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2018, Hermathena
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2018
From Thucydides to Kalyvas, civil war is associated with wickedness and personal animosities. This article seeks to comprehend the violence during the civil war of the Late Republic. It will claim that behaviour during the Roman civil war period was actually typical of comparable conflicts, in particular in terms of indiscriminate and selective violence. with a focus on two case studies: the murder of Cicero during the proscriptions in late 43 BCE and the use of violence by Young Caesar after the civil war at Perusia, ending early in 40 BCE. Violence was not only a conspicuous part of civil war, but had a distinct purpose to it: the elimination of personal enemies and securing power.
2019, J. Osgood & C. Baron (eds.), Cassius Dio and the Late Roman Republic (Brill)
Notwithstanding the vast modern literatures regarding the significance of the Roman triumph and the structures of Graeco-Roman historiography, virtually no attention has been given to the possibility that the description of the triumph afforded a means of closure. This situation is all the more paradoxical in view of the fact that the subject of closure has been the object of renewed scrutiny in recent decades. Starting with the observation that the triumph did provide society at Rome in the Republic with a ritual form of closure, this paper proposes the thesis that narration of the triumph in fact often provided closure for Greek and Latin literature dedicated to historical themes. The conclusion of the Punica of Silius Italicus furnishes excellent evidence, despite its Flavian date. Manifestly a second-rate work of literature, in comparison with the Aeneid of Vergil, this best preserved instance of historical epic can be assumed not to have striven to be innovatory and hence to furnish a glimpse of a lost reality. Drawing upon the contemporary traditions of the Hellenistic world, the literary production of historical epic in the Roman world was largely ephemeral and has accordingly disappeared with but a few remaining traces. Yet, the notices and fragments that survive for more than 20 works strongly suggest that the triumph afforded closure in a manner analogous to that of the Punica of Silius Italicus. The same can be said of various works of prose, ranging from the Bellum Iugurthinum of Sallust through to the De Vita Sua and Res Gestae of Augustus. Even when there is no recourse to an elaborate ecphrasis, the performance of the triumph seems to furnish closure for the historical narrative. Discernment of this pattern in turn allows us to re-evaluate and appreciate all the more those narratives that were open-ended.
All attempts to trace the historical development in the early books of Cassius Dio are hampered by their fragmentary state. It seems, however, that in addition to the excursus on magistracies and the triumph, Dio also stressed the phenomenon of stasis and civil war and the general tendencies that caused internal struggle. Libourel (1974) rightly highlighted that the early books contain more violence than our parallel evidence. Yet why this is so remains uncertain. Cassius Dio was not simply writing contemporary history into the past, but sought to describe the origins of specific phenomenon. In doing so he emulated Thucydides' model of stasis and views on the human nature (3.81-85). Dio wanted to understand Roman history, including civil strife, as part of the realities of power in the light of long-term experience. This paper proposes to look at stasis in Cassius Dio, asking whether "stasis" refers to any form of internal violence, or more specifically to what in Latin would be a bellum civile. In the surviving books of Cassius Dio stasis and dynasteia appear to be cyclically alternating phenomena: as individual dynasteiai are not stable forms of rule, they inevitably create the conditions for stasis. Interestingly, these tendencies-internal strife-seem to date to the founding of the city as an integral aspect of Rome's legacy.
Review of Carsten Hjort Lange and Jesper Majbom Madsen (eds.), Cassius Dio: Greek Intellectual and Roman Politician [Brill, Historiography of Rome and Its Empire 1, Leiden-Boston 2016], in Bollettino di Studi Latini 49.1 (2019), pp. 343-344.
2016, Cassius Dio. Greek Intellectual and Roman Politician (Brill, ed. by C. Lange & J. Madsen)
2018, PLLS
Writing in the first half of the third century CE, Cassius Dio, a Roman senator of Bithynian origin, composed an eighty-book history of Rome, from the founding of the city until about 229 CE. The final portion of this work, specifically books 73(72)-80(80), provides an account of the reign of Commodus up to the accession and early part of the reign of Alexander Severus. Dio was an eyewitness to this a period, and he explains that this section will be full of his own observations of events and will even record information that might not otherwise be worthy of inclusion, except for the fact that he himself was witness to it. Dio, as a Roman senator, also plays a secondary role in this section of his history, as the author frequently discusses positions that he held, his interactions with emperors, and his presence in the senate. Strikingly, the work ends not with some event of importance to Roman history or with the end of a particular reign, but rather with Cassius Dio's own retirement from public life. The uniqueness of this endpoint is enhanced by the closing words of the work, which were not Dio's own, but rather a quotation from the eleventh book of Homer's Iliad. In this passage, which Dio says was sent to him in a dream, Hector is removed from the battlefield and saved from the destruction of war by Zeus. This quotation brings both a personal and menacing sense to the end of the history. Dio appears to implicitly compare himself to Hector, and if the lines from Homer mentioned only some monumental struggle, we might assume that Dio was simply relieved to have completed such a grand work under the protection of the gods. The slaughter, blood, and din of battle, however, give us the impression that Dio is thankful to distance himself from the subject matter, specifically the final eight books of his history. The reader of books 73(72)-80(80) would hardly be surprised by this quotation. Dio calls this period one of iron and rust, describing it as generally devoid of any positive aspects and characterized by turmoil and instability. The personal nature of both the end of the work and the contemporary portion as a whole begs further analysis. Commentators on Dio's contemporary history have observed that this section reads like a memoir and have suggested that Dio serves as a sort of alternative to the debased world in which he lives. Others, however, have noted a more pessimistic aspect of the function of Dio's character in his text. Dio's political survival through this period, especially with his final reference to Hector's departure from the battlefield, on the surface suggests that he be viewed as a valorous hero under the protection of the gods. Dio's history, on the other hand, is a highly critical narrative of his own era and can therefore be read as a reflection on his participation in the political life of this period, as well as a corrective to it. The memoir-like nature of the text suggests that Dio carved out for himself a dual identity, as both senator and then annalist, participant and then critic. Through this identity, Dio attempts to claim authority as a historian.
2020, Cassius Dio: the Impact of Violence, War, and Civil War. eds. Carsten Lange and Andrew Scott (Brill)
2014, In: Lange, C.H. & Vervaet, F.J. (eds.) (2014) The Roman Republican Triumph: Beyond the Spectacle (Analecta Romana Instituti Danici, Suppl. 45) (Rome), 67-81
Modern scholarly discussion has concentrated on the question as to whether the Alban Mount triumph was a ‘real’ triumph or not: Mommsen, for example, prioritises the fact that these ceremonies are mentioned on the Fasti Triumphales and were thus by definition recognised as triumphs, perhaps even equal to the triumph proper. Many other scholars, however, disagree. This article seeks to reconsider the development of the Alban Mount triumph from the third century to the time of Augustus. It will be argued that the Alban Mount triumph developed from voices of protest into ceremonies that merited mention on the Fasti Triumphales. The Alban Mount triumphs of the past were retrospectively introduced into the triumphal list, even though it was celebrated by the virtue of the commander’s imperium and not officially sanctioned. Caesar’s ovation in 44 was the first to coincide with the Feriae Latinae, on the Alban Mount. The ovation was not celebrated on the Alban Mount, but in Rome: his entry into Rome was on returning (adventus) from the Feriae Latinae. Just as Caesar may well have invoked the exemplum of Marcellus’ ovation of 211, Young Caesar later thought it wise to mention Caesar’s ovation of 44 as the precedent for his own problematic joint ovation with Antonius in 40, listing them on the Fasti Triumphales. This intriguing decision continues to create problems of conceptualising the Alban Mount victory celebration.
http://cal.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/cal/index
2018, Diodoros of Sicily: Historiographical Theory and Practice in the Bibliotheke
2017, Phoenix
2019, Doğu ile Batı Arasında Bir Krallık: Kommagene - A Kingdom Between East and West: Commagene
A Kingdom Between East and West: Commagene This study refers to the relations between Rome, Parthian and the Commagene. In addition, the social and cultural textures of the Commagene have been mentioned in this study. I would like to thank the authors for their work on commagene.
The international balance of power that materialized in the middle of the first century BCE was a bipolar system between Rome and Parthia. The kingdom of Commagene was a player within this system, albeit a minor one. It was precisely the strategic position of Commagene along the middle Euphrates and its location on the periphery of both Rome and Parthia that gave the kings of Commagene their source of power and shifting autonomy, especially Antiochus I. Although the kingdom generally submitted to the will of the Roman state and served as a Roman client throughout the majority of its relationship with Rome, Commagene was no petty puppet principality during Antiochus I’s reign. Rome saw the value and strength of this kingdom as a potential asset and threat. It is too easy to disregard the important position that Commagene played in the Roman development of the Near East. This work demonstrates that Antiochus I exercised a good deal of agency and commanded considerable respect in the Near East. The aim of this work is to examine the intense, harsh struggle for power, security, and survival for the Kingdom of Commagene during the reign of Antiochus I. I shall endeavor to illustrate the fine balance struck between the personal ambition of Antiochus in his pursuit of autonomy and power-maximizing policies and his compliance to Roman wishes and demands. American Historical Association Annual Conference, Washington, D.C., January 2014.
2014, Notes & Queries
Cassius Dio Greek Intellectual and Roman Politician
How Cassius Dio's narrative presents the voting of lex Gabinia which gave Pompey an extraordinary command to fight piracy, and what it reveals about his conception of the collapse of the Republic
Abstract: From Thucydides to Kalyvas, civil war is associated with wickedness and personal animosities. This contribution seeks to view the violence of the Late Republican civil war through the lens applied to it by Cassius Dio. It focusses on Dio’s portrayal of the use of violence by Young Caesar upon the fall of Perusia early in 40 BCE—allegedly followed by the killing of three hundred Senators and equites as well as the Perusine citizens. Violence was not only a conspicuous part of civil war, but also had a distinct purpose—viz. the elimination of personal enemies and the confirmation of power. This use of indiscriminate as opposed to selective violence speaks volumes about the balance of power in Italy: Young Caesar was not in total control in 41-40 BCE. Dio did not wholeheartedly commit to the story of the three hundred, but he still mentions it: clearly this concerns not only Dio’s wish to understand human nature and the leading civil war protagonists; it concerns also the impact of civil war, and the historian’s approach to it through narrative.
2020, PhD thesis
This dissertation intends to observe how the Roman Republic organises itself as a maritime power following the Punic Wars, analysing it as a thalassocracy in sequence of the evolution of a strategic naval thought as a conductive line of the Mediterranean city-states. We will observe the evolution of the naval investment from the reformations of Gaius Marius in 107 BCE until the death of Gaius Julius Caesar Octauianus in 14 CE. An observation of the naval command processes is intended, as well as a study of the evolution, construction and typology of vessels and respective functions, analysing the armada and the commercial vessels both in maritime and river contexts. The analysis of the supporting infrastructural network to the navy, namely harbours and shipsheds, will also be included. These problematics will be observed through an interdisciplinary perspective, creating a thorough study of these keywords that allows for the observation of the construction of the Roman influence area from the maritime and river space.
2019, Cassius Dio and the Late Roman Republic (Brill)
Cassius Dio’s Roman History is an essential, yet still undervalued, source for modern historians of the late Roman Republic. The papers in this volume show how his account can be used to gain new perspectives on such topics as the memory of the conspirator Catiline, debates over leadership in Rome, and the nature of alliance formation in civil war. Contributors also establish Dio as fully in command of his narrative, shaping it to suit his own interests as a senator, a political theorist, and, above all, a historian. Sophisticated use of chronology, manipulation of annalistic form, and engagement with Thucydides are just some of the ways Dio engages with the rich tradition of Greco-Roman historiography to advance his own interpretations.
Without doubt, veni vidi vici is one of the most famous quotations from Antiquity. It is well known that it was Julius Caesar who coined the renowned expression. Less frequently discussed is the fact that ‘I came, I saw, I conquered’ was announced as written text. According to Suetonius, Caesar paraded a placard displaying the words veni vidi vici in his triumph held over Pontus in 46 b.c. (Suet. Iul. 37.2): Pontico triumpho inter pompae fercula trium verborum praetulit titulum VENI VIDI VICI non acta belli significantem sicut ceteris, sed celeriter confecti notam.In his Pontic triumph he exhibited among the biers of the procession a placard (titulus) with three words VENI VIDI VICI, not to show the deeds performed in the war, as in the others, but to mark out how fast the war had been concluded....
2015, V. Fromentin et al., Cassius Dion: nouvelles lectures
2018, Kenneth Moore (ed.), Brill's Companion to the Reception of Alexander the Great (Leiden, 2018)
2016, Collegium: Studies across Disciplines in the Humanities and Social Sciences / Volume 20: Emperors and the Divine – Rome and its Influence (ed. by M. Kahlos)
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2019, The Historiography of Late Republican Civil War
The shahs of the early Sasanian dynasty faced the challenge of establishing their legitimacy as the rulers of an imperial polity after rising to power through military insurrection. The early shahs of the dynasty sought to locate themselves within the religious, mythic, and historical context to link themselves to the glorious rulers and dynasties of Iranian myth and history, while simultaneously espousing Mazdean virtue. Through the concepts of Ērānšahr and Farr, the notion of the territorial unity of the Mazda-worshiping peoples prescribed in the Avesta and the divinely-bestowed glory of rulers, respectively, the motivations that underlaid Sasanian statecraft during the first four generations of the dynasty are contextualized. The idea of Ērānšahr as a sacrosanct territorial delimitation of the homelands of the Mazdean peoples was first employed to validate and legitimize the rebellion of the Sasanians against the Parthian Aškānīān dynasty. After the civil war that established Ardašīr I as šāhanšāh, the defense of Ērānšahr as both a tangible expanse of territory and a religious concept was used to justify punitive and retaliatory military action in the west against the Roman Empire, as well as to acquire the Central Asian holdings of the Kushan Empire. The claim to the sole possession of Farr was similarly employed to justify first rebellion, and then conflicts with the Kushan Empire, whose own rulers claimed Farr from Mazdean divinities. Establishing the religious, mythic, and historical contexts to which the early Sasanian dynasts were subject illuminates the motivations for imperial policy and allows the scrutiny of those policies and actions to transcend the biases inherent in non-Iranian sources for the period. Furthermore, privileging autochthonous sculptural, epigraphic,and numismatic productions produces an innovative analysis of early Sasanian statecraft cognizant of, and rooted within, Iranian cultural paradigms.
University of St Andrews, UK This paper draws attention to the unprecedented prominence of metaphors of enslavement to Rome in the historical narratives of Florus and Cassius Dio. Following an analysis of the thematic importance of the trope in their respective works, I point to further parallels in Herodian and Justin which suggest that the trope proved particularly productive in both Latin and Greek historiography in the late second and early third centuries CE. The end of the paper considers broader cultural developments that might underlie this phenomenon, notably the proliferation of dominus as an epithet for the emperor and the ongoing enfranchisement of provincials.
2018, in D. van Diemen; D. van Dokkum; A. van Leuken; A.M. Nijenhuis; F.A. van der Sande (Eds.), Conflicts in Antiquity: Textual and Material Perspectives, Amsterdam
2018
An examination and re-evaluation of the later years of Tigranes, the rule of his son, Artavasdes and how the two great powers of Rome and Parthia influenced their reigns as my Masters Dissertation.