Roman History Research Articles

ПОЛІТИЧНИЙ СИМВОЛІЗМ "БІЛОГО" ХРЕСТА ЗБРОЙНИХ СИЛ УКРАЇНИ В КОНТЕКСТІ УКРАЇНСЬКОГО ОСІННЬОГО КОНТРНАСТУПУ 2022 РОКУ

The article notes that the "white" cross of the Armed Forces of Ukraine is a (insignia)\tactical sign that has not only a utilitarian function of identification friend or foe. Also, this sign gained an additional religious and ideological meaning. In a religious context, this symbol is identified as the Greek cross, the catacomb cross, and also the Constantine cross (the monogram of Constantine the Great), "the sign of victory". The historical and mythological basis of the appearance of this symbol is analyzed. It is proved that there are clear historical parallels between the political situation of the times of Constantine the Great and the history of Independent Ukraine. The appearance of the Constantine cross is associated with turning points in Roman history: the victory of the new political system over the old one, the legalization of the new dominant religion, the crisis of the existing political system, and the sacralization of the new power model and the new ruler. In the same way, the appearance of the "white" cross of the Armed Forces of Ukraine is connected with the existential desire of the Ukrainian people for victory, the end of nation-building process through a common history (war), the struggle for the right to live, the birth of a common ideological basis for state-building, which is understood and supported by citizens. Ultimately, overcoming a political crisis and an inefficient state management system is common in both cases. The war in this case acts as a catalyst for this process. The "white" cross on military equipment, vehicles, avatars in social networks is a way to distinguish and unite people depending on their value system. Moreover, the interpretation of this symbol happens naturally ("not from above") through the process of perception and understanding by citizens (military and civilian) of the Ukrainian state. Actually, these perceptions, experiences and empathy are related to the (insignia)\tactical symbol of the Armed forces and they have the potential to transform into a symbol of value orientations, the Ukrainian way of life, the ideological foundations of the state and the national identity itself at the current stage of the Ukrainian history.

Ch. 8. The Images of Young Tyrants: Representation and Reality in Herodian’s Roman History

Ch. 8. The Images of Young Tyrants: Representation and Reality in Herodian’s Roman History

Właściwości i zastosowanie lecznicze żywicy jodły syryjskiej w historii medycyny i farmacji

The Syrian fir [Abies cilicica (Antoine & Kotschy) Carrière] is a slender tree found in the mountainous areas of Lebanon, Syria and Turkey. Its name recalls an ancient land called Cilicia, located in modern-day Turkey; the capital city of this land was Tarsus, where an important trade route called the Gates of Cilicia ran. The rich medicinal properties of the resin naturally flowing from this tree were appreciated by the ancient Egyptians as early as in the Old Kingdom period. It was used as an antiseptic, anti–inflammatory and diuretic agent, but also in cosmetics: an important ingredient of preparations strengthening weakened hair, skin firming and wrinkle reducing. Respiratory ailments, mainly persistent coughs, were widely treated with preparations containing the Syrian fir resin, which was also noted by the Roman historian Pliny the Elder in his famous Naturalis Historia. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the medicinal properties of the Syrian fir, primarily of its resin, and the time period in which it was used for therapeutic purposes. A thorough analysis of the botanical, medical and pharmaceutical literature brings to a conclusion that Syrian fir was often used in the abovementioned applications in ancient times. Since the Middle Ages and continuing into the 19th century, native, neighboring, more popular varieties of fir trees, like the balsam fir, or the Canadian fir, were more often used for medicinal purposes. Many other common species of coniferous trees were used as well, especially the Pinus sylvestris, thanks to which the pine tar (Pix liquida Pini) can still be used today.

Амиан Марцелин и западноарменският консонантизъм

If not the most essential, but at least the most noticeable difference between the two forms of the modern Armenian language – the Eastern and the Western – is the difference in the pronunciation of a large part of the consonants. In initial position and within the word, the voiceless consonants of Eastern Armenian language have voiced pronunciation in Western Armenian and the voiced consonants of the Eastern Armenian, especially the explosive ones, have voiceless pronunciation in Western Armenian. The devoicing has been already found in Old Armenian texts from the 10th – 11th centuries, but a similar case has been discovered much earlier – in the 7th century, in a text of the so-called ‘Anonymous interpreter’ (Armenian: Անանուն մեկնիչ), a commentator of ‘The Art of Grammar’ of Dionysius Thrax (170 – 90 BC), whose work had been translated into Old Armenian in the 5th century AD. In the commentaries of the Anonymous Interpreter there is an alternating use of the forms bazuk ~ pazuk ~ p'azuk (‘hand, arm’), which suggests that the devoicing of the explosive consonants in the Armenian language was a very old phenomenon. An even earlier and neglected example of devoicing of the explosive consonants in the Old Armenian language (Grabar) could be found in the Roman History of Ammianus Marcellinus, a Latin speaking author who worked in the second half of the 4th century. Writing about the events of 368 – 369 AD, Ammianus mentions an Armenian eunuch named Cylaces, which name was a Greco-Latin form of the Syriac-Armenian personal name Glak, but in its Western Armenian pronunciation, Klak. This example not only lowers the timeline of this typical Western Armenian phonetic phenomenon by as much as three centuries, but also supports the existing hypothesis that the devoicing of the explosive consonants in the Armenian language already existed in the preliterate period, that is, before 405 AD.

The Romanitas of Macrobius’ banquets

Macrobius Ambrosius Theodosius, in his Saturnalia, draws upon the Platonic archetype in making overt allusions to the Symposium and yet follows Athenaeus, whose work he seems to know thoroughly, albeit does not acknowledge its influence openly. Besides the Greek paradigms, Macrobius used Roman models, i. e., Cicero’s dialogues, to infuse his literary banquet with Roman flavour. The author of Saturnalia was severely criticised, especially by representatives of the Quellenforschung movement in the second half of the 19th century, for allegedly being a poor plagiarist. His compilatory method is described in this article, and two other plausible Macrobius’ sources are proposed: Juvenal’s Satires and Seneca the Younger’s On Tranquility of the Mind. In Roman History Ammianus Marcellinus depicted the people inhabiting Rome of his times as degenerate parasites hostile to any form of intellectual activity who fritter away time on vulgar entertainment and obsessively overfeed themselves. Many scenes of so-called sober merriment shared by the prominent Roman personages of the IV c. AD were, in all probability, introduced to Saturnalia to counterbalance Ammianus Marcellinus’ harsh criticism of Roman morals. Macrobius’s familiarity with both Juvenal and Seneca manifests itself in the list of similes, yet, as the author of the present article proposes, there are passages in the oeuvre of both writers that may have instilled the vision of frugality typical of Romans in Macrobius’s mind, so that he may have used images borrowed from both earlier writers to Saturnalia.

New Books across the Disciplines

New Books across the Disciplines

역사적 전경과 상상, 드라마적 장치 -역사로맨스 드라마 ‘옷소매 붉은 끝동’의 스토리텔링을 중심으로

이 연구는 역사적 사실을 토대로 한 장르 소설의 드라마화에 있어서 어떠한 스토리텔링 방식을 사용하였는지 분석함으로써 역사드라마의 시청자 소구 장치와 요소를 밝히고 한국적인 소재의 확산 전략을 탐색하고자 하였다. 이를 위해 쥬네트의 텍스트 교류성 이론을 바탕으로 강미강의 역사장르소설 ‘옷소매 붉은 끝동’ 1, 2권과 2021년 11월 12일부터 2022년 1월 1일 MBC TV에서 방영한 17부작 역사드라마 옷소매 붉은 끝동(정지인, 송연화 연출)의 정해리 대본집을 중심으로 스토리텔링을 분석하였다. 연구 결과, 드라마 〈옷소매 붉은 끝동〉은 실제 역사적 시기인 1764년부터 1800년을 배경으로 삼고 이야기를 전개함으로써 역사적 사실성을 확보하고 역사적 증거로서의 역사를 재현하여 특정한 사건과 장소를 의미화하는 전략을 구사하였다. 또한, 고어와 현대어를 혼용함으로써 과거와 현대를 병치해 시청자가 과거의 인물에게 감정이입하게 하였으며, 실제 있었던 역사적 사실을 재구성한 역사장르소설을 토대로 등장인물과 역사적 사건을 상상적으로 엮으며 감성과 감각을 자극하는 스펙터클한 영상 언어로 풀어내었다. 〈옷소매 붉은 끝동〉은 역사 속 사건과 소품을 소재로 갈등과 위기를 구성해 서사를 지연시키면서 주인공인 덕임과 산이 사랑을 확인하고 로맨스를 이루는데 기여하였다. 특히 영·정조 시대를 다루기는 하지만, 역사의 뒤란에 갇혀 있던 궁녀 성덕임의 관점으로 그 시대를 바라보며 서사가 전개된다는 점에서 기존 콘텐츠와는 차별성을 보였다. 또한, 실존 인물인 성덕임에 관한 빈약한 기록을 토대로 비어있는 역사의 틈에 상상력을 발휘하여 그녀를 지엄한 영‧정조 시대의 한계를 뛰어넘는 독립적인 여성으로 표현하였으며, 이는 현재를 살아가는 사람들에게 역사를 새롭게 인식하고 재해석하는 동력으로 작용하고 있었다. 향후 스토리텔링을 중심으로 한 역사드라마의 장르적 특성에 초점을 맞추어 K-콘텐츠로서의 역사드라마의 정체성과 중요성을 부각하는 심도 있는 논의가 이루어지길 기대한다.

O relevanciji ustavnog naslijeđa SPQR-a i njegovom značaju za suvremeni konstitucionalizam

The text emphasizes the need to study the historical Roman constitution, as an integral part of the comprehensive analysis of the sources of the ideological apparatus of the contemporary constitutional democratic state. The authors remind us of the methodological instruction from T. Mommsen’s Staatsrecht that the said studies are not only a unique direction towards understanding SPQR constitutionalism and its legate, but also constitute an approach that enables conclusions regarding results that are not temporally and substantively limited, nor are they – “so much as narrowly legalistic as it is often thought”. Thanks to the choice of an open and broad approach of modern constitutional legal analysis, which is guided by the thought: the constitution is culture (P. Haberle), the continuity and vitality of new knowledge about the old topics of government and freedom, property and owner, wealth and poverty, class and classless society is strengthened as unchanging constants of the constitutional system of the contemporary state and society.

Крушение Римской империи в метафорах и образных сравнениях

The article analyzes the historiographic array concerning the collapse of the Roman Empire in terms of the use of verbal constructions by the authors, related to figurative comparisons. As a research task, an attempt was defined not only to classify various options for figurative comparisons, but to reveal their semantic content as well. Figurative comparisons and metaphors used by researchers of Roman history to indicate the process of its decay and liquidation are typologized and brought into the system. It is noted that this aspect found its most consistent presentation only in the work of A. Demandt, a representative of German historiography. The article summarizes the historiographical material relating to different periods; it was revealed that the method of figurative comparison has not lost its relevance today. The degree of originality or, conversely, universality is declared as a criterion indicator, which substantiates the classification of various “images” of the Roman Empire undertaken in the article. In the coordinates of the above gradation, an overview is given of such figurative comparisons as “building” / “construction” / “structure” (of Roman statehood), “ship”, “colossus”, “state mechanism”, “state organism”, etc. In addition to the fairly common images, the article highlights and describes the semantic characteristics of the original images of the fall of the Roman Empire - such as “Cheshire cat”, “weakened old man”, “renaming of the company”, etc. It has been noted that the metaphorical nature of the presentation does not always correlate with the genre of narration or the volume of the research undertaken. The article indicates figurative comparisons of a wide historiographical range - from I. Newton and J. Ruban to modern German and English-language publications.

Zdzisław Zmigryder Konopka – ancient militaty historian, classical philologist, historian of roman law and teacher

Zdzisław Zmigryder-Konopka, Warsaw philologist, historian of the antique military, Roman law and teacher, engaged with antiquity in many ways during his scholarly and teaching career. Above all, however, he was trained as a philologist and for a certain period (when not employed at the university) he was even a teacher of Latin and Greek in secondary schools, where he enjoyed recognition among pupils and students. In his research work – interrupted by his untimely passing – he focused on Roman history, but his studies spanned a broad chronological timeframe and diverse range of topics, namely Roman law (social and constitutional) and military history. He was a man utterly fascinated by his field and working with young people, not to mention his public activism. He was the type of true humanist whose values, formed and embraced during university studies, shaped and permanently influenced his attitude to life. In the final period of his life, with the rise of anti-Semitism and growing threat of war, Zdzisław Zmigryder-Konopka became a member of the National Committee for Aid to Jewish Refugees from Germany. In addition, he became involved with the Social Committee for the Defence of the State as part of the Jewish Community in Warsaw. After the outbreak of the war, he volunteered to fight in the September campaign, and after it ended he arrived in Lwów to become a lecturer at the Jan Kazimierz University. Though affected by poor health and chronic illness, his death on 4 November 1939 still came as a surprise. Discussed more broadly in this paper, Zmigryder-Konopka’s “Battle in the Teutoburg Forest” relied on an analysis of source text to deliver a substantive response to the assertions published in German scholarly literature of the 1930s, which eulogized Germanic past in European history following Germany’s defeat in the Great War of 1914-1918 and Adolf Hitler’s rise to power.

Sallust and Jean Bodin

One of the most recognizable thinkers of the 16th century France, Jean Bodin, wrote what is perhaps the first methodological treatise of instructions and guidelines on how to not only read and write but also understand history. With his universal interest in all things human, Bodin predated Marc Bloch’s postulate that historians should ideally be interested in all forms of life if they were to perform their task as dutifully as possible. In 1566 Bodin published one of the most frequently reprinted works, the Methodus ad facilem historiarum cognitionem – “The Method for the Easy Understanding of History”. Although he expressed keen interest and good knowledge of a score of ancient historians, listing them in the fourth chapter of his work (De historicorum delectu – “On the Choice of Historians”), one of them was particularly close to his heart. The Roman historian Gaius Sallustius Crispus who is, according to Bodin, “a most honest author [who] possessed experience of important affairs”, provided Bodin and many of his colleagues with a model (stasis) narrative for discussing a changing world in turmoil – something Bodin was no stranger to in the time of the French religious wars. However, the explanation that it was the rhetorically efficient model narrative that inspired Bodin to copy Sallust’s argument seems unsatisfactory and biographically superficial. Instead, this paper closely analyses the Sallustian chapters that purportedly motivated Bodin’s thinking and proposes that there are little grounds in Sallust for Bodin’s legal and historical framing of absolutist sovereignty.

Lotte e problemi sociali in Cassio Dione

This article studies the way in which Dio deals with social issues in his Roman History. In particular, it examines the rise of the parvenus in Severan Rome, the problem of indebtedness of individual citizens and the state, the recurring phenomenon of banditry, famines and ‘hunger revolts’. The impression of the historian’s insensitivity to the needs of the most disadvantaged social classes is diminished by the analysis of his narrative concerning the struggle between patricians and plebeians in the archaic age, which Dio re-examines also in light of the problems of his time, and in which an unexpected attention to the motives of the poor emerges.

A History of Romanian Contemporary Literature: Impact and Reception

At the beginning of 2021, Mihai Iovănel published Istoria literaturii române contemporane – 1990-2020, the first Romanian history of literature that scrutinizes the post-communist period. Another novelty brought by this book is that it proposes an ideological approach to the literary field, with a strong (post)Marxist bias, in accordance and synchronicity with the global trend in the humanistic field, but not very popular in the Romanian cultural space. No wonder it was, perhaps, the most commented upon literary study of the past years, and most of the reviewers and critics focused on this controversial approach towards contemporary literature, favouring or rejecting its validity. This paper tries to establish the influence of Iovănelʼs ideological approach on the interpretation of contemporary literature and the aesthetic validity of his work. At the same time, it deals with the impact this book had in academic and literary circles, surveying the recent opinions and judgments on the book and the interplay of ideological/aesthetic arguments of the reviewers. The analysis shows that, more often than not, the reviewersʼ ideological positioning is relevant and influential upon their judgments, even if they manage to preserve their scientific objectivity. The paper also stresses the importance of this pioneering work and the shift in perspective it proposes, together with its limits (sometimes accepted by the author), and it establishes its relevance as a starting point for similar studies in the future.

William of Tyre, Orientalism and the (De)Construction of Latin Identity in Twelfth-century Jerusalem

Abstract This article examines the representation of Jerusalemite identity in William of Tyre’s Historia Ierosolymitana (c.1184). William laments that his contemporaries in Jerusalem did not live up to the standards of their forefathers anymore: they were not wise, virtuous men, but put their own needs before those of the community. In doing so, William makes use of a narrative strategy that is found in the Roman historians Livy and Sallust as well. In the histories of Livy and Sallust, it was contact with the Near East that prompted societal decline. The riches and dolce far niente of the East had, in their eyes, corrupted Roman morals. In William’s work, by contrast, the Eastern Other often functions as a mirror for the Self. This, in combination with William’s emphasis on former generations as reference point for the current generation allows for a much more dynamic interplay of identities than an orientalist binary East-West division.

The Conservation of the Architectural Heritage in Spain in the Interwar Period

Between 1919 and 1939, the conservation of architectural heritage in Spain underwent a radical transformation, in which it went from maintaining theoretical principles and a practice based on romantic historicism, to developing the innovative concepts of scientific restoration, coinciding with the international trends that inspired the Charter of Athens.
 In these twenty years, an alternative to historicist restorations was formulated, an innovative method of action was developed, a technical inspection and intervention body was created, and a remarkable action of conservation and restoration of the architectural heritage was carried out. This important development, however, was interrupted by the civil war, which between 1936 and 1939 devastated the country and which at its end gave way to a state action that used criteria closer to the historicism of the beginning of the century than to scientific restoration.

Editorial

Shakespeare’s interest in ancient Rome spans the whole of his dramatic career, from Titus Andronicus to Cymbeline, while Roman history and Latin culture permeate the whole of his work, well beyond the explicitly ‘Roman’ plays and poems. Critical interest has to some extent shifted from the historicist Roman plays based on Plutarch, Julius Caesar and Antony and Cleopatra, and the pseudo-historical Coriolanus, to the outlying Roman plays that evidence greater generic diversity and stylistic innovation, the early Senecan tragedy Titus Andronicus and the late ‘British’ romance Cymbeline. In these latter plays, the complex interactions between past and present, that are the main subject of the formal histories, are presented with even more aesthetic flexibility and creative improvisation than the ‘Roman plays’ proper.

Dio’s Tiberian Books: A New Translation and Commentary (on C. T. Mallan, Cassius Dio, Roman History: Books 57 and 58 (The Reign of Tiberius))

Dio’s Tiberian Books: A New Translation and Commentary (on C. T. Mallan, Cassius Dio, Roman History: Books 57 and 58 (The Reign of Tiberius))

Primele Alegeri Parlamentare Din Județul Năsăud, Organizate După Urcarea PE Tron a Regelui Carol II

Abstract The First Parliamentary Elections In Năsăud County, Organized After The Accession Of King Carol II The elections organized in 1931 represent the first electoral events after the ascension to the throne of King Carol II. The weak authority of the regency meant that the restoration was done without any major opposition from the citizens, who, on the contrary, welcomed the event. In Năsăud county, Carol’s arrival and proclamation as king was received with great enthusiasm by the population and the authorities. After the resignation of the P.N.Ţ government, the King tasked N. Iorga to form a government of national union. This government was, in fact, the first technocratic government in Romanian history. The national union was also organized in Năsăud county, where it had a joint list with the liberals and campaigned against P. N. Ţ. By appointing this government, the King wanted to show the parties that a government can be made outside of the parties. After the June 1931 general elections in Năsăud county, the National Union obtained the two senatorial mandates and one deputy mandate, the People’s Party received one deputy mandate, and the other deputy mandate went to P.N.Ţ.The Iorga government was actually an attempt by King Carol II to govern outside of the parties and over the parties, an experiment that ultimately was a failure, the following governments belonging to the parties.

Constructional Chronotypologies of the Military Structure in the Qasabat Al-ḥamrā

The monumental complexes of the Alhambra and the Generalife in the city of Granada (Spain), built by the Nasrid sultans more than six centuries ago, constitute the final phase of Hispano-Muslim art in which Islam reached its greatest splendour and marked personality in the Iberian Peninsula. The attraction and interest that these ensembles have aroused in the sensibility of contemporary man, especially from the 18^th century to the present day, hardly find a parallel in the world's historical heritage, and the consequences of this fascination have been considerable both on the architecture itself and on the ornamentation that distinguishes the Alhambresque revival. For this reason, any serious approach to the knowledge of the Alhambra site cannot do without a scientific analysis of its constructive characteristics and its evolution over the centuries, thus dismantling any possible distortion of the historical truth in favour of a false historical romanticism. From the analysis of the constructive chronotypologies that can be recognized in The Spanish Muslim architecture from the beginning of the Islamic domain until the end of the 14^th century, constructive characterization patterns are identified regarding the geographical, social, technical and material variables in the field of military architecture present in the Qasabat Al-Ḥamrā (hallmark of the period) and the analyzed contexts. Based on the seriation of functional and material values, and identification of local patterns, an interpretative model of the documented construction systems and materials is proposed, providing an unprecedented typological-constructive analysis of this paradigmatic heritage. Based on these premises and following the itinerary proposed by Vargas in 2013 to manage the different functional, material and technical variables used to identify types and systems, the aim of this work is to elaborate a model which meets formal, stylistic and constructive aspects. Thus, by identifying the constructive systems, techniques and typologies, we present a chronological description and review of the different types existing in the territory, extrapolated to the analyzed local context and supported by updated planimetries of the places of study.

Blaublütige Dracula-Fantasie mit idyllischer Coda – Dana Grigorceas dritter Roman Die nicht sterben

Abstract All three hitherto published novels by Dana Grigorcea do explicitly refer to Romania. Had her first novel been set in the Danube Delta and her second in Bucharest, so the plot of the recently released novel Die nicht sterben is located in the touristic town B. (= Buşteni) at the foot of the Carpathian Mountains. Based on Bram Stoker’s Dracula as literary pre-text, the plot of Die nicht sterben interweaves elements of Romanian history, Romanian contemporary events as well as elements of the family history of the first-person narrator. The present paper is focused especially on the female narrator’s bodily, erotic and flying fantasies. The social and moral revolt which manifests itself first and foremost in the vampiresses’ urge to impale, subsides in the end in uncritical idyllic and narcissistic self-reflection.