Transcending Lucretius: Vitruvius, Atomism, and the Rhetoric of Monumental Permanence

Weiner, Jesse

doi:10.1353/hel.2016.0006

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…In Vitruvius we can trace at least two key philosophical influences. The first is Lucretius' philosophy of nature (architects must be educated in de rerum natura: 1.1.7) and particularly the Lucretian theme of a particular porosity of matter and bodies to cosmological forces (Nugent, 1994;Weiner, 2016).…”

Section: Porous Matter Porous Bodies and Imperial Prestigementioning

confidence: 99%

Porous Bodies: Environmental Biopower and the Politics of Life in Ancient Rome

Meloni

2020

Theory, Culture & Society

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The case for an unprecedented penetration of life mechanisms into the politics of Western modernity has been a cornerstone of 20th-century social theory. Working with and beyond Foucault, this article challenges established views about the history of biopower by focusing on ancient medical writings and practices of corporeal permeability. Through an analysis of three Roman institutions: a) bathing; b) urban architecture; and c) the military, it shows that technologies aimed at fostering and regulating life did exist in classical antiquity at the population scale. The article highlights zones of indistinction between natural and political processes, zoē and bíos, that are not captured by a view of destructive incorporation of or over life by sovereign power. In conclusion, the article discusses the theoretical potential of this historical evidence for contemporary debates on ‘affirmative biopolitics’ and ‘environmental biopower’.

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Section: Porous Matter Porous Bodies and Imperial Prestigementioning

confidence: 99%

Porous Bodies: Environmental Biopower and the Politics of Life in Ancient Rome

Meloni

2020

Theory, Culture & Society

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JULIUS CAESAR AND THE LARCH: BURNING QUESTIONS AT VITRUVIUS’ DE ARCHITECTVRA 2.9.15–16

Nichols

2024

The Class. Q.

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This article argues that Vitruvius’ description of Julius Caesar's ‘discovery’ of the larch (larix, De arch. 2.9.15–16), previously read as a journalistic account of the author's first-hand experience in Caesar's military entourage, should instead be interpreted as a highly crafted morality tale illustrating human progress thwarted. In the passage, the use of larch wood to construct a defensive tower renders the Alpine fortress at Larignum impregnable to assault by fire; only the fear aroused by siege provokes the inhabitants to surrender to Caesar and his troops (2.9.15–16). Nevertheless, the outcome of this discovery is not a complete victory, because the logistics of importing this remarkable timber to Rome are as yet insurmountable (2.9.16). Once the siege of Larignum is recognized as a diptych to Vitruvius’ narrative of the origins of civilization, in which fire and wood likewise play essential roles (2.1.1–7), and compared with similar aitia and source histories across the De architectura, it becomes clear that Larignum and its resources emblematize obstacles to a Vitruvian conception of imperial success, in which the city of Rome catalogues and indexes architectural knowledge amassed throughout the empire.

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Transcending Lucretius: Vitruvius, Atomism, and the Rhetoric of Monumental Permanence

Cited by 2 publications

References 43 publications

Porous Bodies: Environmental Biopower and the Politics of Life in Ancient Rome

Porous Bodies: Environmental Biopower and the Politics of Life in Ancient Rome

JULIUS CAESAR AND THE LARCH: BURNING QUESTIONS AT VITRUVIUS’ DE ARCHITECTVRA 2.9.15–16

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