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Classical Studies 202 Ancient Roman Society Lecture # 2

Classical Studies 202 Ancient Roman Society Lecture # 2. - THE EARLY REPUBLIC (509 - 264 BC) - - G O V E R N M E N T – REPUBLICAN IDEALS – BREAK – - FAMILY LIFE - - WOMEN – - C H I L D R E N - - REPUBLICAN LITERATURE -. THE EARLY REPUBLIC (509 - 264 BC).

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Classical Studies 202 Ancient Roman Society Lecture # 2

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  1. Classical Studies 202Ancient Roman SocietyLecture # 2 - THE EARLY REPUBLIC (509 - 264 BC) - - G O V E R N M E N T – • REPUBLICAN IDEALS – • BREAK – - FAMILY LIFE - - WOMEN – - C H I L D R E N - - REPUBLICAN LITERATURE -

  2. THE EARLY REPUBLIC (509 - 264 BC) • 510/509 BC expulsion of Etruscan Kings • Romans date this as 244 a.u.c.(ab urbe condita = “from the foundation of the city”) 244 + 509 = 753 BC • “res publica” (commonwealth, republic) • Consuls (chief magistrates) • Dictator - 6 months maximum • Horatius legend

  3. 509 BC the Etruscan king Lars Porsenna of Clusium attacked Rome Horatiusdefended the Pons Sublicius bridge Tiberinus, holy father, I pray thee to receive into thy propitious stream these arms and this thy warrior." Horatius Cocles (“The One- Eyed”)

  4. THE EARLY REPUBLIC (509 - 264 BC) • Tribunes (representatives of the plebs) • Plebeian Council • Twelve Tables (450 BC) • 493 BC Latin League • “Divide & Conquer” • 480 – 396 BC Veii (Etruscan city north of Rome)

  5. The Sack of Rome • Gauls are tall, and blonde or red-haired (woad dipped!) • Many huge, migratory tribes in France • Very aggressive footsoldiers, cavalry and charioteers • Heroic warfare still important • Fanatics would fight naked! • 390/387 sack Rome : Brennus • “Vae Victis” : “Woe to the Vanquished” • Capitol (citadel on Capitoline Hill)

  6. Rome Expands • “Servian” Wall (really dates to 380's, not Servius Tullius) • ager publicus ( land belonging to the state) • colonies (veteran settlement in captured territories) • Samnite Wars (343 - 290 BC) • 321 BC Caudine Forks : “Pass Beneath the Yolk” • Via Appia : fortified road from Rome to Campania via Latium

  7. Herdsmen, who live in the hills east and south of Rome Huge families threaten to swamp Italy Mobile experts at mountain and rough ground fighting & skirmishing The Samnites

  8. The Pyrrhic Wars • Tarentum • King Pyrrhus of Epirus (cousin of Alexander the Great) • 280 – 275 BC Pyrrhic Wars • 264 BC Rome is “Domina” of central and southern Italy

  9. G O V E R N M E N T • S.P.Q.R. (The Senate and Roman People) • Senate (aristocratic, 300 > 600 members) • - major legislation • - foreign policy • - senatus consultum (decree of the Senate) • Popular Assemblies • (1) Curiate (30 curias): - approve adoptions, wills • -bestow power on senior magistrates

  10. G O V E R N M E N T • (2) Centuriate (193 centuries): based on wealth and military potential • -80 votes for rich aristocrats • -18 votes for Equestrians • -rest for lesser propertied and poorer citizens • -no vote for the Proletariat • -rich can always outvote the poor • -elect senior magistrates (Consuls, Censors and Praetors) • -declare war • -capital appeals court

  11. G O V E R N M E N T • (3) Tribal (20 > 35 tribes): -4 in Rome and 31 in country • - elect lower magistrates(10 Tribunes) • -all socio-economic classes together • -legislation • -non-capital appeals court

  12. G O V E R N M E N T • Plebeian Council (471 BC) • plebiscite (decision of the plebs) = law, 287 BC • Magistrates: • cursus honorum (senatorial career pattern) • quaestor (20) - financial, incl. provincial treasurer • aediles (4) - in charge of streets, markets, festivals, public works • praetor (8) – in charge of public law courts or governor • consul (2) - chief magistrate

  13. G O V E R N M E N T • proconsul, propraetor (magistrate serving in province, whose power is extended an extra year) • censor (2, every 5 years) - census, morals • tribune (10) - represent plebs - sacrosanctity - veto • dictator (1) - only in emergency (for 6 months max.) • lictors - carry fasces

  14. REPUBLICAN IDEALS • mos maiorum (ancestral customs) • gravitas (seriousness) • pietas (respect for authority to the gods, state and family) • religio (being “bound” to the gods) • virtus (manliness, courage) • fides (loyalty, faithfulness, honesty, integrity) • simplicitas (plain lifestyle) • clementia (calculated mercy) • frugalitas (frugality)

  15. FAMILY LIFE • familia (family) • Differences between Roman and “modern” families • paterfamilias (male head of the family) • patria potestas (authority of the paterfamilias) • genius (protective spirit) • matrona (wife of the paterfamilias)

  16. WOMEN • bias of our evidence (written by men for men) • role of women: - biological (childbirth, sex) - economic (dowry, household management, labour, wool-working) -supervise slaves, children • high moral standard expected (otherwise could be killed) • little involvement in public life (service to emperor or deity) • demonstration against Oppian Law on luxury (195 BC)

  17. WOMEN • some notable women: • Cornelia (mother of the Gracchi) • Laelia, Hortensia (orators) • Iaia of Cyzicus (painter) • Theophila (philosopher-poet, compared with Sappho) • Hypatia (philosopher-mathematician) • Demo (commentator on Homer) • criticism of women: Juvenal's 6th satire • praise of women: Quintilian; eulogy of Turia

  18. WOMEN • legal dependency: male control (father, husband, guardian) -incl. exposure, arranged marriages • double standard re. adultery, citizenship • home bodies, or party animals? e.g. Livy vs. Ovid; Sabine women; • Lucretia; Good Goddess; Papirius; poison mystery (331 BC) • women in work force (jobs attested in inscriptions, reliefs)

  19. C H I L D R E N • (sources: Pliny the Elder, Lucretius, Soranus, Quintilian, Martial, Cicero, Plutarch) • Augustus' legislation to encourage children • use of contraceptives • strange ideas on mechanics of birth • miscarriages • abortion (e.g. Domitian's niece) • exposure by paterfamilias • adoption

  20. C H I L D R E N • size of families (e.g. Germanicus, Marcus Aurelius) • illegitimate children • treatment of children • alimenta (relief scheme for farmers and needy children)

  21. REPUBLICAN LITERATURE • no Latin literature until 3rd c. BC • "Captive Greece captured her rude conqueror" (Horace) • 3rd c.: Livius Andronicus (translated Homer's Odyssey; plays) • 2nd c.: Ennius (Annals = Roman history in verse; plays) • Polybius, a Greek (prose History of Rome) • Plautus (slapstick comedies, set in Greece) • Terence (psychological comedies; plagiarized?) • Cato, "father of Latin prose" (technical subjects) • Lucilius (satire, the only lit. form invented by Romans)

  22. REPUBLICAN LITERATURE • (GOLDEN AGE (1st c. ): • Lucretius (philosophical poetry = Epicurean) • Catullus (Alexandrian school of lyric poetry; Lesbia) • Cicero (speeches; philosophical dialogues; letters to Atticus) • Caesar (historical commentaries on Gallic and civil wars) • Sallust (histories of Jugurthine war, Catiline’s conspiracy)

  23. THE LYRIC POETRY OF GAIUS VALERIUS CATULLUS Poem I “Julius Caesar, you’re a snot, I don’t care if you like it or not. Maybe you’re good luck, maybe you’re bad, I don’t care, now go on, and be mad.”

  24. THE LYRIC POETRY OF GAIUS VALERIUS CATULLUS Poem V “My Lesbia, let us live and let us love And not care two cents for old men Who sermonise and disapprove. Suns when they sink can rise again, But we, when our brief light has shone, Must sleep the long night on and on. Kiss me: a thousand kisses, then A hundred more, and now a second Thousand and hundred, and now still Hundreds and thousands more, until The thousands thousands can’t be counted And we’ve lost track of the amount And nobody can work us ill With the evil eye by keeping count.”

  25. THE LYRIC POETRY OF GAIUS VALERIUS CATULLUS Poem CXX “She swears she’d rather marry me Than anyone – even Jupiter, Supposing he were courting here. She swears; but what a girl will swear To the man who loves her ought to be Scribbled on water, scrawled on air.”

  26. THE LYRIC POETRY OF GAIUS VALERIUS CATULLUS Poem VIIIL “Lesbia spits all day against my name, And yet I’ll stake my life she loves me. Why? I curse her all the time – I’ve just the same symptoms If I don’t love her, let me die.”

  27. THE LYRIC POETRY OF GAIUS VALERIUS CATULLUS Poem VIIC “How do you, girl with the outsize nose, Colourless eyes, stub fingers, ugly toes, Coarse conversation and lips none too dry, Friend of the bankrupt man from Formiae. Are you the lady whom Cisapline Gaul Ranks with my Lesbia and dares to call Beautiful? O provincial generation – No taste, no culture, no imagination!”

  28. THE LYRIC POETRY OF GAIUS VALERIUS CATULLUS Poem CXIX “Rufus, it’s no matter for surprise That no girl offers you her tender thighs, Not even though you work at undermining Virtue with gifts of rare silks and clear-shining, Mouth-watering stones. An ugly rumour harms Your reputation. Underneath your arms They say you keep a fierce goat which alarms All comers – and no wonder, for the least Beauty would never bed with that rank beast. So either kill the pest that makes the stink Or else stop wondering why the women shrink.”

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