The Classical World

by Robin Lane Fox

  CHAPTER 45. THE JULIO-CLAUDIANS

  T. P. Wiseman, Roman Studies: Literary and Historical (1987) cautions that, strictly, there was no Julio-Claudian 'dynasty', but the Julian gens and the imperial domus, so that Claudius is strictly an interloper: pages 96 and 376-7. Thorough biographies now guide us through all the issues: Barbara Levick, Tiberius the Politician (1999, 2nd edn.); G. P. Baker, Tiberius Caesar:

  Emperor of Rome (2001, reissue) is vivid; A. A. Barrett, Caligula: The Cor­ruption of Power (1993); Barbara Levick, Claudius (1993); Miriam Griffin, Nero: The End of a Dynasty (1984); Edward Champlin, Nero (2003); Jas Eisner and Jamie Masters (eds.), Reflections of Nero (1994), on the culture and legacy. On their settings, Clemens Krause, Villa Jovis: Die Residenz der Tiberius auf Capri (2003) is excellent, with A. F. Stewart, in Journal of Roman Studies (1977), 76-94; Elisabeth Segala and Ida Sciortino, Domus Aurea (1999), on Nero's awful House. On two of the women, Nikos Kok-kinos, Antonia Augusta: Portrait of a Great Roman Lady (2002), updated for new evidence; Anthony Barrett, Agrippina (1996). Greg Rowe, Princes and Political Culture: The New Tiberian Senatorial Decrees (2002) discusses the remarkable new finds of inscriptions. Doreen Innes and Barbara Levick, in Omnibus II (1989), 17-19, on empresses' toothpaste.

  CHAPTER 46. RULING THE PROVINCES

  Barbara Levick, The Government of the Roman Empire (2000, 2nd edn.) is an outstanding commentary on major texts in translation; P. A. Brunt, Roman Imperial Themes (1990) is now the classic study, especially chapters 4 (on which I differ, somewhat), 6, 8, 10, 11, 12 and 14-18; A. H. M. Jones, The Roman Economy, edited by P. A. Brunt (1974), chapters 1, 2 and 8 are also fundamental; Andrew Lintott, Imperium Romanum (1993) is an excellent synthesis; S. R. F. Price, Rituals and Power (1984), chapter 3-8, on cults of the empires in the Greek East. J. A. Crook, Law and Life of Rome (1967), chapters 2, 3 and 8 are still valuable; Stephen Mitchell, Anatolia: Land, Men and Gods in Asia Minor, volume I (1993), is an exemplary study of Asia Minor's provinces; Alan K. Bowman, Egypt after the Pharaohs (1986) and Naphtali Lewis, Life in Egypt under Roman Rule (1983) are excellent intro­ductions to the best-documented area; C. R. Whittaker, Frontiers of the Roman Empire (1994) is a series of social and economic studies; F. G. B. Millar, The Roman Empire and its Neighbours (1981, 2nd edn.) is a good collection on the world beyond.

  CHAPTER 47. EFFECTS OF EMPIRE

  R. MacMullen, Romanization in the Time of Augustus (2000) is a very good survey; on benefactions, Stephen Mitchell, in Harvard Studies in Classical Philology (1987), 333-66, a very valuable study; P. A. Brunt, Roman Imperial Themes (1990), 267-81, and also pages 282-7 and 517-31 on Judaea are fundamental; Cambridge Ancient History, volume XI (2000, 2nd edn.), 444-678, is full of important material; Stephen Mitchell and Marc Waelkens, Pisidian Antioch: The Site and Its Monuments (1998) is excellent; on the West, T. F. Blagg and Martin Millett, The Early Roman Empire in the West (2002), especially Jonathan C. Edmondson, pages 169-73 on Conim-briga, and Nicola Mackie, pages 179-93 on 'epigraphic' honours and urban consciousness. A. T. Fear, Rome and Baetica (1996) is excellent on municipal law in Spain, with J. Gonzalez, in Journal ofRoman Studies (1986), 147-243, and Alan Rodger, ibid. (1991), 74-90, and (1996), 61-73, on me recent Irni law. Peter Salway, Roman Britain (1981) and M. D. Goodman, The Ruling Class of Judaea (1987). Tessa Rajak, Josephus: The Historian and His Society (2002, 2nd edn.) is excellent on a historian I regret having omitted as not fully 'classical'. J. N. Adams, in Journal of Roman Studies (1995), 86-134 is excellent on the Latin found at Hadrian's Wall, a comfort to those in Britain whose Latin is still no better.

  CHAPTER 48. CHRISTIANITY AND ROMAN RULE

  E. P. Sanders, The Historical Figure of Jesus (1993) is an excellent methodical study; Gerd Theissen and Annette Merz, The Historical Jesus (1998, English translation), 125-280, gives a full survey; Paula Frederiksen, From Jesus to Christ (1988), the next stage; G. B. Caird, The Apostolic Age (1955) is still valuable; 'Christmas', was refuted by E. Schuerer, in A History of the Jewish People, volume I (1973, revised edn. by F. G. B. Millar and G. Vermes), 399-427; R. J. Lane Fox, The Unauthorized Version (1991), 27-36, 200-11, 243-51 and 283-310, and Pagans and Christians (1986), 265-335; C. E. M. de Sainte Croix, in D. Baker (ed.), Studies in Church History, volume 12 (T975)> 1_38, vigorously criticizes Christian attitudes to property and slavery, and in Past and Present (1963), 6-38, he gives the classic account of Christian persecution; Wayne A. Meeks, The First Urban Christians: The Social World of the Apostle Paul (1983); M. Goodman, Mission and Conversion (1994) provokes thought; Henry Chadwick, The Early Church (1993, 2nd edn.) is the best one-volume history.

  CHAPTER 49. SURVIVING FOUR EMPERORS

  Kenneth Wellesley, The Year of the Four Emperors (2000), 3rd edn.) is the fullest modern account; early chapters in Barbara Levick, Vespasian (1999) are also fundamental, with full bibliography; on Vespasian's law, I differ from the very important study of P. A. Brunt, in Journal of Roman Studies

  (I977); 95_II6; P. A. Brunt, Papers of the British School at Rome (1975), 7-35 is the classic study of philosophers and Stoics.

  CHAPTER 50. THE NEW DYNASTY

  Barbara Levick, Vespasian (1999) is the fundamental guide, with full notes and bibliography; Pat Southern, Domitian: Tragic Tyrant (1997) is one read­able guide, especially on the later years; also, Brian W. Jones, The Emperor Domitian (1992); John D. Grainger, Nerva and the Roman Succession Crisis of ad 96-99 (2001) discusses Nerva's reign too; A. J. Boyle and W. J. Dominik, Flavian Rome: Culture, Image, Text (2003) range widely over arts and culture; R. Darwall-Smith, Emperors and Architecture: A Study of Flavian Rome (1996); Paul Zanker, in Alan K. Bowman and Hannah M. Cotton (eds.), Representations of Empire (2002), 105-30, an overview of Domitian's palace in Rome.

  CHAPTER 51. THE LAST DAYS OF POMPEII

  English readers are much better served now, with Paul Zanker, Pompeii: Public and Private Life (1998); Alison E. Cooley and M. G. C. Cooley, Pompeii: A Sourcebook (2004) which is now invaluable, with Alison E. Cooley, Pompeii: Guide to the Lost City (2000). Salvatore Nappo, Pompeii (2000) is the best popular guide; James L. Franklin, Pompeiis Difficile Est . . . (2001) is a very good epigraphic study; Antonio D'Ambrosio, Women and Beauty in Pompeii (2001) is short but interesting; W. F. Jashemski and Frederick G. Meyer (eds.). The Natural History of Pompeii (2002) has much new evidence, as does Annamaria Ciarallo, Gardens of Pompeii (2000); John R. Clarke, Roman Sex: 100 bc-ad 250 (2003) puts Pompeian erotica in a wider context; Sara Bon and R. Jones, Sequence and Space in Pompeii (1997) and T. McGran and P. Carafa (eds.), Pompeian Brothels: Pompeii's Ancient History . . . (2002) are two good essay collections. There is much else, but J. J. Deiss, Herculaneum: A City Returns to the Sun (1968) is the main English book given solely to Pompeii's important neighbour.

  CHAPTER 52. A NEW MAN IN ACTION

  A. N. Sherwin-White, The Letters of Pliny (1966) is a superb commentary; the Bithynian letters are revisited by his pupil, Wynne Williams, Pliny: Corre­spondence with Trajan from Bithynia (1990); R. Syme, Roman Papers, vol­ume VII (1991), is more narrowly focused on prosopography; Richard Duncan-Jones, The Economy of the Roman Empire (1974), 17-32, is excel­lent on Pliny's finances. C. P. Jones, The Roman World of Dio Chrysostom (1978) is a fine study of Bithynia through another contemporary's texts; Christian Marek, Pontus Et Bithynia (2003) is a brilliantly illustrated local study; J. P. Sullivan, Martial: The Unexpected Classic (1991) with D. R. Shackleton Bailey, Martial: Epigrams, volumes I—III (1993, Loeb Library) which is masterly. Samuel Dill, Roman Society from Nero to Marcus Aurelius (1905, 2nd edn.), 141-286, is still unsurpassed in general range.

  CHAPTER 53. A PAGAN AND CHRISTIANS

  Much that I discuss here is implicit in R. J. Lane Fox, Pagans and Christians (1986) and the valuable review-article of P. R. L. Brown, in Philosophical Books, 43 (2002), 185-208, together with his The Body and Society (1989) and Poverty and Leadership in the Later Roman Empire (2002). On suicide, see M. T. Griffin, in Greece and Rome (1986), 64-77 and 192-202; o
n gardens, the best English guide is Linda Farrar, Ancient Roman Gardens (2000), with the legacy well illustrated in Patrick Bowe, Gardens of the Roman World (2004).

  CHAPTER 54. REGIME CHANGE, HOME AND AWAY

  Julian Bennett, Trajan (1997) gathers together recent work excellently and allows me to refer simply to its bibliography on the matters in (and outside) my text; F. A. Lepper and S. S. Frere, Trajan's Column (1988) have excellent discussions of the Dacian War and many related issues, but should be read with M. Wilson Jones, in journal of Roman Archaeology (1993), 23-38 and the very important revisions of Amanda Claridge, ibid. (1993), 5-22, attributing to Hadrian a major role in the monument, a view which I have hesitated over, simply because it is controversial, as James E. Packer shows, in Journal of Roman Archaeology (1994), 163-82. James E. Packer, The Forum of Trajan in Rome (2001, paperback) gives a briefer version of his masterwork on this subject; Lionel Casson, Libraries in the Ancient World (2001) puts the library in context. There is much in Annette Niinnerich-Asmus, Traian: Ein Kaiser der Superlative am Beginn einer Umbruchzeit? (2002). Anthony R. Birley, Hadrian: The Restless Emperor (1997), 35-77 is helpful, and in Journal of Roman Studies (1990), 115-26, discusses the Parthian War, but I remain firm about the chronology I adopt here, noting that it is also adopted by Birley, Hadrian, 71-3.

  CHAPTER 55. PRESENTING THE PAST

  Andrew Wallace-Hadrill, Suetonius (1995, 2nd edn.) and R. Syme, Roman Papers, volume III (1984), 1251-75, on biography; R. Syme, Ten Studies in Tacitus (1970) is more accessible than his Tacitus (1958) whose Hadrianic date for the Annals I reject; Syme, Roman Papers volume III pages 1014-42, IV (1988), 199-222, and VI (1991), 43-54, are all penetrating; Ronald Mellor, Tacitus (1993) and R. Martin, Tacitus (1981) are clear and helpful; J. B. Rives, Tacitus: Cermania (1999) translates it; R. M. Ogilvie and I. Richmond (eds.), Taciti Agricola (1967) gives excellent notes and introduc­tion; T. D. Barnes, in Harvard Studies in Classical Philology (1986), 225-64, is perceptive on the Dialogues; M. T. Griffin, in Scripta Classica Israelica (1999), 139-58, is excellent on Pliny and Tacitus; also in I. Malkin and Z. W. Rubensohn, Leaders and Masses in the Roman World (1995), 33-58, on Tacitus and Tiberius and in Classical Quarterly (1982), 404-16, on Tacitus, the Lyons Tablet and his provincial view.

  Commentary on the Illustrations

  i. Black-figure amphora of the Tyrrhenian Group, c. 540 bc, showing a pentathlete in action (British Museum, London)

  z. Red-figure mixing-bowl, or krater, showing a symposion during which a slave-girl plays music for the male diners on their couches. On the right the diner is pouring watered wine into a cup, pbiale, from a drinking-horn, rbyton, which ends in the forepart of a horse. Fourth century bc (Kunsthistor-isches Museum, Vienna)

  3.Black-figure lekythos, or oil flask, showing a hunter with his spears and hound: Edinburgh Painter, Athens c. 510-500 bc (Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum: Photo: AKG Images, London)

  4.Older male, sexually aroused, fondles a young boy, who has slight down on his cheeks but no pubic hair: under age, certainly, so perhaps pre-pubic paidophilia, and definitely not 'ephebophilia', sex with older adolescents. The cup is now in Oxford, but it is not showing a 'teacher' sexually harassing a 'pupil'. A sponge and a strigil are behind the older man, signifying a gym or wrestling space: the boy has a net or bag, possibly for 'gym' gear. It represents a sexual advance in a sports-arena: as the male owner of the cup drank the last of the wine, this sex-scene appeared, a 'tondo' at the bottom of the cup. Red-figure tondo; Brygos Painter, c. 480 bc (Ashmolean Museum, Oxford)

  5. Bronze figurine of a Spartan girl, detached from the rim of a bronze vessel. Her dress is cut away from the shoulder, Spartan style, and held up at the knee, suggesting that she is not an athlete running in a lady's race (in honour of Hera) but a dancer, though female Spartan dancers were said often to dance naked (British Museum)

  6.Marble statue from the acropolis in Sparta of a god or hero, bearded but not moustached. Probably one of a group on a Spartan temple: misunderstood as the famous Spartan warrior, Leonidas, when discovered in 1925 (Archaeo-

  logical Museum of Sparta. Photo: Deutsches Archaologisches Institut-Athens)

  7.Footsoldiers of Persian king, wearing pointed hats, with ear-flaps, in Scythian style: limestone relief from palaces at Persepolis, fourth century bc (Vorderasiatisches Museum, Berlin)

  8.Painting on the inner surface of the coffin-lid of the 'Tomb of the Diver', found in 1968 about a mile south of Paestum. Four other paintings of scenes from a symposium decorated the inner sides: the young boy dives, holding his head awkwardly, from a plinth of uncertain significance. Like the symposium scenes, the scene surely refers to worldly life, perhaps to something in the dead man's earlier life, rather than symbolizing his dive out into the 'unknown' space of the underworld, a favoured but fanciful interpretation. Painting on white stucco surface (Paestum Museum. Photo: © author)

  9.Small terracotta plaque, one of many dedicated at the sanctuary of Perse­phone at Locri, in the Greek West, now Calabria in S. Italy. Probably the plaques were fixed on trees. In my view the young woman is putting away the folded cloth, not taking it out. The front of the chest is decorated with a panel of the goddess Athena killing a giant (Enceladus?) and another of a man leading off a woman, apparently willingly, by taking her right wrist. The allusion is possibly to an 'abduction' for marriage: the scene with the giant suggests, but only to some, that 'violence' is involved in male-female marriage. The lady is also thought to be preparing for marriage, perhaps packing up in her parental home. In my view, the young woman is already married, and enjoying it all, with symbols of her household role, including the cloth (a blanket) and the mirror and the wool-basket of a 'good wife' above her head. Just as the virgin Athena laid low a giant, so she, a virgin, thunderstruck her man whom she followed, taken willingly by the hand. If so, the plaque is dedicated by a woman in gratitude, not in preparation. c. 470-450 (Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Reggio Calabria)

  10. The upper half of one of the 'Riace bronzes', Warrior A, displayed since recovery in 1980, in Reggio di Calabria. Certainly a hero, he survived with his teeth and original eye balls, a masterpiece. On one view, he and Warrior B were two of the ten heroes, eponyms of the Athenian democracy's tribes, made by the great Pheidias and dedicated at Delphi c. 460 bc. Others cham­pion an artist from Argos, citing the (inconclusive) evidence of the type of earth used in the statue's filling. Many others remain safely agnostic. But he is a great work, plundered from Greece and shipped west before being wrecked (and saved on the seabed) near Locri in S. Italy (Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Reggio Calabria)

  11. Fine marble Attic funerary-relief, perhaps of 431/0 bc, showing a dis­mounted Athenian cavalryman, holding his horse's reins in one hand and raising his sword in the other to kill his fallen enemy. The victim and the killer gaze at each other in a 'frozen' classic moment, of great power. The left of the relief shows hilly landscape, perhaps in Attica itself. The encounter may, then, belong in the first battle, a cavalry one, of the Peloponnesian War, described in Thucydides 2.22.2. If so, the victim may be a Theban and the Athenian cavalryman commemorated here will have been one of the beneficiaries of Pericles' Funeral Oration, the defining classical speech (Villa Albani, Rome. Photo: Hirmer Verlag)

  12. Attic black-figure tondo, painted inside a drinking-cup and showing a slave, contemptibly ugly, with ankles chained: he puts stones into a basket. As the drinker emptied the wine, he would see this contemptible figure at the bottom of his cup, and be amused. Attic black-figure tondo, c. 490-80 bc (Rijksmuseum van Oudheiden, Leiden)

  13. Attic red-figure cup by the Cage painter, showing a youth, wreathed, so perhaps not a slave, filling his kylix, or drinking cup, with watered wine from the mixing bowl at a symposium, c. 490 bc (Musee du Louvre, Paris)

  14. White-ground lekythos, or oil-flask showing a lady musician, with the caption 'Helicon', mountain of the Muses. She plays to a second lady, round the flask, who appears to gesture to the music. The implic
ation, perhaps, is that the dead Athenian lady honoured by this flask is 'like a Muse': certainly, well-born Athenian women learned music. Achilles Painter, c. 440 bc (Anti-kensammlungen, Munich)

  15. Marble relief showing a pensive Athena in front of what is probably a grave monument, rather than a boundary marker. It might be inscribed with the names of Athenian casualties, recently dead in war, c. 460 bc (Acropolis Museum, Athens)

  16. Grave monument of Sosias and Kephisodorus whose names are inscribed above, from the left to beyond centre. It seems, then, that these two are the two left-hand figures, the left one wearing a priestly robe, the other hoplite armour and a pointed helmet, shaking hands with a third hoplite on the right. Are they the only dead men, one of whom takes a fond farewell of a fellow hoplite? Or, less plausibly, are all three dead? They fell in the Peloponnesian War: c. 410 bc (Antikensammlungen, Berlin)

  17. Attic red-figure jug, or pelike, showing a baby learning to crawl, c. 430-520 bc (British Museum, London)

  18. Copy of the portrait-statue by Polyeuctus of the great Athenian orator and democrat Demosthenes, which was set up by admiring democrats in Athens in 280-79 BC forty years after his death. It stood in the Agora near the Altar of the Twelve Gods. In the original, his hands were clasped simply, without a scroll. The style is admirably classical, in a 'severe' style, and the face and the position of the hands are apt for the expression of grief: the great Demosthenes, then, is mourning the city's loss of freedom to King Philip, and was put up in 280 on the proposal of his nephew Demochares at a time of renewed patriotic and democratic fervour against Macedon. The last great classical Greek statue, looking back to a classical hero, but made in a post-classical age (Ny Carlsberg Glyptothek)