to provenance. The impact of forgery, illicit trade and looting are the greatest threat to the value of provenance. Contrary to some arguments, collectors, curators, buyers, looters and certain scholars play a significant role in its destruction. This research reveals to what extent unknown provenance has become a disturbing problem in the study of archaeological artefacts.Biblical and Ancient Studies
M.Th. (Biblical Archaeology)
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Bonasio, Giulia. "Happiness and Superlative Value in the Eudemian Ethics." Thesis, 2019. https://doi.org/10.7916/D8N604B4.
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In my dissertation Happiness and Superlative Value in the Eudemian Ethics, I analyze dimensions of the Eudemian Ethics (EE) that, as I see it, make the EE a distinctive contribution to ethics. The EE discusses a superlative excellence called kalokagathia, the virtue of being-beautiful-and-good, which does not figure in the Nicomachean Ethics (NE). The agent who possesses kalokagathia is the best agent of Aristotle’s EE. Scholars tend to hold that the practically wise person, the phronimos, or the theoretically wise person, the sophos, are the best agents of the NE. If my reading of the EE is right, then the EE and the NE conceive differently of the best agent. This is salient in both treatises’ construals of the unity of the virtues. In the NE, the unity of the virtues includes the character virtues and phronêsis. In the EE, it additionally includes the virtues of theoretical thinking, or so I argue. The EE starts with what I call the Superlative Thesis (ST): happiness is what is best, most beautiful, and most pleasant of all. I take this beginning to be programmatic. Aristotle aims to show how these three kinds of value combine in the best human life, rather than coming apart. The Pleasure Thesis (PT) is the most contested aspect of ST: happiness is the most pleasant thing of all. On my reading, Aristotle fully embraces PT. In laying out his proposal for the best human life, the Aristotle of the EE develops a distinctive kind of naturalism, which I call Natural Goods Naturalism. I reconstruct this position in two steps: by interpreting the EE’s function argument; and by exploring the notion of natural goods, which is central to the EE, but does not figure in the NE. In sum, my dissertation argues that the EE contains a distinctive and under-appreciated option within ancient ethics, and that it contains ideas that are relevant to today’s virtue ethics and ethical naturalism.
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Jewell, Evan Luke. "Youth and Power: Roman Performances of Age and Ageing from Plautus to Nero." Thesis, 2019. https://doi.org/10.7916/d8-fqqd-6371.
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This dissertation examines the history of elite male youth in the Roman Empire from 218 BCE to 68 CE by demonstrating how a young elite man could “act his age” in his specific historical context. The Prologue introduces the theoretical and methodological underpinnings of my approach, which depart from traditional social history models. Drawing on gender and age studies, theories of discourse and interpellation, my argument re-inscribes age as a performance, whereby the age-roles that existed in Roman society were constituted by historically determined performances of “age scripts”. The performances of youth examined are demonstrably intersectional in nature, frequently overlapping with gendered performances of masculinity. By concentrating attention on the behaviors prescribed for young elite men at Rome in these scripts, as recovered from the discourses about youth preserved in both textual and visual evidence, my inquiry tracks how changes in these scripts were historically contingent, rather than universal. As a result, this study foregrounds the interconnection between age and male power relations in ancient Rome and explains the diachronic changes in this relationship. Changes in the social, demographic, legal and, above all, political context(s) from the Middle Republican period down to the death of Nero, in turn occasioned edits—sometimes even full rewrites—in the age scripts available to young elite men.
Structured as a historical play in three parts, each part corresponds diachronically to a moment of change in these scripts. Part 1 examines the Middle Republic and introduces the “comic script” primarily through the plays of Plautus and Terence, as well as the “normative script” preserved in exempla and the works of Cato the elder to which the comic script responded and sometimes offered challenges. These scripts are examined in dialogue with the radical demographic, legal and political changes occasioned by Rome’s near defeat in the Second Punic War.
Part 2 then moves down to the Late Republic, acknowledging how both the normative and comic scripts endured in this period, but instead trains its focus on the emergence of new scripts for youth—oratorical, philosophical, sexual and poetic. These scripts are set against the background of a shift away from military pursuits among the youth and toward the civic sphere, stemming from political, legal and cultural developments that arose out of Rome’s increasing imperial hegemony in the Mediterranean during the second century BCE. In particular, the efforts of politicians to interpellate the youth, understood as the next political generation, according to specific ideological scripts, and in contrast to other scripts (for example, the martial, sexual, or philosophical scripts), reveals how young men in this period were presented with more behavioral options than ever before. That these young men were consequently torn by these conflicting options is borne out in Catullus’ parodic rejection of certain scripts, but also the discourses about other young men, such as C. Trebatius Testa and M. Caelius Rufus.
Cicero’s attempt to script the behavior of one youth, the young Octavian (later known as Augustus) and the dramatic shift in power relations that Octavian’s rise occasioned for the age scripts at Rome forms the first half of Part 3. From here my analysis extends out from Octavian’s personal aetas to the Augustan “age” more generally and how this period saw a conscious promotion of a normative script for the iuventus. Conjoined to this script, and driving its promotion, was the biological ageing of Augustus himself, whereby his own aetas and its youthfulness became contiguous with that of his youthful successors and more generally the community, as represented by the iuventus, and even more abstractly, the urbs itself.
With the advent of the youngest princeps yet, the problem of the emperor Nero’s young age and the script he would enact forms the core concern of Part 4, the epilogue to this dissertation. The De Clementia of Seneca is examined for its role in scripting the imperial youth and his behavior. The case study of Nero’s first bearded portrait as a visual commemoration of his depositio barbae, coinciding with his celebration of age-based spectacles during the Iuvenalia of 59 CE, demonstrates how Nero was both the heir to earlier scripts and in his reception of them, the author of a new one centered around an attempt to construct his imperial maturity. The response to Nero’s script is then traced both at an elite and non-elite level, from elite literary texts, such as Petronius’ Satyrica, to graffiti and non-elite bearded portraits.
As a historical study in visual discourses as much as textual ones, this dissertation encompasses a wide range of visual material from numismatic iconography to portrait sculpture in the round, and represents the first attempt to bring such material into dialogue with the textual evidence. A catalogue of imperial male portraits, from Octavian to Nero, which feature facial hair—a key piece of evidence assessed in Parts 3 and 4—is presented in the Appendices.
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Sheppard, Joe. "Mass Spectacles in Roman Pompeii as a System of Communication." Thesis, 2019. https://doi.org/10.7916/d8-q1sm-7e39.
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In this thesis I detail how large-scale public entertainment, in the form of gladiatorial games (munera) and dramatic festivals (ludi), could function as a tool for social control in the Roman West. Using late-Republican and imperial Pompeii as a test case, I argue that these spectacular performances provided local notables with a rare and powerful platform for mass messaging. The chief purpose of this communication within the arena and theatres of Pompeii was not to transmit particular words or gestures from wealthy benefactors to their captive audience, but rather to arrive at a public consensus that implicitly acknowledged the legitimacy of local political, religious, and cultural institutions while also underscoring existing social hierarchies and power relations within the unified community. The local laws, traditions, and setting conditioned the behaviour of the entertainers and spectators, who played central rôles in a series of formulaic rituals at these regular events. The processions that preceded games, for example, and the prize-giving ceremonies after munera were staged as dialogues between benefactor and spectators, structured in ways that celebrated the prosperity, civic identity, and political stability of the community. Such a function was particularly important to ensure stability in periods of great uncertainty. I suggest that the construction and renovation of venues for public entertainment should also be understood in terms of crisis communications, as part of a response to political turbulence following the wars of the late Republic and a string of local catastrophes under Nero. In the highly urbanized regions of early imperial Italy, however, the emphasis on civic politics at mass spectacles risked inflaming tensions between neighbouring rivals.
This system of social control was not, however, limited to the duration and location of mass spectacles. The Pompeian council limited freedom of association and the production of formal texts and images concerning mass spectacles to the margins of the city. The unofficial forms of expression that clustered here, often in dialogue with one another, suggest that individuals continued to identify with their rôles as consensus-building spectators beyond the games. In spite of its rich and varied dossier of evidence for quotidian life, genuinely original or subversive content that is independent of official messaging appears only rarely in the archaeological record at Pompeii.
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McVane, Samuel. "Paradox and the Fool in Seneca." Thesis, 2018. https://doi.org/10.7916/D8TB2JVH.
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This dissertation argues that Seneca’s philosophical program and literary artistry are jointly coordinated to address and redress the pervasive experience of subverted expectations, i.e. the experience of paradoxicality, attributed to the unwise by Seneca’s Stoic philosophy. With a focus on Seneca’s Epistulae Morales, I suggest that Seneca’s oft-noted paradoxical style reveals and is meant to reflect our fundamentally inconsistent (and thus dissatisfying) experience engendered, in his view, by the incoherency of our worldviews. While, as Seneca explores, our minds’ operations hide this distressing contradiction from our attention, Seneca’s subtle but steady exposure of it and its source attempts to work against this self-deception. The intended result for the reader is the recognition of their own role in their dissatisfaction and the resulting commitment to its remedy through philosophical training.