Late Republican Period Research Articles

Imports and Market Integration in the Roman Mediterranean

The degree and nature of integration that existed within Roman economies is a crucial but so far unresolved question within the study of ancient economic history. This paper aims to test the level of market integration in the Roman Mediterranean by comparing amphora distributions from the late Republican period and Principate with those of Late Antiquity in Rome, three northern Adriatic cities (Aquileia, Padua, Verona) and Ephesus with the predicted transport costs provided by ORBIS: The Stanford Geospatial Network Model of the Roman World. The intention is to analyze whether price determined the distribution of staple goods in the Roman Empire, as it does in a modern market economy environment, or whether other factors (e.g., state orders, elite connections etc.) were more important in shaping ancient economic practices.

The features of the theoretical training of the ancient Roman military

The purpose of the article. To investigate the specifics of the training of senior officers of the Roman army in the Late Republican period and the Early Principate. To outline the peculiarities of the study of military theory by the senior command staff of the legion, as well as to prove the probability of the existence of specialized libraries among the Roman elite, which consisted of the works of Greek and Roman authors of the genre of military literature. Research methodology. The research methodology: comparative, analysis, synthesis and analytical analysis. The scientific novelty of the research lies in the fact that the problem of military education in Ancient Rome was comprehensively investigated for the first time. In particular, the peculiarities of the study of the theory of military affairs not only by representatives of the highest military command — those from the nobility, but also by "new people" (homines novi) — representatives of the riding class (equites) are analyzed. Conclusions. It has been proven that the senior officers were not illiterate in military affairs and quite successfully coped with the assigned tasks — both in the administrative field and on the battlefield. It is also determined that the responsibilities of the senior officers of the Roman army, in particular military commanders, in addition to knowledge and skills in the field of military art, also included understanding the psychology of ordinary soldiers and the art of eloquence (rhetoric). The latter was acquired not so much from experience as from studying the works of Greek orators and philosophers.

Fenye by the Numbers: A Quantitative Analysis of Astrological Contents in Chinese Local Gazetteers

Abstract Fenye (分野, lit., “field allocation”), is a traditional Chinese astrological system that associated celestial phenomena with regions on earth since ancient times. During middle and late imperial China, many literati writings criticized this system as illogical. Yet in the local gazetteers that were compiled in late imperial China to document local data within each administrative region, compilers continued to use fenye as the canonical way to identify their regions within the vast empire. The Jesuit introduction of Western sciences to China, in particular the technology that could precisely locate any place or region with latitude and longitude, appeared to render fenye obsolete, which fueled even more literati criticism. Modern scholars consider the public criticism from the Qianlong emperor and the resulting removal of fenye from the 1781 Rehe Gazetteer the end of fenye in imperial orthodoxy. However, by quantitatively analyzing a collection of 4,410 titles of local gazetteers and their section headings, this paper reveals many examples of local literati who resisted removing fenye entirely from their local history, well into the late Republican period.

Corruption and the Public Sphere in Late Republican Rome

This article deals with the of whether contemporary concepts of corruption can be usefully applied to the study of Roman society in the late republican period. First , it shows that specific problems arise if we equate modern semantics of ‘private’ and ‘public’ with the dichotomy between ‘privatus’ and ‘publicus’ in the sources. These areas were interconnected and, thus, the Romans did not identify overlaps between the two spheres as deviant in itself. Nevertheless, the article next argues that the Romans did identify illegitimate interferences between the spheres; the identifier was the question of whose interest actors represented. The article concludes by showing that the evaluation of corruption phenomena was subject to the dominant paradigm of social stratification. It explains why these individual evaluations sometimes appear as contradictory to the modern observer, even though they follow the internal logic of Roman society.

Characterization and provenance of Roman tiles from the archaeological sites of Cariati, Scala Coeli and Terravecchia (Calabria, Southern Italy)

This paper concerns the archaeometric study carried out on a group of tiles and a brick belonging to the Roman period. In particular, the samples are dated back to the late 3rd-1st century BC and they come from the archaeological sites of Cariati, Scala Coeli and Terravecchia, in the province of Cosenza (Calabria, Southern Italy). Some of these samples are impressed with the stamps L./N. LUSIPETEL and M. MECONI, belonging to a production plant that operated in the north-central Ionian coast of the Calabria Region between the late Republican period and the Imperial age, owned to two important families of Petelia (today Strongoli). All samples were analyzed by Optical microscopy, X-ray Powder Diffraction and Energy Dispersion Microanalysis by Scanning Electron Microscope, in order to determine their minero-petrographic features and their geochemical composition, to identify the extraction area of the raw materials and the technological aspects related to the processing of the clay. In addition, the comparison between the chemical composition of the samples with the clay and the sand coming from some quarries of the Cariati area confirms that most of the samples were locally produced using raw materials from natural Pliocene outcrops.

Pages from the History of the Democratic League of China in the Late Republican Period

This article concerns the origins, development and activities of one of the oldest Chinese democratic parties — the Democratic League of China from its inception to the formation of the People's Republic of China in 1949. New documents and materials discovered in the Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History, in particular, the Bulletins of the Information Bureau of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks on foreign policy issues, shed light on little-studied questions about the role and place of this democratic organization in the Chinese revolution. Under patriotic slogans, the Democratic League united in its ranks both non-partisan public figures and political parties and groups with various views, from nationalist to pro-communist. Despite the diverse political composition of small parties and groups, the league turned into a coalition trying to find a “third way” between the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the ruling Kuomintang party. The growing authoritarianism of the Kuomintang leader Chiang Kai-shek and the implementation of pro-Japanese policies by the Kuomintang members undermined the foundations of the national anti-Japanese united front and undermined the war of resistance. These circumstances repelled the country's patriotic forces from the Kuomintang. The Kuomintang's suppression of the democratic movement led to a reorientation of the Democratic League's policies. The League publicly announced cooperation with the CCP until the complete collapse of the reactionary Kuomintang government, for democracy, peace and independence of the country. The work of the Democratic League helped to unite the broad groups of the population into the patriotic movement for a new China. After the formation of the People's Republic of China, at the suggestion of Mao Zedong, the league was preserved, its leaders received posts in the government. Currently, members of the Democratic League are mainly engaged in cultural and educational work.

History of Medicine as a bridge between Paleopathology and the Medical Humanities. New Technologies Applied to Bioarchaeology: reconstructing Lifestyles in Ancient Rome

The research project Diseases, health and lifestyles in Rome: from the Empire to the Early Middle Age (PRIN 2015), covered a significant area of research, ranging from the historical and historico-medical content that emerged during the multi-disciplinary investigation on the subject, to the intersection between different methods and approaches and the full enhancement of truly primary sources that included human skeletal remains, food residues, housing situations and burial contexts. From this perspective, the interest in the so-called “material culture” has taken on a more important meaning than the simple response to a conceptual and ideological historiography. Since the 1980s, there has been a sort of limitation regarding a more objective reconstruction of Antiquity. In general, written and iconographic sources convey information that is more or less intentionally mediated by the cultural and anthropological coordinates that produced it, requiring the historian to make a philological exegesis effort that even in the case of manuscripts and epigraphs needs to dialogue with tools of support and writing. On the other hand, the importance of molecular data would be partial and misleading if it were to be based on a more traditional documentary framework. Therefore, the history of medicine, always accustomed to operating in an area dedicated to a mixing of different areas of expertise and study, has once again proved capable of creating a dialogue among areas of study that are seemingly distant from one another. However, these areas of study are complementary, leading to a reliable historical reconstruction. In fact, the choice to focus the investigation on the human body has also inevitably highlighted the οἶκος in which it finds itself. This is part of a dynamic natural and social system, as was perfectly clear to the legislators of the late-Republican period and to doctors of imperial age, including Galen, who were well aware of the connection among health, productive and manufacturing activities, urban planning, pollution and food. Therefore, the anthropological, paleo-pathological and molecular investigation on skeletal remains, in dialogue with the historical-medical, literary and iconographic sources, has become the opportunity for a historical reconstruction. This reconstruction is all the more interesting as it encompasses a time frame that contains the transition from the Late Antiquity to the beginning of the Middle Ages, allowing for the identification of a series of indicators on continuity and discontinuity.

Die Insula II von Velia – ihre Forschungsgeschichte und neue Forschungsfragen

The monumental complex of Insula II, a public building in the Lower Town of Velia, founded by the Phocaeans in 535 BCE, is one of the most known and discussed buildings in the town due to the spectacular finds of marble statues. The reason why the function and the chronology of this complex remain unclear until today can be found in the complex and – because of the inadequate state of publication – difficult to comprehend history of research. In fact, the building has been understood as the meeting place of a medical school, as a place of memory of an important Velinian family or as a complex for the imperial cult. The present contribution starts with the presentation of the various stages of research and the different attempts to explain the building. On this basis, we then give a synthesis of the stratigraphical sequence found during the Austrian excavations in the so-called Triporticus court and distinguish three phases. The first phase, following the suggestion of Hans Lauter, who studied the façade of the building, is dated to the Late Republican period. After its destruction, possibly due to a mudflow, the complex that is visible today was built in the Augustan period. It is here that we can assume that the marble portraits were exhibited. In the later 1st c. AD this building was destroyed as well. While M. Napoli supposed that the reason could be found in an earthquake, testified for Pompeii in 62 AD, new investigations make it more probable that the damage can be connected with the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD. The subsequent phase of reorganization is difficult to reconstruct, as all contexts were already excavated in the 1960s, but the Hadrianic period, as suggested by M. Napoli, does not seem improbable. Finally, the development of Insula II is compared to a newly found building complex in Velia. The so-called Masseria Cobellis, a monumental building organized around an open court like Insula II, but housing a natural spring, was found in the vicinity of Insula II and shows not only similarities in architecture, but also in the history of the building. This allows us to reach new conclusions depending upon the stage of development of ideas and function of this area of the Lower town.

A Discussion of Several Issues Concerning the “Tang-Song Transition”

Abstract Naitō Konan’s hypothesis on the “Tang-Song transition” was first expressed in lecture notes from his 1909 class on modern Chinese history at Kyoto University and, then, expounded in subsequent works such as “A General View of the Tang and Song Dynasties” and “Modern Chinese History.” The theory systematically outlines that an evolutionary medieval to modern transition occurred in Chinese society during the period between the Tang and the Song dynasties, focusing in particular on the areas of politics/government, the economy, and culture. Political change is regarded as the core metric, demonstrated in concentrated form by the government’s transformation from an aristocratic to a monarchical autocratic system alongside a rise in the status and position of the common people. The “Tang-Song transition theory,” underpinned theoretically by a cultural-historical perspective, advocates for a periodization of Chinese history based on the stages and characteristics of China’s cultural development, which is also attributed to cultural shifts, downward to the commoner class from a culture monopolized by the aristocracy during the period between the Tang and Song, with concomitant changes in society. For over a century since it was first proposed, the “Tang-Song transition theory” has had far-reaching influence in Chinese, Japanese, and Western academic circles, continuing to be lively and vigorous even now. We might be able to find the cause in its originality and liberality, which leave significant room for later thinkers’ continued adherence and development or criticism and falsification and continue to inspire new questions. Naitō’s proposal was also intimately connected to his observations of China’s circumstances in the late Qing dynasty and early Republican period, which also provided a “sample of the era” regarding realistic approaches to historical studies.

Production and Transport of Goods in the Roman Period: Residue Analysis and Wine Derivatives in Late Republican Baetican Ovoid Amphorae

ABSTRACT Amphorae are key materials in the investigation of the production and transport of goods in ancient times. For the Roman period, many typologies of amphorae are standardised and there are hypotheses concerning their uses and contents mainly based on the shape, provenance, tituli picti and, when preserved, the solid contents. However, there are still many amphora types that have to be investigated in order to better understand the economy of the regions where they were produced and filled. This is the case of the amphorae object of this paper: the so-called ovoid amphorae of Hispania Ulterior/Baetica. This paper presents new results of an interdisciplinary investigation aimed to discover the commodities contained in ovoid amphorae. This amphora type and its specific use have never been investigated, except for a preliminary test. Here, organic residues analysis of twenty-four amphorae produced in two different locations in Hispania Ulterior/Baetica (Bay of Cadiz and the Guadalquivir Valley) and excavated at the site of El Olivillo in Cadiz (Spain), are presented. The findings suggest that the majority of the amphorae were coated with abundant pitch derived from Pinaceae trees and that most of them contained grape derivatives, although other products were also identified. Not only is this documentation of Hispania Ulterior/Baetican wine production in the late Republican period important, but the use of ovoid amphorae for carrying wine is somewhat unexpected because it is usually thought that amphorae of this type in southern Italy and in the Corinthia probably carried olive oil.

LEARNING GREEK IN LATE ANTIQUE GAUL

Greek had held an important place in Roman society and culture since the Late Republican period, and educated Romans were expected to be bilingual and well versed in both Greek and Latin literature. The Roman school ‘curriculum’ was based on Hellenistic educational culture, and in the De grammaticis et rhetoribus Suetonius says that the earliest teachers in Rome, Livius and Ennius, were ‘poets and half Greeks’ (poetae et semigraeci), who taught both Latin and Greek ‘publicly and privately’ (domi forisque docuisse) and ‘merely clarified the meaning of Greek authors or gave exemplary readings from their own Latin compositions’ (nihil amplius quam Graecos interpretabantur aut si quid ipsi Latine composuissent praelegebant, Gram. et rhet. 1–2). Cicero, the Latin neoteric poets and Horace are obvious examples of bilingual educated Roman aristocrats, but also throughout the Imperial period a properly educated Roman would be learned in utraque lingua. The place of Greek in Quintilian's Institutio Oratoria reveals the importance and prevalence of Greek in Roman education and literature in the late first century a.d. Quintilian argues that children should learn both Greek and Latin but that it is best to begin with Greek. Famously, in the second century a.d. the Roman author Apuleius gave speeches in Greek to audiences in Carthage, and in his Apologia mocked his accusers for their ignorance of Greek.

ЕВОЛУТИВНИ РАЗВОЈ БРОДАРЕВЕ ОДГОВОРНОСТИ У РИМСКОМ ПРАВУ

The liability of the shipper in Roman law begins to be discussed with the development of maritime trade and following legal regulations. The development of navigation with the Romans came after the conquest of Carthage (146 BC), and this development lasted until the passing of Justinian’s compilation (527 BC). In this long period of time, the issue of the shipper’s liability did not always have the same legal treatment. Namely, bearing in mind all the social and economic circumstances in which maritime navigation has developed, the shipper’s liability was based on different legal principles. Thus, during the late republic, it represented a deviation from the principle of alteri stipulari nemo potest; in the classical period, it was based on the exclusive voluntas of the shipper, which was reflected in the appointment of the captain of the ship, while in the post-classical period of the development of the Roman law, this type of responsibility was based on the principles of safety and protection of the interests of passengers and goods in maritime transport, which is understandable given the social circumstances of this period (uncertainty of navigation by sea due to the recurrence of pirates). For this reason, this issue will be addressed through appropriate time frames (the late republican period, classical and post-classical law), so the creation and development of the institute of the shipper's liability would be easy to monitor and understand.

Ground penetrating radar and electrical resistivity tomography investigations in the southern sector of the Roman Forum: First results on the pre‐Augustan phases of the Basilica Julia

AbstractA research project aimed at the study of the archaeological context of the Basilica Julia in the Roman Forum (Rome, Italy) and the transformation phases of the building involved the use of different techniques of geophysical prospecting. In particular, Ground‐penetrating Radar (GPR) and Electrical Resistivity Tomography (ERT) surveys were carried out in order to record the buried structures of the Basilica and the previous buildings laying in the southern part of the Forum. These geophysical methods have been chosen in order to guarantee a good compromise between resolution (GPR in the shallow subsurface) and depth of investigation (ERT in the deeper subsurface), with the aim of investigating up to a depth of about 10 m in a very conductive subsoil. In particular, GPR surveys were conducted in the five aisles of the monument, while ERT measurements were performed with nonstandard acquisition mode in order to include the entire perimeter of the building. These techniques allowed us to acquire new data on the structures buried in the sectors of the monumental complex that have never been excavated and on the paleosoil till a depth of about 10 m from the surface. Interesting data were acquired on the Basilica Julia itself, built during the late Republican period (54–46 BC) and rebuilt at the beginning of the first century AD, such as the technical features of the caementicium and travertine foundations, their relationship with the Cloaca Maxima and the traces of a design change occurred during the construction in the central aisle of the building; other buried remains of the previous Basilica Sempronia, constructed in 169 BC in the same area, were identified. Moreover, the investigations documented the paleosoil in the area between the Forum and the Velabrum to the south, between 7.5–8.5 and 5.5 m a.s.l. These data confirmed the general geological setting of the area, obtained from previous coring, but significantly specified the geomorphology of this border sector of the Roman Forum, which slopes down towards the south and the west.

Un nouveau sanctuaire chez les Voconces ? Le site de La Condamine à Pontaix (Drôme)

Located along a meander of the Drôme river, the site of Condamine has been known since the nineteenth century to contain the remains of a villa, including a mosaic which was removed in 1974. Since then, new opportunities to document the site, through aerial photography and subsequent pedestrian surveys conducted by the Museum of Die and Diois in June 2009, identified a large tri-portico Roman sanctuary, whose plan, characteristic of those throughout the Mediterranean, echoes in particular that of La Bâtie-Montsaléon (Mons Seleucus) (Leveau, Segard 2002). Five miles downstream from Die (Colonia Dea Augusta Vocontiorum), this monumental sanctuary (80 x 60 m) is located on the edge of the via Vocontia, a road connecting the Rhone to Italy by way of the valleys of the Drôme, and Durance rivers. Archaeological testing has identified that the substantial masonry foundations of this sanctuary cut through nearly 1,50 m of stratigraphy, including occupations separated by demolition layers derived from earlier daub buildings. These late-Republican occupation levels, whose sediments are littered with faunal remains, fragments of ceramics, as well as a relatively dense concentration of small hearths, are associated with metal artefacts found elsewhere at the site : included amongst these are the upper portions of two handles of simpulae representing the heads of a wolf and a duck. Two pits with ritual use, dated to late-Republican period, were also discovered during recent archaeological recording of a series of trenches related to the updating of the city’s sanitation network (Teyssonneyre et al. 2014). Like other indegenous sanctuaries which continue to be used during the Roman period in the south-eastern quarter of Gaul (Glanum, Nîmes, Nages …), and based on our observations, we advance the seductive hypothesis that this “ Laténien complex” was already used as a sacred area during the 2nd-1st centuries BC, and therefore predating the more substantial 1st-2nd century AD roman sanctuary.

Pietas y guerra civil

Las guerras civiles del período tardorrepublicano son un período de profunda agitación política, en el que la cohesión y la viabilidad de la comunidad cívica son severamente cuestionadas. Esto posee significativas ramificaciones religiosas, dado que la relación entre la comunidad y los dioses es desafíada y en ocasiones socavada. No obstante, las afirmaciones relativas a la piedad –el escrúpulo y la observancia religiosa, así como una conexión duradera con los dioses– juegan un papel central en los discursos contemporáneos sobre la guerra civil y sin duda en el funcionamiento de los conflictos militares mismos. Este trabajo traza estas afirmaciones buscando recuperar la centralidad de las preocupaciones religiosas de los sectores en guerra y explorar sus implicaciones políticas e intelectuales.
 Traducción de María Emilia Cairo, emiliacairo@conicet.gov.ar

La imagen estereotipada del sacrificio del buey en la cultura visual greco-romana

The aim of this article is to analyze the iconography of the immolatio boum in the Roman visual culture of the late-republican period and at the beginning of the principality. For this we will use the presence of a Greek painting in particular, the immolatio boum of Pausias of Sicyon (Greek painter of the 4th century BC) that was exhibited in the Pompey portico. This certainty is well documented in literary sources, and we will study how the formal, stylistic and visual novelties introduced by the Pausias pictorial avant-garde had an impact on the visualization of the Roman viewer. The main novelty of this article lies in analyzing the intersignification of Greek painting in a Roman public space in which it acquired interpretative nuances that were designed by the Roman political and religious culture. The literary testimonies of Pliny the Elder, Horace, Pausanias or Athenaeus offer us enough information to reconstruct the visual impact of the work in the Roman context. In addition to these written sources, the methodology of image analysis is constructed from a wide range of contemporary examples from the time of Augustus. Finally, the article aims to show how this characteristic iconography survived through different channels of visual transmission to be present in the work of Rafel Sanzio or Pedro Pablo Rubens.

The Concept of Rendaozhuyi in Late Qing and Early Republican China

This paper examines the concept of Rendaozhuyi in Late Qing and Early Republican China. Appearing as early as 1903, Rendaozhuyi is the Chinese rendering of both humanism and humanitarianism. For the Chinese intellectuals during the Late Qing and Early Republican period, “rendao” itself represented a modern value of humanity and human dignity. In the wake of the Great War, Rendaozhuyi gained tremendous popularity among the May-Fourth scholars. Some of them held it up as a universal ideal and tool to critique Chinese tradition, while others respectfully disagreed, worrying it would undermine the collective morale of “strengthening the nation”. Finally, the late 1920s saw the rapid ebb of the discussions of Rendaozhuyi.

Popular Healing in Printed Medical Books

In 1759, Zhao Xuemin 趙學敏, a scholar and physician from Qiantang County (present-day Hangzhou), compiled his Chuanya 串雅. Based on certain editions of this work, modern scholars have assumed that this text is composed of recipes collected from itinerant healers, and that it was its author’s intention to transmit folk healing practices through the printed word. The original manuscript that Zhao Xuemin compiled probably never appeared in print, however, whereas the extant editions of this text found numerous new editions and re-printings. Focusing on several manuscripts and printed editions of the Chuanya which emerged between the late Qing and Republican period, this article traces the processes through which various different agents created and recreated the Chuanya. In contrast to past studies where the connection between the Chuanya and popular healing is taken for granted, I argue that any conclusion should primarily take into account the various editions of this work. By the case study of this text, I hope to clarify a broader dimension around the authorship of printed medical books in late imperial China and challenge the assumption that we can understand them outside the context of their edition and publication.

Yuan Shikai and the Tongcheng School

Yuan Shikai had deep-rooted ties to the Tongcheng School, the silhouette of which appears at several important junctures in Yuan Shikai’s life. After being appointed as the Viceroy of Zhili in the late Qing Dynasty, Yuan Shikai established a Scholars’ Examination Hall and a Hall of Literature, and recruited scholars from the Tongcheng School as dedicated instructors of classical Chinese; he also personally wrote prefaces to works by members of the Tongcheng School, powerfully promoting the Tongcheng style of classical Chinese. Yuan continued to provide this support upon becoming President of the Republic of China in 1912: for a time, the Tongcheng School occupied an important position within Peking University and the Office of Qing History. In addition, Yuan Shikai also recruited a number of luminaries from the Tongcheng School to join his administration and assist in governance: due to their strong advocacy and the active involvement of other members of the Tongcheng School, certain policies of the late Qing Dynasty and early Republican period had a distinct impact on education, the economy, politics, and other aspects of early modern China.

Gendering Ethnic Religion in 1940s and 1950s Yunnan: Sexuality in the Gua sa la Festival and the Worship of the Goddess Baijie

Chinese intellectuals adopted the concepts minzu (ethnicity or “nationality”) and zongjiao (religion) from Japan in the late nineteenth century as part of the wider discourse of modernity. This article examines the gendered dimensions of these concepts through writings about sexuality in two examples from Dali, Yunnan (home to the Bai minzu) from the late Republican period (1911-49) to the early years of the People’s Republic of China. The first example, the Gua sa la festival, involves sexually explicit songs, cross-dressing, and possibly also sexual encounters with strangers. The second example, the cult of the local goddess Baijie, celebrates the fidelity and chastity of an eighth-century queen who committed suicide rather than marry her husband’s killer. The examination of writings about Gua sa la and Baijie demonstrates how intellectuals in the 1940s and 1950s selectively invoked concepts of minzu, zongjiao, and sexuality to affirm these apparently opposing phenomena as representations of Bai ethnic culture. Though the political and discursive climate changed significantly throughout this period, in the 1940s and 1950s Gua sa la and Baijie both remained positive images, which was only possible because intellectuals elided either zongjiao or sexuality in their descriptions.