Bread and Circuses

Reuniting the Parthenon marbles... in London

Amusingly provocative letter in today's Telegraph:

SIR – If Greece does succumb to bankruptcy (report, April 29), presumably receivers will be appointed. In that event, it may prove to be a mutually beneficial opportunity for the British Museum to acquire the remainder of the Parthenon marbles at a knockdown price.

Dr Martin Goldman
London N20

Colin Wells RIP

Sad to hear of the death of Colin Wells. It is hard to estimate how groundbreaking and inspirational his work on Augustan Germany was. Obituary in the Times:

Colin Wells was a distinguished classicist, archaeologist and historian. Over a career of 45 years he wrote or edited four books and more than 120 articles and reviews on the Roman frontier and army, the social and economic history of the empire, Ancient Carthage and the African provinces.

The work for which Wells will be most remembered is The German Policy of Augustus: an Examination of the Archaeological Evidence (1972). A review in the Journal of Roman Studies (LXIV 1974: 256) captured its fundamental and lasting importance in the opening sentence. “This book is an authoritative study of Augustan military activity in Germany and the archaeological evidence for it, by a scholar who must certainly know more about his subject than any save those actually engaged on the recovery of the primary archaeological material in the Rhineland, Switzerland and Bavaria.”

Books in late antiquity round up - April

A number of books on late antiquity have come across my desk recently. First up Ravenna in Late Antiquity by Deliyannis Deborah Mauskopf. It is reviewed both at the Wall Street Journal and at Archaeology of the Mediterranean World. As the latter writes:

In short, Deliyannis argued that Ravenna was uniquely positioned between East and West both politically and culturally. Nowhere is this more clear than in Its status as both a capital and a more marginal city over its long post-antique history. The result of these influences was the blend local and Mediterranean wide trends that produced a unique synthesis of Late Antique culture. The influences of the East in the Adriatic is an area of growing interest especially as we have come to recognize that the aftershocks of the various theological, ecclesiological, and Christological controversies in the East had a significant impact on Imperial authority in regions like the Balkans which fell under the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Papacy, but the political influence of the emperor in Constantinople.

Next up, Cecily Hennessy's Images of Children in Byzantium and reviewed by Rossitza Schroeder from the Pacific School of Religion at BMCR:

Byzantine children have not been previously the subject of a monograph mainly because Byzantium is frequently perceived as an adult world, its art solemn and serious. Yet, as Hennessy points out, children were not only subjects but also recipients and even makers of visual imagery. She further observes that like most pre-modern societies, at least half of the Byzantine population was under twenty years of age at any given point, which she deems especially important for the production and reception of visual images.

And finally Claudia Schindler's Per carmina laudes: Untersuchungen zur spätantiken Verspanegyrik von Claudian bis Coripp reviewed by Cologne's Thomas Gärtner:

Die Stärke des Claudian-Kapitels liegt besonders in der diachronen Betrachtungsweise: Ein chronologischer Durchlauf durch fünf repräsentative panegyrische Werke des Dichters (für Olybrius und Probrinus [diese Kapitelüberschrift ist ausgefallen im Inhaltsverzeichnis] = carm. 1, bellum Gildonicum = carm. 15, auf das dritte Konsulat des Honorius = carm. 7, auf das Konsulat Stilichos = carm. 21-24, bellum Geticum = carm. 26) zeigt, wie sich die panegyrische Technik des Claudian etabliert und weiterentwickelt, wie es ihm gelingt, den doch recht homogenen Gegenständen immer neue Facetten abzugewinnen, und wie er in den späteren Dichtungen zunehmend dazu tendiert, auf frühere intertextuell anzuspielen. Wenn Claudian auf epische Vorbilder rekurriert, arbeitet Schindler stets heraus, inwiefern diese "panegyrisch instrumentalisiert" werden. Das wichtigste Beispiel hierfür ist wohl der epische Götterapparat: Die in den Epen autonom handelnden und über die Menschenwelt waltenden Götter sinken bei Claudian zu Figuren herab, welche der Akklamation der überhöhten Sterblichen dienen, ja diese zum Teil um ihre Unterstützung anflehen müssen. In ähnlicher Weise wird der Status epischer Helden instrumentalisiert: Diese müssen oft dafür herhalten, als intertextuelle Kontrastfolie die grössere Bedeutung der als "Über-Helden" stilisierten Gefeierten zu verdeutlichen.

Arminius and Hitler

An odd one popped into my inbox. The top lot at a recent auction was the drawing of a foundry worker facing an allegorical figure said to be Arminius and attributed to Hitler. Indeed the foundry worker could well be a self-portrait. Paul Fraser Collectibles has an article on the piece.

Hitler was certainly an admirer of Arminius:

“Our history goes back to the days of Arminius and King Theoderic, and among the German Kaisers there have been men of the most outstanding quality; in them they bore the germ of German unity.”

And:

“If the Romans had not recruited Germans in their armies, the latter would never have had the opportunity of becoming soldiers and, eventually, of annihilating their former instructors. The most striking example is that of Arminius who became Commander of the Third Roman Legion [sic]. The Romans instructed the Third in the arts of war, and Arminius afterwards used it to defeat his instructors.” 

Both of the above quotes are from Hugh Trevor Roper, Hitler’s Table Talk 1941-1944 (London, 1953). Nonetheless, there is little chance that the figure in the image in the drawing could possibly be Arminius. In all visual representations of the Cheruscan hero, he is the young heroic leader and the imagery is characterised by youth and vitality. Given that the figure is in a forge with a swastika in the background, wouldn't Hephaestus make more sense?

How to win on the battlefield: Teutoburg

A piece in today's Mail on Sunday on the top ten greatest battlefield tactics. In pole position is Teutoburg:

In 9AD, Varus, the Roman governor of Germania, was lured into an ambush by Arminius, a Romanised German and officer of an auxiliary cavalry unit. Varus led three legions through the Teutoburg Forest to suppress a Germanic revolt, and when his 20,000 men were strung out along the line of march, Arminius struck with the full force of his warrior army. The Romans struggled on for days until the survivors made a last stand at Kalkriese Hill, north of present-day Osnabrück. The Roman defeat wasn't just physical; it was also psychological. Ambushes demand patience and careful siting, with precise coordination of each strike arm. The Germanic tribesmen, so often thought of as wild barbarians, succeeded because of their self-discipline in waiting for the right moment to spring their attack, but ultimately their strategy was an example of effective and channelled aggression.

It is an excerpt from a new book, How to Win on the Battlefield: The 25 Key Tactics of All Time by Rob Johnson and Michael Whitby.

Corpus Medicorum Graecorum/Latinorum Online

Via Rogueclassicism, the news that a good number of the Teubner Corpus Medicorum Graecorum/Latinorum are on line. Note especially the complete Oribasius, doctor to the Emperor Julian.

Peter Porter and Cassiodorus

Sad to read of the death of the Australian-born poet Peter Porter. Obituaries in today's Telegraph and Guardian. One of my favourite poems is The Last Hours of Cassiodorus. Porter captures late antiquity in a way that very few poets have been able to. Auden and, perhaps inevitably, Cavafy, come to mind as others who come close.

The Last Hours of Cassiodorus was first printed in the TLS in 2000.

God is laying his last slate to the roof,
The ceiling of my death is near complete,
The Vivarium now must live up to its name.

Fish in my stewponds circle silently,
Their free captivity is like the soul,
An endless round, then thrashing in a net.

Our state days pinioned in official letters,
The Variae of sound administration,
But Boethian birds still shun my volary.

Home to the South, to sad Scolacium,
From Civilisation and a Library,
The sea spray drying on acacia leaves.

After me what further barbarisms?
My pose is prayer, but yet my head is filled
With the terrifying dissonance of God.

I have lived well past my statutory days,
The mapping pen has fallen from my hand,
A hundred years or more of beating wings.

You can hear Porter read the Pines of Rome, another Roman poem, at The Poetry Archive. RIP.

The best emperor Rome never had

For better or worse, most writers are egocentric enough to pick up most places where they have been quoted. It is rare to hear about one almost a year after it happened and especially if it brings a smile to your face. Rome's Greatest Defeat was cited in Prisma, the equivalent for British readers of the Radio Times, in May last year:

Kaiser Augustus hatte in der letzen seiner wankelmütigen Nachfolgeregelungen seinen Stiefsohn Tiberius zum nächsten Kaiser bestimmt, gleichzeitig aber veranlasst, dass Tiberius den Germanicus adoptiere, und damit schon den Nachfolger des Nachfolgers auserkoren. Germanicus, "der beste Kaiser, den Rom niemals hatte" wie der britische Historiker Adrian Murdoch schreibt, stand vor einer gottgleichen Zukunft, nur dass er gerade dabei war, den entscheidenden Fehler seines Lebens zu machen."

Glasgow's GUARD Under Threat

A spectacularly depressing piece of news in the Herald that Glasgow University Archaeological Research Division, better known as GUARD, is under threat:

Guard is facing an uncertain future after university officials put forward proposals for a consultation which could see the unit closed, threatening some 30 jobs. 

They argue the unit is not viable because it is not meeting targets set for all departments to generate income. 

The exact figures were not available from the university yesterday, but The Herald understands the target set for Guard was up to £350,000 and the shortfall was £150,000.

It is hard to think of a dumber move on the part of the university. More on the same story from the Evening Times.

Recent classical posts

Rather than a full blog post, here are a number of posts that have caught my eye recently.

Roger Pearce has a novel from the Theodosian Code. 

Mary Beard has a splendid post on a fabulous Isabelle de Pedro dress with a print from the Villa of the Mysteries in Pompeii. 

Medieval News has a medievalists guide to the British election. There is also a nice piece on the Online Froissart (a bit later than this blog normally looks at, but interesting). 

Looting matters has some video from the Cairo conference. 

Rogueclassicism has the reopening of a Mithraic site in the Rodopi Mountains.

The Römermuseum in Haltern is open again. 

An extensive piece on Muziris in Frontline magazine. Great pix. 

A Corner of Tenth-Century Europe notes that Francia is online. 

The Times has an interview with Rachel Weisz about her new film, Agora, in which she plays the fourth-century Egyptian philosopher Hypatia. I thought that it came out last year. 

Finally, (and late) via Elginism, a funny April's Fool gag from Hedgefunds Review.