Arma virumque canō? "Arms and the Man I sing …"1 So Vergil begins his epic tale of Aeneas, who overcomes tremendous obstacles to find and establish a new home for his wandering band of Trojan refugees. Were it metrically possible, Vergil could have begun with "Cities and the Man I sing," for Aeneas' quest for a new home involves encounters with cities of all types: ancient and new, great and small, real and unreal. These include Dido's Carthaginian boomtown (1.419-494), Helenus' humble neo-Troy (3.349-353) and Latinus' lofty citadel (7.149-192).2 Of course, central to his quest is the destiny of Rome, whose future greatness-empire without limit (1.277-278)-Jupiter prophesies to Venus as recompense for the destruction of her beloved Troy, but whose foundation ultimately depends on Aeneas' success at establishing a foothold in Italy (1.257-296). Although Rome's (notional/traditional) foundation will occur several centuries after Aeneas's final victory, Vergil has his hero interact with the future city in several ways, including two well-known passages. In the first (8.95-369) he tours Evander's Pallanteum, the physical site of future Rome, taking delight in his surroundings and learning local lore (8.310-312, 359), yet he fails to perceive that this
In Vergil’s Aeneid, Anchises, like Aeneas, may be seen as a pattern of Augustus, as his survey of his progeny reflects Augustus’ censorial activity (Augustus conducted his first census, without holding the office of censor, in 28 B.C.E.). This theory is supported by: verbal cues alluding to Rome’s topography and the location for the upper-class recognitio equitum; technical terms used to describe Anchises’ activity as he assesses his descendants; Anchises’ hortatory and monitory speech, similar to that of censors known from other literary works; and Vergil’s choice of heroes to represent the republic, most of whom were censors or from censorial families.
another perspective on the complex negotiation of cultural identity during a period of critical social, political and economic change. However, perhaps the key question raised by this volume (and other such regional histories) is whether or not Lucania has any validity as a regional unit once the Lucanian ethnos is dissolved.
Ancient sources relate that the tribunes of the plebs were created in the first plebeian secession (494–493
bce
) to act as officers for the assembly of the plebs, to pass resolutions (plebiscites) binding on the plebs, and to defend the plebs and their property against abusive magistrates. By 287
bce
, the tribunate had become Rome's principal legislative institution, its plebiscites binding on all Roman citizens. Through aggressive use of their legislative and obstructive powers,
popularis
tribunes of the later second century
bce
helped spark off the so‐called “Roman Revolution,” a century of civil and military conflict that culminated in the establishment of the Augustan principate and the reduction of the tribunate to an urban administrative position. Nevertheless, literary and epigraphic evidence indicates that the office of
tribunus plebis
continued as an important step on the
cursus honorum
into the late imperial era.
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