Histos (Journal)
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A New Look at Nepos (on J. A. Lobur, Cornelius Nepos: A Study in the Evidence and Influence)
No full textJovian Reconsidered (on J. W. Drijvers, The Forgotten Reign of the Emperor Jovian (363–364): History and Fiction)
No full textPlutarch and Cultural Connectivity (on C. Giroux, ed., Plutarch: Cultural Practice in a Connected World)
No full textL\u27 Anabasi di Senofonte da una Prospettiva Socratica (on S. Brennan, Xenophon’s Anabasis: A Socratic History)
No full textLe Conzeguenze della vittoria: Scipione e la riflessione sull\u27imperialismo romano in Livio
Get PDFThe article aims at highlighting the central role played by Scipio Africanus in Livy’s reflection on Roman imperialism in the third and fourth decades. As is well known, in Books 31–45 Livy problematises the increasingly predatory character of Roman expansionism in the East, alluding to the changes imprinted by such expansionism on the Roman ethos. In the first part of the article, some specific aspects of these changes are brought into focus, with particular reference to those affecting military leadership, marked by a strong com- petition between magistrates and a growing personalism. In the second part, I illustrate the emergence of these aspects in the military rise of Scipio Africanus. Livy portrays Scipio as the representative of a new model of leadership, characterised by strong traits of heroism but also by ethical complexities that will prove decisive for Rome’s future decadence.Lo stesso ma in Italian
Ch. 6. Tacitus and the Older Generation: Fatherhood and its Alternatives in the Agricola
No full textWhile fatherhood in the abstract and generational succession are major themes throughout Tacitus’ Agricola, biological father-son relationships are surprisingly under-emphasised. This article examines how Tacitus portrays Agricola’s father, Graecinus. Graecinus was a significant exemplary figure thanks to his noble death under Caligula, but Tacitus allots him only one sentence. I argue that this is a marked choice that by implication positions Graecinus as a negative exemplum for his more circumspect but effective son. This move of Tacitus’ is considered in relation to his portrayal of the ‘Stoic martyrs’ and to questions of generational continuity within the Roman elite between the hereditary Flavian dynasty and the age of the adopted emperor Trajan.
Published in Andrew G. Scott,, ed., Studies in Contemporary Historiography (HISTOS Supplement 15), p. 133-161
The Multifunctionality of Source Citations and Indirect Speech in Arrian’s Anabasis of Alexander
Get PDFScholars tend to regard the citations of the Anabasis of Alexander as an expression of Arrian’s uncertainty or of the fact that he was drawing his information from sources other than Ptolemy and Aristobulus, while no efforts have been made to explore the functions of source citations and indirect speech in the work which move beyond the criteria of uncertainty and detachment. In this paper, I argue that Arrian took advantage of the traditional multifunctional potential of source citations and indirect speech in his Anabasis of Alexander, and in this way I reconsider the issue of how Arrian used his sources. My main argument is that in the Anabasis source citations, mostly the impersonal but occasionally the named ones too, are frequently aimed at emphasising the following four aspects: (a) a shift in the author’s interest towards biographical details about Alexander (his characterisation and a focus on his interpersonal relationships); (b) the author’s intention to digress from his linear historical narrative; (c) pivotal points of the enterprise; and (d) introducing or transitioning to a new event of the campaign
