END as of 2/6/95
Numa--King by Invitation, Like but not Like, The Roman Version
Starr's traditional view, derived from Plutarch and Others, e.g.
King religious leader, Numa's establishment of the Pontificate and claim (1.88) of mythic sanction
Ponfifex--"bridge builder"--Still a title used by the Popes! "P.M." on hat.
Plutarch (1.89) sneers at taking it literally, but isn't really happy with his etymology
Rome WAS on a river, after all--and in a pretty marshy area
Bridge Building considered magical (3 Billygoats Gruff)
Best to take it metaphorically--"between Man and God."
Why the story of his acquaintance with the Pythagoreans?
Roman fondness for precedent: mos maiorum, sanction for adoption of Greek philosophy
Complete Reverse: Greeks uniting their culture to the dominant Roman culture by claiming the same
There was a Pythagorean colony at our old friend Croton, in Southern Italy. It gets better--Cylon, of Conspiracy fame, eventually ousted Pythagoras from the city government.
Draw your own conclusions
Vestal Cult--Roman domesticity
Focus of every home the hearth--early design of Roman, Italian circular homes
Vestal's flame used to kindle flame of new homes
Roman dichotomy--Mars, god of agressive war, Vesta goddess of domestic tradition
Good place to discuss Roman women: Tatia, kept family name of father, Tatius, preferred to live in retirement rather than as daughter of King Tatius
Manus of Roman paterfamilias
Role of domina, materfamilias
Return of dowry
Feminine cults--Bona Dea, Vesta
Roman Weddings
Numa's grief (1.83)
Lares and Penates: Land and store cupboard
Genius of man or a building
Pax Deorum--In Peace and War
State cult of Vesta
Roman reliance on augury and omens for state business, e.g., founding of Rome, Numa's accession (1.86)
Public construction and maintenance of state cult, wages of priests, the Capitol.
Gods and auspices for War, to guide and sanctify imperium
Fides and Terminus--divine sanction for legal measures necessary to conduct business
Need to know the will of the Gods
Numa's Revelations from Jupiter (1.95)
Sybilline Books of Later Years
Story of Petilus and the Casket (1.101)
Attack of the Context Monster: What's Been Going On?
In Greece: The Continued Evolution of the City-State
Competition and Stress: The Greek Cities struggled within, with the Persian Empire, and with each other.
Athens: Best known, best documented, and truly important
Pistratid agriculutral reforms: Olives and wine, cash crops aiding farmers, landowners, and traders
Solon's restriction on grain imports/Expansion towards the Hellespont (Starr, pp. 254 f.) fostered growth of Athens as a manufacturing center, most notably, pottery
Hellespontine expansion COULD require Navy
May have been reason Themistocles succeeded in making Athens a naval power
Corinth similarly produced pottery but traded with the West through her colony at Syracuse
Aristocratic backlash: Alcmeonidae bribe Delphi with a temple, Delphi has Spartans expel Hippias, last of the Pisistridae, who flees to Persian court
Isagoras's effort to re-establish oligarchy leads to Cleisthenes and his reforms (508):
Demes were local unit of political involvement
Demes from each of the three areas into trittyes
Three trittyes make up a tribe, by which votes taken, offices allocated
Boule, elected council, decides action to be taken by ecclesia, general assembly, while prytaneis supervise day-to-day government
Satisfaction with reformed democracy led to attempts to exert power abroad
Brief effort of Sparta/Thebes to stamp out the virus
Support of Plataea vs. Thebans, capturere of Hysiae in 509, victory over Chalcis and Thebes in 506
Dispatch of 20 ships and troops to the Ionian revolt, with Eretria
Cut to: The Life of Artaxerxes!
Life of Artaxerxes: Who Were the Persians? What's a Barbarian?
The Greco-Roman concept of the _Oikumene_, the inhabited world.
Awareness of older, ancient civilizations, e.g.
Solon in Egypt as described by Plato (p. 113/1.123)
Plutarch's acceptance and use of Plato's Timaeus and Critias
High priest, quite correctly, asserts continuity of Egyptian civilization as opposed to "dark aged" Greeks
Atlantis older civilization still—posssible fusion of Mycenean civilization
Legend of King Minos (again!)
Barbarians: Barbarbar—they didn’t speak Greek
The savages who you couldn't talk to: Triballos in Aristophanes "the Birds," literally a caveman
The people you could talk to—either they spoke Greek or you learned because they had something you wanted to talk about
Trade—Naucratis the emporion
The mercenaries in the 8th Century at Memphis
Solon's Interaction with Croesus: "O, Solon, Solon (p. 114/1.124)
Cyrus's acceptance (in the story) of the worth of Greek knowledge—hardly a savage! And yet...
Dichotomy between Persian achievements and Persian culture
Legend (Herodotus to Xenophons’ Cyropaideia to Horace's Poetry) of Persian values: "to shoot straight and tell the truth."
Extremes of Persian piety and impiety:
Cambyses in Egypt
Rites of Accession—p.1252/2.646. Drinking turpentine
End as of 2/13/95