Young Roman Research Articles

Greek Grammarians and Roman Society during the Early Empire: Statius' Father and his Contemporaries

Statius' Silvae 5.3 is a poem written in honor of the poet's dead father. In the course of the poem, Statius recounts his father's life and achievements. Prominent among these accomplishments are the years the elder Statius spent as a teacher of Greek poetry—a grammarian—in Naples. Statius tells us which Greek poets his father taught and to whom. The content and audience of Statius' father's instruction form the basis of this paper. A number of the Greek poets taught by Statius' father are not obvious candidates for inclusion in a course of instruction in Greek poetry. Lycophron, Corinna or Epicharmus, for instance, are not commonly found in other accounts of Greek education in Roman Italy during the early empire. The elder Statius' pedagogical activity has thus been viewed as a Neapolitan peculiarity. Yet, I argue, the same authors taught by Statius' father were the focus of grammarians who were working in Rome itself. The curriculum of Statius' father is thus representative of Greek intellectual activity in early imperial Rome. The pedagogical activity of Statius senior is relevant to Roman intellectual history in a second way. His students consisted of aristocrats from around the Bay of Naples and southern Italy. Some of these students were likely Roman. So too the students of the Greek grammarians working in Rome likely encountered young Romans. How did the study of some mainstream and some recondite Greek poets fit into the élite discourse of the early empire? I argue that knowledge of the poets taught by the elder Statius was geared towards marking off the élite from the non-élite. Students of grammarians such as Statius' father were given the tools to engage in aristocratic discourse, which constituted a claim for prestige and honor in early imperial Rome.

Hinduism and Mimetic Theory: A Response

HINDUISM AND MIMETIC THEORY: A RESPONSE Julia W. Shinnick Austin, Texas i: Introduction "would like to thankProfessor Clooney for his thorough presentation .ofthe enormously complex and layeredtreatment ofviolence within Hindu religious traditions. In his paper I found many aspects of Hinduism that directly engage the mimetic theory, and I hope that I can articulate some of these in such a way as to initiate discussion during the next hour or so this afternoon. As one of the so-called "Girardians," my first impression in response to Professor Clooney's paper is that the complexity of Hindu attitudes toward violence and sacrifice seem to indicate an awareness of the ritualization and control of violence, as developed over a very long period of time. I. Language of Avoidance/Denial: The Horse I would like to start with a small detail, but one which seems to me key to many larger issues in light of the mimetic theory: the ritual directions and prayers [1.1] in which the words "to kill" and "to die" are carefully avoided through the substitutions of such words as "he takes hold of and "he makes consent." I might add here also, that the avoidance ofusing "real" words for what is "really" being doneDkilling the animalDreminds me to some extent of the use of language by contemporary torturers as analyzed in the book The Body in Pain: The Making and Unmaking ofthe World by Elaine Scarry. Scarry argues that the language used by torturers avoids any acknowledg- Julia W. Shinnick141 ment of the real actions they are committing, as well as any acknowledgment of the very real pain they are causing their victims; furthermore, it is a dehumanizing language, referring to the victims as, for example, submarines, in one particular type of torture. This discrepancy between language and actual action is intriguing in both cases. Granted, the sacrificers in the Rg Veda do not deny that they are sacrificing the horse, and the "apology" (the words to the horseD"Do not let the axe linger in yourbody...") is not part ofan act oftorture, but the words have in common with Scarry's report a certain denial or avoidance of the reality of both the actions ofkilling and/orharming and the result ofthese actions, pain and/or death. Furthermore, the avoidance of the words "to kill" and "to die" would fit in with the mimetic theory's idea ofprohibiting the ritual from bringing actual facts of the founding murder to consciousness. II.Sacrificial Instructions The words addressed to the horse in the Rg Veda [I.l]and the instructions for the treatment of animals to be sacrificedO'The axe penetrates the thirty-four ribs of the swift horse...so that the limbs may be unperforated, and recapitulating, joint by joint "Dseem to me to intersect with the mimetic theory in terms of ritual sacrifice as a reenactment of the founding conflict. As I understand it, in the mimetic theory, one reason for careful, detailed ritual instructions and the sense ofgreatdangerin sacrifice (the sense that if the ritual is not carried out exactly and correctly, something horrible might happen) has to do with a non-conscious fear of unleashing the mimetic crisis all over again. I see aspects of this in the minutely detailed instructions to the priest such as the importance of leading the horse but not holding on to it, and the desire to pacify the animal to be sacrificed. These kinds of details are of course also present in other sacrifice rituals. For example, in Perpetua's Passion: The Death and Memory of a Young Roman Woman, Joyce Salisbury speaks of the simultaneous sacrifice of hundreds of children in ancient Carthage during the Punic Wars. The children had to be (appear) "willing" to be sacrificed. Ifthey cried out, the sacrifice was considered invalid. The parents also had to be (appear) "willing;" ifthe mother shed a tear, the sacrifice was invalid. Thus, immediately before the fatal knife thrust, the sacrificing parents would caress their children and tickle them to make them laugh. III.Violence and Kings According to James Williams in his introduction to chapter 6 of The 142Hinduism and Mimetic Theory: A Response Girard Reader, one of...

Perpetua's Passion: The Death and Memory of a Young Roman Woman

Introduction. 1. Rome: Home and Hearth, Empire and Emperor, Longing for the Divine 2. Carthage: The City, Life and Culture, Sacrifice and Suicide 3. Christian Community: Origins, Presence of the Divine, Christian Life, Confrontation with Authority 4. Prison: Prison and Trial, Dreams and Visions, The Confessors' Dreams, Final Preparations 5. The Arena: The Amphitheater, The Spectator, The Martyrs 6. Aftermath: Rome and Carthage, The Christian Community, Memory and the Text, Bibliography. Index.

Perpetua's Passion: The Death and Memory of a Young Roman Woman

Reviewed by: Perpetua’s Passion: The Death and Memory of a Young Roman Woman Michael Heintz Joyce E. Salisbury. Perpetua’s Passion: The Death and Memory of a Young Roman Woman. New York: Routledge, 1997. Pp. 228. $19.95 (paper). Salisbury examines martyrdom as a paradigm for understanding the conflict of cultures and ideas. She accomplishes this through a close reading of the Passio of Perpetua and her companions. The book is structured in “ever-narrowing” concentric circles of context: “Rome,” “Carthage,” and “The Christian Community” [End Page 304] make up the three chapters which form the first half of the book. Salisbury discusses Roman religion in the late second-century, with particular reference to the imperial cult of Septimius Severus. She treats the history and religious culture particular to Carthage, notably the recurring phenomena of human sacrifice and sacrificial suicide. She then describes how the unique claims of the nascent Christian communities would have attracted the attention of a young woman like Perpetua. In so doing, Salisbury paints a vivid picture of the young Roman matron from Carthage who embraces Christian faith. Chapters four and five are largely an interpretive essay on the text of the Passio in light of the context established in chapters 1–3. Salisbury offers her own reading of the text. She seems quite aware of the inherent ambiguities of historical reconstruction, and her insights are both tentative and reasonable. Salisbury draws on the recent work of Brent Shaw, J.B. Rives, and Patricia Cox Miller (among others), and while departing at times from their interpretation, she is never doctrinaire. It is, however, in her last chapter, “Aftermath,” in which she examines the nachleben of the Passio, that she is perhaps most open to criticism; this is necessarily the case, as it is here that she is most speculative. She relies largely on Augustine’s sermons on Perpetua, collected and edited earlier this century by W.H. Shewring, to demonstrate how the account was reinterpreted by Augustine (and others), due to their differing (and later) presuppositions. A number of names are misspelled: Antoninus Pius (16,39,40), Ederatus (42), Quintus (136), and Quodvultdeus (172 and passim); Lucian of Samosata is called “Lucius” on p. 32 (he is also given two distinct entries in the index). “Imminence” and “immanence” are used incorrectly (31 and 116, respectively). “Paschal” (72) and “pharaoh” (94 and 95) are also misspelled, and there is an obvious printing error involving the plural possessive of “martyrs” (168 and 170). Ignatius of Antioch wrote to a number of churches but not to the Corinthians (69), and Jacob of Voragine was a Dominican, not a Franciscan (91). Students of Augustine might find it curious to claim that he “was raised in the Roman religion” (9), and the suggestion that “he saw no incompatibility between Neoplatonism and Christian wisdom” (27) is too facile. Her bibliography is good, though apparently the book was already completed before she could take advantage of Jacqueline Amat’s critical edition of the Passio (Sources Chretiennes, 1996); she might also have benefitted from Christine Trevett’s careful sifting of the data regarding the New Prophecy (1996) and David Rankin’s nuanced discussion of Tertullian’s ecclesiology (1995). This relatively inexpensive book is attractively produced, and contains a number of illustrations (photographs, maps, drawings) which enrich the text; it also has both a bibliography and an index. Michael Heintz St. Matthew Cathedral, South Bend Copyright © 1999 The Johns Hopkins University Press

Perpetua's Passion: The Death and Memory of a Young Roman Woman

Perpetua's Passion: The Death and Memory of a Young Roman Woman

Perpetua's Passion: The Death and Memory of a Young Roman Woman. By Joyce E. Salisbury. New York: Routledge, 1997. 228 pp. $70.00 cloth; $19.99 paper.

An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content.

The World of the Early Christians By Joseph F. Kelly

726book reviews Batriq) and John of Nikiou. A key figure in the Monophysite controversy, Pope Timothy II Aelurus, receives rather perfunctory treatment. Other omissions include Emperor Anastasius and Barsauma the monk, an important figure at the "Robber Synod" of Ephesus. Bar Hebraeus is there, but not Michael the Syrian. The article on the Secret Gospel ofMark, already outdated, is a mere historical curiosity in view of recent research. But these few negative remarks pale in light of the overall achievement of this comprehensive source. It is a testimony to the vitality and breadth of early Christian studies in North America. It is also testimony to the perceptive editing and revising skills of Everett Ferguson and his associate editors, Michael McHugh and Frederick Norris. David Johnson, SJ. The Catholic University ofAmerica The World ofthe Early Christians. ByJoseph F. Kelly. [Message ofthe Fathers of the Church, Volume 1.] (Collegeville, Minnesota: A Michael Glazier Book, The Liturgical Press. 1997. Pp, xviii, 23 1 . $22.95 paperback.) The World of the Early Christians is an attempt to provide an introductory text to the student of historical theology. The bulk of this treatment deals basically with the cultural life ofthe Christian within the early Church. The last section includes a tightly written history of major writers and events in the East and West for the first six centuries. The author delves into such issues as the view of the physical world as seen by Christians, entertainments presumed to be morally licit, such aspects of daily life as slavery,wealth and poverty,women, church and state, and war and peace. Kelly is careful in his use of terminology, bearing in mind that he has written for the novice student of church history. He writes into his text origins for such terms as martyr and manuscript. He is also quick to point out the fallacy of such beliefs that persecution was continuous for the first three hundred years rather than the sporadic nature of such persecutions,which depended entirely on the whim of the person in authority. In his treatment of women, Kelly cites primary texts but at times relies on secondary references. He would have been better informed if he had relied more readily on the primary sources. A text providing a sweeping view of the life ofthe early Christian is necessarily given to generalities. He draws a general statement, "Most Church Fathers saw the temptress Eve in all women." One might wonder where this author would place the correspondence ofJerome to women who are consecrated virgins, the writings of Ambrose of Milan on virginity , or the dialogue of Gregory of Nyssa with his sister Macrina on the soul and resurrection. The last chapter of the text is a well written, concise, very readable narrative of significant people and events of the first six centuries of the Church. Kelly book reviews727 brings a vibrancy to this volume in highlighting the roles of churchmen counteracting heretical movements and thus in turn writing theology that is called upon so readily today. Kelly writes his World ofthe Early Christians with the premise that most students have "no knowledge of the ancient world." He has thus produced an engaging and readable study of the ancient Christian culture and history. Bearing in mind that the author is at times given to general statements which may sometimes be challenged, this edition is a worthwhile contribution to adult education programs and to the novice studying church history. Sister Madeleine Grace, CVI. University ofSt. Thomas Houston, Texas Perpetua's Passion: The Death and Memory of a Young Roman Woman. By Joyce E. Salisbury. (New York: Routledge. 1997. Pp. ix, 228. $19.95 paperback .) The martyrdom of Perpetua and Felicitas (not "Felicity," please!) has been the subject of many scholarly editions and analyses. So why bring out a new book on this very old subject? The answer lies perhaps in the author's method of approaching historical problems through such disciplines as sociology and psychology . The result is a brief but compact treatment of all those historical, religious, and communal experiences which may have molded Perpetua's character and prepared her for voluntary, sacrificial death. The book is very well organized around the central event...

Perpetua's Passion: The Death and Memory of a Young Roman Woman by Joyce E. Salisbury

Perpetua's Passion: The Death and Memory of a Young Roman Woman by Joyce E. Salisbury

Jerome's Centaur: A Hyper-Icon of the Desert

Jerome’s Centaur: A Hyper-Icon of the Desert Patricia Cox Miller (bio) Although Jerome was ambivalent in his view of the desert, he nonetheless fashioned his portrait of the desert as a landscape charged with religious sensibilities, particularly regarding the ideals and dangers of the ascetic life. When placed in this context, Jerome’s introduction of a centaur into the desert in his Life of Saint Paul, the First Hermit can be seen not as a mere curiosity but rather as a pictorial image of Jerome’s view of the ascetic self. A hybrid figure, the centaur carries both idyllic and barbaric connotations and functions as a marker of a “wildness” that was fundamental to ascetic identity and also to the role of the desert in the development of Christian anthropology. Introduction: From Nature to Landscape In his recent book entitled Landscape and Memory, the historian Simon Schama has observed that, “although we are accustomed to separate nature and human perception into two realms, they are, in fact, indivisible. Before it can ever be a repose for the senses, landscape is the work of the mind.” 1 For an example of what he means by the transformation of nature into landscape by way of human perception, he draws on a remark by the noted contemporary photographer, Ansel Adams. Adams is well known for his photographs of natural formations in Yosemite National Park in the American West, and he had this to say about a particular rock-formation named Half Dome: “In the last analysis Half Dome is just a piece of rock. . . . [But] there is some deep personal distillation of spirit and concept which moulds these earthly facts into some transcendental emotional and spiritual experience.” 2 Nature neither locates nor names [End Page 209] itself; rather, it is we, as perceivers, who change nature into landscape by infusing it with emotion, with memory and desire, and indeed, as Adams says, with religion. As Schama remarks, there is a “craving to find in nature a consolation for our mortality.” 3 Schama’s precise observation, that “it is our shaping perception that makes the difference between raw matter and landscape,” 4 has particular relevance for the function of the desert in early Christian asceticism. As Peter Brown has noted, the desert was “the outer space of the ascetic world,” a “measureless imaginative distance.” 5 The “nature” of the desert was transformed into a variety of “landscapes,” most notably the civic landscape offered by Athanasius’ exclamation that the monks had made the desert a city, 6 and the Biblical landscape offered by observers of desert ascetics, who characterized the place as Paradise and its inhabitants as angels. 7 Despite these positive perceptual transformations, however, the desert-as-landscape was not a univocal construct. Enticing and forbidding, the desert was a place both of refuge and temptation, where the howling of wild beasts was heard along with prayers of the monks. Angels might dwell there, but so also did demonic forces. 8 As a metaphor for the most basic makeup of the human, the desert exposed both angelic and demonic tendencies. The desert was thus a landscape charged with ambivalence and, unlike the Yosemite of Ansel Adams’ desire, it not only offered consolation for our mortality but also judgment: if, as Guillaumont argues, ascetics sought in the desert a therapy of the soul, it was because the soul needed healing. 9 The Desert As Landscape: Jerome’s Letters The particular landscape with which this essay is concerned is the desert as it was perceived by Jerome, both in his reported experience of it and his writing about it. With what Schama calls “the organizing move of the artist,” 10 Jerome transformed the “raw matter” of the desert—its dust, [End Page 210] heat, and caves—into a landscape charged with the sensibilities of his particular religious vision. Jerome’s most famous portrait of the desert was written some ten years subsequent to his two-year sojourn there. 11 The frame for this portrait was Jerome’s theory of the body as a boiling cauldron of libido, a theory which he included in a letter to Eustochium, a young Roman woman, in order to...

Noscere amoris iter: L'iniziazione alla vita sessuale nella cultura romana

Dismission of toga praetexta was a rite de passage for both male and female young Romans, but its consequences were very different: boys had then for the first time the possibility of experiencing love and sex before they marry, usually many years later; for girls the dismission took place at the very eve of marriage, so that no real sexual freedom was actually possible.

Knowledge, Freedom, and Brotherly Love: Homosociality and the Accademia dei Lincei

The Accademia dei Lincei, often considered the earliest of scientific organizations, was established in 1603 by Federico Cesi, a young Roman aristocrat who was soon to become prince of San Polo and Sant'Angelo, duke of Aquasparta, and marquis of Monticelli. 1 After a period of very limited activity, which lasted until 1609, the academy quickly revived its membership and visibility, and by 1611 it included prestigious figures like Galileo and Giovanbattista della Porta. Its ranks continued to increase until 1625, when it listed thirty-two members, most of them located in Rome, Naples, and Florence. 2 The Lincei became an important reference point in the fledgling Italian philosophical community and played a relevant role in Galileo's later career, but it collapsed shortly after the prince's death in 1630. Cesi left behind a vast, elaborate, and well-documented academic project that usually bore little more than a family resemblance to the [End Page 139] actual academy. This essay analyzes the gender dimensions of Cesi's project and traces them into some aspects of the academy's historical record.

Philology and Authorship in thePassio Sanctarum Perpetuae et Felicitatis

The martyrs whose suffering and death is recorded in thePassio Sanctarum Perpetuae et Felicitatishave been revered for almost two millennia. The Church has signaled its high regard with the inclusion of Perpetua and Felicitas in thecanon missae.The praise for these young Carthaginian converts was immediate. Beginning with Tertullian and including luminaries like Augustine and Quodvuldeus, leaders of the African church acknowledged these youthful Christians as models of Christian self-sacrifice; their triumph, the courage of spirit over the dread of death. For Tertullian, their act of confident self-immolation was the apogee of Christian fortitude. In his discussion of the location of the eternal dwelling place for those who die in Christ, Tertullian, inDe Anima, called the young Roman woman Vibia Perpetua “the most courageous martyr” of the Church. His comment, at least partly intended to stiffen the resolve of his threatened congregation, is difficult to reconcile with the normative status accorded at this time to the figure of Stephen in Acts (cf. Acts 6–7). His remark might be a flight of characteristic hyperbole. It might suggest, however, that the traditional role of the proto-martyr Stephen was not yet canonical in Carthage. Conversely, if Tertullian has already moved from orthodoxy, it might represent a deliberate attempt on his part to elevate the narrative of thePassioover the incident in Acts, thus privileging Montanist belief in the power of the Holy Spirit's continuing revelation. There is certainly evidence for the latter position in the anonymous editor's opening remarks in thePassioitself.

Pantomime Riots

It is argued that there is no simple or single reason for the riots caused by pantomimes in early imperial Rome, and especially in 14 and 15 A.D. Theatrical passion has been suggested as the main cause, but other factors must be considered: the meaning of the theater as a symbol of order, the peculiar importance of the equestrian order in the architecture of the theater; the position of the main Roman theaters in their relation to the exercise grounds of the iuvenes; the complex relationships of the equestrian iuvenes with the pantomime artists. It is pointed out that it is not always easy to define a pantomime, or to know the nature of the program; but competition was certainly involved. It is argued that the policies of Tiberius toward the theater and the iuvenes were particularly productive of discontent, which led to repeated legislation to control it. The role of Drusus is probably crucial. A central role is also played by the theater claques, and the acclamations of the equestrians, the theater being their principal venue. Various connections between the equestrian iuvenes and the theater are considered. One key is the physical training of Roman youth, which had become affected by Greek concepts of gymnasium dancing, perhaps under the influence of rhetoric. This in turn made it possible for young Romans to develop quasi-pantomime skills, which they could demonstrate in their iuvenalia. Second, it is suggested that the Baths of Agrippa and their decoration can be seen as an indication of such a change in official policy, and their position next to the theaters is stressed. Third, the personal relations between pantomimes and the nobility is documented, and the importance of the private stage in Rome. Finally, the legislation of the Tabula Larinas is considered, as it affected nobles on the stage or in the arena, and other legal implications of this conflict between the senate and the youth are sketched.

Differential effects of early stimulation and/or perinatal flumazenil treatment in young Roman low- and high-avoidance rats.

The effect of infantile handling-stimulation and/or perinatal flumazenil (3.7 mg/kg/day) administration on exploratory and emotional-related behavior was investigated using Roman high- and low-avoidance (RHA/Verh and RLA/Verh) rats. Postnatal handling increased exploration in 30-day-old rats of both psychogenetically selected lines when they were exposed to a hexagonal tunnel maze including an illuminated central arena. Likewise, postnatal stimulation decreased emotional reactivity in both lines of rats, as expressed by increased entry into the central arena, decreased defecation and vocalization frequency, but these effects were more pronounced in the RLA/Verh line. There were interactions between perinatal flumazenil treatment and rat line, indicating that flumazenil enhanced entry into the maze central arena in handled-RLA/Verh rats, whereas a tendency toward the opposite effect was observed in drug-treated and handled-RHA/Verh animals. Thus, the present study emphasizes that the effects of environmental manipulations are partly dependent upon genetic factors, and that pharmacological effects also depend on both genetic and environmentally-induced predisposition.

IV. Horace

Although Horace’s origins were relatively humble in comparison with those of Lucilius, he rose to high status through wealth and powerful backing. The usual picture of the poor tradesman’s son admitted to aristocratic company for his literary genius should be dismissed, as Armstrong powerfully argues. Quintus Horatius Flaccus was born in 65 b.c. at Venusia in Apulia to a freedman (a former slave). His father was an auctioneer (coactor, that is, in effect, a type of entrepreneur) and, being very wealthy and ambitious for his son, took him to Rome to ensure that he received a good education. Horace completed his education by spending a year or two in Athens, the university for young Romans of the élite and a very costly experience.

Legal Satire in The Tale of Beryn

Legal Satire in The Tale ofBeryn Richard Firth Green University of Western Ontario rTALE Of BERYN, though h,rdly a negligible item in the Chaucerian apocrypha, has receivedvery little comment. Perhaps potential readers have been warned offby an untypical lack of enthusiasm in its first editor: its Prologue at least, says Frederick Furnivall, may repay study­ "whoever skips or skims the Tale."1 In what follows I shall be arguing that its very specificlegal satire makes the tale itselfin some ways quite as interest­ ing as its prologue and that it deserves rather better than skipping or skimming. At the end of a prologue which has described the arrival of Chaucer's pilgrims at Canterbury, their visit to the cathedral, their stay at the "Checker of the hope" Inn (where the Pardoner's sexual opportunism gets him into hot water), and their departure next morning, the Merchant volunteers to tell the first tale of the return journey. T hough judged by Furnivall to be an "awfully long-winded one," this tale reworks only the first sixth of its French original, the Roman de Berinus-a section which is largely concerned with its hero's dealings at law.2 In the English version 1 The Tale ofBeryn. ed. F J. Furnivall, EETS, e.s., vol. 105 (London, 1909), p. viii. Subsequent quotations from the tale are taken from this edition (see note 10 below). For studies ofthe prologue, however, see E.J. Bashe, "The Prologue to The Tale ofBeryn," PQ 12 (1933):1-16; S. Kohl, "Chaucer's Pilgrims in Fifteenth-Century Literature," Fifteenth-Cen­ tury Studies 7 (1982):221-36; B. Darjes and T. Rendall, "A Fabliau in the Prologue to the Tale o/Beryn," MS 48 (1985):416-31;]. M. Bowers, "The Tale o/Beryn and The Siege ofThebes: Alternative Ideas of The Canterbury Tales," SAC 7 (1985):23-50; K. A. Winstead, "The Beryn-Writer as a Reader of Chaucer," ChauR 22 (1988):225-33. 2 Ben.nus: Roman en prose du Xlf;e siec/e, ed. Robert Bossuat, SATF, 2 vols. (Paris, 1931-33). Subsequent page citations are to this edition. This prose version is evidently a redaction ofan earlier Berinus in verse, only surviving in cwo fragments; unfortunately both fragments come from near the end ofthe work and thus cannot be directly compared with the English version. Since the French prose Berinus is "en etroit rapport" with these fragments (1.vii), whereas the English poem is a rather free rendition, there seems no way of deciding which of the two French versions the English poet was working from; as Bossuat remarks, Beryn "peut tout aussi bien deriver du Berinus en vers que de son remaniement en prose" (1.viii, n. 2). 43 STUDIES IN THE AGE OF CHAUCER Beryn, a spoiled young Roman nobleman who has fled an unsympathetic stepmother to seek his fortune in foreign trade, is driven off course by a storm and lands in a strange city where he immediately finds himself embroiled in a series of preposterous lawsuits. Two local merchants try to enforce fraudulentcontractsto swindle Beryn outof his cargo, he isaccused by a blind man of having cheated him out of his eyesight, a woman claims to be his abandoned wife, and he is even framed for a murder by the victim's son. With the aid of a man called Geoffrey (once a Roman mer­ chant himself, though long since ruined by the chicanery of the citizens), hesuccessfully extricates himself from these lawsuits-thereby winning the approval of Isope, the local king, who rewards him with the hand of his daughter. In the numerous additions and alterations the author makes to his source, he revealsan obvious concern for the law, and we may reasonably assume that the story had recommended itself to him in the first place as a vehicle forcommenting on contemporary legal practice. As Mary Tamanini has rightly observed, "The law and its processes are central to the develop­ ment of the Tale ofBeryn."3 To claim that The Tale ofBeryn is about "the law" is far easier than to define precisely the kind of law it is about or the kinds of legal issues it raises, yet...

Maestro Francesco da Roma: portrait of a Renaissance public health officer.

MAESTRO FRANCESCO DA ROMA: PORTRAIT OF A RENAISSANCE PUBLIC HEALTH OFFICER STEPHEN R. ELL* Sometime around 1330, a young Roman physician named Francesco entered the imposing Venetian seat of government, now popularly called the Doge's Palace. His mission was a serious one. In order to be licensed to practice his profession, he had to swear an oath before the officials of the Giustizia Vecchia [1, 2]. We do not know how old Francesco was, but his medical training had taken around 6 years, and typically he would havejoined a master physician no earlier than age 18 as apprentice [3]. So we may assume him to have been in his midtwenties . He was already a member of the guild of physicians, surgeons, and barbers. To enter the guild, he had, as a foreigner, to pay twice the usual fee and serve an extra year under a Venetian physician as well as being examined by a panel from the guild [4]. In the dark and intentionally forbidding chamber of the Giustizia Vecchia, Francesco dropped to one knee and swore that he would uphold the rules of his guild (these rules were themselves laid down by the Giustizia Vecchia, for Venetian guilds were controlled by the city government ), would practice ethically, and would enter into no partnership with an apothecary [5]. After this intimidating exercise, Francesco was given a license to practice medicine in Venice. Francesco was a medicus,the fourteenth-century equivalent of a practitioner of internal medicine. For 200 years, Europeans had distinguished medici from surgeons and, less systematically, the latter from barbers [6, 7]. As a medicus, Francesco enjoyed the next-to-highest status in medicine. Only doctors of medicine enjoyed more prestige. Such men occupied university posts and might enjoy a renowned career without actually laying hands on patients. Taddeo Alderotti, roughly a contemporary of Francesco's, treated many of his patients literally by mail. A *Department of Radiology, University of Chicago Medical Center.© 1986 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved. 003 1-5982/86/2904-0497$01.00 Perspectives in Biology and Medicine, 29, 4 · Summer 1986 \ 539 sick person of means, or his physician, would address a description of the malady to someone like Alderotti and, in return for an often exorbitant fee, receive a consilium or written opinion on how best the illness might be treated [8]. Francesco, by comparison, had a much less glamorous existence. He treated patients personally and was not a favorite of the wealthy. Obliged by law to practice near the Rialto, he probably rented a modest office and lodging in that area from the city, as did most of his professional equals [9, 10]. On the other hand, medical services were much in demand in Venice, a city without a medical school of its own, and an enterprising practitioner could expect to earn a reasonable living. Between 1305 and 1348 about 5 percent of the naturalized citizens of Venice were physicians—clearly disproportionate to the number of medical practitioners in the general population. Most Venetian physicians were of foreign origin throughout the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries [11, 12]. In 1333, Francesco was hired by the senate to work for the city on a fixed salary of 10 lire per year [13]. This was part-time employment except in emergency. The Venetian government had employed physicians from at least the late thirteenth century [2]. By 1290, Venice spent 2,000 lire on such employees. Most such salaried physicians served in the fleets and in Venetian colonies. Essentially, every war gallery or small contingent thereof carried a barber who handled the wounded and made some extra money selling ointments [2, 14]. There is no evidence that Francesco ever served in the colonies, but all salaried physicians were expected to spend some time in the fleet. In Venice, all physicians were obliged to surrender to the authorities any person suspected of being a criminal [2, 15]. No respect was given the confidentiality of what passed between physician and patient. More startling from a modern viewpoint is that government-paid physicians were required to assist in the torture of criminals [2, 16]. Included in these tortures were hanging stones of up to...

Heinrich von Kleist: The Captive Vision

Heinrich von Kleist's was an obsessionally tidy mind. He meticulously dotted his poetic i's and crossed his poetic t's. Yet also he has often dismissed us into silence; strangely eloquent silences, like that at the end of the essay Uber das Marionettentheater, or the one that flowers from Alkmene's Ach! or from Don Fernando's concluding words which leave a whole world swaying in the balance. And then, of course, there is the caressing silence that surrounds those sweet and near-idiotic exchanges (as they have been called) between Homburg and Stranz as the prince nears the place of his execution. But nowhere has the poet been more elusive than in that reputedly most blatant of his works: Die Hermannsschlacht. There, in the second act, just as the young Roman Ventidius makes ready to snip off one of Thusnelda's locks, Kleist has placed a lyric upon her lips. This is how it runs:

The Psycho-Structure of Britannicus: Néron's Artistic Duperie

The Psycho-Structure ofBritannicus: Néron's Artistic Duperie GERALD S. GIAUQUE "For die reader and play-goer of today . . . die most interesting and compelling character is Nero." No contemporary critics will dispute diis judgment of Harold AuIt.1 Such has not always been die case, however . For any French critic of the seventeendi century, it was Britannicus , radier dian Néron, who was die principal character. The play was not well received at first, and Racine, who was very proud of diis play, experienced a feeling of disappointment at die initial coldness of the public: Voici celle de mes tragédies que je puis dire que j'ai le plus travaillée. Cependant j'avoue que le succès ne répondit pas d'abord à mes espérances. Mais enfin il est arrivé de cette pièce ce qui arrivera toujours des ouvrages qui auront quelque bonté. Les critiques se sont évanouies; la pièce est demeurée. C'est maintenant celle des miennes que la cour et le public revoient le plus volontiers. Et si j'ai fait quelque chose de solide, et qui mérite quelque louange, la plupart des connaisseurs demeurent d'accord que c'est ce même Britannicus. (Seconde Préface. Italics added.) The very careful style of the prefaces of Bntannicus suggests diat Racine gready desired diat his play be understood. The fact diat Racine's contemporaries came to accept Britannicus does not necessarily mean, however , that they understood it as he did. In fact die second preface may be a subtle hint diat Racine still did not feel, as late as 1676, diat die critics fully appreciated his tragedy. Maurice Descotes sees in die second preface an apology, even a veiled confession; he notes diat Racine Gerald S. Giauque is Associate Professor of Languages at Northern Arizona University. '"The Tragic Protagonist and the Tragic Subject in Britannicus!' French Studies, 9(1955), 18-29. ROCKY MOUNTAIN REVIEW39 "au fond de lui-même, a été plus attiré par le monstre naissant" (dian by Britannicus or even Agrippine). This declaration, which would have bodiered Racine's contemporaries, seems less incredible when one examines in detail die form of the play and die tone of die dialogues. The aim of diis paper is to show (1) diat Néron dominates die odier characters of die play to a much greater extent than is generally supposed and (2) diat die play is constructed in such a way diat even die spectator is drawn into it and is tricked by Néron. A brief synopsis of die play will make the analysis more meaningful . In Act I, Junie, die fiancée of the young Roman noble Britannicus, has been abducted on die orders of the emperor Néron. The emperor's modier Agrippine is outraged because this action reflects Néron's attempts to free himself from her influence. In Act II, Néron discusses his fascination for Junie widi his evil confident, Narcisse, and dien forces Junie to feign indifference to Britannicus by direatening the younger man's life should Junie encourage his love. The gravity of his threat becomes apparent as he informs Junie that he will be secretly watching her and judging her attitude toward Britannicus. Junie, in despair, plays her role in order to save Britannicus' life. But in Act III, she finds herself alone with her fiancé, informs him of Néron's jealousy and reassures him of her love; Britannicus immediately renews his vows, but Néron suddenly appears. His jealousy reveals itself, not in anger, but in sarcasm, after which Britannicus is arrested. In Act IV, Agrippine, who favors the alliance of Junie and Britannicus for political reasons, harangues Néron in an unsuccessful attempt to obtain Britannicus ' release and renew her own influence. Two odier members of the court, Burrhus, Néron's tutor and an exponent of virtue, and Narcisse , each try separately to influence die emperor, who appears to vacillate, dien falls silent. In Act V, Burrhus reports diat at a banquet ostensibly held to celebrate die reconciliation of Néron and Britannicus the young prince is assassinated by poison, and that Néron watches his agony...

Cicero's forensic oratory: The manifestation of power in the roman republic

Marcus Tullius Cicero, Roman statesman of the first century B.C., has been recognized as an influential theorist of rhetoric, but research focusing on his rise as a successful orator, which aided in establishing the credentials to write rhetorical treatises, has indicated the need for further investigation. This study demonstrates how Cicero, lacking an aristocratic heritage, tremendous wealth, and military sagacity, utilized his ability in forensic oratory to establish himself as a powerful force in the party politics of the Roman Republic. After examining Cicero's role in and view of the courts of Rome, and his accompanying political success, the author concludes that forensic oratory was a source of political power whereby young Romans who secured legal victories for influential clients could utilize their support in achieving public offices. The rhetorica of such successful orators as Cicero were therefore important because they provided axiological guidelines for political advancement.