Historiography and Imagination: Eight Essays on Roman CultureHow did the Romans make sense of their own past? And how can we make sense of it, when the evidence for early Rome and the Republic is so inadequate? In this volume, Professor Wiseman focuses on some of the more unfamiliar aspects of the Roman experience, where the historian needs not just knowledge but imagination too. The first essay in the book, the 1993 Ronald Syme Lecture "The Origins of Historiography", argues that dramatic performances at the public games were the medium through which the Romans in the "pre-literary" period made sense of their own past. All Latin and Greek source material is translated. |
Contents
The Origins of Roman Historiography | 1 |
Roman Legend and Oral Tradition | 23 |
Monuments and the Roman Annalists | 37 |
Lucretius Catiline and the Survival of Prophecy | 49 |
Satyrs in Rome? | 68 |
The Necessary Lesson | 86 |
Conspicui postes tectaque digna | 98 |
Abbreviations | 117 |
Index | 127 |
Figure i | 145 |
Figure vi | 154 |
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Common terms and phrases
Aeschylus Ancient Arch argument Augustus authors beginning Caesar called Cambridge century BC certainly Cicero Classical Claudius Coarelli consul contemporary context course Crassicius culture Dion Dionysius divine doubt drama early Etruscan evidence example Fabius Fasti Festus Forum fourth gods Greek historians historiography imagine important Italy king known late later Latin literary Livy London ludi Mater monument myth origins Ovid Oxford Palatine passage past performance perhaps period Plautus plays Pliny NH Plut poet political Porta possible probably prophecy prophets reason referred Republic Roman Rome Romulus satyr-play satyrs says seems Senate Servius sources stage statue story Studies Suet suggests T.P. Wiseman temple theatre traditional turn Varro vates VIII writing