Acta ClassicaPub Date : 2023-12-08DOI: 10.1353/acl.2023.a914045
Steven Farron
{"title":"Pietas schmietas: the danger of overinterpreting","authors":"Steven Farron","doi":"10.1353/acl.2023.a914045","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/acl.2023.a914045","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT:This article critiques scholarly explanations of pius Aeneas, heros, and pietas in the Aeneid; ἁμαρτία in Aristotle's Poetics 1453a; and ἡ ἀληθεστάτη πρόφασις in Thucydides 1.23.6 and 6.6.1. It argues that the scholarly process-reading and writing articles and books, lecturing, and helping students translate-leads us to exaggerate the care that ancient Greek and Roman authors applied to the exact meanings of the terms they used. In the case of pius Aeneas, heros, pietas, and ἁμαρτία we seek greater precision and clarity than Vergil and Aristotle intended. In the case of ἡ ἀληθεστάτη πρόφασις the same process leads us to ignore the possibility that a brilliant historian could have carelessly misused a crucial phrase.","PeriodicalId":41891,"journal":{"name":"Acta Classica","volume":"23 11","pages":"39 - 47"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2023-12-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138589825","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Acta ClassicaPub Date : 2023-12-08DOI: 10.1353/acl.2022.a914041
Arthur J. Pomeroy
{"title":"Polemic in Tacitus","authors":"Arthur J. Pomeroy","doi":"10.1353/acl.2022.a914041","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/acl.2022.a914041","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT:In contrast with his predecessors in ancient historiography such as Polybius or Livy, Tacitus avoids attacks on named predecessors. He does claim superiority for his own writings in his prefaces, but on the grounds that he was free from the influences that distorted earlier efforts, such as concern about political disfavour or apparent flattery in a contemporary context. The desire for vengeful self-justification after an emperor, now seen as a tyrant, had died also called into question authors’ impartiality. While the critique of imperial activities has often been taken as the basis of Tacitus’ writing, this paper argues that the most important feature of his histories is the emphasis on the behaviour of the ruling class, the historian’s senatorial peers. The social etiquette of this group is a strong influence on the nature of Tacitus’ criticism and reflects the continuing difficulties in writing about the past even under ‘good’ emperors.","PeriodicalId":41891,"journal":{"name":"Acta Classica","volume":"69 8","pages":"134 - 149"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2023-12-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138586695","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Acta ClassicaPub Date : 2023-12-08DOI: 10.1353/acl.2023.a914052
Olga Akhunova
{"title":"Pindar's Pythian 2: the riddle of the epilogue","authors":"Olga Akhunova","doi":"10.1353/acl.2023.a914052","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/acl.2023.a914052","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT:The final triad of Pindar's Pythian 2 has been the object of particularly close attention by scholars. In this triad, Pindar suddenly switches both the imagery and the intention of the poetic statement itself: he is no longer praising the addressee but instructing him, rebuking certain slanderers, flatterers and envious men—but it is not straightforward accusation. Pindar deploys fable imagery as a vehicle for the censure (a monkey, foxes, a fawning dog, and a wolf). The role of castigator is not unfamiliar to Pindar, but Pythian 2 is unique: only in this ode does Pindar devote an entire triad to denouncing his opponents. The striking contrast between the final triad and the rest of the ode appears to show that the ode has no unity of structure, so scholars and commentators consider the final triad as a pendant of sorts. My hypothesis is that the ode's final triad is not a pendant at all: Pindar is playing with a striking compositional structure, used as a technique by Archilochus in his iambics, so the final triad is a necessary part of the unified poetic structure.","PeriodicalId":41891,"journal":{"name":"Acta Classica","volume":"77 15","pages":"1 - 14"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2023-12-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138587012","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Acta ClassicaPub Date : 2023-12-08DOI: 10.1353/acl.2022.a914027
Jesper Madsen
{"title":"Freedom from Democracy: Cassius Dio’s Polemical Tale of the Horror of Late Republican Politics","authors":"Jesper Madsen","doi":"10.1353/acl.2022.a914027","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/acl.2022.a914027","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT:Like most commentators in imperial Rome, Cassius Dio believed monarchy to be the only form of constitution able to limit man’s natural urge to surpass his peers. What makes Dio polemical is not the notion that competition between senators would result in rivalry, internal strife, and civil war. It is the way in which his narrative demonstrates that almost every senator in the Late Republic was engaged in politics in order to maximize his own gains, except for Augustus, who had the interests of the Roman people at heart when he punished his father’s murderers and reestablished Rome’s monarchical constitution.","PeriodicalId":41891,"journal":{"name":"Acta Classica","volume":"14 11","pages":"165 - 182"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2023-12-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138589821","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Acta ClassicaPub Date : 2023-12-08DOI: 10.1353/acl.2023.a914049
Theodoros Mavrogiannis
{"title":"Cyprus and the defensive policy of Ptolemaic Egypt from Ptolemy IV Philopator to Ptolemy IX Lathyros (221-81 bc)","authors":"Theodoros Mavrogiannis","doi":"10.1353/acl.2023.a914049","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/acl.2023.a914049","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT:The turning point in the history of the Ptolemies is the abandonment of the naval and commercial hegemony in the Aegean Sea and the Eastern Mediterranean at the time of Ptolemy IV Philopator. This fact constituted the preamble for the conscious defensive policy of Ptolemy V Epiphanes and Ptolemy VI Philometor. Egypt and Cyprus were not simply considered as united entities but as an untouchable interdependent axis. The more the Ptolemies pursued a policy of 'association' towards the natives in Egypt, the more the position of Cyprus (as the last stronghold on the outside of the Empire) became enhanced as the 'red line' and an effective 'rescue' refuge'. The military regime of Ptolemy VIII Physkon had the possession of Cyprus as a condition. By the time of Ptolemy IX Lathyrus, economic recovery was reached.","PeriodicalId":41891,"journal":{"name":"Acta Classica","volume":"11 11","pages":"110 - 138"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2023-12-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138590278","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Acta ClassicaPub Date : 2023-12-08DOI: 10.1353/acl.2023.a914056
Andrew B. Gallia
{"title":"Making and Unmaking Ancient Memory ed. by M. De Marre and R.K. Bhola (review)","authors":"Andrew B. Gallia","doi":"10.1353/acl.2023.a914056","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/acl.2023.a914056","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":41891,"journal":{"name":"Acta Classica","volume":"26 9","pages":"199 - 202"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2023-12-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138589175","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Acta ClassicaPub Date : 2023-12-08DOI: 10.1353/acl.2022.a914035
Michael Scott
{"title":"Polemic in Greek Art and Architecture","authors":"Michael Scott","doi":"10.1353/acl.2022.a914035","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/acl.2022.a914035","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT:This article argues for the existence of an artistic and architectural polemical discourse amongst the dedicatory monuments erected within the sanctuary of Delphi. With particular reference to monuments erected relating to the Persian wars of the fifth century bce, this article argues that the polemical discourse created between them focused not only on offering divergent views on the respective roles each dedicator played in the different battles, but also, more broadly and importantly, on offering conflicting understandings of how this conflict should be remembered as an event in Greek history, culture and identity.","PeriodicalId":41891,"journal":{"name":"Acta Classica","volume":"22 6","pages":"30 - 44"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2023-12-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138589403","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Acta ClassicaPub Date : 2023-12-08DOI: 10.1353/acl.2023.a914047
Dylan Futter
{"title":"Theseus in the labyrinth","authors":"Dylan Futter","doi":"10.1353/acl.2023.a914047","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/acl.2023.a914047","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT:This article discusses the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur in light of the distinction between labyrinth and maze. According to the myth, Ariadne helped Theseus to escape from a labyrinth by giving him ball of string. But if a labyrinth is unlike a maze in presenting no choices to the wanderer, then why did Theseus need a clue? Though this question has not been systematically addressed in the scholarship, two lines of response can be identified. First, some scholars maintain that the 'labyrinth' in the myth must be a multicursal maze, for otherwise the story would make no sense. Secondly, others hold that they can make sense of the myth even if the labyrinth has but a single path. I argue against both positions in favour of an account that highlights the constructive use of contradiction in myth.","PeriodicalId":41891,"journal":{"name":"Acta Classica","volume":"5 4","pages":"62 - 79"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2023-12-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138589631","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}