Cassius Dio Research Articles

FABIUS AND MINUCIUS IN TACITUS: INTERTEXTUALITY AND ALLUSION IN ANNALS BOOK 15

Roman conflict with Parthia in the mid first century for control of Armenia and Domitius Corbulo's exploits in the East, culminating in the Parthian candidate for the throne, Tiridates, receiving his diadem from the hands of the Emperor Nero in Rome, have frequently been studied for what they reveal about military and diplomatic manoeuvres under the later Julio-Claudians. The historiographical investigation of our main source, Tacitus, particularly through comparison with the fragments of Cassius Dio, is also important for the light this sheds on the Roman senator's methods. The intention of this paper is to draw attention to the complexity of Tacitus’ account by indicating his use of multiple and sometimes contradictory viewpoints in his narration of Caesennius Paetus’ unsuccessful Armenian campaign of a.d. 62–63 (Ann. 15.1–17) and to highlight an unrecognized echoing of his predecessor Livy by the historian. The examination of a text that is as elusive as it is allusive will require a careful study of what must have been a debated incident, but, as I hope to show, will give a broader insight into the historian's methods and, perhaps, wider intentions. I begin with an outline of historical events and the sources available to the historian. Next, I present a narratological examination of the text to show how differing viewpoints are highlighted within a contested storyline. I then show how this confusion may appear to be dispelled by a strong plot-line that borrows heavily from Livy, wherein the actions of an older, experienced general are contrasted with those of his subordinate. However, aspects of this account suggest that the tensions within the narrative are not resolved and that this has wider implications for our understanding of the historian and his work.

THE SPECTRE OF ALEXANDER: CASSIUS DIO AND THE ALEXANDER-MOTIF

In the opinion of Cassius Dio, Septimius Severus' capture of Nisibis and annexation of the province of Mesopotamia were not among the emperor's more worthwhile ventures. The costs were great and the yields slight. Our knowledge of the campaign is sketchy, although we do have a narrative outline supplied by Dio's eleventh-century epitomator, John Xiphilinus. Xiphilinus preserves the following anecdote, which takes place after Severus and his army had crossed the Euphrates and were starting to feel the effects of thirst and heat. The epitomator says:κεκμηκόσι γὰρ αὐτοῖς ἐκ τῆς πορείας καὶ τοῦ ἡλίου καὶ κονιορτὸς ἐμπίπτων ἰσχυρῶς ἐλύπησεν, ὥστε μήτε βαδίζειν μήτε λαλεῖν ἔτι δύνασθαι, τοῦτο δὲ μόνον ϕθέγγεσθαι, ‘ὕδωρ ὕδωρ’. ἐπεὶ δὲ ἀνεϕάνη μὲν ἰκμάς, ἐξ ἴσου δὲ τῷ μὴ εὑρεθέντι ἀρχὴν ὑπὸ ἀτοπίας ἦν, ὁ Σεουῆρος κύλικά τε ᾔτησε καὶ τοῦ ὕδατος πληρώσας ἁπάντων ὁρώντων ἐξέπιε.(Dio Cass. 75[75].2.2 [Xiph.])For when they were already wearied by their march and the hot sun, they encountered a dust-storm that caused them great distress, so that they could no longer march or even talk, but only cry, ‘Water, Water’. And when some little vapour did appear, on account of its strangeness it meant no more to them than if it had not been found at all, until Severus called for a cup, and filling it with the water, drank it in full view of all.

The Geometric Enigma of Small Baths at Hadrian’s Villa: Mixtilinear Plan Design and Complex Roofing Conception

Starting in the late Domitian age, through Nero’s Empire and ending in Hadrian’s principate, an increasing technological shift relating to both opus caementicium and centring work made it possible to build cupolas with unprecedented technical solutions in terms of both dimension and shape. Hadrian’s strain was applied to the development of innovative domes, as shown in various pavilions in his Tiburtine Villa and perfectly expressed by the well-known episode reported by Cassius Dio concerning the criticism expressed by Apollodorus of Damascus on the Emperor’s ribbed vault design. Many researchers agree on the importance of the octagonal hall of the Villa’s Small Baths in terms of its unusual shape and daring structure and on the significance of the access vestibule of the Piazza d’Oro. The geometry and construction knowledge suggested by their shapes make them perfect examples of the importance of mathematicians’ influence on architects during the design process.

Metus Persicus?

Abstract The Sasanians have been characterized as Rome’s enemy par excellence in the ancient sources as well as in modern scholarship. According to the Greek and Roman historians, from the moment of its emergence in the second decade of the third century CE, the new dynasty pursued an extremely aggressive policy towards the Western neighbour that resulted in fierce and renewed military conflict and brought the Roman Empire to the brink of desaster. However, a closer look on the respective historiographic and biographic texts from contemporary and later authors reveals a deeper meaning behind their depictions of Roman-Sasanian conflict in the third century. This article argues that authors like Cassius Dio, Herodian and the composer of the fourth-century Historia Augusta used these narrations in order to name and address severe problems within the Roman Empire. Their considerations focused on the mechanisms of imperial government and self-representation which underwent a profound and radical change in the course of the third century. The principate of the previous centuries with its perfectly balanced system of communication between the emperor, the senate, the people of Rome and the army was gradually transformed into an overt military monarchy in which the emperors ostentatiously displayed their exclusive reliance on the soldiers as the crucial foundation of their rule. Although the characterization of Sasanian politics and attitudes towards Rome in the historiographic and biographic texts was certainly not merely an interpretatio Romana, the conditions within the Roman empire have to be taken into account in order to fully understand the contemporary and later historians’ intentions and the specific thrust of their texts.

The Play of Allusion in the Historia Augusta by David Rohrbacher

Reviewed by: The Play of Allusion in the Historia Augusta by David Rohrbacher K. R. Bradley David Rohrbacher. The Play of Allusion in the Historia Augusta. Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press, 2016. Pp. xiii, 246. $65.00. ISBN 978-0-299-30600-7. Not a forgery, hoax, or imposture, but the playful contrivance of a single author (not six) composed in the early fifth century for a small circle of érudits interested in the nature of biography and alert to the work’s all-pervasive literary allusions. Such is the solution to the problem of the Historia Augusta Rohrbacher proposes in this well-informed and engaging book. He defines the collection of imperial biographies seemingly written under Diocletian and Constantine as a parodic, satirical work unconcerned with religious controversies or political events of the late imperial age, as generations of scholars have contended; it is a work primarily of fiction, the key element of which is a literary allusiveness that intentionally challenges its readers to solve the many humorous puzzles of recognition and appreciation its author creates. Dissociating himself from historians preoccupied with separating fact from fancy in the lives, Rohrbacher brings the HA’s literary playfulness to the fore in a bold, distinctive way. Few today will dispute the HA’s single authorship or relatively late date. Rohrbacher offers no answer, however, to Momigliano’s plea from long ago for a simple explanation of why the author chose to assume six identities and pretended to write much earlier (English Historical Review 84 [1969] 569). The [End Page 436] writer himself, moreover, remains anonymous, not identified broadly, as Syme’s notorious rogue grammaticus (but see 60), or specifically (and controversially), as with Ratti’s Nicomachus Flavianus. From what is known about the participatory, antagonistic character of Roman literary composition, the putative circle of readers is reasonably supposed to have been sensitive to allusion, and the modern construct of “interpretative communities” (85) lends brief theoretical support. But contemporary notions of literary incongruity and humorous wordplay are unexplored, and the debates assumed about biography as a contested literary genre are at most hypothetical. Who precisely were the “late Roman thinkers on biography” (48) able, it appears, to notice the lives’ engagement with events of the years 408–410? Allusion itself, indeed, is never defined. In practice it comprises direct quotation, verbal reminiscence, emulation of stylistic mannerisms and themes, and complex manipulation of subject matter—a very diffuse concept. Many suggestions consequently strain belief. Simple quotations are uncontentious, and invented names might be allowed to have sometimes produced amusement. But when meeting the fictional Gallus Antipater of Claud. 5.4, can readers then or now realistically be expected to associate him with the Coelius of Hadr. 16.3, also an Antipater but not so designated, and to recognize that Coelius is the source of Gallus Antipater’s name (25–26)? Or to see that references to the proconsulship of Cilicia (Aur. 42.4; Car. 4.6), a nonexistent position in the imperial age, “must be inspired by the example of Cicero” simply because Cicero was “the most famous holder of the office” (32)? Or to deduce that since the unusual word spinthriae occurs in Suetonius (Tib. 43.1; Calig. 16.1; also Vit. 3.2), its use at Elag. 33.1 reveals Elagabalus “as a student of Tiberius and Caligula, or at least the Suetonian account of the emperors” (55; Tac. Ann. 6.1; Petr. Sat. 113.11)? Rohrbacher acknowledges that individual examples will not always convince; but his open-ended understanding of allusiveness constantly encourages the tendentious. Suetonius’ occasional references to information received from his father and grandfather duly become the basis for a stylistic technique in the HA, and evidence of engagement with the Caesares (50–53). Cassius Dio’s report (69.1.3), however, of what his father told him about Trajan’s death and Hadrian’s accession shows that this cannot be a feature of ancient biography alone. The most complex allusions allegedly involve Ammianus and Jerome. Rohrbacher follows Syme in connecting Quad. Tyr. 8.10 (drinking cups in Hadrian’s letter) with Amm. 15.3.7 (description of a sordid banquet), given that an Africanus appears in...

Cassius Dio's Julia Domna: Character Development and Narrative Function

This paper examines how and why Cassius Dio portrayed Julia Domna in the manner that he did. Dio consistently depicts Julia as foreign and power-hungry, a portrait that appears to be driven by his analysis of the later Severan regime. Julia serves as a link between the two halves of the dynasty, a claim that runs counter to the official line of Elagabalus and Severus Alexander. The later Severan house, seen by Dio as foreign and dominated by powerful female figures, informs his portrayal of Julia Domna and shows a continuity of analysis throughout the final books of his history.

Judge Julia Domna? A Historical Mystery and the Emergence of Imperial Legal Administration

ABSTRACTThis article analyses a problematic passage from Cassius Dio (78.18.2–3) where Julia Domna is depicted as answering petitions and correspondence on behalf of her son, Caracalla, in AD 214–215. Through a reading of the relevant sources and the emerging tradition of Roman imperial adjudication, the article seeks to answer the question: what did this reference to an empress using imperial power mean? Was it merely a sign of the emperor's ineptitude or could it be seen as a reference to the centrality of answering appeals in the duties of the emperor? Is it even possible that she should be seen as a judge of some kind? By analysing the conventions of imperial jurisdiction, the article maintains that there was an ambiguity where responding and judging on behalf of the emperor or posing as the emperor involved many different figures in the administration. It is argued that while an official role was not likely, it is possible that Julia Domna would have held a supervisory position in the administration as well as acting as an interlocutor, but that like others who were appointed to judge in the place of the emperor, her work would have been largely invisible, noted only by petitioners expecting to meet the emperor.

CASSIUS DIO AND THE CULT OF IVLIVS AND ROMA AT EPHESUS AND NICAEA (51.20.6-8)

This paper considers Cassius Dio's account of the early worship of Augustus. Its main focus is the number of cults consecrated to the worship of Rome's new undisputed leader and his father, the now deceased and deified Divus Iulius, after the triumvir, on his way back from Alexandria in 29 b.c.e., wintered in Asia Minor. In his account of how the first official worship of Augustus was organized, Dio describes how Augustus let two separate cults inaugurate: a joint cult to the worship of Divus Iulius and the goddess Thea Roma—a Greek deity, which since the second century served as a personification of Roman rule or Roman power—and a personal cult to the worship of the victorious triumvir (51.20.6-8).

LIVIA: SACERDOS OR FLAMINICA?

Dio reports that, at the time Augustus was declared Divus, Livia, who was already called Julia and Augusta, was appointed his priestess (Cassius Dio 56.46.1). The term Dio uses is hiereia, which occurs in the same passage as his account of the priests and sacred rites (en tais hierourgiais) that were assigned to Augustus on his deification. As Livia was also permitted to employ a lictor, an honour that Tiberius apparently restricted to her function as priestess, everything suggests that Livia played a part in the state cult. In contrast, the festival Livia established in honour of her deceased husband was certainly a private gathering: three days of scenic games to which were invited only persons of the highest station. To distinguish between the two is crucial to the precise title of Livia's office. Just as Mark Antony had been made flamen of Divus Iulius—to all appearances for life (Cassius Dio 44.6.4)—so Germanicus was appointed life-long flamen Augustalis (Tac. Ann. 2.83.2)—a distinctive term of office compared with the single year accorded provincial flamines in the Latin West. The office of Livia ought correspondingly to have been that of flaminica, even if it was unprecedented for a woman to serve a god who in the light of his will was technically her father. A precise parallel to all this, it is important to note, exists in the case of Divus Claudius, whose cult Agrippina was appointed to tend and who in her capacity as priestess of Divus Claudius was granted in addition two lictors. Fortunately in this case the exact terminology of her office is given by Tacitus in his account of the honours bestowed by the Senate on Agrippina, who evidently was named flaminica (Ann. 13.2.6): … decreti et a senatu duo lictores, flamonium Claudiale, simul Claudio censorium funus et mox consecratio.

The lost history of Peter the Patrician: an account of Rome's imperial past from the age of Justinian

The Lost History of Peter the Patrician is an annotated translation from the Greek of the fragments of Peter’s History, including additional fragments which are now more often considered the work of the Roman historian Cassius Dio's so-called Anonymous Continuer. Banchich’s annotation helps clarify the relationship of Peter's work to that of Cassius Dio. Focusing on the historical and historiographical rather than philological, he provides a strong framework for the understanding of this increasingly important source for the third and fourth centuries A.D. With an introduction on Peter himself - a distinguished administrator and diplomat at the court of Justinian – assessing his literary output, the relationship of the fragments of Peter's History to the fragments of the Anonymous Continuer, and the contentious issue of the place of this evidence within the framework of late antique historiography, The Lost History of Peter the Patrician will be an invaluable resource for those interested in the history of the Roman world in general and of the third and fourth centuries A.D. in particular.

Defense of Nero in the Style of Seneca and Genre of Biography

Numerous scholars have taken the popular stance against Roman emperor Nero’s actions. In the style of fictional narrative, this article argues for the defense of Nero against the widely held opinion. The article is written under the guise of Seneca, his tutor and advisor (and later murder victim). It is written in the genre of biography and in the format of a letter addressed to Cassius Dio.

Boudica’s Odyssey in Early Modern England by Samantha Frénée-Hutchins

Reviewed by: Boudica’s Odyssey in Early Modern England by Samantha Frénée-Hutchins Aidan Norrie Frénée-Hutchins, Samantha, Boudica’s Odyssey in Early Modern England, Farnham, Ashgate, 2014; hardback; pp. 242; 14 b/w illustrations; R.R.P. £60.00; ISBN 9781472424617. The Renaissance was fuelled by the invention of the printing press and the rediscovery of classical texts. For Samantha Frénée-Hutchins, this fuel began to burn in early modern England ‘the moment when Boudica’s story was re-discovered’ (p. 1). Boudica’s Odyssey in Early Modern England is a superb, diachronic study of the Icenian queen who unsuccessfully attempted to overthrow Roman rule. Frénée-Hutchins has compiled a unique sourcebook that ‘reassesses national memory by tracing the historical re-birth and circulation of Boudica’s story in the Tudor period to the imaginative reconfigurations of her body in the early seventeenth century’ (p. 2). Boudica offered an image of mixed usefulness, making this an important reassessment. For Elizabeth I, Boudica both defended ‘her nation and its religion from invaders’ (p. 173) and demonstrated the incompatibility of female leaders and military campaigns. For her successor, James I, Boudica both legitimised the creation of the Kingdom of Great Britain and served as an awkward reminder of how an ‘ambitious and calculating mother’ (p. 5) could overshadow her successor. The book is divided into five chapters. The first details the rediscovery of Tacitus’s Annals and Agricola and Cassius Dio’s Roman History – the classical sources for Boudica – and their appearance and use in Tudor historiography. Chapter 2 analyses Boudica’s emergence in the later decades of Elizabeth’s reign. The Icenian queen was used, Frénée-Hutchins argues, to historicise female rule, and ‘often came to the fore during moments of national crisis’ (p. 52). Chapter 3 moves the analysis into James’s reign, focusing on Boudica’s dual use in uniting the ‘two sovereign kingdoms … under the ancient name of Britain’ (p. 85), and as a symbol of the populace’s relief at the return to masculine rule. The widespread ambivalence towards James’s Union is expanded in Chapter 4, with Frénée-Hutchins focusing on Boudica’s dramatic appearances, especially in John Fletcher’s Tragedie of Bonduca. The highlight of the book is the final chapter, which examines Boudica’s odyssey beyond early modern England. ‘Boudica’s name’, Frénée-Hutchins observes, ‘was to become a byword for a patriotic heroine and a call to arms in the defence of Britain’ (p. 180). [End Page 266] Frénée-Hutchins’s fascinating study successfully traces Boudica’s ‘rather obscure and tragic beginnings … to the national identities of the English and British of the sixteenth century, on to its imperial aspirations of the nineteenth century and its global range in the present day’ (p. 201). While the text would have benefited from closer copy-editing and more thorough referencing, these are minor complaints. The content is engagingly written and comprehensively researched, and will be a useful resource to anyone interested in political imagery in early modern England or the reception of the classical world in the Renaissance. Aidan Norrie University of Otago Copyright © 2016 Aidan Norrie

Pagans, Jews, Christians, and a Type of Book Divination in Late Antiquity

According to the thirdcentury historian Cassius Dio, two third-century emperors, Septimius Severus and Macrinus, received oracles by verses of Homer in the temple of Zeus Belus in the Syrian city of Apamea. [...]just a few verses further on (1 Macc 3.56), Judas orders those who have just built a house, married, or planted a vineyard to return home according to the Law. [...]Van der Horst's interpretation is not convincing because this passage draws a parallel between the book of the Law and pagan cult statues, and not pagan sacred books, which is entirely understandable given that, as we have seen, there is no evidence whatsoever of a Greek divinatory practice consisting in opening any book at random. [...]the very idea of book divination was certainly known to Jews, pagans, and Christians.

Last of the naval triumphs: revisiting some key Actian honours

In 29 B.C., after his victories over Marcus Antonius (cos. 44, 34) and Cleopatra at Actium and in Egypt, Caesar Octavi(an)us, or Imperator Caesar Divi f., as he then wanted to be known, returned to Rome as the uncontested master of the Roman world. He did so in a carefully managed pageant that culminated with his triple triumph on 13, 14 and 15 Sextilis (the month later renamed Augustus in his honour) and the opening of the Temple of Divus Iulius in the Forum Romanum shortly thereafter, on the 18th. These ceremonies marked the culmination of his claim — a pompous declaration already made in the autumn of 36 in the aftermath of Naulochus — that he had put an end to war on “land and sea” throughout the world. While the relevant entries in the Fasti Triumphales are lost, Cassius Dio produces a fairly accurate précis of Octavian's triple triumph. The first day was the triumph over the Pannonians and the Dalmatians, the Iapydes and their neighbours, and some German and Gallic tribes; the second day commemorated the naval victory at Actium, the ; the third and final triumph, the most costly and magnificent of them all, was over Egypt. Dio clarifies that the Egyptian spoils proved so rich and bountiful that they covered the expense and lustre of all three triumphal processions.

Ciceros Staatsschrift und die philosophische Tradition der Verfassungsdebatte bei Cassius Dio und Philostrat

In the tradition of the political theory established by Plato and Aristotle Cicero asks for the best constitution and gives the answer in his work On the state. In a fictional dialogue, dated to the political crisis of the Gracchi in 129, Roman politicians led by Scipio Africanus come to the result that either the mixed constitution of the Roman republic or the monarchy is the best constitution for the Roman state. It is shown that with the form and contents of this fictional dialogue Cicero, in all probability, becomes the literary model for similar constitutional debates in the works of Cassius Dio and Philostrat.

The Day Commodus Killed a Rhino: Understanding the Roman Games, by Jerry Toner

The Day Commodus Killed a Rhino: Understanding Roman Games, by Jerry Toner. Witness Ancient History Series. Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2014. 136 pp. $49.95 US (cloth), $19.95 US (paper). Thanks in part cinema, gladiatorial fantasies of Emperor Commodus (died ce 192) are well known. Son of noble philosopher-emperor, Marcus Aurelius, Commodus abandoned his father's conquests in Germania and retired city pursue his passions: most famously, games of amphitheatre. We know so much about them because they were witnessed, recorded, and vilified by senator and historian, Cassius Dio. Toner's little book tries put Commodus's gladiatorial interests into context. The book is first of new Witness Ancient History series from Johns Hopkins University Press and its aim is to provide an up-to-date and graphic analysis of Roman games for a general and introductory though Toner also wanted develop a number of new ideas that he had on topic (p. 121). The result is a small book that takes Commodus's interests in arena as a jumping off point into a wider exploration of this key Roman cultural institution. Toner is aware of preconceptions that many modern readers, especially those from his target audience, will bring any study of Roman arena and he is keen put these stereotypes aside. For example, when describing Roman audience's willingness witness fatal spectacles, he notes that while the modem Western world tends see most forms of violence in moral terms, ancient spectators saw combination of grace, control, and aggression, when done well, as both beautiful and virtuous (p. 96). At other times, however, he slips and so we still read of gladiator facing death in front of fifty thousand baying (p. 12) or the bloodlust of crowd (p. 60). And what are we make of a chapter about organization of games entitled Feeding Monster? Still, Toner's ability confront and handle such stereotypes, both modern and ancient, is a real strength of book. Another strength is Toner's astute perception of popular appeal of performers--the gladiators and charioteers in particular--especially for average Roman. While he explores fully importance of shows for elite (politicized leisure), it is his understanding of how poor majority would have seen such men that is so insightful. These men needed be resourceful, competitive, skilled, and tough survive, all qualities shared by everyday Romans. Toner also explores opposition games, mostly through a retelling of Martyrdom of Perpetua in Carthage (CE 203). At one point Toner states that Romans hunted down and attacked Christians (p. 110) though on next page admits that such persecutions were actually rare. Indeed, Hilarianus, official who condemned Perpetua and her fellow Christians, has been shown have been an unusually extreme religious fundamentalist (J. …

The depiction of Livia and Julia Domna by Cassius Dio: Some observations

Among the ancient authors who narrated the reign of Augustus and Tiberius, Cassius Dio is surely the one who dedicated the most space to the influence that Livia Drusilla exercised over both her husband and her son. In this regard, the foremost example is found in a large section where Dio narrates how Livia persuaded Augustus to forgive Cornelius Cinna for having plotted against his regime. Also, according to Dio, after the death of Augustus, Livia considerably increased her authority over the imperial government, trying not only to co-rule with her son, but also to become the sole effective ruler by controlling all his political activities. Some scholars have suggested that Dio probably exaggerated the role played by Livia because of the similar extraordinary power enjoyed by his contemporaries Julia Domna and the other Syrian women who lived during the Severan age. A close examination of Dio’s passages dedicated to Livia reveals no traces of situations that could refer to his contemporary political situation. The statements of the Bithynian historian and senator concerning Livia are normally well detailed because he made use of good sources. Indubitably, Livia’s strong influence was fundamental in shaping the reign of both Augustus and Tiberius. Even two centuries later, while Severus was trying to depict his regime as a new golden era on the model of Augustus, Julia Domna followed the example of Livia on many occasions. Nevertheless, Dio does not seem to be aware of these analogies and his work appears to be characterized by a mere record of facts rather than an investigation of their real power within the imperial court.

Adversa divi Augusti. Pliny the Elder: Naturalis Historia 7. 147–150

The life-work of Augustus and its memory is usually illustrated by the Res gestae as well as the historical pieces of Tacitus, Suetonius and Cassius Dio. This cultural memory omits the Augustus-portrait of the chapters 147–150 of Book 7 of the Naturalis Historia, which summarize the life or more exactly the misfortunes of the life of Rome’s first emperor. This anti-Res gestae divi Augusti is unique not only in ancient literature but in the context of the Naturalis Historia as well. Critics have advocated different explanations. This paper is devoted to an analysis of these chapters in the context of the textual unit that organically contains them, and which culminates in them.

Cassius Dio, Caracalla, and the Senate

Summary Recently, efforts have been made to characterize Cassius Dio’s history of the reign of Caracalla as reflective of the experiences of a marginalized senator, rather than of the senate as a whole. A re-evaluation of Dio’s account suggests that Dio’s version of events should remain the most valuable literary source for this period. Dio maintained a consistent view of the principate throughout his contemporary history, and his depiction of Caracalla as hostile toward the senate is supported by other sources. Finally, a survey of Dio’s political career shows that he evaluated each emperor in his contemporary history through the example of the ideal emperor, Marcus Aurelius, not according to the favor (or lack thereof) he experienced under each ruler.

Color-Terms in Social and Cultural Context in Ancient Rome by Rachael B. Goldman (review)

Reviewed by: Color-Terms in Social and Cultural Context in Ancient Romeby Rachael B. Goldman Maria Michela Sassi Rachael B. Goldman. Color-Terms in Social and Cultural Context in Ancient Rome. Gorgias Studies in Classical and Late Antiquity, 3. Piscataway, N.J.: Gorgias Press, 2013. Pp. ix, 193. $95.00. ISBN 978–1-61143–914–4. This book, a development of a portion of the author’s Ph.D. dissertation in History (“ Tinturae Romanorum:Social and Cultural Constructions of Color-Terms in Roman Literature,” CUNY 2011), is the latest addition to the ever-flourishing scholarship on colors in the ancient world, whose most recent notable fruits [End Page 301]are M. Bradley, Colour and Meaning in Ancient Rome(Cambridge, 2009) and A. Grand-Clément, La fabrique des couleurs. Histoire du paysage sensible des Grecs anciens (VIII e—début du V esiècle avant notre ère)(Paris 2011). How Goldman’s agenda differs from that of her predecessor in the Roman field does not emerge clearly from her statement in the introduction (a brief treatment of the thorny issue of Greek and Roman color taxonomies) that she intends to examine “the color-terms at play in certain texts” so as “to grasp more readily the interplay among roles of gender, ethnicity, religion, economic and class differences, political affairs, and passions of the day” (7). However, apart from the inevitable overlap of the main topic, it becomes clear throughout the book that Goldman aims at a sort of antiquarian survey of her sources, selected from the whole of Latin literature, whereas Bradley focused on the intellectual debate about the moral and social values assigned to the various colores, and was rather sensible to the awarenessof the power of coloras a tool of information and evaluation in early Imperial Rome. Throughout seven chapters the discussion covers the famous color debate between Favorinus and Fronto on Greek and Latin linguistic categories in Gellius’ Noctes Atticae(Fronto’s treatment is oddly judged “almost comical,” 13); the pigments used for dyes, and the relevance of the production costs to the evaluation of the dyed objects; the colors of garments as signs of class and gender distinction; the effectiveness of colors for distinguishing the chariot teams in the circus; the notations of the colors of the skin, the eyes, and the hair in a few physiognomic descriptions; the analysis of such terms as versicolor, decolor, discolor, and other similar adjectives ending in color. The last is admittedly the most original part of the book, having been “rarely examined in the scholarship,” as the author observes in the final pages (163), the general conclusion being that “what was seen in Roman material culture is reflected in the literature of the day” (161). A few nice touches are scattered here and there. I was glad to learn, for example, that coccinus—just like the more famous purpureus—was an appreciated because expensive hue (32), and I was amused to read that the gilded ( subauratus) ring exhibited by that notorious freedman Trimalchio allowed him to bypass a senatusconsultumwhich permitted only freeborn men to wear golden rings (74). Unfortunately, the overall treatment is blurred. I registered an increasing number of typographical errors in the English idiom, the Latin, and the Greek (breathings and accents are often wrong), as well as several misquotations both of the ancient sources and the bibliography (I note here only 118, a messy translation of Cassius Dio, and 102 note 13, where Aristot. Hist. Anim.492a4 appears instead of Gen. Anim.779b15). Goldman is especially uncomfortable when it comes to Greek culture; for example, she claims that “the only work of literature attributed to Favorinus is the Corinthian Oration” (23); she extrapolates from the epithet of Athena glaukôpisthat “gray eyes are an ancient trope for descriptions of gods and goddesses” (102); she talks of “physiognomic principles outlined by the Aristotelean schools” (my emphasis: 163). Inconsistencies are ubiquitous: see, for instance, subflavus, translated as “golden” and “diminished yellow” just a few lines later, only the latter being correct, as the author knows (101 note 6); or the reading of Ovid Fast. 3.493, where preference for a “fair-skinned...