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Greek and Roman Religions, Fall 1999
 
September 30, 1999
 
 
WEEKLY ASSIGNMENT DUE TODAY: If you have it, 
Read BNP Chs. 1-2:  pp. 1-113 

If not, 
Read "Religion" by Mary Beard in CAH, v. 9 and 
Read George Dumezil, Archaic Roman Religion, 
vol. 1, pp. 32-46, 113-133 
Van Pelt Library 
University Museum Library 
BL802.D813
 
 
 
SESSION LEADER #1:  Provide a brief summary of the key points in BNP for those who haven't read it.
 
 
SESSION LEADER #2:  Provide a brief summary of the key points in the Beard and Dumezil readings  for those who read BNP instead. 

If you have time, look at the Dumezil in a little more detail and try to figure out what he's about. 
If you really have a lot of time, skim through The new comparative mythology : an anthropological assessment of the theories of Georges Dumézil by C. Scott Littleton (BL43.D8 L5 1982).  This will tell you what Dumezil is all about.
 
 
 
LECTURE NOTES:
 
 
 

Roman Literature:  Genres, Authors, and Works
 
Early Period:  Pre-Literary Forms
 

Fasti:  official calendar, with religious and political significance; examples in BNP, v. 2 

Annales:  official governmental records, organized on a year-by-year basis (annus) 

Commentarii, or "Memoirs":  for example, Sulla and then Caesar wrote accounts of their political careers that were intended for public consumption but meant to look like a personal journal; in other words, a literary form that gave the illusion of being sub-literary 

Carmina:  Rome did not possess, as fas as we know, the same wide range of popular tradition in live performance that Greece did.  Carmen (sing.) is used widely in archaic Rome to refer to marked language, such as legal texts (Twelve Tables), responses of oracles, religious formulas, wise saws, etc. 
 
 
Early Period:  Inscriptions
 
s.c. (senatus consultum) de Bacchanalibus, 186 BC (see also Livy, 19.8-18) 

Acta Fratrum Arvalium:  acts of a priesly brotherhood, who worshipped Dea Dia in grove near Rome; earliest insciptions c. 21-20 BC; historical evidence points to close association with imperial cult, but apparently the brotherhood archaic in origin, and reformed under Augustus; had a song, and made sacrifices in imperial cult. 

 
 
Early Period:  Literary Forms
 
Livius Andronicus (fl. 240 - 207): 
 
Greek and probably a slave, teacher of Greek and Latin who wrote Latin plays in the Greek style and with Greek subjects like Achilles and Ajax.  In 207 wrote a Partheneion in honor of Juno and was awarded public honors for it.  Translated Homer's Odyssey into Latin. 
 
 
Naevius (mid-late 3rd century BC): 
 
Roman citizen and plebeian, from Campania, wrote tragedies and comedies; (First) Punic War (in Saturnians, the only indigenous Latin meter) 
 
 
Plautus (c. 255 - 184) and Terence (185-159?): 
 
authors of Roman comedies; unlike most other archaic writers, we have complete works from both of these (20 are extant from Plautus, 6 for Terence).  Relations to New Comedy; translation vs. adaption. 
 
Fabius Pictor (fl. late third century BC): 
 
wrote annals, with plenty of details regarding political and social institutions; a member of a distinguished family, he was a senator and magistrate; tradition in Rome (as sometimes in Greece) of authors being major political figures. 
 
Ennius (239 - 169): 
 
born in southern Italy, trilingual in Latin, Greek and Oscan.  Arrived at Rome in 204, and wrote tragedies, then a poem celebrating M. Fulvius Nobilior's campaign in Greece.  Late in life, composed the Annals (in verse) from time of Aeneas to the poet's lifetime. 
 
Cato (234 - 149): 
 
plebeian who rose to rank of consul (195) and censor (184); prolific orator who delivered 150 speeches; wrote historical Origines, De Agicultura, Carmen de Moribus.  Known as stalwart anti-Carthaginian patriot, later a model of the Republican ideal. 
 
  
 
 Oratory
 
 Cicero (106 - 43): best known man from antiquity:  58 speeches, hundreds of letters, plus treatises on rhetoric and philosophy survive.  A dominant source for  late Republican history.  Knightly in birth, elected consul in 63.  Rare combination in Rome:  success in politics and keen interest in philosophy. 
 
Quintilian (c. 35 -95 AD):  known for his treatise on oratory, shows how Ciceronian rhetoric faired under the early empire. 
 
 
 History
 
Caesar (100 - 44): the major political figure of his time, brought about the collapse of the Republic.  Wrote Gallic Wars (covering 58 - 52) and Civil War (49 - 48). 

Sallust (86 - 35):  On the Conspiracy of Catiline and Jugurthine War.  Partisan of Caesar, novus homo and tribune of plebs (52). 

Livy (59 BC - 17 AD): 142 Books from the Founding of the City, of which about 35 survive.  Basic source for Roman history through the Republic. 

Tacitus (c. 56 - 118 AD): Major works:  Histories (intended to cover 69 - 96, though not completed), Annals (14 - 37).  Minor historical works:  Agricola (a biography), Germania (ethnography on the Germans.  Also Dialogus (imaginary dialog on rhetoric). 

Suetonius (c. 70 - 130 AD): On the Life of the Caesars (Julius Caesar and first 11 Emperors in 8 books). 

 
 
Poetry
 
Catullus (c. 84 - 55): Neoteric poet, i.e., new style poet in contrast to, e.g., Ennius, deeply influenced by Hellenistic (as opposed particularly to epic) poetry and sensibilities; focused on metrical and linguistic experimentation and interested in short poems, light in tone; emphasizes value of otium  over negotia, to the displeasure of Cicero; sources include nugatory poetry (from nugae, 'morsels') and Epicurianism (whose goal was ataraxia, pleasure without disturbance). 

Lucretius (fl. 95-51):  Epicurian poet, wrote De Rerum natura, a scientific poem. 

Virgil (70 - 19): author of Aeneid, an Augustan foundation story for Roman state; also Georgics and Eclogues. 

Horace (65 - 8): of modest means, but managed to study poetry in Rome and philosophy in Greece; sided with Brutus in civil war, was pardoned by Caesar, and eventually became an ideologue for Augustus under the patronage of Maecenas.  Wrote Odes, Epodes, Satires, and Epistles in verse. 

Elegy:  Tibullus (c. 55 - 19) and Propertius (c. 50 - 2): see the next two weeks, when we do Latin poetry in more detail. 

Ovid (43 BC - 17 AD): equestrian, trained in rhetoric for a political career, but focused on poetry.  Prolific poet, wrote on love (Amores, Ars Amatoria, Remedia Amoris), Greek myth (Metamorphoses,  a lost tragedy Medea, and Heroides),  Letters from (Tomi in) Pontus, where he had been exiled, and of course the Fasti, a literary version of the old Roman genre. 

Satire:  Persius (34 - 62 AD) and Juvenal (c. 60 - 127 AD): 

Martial (38 - 101 AD): 
 
 
 

Roman Literature: Basic Issues
 
 

debt to Greece vs. indigenous 

Romans as dull, hardworking drones vs. creative, poetic and artistic Greeks:  even the Romans accepted this view to some extent.  Modern debates over how best to view Roman creativity in literature and wider cultural spheres like religion.