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Roman Culture

Roman Culture. to the Gracchi. Pre-literary to Literary Culture. Public Culture. public ritual public drama public writings (inscriptions). carmen, carminis , n. chant, prayer, spell, law, song, poem. The Untranslatable Hymn of the Salii. fr. 1:

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Roman Culture

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  1. Roman Culture to the Gracchi

  2. Pre-literary to Literary Culture

  3. Public Culture public ritual public drama public writings (inscriptions)

  4. carmen, carminis, n. chant, prayer, spell, law, song, poem

  5. The Untranslatable Hymn of the Salii

  6. fr. 1: divum +empta+ cante, divum deo supplicate • fr. 2: cume tonas, Leucesie, prae tet tremonti +quot+ ibet etinei de is cum tonarem

  7. The Hymn of the Arval Brethren

  8. enos Lases iuvate enos Lases iuvate enos Lases iuvate That is, “help us, Lares.”

  9. neve lue rue Marmar sins incurrere in pleoris neve lue rue Marmar sins incurrere in pleoris neve lue rue Marmar sins incurrere in pleoris “Don’t let plague and ruin, o Marmar, make incursions on the people.”

  10. satur fu, fere Mars, limen sali, sta berber satur fu, fere Mars, limen sali, sta berber satur fu, fere Mars, limen sali, sta berber… “Be replete, Mars, leap the threshold, stay the barbarian…”

  11. Other carmina: Some kind of indigenous traditon of historical song-- maybe

  12. Cicero, in the Brutus: “Would that those songs were still extant, which Cato tells us in his Origines used to be sung by each guest in turn at the banquets of our ancestors, many ages before his time, about the praises of illustrious men.”

  13. “…at the banquets of our ancestors”

  14. Carmen / Law

  15. Under the “black stone” (lapis niger) in the Forum, was found, in 1899 • a cippus, with an inscription • possibly late 6th century BCE • boustrophedon carving

  16. Some words are legible: • sakros es- “let him be accursed” (?) • recei “for/to the king” • iouxamenta “draft animals”

  17. The Twelve Tables

  18. Cicero, De Oratore, I.44: • Though all the world exclaim against me, I will say what I think: that single little book of the Twelve Tables, if anyone look to the fountains and sources of laws, seems to me, assuredly, to surpass the libraries of all the philosophers, both in weight of authority, and in plenitude of utility.

  19. Not a “little book”, but a series of tablets. • 451-449 BCE

  20. From the Twelve Tables • Cito necatus insignis ad deformitatem puer esto. • A markedly deformed child shall be put to death immediately. • Si pater filium ter venum duit, filius a patre liber esto. • If a father sells his son into slavery three times, the son shall be free of his father.

  21. 186BCE The SCU de Bacchanalibus

  22. from the SCU de Bacchanalibus “Let none of them be minded to maintain a place of Bacchic worship. Should there be any who say that they must maintain a place of Bacchic worship, they must come to Rome to the urban praetor, and about these matters, when their words have been heard, our Senate shall make a decision…”

  23. Epitaphs Carmen / poem

  24. Lucius Cornelius Scipio Barbatus son of Gnaeus, a brave man and prudent, whose looks were fully equal to his valor; he was aedile, consul, (and) censor among you; he took Taurasia (and) Cisauna in (or from) Samnium; he subdues all Lucania and takes away hostages.

  25. A meter called Saturnians a native Italian meter

  26. Early Latin Poetry Epic Drama

  27. Vortere“to turn” “transform” Transforming a Greek Legacy

  28. Livius Andronicus Dramatist and Latin Epic Poet Possibly a half-Greek from Tarentum

  29. Comedy and Tragedies at the Ludi Romani in 240BCE • names of his plays include: Aegisthus, Aiax, Equos Troianus, Ino, Tereus

  30. The Odyssey virum mihi, Camena, insece versutum ÖAndra moi ¶nnepe, MoËsa, polÊtropon, ˘w mãla pollå

  31. Greek Hexameter Muse Odysseus Latin Saturnian Meter Camena (an Italian nymph) Ulixes

  32. Naevius Bellum Punicum: an epic, in saturnians, on the First Punic War

  33. Ennius Annales Drama

  34. Annales • Temporal Structure puts Rome at center • From Rome’s Foundation • Latin, but in Hexameters • after Ennius, no one seemed to bother with Saturnians anymore

  35. The Earliest Authors Whose Works Survive • Plautus • situations, names, Greek • Terence • often combines the plots of two Greek plays in one • complains of competition from tight-rope walkers, dancing bears

  36. Public venues: the city (hymn of the Salii) the forum (laws, plays) the roadside (epitaphs)

  37. Cato the Elder

  38. Speeches: he made copies and circulated them • Wrote a treatise on farming • Origines: origins of Italian cities • on Greek model of “origin” stories • did not name major characters; these are the achievements of the people

  39. Cicero, in the Brutus: “Would that those songs were still extant, which Cato tells us in his Origines used to be sung by each guest in turn at the banquets of our ancestors, many ages before his time, about the praise of illustrious men.”

  40. Oral and public before written and private • Written and posted before written in books and read privately • Poetry before prose • (and yet even Ciceronian prose was rhythmic) • Importance of the Greek legacy

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