Roman War Research Articles

Roman bronze amphoras from the Sarmatian burials of Eastern Europe

In the Sarmatian burials six intact or fragmented bronze amphoras and one separate handle of Tassinari types A3212 and A3220 were found. The peculiarities of shape, details and sizes discussed. The clear majority of large vessels (mainly from 40 to 44 cm high) in Thrace and Asian Sarmatia contrasts with the finds from Pompeii or Western and Central Europe. A significant number of amphoras from Sarmatia originate from the so-called ‘princely’ burials in the Lower Don region of the second half of the 1st – early 2nd century AD. There is a correlation of the finds with the remains of the funeral feasts associated with central female burials in the mounds. The penetration of amphoras to the nomads gives reason to assume that such vessels were in some demand among them and it was not by chance that large amphoras were brought to Thrace and Sarmatia. If this is so (and I cannot find another explanation), then such large vessels could have been specially made with a view to the Thracian and Sarmatian aristocracy. Of course, this was not the only way of penetration of large bronze amphoras to the Sarmatians. There are grounds to suggest that the large bronze amphoras could be acquired by the Sarmatians also during the Bosporan–Roman war in 45–49 AD.

Late Etruscan tripod thymiateria

This article is a further development of questions raised in my review of Laura Ambrosini’s magisterial Thymiateria etruschi in bronzo (2002), and it is mainly based upon material gathered by her. Whereas I mostly agree with Ambrosini’s conclusions, the discussion includes some dissent concerning production centres (Chiusi and Tarquinia in particular), chronology (beginning and end-date of production), and the function of the censers. Otherwise, a series of case studies clearly confirms the basic correctness of Ambrosini’s division of the thymiateria by different production centres. The article also expands my earlier views on the varying modes of production and the possible importance of Roman leges sumptu­ariae for the southern limit of thymiateria diffusion. Except for that, the investigation reveals no traces of influence from the Roman wars and the contemporaneous romanization, but perhaps of the importance of the stands for family status and cultural identity.

Appraising the Origins of British Language and the Challenges of Business Communication

The English language has shown the same history and development as Anglo-Saxon and British peoples. English ancestors were great warriors and business people. They showed great achievements in Germanic, Scandinavian, Greek, Roman ,French ,English and American wars ,and other activities. This makes English a relevant and suitable language for Wars, social and economic activities; hence the sociolinguistic origins and dimensions of English and business. Nevertheless, this well-known and important language is challenged by business demands that shape and reshape English for communication in the direction of modernity and globalization. The purpose of this analysis is to use structuralism criticism to revisit the diachronic and synchronic aspects of the language to demonstrate connections and interconnections between the origins of the language ,its development and the use of business communication for the promotion of social, political and economic activities. Languages promotion and business development or success are then interdependent for sustainable development

АРМИЯ И ПОЛИТИЧЕСКАЯ СИСТЕМА РАННЕГО РИМА В СОВРЕМЕННЫХ ЗАРУБЕЖНЫХ ИССЛЕДОВАНИЯХ

The review examines the works of foreign historians, which present a new version of the evolution of military and political power in the Early Roman Republic. As shown in the research, the institutionalization of the military command system was due to the transformation of the character of the Roman war in the second half of the V - first half of the IV century BC: the transition from mainly «private wars», which were essentially predatory raids, to a more centralized, «state» model of war, focused on the appropriation of territory on a large scale.

A Computational Approach to Source Adaptation in Thomas Malory’s <i>Morte Darthur</i>

The many source texts that late medieval adaptors like Thomas Malory worked with constitute a potential wealth of information concerning the genesis of the linguistic and stylistic features shaping their works. As a result, their texts provide a useful framework for further developing and testing methods of stylometric analysis in the context of adaptation as a collaborative form of authorship. Our interdisciplinary team has undertaken a stylometric analysis of the eight different sections of Thomas Malory’s Morte Darthur, in order to identify differences between these sections and how they correspond to the language of the Old French and Middle English sources that Malory is known to have worked with in the different sections of his work. Our findings provide a basis for addressing unresolved scholarly questions concerning Malory’s Morte, such as the nature of the source used for his “Tale of Sir Gareth” and whether Malory himself was responsible for the differences between the two surviving versions of his “Roman War” episode in Book II of the Morte. They further shed light on ongoing controversies concerning the overall textual unity of the Morte and the process by which Malory created the different sections of his work—an issue that lies at the heart of broader debates concerning where Malory and other late medieval adaptors are to be situated on the continuum between “faithful translator” and “original author.”

Auxiliaries and War-Financing in the Roman Republic

Abstract Auxiliaries are usually studied in the late Republic or the Imperial period. Despite this emphasis in modern research, auxiliaries were employed in substantial numbers during the third and second centuries BCE. Auxiliaries did make a crucial contribution to the Roman war effort in the Middle Republic, providing a substantial part of Rome’s military manpower. These troops were most often financed by the community providing them, allowing the Roman state to save a great deal of money if similar numbers of Roman citizens had been deployed instead. This enabled the Roman state to significantly bolster its ability to project military power without having to implement additional financing mechanisms. Along with the use of auxiliaries, the suspension of tributum after the third Macedonian War seemed to have followed a policy of decreasing the burden of financing war for Roman assidui.

Cervantes and His Sources: On Virtue and Infamy in La Numancia

Cervantes and His Sources:On Virtue and Infamy in La Numancia Stephanie Schmidt (bio) Celtiberian Numantia is remembered in ancient to early modern writings for its fierce resistance to Imperial Rome and the terrible nature of its fall under siege in 133 bce, although details and emphases change between the sources. While some classical Roman histories disparage insurgent Numantia as savage or insolent, others tell a story of virtues better modeled in foreign rustics than Roman conquerors. Meanwhile, in varied accounts of the resistance, siege, and destruction of Numantia from late medieval to early modern Spain, similar messages remain. Authorial perspectives alternatively celebrate an exemplary conqueror; or highlight the bravery and just cause of Numantia, in contrast to cruel injustices of the Romans in Hispaniae. Yet this second corpus shares a common point of difference from the classical sources on Roman wars in Spain. In these later peninsular works, Iberian Numantia is no longer wholly foreign. It remains ethnically and culturally exotic but is now geographically familiar. The ancient history of Hispaniae becomes local history;1 and even those works of pre-modern Spain that sympathize with the conquering Romans identify in the story of Numantia a patrimony of quintessentially Iberian traits. In La destruycion de Numancia, of the early-to-mid 1580s, Cervantes generates a new rendering of this history, drawing heavily upon an [End Page 111] evolving cultural narrative that is comprised of prior accounts and representations. No single text stands out as a primary source for La Numancia. Instead, Cervantes interpolates details from a range of Iberian sources and some of the classical histories upon which they are based. He also interweaves references to other ancient sieges, as scholars including Carroll Johnson, Angela Belli, Frederick de Armas, and Barbara Simerka note, although these references are light in comparison to content that derives directly from the textual tradition on the siege of Numantia. Importantly, La Numancia reproduces a selection of both pro-imperial and pro-Numantian messages that characterize prior sources. The Roman conqueror becomes an antecedent figure and symbol of the expansionist trajectory of Hapsburg Spain. At the same time, the conquered Numantians are familiar ancients, "proto-Christians" (de Armas 68) and figurative "ancestors" (Lupher 203). Their valiant spirit, Cervantes suggests, remains the legacy of his people. He therefore positions adversarial protagonists—the Romans, led by the Consul Scipio the Younger and a defiant Numantia, as embodied by a range of sympathetic characters—to represent conflicted aspects of his own Christian patria in its age of imperial expansionism. My analysis here centers on the nature of La Numancia as both a performance of patriotism—or "una manifestación poderosa del heroismo nacional," as Ramón León Máinez has asserted (qtd. in Hermenegildo 19)—and a critique of Spanish imperial endeavors. Because of the seemingly oppositional nature of its messages, many have commented on La Numancia's profound ambiguity. For example, Johnson asserts that "La Numancia can be either a glorification of the Spanish Empire and its virtues or an attack on them" (78). Margaret Greer sees in this piece "the tragic ambiguity of a Spain both imperial victim and victimizer" (292). Similarly, Shifra Armon refers to its "vexing ideological indeterminacy" (11). Willard King also sustains that this drama presents a conflict of "the primitive, idealized Spain waging a just war in defense of liberty against Cervantes' contemporary imperial Spain [… that is] fighting less easily justifiable wars" (216).2 [End Page 112] As I explore the different threads of discourse in La Numancia, I will show that these binary themes correspond to a unified message. As Cervantes leads his audience to identify with both the conqueror and the conquered, he positions the contradictory messages commonly affiliated with this cultural narrative to celebrate the spirit and strength of Spain, even as he correctively signals the virtues that it has come to neglect. Ancient Roman histories establish a general storyline of the events at Numantia, with some variation. Antedating conflict at Numantia, the Lusitanian hero Viriathus led a protracted resistance to the Roman occupation of Celtiberia (Appianus 91; Florus 343-44; Paterculus 444-45, 516; Orosius 179-81). Rome also waged two unsuccessful campaigns against Numantia...

P. CORNELIUS SCIPIO AND THE CAPTURE OF NEW CARTHAGE: THE TIDE, THE WIND AND OTHER FANTASIES

In 209b.c.P. Cornelius Scipio captured the city of New Carthage. The victory was crucial for the Roman war effort in Spain, and indeed in Italy too, but Scipio's campaign is especially memorable—and the subject of much debate—on account of the manner in which the city was taken. New Carthage had in effect been built on a peninsula, with the sea to the south and a lagoon to the north, and with a canal joining the two to the west. The city, therefore, could only be approached by land from the east; but, according to Polybius, Scipio had learnt from some fishermen that the lagoon was shallow and could be forded in most places and, moreover, that the waters in it usually receded each evening (10.8.7). It was this knowledge that Scipio exploited to take the city. But this same knowledge he also kept from his men (10.9.1, 10.9.4–5). In his address to his soldiers prior to the attack, Polybius says, Scipio told them that Poseidon had visited him in his sleep and had promised to assist the Romans in their operations in a way that would be apparent to all (10.11.7).

Narrating Violence, Narrating Self: Exodus and Collective Identity in Early Rabbinic Literature

Narrating Violence, Narrating Self: Exodus and Collective Identity in Early Rabbinic Literature

Re-imagining the Empire of Japan through Japanese Schoolboy Uniforms

Japanese kimono and the Japanese schoolboy uniform continue to interact with, and interrogate, global fashions as contemporary designers continue to call on the tropes of ‘military chic’ (Tonchi) and Japanese-inspired clothing (Kawamura).

Once Again King Arthur and the Ambassadors: A Textual Crux in Malory’s Morte Darthur

Abstract: From the perspective of textual studies, ‘King Arthur and Emperor Lucius’ is the most interesting part of Sir Thomas Malory’s Morte Darthur. Its linguistic tone color is unique in the Morte Darthur, which seems to have disquieted the producers of the early copies, for both medieval witnesses to the text, the Winchester Manuscript and William Caxton’s printed edition,show signs of deliberate interference. P. J. C. Field’s recent edition uses both witnesses to attempt to restore Malory’s authorial text. However, the unusual textual situation complicates the application of Field’s critical method of editing. Caxton sometimes uses Malory’s words and sometimes his own; some of his summarizations contain many of Malory’s original words but often in a frame of his own devising, and at times he completely rewrites passages in his own words. Because Winchester has also been abridged, wherever the two diverge, and particularly within the first page or two, the possibilities will be that one or the other witness will retain Malory’s original text, that both contain parts of Malory’s original, or that Malory’s words have been lost from both texts. Determining which is most likely at any given point is further complicated by the fact that the Roman War was often considered to be a legitimate part of history in the Midle Ages and, therefore, was often retold, greatly increasing the number of potential sources, which proportionately increases the possibility of false correspondence between a possible source and the reading of the witness. Finally, one must try to make due allowance for the fact that Malory adapted and abridged his account creatively, rather than merely rendering the alliterative poem into prose. However, Field proceeds mainly on the premise that for the first few pages Winchester and Caxton have abbreviated alternately. This article argues that the two versions of the ambassadors’ demands that Field has included in his reconstruction are actually independent mutations of a common original, which can be partially reconstructed. The corrections proposed here render Malory’s text more like its sources, provide the benefit of removing more of Caxton’s rewriting, and are consistent with the very philosophical underpinning of Field’s new edition: the premise that it is important to try to recover Malory’s authorial text in every possible detail, bringing us ever closer to the exact words of a great author.

Odwrót bohaterów. Śmierć syjonistycznego mitu Masady w fi lmie Twierdza Beaufort Josepha Cedara

Withdrawal of Heroes: Death of the Zionist Myth of Masada in Joseph Cedar’s BeaufortMasada is an ancient fortress, which during The First Jewish–Roman War (66–73 CE) served as a refuge for the last bastion of Jewish resistance. In the first half of the twentieth century, the history of the Masada’s defenders was absorbed by the Zionist movement and transformed into a vital national myth, which became an important element of the identity and culture of future Israelis. The main purpose of this article is to show the deconstruction of the Masada mythical narrative made by Israeli director Joseph Cedar in his movie Beaufort.

Ares the Ripper

Abstract In response to a recent derivation of the Greek theonym Ἄρης from a root *h₂reh₁‑, the present paper highlights some problems arising from this theory, notably the need to postulate an inversion of (the effects of) Stang’s Law in order to account for the well-attested Aeolic name variant Ἄρευς. These difficulties disappear if the theonym is taken to instantiate Stang’s Law itself and if an original root-noun nom. *h₂reu̯‑s and corresponding acc. *h₂reu̯‑m > *h₂rēm are posited, involving the root attested in Lat. ruere, Ved. rav‑, etc. Independent support for this view comes from the Old Latin Carmen Arvale, where the Roman war god Mars is addressed with the phrase ne uelue rue(m). The hitherto obscure acc. rue(m) surfacing here must be related to the Homeric acc. ἀρήν ‘destruction’ and reflect an analogical transformation of Proto-Italic acc. *(h₂)rēm. More speculatively, it is asked if the root *h₂reu̯(H)‑ thus identified could not ultimately also be connected with *h₂erh₃‑ ‘to plough’, via Schwebeablaut and some phonological and morphological effects of building PIE u̯‑presents and u̯‑presents.

Eminent Arthurian: P.J.C. Field

Eminent Arthurian: P.J.C. Field K.S. Whetter All Malory scholars, and a good many Arthurian scholars in general, are familiar with the work of Professor P.J.C. Field. Peter is a former President of the International Arthurian Society, former host of a successful Society congress, winner of the North American Branch’s Lacy Award and, most significantly, author of an impressive array of publications exploring various aspects of many different Arthurian (and non-Arthurian) texts and topics. He is certainly an eminent Arthurian. The photograph that accompanies my tribute to Peter was taken at the formal launch of his edition of Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte Darthur, a launch that took place at the September 2013 meeting of the British Branch of the International Arthurian Society, by happy coincidence held at Bangor University, where Peter has made his home for the past fifty years.1 The appearance of this much-anticipated edition is an appropriate occasion to reflect upon Peter’s many accomplishments and his deserved eminence, not just in terms of his scholarly achievements, but also in the regard and affection of those who know him, worldwide. Peter has published interesting and convincing studies of (inter alia) Nennius, Arthur’s battles, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the alliterative Morte Arthure, Chaucer, and The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnell. Obviously, however, it is Peter’s work on Malory and the text of the Morte which has won him the most renown. Many of Peter’s textual studies were revised and published together in his Malory: Texts and Sources, but other Malorian highlights include his Romance and Chronicle, a well-regarded monograph on Malory’s prose style, an edition of Tales VII and VIII of the Morte published initially in 1977, the revision of Vinaver’s three-volume critical edition, and the authoritative biography, The Life and Times of Sir Thomas Malory.2 It is a testament to Peter’s integrity that he revised Vinaver’s text in accordance with Vinaver’s principles; that is, he confined himself to correcting manifest errors and updating the notes but refrained from modifying the text or apparatus in any of the substantial ways Peter’s own scholarship had revealed should be done. Thus for many years Malory scholars could glean Peter’s textual-critical conclusions from his own publications, but it is only now, with [End Page 5] the much-anticipated complete edition of the Morte before us, that the scholarly community can at last see the text as Peter reconstructs it. In my opinion, that reconstruction is marvelous. For one thing, the edition itself is very attractive, including the endpapers with the arms of King Arthur juxtaposed against those of Thomas Malory. For another, we have the entire text in one very clean volume, with none of Vinaver’s various brackets detracting from Malory’s words. Finally and most substantially, there is the text itself. Peter has not been shy of modifying readings in either Winchester or Caxton; this is especially so in the contentious Roman War section. Not all textual scholars will agree with such emendation, just as not all scholars agree that the Newbold Revel Malory penned the Morte Darthur; but anyone who disputes the authorship question must rebut the considerable and convincing evidence marshalled by Peter. Likewise, there are also those who still feel that the Caxton Morte Darthur is at least as valid as the text contained in the Winchester manuscript—but anyone who upholds this view must deal with the collective weight of Works, Texts and Sources, and Peter’s introduction to the new edition. The apparatus and commentary are equally authoritative, detailing significant variant readings or scribal corrections, and—to take but one example—managing to offer a clear path through, and some new insights about, the critical debate regarding possible sources for the ‘Healing of Sir Urry.’ Peter’s text of the Click for larger view View full resolution P.J.C. Field with his New Edition of Malory. Photograph Courtesy of Samantha Rayner. [End Page 6] Morte is convincing, even Malorian, and I believe it will rightfully become the standard edition for scholars now and long into the...

Reading and War in Fifteenth-Century England: From Lydgate to Malory by Catherine Nall (review)

Reviewed by: Reading and War in Fifteenth-Century England: From Lydgate to Malory by Catherine Nall Thomas H. Crofts Catherine Nall, Reading and War in Fifteenth-Century England: From Lydgate to Malory. Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 2012. pp. vii, 198. ISBN: 978–1–84384–324–5. $90 Catherine Nall in her Introduction writes that ‘while writers such as Lydgate and Malory have not wanted for readers in modern times, we have perhaps failed to recognize just how far these canonical texts were shaped—in structure, language and meaning—by the military-inflected reading culture of the period’ (p. 10). The emergence and production of this culture, attributable to the dynamism of Henry V and his foreign policy, to the subsequent civil wars, and to the canon of militaristic and chivalric literature which was these writers’ inheritance, is the subject of Nall’s ambitious and engaging study. Accordingly, the first chapter, ‘Reading Vegetius in Fifteenth-Century England,’ is devoted to the reception and transmission of De re militari. This chapter also initiates the vigorous exposition of texts and manuscripts, and their reception, that characterizes Nall’s reading. In her account of Vegetius manuscripts circulating in Latin, French, and English, Nall notes not only evidence of ownership but also evidence of use in the form of inscriptions and marginal notes. Not only different translations, but various manuscripts, are compared in detail. This chapter is also a fascinating contribution to the discussion of fifteenth-century translation generally. Chapter Two, ‘Reading and War in the Aftermath of Defeat,’ argues that translations of De re militari were made necessary ‘not by success in warfare, but by failed military endeavor’ (p. 49). First translated into English about 1408, Vegetius was not in great demand until the mid-century loss of English territories in France: ten of the eleven manuscripts of the English prose Vegetius were produced between ca. 1445–1485; the redactor of Vegetius into the verse Knighthode and Bataile was active in the 1460s. These defeats were caused by non-payment of soldiers’ wages, and those soldiers’ concomitant pillaging and terrorizing areas gained in war, not through lack of might or right. Nall is persuasive, but this chapter might helpfully have included a section on the mystery of how medieval armies were supposed to be paid; if looting wasn’t sustainable, nor was expecting the Duke of York to pay soldiers from his own pocket. Chapter Three, ‘Making War: The Martial Endeavours of John Lydgate and Henry V,’ happily goes beyond whether or not the poet supported the king’s policies. Its three-part presentation suggests, first, that the Troy Book charts a dialectic between the public rhetoric of war and Lydgate’s own staging of related episodes in the Troy narrative; second, that Lydgate was sedulous to address, in a Vegetius-like way, the [End Page 118] logistics of war-making in his Siege of Thebes; and, third, the poet demonstrated special concern for the twin necessities, again, of controlling and paying the troops. Lydgate, as this substantial chapter shows, was a highly alert war-time poet. In Chapter Four, ‘Sacralising Warfare in Knyghthode and Bataile,’ that text is reintroduced for well-deserved treatment as an overlooked masterpiece of translation and adaptation. This fierce poem, composed in crisp rime royal by a ‘person of Caleys’ (p. 129), preaches the Lancastrian cause as a kind of crusade; the Yorkists, accordingly, are all heretics and miscreants; and the idea of spiritual warfare is systematically translated back into literal—but still holy—carnage. For all its intended violence, this poem, with its joyous pace and unrelenting aureate diction, is full of poetic energy and strange charm and itself ‘in gemmy gold goth ardent, every cooste’ (p. 121). By Nall’s exposition, it should win for itself many new readers. Chapter Five, ‘Malory’s Morte Darthur and the Rhetoric of War’ examines Malory’s making the Roman War the second tale in his book, rather than—as was the tradition—the ultimate one. Malory, it is argued, crafted a sequence in which—contrary to the traditional lesson—royal absence for war-making purposes does not encourage strife at home, but rather promotes unity; not foreign campaigning, but idle...

A possible attack direction used by the Roman army during the Dacian Wars

The Dacian Wars present at this moment numerous unknown aspects, among these are the military operations of the Roman Army on the Lower and Middle basin of the Mureș Valley. The scholarly opinions on this matter are numerous, in regard to the advance directions, the troop composition, and the period in which the actions occurred -the first or the second war. The author brings into discussion another possible advance route towards the Mureș Valley, across the Lipovei Hills, on a via terrena road type, built and used during the Dacian -Roman Wars. The hypothesis is supported by the discovery of another possible roman road in 1977, which crosses in its turn the Lipovei Hills about 50 km to the east, at Bulci. Related to these events during the wars, the author presents a number of new fortifications at Bârzava, Neudorf and Secusigiu. The one from Secusigiu, judging by its size and analogies, might represent a temporary roman camp and could represent the first tangible proof of a Roman advance on the Mureș Valley during the Dacian Wars.

Comment il faut écrire, dans la tradition classique, l'histoire des guerres romaines contre les Barbares

In his short treatise Πῶς δεῖ ἱστορίαν συγγράφειν, Lucien satirizes contemporary historians, infatuated with classical models, which they awkwardly tried to copy in their works about the Parthic wars : Thucydides, Herodotus, Xenophon, epic poetry, philosophical or rhetorical topics. The paper follows these writing styles from the IInd to the IVth century, by analyzing some texts or documents about Roman wars against Barbarians which have not been much studied in this respect and translating them into French for the first time.

MALORY'S "MORTE DARTHUR" AND THE RHETORIC OF WAR

Sir Thomas Malory's rewriting of the Roman war episode has long been a source of debate for Malory scholars.1 In the second tale of his Morte Darthur, Malory departs from his main source, the late fourteenth-century poem the Alliterative Morte Arthure, to offer an account of the success and aftermath of Arthur's Roman campaign that is significandy at odds both with that of his source and with the majority of earlier insular narratives of this campaign. While in the Alliterative Morte Arthure, in a tradition stretching back to Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia regum Britanniae (c.1138), Arthur never quite achieves the imperial crown and has to return to Britain to face rebellion, Malory not only has Arthur achieve imperial success, but also rewrites the chronology of the Roman war, moving it back to a much earlier point in Arthur's career and disconnecting it altogether from Arthur's downfall.2As previous scholars have noted, the idea of repositioning the Roman war may have been suggested to Malory by his reading of the Old French prose text the Vulgate Suite de Merlin, which was a minor source for both his 'Tale of King Arthur' and 'Tale of Arthur and Lucius'.3 In the Suite de Merlin version also, the Roman war does not lead to Arthur's death, but is presented instead as one in a series of major batdes that takes place in the early years of his reign.4 Yet, although the identification of a possible model for Malory's rewriting and reordering of the Roman war episode has been useful, the wider question of why he chose to follow this version of events still requires discussion. In this article I offer an explanation for why Malory may have found the position of the Roman war in the Suite de Merlin particularly appealing.In earlier insular accounts of the Roman war episode, Arthur's war against the Romans is linked, either temporally or causally, to his downfall. It is Arthur's absence abroad that allows Mordred to stage bis rebellion. That this was a common way of interpreting the connection between Arthur's foreign campaign and his fall is suggested by John Lydgate's Fall of Princes, written between 1431 and 1438-9 for Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester. In the envoy to his account of Arthur's reign, he connects Mordred's rebellion to Arthur's absence abroad, summarizing that 'Long abscence causeth deuisioun'.5 Indeed, all of these narratives of Arthur's reign imply, with varying degrees of emphasis, that prolonged absence abroad may lead to internal division.6 This implication is most fully realized in Malory's main source for his account of the Roman war, the Alliterative Morte Arthure, a text which encourages an explanation of Arthur's fall which is grounded in his military activities on the Continent.7 I shall argue that it was precisely this implication - that outward war created internal division - which Malory wished to avoid. By altering the Alliterative Morte Arthure's tragic ending and by granting Arthur victory in Europe as opposed to rebellion at home, Malory seems to have rejected even the suggestion that successful external war could be responsible for internal division. In the rest of this article, I suggest that Malory rewrote his source material in this way, following the position of the Roman war in the Vulgate Cycle, as a result of the wider discursive context in which he was writing: one in which external war, far from creating internal division, in fact led to domestic peace and which regarded civil war as a product not of external war but rather of its absence.A range of texts produced or circulating in England in the Middle Ages figured lack of outward war as potentiaUy damaging to the realm. For the late Roman writer Vegetius, whose treatise on warfare, De re militari, circulated widely in England, peace was both desirable but also harmful.8 Throughout his treatise, but particularly in his first book, Vegetius referred to the dangers that might attend long periods without external war: 'long tyme of pees hap made vs to chese vnkunnyngliche oure kistes'; 'Bot forsothe longe sikernesse of pees hap made oure werriours to 3iue hem to delices of sloggynes and sloube, and some to gouernayl and office in citees and townes as for more ese', argued the 1408 English translation. …

A Bibliography of Modern Arthuriana (1500-2000) ed. by Ann F. Howey and Stephen R. Reimer (review)

96ARTHURIANA Roman War' to end instead with the long-deferred consequences ofthe LauncelotGwenyvere threat. And Crofts surely is correct to stress that Malory wants 'Arthur to have been cognizant of the ongoing betrayal.' Crofts further maintains that Arthur and Malory are concerned with English and Arthurian knighthood; this is revealed in part through a particularly fine account ofthe Battle ofSalisbury Plain. In light of this it is regrettable that the Index gives no listing for the various Malorian episodes or characters discussed by Crofts. Also, some ofthe notes contain recent publications not found in the bibliography. Nevertheless, Crofts writes clearly, and he is well read and up-to-date. The discussion ofthe manuscript in ChapterThree is particularly cogent, and the accompanying color plates are marvelous. Publication ofMalory s ContemporaryAudience was abetted by the Vinaver Trust: on the whole, Crofts is a worthy recipient ofVinaver's aegis. K. S. WHETTER Acadia University ANN F. HOWEY and Stephen R Reimer, compilers, A Bibliography ofModern Arthuriana fijoo—2000). Cambridge, UK: D.S. Brewer, 2006. Pp. xxix, 774. isbn: 1843840688. $190. £125. Hot on the heels of TheArthurianAnnals by Dan Nastali and Philip Boardman (see Arthuriana 15.2 [2005]: 77-78) comes a second compilation ofArthuriana, further evidence, if any were needed, of the continued vigor ofArthurian tradition and of the many ways in which ir has been adapted over the centuries. Like theAnnah, the Bibliographydeals with the work ofEnglish-language authors and artists. After an Introduction outlining the criteria for the selection ofmaterial and a list of Sources Used in Compiling the Bibliography, the bibliography itself is divided into six sections: Literature (the largest); Comic Books and Graphic Novels; Film, Television, and Radio; Music; Games; Fine Art and Graphic Design. These are followed by a General Index and an index of Arthurian Characters and Themes. Within each section, the material is listed alphabetically by author's last name (or by title if anonymous), totalling 4542 entries. Each entry lists the first appearance in print or in book form and 'major reprints,' though this is usually confined to revised editions or to inclusion, in part or whole, in a separate collection or anthology. Alphabetical organization dictates that books in a series are listed out ofchronological order. The annotations focus upon the use ofArthurian tradition, and their length reflects the need to explain its significance. This means that works in which the Arthurian story is centtal (but straightforward) often receive less space than those in which it is marginal (but complicated). Thus Donald Barthelme's TheKingis briefly summarized as ? novel, in which Arthur and his court are active in England during World War ?G (21), whereas the annotation for Brooks Hansen's The Chess Garden extends to eleven lines before concluding that 'there seems to be an Arthurian connection,... though it is a rather tenuous one' (167). This emphasis is valuable to the scholar wondering whether the few Arthurian references make it worth while reading a long book: the twenty-one lines devoted to A.S. Byatt's Possession, for example, helpfully reviews97 trace the various Arthurian references and thematic parallels. Occasionally, familiar works, like Catherine Christian's 7Ai Sword and the Flame ('primarily a historical reconstruction of Malory's tales, narrated by Bedivere,' 72) and Godfrey Turton's The Emperor Arthur ('"Historical" novel, presenting Arthur as "dux bellorum,"' 436), are paid scant attention. Conversely, those that have been overlooked by other researchers are given generous space: the annotation for Nicholas Gray's Sir Gawain andthe GreenKnight:A Play, which mingles traditional and original material, occupies twenty-seven lines. Where the compilers have not examined awork in the Literature section, as is the case of Edward Frankland's The Bear ofBritain, they provide only a very briefannotation or none at all; in other sections, they often list the secondary source for information on works not seen. Inevitably, a few items have been missed or excluded. One wonders why the 1991 edition of The NewArthurian Encyclopedia appears among rhe Sources Used, rather than the Updated 1996 edition which includes a supplement ofmaterial published from 1990-95; and why the next supplement (2001) is not mentioned, particularly since both compilers contributed to it. In these theywould have...

The Book Unbound: Editing and Reading Medieval Manuscripts and Texts (review)

Reviewed by: The Book Unbound: Editing and Reading Medieval Manuscripts and Texts Daniel J. Ransom Siân EchardStephen Partridge, eds. The Book Unbound: Editing and Reading Medieval Manuscripts and Texts. Toronto, Buffalo, London: University of Toronto Press, 2004. xx+236 pp. $50.00 cloth. This collection of essays has its origin in a 1999 workshop organized by the editors. The intended focus was to be codicology, and one assumes that the title of the book reflects that early intention. In the event, other aspects of editing and studying texts were emphasized, and the title serves to hint at these interests as well. That is, the book to be unbound is not the ancient codex but the modern edition. And it is to be unbound in two senses. First, as a book publication, the modern edition need not be hogtied by theories of editing. Second, many of the essays point toward and encourage electronic, web-based editions, “texts” that are not bound between covers. Of course, an electronic edition is also unbounded, unconstrained by the limits of conventional publishing. Some of the essays seek to show, in particular cases, what opportunities electronic formats can provide. It should be noted that most of the essays, while they do address editorial issues, are essentially briefs for editorial projects undertaken by the contributors. And each clarion call for one kind of editing is made, at least in part, to validate the project in hand. Thus broader debates regarding editorial practice are addressed only briefly and intermittently. One consequence of this orientation is that, with the exception of Joan Grenier-Winther's description of how to set up an electronic database for a web-based edition, the essays speak less to editors than to scholars interested in the texts under discussion. That said, I should also observe that for the most part the discussions are learned and interesting. Three of the essays consider the diachronic study of texts, with an eye not necessarily on the original version but on an altered version. Anne L. Klinck, who completed an edition of the Southern Version of Cursor Mundi begun by Sarah Horrall, offers telling remarks aimed at those who theorize [End Page 243] editing but do not put their theories to the test of application. And she calls attention to the sleight of hand practised by one proponent of textual mouvance (each version of a text has its validity) who cannot escape the analytical imperative of distinguishing between better and worse texts, between shifts that are accidental and meaningless and shifts that are deliberate and significant. In turn, Meg Roland proposes a parallel-text edition of the “Roman War” episode in the “Malory Documents.” Her proposal seems reasonable, but she never demonstrates its utility. Caught up in larger debates and peripheral matters, Roland provides merely a decorative sample of parallel texts, one that is not quite linked to the brief commentary that she offers. She cites comparative analyses of the Roman War section that have already been published by others but asserts simply that a parallel-text edition would highlight “the dynamic interaction of the two versions.” A more persuasive case for the study of mouvance by way of a comparative edition is made by Peter Diehl, who examines an inquisitor's manual as it existed in a fifteenth-century manuscript and in a sixteenth-century printed text. Substantial differences between the two versions allow one to trace cultural shifts, and an edition for this purpose would be especially valuable to scholars who are interested in the later era. That is, editions need not be founded on interest in original texts; rather, they must serve particular audiences. A more theorized discussion, titled “Toward a Disjunctive Philology,” is presented by William Robins, who offers some consideration of best-text and stemmatic editions in order to recommend, as a sort of compromise (or escape from the tyranny of these models), a parallel-text edition that highlights the very problems that editors must adjudicate. With a “best text,” one could juxtapose a “worst text” or a critical text (one's choice, as Robins observes about kinds of editions, “depends upon what you want to know”). He prefers this approach to...