Review of I. ÖSTENBERG, S. MALMBERG, J. BJØRNEBYE (edd.), The Moving City (2015), Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2017.04.12 (original) (raw)
The Moving City: Processions, Passages and Promenades in Ancient Rome deals with movement in public space in the city of Rome. This topic represents a novel approach to the Roman cityscape that pays attention to movement as interaction between people and monuments. Movements give form to the cityscape by tying together areas and monuments through, for example, commercial activities, power displays and individual strolls. The city, on the other hand, shapes movements, by way of its topographical settings and built environment.
Elena Muñiz Grijalvo and Alberto del Campo Tejedor (ed.), Processions and the Construction of Communities in Antiquity: History and Comparative Perspectives, Routledge, 2023
Recent studies on religion and democracy in Classical Athens (e.g., Jameson 2014; Canevaro and Gray 2018; Petridou 2021) have argued that an unmistakable two-directional relationship between religious life and political action religion is obvious in every sphere of socio-political and economic activity (education, healthcare, law-making, law enforcement, etc.) and on every level of societal organisation in the city (from the individual to the household, and from the professional and cultic associations to the city-state as a whole). This chapter engages closely with recent socio-anthropological perspectives and looks afresh at the symbolic polyvalence of the epiphanic procession that led the exiled tyrannos Peisistratus back to Athens in the 550s BC (Hdt. 1.60.2–5) as an example of such unmistakably two-directional relationship between religious life and political action. Effectively, the present study joins forces with the other contributors of this volume to discuss the careful ritual construction and signification of that procession, and the means it employed to create a climate of political cohesion and celebration in the community.
Carpento certe: Conveying Gender in Roman Transportation
Classical Antiquity, 2016
This article analyzes the prominent role played by a particular vehicle, the matronly carriage (carpentum), in the construction of Roman gender. Its focus is on the conveyance's two most significant appearances in literary representation. First, I examine the various accounts of the vehicle's best-known and most dramatic tableau, Tullia's use of a carpentum to drive over her dead father king Servius Tullius' body, arguing that the conveyance functions to articulate the cultural anxiety surrounding the passage from daughter to wife. I suggest that the story of Tullia's carpentum, as a quasi-mythic exemplum of "feminine transportation," looms as a dangerous threat in need of accommodation. Next, I examine the story of the Roman matrons' demonstration in favor of the repeal of the lex Oppia, which had prohibited, among other things, their right to ride in carpenta. I argue that the accounts of Livy and others seek to offer a solution to the challenge posed by the physically protesting women by redefining their vehicular mobility as state-authorized, and as directly tied to their reproductive function. Thus, while Latin literature often articulates urban traffic as a familiarly frustrating system of obstacles, my analysis uncovers a contrasting Roman discourse, one that identifies traffic with the fertility of the city and its ability to reproduce Roman citizens. I would like to thank the editors of Classical Antiquity, as well as the two anonymous readers, for numerous helpful comments and suggestions. Nelly Oliensis, John Henderson, Maurizio Bettini, and Dylan Sailor all offered stimulating and constructive feedback on earlier versions of this article.
2014
overview of the content and context of the translated texts, as well as previous editions and translations. P.'s introduction to Dio Chrysostom is considerably longer than those to the other authors (25 pages compared with ten for Seneca, six for Lucian), but given that Dio's orations are more extensive texts, this decision is justified. The notes are concise, but appropriate for the nature of the volume. P. usefully directs the reader to relevant secondary scholarship, occasionally noting deeper issues such as manuscript variations (the table on p. 229 helpfully collates these). P.'s work demonstrates the considerable variance of Roman rhetorical responses to Alexander, from the serious consideration of what makes a good king (p. 37), to playful remarks about Alexander's perceived divinity (p. 112). As such, the volume acts as a beneficial companion piece to Spencer (2002), contextualising and further analysing some of Spencer's chosen passages, as well as those Spencer did not include. The only downside is the lack of translations of the additional 24 declamations, with P. only giving a short commentary on each. The 'La roue à livres' document series is intended to provide convenient access to hard-to-find resources, and the lack of translations therefore seems an oversight: how is a non-specialist meant to read C. Walz, Rhetores Graeci (1802-57), with Ancient Greek text and Latin introduction and notes? Because Seneca, Dio and Lucian have all been translated into French before, including translations of the catalogued declamations would have been particularly welcome, as some have no French translation published ('sujets' 4, 7, 9, 16, 23). That being said, P.'s catalogue is a useful update on R. Kohl's survey De scholasticarum declamationum argumentis ex historia petitis (1915), including two new papyrus fragments, and a passage of Philostratus which Kohl neglected ('sujets' 3, 7, 9). P.'s volume will be of considerable use to undergraduate students studying the Roman reception of Alexander, as well as Roman rhetoric. In particular it provides a good starting point via P.'s author-specific introductions, with suitable notification of relevant further reading.
Virtus Romana: Politics and Morality in the Roman Historians by Catalina Balmaceda
American Journal of Philology, 2019
This book is predominantly aimed at classicists and engages closely with work done on rhetoric and ekphrasis. I fear somewhat that the density of this book's argument may deter non-classics scholars, especially those from dance and performance studies, who would most likely find Schlapbach's thesis and examples useful for their own areas of research. The Anatomy of Dance Discourse, however, adds to the growing number of works that draw attention to the importance of dance in antiquity. Its particular strength is in tying ancient thought on dance to the much-studied areas of oratory, philosophy, and visualized narrative. It consequently will, I hope, encourage more classicists to engage with forms of kinetic performance and the cultural impact which they so evidently had.