Livy and Augustus

Syme, Ronald

doi:10.2307/310937

Cited by 129 publications

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“…At 48.43, for example, Dio has a list of prodigies that were reported in 38 , and records the decision to ⁹ On the prodigies of 17 , see Satterfield 2016: 330-45, who argues that they were fabricated in order to provide a suitable background to, and justification for, the ludi saeculares. ¹⁰ Syme 1959¹⁰ Syme : 63 (= 1979MacBain 1982: 104. ¹¹ Smilda 1926.…”

Section: Beyond Neglegentia: Late Republican Prodigiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Prodigies in the Early Principate?

Santangelo¹

2019

Ancient Divination and Experience

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This chapter stems from the question of whether we can still meaningfully speak of prodigies for the early Roman Principate. Modern accounts of prodigy expiation in Roman religion end their treatments with the fall of the Republic and do not provide any discussion of prodigies under the Principate. A fundamental shift is usually identified in the transition from prodigies that affect and pertain to the res publica as a whole to portents that affect the person of the emperor, and portend either the beginning of a reign or its imminent, traumatic end. On this account, the system of public prodigies can only function in a context where the Senate is central as the main body of religious authority and can play a leading role in the process of interpretation and expiation. When that system morphs into a monarchic regime, prodigies are replaced by private portents and omina, which focus on the emperor, and reflect either his own preoccupations or wider concerns about his power. This chapter offers some correctives to that account by offering a fresh reconsideration of the infrastructure of prodigy reporting and expiation in the early Principate, and argues for a scenario in which the involvement of the Senate and the direct input of the priestly colleges retain a significant role.

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Section: Beyond Neglegentia: Late Republican Prodigiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Prodigies in the Early Principate?

Santangelo¹

2019

Ancient Divination and Experience

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“…Even without such allusion, however, Livy's demolition of solitary heroic greatness inevitably brings us back to an old chestnut in academic debate, namely the position of the historian vis-a-vis the princeps. 84 The sometimes reductive nature of the debate about Livy and Augustus is unfortunate, but uneasily settling for a vague commonality of viewpoint between a (nevertheless) independent-minded historian and the princeps is not really satisfactory either, and it is worth spelling out the implications of the Alexander digression.…”

Section: Contemporary Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Livy's Alexander Digression (9.17–19): Counterfactuals and Apologetics

Morello

2002

J. Rom. Stud.

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Orthodox historians have tended to dislike attempts to think counterfactually about the past, on the grounds that ‘virtual history’ offers little more than entertainment and degenerates too easily into banal trivialities. In addition, it provokes fears about the offending historian's commitment to the truth and the consequent effect on his readers’ historical memories; a recent essay in the New Statesman, deploring the increasing presence of counterfactual history in the syllabus for national exams in British schools, condemned it as an agent of ‘collective amnesia’. E. P. Thompson was more trenchant: ‘unhistorical shit’. Yet popular and professional interest in counterfactual history continues to grow, spawning a recent radio series and a number of books on the ‘what if?’ theme. It seems, then, an opportune time to reconsider the famous passage of counterfactual history in Livy's Ab Urbe Condita, the Alexander digression at 9.17–19, a passage which, it so happens, one popular website lists as the first example of the genre. This paper offers, after a brief survey of previous scholarship (Section II), an account of Livy's allusions both to his sources and predecessors and to his own text (Section III), followed by an integrated reading (Section IV) which will argue more fully that the passage embodies central Livian ideas about the utility of historical writing, that it is thematically tightly woven into its place in Book 9, and, finally, that it offers a powerful critique of one-man rule which has important consequences for our understanding of the historian's view of Augustus.

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“…4.6.59), ma manca qualsiasi allusione alla sua attività politica; sulla scarsa presenza di Cesare in Orazio cf. Càssola 1996. 56 È questa la tradizionale visione espressa nella Roman Revolution di Syme (Syme 1939, 317-18;ora anche Syme 2014, 351-3), poi ripresa anche in Syme 1950, 13-15 (= Syme 1979, Syme 1959, 57 (= Syme 1979 Una svolta nella valutazione augustea della figura di Cesare, che spiega i ripetuti elogi presenti nellʼOvidio della maturità (Metamorfosi e Fasti), in discontinuità con il silenzio dei suoi predecessori, può essere individuata, come ha osservato Antonio La Penna, nella dedica del tempio di Mars Ultor del 2 a.C., 57 monumento che commemorava la duplice vendetta sui cesaricidi, avvenuta a Filippi, e sui Parti, dopo che questi avevano restituito le insegne romane sottratte a Crasso in base a un accordo diplomatico del 20 a.C. che Augusto aveva saputo presentare come una vera e propria vittoria militare. 58 La dedicatio del tempio avviene tuttavia quarantʼanni dopo il voto formulato dallʼallora Ottaviano alla vigilia dello scontro di Filippi: i tempi erano ormai maturi per interrompere il lungo silenzio che il princeps aveva fatto calare sulla figura del padre adottivo nonché dictator nei decenni precedenti, dedicati alla formazione del consenso intorno al nuovo regime 'repubblicanoʼ.…”

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Num. 39 (n.s.) – Dicembre 2021 – Fasc. 2

2021

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Livy and Augustus

Cited by 129 publications

References 0 publications

Prodigies in the Early Principate?

Prodigies in the Early Principate?

Livy's Alexander Digression (9.17–19): Counterfactuals and Apologetics

Num. 39 (n.s.) – Dicembre 2021 – Fasc. 2

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