Mos Maiorum Research Articles

Kitleleri ve Şahısları Yönlendirmenin Hukuk Dışı Pratik Bir Aygıtı Olarak "Linç Kültürü": Antik Roma (Cumhuriyet Dönemi) Örneği

The lynching movements, which are often seen in modern societies, for personal and political reasons, oriented towards individuals and groups physically or verbally, have been known in various societies and cultures throughout history. These kinds of practices, aimed at destroying or socially intimidating people and groups in the target, have emerged as a different but effective way for people and political groups to go beyond the boundaries of the defined law to provide their justice or political goals. Looting and intimidation of people or political rivals who do not comply with the norms set by society has been an essential factor in the Roman Empire of the Republican Period. It can be seen that these methods, which can be considered as primitive and cruel practices with a contemporary perspective, were referred to legal channels in ancient Rome in many cases or were accepted by the community layers and even by official institutions due to established practices (mos maiorum).

Pisone e la subversa pudicitia

[Piso Frugi and the subversa pudicitia] In F 40 Cornell L. Calpurnius Piso Frugi complains that, in 154 bc, during the censorship of C. Cassius Longinus and M. Valerius Messala, pudicitia was subversa. The explanations offered up to now in order to clarify the connection between this quite cryptic statement and the year 154 hardly appear to be compelling. In the present work we assume that at Fast. 5, 229-230 Ovid mistakes the consuls of 173 bc (M. Popilius Laenas and L. Postumis Albinus, Aulus’ son) for those of 154 bc (L. Postumius Albinus, Spurius’son, and Q . Opimius). Consequently, the ludi Florales became annual in 154 bc, rather than in 173 bc as up to now believed, also due to the lack of opposition by that year’s censors. Such games were characterized by impressive lasciviousness and debauchery, and it was for this reason that Piso saw in that year the collapse of pudicitia, one of the basic values of the mos maiorum.

LEGITIMATE VIOLENCE IN ILLEGITIMATE TIMES: DIO’S THEORIES OF LEGITIMACY

Comparing legitimacy in the three different contexts of literary leisteia, Late Republican civil war actors, and contemporary Severan emperors reveals Dio to be consistent when discussing legitimate violence. In all three, Dio presents establishing legitimacy as a primary factor in attaining power. As the required skills to achieve power differed from those for ruling, the resulting ruler could be disastrous. Through employing the ‘noble bandit’ topos, Dio questions the emperors’ suitability, comparing them to bandits. Overall, Dio interprets Late Republican history differently from his sources for Republican history. In his view, future statesmen cannot rely upon the mos maiorum.

THE TERM “RELIGION” IN THE CONTEXT OF THE “GLOCAL” APPROACH TO INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION IN RUSSIA AND JAPAN

The article analyzes the denotations and connotations associated with the term “religion” in Russian and Japanese sociocultural contexts from the perspective of “glocal religious studies”. In Russian culture, the term “religion” has been fixed since the beginning of the 18th century, acquiring the forms of two basic approaches, the first of which is the analysis of the socio-historical phenomena (denotations) themselves, which are referred to as “religion as such” (from non-Orthodoxy to atheism), while the second focuses on the study of the connotations of the lexeme “religion”. In Japanese culture, the European concept of “religion” has been affirmed since the second half of the 19th century, being associated among the majority of the population with the phenomena of Christianity, Buddhism, and new religious movements external to popular Shinto traditions, often accompanied by negative connotations. Historically, the term “religion”, which arose in European culture, has been associated with Christian connotations for about 1,500 years, dating back to the pre-Christian era of the development of Roman culture and the work of Cicero, who separated the local connotations of understanding “terrible” and “dangerous” that existed in popular beliefs (“superstitions”) from “truly terrible” and “dangerous for the state” in the elite consciousness of philosophers, defining religion as “ serving the highest order of nature ”. Religion emerged as the social ideal of solidarity, which needs philosophical understanding of both the ancient traditions of the people (“Mos Maiorum”) and its descriptions by “theologians” (poets and philosophers), where opinions based on fear of the invisible forces that rule the universe could be recognized as “superstitions”, contrasting with the critical thoughts of intellectuals of different philosophical schools “about the nature of the gods”, helping to reasonably maintain the harmony of “PaxDeorum”, while not falling into the one-sidedness of “atheism”, which was seen as a threat to the social order, law and justice.

Cato the Younger: Life and Death at the End of the Roman Republic by Fred K. Drogula

Reviewed by: Cato the Younger: Life and Death at the End of the Roman Republic by Fred K. Drogula Katharina Volk Fred K. Drogula. Cato the Younger: Life and Death at the End of the Roman Republic. New York: Oxford University Press, 2019. Pp. xviii, 350. $35.00. ISBN 978-0-19-086902-1. In this first modern scholarly biography of Cato the Younger in English, Fred K. Drogula sets out to recover “the real Cato” (8) from the legends that accrued to this Roman aristocrat after his spectacular suicide at Utica in 46 bce. How did a man who did not reach the consulship, did not lead an army against Rome’s enemies, and did not have at his disposal great wealth or the most elevated family connections come to play such an outsized role in the events that led to the collapse of the Republic? Drogula’s answer: by sheer will-power, single-minded stubbornness, and the successful creation of a persona dedicated to what Cato believed to be the true mos maiorum. Through eight chapters, Drogula provides a detailed narrative of Cato’s life, beginning with a discussion of his family (Cato the Elder looms large as a role model for his great-grandson) and early years, and then tracing his progress through the cursus honorum and mission to Cyprus to the tense build-up to the Civil War and final defeat and death. This is one of the most fascinating but also most complicated stretches of Roman history, and Drogula’s highly readable account, with its admirably clear explanations especially of the chaotic events of the 50’s, can serve as a helpful introduction to the period even for those not primarily interested in the author’s protagonist. From early on, Cato was dedicated to upholding the traditional rule of the senate, opposed extraordinary commands, and was furthermore—Drogula suggests (not, it seems to me, on the strongest evidence)—motivated by a personal feud with Julius Caesar. As a result, he succeeded in making himself, from the late 60’s onwards, the unofficial leader of a hyper-conservative faction within the senate; he worked first against the Triumvirate and later specifically against Caesar, remaining inflexibly opposed (to the chagrin of a realpolitiker like Cicero) to any compromises with those he believed operated outside the unwritten Roman constitution. This policy may have been intended to force Caesar back into the senatorial fold, but it spectacularly backfired in January 49 bce, when Caesar—fed up with senatorial stonewalling—crossed the Rubicon and started [End Page 504] the Civil War. Cato had not wanted war and was horrified at the shedding of Roman blood; even so, he stuck it out until the bitter end at Utica. Drogula is very good at analyzing Cato’s self-fashioning. The senator was known for his idiosyncratic behavior and even attire, walking around without a tunic under his toga or even without shoes. He showed great personal courage in the violent melees in which members of the Roman ruling class were increasingly likely to find themselves in the mid-first century, but could also be outlandishly rude even to his friends and allies. Drogula suggests that Cato actively endeavored to promote himself as “the archconservative in Rome” (3) and consequently adopted the simple garb and stern behavior that he believed reflected the mos maiorum at its purest. This persona was highly successful, making Cato into a recognizable figure and inspiring confidence in his incorruptibility (even if, as Drogula points out, Cato like any good Roman abetted favoritism and bribery when it involved his own family members). The shortcoming of Drogula’s book, in my opinion, is the author’s adamant refusal to allow for Cato’s attitudes and actions having been influenced by his philosophical views. It is Drogula’s explicit purpose to rescue his protagonist from the label of Stoic martyr, which was affixed to him soon after his death and became ever more significant under the Empire (a process that is traced in the book’s epilogue). Drogula is at pains to reiterate that Cato was a champion of republican tradition, not Stoic doctrine, concluding the book by stating, “In all...

Сулла – республиканский тиран?

The article is devoted to some episodes of Sulla’s rule, namely the beginning of proscriptions, his triumph over Mithridates VI Eupator, alleged Sulla’s self-representation as second Romulus and the criticism of the dictator by Cicero in his speech for Roscius Amerinus. The author focuses on to the adoption of lex Cornelia de proscriptione by comitia without its approval by Senate. He denies any allusions during the triumph to the victory over the Marians and their Italian allies in the civil war and strengthens argumentation who rejects the opinion that Sulla considered himself as second Romulus. The author believes that Cicero’s irony and hardly hidden mockery of Sulla and his measures were normal because there was a high degree of freedom of speech during Sulla’s dictatorship – in accordance with republican traditions. Doubtless Sulla was a tyrant; but it is interesting that his tyrannical measures were allowed by mos maiorum or recent but already well-established practice; on the other hand, that very mos maiorum restrained occasionally his tyrannical behavior.

The Legal Value of Mos Maiorum in Cicero

The tradition is constituted by the norms of conduct of the gentes and the patrician familiae. The right is the foundation of the ruling class power of the patricians first, of the patrician-plebeian nobilitas then. The hegemony of the pontiffs in the juridical field is subsequently questioned by the iurisprudentia, starting from the 3rd century BC. We examine the legal value of mos and consuetudo as sources of law in Cicero. Afterwards, we evoke the crisis of tradition and the evolution of right caused by changing social and political conditions. The mos maiorum knows the maximum crisis in the late-Republican age. Cicero considers it necessary to implement a critical revision of the mos maiorum. However, the individualism present at the time of the author makes the moral and political rebirth of Rome impossible.

…ne quem magistratum, cui provincia obvenisset, uxor comitaretur (tac. ann. 3, 33, 4): presenze femminili al seguito di magistrati e militari nelle province

In the early Imperial age, a feature, which had already been seen in the period of civil wars, even though sporadically and disapproved, took hold and became almost commonplace: wives increasingly accompanied their husbands who were sent to the provinces on military and civilian duties.
 Already with Augustus, but especially with the first and second generation Princes, it was established the custom that the women of the domus imperialis accompanied their husbands engaged away from Rome: the image of a couple united in sharing the daily toils of military life as well as the honours of public ceremonies was functional to prestige and the idea of a potential imperial succession.
 Even some Governors’ wives moved to the provinces but not all of them chose to live in the shadows, some entering forbidden areas and subsequently being involved in trial for concussio. The custom of accompanying their husbands inevitably spread also among wives of ordinary soldiers. Despite attempts to revive the old bans, the mos maiorum (Tac. Ann. 3, 33, 4), strenuously defended by the conservatives in tones reminiscent of Cato the Elder, was superseded by the new behaviours promoted by the members of the domus Augusta.

Les équivoques du «Constitutionnalisme Octroyè»: Un débat transatlantique (II)

Our journey ends in Brazil. According to textbooks on constitutional history, this recently-declared "periphery" country looked with envy at the European and North American constitutional innovations, while trying to maintain its own identity. Olhos na Europa, pes na America? Doubtlessly, it is still necessary to measure the extent of this "Europe", admired in both space and time. The doctrine criticizing the granted Constitution of 1824, rated as nominal, had hidden the reality for too long; that is, a unique constitutionalism, involving both social and institutional engineering, therefore it is not reducible to the modern constitutionalism. The political agents of Brazil, Catholics and legal experts, endowed with a solid Roman culture, could not deny all the lessons delivered by the mos maiorum and by the medieval constitutionalism, based, according to them, on the fear of God, good virtues and the maintenance of a mixed government. Enviado el (Submission Date): 23/02/2018 Aceptado el (Acceptance Date): 5/04/2018

Roman Religion in the Time of Augustus

This article first discusses the term “Roman religion” and the different views and meanings that it possesses, favoring an analysis of the sacra publica. It then considers the model of the polis-religion, both its common usage and its relevance or adequacy in the study of Roman religion. These discussions are followed by an analysis of the articulation of the idea of the mos maiorum within Augustan religious reforms.

Commilito et vir militaris: aspectos bélicos da exaltação do imperador romano em Plínio, o jovem

In the Early Empire, the image of the Caesars sought to assert itself through models traditionally valued by the Roman society. In the first years of the second century CE, when the empire reached its maximum extent due to the achievements of the Emperor Trajan, the military values served as an important factor to support the image of this ruler. In this context, the speech of Pliny the Younger, entitled Panegyric of Trajan highlights the achievements and the military posture of the ruler. Based on researches that emphasize the matter of the moral and political ideas grounded on ancestral values as well as on the role of the stoic philosophy in the framing of the image of the ideal prince, this article intends to debate some aspects of our analysis about Pliny’s narrative. In this speech, the compliment about Trajan’s martial virtues, supported by the notions of virtus and mos maiorum, was fundamental. Essentially connected to the roman traditions, the ideas which shape the narrative of Panegyric provide a picture of equilibrium between autocratic and military aspects of the ruler and the goals of the senatorial order, which sought to keep alive the republican institutions in the Principate system.

Magnitudo Animi and Cosmic Politics in Cicero's De re Publica

This paper offers a fresh interpretation of the role played by the Dream of Scipio in Cicero's De re publica. It explores Cicero's key distinction between the cosmic and the local levels of statesmanship and the problems he sees with localism, and it details fully for the first time the importance that Cicero attached to the virtue of magnitudo animi (“greatness of soul”). The paper makes the case that in De re publica Cicero promotes his own innovative cosmic model of politics, in which magnitudo animi is developed through an educational process situated in the traditional Roman mos maiorum.

<em>Magnitudo Animi</em> and Cosmic Politics in Cicero's <em>De re Publica</em>

This paper offers a fresh interpretation of the role played by the Dream of Scipio in Cicero's De re publica. It explores Cicero's key distinction between the cosmic and the local levels of statesmanship and the problems he sees with localism, and it details fully for the first time the importance that Cicero attached to the virtue of magnitudo animi (“greatness of soul”). The paper makes the case that in De re publica Cicero promotes his own innovative cosmic model of politics, in which magnitudo animi is developed through an educational process situated in the traditional Roman mos maiorum.

Luxus

In this article, I seek to explore the psychopolitical significance of the contemporary idea of luxury through reference to the Roman concept of luxus, which means excess, extravagance, indulgence, and debauchery. In the first section of the article, I examine the politics of the idea of luxus in the Roman context through a discussion of the relationship between the emperor Nero, who pushed luxury toward its psychopathic limits, and the Stoic philosopher Seneca, who championed mos maiorum, the moral life of moderation, and a utopia of balance and proportion. In order to further my analysis of the pure experience of luxus, which exceeds any object that is always too base and objective to be truly luxurious, I seek to psychoanalyze Nero’s pursuit of the orgy of luxus through reference to Sigmund Freud’s discussion of Thanatos in his Beyond the Pleasure Principle. In that work, Freud suggests that the luxurious excess of pleasure, hyperpleasure beyond this or that incarnation of pleasure, resides in the endless repetition of pleasure we find in the experience of addiction, which eventually leads the user to overdose into luxurious space where the user dissolves into a kind of universal substance beyond life itself. It is this psychoanalytic concept of luxus, which describes the experience of luxury beyond its objective limits, that I take forward in the final section of the article. Here, I seek to move beyond Nero and Freud to show how we can understand the concept of luxus, which is beyond the relative luxury we might associate with the possession of this or that object, in the contemporary context of global capitalism. I explore neoliberal capitalism, where consumption is endless, through reference to Georges Bataille’s The Accursed Share, where economy is less about balancing the books and more about the production of excess that eventually dissolves into what Bataille calls “continuous being”—the universal state of luxury.

Congenital Virtue: <em>Mos Maiorum</em> in Cicero's Orations

Cicero's appeals to antiquity with the term mos maiorum, or simply maiores, in his orations enable the orator to appeal to his audience's emotions, and to highlight their collective identity and cultural heritage as the proper basis for the decision he advocates. His usage is not strongly correlated with any chronological or generic subset of the orations, as is shown by a simple statistical analysis of their distribution. It is better understood as a strategic response to the circumstances particular to each oration, in a less formal sense.

La invocación de los antepasados en "De divinatione" y "De natura deorum" de Cicerón. "Religio e identidad" romana a fines de la república

La invocación del ideal del mos maiorum, entendido como conjunto de virtudes o rasgos ejemplares de los romanos, ha sido estudiada repetidamente en los textos de Cicerón. Analiza el tópico en relación con la discusión en torno a la identidad romana en textos del siglo I a.C. y delimita tres empleos diferentes: uno al que define como típicamente aristocrático, referido a la ascendencia noble de un individuo en particular; un segundo uso que, en vez de individualizar, amalgama a todos los ancestros en un mismo conjunto y establece una continuidad entre pasado y presente; finalmente, una tercera modalidad que propone una ruptura total entre el mundo de los antepasados y el de los contemporáneos. En este trabajo indagaremos el funcionamiento de este tópico en De diuinatione y De natura deorum de Cicerón. Desde nuestro punto de vista, el ideal del mos maiorum no solamente involucra virtudes éticas y morales sino que también supone una especial actitud con respecto a los dioses y el culto que resulta central en la definición de la identidad romana.

Les équivoques du "constitutionnalisme octroyé": un débat transatlantique (I)

Our journey ends in Brazil. According to textbooks on constitutional history, this recently-declared periphery country looked with envy at the European and North American constitutional innovations, while trying to maintain its own identity. Olhos na Europa, pes na America? Doubtlessly, it is still necessary to measure the extent of this Europe, admired in both space and time. The doctrine criticizing the granted Constitution of 1824, rated as nominal, had hidden the reality for too long; that is, a unique constitutionalism, involving both social and institutional engineering, therefore it is not reducible to the modern constitutionalism. The political agents of Brazil, Catholics and legal experts, endowed with a solid Roman culture, could not deny all the lessons delivered by the mos maiorum and by the medieval constitutionalism, based, according to them, on the fear of God, good virtues and the maintenance of a mixed government. Enviado el (Submission Date): 23/02/2018 Aceptado el (Acceptance Date): 5/04/2018

Congenital Virtue: Mos Maiorum in Cicero's Orations

Cicero's appeals to antiquity with the term mos maiorum, or simply maiores, in his orations enable the orator to appeal to his audience's emotions, and to highlight their collective identity and cultural heritage as the proper basis for the decision he advocates. His usage is not strongly correlated with any chronological or generic subset of the orations, as is shown by a simple statistical analysis of their distribution. It is better understood as a strategic response to the circumstances particular to each oration, in a less formal sense.

Vetustas, oblivio e crisi d’identità nelle Saturae Menippeae: il risveglio di Varrone in un’altra Roma

By focusing on the fragments of the Menippean Satires , the present paper discusses a recurrent theme of Varro’s works: the contrast between an ideal past and a present of crisis. Struck by the sudden change of Rome's ethics, politics and traditions, the author appears to feel a deep sense of estrangement. The satire Sexagessis , for example, hurls a bitter accusation at the corruption of the City. In Varro’s view, a process of moral degeneration spoiled Rome so severely that this was not recognizable anymore, since it did not resemble the civitas of the ancestors: this was another Rome in which – like the protagonist of the satire – the writer found himself quite unconsciously, as if fallen asleep. A comparison with some passages from De Lingua Latina suggests that in the Sexagessis – as well as in other Menippean Satires like the Sesqueulixes – Varro puts forth the same anthropological interpretation of time perception: the author seems to claim that by breaking the flow of time it is possible to feel and face relevant cultural changes, particularly concerning the metamorphosis of the Urbs . In both satires, this interruption of the normal course of time is achieved through the main characters' mental or physical departure from Rome: they return to their homeland after a sleep of fifty years or a journey of thirty years and, differently from other citizens, they are able to perceive differences. In some fragments, the complete loss of ancient values apparently leads to a pessimistic attitude towards the future of Rome , considered aeterna until then; however, this loss does not seem to prevent those like Varro who still believe in the mos maiorum from reacting . In fact, numerous fragments insist on the importance of evoking ancient values – of ruminari antiquitates , as the poet puts it . O ther fragments remark that if not properly elucidated, such antiquitates appear useless in the eyes of the younger generations. Thus, the present paper argues that Varro imagined some reliable witnesses recalling and illustrating the mores antiqui . These “voices from the past”, which speak for the maiores , are embodied by the Sexagessis, the Sesqueulixes , and Ennius. The satire Manius resorts to one of these voices as well, since it refers to some recently unearthed ancient books. As a whole, the Menippean Satires convey an essentially constructive message. By employing the so-called medium menippeum (which allows to discuss contemporary events and to integrate the antiquitates into a vivid present), Varro seems to plan a “step back towards the future” (as it were): the mos maiorum is indeed presented not only as a cultural background, but mostly as a paradigm to overcome present difficulties and warrant Rome’s future.

Sons of Hellenism, Fathers of the Church: Emperor Julian, Gregory of Nazianzus, and the Vision of Rome by Susanna Elm (review)

Reviewed by: Sons of Hellenism, Fathers of the Church: Emperor Julian, Gregory of Nazianzus, and the Vision of Rome by Susanna Elm Robin Darling Young Susanna Elm Sons of Hellenism, Fathers of the Church: Emperor Julian, Gregory of Nazianzus, and the Vision of Rome Berkeley, CA, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press, 2012 Pp. xviii + 553. $75.00. Among Christians in late antiquity, the memory of the emperor Julian was bitter and enduring. Julian, like the emperors Diocletian and Constantine before him, had attempted to protect and foster the fortunes of the vast expanse of territory for which he, as Augustus, was responsible. Before leading the Roman army to victories along the northern and western frontiers, he had taken on the full freight of Greek paideia. In his own mind, he ruled as philosopher-king, like Marcus Aurelius; and in addition to military campaigns, he employed the full range of philosophical genres and legal means to guide the empire back into the true path—the mos maiorum prevailing before Christianity’s advance to legal status and imperial sponsorship under his predecessor Constantine. Christians, particularly those of the eastern provinces of the empire, cultivated the memory of Julian’s brief reign (361–63) with vituperative hymns, sermons, biographical and historical accounts, and—two centuries after his death—a long narrative of his life and satisfying death known as the Julian Romance, in which the city of Edessa features strongly in foretelling Julian’s downfall and death on his Persian campaign. Recent scholarly studies of Julian’s reign and its opponents, and of his literary corpus, are abundant. His learned and vigorous opposition to Christianity has earned him admirers to the present day. Of Julian’s detractors, however, Gregory of Nazianzus was the first. The ardent Christian writer, ascetic, bishop, and poet has been celebrated as the neo-Nicene theologian who made possible the decision of the Council of Constantinople and the triumph of Trinitarian orthodoxy. He wrote two elaborate invectives against Julian (Orations 4 and 5). Therefore, historians of the period, and in particular historians of Christianity, have traditionally regarded the two as enemies. It is the brilliant insight of Susanna Elm to consider the two as a couple of sorts. Her monumental examination of their related careers has documented their similarity minutely and will make it impossible in the future to separate the [End Page 637] ambitions each one represents. In Sons of Hellenism, Elm has investigated the topic with such care, and proven her case at such length and with such convincing evidence, that the two have been removed from their customary scholarly categories and restored to their rightful context—the history of Hellenism in the Roman Empire of the late fourth century. But the book centers on the career of Julian—primarily his literary career, with some attention to his military and administrative efforts—and the career of Gregory—primarily his early career, up to the time of his fifth oration, the second of two against Julian. Elm’s first operation is to pry each person loose from his (mostly Christian) reception-history. In the case of Julian, this means demolishing the narrative that has seen him as a second-rate philosopher and an apostate Christian, thus explicitly as a traitor to his family of origin, which had previously (with Constantine, or Constantine’s father Constantius Chlorus) favored Christianity. In the case of Gregory, the operation required demolishing the image of Gregory as a frail flower, only reluctantly entering the priesthood (allegedly pressured by his father, Gregory the Elder) and only out of necessity criticizing the actions of Julian. Elm demonstrates beyond a reasonable doubt that Julian was a serious philosopher, one who had examined Christianity and rejected it on rational grounds; and that he was a sober administrator and a successful army commander, at least in his early career. Elm also puts paid to the sentimental piety that holds Gregory to have been a sensitive soul, a withdrawn and delicate ascetic who resented his friend Basil of Caesarea’s bullying and only reluctantly engaged in combat with the emperor. In the course of her rebuttal of previous scholarly (and theological) traditions, then, Elm has removed the...