CARSTEN H. LANGE and JESPER M. MADSEN (EDS), CASSIUS DIO: GREEK INTELLECTUAL AND ROMAN POLITICIAN (Historiography of Rome and Its Empire 1). Leiden: Brill, 2016. Pp. xii + 364. isbn 9789004324169. €148.00/$162.00.

Abstract

speech (1.19-20), because in the nale of Satire 1 he confesses to limiting himself to criticising only the dead. As a result, the satirist fails also as a man insofar as he has been restricted in his autonomous freedom. To N., autonomy is 'the fundamental building block of Roman manhood' (22). In the following chapters, N. analyses various passages dealing with the anxieties of the male elite. Ch. 2 considers rebellious bodies and anxieties over the lack of autonomy (61-92). N. looks at the body as an emblem for the individual human being, therefore Juvenal's bodies show 'who one is in Rome's hierarchies' (62). In 'The Obliterated Body' (70-7), N. interprets physical vulnerability as a metaphor for impending social death. Instructive is his statement regarding surrogate bodies (82-5), such as the mutilated statues in Satire 8, to which Juvenal applies similar body imagery. In ch. 3 (93-126), N. discusses a variety of men who have debased themselves willingly. They are case studies in class betrayal, dened by N. as 'engaging in behavior inappropriate for one's social class' (121). Examples include Creticus appearing in court in a diaphanous robe (Sat. 2), Lateranus, the mulio consul (8.148), aristocrats on stage (Sat. 8) and Gracchus, the Salian bride, performing as a gladiator in the arena (Sat. 2 and 8). N. correctly points out the potential effect on the audience (cf. 109), but why does he ignore the negative examples of women, such as the meretrix Augusta (6.118)? Women and men as representatives of the social and political elite are equally targeted by satiric criticism, when religious and state institutions are publicly disgraced by their scandalous behaviour. Yet for N.'s Juvenal, 'all relevant individuals are male' (2); see also a parenthesis like 'and, as usual, Juvenal is thinking only of men' (79). In fact, Juvenal's satirist criticises any behaviour which deviates from the norms determined by gender, religion, age, social status or political ofce. In chs 4 and 5, masculinity under threat is also the prevailing topic. In ch. 4 (127-65), N. studies womanly behaviour and various kinds of effeminacy based on passages from Satires 2, 10 and, above all, from Satire 6. There Juvenal reveals his male anxieties concerning gender, and thus exposes himself; in the author's own words, 'Juvenal attempts to stage a freak show, and he and Postumus turn out to be the star attractions' (130). According to N., 'the world of women and their allies […] constitutes a kind of shadow-land that threatens to displace the civic world of male privilege' (199). N. reduces women to wivesadulterous, wasteful or unwilling to bear children. It has to be pointed out, though, that it is the abnormal behaviour of a woman of some standing in the rst four outrageous cases (not only three, as N. mistakenly believes (28)) which among others provoke in the satirist the urge to write satire (1.22-30): Mevia performs publicly as an Amazon (22-3). In the nal ch. 5 (167-95), N. focuses on the connection between wealth, its control and mascu...