Political Conspiracies Research Articles

Consuls and Res Publica: Holding High Office in the Roman Republic

BOOK REVIEWS/COMPTES RENDUS 451 tic Greece and in Rome. Focusing on a letter written by Phoenicum, a brothel slave, to her beloved, Hallett shows that Phoenicum’s literary and rhetorical skills were heavily influenced by those of the pimp Ballio. In Chapter Nine, “Prostitutes, Pimps, and Political Conspiracies during the Late Roman Republic,” N. K. Rauh examines ancient perceptions of sex-trade workers as destabilizing elements to the prevailing socio-political order. He uses conspiracy theory to interrogate the perceived role of prostitutes (and others ) in undermining the republican political order, drawing on Cicero and Sallust, then considers the subversive tradition about Greek hetairai in Athens and the possibility that Sallust and Cicero drew on this tradition. In Athens, some popular hetairai are said to have “imposed egalitarian principles on their lovers” by either charging one low fee or by using a sliding scale to ensure the less-wealthy could afford their services (209). When Athens was under democratic rule, such pricing schedules would have reinforced rather than upset the socio-political order; but when the hellenistic kings were in control, the same pricing schedules might have appeared more politically subversive. Rauh concludes that sex workers incited fear in Athens and Rome that ancient “conspiracists” mobilized to their own ends. In Chapter Ten, “The Terminology of Prostition in the Ancient World,” K. Kapparis examines the less common terms used for prostitutes, discussing any term that “was listed as prostitutional by ancient or Byzantine sources” (223). Although female prostitutes are often associated with dirt, dust, and filth, the language used to describe the brothel does not depict “a grim place with a rapid turnover of low-class clientele” (231). McGinn notes that Kapparis’s lexicon shows a distinction between the way in which male and female prostitutes were typically abused. Where male prostitutes are faulted for failing to conform to male gender norms, female prostitutes are faulted for failing to conform to species norms and are dehumanized (264). This interesting collection will no doubt stimulate further investigation into the social and economic realities of Greek prostitution, and admirably meets the editors’ aim of opening up avenues for new investigation. University of Southern California Susan Lape Consuls and RES PUBLICA: Holding High Office in the Roman Republic. Edited by H. Beck, A. Dupl a, M. Jehne, and F. Pina Polo. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2011. Pp. x, 376. This fine collection of papers is the product of research organised by the members of a project established in 2004 for the purpose of studying the consulship, and is largely the result of a conference which took place in 2007 at the University of Zaragoza.1 The focus of the book is the consulship in the republican period, although the discussion continues into the Augustan era, so that over five centuries of military and political events and developments are covered (not systematically) in just 325 pages of text. The book’s content is wide-ranging and diverse, in both nature and approach. Some papers discuss general themes. N. Rosenstein, for instance, looks at the consuls and the proceeds of war, K.-J. Hölkeskamp discusses the consuls’ role in the spectacle of public life, and A. Duplá 1 The other major outcome of this project is the monograph by F. Pina Polo on The Consul at Rome: The Civil Functions of the Consuls in the Roman Republic (Cambridge 2011). 452 PHOENIX the consules populares. Other papers revolve around specific events. R. Morstein examines the appeals of Sulla and Cinna to the army with reference to the rights of the consuls and the maiestas of the Roman people, while V. Arena considers the consuls of 78, Catulus and Lepidus, and the influence of Stoic ideas on political discourse. Although the primary focus of the book is just the one specific magistracy, the very nature and duties of that magistracy naturally invite, if not actually require, all manner of discussion. Still, in places the connection with the consulship does start to feel tenuous. M. Roller’s paper, for example, explores the exemplary nature of Fabius Verrucosus’ delay tactics, so famously employed by him in 217. At the time, Fabius was dictator. Moreover, events were influenced...

Political conspiracies in America: a reader

Political conspiracies in America: a reader

Awaiting the Heavenly Country: The Civil War and America's Culture of Death by Mark S. Schantz and Calls and Responses: The American Novel of Slavery Since Gone with the Wind by Tim A. Ryan and Political Conspiracies in America: A Reader by Donald T. Critchlow, John Korasick, and Matthew C. Sherman, Eds

Awaiting the Heavenly Country: The Civil War and America's Culture of Death by Mark S. Schantz and Calls and Responses: The American Novel of Slavery Since Gone with the Wind by Tim A. Ryan and Political Conspiracies in America: A Reader by Donald T. Critchlow, John Korasick, and Matthew C. Sherman, Eds

To think like God: Pythagoras and Parmenides: the origins of philosophy

This book focuses on the emergence of philosophy as a speculative science, tracing its origins to the Greek colonies of Southern Italy, from the late 6th century to mid-5th century B.C.E. Special attention is paid to the sage Pythagoras and his movement, the poet Xenophanes of Colophon, and the lawmaker Parmenides of Elea. In their own ways, each thinker held that true insight, whether as wisdom or certainty, belonged not to mortal human beings but to the gods. The Pythagoreans sought to approach this otherworldly knowledge by studying numerical relationships, believing them to govern the universe, and that those who know the number of a thing know its true nature. Yet their quest was a hopeless one, bogged down by cultism, numerology, political conspiracies, bloody uprisings, and exile. Above all, number did not turn out as the most reliable of mediums; it was certainly not a key to the realm of the divine. Thus, their contributions to philosophy's inception, while much better publicised, were not the most significant. That particular role was reserved for an unusual challenge and the elaborate reaction it provoked. The challenge came from Xenophanes, who had argued that reliable truth was beyond mortal reach, because even if by accident a human being should state what is exactly the case, he had no way of knowing that he did, all things being susceptible to opinion. This dilemma is sure to have bothered a legislative mind like that of Parmenides, and we find him introducing techniques for testing the veracity of statements. These methods were meant to be carried out by reasoning and argument alone, without relying on physical evidence or mortal sense-perception, which was deemed untrustworthy. Reason was that one faculty shared by gods and humans alike. In time, Parmenides' ingenious arguments have earned him the title of the first logician and metaphysician whose influence on subsequent thinkers was immeasurable. Parmenides taught us that philosophy was not about claims but about proof, which also makes him the father of theoretical science -- which, curiously, began as a quest into the mind of God.

A few historical and institutional considerations on the Italian Restoration

SUMMARY In this article, Maria Sofia Corciulo analyses the political significance of the period of the Italian Restoration. The author suggests that the revolutions which took place in both Naples and Piedmont in 1820–21 affected the apparently static institutional tranquillity of the ‘restored’ Italy to such an extent that they represent a break from the preceding period—the Five-year Period, during which the Napoleonic institutions had been, anyway, partly retained. The revolutionary action which, as in Spain, was sparked by the military, was characterized by forms of participation and aims that constituted, at least where they could be fully expressed, the beginning of a new historical period, surely overshadowing that of Restoration: the Risorgimento. The Neapolitan Revolution was carried out under the banner of the most democratic principles of those years, as they had been sanctioned by the Constitution of Cadiz of 1812. Although the Italian revolutionaries of 1820–21 were defeated, the principles of the Cadiz Constitution remained vivid in the minds of the patriots, especially Neapolitans, in an intricate sectarian world, where even the participation of the most humble classes was welcome and accepted in the name of the egalitarian principles of the Carboneria. The article suggests that this Revolution spelled the de facto end of the Restoration, even it was to continue to exist de jure, in its limited dynastic sense. This is true not only for the Kingdom of the two Sicilies but also for the other Italian states, because so-called ‘public opinion’ became a reality in this period: the existence of political plots and conspiracies from a rising number of secret societies is clear evidence that Italy's Risorgimento was under way.

The X-Files and the Aesthetics and Politics of Postmodern Pop

The X-Files is generally acclaimed as the television cult hit of the 1990s. Its excursions into the occult, paranormal, and supernatural have touched a responsive chord in an era when belief in the fantastic, aliens, and government conspiracies is accelerating. Featuring the exploits of two FBI agents, Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Armstrong), the series articulates a panorama of contemporary fears, anxieties, and fantasies, drawing on classic figures of the occult, present-day horrors, and political conspiracies as material. It thus uses conventions and iconic figures of media culture and references to contemporary historical individuals and events to comment upon present day issues and to represent salient disturbing aspects of the current era. In so doing, it raises questions concerning dominant institutions, ideologies, and values. In this study, I argue that The X-Files deploys the aesthetics of postmodernism, drawing on its characteristic representational strategies and thematic tropes, and thus can serve as an example of a popular form of postmodernism that engages in pastiche of plot-lines, genre conventions, iconography, folklore, and bits of history found in the forms of previous media culture. Further, in my reading, its implosion of generic boundaries enacts a postmodern subversion of the categories and aesthetic forms of modern media culture; it mixes a heavy style and high seriousness with irony and parody, and its combination of the standard postmodem aesthetic strategies and themes of postmodern culture produces a pop postmodernism that enables us to interrogate both the aesthetics of television and postmodernism. ' I. TELEVISION AESTHETICS

The X-Files and the Aesthetics and Politics of Postmodern Pop

The X-Files is generally acclaimed as the television cult hit of the 1990s. Its excursions into the occult, paranormal, and supernatural have touched a responsive chord in an era when belief in the fantastic, aliens, and government conspiracies is accelerating. Featuring the exploits of two FBI agents, Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Armstrong), the series articulates a panorama of contemporary fears, anxieties, and fantasies, drawing on classic figures of the occult, present-day horrors, and political conspiracies as material. It thus uses conventions and iconic figures of media culture and references to contemporary historical individuals and events to comment upon present day issues and to represent salient disturbing aspects of the current era. In so doing, it raises questions concerning dominant institutions, ideologies, and values. In this study, I argue that The X-Files deploys the aesthetics of postmodernism, drawing on its characteristic representational strategies and thematic tropes, and thus can serve as an example of a popular form of postmodernism that engages in pastiche of plot-lines, genre conventions, iconography, folklore, and bits of history found in the forms of previous media culture. Further, in my reading, its implosion of generic boundaries enacts a postmodern subversion of the categories and aesthetic forms of modern media culture; it mixes a heavy style and high seriousness with irony and parody, and its combination of the standard postmodem aesthetic strategies and themes of postmodern culture produces a pop postmodernism that enables us to interrogate both the aesthetics of television and postmodernism. ' I. TELEVISION AESTHETICS

American Monroe: The Making of a Body Politic.

Marilyn is alive and well in the imagination. She is the stuff of memory, living as icon, mysterious suicide, transgressive goddess - a character that tells the story of America itself. American Monroe explores the ways we remember Marilyn - from playing cards, books, and fan clubs, to female impersonators, political conspiracies, and high art. Her ubiquitous presence informs our cultural common ground. Finding in Marilyn a 'representative character' of our time, Baty explores some of the cultural lives she has been made to lead. We follow 'the mediatrix' from the biographies by Mailer and Steinem, to the shadowy Kennedy connection, to the coroner Noguchi's obsession with the body of the dead star. Representations of Marilyn, Baty shows, displace neat categories of high and low culture, of public and private, male and female. She becomes a surface that mirrors everything it touches, a site upon which to explore the character of the postmodern condition. American Monroe is an innovative, scintillating look at the making and remaking of popular icons. It explores the vocabulary of memory as it moves the reader past vistas of political culture. It seeks to understand Marilyn's enduring power and how, through our many-layered rememberings of her, we come to understand ourselves and our shared history.